Operation Internation began life as Album#2 and natural heir to Album#1 (“Come to the Fabulon”).  We were soon, however, drawn into uncharted waters by the siren call of the theatre (see Album#2 “The Dark Carnival”); and then that pandemic you may have heard about (see Album#3 “Lost and Later Songs”).   Events, etc.  

Fortunately, we had the foresight to bury our treasure, hoping to have the chance to return one day to retrieve it all, as Sebastian says in Brideshead Revisited –

“I should like to bury something precious in every place where I’ve been happy and then, when I’m old… I could come back and dig it up and remember.”

Maybe that’s what songs are.

Anyway, by the time we got around to returning, it was like going back to the beginning, only to find it wasn’t the beginning anymore.  We were somewhere else by then.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

It all began at a pedestrian crossing in Kamakura, Japan in 2009.

Song#1 – The International Anthem  

In urban Japan, like it or not, you will be regularly serenaded as you walk through the streets.  Elevators, escalators, trains and traffic crossings will all offer up a jolly tune as you toddle along about your business.  I remember, at the tail end of the Starlets tour there in 2009, we were taken on a day trip to the seaside in Kamakura.  As we were walking to the beach, we came to a pedestrian crossing and, when I pressed the button I was met with merry jingle.  It gave me ideas.  

I didn’t have any kind of mobile phone at the time and so, if I wanted to remember a song idea, I’d have to sing it all the way home until I could record it.  It is, of course, a long way home from Kamakura to Partick and much resonance may well have been lost along the way.  Fortunately, Caroline was with me and her quick and nimble brain captured and notated the beginnings of this one (see photo).

For the demo, we began collecting voices- band, family, friends, drinking buddies (all often after pub closing time.  I must have been a trial to my neighbours).  Then, we added some martial trumpet, lashings of stirring strings and, la pièce de résistance, some Abba-esque piano runs. And there it was, only 16 years in the making.

So, all available voices please.  Let us make a joyful noise, somewhere beyond, or maybe before, words.

A New International launch album#4 “Operation Internation” with a special live show at the Piping Centre, Glasgow.  

Some few remaining tickets are here – https://wegottickets.com/sct/7kMpW9NWpC