On a shelf in The Den, a wooden box sits. Lakar, Le Naturel it states. Looking at internet information, this below was found:

Organic red wine of minimal intervention.

‘Le Naturel Lakar 2020 originates from a heroic vineyard planted in 1920 on a steep hillside in the Yerri Valley. Made with garnacha and other minority varieties, this organic red wine reflects the purity of its terroir and the minimal intervention philosophy of Bodegas Aroa. Only 1,810 bottles of this red wine, which combines freshness, complexity, and authenticity, have been produced.’

The said wine….fairly impressive then.

Wine production and making the perfect tasting results from natures’ offerings is a very well regarded pursuit. The magic needed to find that perfect synergy. A combination of situations that go on to find taste perfection. Rather like music production then.

How fitting to place the synergy of my past music collaborations captured on cassettes into such a fine box that housed a wine of decent history values. Housed within this box safely are the precious tape cassettes of my own and others’ musical past.

Here within these 12 cassettes in photograph above?

Firstly: Soft Ground.

Soft Ground was our teenage band consisting of my brother Steve, myself and two mates who grew up together. Gray on drums, Steve on lead guitar, Bren on bass guitar and myself (the other Gray) on rhythm guitar and vocals. We, as a collective, suddenly found joy in playing together for the very first time when suddenly deciding to create ‘a band’. Practicing our instrumental parts individually, we brought our efforts to a little rehearsal room at the back of the local St. James Church. That room? It became, suddenly, a realisation of a life changing moment. Our very first song? We played Brown Sugar by the Rolling Stones. When the crescendo of three guitars and drums hit the song after the initial guitar riff intro and we all crashed into the song’s realised synergy. We were so shocked at the result of producing musical sound together for the first time….we stopped midway through that iconic song’s introduction and laughed out loud. Nirvana! We had suddenly found Nirvana!

We went on and played in pubs, clubs and little village halls. Even set up our amplifiers and drums and played a gig on our local housing estate grass field to the bemusement of neighbours. They came out to seek what the noise was about out of curiosity. They then realised it was us and danced joyfully to give their support to our efforts. I began to write my own songs to intermingle with songs by The Beatles, Status Quo, The Shadows, Fleetwood Mac, Silverhead and, well, oh so many more songs. Dozens of songs. There existed back then a few years of fun in simply playing music together. Playing in front of either accepting or hostile audiences whilst we were finding our feet musically.

Then? The XCerts.

Punk music came along. It rocked out loud, sneered at the past attitudes concerning music’s entrenched rules and changed attitudes to what could be achieved for self expression. Naivety worked, just play at whatever your music level was and give it a go. Myself? I suppose I suddenly realised that I could write my own songs and realised enough were written for a whole gig set. Songs that were a collection that I’d been putting together, on an acoustic guitar, with results existing in my head. A three piece of my brother Kev (Zero Summers) on drums, Dave Pepper on guitar/vocals and myself on Bass guitar/vocals was formed. Initially called The Monitors, and then changed to The XCerts. Dave Pepper and my brother Kev also had songs too. So it had a three way dynamic of music offered from different head spaces. We had a fantastic few years of going from naivety to becoming a respected local band. Management destroyed the XCerts in reality. Record companies were interested, but the perfect contract of money related desires that management wanted was never going to be a reality. I never knew what was being offered money wise for our signatures on the line. But unrealistic management expectations probably came into the equation for their refusals to record company interest. Kev was angry at the shaky nature of it all and split from the band. I, in truth, was tired of the shenanigans too.

Finally:

Team 23.

