Words by Judy Dyble & music by David Longdon

The Daguerreotype is the final (and rather sepulchral) song to be released by Dyble Longdon. 

This was one of three experimental pieces that I developed in the studio, whilst recording the Between A Breath And A Breath album. Like Crossbones, it does not appear on the album.

In order to experiment, one must be prepared to fail. Judy and I were lucky because all three of the experimental tracks were fruitful. Two of them (Obedience and Heartwashing) made it onto the main body of the album.

I had had the title hanging around for some time.  I thought it was strong and would make for interesting subject matter.

I have the GForce M-Tron Pro Mellotron plugin and in their menu of sounds, they have a section of patches called The Streetly Tapes. Here is what Sound On Sound magazine have to say about the ethos behind The Streetly Tapes.

“Despite the ‘real versus sampled’ debate continued by Mellotron purists, G-Force’s M-Tron Pro VST plug-in has earned a justified reputation as an authentic and effective recreation of that famous tape-replay keyboard. The purists argue that using sampled Mellotron sounds is not an acceptable alternative to the real thing, one primary reason being that many are sourced directly from master tapes, or processed to clean up ‘undesirable’ yet crucial artifacts that define the ‘Tron’s true character. In a move to deflect this criticism, Streetly Electronics, the original UK company that made, and still makes and restores, Mellotrons, have teamed up with G-Force to produce The Streetly Tapes Vol 1 expansion pack.”

I began to investigate the sound contents and tinker around with them in order to find something inspiring. This process can take many hours and involve many cups of tea (or beers!) before finding and creating that certain something that inspires me to develop it further.

During one evening’s noodling, I discovered a patch called ‘Sad Strings’ amongst the Streetly Tapes. It sounded sad but also rather eerie.  I recognised the mournful sound of these strings as they feature on a song called ‘Interlude’ by Laura Marling, taken from her fantastic album ‘Once I Was an Eagle’ which is produced by Ethan Johns. The timbre of ‘Sad Strings’ also reminds me of the kind of music that is playing as Jack Torrance enters The Overlook Hotel bar, in Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel ‘The Shining.’ It is this eeriness which made me think of using my title ‘The Daguerreotype’.

Sound On Sound go on to say this about ‘Sad Strings’ in the article

“Finally, there are the Sad Strings, which were discovered on a reel of EMI tape that had never been converted into a tape set. Smith thinks that this is because the recordings weren’t clean enough — they were full of badly bowed strings, chair scrapes and coughs. But with a little judicious manipulation in the digital world it was possible to create a ‘new’ set of tapes that were probably recorded in the early 1960s!”

If anyone is interested, here is a link to the Sound On Sound article, if reading about this sort of thing floats your boat.

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/g-force-software-streetly-tapes-vol-1

As I pressed different keys, alternative phrases would be revealed. I decided that I would take some of these phrases, either in part or whole, and task myself with making a piece of music out of them.

Once I’d familiarised myself with the sounds and then decided which ones I would use, I played them into Logic Pro. The string performances had a very loose, legato sound to them, which made putting them in strict tempo something of a challenge.

I counted out the bars and asked Rob Aubrey (Big Big Train engineer extraordinaire) if he would kindly Beat Map the track for me. Which he did. This enabled me to have an accurate click track which would run in time with the sequencer. I could now start adding additional instrumentation onto the track.

When I am first writing, I demo my songs in Logic Pro X.  I later convert them over to ProTools once I begin recording the final audio parts which will end up on the album.

When we arrived at Real World to record the vocals, there was an issue with the key of the song. The original ‘Sad Strings’ were recorded and fixed in a specific key. They were also really quite slow. We worked on finding the right key that suited both Jude’s vocal range and my own. Then Oli Jacobs retuned the ‘Sad Strings’ to the new key and also speeded the tempo up slightly. Once we found a key that worked we could proceed to record the vocals.

