We've got a handful of songs to sing you

"Can I have another piece of chocolate cake?" - ©Neil Finn

You may or may not be aware that I haven't written any new songs for quite a while. I guess over the years I've written between eighty and a hundred songs in total. Of those I'd say thirty or so are keepers. And of those, I've recorded around twenty. Yet, whenever I get up and play at various folk clubs, singarounds, floor spots and the like I bet I only rotate maybe ten songs maximum. Yep, I've got stale. I've taken my foot off the gas and have been happy to coast. I generally pad my repertoire out with one or two (select) covers and would admit, quite freely, that at some point I must have turned my songwriting tap off. 

Hopefully that's about to change. I was invited to a relatively new songwriters group that's sprung up in the town and who meet on the third Thursday (I love that alliteration) of the month. So I went along last Thursday. There were seven of us. We chatted, played a brand new song each and then critiqued what we'd just heard. It was lovely. It was inspiring. This may just be the kick up the arse I need to apply seat of pants to seat of chair - as PG Wodehouse once said. My song, 'The Ocean', which was really only in embryonic form, was received really well. I'll go away now - finish it, tart it up and, while I'm about it, try and get another new song ready for next month. Footnote - it was Dan's birthday on Thursday (Dan is one of the group's founding fathers) and we had cake. Chocolate cake. Matt's wife (Matt - who started the group) baked it specially. I think I'm going to enjoy Songwriters.

Only Talking Sense

Neil and Tim Finn have been responsible for so much of the music that lives within me; music that makes me smile and music that makes me cry - often in equal measure. Whether it be Split Enz, Crowded House, the songs they wrote and recorded apart or, and this is where I think the the Holy Grail resides, in the albums they made together as the Finn Brothers.

Their 1995 album Finn has just been made available on vinyl for the first time thru Pete Paphides' Needle Mythology label; Pete is truly one of the finest music journalists/authors around and a curator, some may say gatekeeper, of some of pop's most overlooked recordings. Here's a short film of Pete giving Neil his copy of the album. 

And here is a taster of what you can expect to find on this luscious album. It's side one, track one and this is (I think) its first live outing on the BBC's Later - with both Neil & Tim (and Jools Holland) looking like mere boys.

The Finn Brothers - Only Talking Sense (1995)

Who knows where that might lead

Last night was special; in fact the whole of yesterday was special. I got to spend some quality time with James: we revelled in each other's company in Manchester visiting several choice  hostelries in what has, for the last 10 years, been James' adopted home city. Our Big Boys Beano culminated not in the Bamboo Club (if you know, you know) but at the Castlefield Bowl, a quirky outdoor pavilion venue situated in the heart of M3, where it played host to the last night of Crowded House's  2022 UK tour. 

James originally bought these tickets in 2019 but Covid meant that the gig - and its original rearranged date - was pulled. So last night, in more ways than one, was a case of unfinished business; nether of us had seen the band live before1 but we both have Woodface living in our heads2 24/7. I mentioned a couple of months ago that the majority of gigs I've been to this year have been very intimate shows - shows in small venues where inevitably I've been on the front row; so seeing a 'stadium band' in an amphitheater really did mean stepping out of my comfort zone. However, I needn't have worried. The sound was brilliant, our view was perfect and crowd were amazing (even waiving at the trains on the overhead viaduct as they trundled in and out of Oxford Road station).  And the band didn't disappoint.  I was putty in their hands from the opening bars of set opener Distant Sun to the final coda of Chocolate Cake and everything in between3. Who wouldn't be? So, outdoor gigs - I'm not saying it's the way forward - who knows where that might lead - but as an occasional antidote fto the confines of sweaty rock clubs and upstairs rooms in pubs it was certainly a breath of fresh air. Literally. Let's do it again soon, James!

1 Tho' I did see Neil Finn play a live set on a boat on the Thames in 2011

2  Where it flat shares with the entire Beatles back catalogue

3 James had to prop me up emotionally when they played Four Seasons in one Day (I could write 500 words alone on how that song affected me last night) 

Postscript

As PSs go this is a zinger: did I mention that Johnny Marr4 joined them on stage for Weather With You?

4 Manchester rock and roll royalty

(Band pic c/o John Bidder)