Straight after the XCerts split, Team 23, a five piece ‘soul’ band, was then put together. After the XCerts splitting heartache and in another new reality, my initial intention was to pull out of songwriting contributions and sit in the band’s background. Offering my ideas of how the vibe for Soul music should sound, but penning no tunes. We were New Soul. Punks with raw Soul sounding energy. Tamla Motown, Atlantic and Stax vibes existed in the synergy of the sound produced, alongside hints of Northern Soul influences. In the speed of all this change, exhaustion was, for myself, an ever present state in those days. I suppose I hid it well. I threw myself into the contributions of creating a fast pace to song outputs. From the get go, we were punks learning the new skills of adopting and playing our own idea of how Soul music should sound. Within a couple of weeks of the band forming, a whole new re-written Soul Music vibe for older songs, all written by the singer Jerome, were realised successfully. His melodies and lyrics had not changed. But they all now hung on an undercurrent of a fresh Soul music vibe. We had a decent set of tunes which were enough to play our first gigs. As time went by, my natural instincts of songwriting began to take shape, and a few of my songs were added to the collective set contribution.

Did I enjoy the Team 23 experience? I did. But it was all a bit of a rollercoaster ride to be honest. We were touring by being the support act for a successful band called The Specials, had played a one off gig with Dexy’s Midnight Runners, a couple of gigs with Madness and ongoing situations of playing with other bands, solo gigs and a few radio plays of our 45 rpm single being aired nationally. But, the band, having increased to seven members to include a brass section of two, had egos attached. The initial five were always sound, rooted to humble nature and remained true to ourselves. The two brass additions had ambitions of grandeur.

Alongside this imbalance of personalities, external hanger on personas existed too. Others wanting to grab the opportunity of ‘catching a ride to the possibility of success’. I became sickened of others’ self interests and manipulative ways of crashing the party. My Buddhist inherent nature made me realise that the situation that was developing was tumbling into a confusion. Everything felt ethically wrong. My belief in the music arena was ‘this craziness isn’t right at all’. I changed. My love in playing music suddenly stopped. My musician role ended and I simply bought a kiln and became a potter. As you do!

And so. Returning to the blog’s intent. Within this wine box? There exists wonderful memories. The songs from those heady days of the past are on very fragile tape cassettes (here in the photographs). They hold stand alone individual pieces of us all, in our various guises of the bands mentioned above, and inherently represent, in sound form, our past life’s contributions. Soft Ground, The Monitors live at the Dive, The XCerts, Team 23, Steve’s band ‘Alibi’ and Kev’s band after the XCerts split. A multiple contribution of us all as musicians, all playing our parts to realise hoped for positive outcomes. None of our bands ever came to be successful internationally. Locally….yes. And two members of Team 23 went on to play in a band called King and enjoyed single, album and chart success. On reflection? We were blessed in being given that time of enjoying the precious moments we created and now owning the memories that followed.

My belief’s? Success is not external. It is the perceived satisfaction of the internal. If we simply enjoy, and still continue to reflectively enjoy those special life moments in past times, our soul is blessed. Memories add a beautiful contribution to our live’s journeys. But they are never hankered after. Life is too short, so move on.

Music and the journey we undertook? We simply ‘did it’. We enjoyed those moments we created for ourselves. And others, we do know, enjoyed the ride too. In possession of these tapes, I realise that life had purpose back then. For all the musicians and other sincere contributors to the vibe who were included. It was a blast. Life? It is a continued journey of simply finding one’s desire to live in the moment. To enjoy life and what it offers. And it continues as it finds the past bones that still influence today. Those songs that lay in those avenues we trod? We can step again into those musical pathways and reflect again through both hearing what once was……and still grab our guitars and drum sticks and play the songs again or invent what will be new songs.

An ‘avenue’ vibe surfaced tonight for myself. On one tape here above it states, ‘Kev’s Band’. After Kev died at 21 years old, I played this tape a few years later after his death. I couldn’t focus on his music creations at that time. It was still raw. Now? I want to listen again. Whatever exists in his song writing outcomes on that tape, I have confidence that a song or more may well be ideal for me to play in my own way. Simply to play his songs on my guitar and honour the past songs he had belief in. The confidence needed to loading the cassettes into a player, without breaking the tapes, has to be overcome.

Below photograph. I bought these splicer/repair kit and the cassette player to MP3 converter off eBay a few years ago. Bought for realising a desire to capture our past cassette songs permanently. I just need to grab the process by the horns, pray to the skies and hope I avoid possible disasters. Simply, I need to just get on with it.

Life is like that at times. We just need to get on with it.