Old and new, descriptions of past tracks. In case you were wondering.
Read on . . . . .
SPECIAL REQUEST: KING OF THE OCEAN: a re-issue of Neil's aquatic but slightly meandering instrumental, requested by one of our deluded 'fans'. Still sounds good, even 12 months later. If a little meandering.
TAD FERRELL ALLSTARS LIVE "Just like US": Rare recording of the Tad Ferrell Allstars rehearsing for an upcoming tour with a warm up gig at the Hertford Marquee. Completists and ephemera-lovers will note that the lead guitar parts are in fact not played by Griff Tyndall, as he was off work while he's waiting for the test results to come back, but by our very own maestro of the stratocaster, who also laid down some dubious harmonies, hence the inclusion on these pages. He's not happy about going on tour, but those Estlin guys were pretty agressive!
RELEASE THE MAN LEATHER:Another departure for us as Ian steps in to help out fellow Estlin's artists with some growly vocals, in the absence of Firefxxx's usual singer, Tad Ferrell. Tad was laid low with a bad sore throat, and a slight cold. And as the studio was booked, and as the Eslin's guys get a bit jumpy when money is wasted, Ian somewhat unwillingly stepped in, but is now refusing to discuss the song at all.
DINNER PARTY 1973: a triumphant return to form for our musically incontinent sometime lead singer and multi-instrumentalist, who brings a new song into the fold, after six weeks of world planet-related nonsense. It is a a shameless hijack of someone else's idea, surprisingly uncommon on the world of ROLF. Ian was slightly surprised by the reference to "swingers parties", but apparently that's all the vogue these days. Not in Bengeo, surely? An imagining of a terrible night in 1973 with an unlikely cast of dinner party guests, 70's style. Goulash and fondue served. Brandy snaps too. Final version now posted.
BEN TEMPLE SINGS "I'D LIKE TO TEACH THE WORLD TO SING": tone deaf sometime ROLF manager jumps onto our covers bandwagon to bellow his way through the New Seekers' classic track. Obviously, the harmony totally eluded him, but its a fair effort, we guess. No more, though, Ben, thanks, this is a serious site, unlike your own comedic website.
SCRUMPY TAVERNERS SING "HALLELUJAH": another live work out from our worryingly violent friends from "the Villages". They missed our Christmas deadline by a few weeks, but they're a bit slow! We'll have our strumstick back now. Please.
IAN MIDDLETON'S STRUMSTICK MOODS: Less than 4 hours after picking up a borrowed strumstick, our master of the strings posts his own unique "moods" piece, to add to a growing addition of simialr pieces. On being questioned he said: the instrument took about an hour to master, but irritated my family so much, I had to wait until they were watching "The mummy" before I could sneak off and record it.
RALF UND RAFE SING "ANARCHY IN THE UK": Slightly dubious Euro popsters Ralf and Rafe bing their unique Bing-a-bong treatment to the Sex Pistol's shouty anthem. Slightly disturbing.
EARTH: THE WORLD PLANET(TM): Neil's new masterwork is complete. Quite good, even if we say so ourselves. Spanning seven continents (yes, I know, but what do you expect!) and more than 28 minutes long, this is our most overblown epic yet. And it took more than a month to complete, mainly because Ian couldn't get down to it..... Tuneful? Yup! Surprising? Yes. A bit long? Er, yes.... We're currently debating the commemorative T-shirt design. Ian's original design, featuring a planet that patently isn't Earth, was nixed on educational grounds. Watch this space......
HOT NEWS - the fan version contains bonus track 'Atlantis'. Free, for a mere 99p.
STANTON DREW: Another Neil instrumental track from the same Friday night as IRON(IC) MAN (see below). Played with the same settings. Features the most complex bassline known to man, with many notes. But only played once, so Ian would be challenged to paly it again. But not as many notes as the guys featured in the prog rock documentary we both watched. Was a little frightening. Capes were pretty good though.