As to the subject matter of the song, Judy writes “The art of photography in its infancy, this process (invented by Louis Daguerre in 1839) enabled people to have a lasting memory of friends and family, but particularly deceased relatives, especially children.  In this way, their memory could be kept fresh in the minds of their grieving families. A Daguerreotype was also the first publicly available photographic process.” 

In the mid -1800’s, photography was a way of remembering loved ones who had died, especially in Victorian England. Daguerreotypes were expensive but not as expensive as having a portrait painted of the deceased. The lengthy exposures needed to capture these images, the deceased posed alongside their living relatives, often meant that the dead would be perfectly pin sharp. Whereas the living looked ghostly because of their slight movements. 

There is lots written about Daguerreotypes on the internet. Please feel free to investigate.

As with Obedience and Ada Lovelace, I tasked Judy with writing a song about a grieving family who commission a Daguerreotype to be taken of their deceased child. The eeriness of the Sad Strings lends an other-worldliness that suits the subject matter perfectly.

The drums are played, once again, by Jeff Davenport. Danny Manners plays double bass. Judy and I sing harmony vocals and I layer up the choral sound.  For this I used the same vocal techniques that I deployed when recording layered harmony parts on The Underfall Yard with Big Big Train, back in 2009.

The piece is indeed otherworldly and quite eerie. As experiments go, it didn’t turn out too badly.

The Daguerreotype concludes the recorded output of Dyble Longdon. 

Had Judy lived, would there have been more songs recorded? Yes, most likely but unfortunately it was not to be.

Thank you for supporting Dyble Longdon. We hope that these songs live with you and bring you great enjoyment for many years to come.

Onwards…

(The late) Judy Dyble & David Longdon

Lyrics by Judy Dyble & music by David Longdon

This song is not featured on the Dyble Longdon album ‘Between A Breath And A Breath.’

Listen and download ‘Crossbones’ at Bandcamp HERE

Stream ‘Crossbones’ on Spotify HERE

Stream ‘Crossbones’ on Apple Music HERE

“Crossbones” is an extraordinary place. It is a very old burial ground that is situated in Southwark in South London. During the writing period for our album, Judy had seen an article in The Guardian about Crossbones Cemetery. She thought that it would make good song idea for our album. She immediately set about writing some lyrics (which were written in her standard 3/4 lyric writing time signature)

Judy writes:-

“I had been reading about the Crossbones medieval burial site in Southwark, where 15,000 paupers were buried. It was once the graveyard of medieval sex workers, (known as ‘Winchester Geese’).  The graveyard was licensed by the Bishop of Winchester because, due to their profession, these women were not allowed to be buried in consecrated ground. Later paupers, criminals and children were also buried there. It has become a place of remembrance and vigils are held at the location every month for people to remember both the Outcast Dead and their own forgotten dead.

This inspired the first and last verses of the song. The middle two verses relate to the officials employed to search for information about relatives or friends of those who die alone and unnoticed. And how some of those officials kindly attend the funerals of those unloved dead so that someone will take note of their passing.”

The music was written mostly in 3/4, which lends it a folky feel. Once again Jeff Davenport is seated behind the drums and he is joined once more by Andy Lewis on bass guitar. Andy recored a highly inventive album with Judy called Summer Dancing back in 2017. Andy has contributed his bass playing to three Dyble Longdon tracks (Astrologers, Whisper and Crossbones).

The rest of the playing is by Judy and I. The autoharp was played by Judy at Real World Studios and then sampled and positioned within the song. My Hammond organ part lends a Church-esque tone to proceedings but later hots up into a couple of psychedelic outbursts, as the Leslie speaker rotes faster. I also play both tremolo electric guitar and backwards guitar parts. 

I asked Patrick Phillips to recreate the famous Itchycoo Park ‘flanging’ effect in the psychedelic sections, as originally devised by George Chkiantz and deployed by the legendary Glyn Johns on the classic Small Faces record.

Crossbones the Cemetery was closed in 1853. Since 1996 John Constable and Katy Nicholls have worked to transform the site into a shrine and a garden of remembrance. In 2004 they founded the Friends of Crossbones.

