The release of these songs out into the world represents my separation from 32 years of playing the great music of ELO.
I have released solo material before – 5 CDs – but I have become so heavily identified with ELO that is is time, at last, to re-establish the solo me, after 55 years as a professional musician.
Songs are my first love, and will be my last 😄🙏☯️❤️
Another song that NEEDS to be played and recorded with a band, and real drummer.
My attempt at a ‘rock’ song, but I do like it. Aren’t I the narcissist?😂😂
But then if I didn’t like it, why should I expect anyone else to😂😂
As someone afraid of heights, I include the picture of the vertiginous cable car in Funchal, Madeira as an example of something not killing me, but making me stronger 😂😂
Another song originally on ‘Naked’, but re-recorded on better technology.
Loosely about my escape from Dosthill/Tamworth back in 1970.
Everyone I had gone to school with, played in bands with, or had just known, seemed to be happy to stay put in that ‘one horse town’😂
Not me. I could see what the writing on the wall would be for me if I stayed, so I made my escape☯️❤️🙏😄
The first song I ever wrote at age 17. I was working in Birmingham city centre at dear old Ringway Music, and looking out at Moor Street station and Queensway.
I had just been to Cornwall as an adult for the first time, and was blown away. All I wanted to do was move there, immediately.
But this is city centre daydreaming about another life, that I still haven’t achieved 55 years later 😂
Original song was a bit more basic than this version. I have added a few more chords than I knew then, and the vocal harmonies were an afterthought whilst recording in lockdown.
There are faults, but I thought I would just put it out there🙏😄❤️☯️
Sometimes songs just appear from the ether, and you finish them as a songwriter, meaning that there is no direct emotional contact with the lyrics.
Much of the time I write from an emotional place, but occasionally I will just be a songwriter.
This is one of those. I had wanted to write a song with this feel for a while, and after a few failed attempts, I landed on this one.
A song I wrote after I was visited in a dream by my ex-wife, Karen, who died in 1995.
Much of the imagery in the lyrics comes directly from the dream, and it was pretty vivid.
Karen was a beautiful soul, who I had known since we were both around 11/12 years old. It brought me great sadness when our marriage did not survive.
This is my tribute to her ❤️🙏☯️
Potentially contentious song, this one. I wrote it as an affectionate homage to a certain Jeff Lynne/ELO song,but I am not sure it will be taken that way.
Nevertheless, I had great fun recording it. My friend and former co-writer, Martyn Baylay, contributed a great idea for the bridge between verse and chorus. Much better than my original bridge.
Again, this track is a demo intended to be expanded upon later, especially with drums. Needs a real drummer.
But please take this in the spirit it was intended, with love and affection 😄🙏❤️☯️
Never done anything like this before or since, but it just appeared when I was messing with software instruments.
The subject matter is close to me heart because I am prone to not breathing properly, or at all sometimes, especially on stage, which can cause real problems.
But I do like the way it turned out, even though I know it will not be to some people’s tastes😂
Another ELO Pt2 demo done by me at home.
Bev provided me with a couple of pages of lyrics, and I put the song together from those, apart from the middle eight which were mine.
Those that know the ‘Witness’ that ended up on ‘One Night’ will note the stylistic leap. A completely different song😂😂
Again, it was me trying to push things in a more rocky direction.
I had visions of a rock track with Lou Clarke’s strings on the top, plus Kelly and Eric’s vocals, but we never achieved my vision, unfortunately.
Another curio for those who might be interested ❤️☯️😄🙏
My original demo, done at home, of a song that Bev Bevan later added more lyrics to.
So, this version has incomplete lyrics, hence the low price😂
Again, I thought people might be interested in the bare bones of a song that went on to be a feature of the ELO Pt2 ‘live’ album, ‘One Night’.
For a track recorded in what was basically a bedroom, it kicks a little ass, I think😂
In fact, my vision for the song was that it should be a lot more rocky than it turned out to be with ELO Pt2.
Anyway, another interesting curio maybe ❤️🙏☯️😄
This is a song I wrote at the tail end of Trickster in the late 1970s. It has been rejected by every band I put it forward to😂
But this version is my proper demo of the song, recorded at Chipping Norton Studios (now sadly no longer with us) in between sessions I was helping to engineer with another band.
Colin Thurston was producing and engineering, I was assisting him, so we decided to have a little fun in the down time and record this song.
I played all the instruments, including drums, the only recorded evidence of my drumming.
Drums were my first love, so I wish I had kept at it.
Anyway, I thought I should let people hear it, and here it is 😄❤️🙏☯️
A love song to the place of my heart and soul, the Bryngwyn Hills, above where we lived for 20 years, on the Welsh Border.
After being away on tour, or later, after studying for my degree, I would walk on the hills and feel small.
Feeling so small in such a big landscape made my problems smaller as well. I owe a large part of my sanity to those hills.
So this is my love song to my favourite place in the world 😄❤️🙏☯️
But it is also about the Malvern Hills, where we live now.
A song I wrote in 1982. The first version of this song mirrored the difficulties of my relationship with Jo, but I have changed it a little to make it less specific.
But the mood of the song reflects the hellish years after losing my brother, David. I also lost my record contract, and my marriage.
It was a sombre time, but after it all I met Jo, and we had our family. So, silver lining, AND silver cloud 😄🙏☯️❤️
But I like the melody of this song. Inspired by misery, you could say.