January 1, 2018
Happy New Year and thanks to everyone who’s supported my music over the past 12 months.
2017 was a great year for Lost In The Ghost Light which gained the most reviews and sales of any of my work outside of no-man. The album’s artwork winning a Prog Award and live performances at the Marillion Weekend, IB Expo and Birmingham’s Blue Orange Theatre were also memorable and enjoyable experiences during the year.
Amongst other things, I have two albums prepared for 2018 release and some festival dates arranged (tba).
In some ways, the Plenty album – called It Could Be Home – is a debut release 30 years after the event. Despite this, it’s been a fresh and exciting project to work on and the end result is extremely satisfying and uplifting. The band has been writing songs since the album was completed, so hopefully a follow-up will take less than 30 years to finish! It Could Be Home will be released on Norwegian label Karisma in late March.
The Tim Bowness/Peter Chilvers album has recently been mixed by the wonderful Mr Peter Hammill and is certainly a step beyond California, Norfolk: Intimate, bleak and, hopefully, beautiful in places. Release date and label tba.
Outside of this, I’ve been rehearsing with the superb bassist James Eller (The The / Julian Cope) and the talented Toby Marks (Banco De Gaia). We’ve been writing music spontaneously and may decide to release some of the results in the future.
Here’s hoping that the frequently discussed new no-man album is also a possibility for the year ahead.
Some releases I liked in 2017 (in alphabetical order):
Big Big Train – Grimspound
Benjamin Clementine – I Tell A Fly
Ray Davies – Americana
Mark Eitzel – Hey, Mr Ferryman
Elbow – Little Fictions
Father John Misty – Pure Comedy
Samuel Hallkvist – Variety Of Rhythm
Peter Hammill – From The Trees
The Horrors – V
Morrissey – Low In High School
Randy Newman – Dark Matter
Max Richter – Three Worlds: Music From Woolf Works
Sparks – Hippopatamus
Thundercat – Drunk
The War on Drugs – A Deeper Understanding
Roger Waters – Is This The Life We Really Want?
Devon Welsh – Down The Mountain
Steven Wilson – To The Bone
The magnificent 50th Anniversary Sgt Peppers reissue also deserves a mention and it was great to see A Certain Ratio’s excellent back catalogue getting re-promoted on the Mute label.