When you are next in London, I urge you to pay a visit to Crossbones, it is well worth it.

Credits:

Judy Dyble Vocals & autoharp

David Longdon Vocals, Electric and acoustic guitars, electric piano, flute & organ

Andy Lewis Bass guitar

Jeff Davenport Drums & percussion

Produced by David Longdon

Mixed by Patrick Phillips

Engineered by Oli Jacobs, Patrick Phillips, David Longdon & Andy Lewis

Crossbones

Twelve times a year they stand at the gates 

To remember the outcasts buried in haste

Where the money was made from the petticoat trade

But the women were shunned when life’s race was run

And the Church had refused them a place

 The rooms where he lived now silent and cold, 

As she searched for some clues to unlock his past

Through the piles of old bags filled with rubbish and dust

In the grey rooms where he’d breathed his last

No sister, no brother

No significant other

He died all alone and un-missed

She sighed as she searched 

Through the papers and dirt

And wondered when he was last kissed

The council have paid for him to be laid 

In an unnoticed burial place

She stands on the grass

As the coffin moves past

And hopes that his soul will find grace

And all through the years there are people who care

For those lain in graves unmarked, unaware

In unhallowed ground, where souls are earthbound

In a garden of peace, where some leave their grief

For the missing, the lost, in a prayer       

How we decided on which studios to use and the recording process.

Andy Lewis who played bass on ‘Whisper.

For ‘France’, David has recorded a video to talk about the song.

Words by Judy Dyble & Music by David Longdon

Between A Breath And A Breath is the fourth track on side one of the Dyble Longdon album ‘Between A Breath And A Breath’

The title of this song was inspired by Judy’s good friend, the acclaimed writer and illustrator Jackie Morris. Jackie’s artwork was featured on the second pressing of Judy’s ‘Talking With Strangers’ album. Jackie has also collaborated with Robert Macfarlaine on ‘The Lost Words’ and also ‘Spell Songs’ which is a musical companion piece to ‘The Lost Words’

‘Between a breath and a breath is where the magic lies’

JM: The idea grew from a two day residency I had been working on with the musician Fay Hield. It was held in Oxford. The group was looking at the relevance of faeries to modern life and whether faery tales were relevant. It was just for a few short days in different places but working with some amazing people. Fay has done the most amazing CD and Marry Waterson is about to do another.

DL: Judy told me that Jackie would come and stay with her on occasions, especially if Jackie was working in Oxford or London. Judy didn’t live far from Oxford. Both Jackie and I were occupants, at different times, in Judy’s downstairs bedroom. I always slept well there, it must have had something to do with the country air.

JM: Carolyne Larrington said something about how a lifetime in our world could be the space between a breath and a breath in faery. I’ve long been fascinated by the space between… so many things. I have a new book on the go which is called the same.

Modern Fairies

JM: The Modern Fairies was an academic funded project. I think it is really rather wonderful. The premise was ‘Were faery tales still relevant?’

The publicity for this project states: ‘Modern Fairies is a uniques collaboration between leading songwriters, musicians, artists, poets, filmmakers & researchers to develop exciting new work, presenting fresh perspectives on what folklore means to us in the modern world.’

If you are curious about this project and would like to know more, please follow the link below ~

http://www.modernfairies.co.uk/?fbclid=IwAR3xyf-qRfTHwSpABTLZiqhFlBoiZXNeSwITutyKdgrYGoVn_fa9UloyQNE

DL: When Judy and I were thinking about a title for our album, ‘Between A Breath And A Breath’ was the clear choice. The only other serious contender was ‘The Daguerreotype’ but we thought that might lead to all manner of mispronunciations. The name Dyble (which rhymes with ‘Bible’) is tricky enough for some folks to pronounce. In any case, ‘The Daguerreotype’ did not make it on to the main body of the album ~ more about this track in a later blog.

DL: The subject matter for the song was quite magical and rather eerie. I have to say that I think Judy’s words are superb on this song. Although fairies are mentioned, this is an uneasy song. It doesn’t pull any punches, Jude’s lyrics are bold. 

