I’ve mentioned to a few people my habit of knocking out a quick song and then forgetting it. Everyone says “run a tape recorder and capture them”. But that would destroy the art of it – a song created, performed and forgotten all in 10 minutes or however long it takes a video or some … Read more
In the early 70’s my band Bullfrog were signed to Cube Records. In a moment of madness we wrote a jokey song called “Riddley Tiddley Tum”. We tried to cloak our daftness by naming it Glancy after our first singer. However, our record company picked up on it and pronounced it to be our first … Read more
Two years ago I contemplated a music project idea in a restaurant in Tuscany https://steve-thompson.org.uk/places-in-time/ I’ve thought of it many times since but have still to lay down the first track. At the weekend, I finally began. I awoke in the Blackenrigg Hotel to one of my favourite views overlooking Ullswater in the English Lakes. … Read more
I heard “The Letter” by the Box Tops the other day and the memories came flooding back. Way back in ’67 when that record charted I was about to begin my bid for rock stardom but, being only 15 many of these tunes we just a wonderfull noise and I could not comprehend how they … Read more
See yonder ladder up tree. Branch is mostly sawn through. Rope is tied to branch and slung over pegoda. Noose in end of rope lynch mob style. Stevie the lumberjack climbs into noose and applies his not inconsiderable weight. Sounds of creaking branch. Branch breaks and sails though the air towards the overweight chap swinging … Read more
I once worked with an (Irish) sound engineer who was often required to supply pices of music for advertising jingles. He would take a piece of library music and recortd it to quarter inch tape. Since this machine ran at 15 i.p.s. (Inches per second) he could now measure out the required piece with a … Read more