IRON(IC) MAN: more mindless techno, with Ian's trademark screaming guitars as a faint addition. A Friday night composition, guitars added after a couple of relaxing hours at the White Horse in front of a fine log fire, with a quick exit before it gets filled with boring drunks.
AVEBURY (STEVE HILLAGE REMIX): A post-Christmas visit to the mystical stones inspired this slightly vague new world ode to the slightly bogus collection of standing stones in Wiltshire. Seems they were just lying around till the 1930's when an eccentric aristocrat decided he fancied putting them into a circle - he wasn't sure whether that was right, or where they should be positioned, but he pressed on anyway. Impressive!
BIG ALVIN'S DAD (BIG ARTHUR) FEATURED IN A DEMO OF "HALLELUJAH" RECORDED FOR DECCA RECORDS IN 1987 AT ABBEY LANE STUDIOS: From more master tapes unearthed by Ian in the shed, when he went to look for the leaf blower. Surprisingly high quality for something covered in spiders and slightly damp from a leaky bag of slug pellets. Features quiet symphonic guitar from some guy called "John Williams" and a quartet of Baritone, Bass Baritone, Tenor and Mezzo-Soprano. If you listen carefully, you can tell it was recorded in Studio no 2 (where John Lennon wrote "Strawberry Fields") by a certain amount of "presence" or slight hiss.
RALF UND RAFE'S STEREOPHONIC DIGITAL ARCHIVE REMASTER FROM THE ORIGINAL LP : A chance meeting with a BBC archivist in a toilet just off Old Compton Street reveals the existence of this 1998 recording of Hallelujah, sung by Eurovision hopefuls Bing-a-Bong Ding-A-Dong. Significantly better than "Ian Middleton's Hallelujah Moods", this version was also cheaper. Totally devoid of any understanding of the serious content of this extraordinary song or ability. And we like that! Like lift music, but cheesier. Coming out of a radio in a Europcar hire vehicle on your continental holiday soon.
IAN MIDDLETON'S HALLELUJAH MOODS: Another departure, as Ian competitively digs out his own recording of a "Christmas Classic", from some time ago, admittedly, just to remind Alvin who's the singer of this damn band. Recorded at the Earl Haig, Hertford, to an audience of disinterested sloppy drunks. Only two verses played, in order to facilitate a quick trip to the Gents. Well, that Guinness goes through you, doesn't it....
BIG ALVIN'S CHRISTMAS CLASSIC : A departure for us, we've been blackmailed by a fan. Big Alvin (was fat Alvin, but we've become friendlier and more inclusive recently) has some saucy footage of us behaving rather badly at the Christmas party and has promised not to put them on YouTube in exchange for loading his song on our jukebox. We hope you enjoy it more than looking at video of us photocopying our bottoms.
PEOPLE IN BOOKS : Instrumental, notionally about how authors treat the heroes and heroines of their books really badly. Features 3 guitar parts, played by Griff Tyndall, Griff Tyndall's brother and Griff Tyndall's brother's mate. Oh yes ..... and Ian on ebow and bass. Watch out System 7 !
ROUGH CUT: Demo of another Home Counties polite rock out, in collaboration with Hertfordshire rockers "Firefxxx", confusingly carrying the chorus "Lost not Found". Currently in transit to the West Country, where it will doubtlessly undergo radical surgery at the hands of our J.P. Chenet quaffing keyboard maestro. Chords are Eminor, F sharp, C9 and some kind of spooky D, possibly Dsus9, but who knows.
2GETHER4EVER: Demo of another odd song, with a beautiful chorus neatly skewered by banal, unsettling and quite mysterious lyrics, almost as though the track was written by email by two people utterly ignoring each other's contributions. Some mixed "garden" and "rude food" metaphors culminate in an invitation for a trip round the back of the bins. Quite why, is another matter. Possibly because Neil's mellow mood was overtaken by Ian's childish glee at finishing the words for a new song, currently called "Hand shandy". Odd.