DL: The music was written during early 2019. Judy sent me the words and I sat at the keyboard and just let the melody and chords follow the meter of the words naturally. Like a stream on a hillside. The lyrics inspired the music, dictating how it would develop and unfold.

DL: Other than Judy and I, there are two other musicians performing on this track. Once again the drums and percussion are played by Jeff Davenport. I wanted a double bass to be played on this song (along with a few others) ~ Danny Manners, my old friend and also BBT bandmate, was the ideal choice.

DL: I had sent Danny the rough demos for the songs that I wanted him to play on and he came over to Real World and played on all these pieces during one session. He said how much he has enjoyed the songs that I’d sent to him and he described this one as sounding ‘otherworldly’.

DL: This song follows on from ‘Tidying Away The Pieces,’ which was a song narrative that featured around Judy’s voice. “Between A Breath And A Breath’ is a duet. When Judy and I recorded our lead vocals facing each other in The Wood Room at Real World, we decided which one of us would sing which line. We wanted a balance between us.

DL: Before going in to the  recording sessions, Judy and I did some pre-production at her home. I would take my DAW over and we would sing through the songs, in order to find the right key that would work for both Judy and also me.

DL: The odd thing was, when we went to record our vocals, Judy was struggling to sing the songs, so we had to detune them. ‘Astrologers’ was one, ‘Between a Breath…etc’ was another and also ‘France’ had to be lowered in key. We recorded our lead vocals at Real World in the April of 2019.  I think it was a good job that we managed to get Jude’s vocals down because signs of change within Judy’s health were beginning to show. I remember our dear friend Yvette Gulland being very concerned about Judy’s health when we attended Cropredy in the August of 2019. I think that having to detune some of the tracks was a sign that something was afoot with Judy. The main thing was, she managed to get her vocals completed for the album.

DL: Once the lead vocals were down, I began adding the layers of backing vocals. There are some moments where the backing vocals sound like a choir. I used the same recording techniques that I used on Big Big Train albums like ‘The Underfall Yard, ‘Far Skies Deep Time’ and ‘English Electric Pts 1 and 2.’ This was back in the days where I was the only vocalist. I multi-track each vocal harmony (layer them up) ~ it was a technique that I learned from working with Louis Philippe. We recorded backing vocals for his albums. And on one occasion, he and I layered harmony vocals for a song called ‘Little By Little’, which was a cappella and featured solely Philippe and I. Philippe is a huge Beach Boys fan and his love of layered harmonies came from there. Any similarity between Louis and the sports broadcaster Philippe Auclair, is purely coincidental!

DL: I am very pleased with the way that this song turned out. It is something that was born out of the spirit of collaboration. Without Jude’s powerful words, it wouldn’t have come into being. I enjoy collaborations because one never knows what will be brought forth from within. But more often than not, something comes from somewhere.

DL: Judy’s family chose this song to be played at Judy’s funeral service. It was the last song to be played as they carried her coffin out of the church and into the hearse, to be taken to the church yard where she  would be laid to rest. 

DL: Afterwards, as we walked back from the church to where the wake was being held for Judy, Jackie and I spoke ~ 

“Did you happen to notice the white butterfly that encircled the mourners as the coffin was lowered into the ground?” She enquired. 

“ I did Jackie” I replied 

“I did.”

David Longdon

Nottingham September 2020

Words by Judy Dyble & music by David Longdon

Obedience is the second track on side one of the album. 

Q: Why does the album have a side one and a side two? It is understandable for the vinyl release but why does the CD format also have ‘sides’?

DL: From the beginning of writing, arranging and producing the album, I decided to make it to the duration of 12 inch vinyl format. Old school. I had become so used to thinking about the flow of music for each side of the vinyl that I decided to incorporate this into the CD format too. It seemed to be the natural thing to do.

