My Brother Jake

When James rang the other day and said he'd really like us to do another round of recording, it was, quite literally, music to my ears. We've done a few sessions together over the years and he really has helped shape a lot of my songs. I may have provided the playground, but James was the one who put the swings and roundabouts in.

That's not my quote by the way - when Nigel Clark walked out on Dodgy 20 years ago I remember Matt their drummer saying it might be Clark's name on the records, but they all know how the songs really got written and recorded. Ouch.

That said, I know this time around we'll be doing a couple of covers. James and I both love the Eiderdowns' version of From the Beginning by ELP. Bernard, who played fiddle on Pickering Place would certainly be my Number One choice for this along with Nat: Nathaniel plays sax with local shit kickers Slumb Party, but it's his banjo I want to hear on this:

The Eiderdowns - From the Beginning

And another one I'd like to have a crack at is My Brother Jake. Free had a huge hit with it in 1971, but, again, I want to do it more like the Eiderdowns; so chilled we may all end up getting hypothermia. Let me make a few phone calls and see if we can't fix this up for early in the New Year.

The Eiderdowns - My Brother Jake [mp3]

Class

I once interviewed the guy who wrote this song: Phil Mogg was both charming and also quite mad. This evening I opened with Try Me. At the end of the night a lovely Geordie lad came over and thanked me for my (brief) set. He bought a copy of Pickering Place and said I was 'class'. I couldn't possibly comment.

In this video Mogg and his band, UFO, have seen fit to hire a string quartet. And there's even a candelabra on the grand piano. Now that's class.

 

Poster Boy

I’ve been a bit tardy, I know, but I’ve finally got around to having a little launch party for Pickering Place, my debut EP. It’s at The Kirk Theatre, Pickering, just outside York, on Saturday 7 September.

Joining me on the night will be the fabulous award winning songwriter, David Swann: he’ll be performing solo and with his new band Freefall. Also playing, spreading their intoxicating brand of feel good vibes, all the way from Manchester, are Frozen Gin. I’m particularly looking forward to their set as I taught the guitarist everything he knows.

And, finally, our MC for the evening, keeping the whole thing together, will be my good friend Martin Robertson. If I talk to him nicely he may even sing a song or two himself.

If you fancy it, come on down (or up) and say hello – I’d love to see you. And it’s all in aid of charity. I’ll even let you buy me a drink.

Kings & Queens

'So what's this new song all about then?' my friend Phil says as we walk down to the acoustic jam. 'Kings & Queens? Sounds like a homage to The King's Head and Queen's Arms in Leeds.' Spoken like a true Wessie.

No, I've not written a song about public houses; in Leeds, or anywhere else for that matter. But I may have breached my own code about crossing over into (*looks over shoulder*) political songwriting. I say may: it'll be on the new EP later in the year. Tell me what you think then. Bloody hell, get me with my new EP. I'm still banging the drum for Pickering Place (named after London's smallest square, since you ask). Oh, and I'll be playing it in its entirety at The Kirk Theatre with my good friends David Swann and Frozen Gin.

Kings and Queens will line their pockets

The jokers call the shots

We're fighting for our pride here

It's all that we have got

All that we have got

© John Medd 2013

Fill yer boots

I'd just like to wish everyone who's swung by this site in the last 12 months A Very Happy New Year. Judging by my stat counter I appear to getting more readers in the US than back home here in the UK. I know you should never read too much into the often murky world of statistics - I leave that to the likes of Tim Harford and James Medd. So, if you're reading this in England or New England, York or New York - have a great 2013.

Some of you may be aware that I've just recorded and released my first EP. Pickering Place, named after the smallest square in London, is a collection that brings together four of my own compositions and a Slade cover; I Won't Let It Happen Again used to sound like this:



Not anymore! You can download this or indeed any or all of the songs from my Bandcamp site. Go on, fill yer boots.

Even walls fall down

Writing and performing your own songs is great fun - you can fluff the words and/or tune and nobody's any the wiser. It's only when they take on a life of their own and people start singing them back to you that I'll start worrying. I'll get back to you on that one.

Therefore I'm a bit picky when it comes to covering other people's stuff: I avoid popular songs like the plague: the one cover on my Pickering Place EP is a very obscure Slade B-Side which even the writer Jim Lea would struggle to recognise as one of his.

But when I play Tom Petty's Walls, I don't change it at all. And the last time I saw Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby they played it with a straight bat too. It's just such a good song. Who couldn't be moved by the last verse:

Some things are over

Some things go on

Part of me you carry

And part of me is gone

Pickering Place

  Pickering Place: it's the smallest square in London, you know

Not for the first time in my life, events appear to be moving a tad faster than I would like. Not only is there a house move to fit in before Chr*stm*s, but there's also the small matter of releasing my first EP.

Pickering Place will, all things being equal, be on sale from the second week in December (I signed off the artwork today - hence the cutting guides seen here). Comprising four JM originals & a Slade cover, and priced at a mere Lady, it will make the perfect stocking filler and/or shaving mirror.

If I was a major Hip Hop recording star I would now be thanking everyone from The Lord God Almighty down to the shoe shine guy on the corner of 32nd and Lafayette. However, I would just like to thank James Medd. His guitar playing was so sublime I nearly gave him a co-write. Nearly.

Watch this space in the coming weeks for release details, downloads, tour dates, TV tie-ins, record shop signings, kissing of babies, supermarket openings, etc. I will also be thanking, properly, my producer, Carl, and the other fine musicians who can be heard on this small but perfectly formed Extended Play.

John Medd: When The Sun Comes Up