LOST NOT FOUND: A fine Neil C Wilson piece, immeasurably improved by some quiet ebow, faint guitar and slightly hesitant bass. Well that's what happens if you use the black notes on the keyboard and forget to write them down. One of our increasingly common tracks mixed and created in Logic (Pro) and Garageband. We're still stubbornly refusing to transfer the files over the internet though, preferring to communicate via the Bengeo Post Office, where they have a fine selection of second-hand books, mainly Sci-fi. "Torus" currently available for 10p anyone?
SAT NAV : Humans may not be as bright as aliens from other planets, so we issue a welcome to any passing species, to come and perform unpleasant procedures and generally dominate the human race. However, ROLC lyricists show themselves up badly by assuming that movies like Cocoon, ET and Alien are documentaries, not films. If we are ever enslaved by a race of lizard overlords, we'll be the first to say: "We told you so".
YOU'RE BANNED : Another Ian song inspired by a dubious night out in Hertford. The details are hazy, but it's believed that dancing was involved, and that's serious! As he's not allowed out now, he's got time on his hands, so there'll be some bitter songs coming up soon. Humorous ? But of course. Truthful ? Naturellement! Long ? Well, its 5 minutes long and there are two middle 8s ..... so that's something.
CACTUS : A piece in E major for recent owners of HAPI drums to tinker along to.
ATTACK OF THE WASPS: Ian takes advantage of a quiet night to add some spectacularly flat singing to Neil C Wilson's seminal "Attack of the Wasps" from his masterpiece: "Into the Hive. When questioned he said: "I often sing along to "Attack of the Wasps" at work, and it seemed like a reasonable idea at the time. " Apologies everyone...
HILL LANE STREET: A rare departure for us - a well played, moody, tuneful well executed soundtrack piece, totally devoid of either clattery percussion, a daft title or dumb lyrics. All we can say, is we're sorry! One will occasionally going to slip through the net, once in a while, given the ferocious speed we work at.
RIDE THE WHITE HORSE
We dip our toes into the murky world of ersatz glam rock to deliver, well what exactly? "Ride the White Horse" certainly rocks and has that dull plodding beat we remember so well from the early 70s. Spot the "flams". Missing something though - perhaps a decent tune, a middle eight, a chorus, or any of the other conventional elements that generally contribute to a successful song. Maybe next time?
PAX ROMANUS
We return from our holidays refreshed and certainly lighter in the wallet department, so we embark on our first Autumnal song - a half fat skinny decaff of a track that joins our growing sequence of music for films. In this case, its an Italian film about drainage of the Venetian canals.
ROLLIN JAKE MCGHEE SINGS: "PARDON MA'AM"
Slightly irritating bogus American singer (he's from Chertsey, we think) Rollin Jake McGhee takes advantage of our holiday break to post a live workout of his classic "Pardon Ma'am". We immediately changed the password to stop him posting more of his railroad-related nonsense, but irritatingly it's sort of growing on us.
GOODBYE (AXE HIJACK VERSION)
A shameless hijack from our new occasional collaborator of our classic song bidding farewell to the 70's. Ian now awaiting the overdub files so he can turn Axe's damn guitar DOWN, and promote his own fine contributions, particularly the bass. When questioned, he rather grimly pronounced the additions: "a slight improvement", which in our universe counts as glowing praise.
HANA
More Hapi drum madness, ably assisted by Ian "Wall of Sound" Middleton, using ebow, cutlery and some screaming lead guitar.
THE OTHER SIDE OF SUMMER
Demo now up of another lightening-fast composition, featuring Ian's new Yamaha electro acoustic. Ably assisted by a couple of the Clutton Voices who happened to be passing. Awaiting inspiration from our maestro, to add, what exactly, we wonder? Actually, turns out it was some slightly hissy drums and out of tune synth. Incidentally, this one is also based on E minor, like every other damn thing we've done in August.
