New Project. (Stay Positive).

Songs and lyrics from myself? They have been continued to be written over decades. Since the 1980s. I’ve never put down a guitar to be honest. Dipping in and out playfully writing a fair few tunes on the acoustic.

Last weekend, three of us (guitarist: drummer: bass player) got together in a Coventry, UK rehearsal room and played through some old XCerts songs. Together for the very first time playing in earnest. It was pretty good. We all agreed that it rocked! Positivity was rife. We quickly recorded two of the songs at the end of the session of playing for 6 hours. Feeling tired by then, it should have been recorded earlier in hindsight. I now know the Shure MV88 microphone I bought to be used on an iPhone with lightning adapter is pretty awesome though.

This was the first rehearsal for 42 years for myself! Myself and the drummer, when both in Team 23, last played together 42 years ago. My brother on guitar? He’s been playing for decades and we have picked up guitars and played songs together from time to time every year.

Why a new project?

The XCerts are not doing the live gigs as planned in July. The original XCerts guitarist is now committed to playing gigs in bars in Spain. He has joined up with some local musicians and they are doing cover songs for the tourists.

Carry on and still do the gigs? Not with the other two guys having their own full lives of full time work (brother) and family commitments (drummer). Also distance is an issue. I live well over 130 miles away from the other two. Can’t just meet up and throw a couple of hours at this project a couple of times a week.

The logical planning. With a new future aim to develop, the focus now is on getting back into that same rehearsal room (they have an adjacent recording studio) a few times this year. A progression of booking the studio room from time to time, recording new songs and also some older ones from the past over the months ahead. The project will be finished by autumn/winter this year. A few Summer open mic nights are, fingers crossed, in the planning too. My brother will be playing newer guitar parts in the older songs. And contributing to writing and getting the riffs for new songs.

Myself? Feeling positive now after the initial recent conundrum hit me over the head. Now being the only original XCert! Also. I feel that a new ‘band name’ is needed. A fresh outlook of creating this musical adventure to wipe away old baggage.

Already, over the last couple of days, three early Gray Summers songs, that I wrote in the 1970s when in the XCerts and Team 23, have been updated both lyrically and dynamically. Also, I have now written down a list of song considerations. Ones chosen to suit a band dynamic. As said at the start of this blog. Songs have always been written for fun since I was no longer a committed band musician back in 1982. I have left the acoustic sing solo/story telling type songs alone. A little too soft for the palette of a rock and roll vibe.

NEW INCLUSION. FORGOT THAT I DID THIS LITTLE AUDIO BELOW A FEW MONTHS BACK.

The Wind of Sorrows needs a musical direction. The acoustic here is just playing a basic oddity rhythmic sing a long to/chunking style structure needed for the tune to hang its hat on. What usually happens when I do this, is isolate myself outdoors, sing the tune by walking along a beach or within some local hills. I then ‘hear’ what could work instrument and structure wise to support the melody. A tapped out drum beat to get the whole vibe started tapped out on a piece of nature. A tree is quite nice!! Joking. Usually my legs. This below I sang a few months back. Only revisited over the last few days. I had a chorus in my head for another song starting with ‘Today, could be the end of all today’s, etc. Still need to finish the lyrics. But it links very nicely. Problem sorted.

So, without further ado…..here is some more of the phenomena known as ‘Gray Summers warbling whimsy’. I’m no six string guitarist but it helps to know some basic chords I suppose. Best listened through headphones really. Works better for capturing depth. Otherwise I sound like Mickey Mouse!

And yesterday a nice little catchy bass line was written for the Wind of Sorrows developing song. Inspired!

SONG LIST: Song projects to have a go at………

Here’s the Weekend

Satisfied

She Said

Feeling in the Groove

Mistaken Identity

One of the Boys

Losing Out

Year One/O

Wasting My Time (living in the 9 ‘til 5)

Wind of Sorrows/Today

Trust Me

16 Hours

Velvet Suits

Giving it Time

Always So Blue

The Velvet Touch

There She Goes

Baby, I don’t want to dance

November, the stereo and you

Pink hearts, Black holes

Stop this Heartache

STOP THIS HEARTACHE. A song I wrote after the XCerts split in 1979.

Once, I crashed out at a party

Emotions seemed forever to stand still

A broken sense of innocence

Hey! What’s going on!

I believe if looks could kill

I just think that they might.

Oh it’s awful real

But it just seems surreal

Some futuristic dream

Of something cold, unseen

And it’s looking down on me.

It’s late, too late

The hours just seem to walk on by

I could not do anything more than

Say goodbye

Well boys it’s time to leave the show

And I hate to see us part like this

And I hate to think of what we

Might have missed.

Oh it’s awful real

But it just seems surreal

Some futuristic dream

Of something cold, unseen

And it’s looking down on me.

Stop this heartache (woah oh oh)

Stop this heartache

Coz it doesn’t wanna show

That it came from out of nowhere

And it don’t know where to go

No it doesn’t wanna show

That it came from out of somewhere

And yet it feels so all alone.