DL: Judy and I had begun writing together. We had already written two songs and Obedience was the third. I thought it would be good to mix our writing methodology up a little. I wanted to include some pieces that were born out of a spirit of experimentation. I expected some of these experiments might work and some might not. Obedience was one of three pieces that were devised this way. Obedience arrived out of a musical idea that I had, based around an insistent flat picked acoustic guitar riff. In this instance the music would inspire the words. I set Judy the challenge of writing something about Ada Lovelace. Big Big Train has often drawn inspiration from historical figures and I thought that a Dyble Longdon song about Ada Lovelace would be a great subject to work on. I live in Nottinghamshire and Ada Lovelace is buried next to her notorious father, the poet Lord Byron, at the Church of Mary Magdalene in Hucknall. I loaned Judy a book about the life of Ada and she quickly came back with the words to Obedience.

JD: Ada Augusta King, Countess of Lovelace, was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron and his wife Annabella Milbanke. Byron separated from his wife and five-week old Ada, leaving Lady Byron determined that her daughter would not inherit her father’s perceived insanity. She engaged mathematicians and scientists to tutor Ada so that she would not become the romantic her father was. Ada was very ill as a child and was subjected to a year of continuous bed rest. The upbringing of children in Regency times was often strange (to us) and obedience to their elders’ wishes was paramount. So here we have Ada, forced to lie still for hours on end but nothing can stop her brain working while she lies there so still… This song concerns itself with repression and boredom and what happens when the mind roams free while the body is controlled.

DL:  With this song I was musically aiming for something that had the influence of those excellent psychedelic folk masters, The Incredible String Band. (Judy sings on The Minotaur’s Song on ISB’s The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter album, 1968.) I wanted to cross that type of thing with a contrasting epic, cinematic chorus. Luckily, as you might expect, Real World has a whole myriad of exotic percussion instruments from all over the globe. It was great to see drummer Jeff Davenport and engineer Oli Jacobs getting carried away and getting inspired to multi-track layers of these varied percussive instruments.

DL: Drums, drums and more drums! We recorded Jeff’s drums for our album at Real World Studios, with Oli engineering. If you are going to build a house, you begin with the foundations. The drums are usually the foundations of the track. I have known Jeff for a long time and he and I had worked together previously in a live capacity, in support of my Wild River solo album. We also have a mutual friend in Dave Sturt (Gong, Steve Hillage Band and Bill Nelson) who had worked with Jeff on several musical ventures including Jade Warrior. I was looking for a drummer for the Dyble Longdon album and I thought about Jeff. Dave Sturt thought that Jeff would be an ideal choice.

Ollie Jacobs Photo by York Tillyer

DL: Rachel Hall (my Big Big Train bandmate) adds some beautiful violin to the proceedings. Judy came with our friend Jo Kendall to see Big Big Train perform live at the matinee show during our three concerts at King’s Place in London in August 2015. The only person Judy knew in the band was Rachel because they had previously worked together on Judy’s Talking With Strangers album. It was not long after this that Jo contacted me saying that Judy was interested in working with me.
The verses in Obedience have a folky edge to them which suits Rachel’s playing perfectly. Rach added her parts right at the very end of the recording process and, like Dave Gregory’s guitar parts on Astrologers, Rachel recorded at her home. I had planned to travel over to produce Rachel’s session in Norfolk with her. However,  the spectre of COVID-19 loomed and impending lockdown made me decide to cancel the session.

DL: Having worked in a progressive rock band for all these years, I have enjoyed the breadth of a rich and expressive soundscape. I wanted to have moments where the sound is fragile and then it suddenly explodes into sonic colour. Obedience is a good example of this. I see it as a micro version of our song France. Once Patrick Phillips and I had decided on the best way to approach the mix of Obedience, France (a much lengthier piece) was much easier to manage. We worked backwards from the songs sonic extremes back to the quieter moments. When it came time to master the songs, we asked Giovanni Versari to open up the more intense moments and not squash the upper frequencies.