K-DAY
After all the frenetic activity of the past few weeks, we relax with another potential piece from our forthcoming album "Self help for the gullible", it features a simple Karma part that was simply begging to be sophisticated by a variety of Ian's more recent vocal inflections. But no luck there, he was able to supply only some rather meandering bass and ebow parts. Nice but we can only imagine what he could have mustered if he wasn't so heavily 'influenced' by single malt whisky.
ROLLIN' JAKE MCGHEE SINGS "RAILROAD KING"
A departure for us, we team up with gravel-voiced Rollin' Jake Mcghee, who we met in the Chemist queuing for industrial strength Strepsils (they're the brown ones that are only available with a note from a teacher and your Mum), and record one of his own compositions "Railroad King". He was quite annoying actually, so I don't think its an experience we'll repeat in a hurry. Surprisingly, after uploading this track, we promptly heard from one of his ex-colleagues, Jed Zeppelin, offering us first dibs on his track 'Railway to Heaven'. I doubt we'll take him up on the offer as he has little talent and we've suddenly taken against that.
PLURALITY
A quick bootleg of a track from the occasionally excellent website www.hapi-planet.com. We shamelessly add partially relevant thundering bass, and some of our trademark synth® and guitar© effects to a rather meandering track, thus vastly improving it. But then we find that they're selling our stuff without permission so tap them for a 4 pack of Stella and some low fat crisps to allow them to license our stuff for perpetuity. The trouble is this - we can't stand cheese and onion.
THE DAY AFTER YESTERDAY
A new track for the horologically challenged, or temporally confused. For anyone who's arranged to meet someone at 7pm and ended up arriving at 17.35. The kitchen sink remix now posted is an unusual blend of guitars, more guitars, ebow, garageband voices, Ian pretending to do garageband voices, Neil's usual genius additions and some quickly-written lyrics which are seamlessly blended into this bouillabaise (how the hell do you spell that?) of a track.
SUNARISE
A new track, co-authored by occasional vocalist Rob Kitson - destined to become the theme tune for jilted wives, husbands and stalkers everywhere. We seamlessly blend the tale of a philandering husband with an early morning speculation about everyone else's early morning activities. Lyrically, a little confusing, but I think we got away with it. Mind you, if anyone ever asked what our songs are about, I'd have to go away and think about it for a bit. My advice? It's probably best not to think about it at all. We don't.
GOODBYE TO YOU
A relatively serious song - reflecting on the past, we pen a moving lament to things from years gone by. But as usual, our preoccupations are fairly trivial - we're mourning the loss of the Johnny Astro balloon/fan game, Sekiden pistols,finding pornography in the woods, Bagpuss and Mr Benn. Rob Kitson pops by for a cup of tea and lays down some of his trademark vocals. Will appear on the album "Rum, Sodomy and Pea Shooters'.
JOY OF CAKES
Part time ROLC vocalist Fat Alvin stumbles from his local Bake 'n' Take to do lead vocals on this classic track after a promise of Saveloy and Chips, washed down with a bottle of Chianti Classico. Then the greedy b@stard stings us for a Turkey Twizzler and an Old Grouse to do the backing vocals. It was worth it, though, just to hear him sing of exercise so frantic that it would surely give him a heart attack. Regrettably the track contains a level of hiss, but what can you expect when your singer is sat on the toilet? Track is without doubt our most revolting and stomach churning offering so far, so regrettably it's now the first to carry our special sticker: "Parental Warning! Unpleasant and innappropriate subject matter"
GOLDEN AGE
Stung by Adam and Joe's inclusion of a rap about meatballs on their latest CD, cleverly spoiling the market for our rap about Delia Smith (Yo! Delia! Yo!), we respond in in the only way we can think of - a gospel style piece totally devoid of jokes, daft lyrics and our usual shenanigans. Tuneful, poignant and rather moving, in its own way.
