THIS IS AN 8 SONG ALBUM

First of all, a quick shout out to luthier Jerry Bodrie of Redeemed Guitars. I met him in Raleigh, NC in the Summer of ‘21 and had him build me a custom electric guitar. My last couple of releases have been keyboard heavy and other than Bass, I hadn’t been playing a ton of guitar in recent times. Having had this lovely instrument hand-crafted, and walking through its construction steps with Jerry, I thought, “Well, I’d better make an all guitar album then...”

...so here it is.

NO KEYBOARDS OR SYNTHESIZERS WERE HARMED IN THE MAKING OF THIS ALBUM (though there’s plenty of fuzz boxes and assorted guitar pedals involved).

Somewhere around 1975 I cajoled my folks into letting me trade in my orchestral flute for an electric guitar. From there I started my first high school band with my mate Dave Blackburn... TWIN LLAMA BAND. With Dave on drums, Dudley Phillips on bass and me with my brand new Les Paul (copy!), we rocked living rooms, rehearsal spaces and small stages, dishing out a mix of originals and covers from the likes of Deep Purple and Free.

We weren’t very good, but we played loud and we played hard.

This album, in a manner of speaking, is a tribute to that band of 18 year old Rockers.

“Ticket on the Greyhound”, the opening track, is actually an original TLB song that I wrote in 1977. Originally called “Animal Magic”, the only existing version is a mono cassette recorded on one of those units about the size of an old answering machine. Performed at a house party, it’s awash with distortion and crowd noise, so the lyrics are completely indecipherable & probably weren't that great to start with. So I rewrote it based on one of my first experiences of coming to America.

In late 1981 my original US Visa was expiring, so I had to return to England to get it renewed. Upon re-entry I flew into San Francisco, then took a Greyhound Bus down to LA, then to San Diego to rejoin Dave & Michael McClure in our next musical adventure. Just a long, strange, exciting, frightening day on the road, but what it represented to me at that time still reverberates today.

I always knew what I wanted to do. Rock. I didn’t give a rip about school or academics, real work, business or trade skills: I just wanted that Les Paul (a REAL Gibson!) around my neck and some tape spinning in front of me. And for better or worse, it’s taken me on quite a magic carpet ride through time and space.

I couldn’t have done it alone. Dave & I met Michael at University in England in 1978 and it is he that’s largely responsible for my emigration to the United States... “You wanna come join a band?”

After “Greyhound” the rest of the songs are all new, written between Fall of ‘21 and Summer of ’22. It’s been a real pleasure getting back to my rock roots, though it wouldn’t be a ‘faunch’ album if it didn’t get a little wacky in places!

I guess you could say that it starts off as a Hard Rock album and then the edibles kick in...

While this record is partially a nod to the past & what might have been had I stayed the course as a ‘rock guitarist’, it also keeps an eye on the present and towards the future.

I still have Shit to do.

This surely does mark some of the travels on which this passion has taken me, but also I’ve still got a few miles to go and there’s nothing I find more exciting than writing and developing new ideas and creating new music. Stand by & thanks for listening...

Finally, this goes out to my wife Cathi. She didn’t always like the various musical paths I’ve traveled, but she would’ve dug this one. She was a Rocker at heart.

RIP Sweet & I wish you could hear it. Maybe somewhere behind the purple planet you can...

AF, Summer 2022