Patrick Phillips

Next week’s blog will be Tidying Away The Pieces

Until then, take care and stay safe

David Longdon

Nottingham, UK – August 2020

Words by Judy Dyble & music by David Longdon

Tidying Away The Pieces is the third track on side one of the Dyble Longdon album ‘Between A Breath And A Breath’

Judy and David in the Wood Room at Real World Studios

DL: When I was a boy, my Aunt Barbara bought me the NME Encyclopaedia of Rock as a gift one Christmas and I quickly became obsessed with it. I would pour over it for hours. It was great for finding out a bit of history about the various bands and seeing how some musicians and bands interconnected. It was through reading this book that I discovered Judy. I also learned that Judy had been in Giles Giles and Fripp. 

DL: I first heard Judy Dyble sing with Fairport Convention on a song called ‘If I Had A Ribbon Bow.’ It was originally written in the 1930’s by Huey Prince and Lou Singer. It is an unusual choice for a single. Joe Boyd, Fairport’s producer, suggested the song. Judy sings and plays the harmonium. I first heard it as a track on an album called Rare Tracks.

DL: ’If I Had a Ribbon Bow’ had a vibraphone part on it which was played by percussionist Tristan Fry, who would later become a member of the band Sky. I decided that I would use a vibraphone on the album, which gives a shimmering, magical sound. I had played one previously, on the Far Skies Deep Time e.p by Big Big Train. We hired one for a Real World session. When I began recording guitars at The Playpen studio, I noticed to my delight that the studio had a vibraphone.

DL: However, the vibraphone that we hired has a noisy motor which you can hear on the end of the track ‘Between A Breath And A Breath.’ I quite like the sound of it because it is unusual. It can be heard clunking away. So I asked Patrick to keep it in the final mix and try not to disguise it.

DL: Judy wanted a trumpet player to feature on out album. She had worked with Luca Calabrese before on an ill-fated musical project and she was very keen to work with him again.  Back in the days when Judy was in Fairport, she would listen to lots of Jazz records and a particular favourite of hers was ‘Sketches of Spain’ by Miles Davis. Luca performs with Isuldurs Bane. I wrote to Luca to ask him if he would be interested in playing on a couple of songs. ‘Tidying’ was one of the pieces and ‘Heartwashing’ was the other. Rather than Luca just appearing once, I thought it would sit in the overall arc of the album to hear him on a couple of songs. When I contacted Luca, both he and his wife were in lockdown in Italy. What extraordinary circumstances, unlike anything that we have known in our lifetime – almost unthinkable. Luca told me what things were like for them  in Italy and I knew that we, in the UK, were going to be experiencing exactly the same thing, very shortly.

Luca Calabrese. Photo by Gianni Grossi

DL: Dave Sturt (Gong, Steve Hillage Band, Bill Nelson) is a fretless bass player and I wanted Dave to play on the album. I thought this would be just the track for him. The bass playing that I imagined was very legato in it’s feel. I’m a fan of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Hejira’ album and I was musically aiming for something along those lines. Dave said that his playing was more John Giblin in feel than Jaco Pastorius. Either way I really like what Dave gave to this track. The drummer once again is Jeff Davenport. As I have mentioned earlier, both Jeff and Dave had worked together in other projects, most notably with Jade Warrior. The drum part was very prescriptive and Jeff brought it to life beautifully.

Dave Sturt photo by Martin Bostock

JD: ‘Tidying Away The Pieces’ is about the business of tidying away the things left behind when a beloved one either dies or perhaps just leaves, for one reason or another. And how the brave “outwards” masks the deeply hurting “inwards”. Moving forward with the mantra of ‘I Will Be Alright’ echoing into the future, until the words become the truth.

DL: Judy’s vocal performance on this track is very powerful. She takes the lead vocal. It is a song about loss and I thought it would be good to have Jude singing it, as though she is in solitude. I added supporting vocals in order to depict a sense of the departed person.

David Longdon

Nottingham August 2020.