TIME MACHINE
What would you do if you had a Time Machine ? Head into the future to get the cure for cancer or return to the past to warn JFK to keep away from the Grassy Knoll ? Not us - we display the depth of our shallowness by travelling forward to get the winning Lottery numbers, and then go back in time with a plan to make money and generally feather our nests. The only good deed we contemplate is to prevent Diana and Dodi going out that night in 97, but that's more to save us all all the lacrymose rubbish spouted about it all, even 10 years later. Destined for classic status.
VIEW FROM THE BOTHY
A fine piece, originally intended to highlight the modern plight of crofters, particularly after too many "wee drams", but subsequently developed as an anti-wind turbine number available for use by any local campaigners. At a fairly reasonable cost. In its original form it was the Scottish equivalent of being told by your wife to sleep in the shed. Mind you at the "Standon Calling" Boutique Festival, near Hertford you can stay in a shed for £350 for the weekend. Thanks, but I'll sleep in my own shed. It is, incidentally, from B+Q and cost £99. If anyone from the Superstore ever finds this page by idly googling, it's not bad, a bit leaky and not quite upright, but for £99 who's complaining?
NO, MY WAY
A piece unlikely to be played at Wedding receptions, it snappily summarises how women are from Venus and men just don't give a f*ck. Excellent song to give as a gift to a bad-tempered wife, or irritating clueless husband. And latest Pink Pound remix makes a shameless bit for, well, the Pink Pound. For anyone who's ever looked at their partner and thought: "Jaysus! What was I thinking?"
INTERCITY
Having left 'LDN : The Musical' alone for a while, we hit the ground running with a really jazzy number. Although basically vocal free, it tells the story of how the hopes of so many young adults are brutally dashed - coming to London for fame and fortune, they all too often end up giving hand jobs for crack in seedy Underground lavatories. Fembot version now up, featuring our lacklustre choir of elderly female impersonators. Another classic !
SYNTHESIZER MOODS (LIVE AT THE PYRAMIDS 1981)
A quick rummage for a box of old mastertapes that were earmarked for recycling unearthed a rare live performance from the early 80s. Cue wild applause! Of course in those days people were pretty much amazed by anything, in this case a Jen synthesiser and a WASP borrowed from the lead singer of Exeter supergroup "Puzzled but Dancing" (crap name, crap haircuts). Features rare synth solo from cape wearing, floppy fringed, keyboard wizard, Ian Middleton (see above). We're still arguing about how to spell "synthesizer" so are hedging our bets, using both "s" and "z" versions.
PLASMA SCREAM
Another fine offering from Ian's days as a third part of Bontempi Dream (he used to be in charge of tuning the stylophones and making the tea), we've reworked this mercilessly as a dancefloor classic. Needs more vocoder ?
THE SCRUMPY TAVERNERS
Experience life in your own backward village with the pig ignorant stubbornness of agricultural low life. Each copy come with a personal certificate guaranteeing you a 'warm welcome' in your local country pub.
RALF UND RAFE: BING A BONG, DING A LING BING BONG
Euro chic Astrid was out 'working' the streets of Hatfield so we called in Ralf and Rafe to sing our own song for Eurovision 2008. The lyrics were quite advanced for many of the Baltic states and so we didn't expect to do very well. We were not disappointed.
GLOBAL WARMING
A new mission for us - let's all save the Planet. We've teamed up with B&Q to do what we can. Recorded live on May 16th 2008, Bensford Village Hall. With the heating on.
K-DAY
Another potential piece from our forthcoming album "Self help for the gullible", it features a simple Karma part that is simply begging to be sophisticated by a variety of Ian's more recent vocal inflections
SELF-HELP PROGRAM: ALCOHOL AND DRUG ABUSE (MODULE 1)
Relax with the first of our series of self-help cassettes - close your eyes and let us solve YOUR problems, while you rest. Subliminal messages? Not us ! I'm off now for a delicious glass of Stella Artois.
SOPPY LOVE SONG
With the sap rising after a long dull winter, our thoughts turn to matters romantic, in this lyrically sappy new song. Gets to second base, but only after a bit of a lengthy time period, a bit of hand-holding and a few dull walks.
