Friendship Music and back to front Babysnakes

I had an LP arrive in the post today at work. OK this is not an unusual event. I have no idea how many LPs I have bought over the year and had posted to work, but it must be at least 200. 

 Todays thought was a bit special because it has history, long history. 

 When I was a boy I started doing music, I started at primary school with my Friend Ed, we didn’t do that much to be fair, but I found that I had more on common with his older brother Bernard. We used to play a lot on music in the loft room at my mums house. We seldom ever got to the end of a song or ever decided to do a song form start to finish. That was until my dad stepped in, and for a brief couple of times we had a band that played 2 gigs with songs that started and finished and had a middle. This was a tangent to what we were really doing which was making a noise in the roof. Like everything I have done in life I have recorded it. I have recently transferred cassettes of us in the Roof. It was a racket, but it was our racket. 

 We had quite different tasted in some respect, but were also  100% on other things. We both Loved Kraftwerk, Iron Maiden but then He loved Tiffany where as I had got into The Sisters Of Mercy. He Liked Metallica at the same time that I Still see Duran Duran as the future. 
Me in the 'Loft' 1990

We also both had BBC Micro computers, He could programme anything in seconds, Where as in 2020 I intend to eventually build a midi interface for mine so I can programme a basic tune in err Basic, but that’s another entry for another time. 

 One point in time where things happened was in 1990. Bernard, whom by now was going more so by the name of Bernie had left college and become a full time Musician. Was I Jealous? You bet I Was, to leave college and have the dream Job at 19 who wouldn’t have been ? I got to meet his band, I thought they would probably be a bunch of tossers, but as it turned out Marc and Steve were top blokes and still are to this day. 
Bernie in the Loft 1990
While Bernie was a pop star every day except Monday, I was at college, but on a Saturday I was working for Marc whom as well as being a pop star owned a really cool Music shop called ‘In Tune Music’. I loved that job it was ace. He was a Korg main dealer and it was at the time of the M1 being all the rage. I got to learn a lot about the kit of the time, I was never really a keyboard player, Still not now, but I loved the kit then and I still do now. Next door was somewhere that I avoided. It was a Gents hairdressers. And while I did not want a hair cut after the first time I went there in the freak idea of trying to be ‘trendy’ the laughs I had with Colin and Steve are something I hold dear. 

 Bernie also had a car, I’m not going to say what it was, but he did upgrade to a fab Ford Granada Saloon at one point. Id love that car! So I used to sometimes go to the Holiday camp he was playing in and hang out, I would so love to had been on the stage, but I know that I was nowhere near the ability to do that. I even went to Pontins on my 18th Birthday. 
Me, Bernie, Marc, Steve my 18th in Pontins Brixham (I Think)
What I learned working in the shop got me into the idea of being a recording musician as I had no band, and never believed at the time I would. I did briefly join 2 bands, neither got past 2 practices, though I by accident did a short gig with one of them. 

 Steve also had a business building flight cases, I bought one off him that I still have to this day and after 27 years of dreaming in 2018 I got it on an aircraft and did my first overseas gigs with my guitar in that case. Thanks Steve built to last. (he called his business BTF Cases as BTF stood for Back to Front the name of the band) 

 By 1991 Bernie had been out to the Gulf and I had been enjoying writing and recording my own music using some of the kit I bought off Marc, A Korg DS8 Synth and a Korg Symphony Module, the latter being a core sound in All Living Fear. When Bernie returned I bought his Charvell guitar from him. This is THE guitar that I will always be associated with. It still plays great and is the most important musical instrument I own. 

 At this juncture our lives drifted apart for a good 15+  years or so. Bernie moved away and went to Uni and I became a full time wanna be goth. Fast forward to about 10 years and a chance meeting at the Fall gig in Exeter put us back in contact. Facebook was a thing and we got in touch again, and occasionally bump into each other. Bernie still playing and Singing in bands and me well doing the same. We Finally got to play together at his birthday party, we did 2 or 3 songs, his band had a pretty ridged set so no real improvisation but It was great fun and like everything else there is a recording of it. 

 Now this is where it comes together in essence, I was always the one doing original music, never really done covers only songs written by people I know. Bernie also had a book of original material and also has a great band doing it called the Babysnakes. I played a open air gig supporting them in Exeter a couple years ago. I had seen them a couple times before inc a gig at the Phoenix that Bernies Mum Angela was at to. (not long after the birthday gig she visited my mum first time they had seen each other in well at least 2 decades). 
Bernies 40th. 

 At this point, I was just going to write a brief write up on the band, but thought someone might like this trip down memory lane. Anyhow. The band The Babysnakes decided to copy my idea (Joke!) and put out a vinyl LP. They did a kickstarter and it was a matter of personal pride that I got in there first. And today the finished article arrived. I did receive a digital copy first, I played a bit of it, and then looked at the audio waveform to see if the mastering was as I heard it it was. Anyhow. I thought I would wait for the real thing to arrive before playing it. I am so glad I did, there is something magical about playing something real, and you don’t get as real as a piece of plastic. Me and Bernie used to go into Newton and buy records in Tops every Saturday, and as I learned a couple years ago to have your own album is a special thing. 
Babysnakes Duo at the Phoenix. 

 So whats the album like? In short its dead good. It’s a solid collection of well crafted songs. When a band makes its first LP esp. a band that off and on have been around a while, you pick your best songs and record them. I am pretty sure that’s exactly what they have done here. I'm not going to dissect it like I was doing a press review because well, Its worth more than that. 

 In a nutshell, If you like Neil Young or Bruce Springsteen more mellow songs you will really like this.

 And that ends the story for tonight.

https://www.facebook.com/thebabysnakes/
http://www.thebabysnakes.com 


Me and Bernie (Taken by Bim, and thats another story for another day!)

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