A Traveller’s Guide to Lost and Later Songs #13 For those who may appreciate some background detail, I offer below my workings. #13 Starlight International16/10/18 @ 7.39 am This song arrived, more or less fully formed, in a dream. https://on.soundcloud.com/w5p6A On waking, rather than rolling over, perchance to dream once more, I had the wherewithal to grab my guitar and… Read more →

A Traveller’s Guide to Lost and Later Songs #12 For those who may appreciate some background detail, I offer below my workings. #12 What Boys Do (10/7/16) https://on.soundcloud.com/QXZPc “And you know all our boys Are really girls at heart” – The Imposter, Elvis Costello “What Boys Do” started life in 2016 with the working title of “The Replacements” (see link),… Read more →

A Chemical Dream   (20/01/04 – 01/09/08) – https://tinyurl.com/27rdkav2   Another of the lost souls, “A Chemical Dream” dates from around mid-late noughties and, woozy and anaesthetised as it may be, I imagine it must still have been deemed far too jolly for the last Starlets album.  Then, come the revolution and post Year-Zero, songs about chemicals would, of course, have been… Read more →

For those who may appreciate some background detail, I offer below my workings. #10 Intermission –(Voice recording of initial idea recorded on 10/11/20 – https://on.soundcloud.com/Z2gHo ) Transmissions from Planet Zoom- a melancholy android plays remembered sounds from Planet Earth; an ice cream van, a seaside organ, elevator muzak. Refreshments are available in the foyer. (still from Metropolis by Fritz Lang)… Read more →

For those who may appreciate some background detail, I offer below my workings. #9 Everything’s Alright Fine(31/12/2020)Second latest of the Later songs, born in a hangover and hummed into my phone, just in time for Hogmanay- https://tinyurl.com/yc6ub7j4I was stumbling through the no man’s land between last night and the night to come, fighting a rear-guard action against a horde of… Read more →

For those who may appreciate some background detail, I offer below my workings. #8 Swirly(04/03/2009)It’s swirly, man.The first demo is dated 04/03/09 at 1653h, just in time for tea –https://tinyurl.com/yp3vuakaAround this time, I was beginning to collaborate with my friend Ally Kerr on his songs, working towards his album “Viva Melodia”. I’d say it was a productive time for both… Read more →

A Traveller’s Guide to Lost and Later Songs #7 For those who may appreciate some background detail, I offer below my workings. #7 Something of the Night(18/12/18) Our Hallowe’en number and another of the Later songs, the only previous recording of this was a live rehearsal dated 18/12/2018 – https://on.soundcloud.com/VNeEWClearly influenced by our imminent descent into the underworld, this one… Read more →

For those who may appreciate some background detail, I offer below my workings. #6 What You Came For(11/08/2018) The first of the Later songs. The initial melody came to me whilst on a jolly through to Edinburgh for the festival, somewhere in between Kilderkin and the Waverley Bar. As I recall, I was temporarily between drinks and loitering outside a… Read more →

#5 Ride the White Horses(29/03/10) First demoed as an instrumental in a live home recording by Mark and I, dated 29/03/10) – https://on.soundcloud.com/uc11F In the spirit of Martin Mull’s “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”, here’s a song about painting, partly inspired by James Guthrie’s “Hard At It” which can be found in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery. I… Read more →

For those who may appreciate some background detail, I offer below my workings.  #4 Yesterday’s Already Light Years Away (No demo exists.  Approximately 1997) One from the analogue years, there was no demo recorded of this song at the time, or after.  From around 1996 until 1999, the band rented a rehearsal room in the Maryhill Burgh Halls.  From the… Read more →