ALCHEMY (DIGITAL REMIX)
Technology advances means that we can now go back to the dark ages and remix our historical songs. In this case we go all the way back to June 2007, for a new version of Alchemy. An improvement ? Let us know.
BRAND CONSULTANT
Everyone loves marketing people, so here we celebrate some of the reasons they are so valuable to the community, well to everyone, really.
2 MUSICIANS - 1 IDEA - PART 2
Originally a 20 minute homage to the work of Mike Oldfield and Steve Reich, but reduced to a mere 9 minutes. Will appear on the Album "Haven't they got better things to do with their lives ?"
CALL ME ROCKY (IF YOU DARE)
We go back to 1983 and reprise the work of seminal Bristol band "Give a dog a bone", with extra verses and more than 20 words. We knew that people couldn't stomach the same verse sung over and over, so have added a chorus and extra lines, invoking the same spirit as the original. Will appear on the Album "Jaysus! More Singing Vol2 "
GENERIC PRODUCT ADVERTISING SONG
Our most shameless attempt at getting a manufacturer to buy our music since 'Gear I hid'. With the blandest chorus we ever wrote, we can tailor this piece to promote the highest bidder. Close your eyes and imagine that when Ian sings "Whiskas" or "Daz" it could be any literally product you can think of, like: "Fanta" or "Mark Warner Holidays". Expect to hear it during every advert break by mid Summer.
WORKING FROM HOME
A welcome return to our serious side. An in-depth look a the phenomenon of home working. First 100 downloads come with a free copy of Zoo magazine.
BLAND DESIGNS
Octagonal Tower anyone? Reclaimed slate tiles? What on your interior wishlist? We'd be happy with offstreet parking and nice shed. A song about the impractical universe of Grand Designs on Channel 4.
I once met someone who built an open-plan lavvy and had it in their bedroom. Grim times we're living in, grim times.
DAS SPACE RACE
Another departure. Kurt Bollwinkle returns to provide a teutonic remix to our acoustic classic: The Space Race. Will appear on the album: Warning! Contains singing.
WALRUS
One of Neil's very pleasant ambient style pieces revisited, with a superb (yes! superb!) rolling bassline and enigmatic vocals. In fact the most enigmatic so far. Listening to it again, We have NO IDEA what its about. Catchy chorus, though. One of the most enjoyable tracks so far to do. A hard listen though, but do we care?
MEET THE MUMBLING MONKS/MUMBLING MONKS
We've been sampling the CD's of the Monks of Gurtu without permission and ripping them off badly, so we were surprised when they contacted us. Rather than sending a letter to our solicitors we were amazed when they emailed to tell us that they'd recorded a special chant for us, their western friends. At least that's what we think they were trying to say. We've posted "Meet the Mumbling Monks, (their title, honest!) and Mumbling Monks, our response, on our musical jukebox. If you want a copy, email us here, rather than getting it from their frankly rubbish website (www.Gurtus.com). We can send you a free copy! With 99p postage only to pay.
FISCHER 64
Inspiring piece inspired by chess legend Bobby Fischer. "Chess players are madmen who use chess to stay sane". Checkmate.
THAT'S WHAT'S HAPPENS . . . . .
A fast composition. Japan meet Spandau Ballet for a drink in Monaco and run into the singer from the Thompson Twins. In 1983. Probably April. About the time Boy George turned up on the A team. Mind you the 80's are chart gold at the moment, so we're probably surfing the zeitgeist, or something like that. . Will appear on the Album 2008: A new hope.