Words by Judy Dyble & music by David Longdon

Astrologers is the opening track on side one of  Between A Breath And A Breath

It begins with an ostinato musical phrase, played on a vibraphone and further emphasised by a marxophone (a musical device that I found in the musical instrument treasure trove of The Playpen.) A legato lead guitar melody takes us from the intro, in a heady swell of mellotron strings and an eerie theremin and on into the first verse.

marxophone

DL: “I wanted the introduction to the album to be dramatic. The theremin depicts the otherworldly divination forecasts, based on the position of the stars at your moment of birth”

JD: “A horoscope tells a lonely woman that today the planets will ensure that she will meet the person of her dreams and keeps on telling her the same thing day after day. Ever the optimist she looks forward to the thrilling event, only to be disappointed time after time. This song is a heartfelt cry of ‘enough!’”

Judy plays the role of the crestfallen horoscope reader while David plays the part of the Astrologer.

DL: “If you have read any of Judy’s Facebook posts, you will know that she possesses a fine, quirky sense of humour. The declaration “A specialist in the Universe of Eccentricity” greets the reader, upon their arrival. Whilst we worked on the writing of Astrologers, she would often, humorously refer to it as ‘Asparagus,’ which stuck around for a while.

“I think that this track was the second song that we wrote together. It came together very quickly except for the middle section, which I deliberately held back from completing, in order to develop it further as we approached the time when we were about to go into Real World to do the drum tracking sessions

“Astrologers features my old friend and BBT bandmate, formerly of XTC, Dave Gregory on electric twelve string guitar (in the stereo left) and also a twangy Duane Eddy guitar part.

Dave Gregory by Sophocles Alexiou

“Since November 2019, I had been working with Patrick Phillips at The Playpen studio in Bristol, mainly recording acoustic guitars, Hammond organ and also balancing the mixes ready for the mixing stage of the recording process

“It is an inspiring place to work. Inside the studio is a seemingly, ever expanding, cornucopia of vintage instruments, guitars, synthesisers and odd bits of musical paraphernalia. During my time here I had been broadcasting messages on social media, which Dave had been seeing. We decided to record Dave’s guitars, at The Playpen, which would allow us to catch up and also give Dave the opportunity to check out the studio equipment.

Unfortunately, this did not happen. COVID-19 was ravaging its way through the world. We’d heard the reports and read the harrowing death rate statistics coming in from Europe, fully knowing that it was coming our way next. Inevitably we had to cancel the session and Dave recorded his guitars at his home.

Dave had already done a working demo recording of what he had in mind, so when the session wasn’t going to happen, he reworked it and edited specific areas and these were used on the album. Dave is highly skilful in the way that he weaves his musical contributions throughout a song. The song is always paramount in Dave’s methodology and he listens intensely to what is happening and then enhances it. I have learnt lots from working with Dave throughout the years.”

Astrologers

Oh, stop it now – you astrologers

You see I’m far too ancient and my heart has turned to ice this foolish day

I know that it’s too late but there’s a tiny spark of ‘maybe there’s a way?’

(So, stop now) Don’t sell me hopes of lovers

That is a cruel joke to play

Oh, stop it now – you astrologers

with promises of love a-coming

Please stop it now – you astrologers

with promises of love a-coming

Don’t you know I see through your lies?

For no love will come a-running

Oh planets, keep your distance, with your hints of love and finding romance

These days my shoes are sensible and my feet have long forgotten how to dance

(So, stop now) Don’t sell me hopes of lovers

For that is a cruel, cruel joke to play

Love will arrive as the planets collide

In the universal dance

Venus and Mars will soon be combined

With Saturn to form the magical trine of love

Stop now

Just stop now

Stop it

Please stop it now

Musicians

Judy Dyble: Vocals & autoharp

David Longdon: Vocals, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, piano, mandolin, harmonium, theremin, ebows, mellotron, vibraphone, synthesiser, keyboards & marxophone

Dave Gregory: Electric 12 string guitar and twangy guitar

Andy Lewis: Bass guitar

Jeff Davenport: Drums & percussion