End of Year Review

No I don’t really have one. Not a list or anything. Not a good vibrations statement or a must do before I die confessional. I’ve given up on confessing, it only gets you into trouble. I do have some ideas though of what we had and what we lost, how thunder only happens when it’s raining and players only love you when they’re playing, women they will come and they will go…blimey…I’ve hit the lyrical retrospection zone; sorry about that, now where was I?

ROUND UP
Between February and April we made a new band album ‘the fall and rise of Vinny Peculiar’ in Blackburn’s dark satanic mill, recording was in dribs and drabs which kind of suited us. It was going to be called ‘Revolt into Style’ but I changed my mind at the last minute as there are several ‘Revolt into Styles’ out there most notably the 1966 George Melly book which spawned the song title. The book is ace by the way, a proper dissection of counter cultural tipping points and sell outs. I can also recommend his auto biography, the splendid ‘Rum, Bum and Concertina’. Bill Nelson also did a track of the same name but I’ve never heard it…think it was one of his Red Noise experiments? The fall and rise has rightfully attracted Perrin/ Bowie comparisons. I like the positive and potentially prophetic possibility of the rise after the fall; we’ll just have to see how high in the fullness of time. Studio wise Craig ended up doing most of his guitars at home; I did most of mine at the studio off the cuff so to speak apart from the Robert Frippish guitar on Playing on the Pier which I did at home. If I have any regrets about the record it would be the lack of finishing time, I would dearly have liked to layer a few more vocal over dubs but you now how it is, you can go on forever with these things. Craig also played bass on the record which was a stroke of genius on his part and a great relief to the rest of us. I had no idea he was such a fluid and feely player. I tried playing bass on a few tracks but nothing came of it, they didn’t really sit right. It rained a lot in Blackburn. ‘A Man Afraid’ one of the solo acoustic takes was recorded in a thunderstorm where I expected the roof to fly off or cave in at any minute. Looking back now the thunder makes the track, sets it all up atmospherically and such and like I said earlier it only happens when it’s raining; ask Stevie Nicks if you don’t believe me but enough of Fleetwood Mac for now. I never did get them although they evidently got me. It would be fair to say that making ‘the fall and rise’ took up most of the early part of the year. After that we auditioned several bass players and one or two came back for more but none were really right for the band. Jools from Marion joined at one point before unexpectedly un-joining again a week later. We only met him the once. Then out of the blue our radio plugger Andy Woods introduced us to Karen Leatham and things moved on from there. Karen has her own band but manages to squeeze us in, we are grateful; she’s a very fine player. The album came out in October and is still out in January so please buy one if you haven’t done so yet. The Amazon links from this site will take you right there. We have continued to gig and play various radio sessions throughout the final part of the year but we expect to be much busier on the live front in 2007 thanks to Boneheads enterprising management. We continue to rehearse at the Salford Lads Club and are indebted to them for making us feel so at home. Craig and I wrote music for a Salford Lads Club youth theatre production earlier in the year called Ghost Camp, we’ll be playing songs from this and others at a gig outside the URBIS Museum in Manchester on 27th Jan. Proceeds from CD sales on this day go to the Club. Links to this and other details re gigs and radio are on the tour dates pages. Next year we really want to get out and play more. We go to the US for shows in April and hope to tour there later in the year. The same can be said for rest of Europe where the album seems to be getting a lot more attention than the UK although I could be wrong though as I so often am. There’s a new Vinny Peculiar solo album coming out in May 07 entitled ‘Goodbye My Angry Friend’ and produced by Tim Browne [who produced Growing Up], it’s almost finished and there should be a small tour to promote it. Lastly I just want to wish everyone who reads this a Happy New Year, seriously, appreciations all round; I really value your comments and your support [all except Terry the Turnip who’s just plain stupid], so thank you for this and good night from me, best….VP x