SAUCY JACK
Part of our series of London-centric musical interludes: this time in the form of a traditional cockney knees up given a classic treatment via the story of Jack the Ripper, recorded in a nasty East End Music hall. Cockney chorus features. Will appear on the album: Extracts from the Sounds of LDN: The Musical
DAMMING THE PASTURES
More music from our peaceful moods strand, unlike "Jimmy Song" this may actually cleanse your shakras, so make sure you use only in conjunction with a qualified therapist, shaman or whatever. Rare appearance from the "Masters of Gurtu Mumbling" who add exactly 30 seconds of their famous sub bass vocal stylings at 1min, 3 mins 4 mins 30 secs and 6 mins 30 secs. We would have had them do more, but the herbal tea was running out and the smell of joss sticks was REALLY getting on my nerves.. Appearing in an elevator near you?.
YO! DELIA YO!
A surprising survey revealing that most US rappers are big fans of Delia Smith (Yes! Really!) combined with universal UK disapproval of her new convenience recipes led us to speculate what a rap about Delia Smith might sound like. Our researches led us via early Public Enemy to Dre, Eminem and The Game to the song now demo'ed on the juke box. And they said white guys can't rap! Stick that in your casserole and put a cap in its ass! Best listened to on gas mark 5.
Planet S.T.U.D.
A historical bottle of BRUT in a pound shop inspired this tale of rampant Testosterone. One of Neil's. Honest! Will appear on the Album 2008: A new hope.
KING OF THE OCEAN
Another new piece that nearly ended up as this year's answer to "Neil Wilsons's Into the Hive (by Neil Wilson)" as it uses many of the same tinkling sounds. Featuring a very quiet world music alternative to the Gurtu Monks - Tomahawk Apache.
MODERN ROCK'N'ROLLER (DIGITAL REMIX)
You can really hear the hammer gun pounding and the sander ... er..... sanding in another fine digital remix. Amazing! But not as amazing as that "Decorater's Mate" stuff that you can use to fill up loads of holes before the estate agent comes round.
CARNABY STREET
Reunion gig for the cast of Hair. We take you back to 1967, when guys were dudes and girls were chicks. Close your eyes and you can almost smell the joss sticks. Freak out! Peace and Love! Will appear on the album: Extracts from the Sounds of LDN: The Musical.
SO MUCH FUN (25TH ANNIVERSARY VERSION)
We coax Sohep's singer, Rob Kitson, out of retirement for the ultimate tribute: ROLC sung properly for once. Amazing! Then we take advantage of having him locked in the studio by forcing him to sing 'Call me Rocky, if you dare'.
BEAUTY OF THE SANDS
Our Teutonic remixer, Kurt Bollwinkle, emailed to suggest we try our hand at some film music to accompany a, frankly, rather uninteresting film he's making about the Desert. But have we nailed it? Can you hear the sand whistling across the plain and the plaintive lowing of the camels? A real kitchen sink of a track. Recorded, unusually during the week, rather than at a weekend, to give it added urgency. Astrid suggested a lyrical rewrite before she would get involved, so in a bold departure from our normal policy of writing about drinking and Japanese cars, we developed a story of forbidden love amongst the desert stars. Astrid approved, so check out our hastily sung taste of Eastern promise. Turkish Delight anyone?
SET THE MUSIC FREE
A pulp-style ballad about the joys of "free" downloads. Jarvis Cocker would be proud! Appears on the album: Warning! Contains singing.
BOSCOMBE BASS LIVE
A collaboration with some people on ReverbNation.com, we revisit a piece by Aaapha, played live at one of our legendary all night wig-outs. Well, when we say collaboration, we actually downloaded the piece without permission, but I think we'll get away with it. Features wah wah and slide guitar. Oh!, and some keyboards from the Bristol side of the band, but they're mainly hidden in the mix.
MIDLIFE CRISIS LIVE
47 is not so old .... Another classic, our crowd-pleaser, Midlife Crisis, played live at Wilsonbury 2008. The crowd went crazy, as usual. We played it slightly faster than normal as well. A classic bootleg. We'll be 48 later this year, so may update.
JIMMY SONG
Believe it or not, this piece was supposed to be a Chakra cleansing North American Indian chant, but ended up as the bowel loosening song you hear. A full choir of more than 15 provided the "Bengeo wall of sound". Catchy as hell.