- Busking on a Student Grant Cheque
- Getting Known in London
- Rehearsing and Recording
- Releasing the Albums
- The Future
My Track By Track Review of Greg Rose
My Track By Track Review of St. Cecilia
Reviews and other external links
Review of 'Greg Rose' from the Acoustic London web siteReview of 'St. Cecilia' from the Acoustic London web site
'Greg's Acoustic Trip' - a Poem by Jonathan Whittle
Get in touch/ order the albums
Contact Details - How to Obtain Greg Rose and St. Cecilia
Text by Greg Rose. Page by Teal Ray
Teal Ray is the name used to mark online projects initiated by James Gahan.
Introduction
When James very kindly asked me to contribute to his excellent web site, I was initially unsure as to how I wanted to undertake this project. I knew I wanted to do something different to the standard promotional sites of most recording artists and soon it occurred to me that this seemed the right opportunity and the right time to write and recall my own musical history for the first time. This has brought back many (mostly good) memories and has been thought-provoking, therapeutic and ultimately, very rewarding. I hope that you find it interesting and humorous in places.
The main feature of this site is my musical history. I have put this into bite-sized sections in true internet fashion but would prefer people to read it as a whole piece. This site also includes my track-by-track review of both my own album and St. Cecilia, the album I recorded with the Dead Parrots Society. Also included are links to the reviews of both albums on the Acoustic London web site, a poem by Jonathan Whittle and details of how to obtain the albums and make contact.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank James Gahan for asking me to contribute to his site and for giving me the impetus to reflect on my musical and personal development.
Greg Rose
Teal's comment.
Greg has played a lot around the London folk club set: the majority of his live performances being solo, acoustic. The music is quality- direct and urgemt: the lyrics drawn from his experience or occasionally ( Busking by the Riverside ) his whimsy. There is no such thing as an uncommited Greg Rose performance, if he was seen busking on a street corner in Liverpool to raise money for University Rag in 1987, or doing one number when he ws starting out at Bunjees Resturaunt in the early nineties, the focus on playing the songs from the heart and keeping the performance tight was always there.Greg Rose - A Musical History
Early Years
I was born in 1967 in Staffordshire and grew up in various villages around Stafford. Staffordshire is in an area of England called the Midlands and is slightly nearer to Birmingham than it is to Manchester.I first 'got into' music in my early teens and, like most people of similar age from small towns or rural England, I was a teenage heavy metal fan. This lasted until I was about 16 when I started buying albums by The Jam, Squeeze and the emerging U2. At about the same time, I started to borrow my sister's acoustic guitar and gradually taught myself to play - it took a few months before I could fluently change from a G to a C chord but, once this barrier had been overcome, other chords and rhythms came easier.
I can't think of a single incident which prompted me to pick up the guitar but I do know in hindsight why I started to write songs. Like many songwriters, I had feelings and inner conflicts which I couldn't express in speech so I (often unconsciously) wrote songs about them. The first song I wrote was 'Wrong Policy' in 1985.
A big personal and musical influence at this stage was Michael Cooke, an already long-standing school friend and the only other serious acoustic guitarist in the sixth form. My first ever live performance was supporting Cookey and James Wheatcroft (collectively known as The Banned Wagon) at their 'farewell gig' in Michael's parents living room in September 1986. This was in front of a dozen school friends and I still have a tape of this very nervous, much-heckled debut performance.
Busking on a Student Grant Cheque
This was a 'farewell gig' of sorts as we were all off to University. I got a place through the clearing system to study Information Studies/Librarianship, Economics and Statistics at Aberystwyth in Wales. There weren't many men on the Librarianship course but fortunately two of them, Dylan Evans and Patrick Callaghan, were also musicians of sorts. I regularly jammed with both of them and soon built up an act with Patrick.The mid to late 1980s was not a good time for new bands and, like many music fans of my age, I spent much of the time discovering the music of the past. Patrick and I built up an act where he would sing songs chiefly by The Beatles, The Kinks and Simon & Garfunkel and I would accompany him on acoustic guitar and occasional backing vocals. We had good fun busking in several towns for our college's rag (charity) during the first year of our degree. This tailed off in the second year as Patrick got engaged and realised that his classically-trained voice wasn't really suited to rock and roll. I'm pleased to hear though that he is still singing for a Madrigal choir.
My friendship with Dylan was and is much deeper and he has continued to be a big musical and personal influence. He is one of two people without whose encouragement I would never have recorded my own CD.
My 'Three Years' in Aberystwyth were very important ones in my personal and musical development. Two of the songs which I wrote there are on my CD and another two from the album are directly inspired by my college years.
Getting Known in London
1990 and, after the rural idyll of Aberystwyth, I find myself quite lonely and in a job I hate in London. Not a good time for my well-being but a very good time for writing songs. Alcohol, Love On A Student Grant Cheque, To Be Seen With Anybody and All The Right Keys all come from this period. The latter song includes lyrics by Mike Eveleigh, another college friend, songwriter and Beatles fanatic with whom I have written a handful of tunes.In 1991, Dylan moves to London and we share a flat. He notices that I'm rather stuck in a rut musically and socially and puts pressure on me to get out, meet people and express myself. My first live performance in London (apart from a spot of busking when I was briefly unemployed) was at Stratford Folk Club in June 1991. Stratford was a good outlet for gaining confidence in playing live to an attentive, artistic audience and was also useful in gauging which songs or combinations of songs 'worked' live and which ones didn't. Some of the 'folkies' at the club weren't' terribly warm to me but the regulars with more broad-minded tastes were supportive. Especially supportive was Chris Roughan, a fellow songwriter and lasting friend without whom I would never have recorded my own CD.
From playing regularly at Stratford, I soon found out about other more acoustic rather than folk-based clubs in London and, by early 1992, I was a rather nervous regular at clubs such as Bunjies and Ructions. Acoustic music was going through a fashionable period with the success of the MTV 'Unplugged' series and the brilliant Out of Time and Automatic for the People albums by REM and there did seem to be quite a 'buzz' around the acoustic scene in London with lots of new young artists and acts emerging who paid very little homage to traditional folk music. I too was caught up in the scene and was going for success to the point of feeling guilty if I wasn't out performing live. This drive for success lasted about six months and, by the time the probably inevitable disillusionment set in, I was known and established on the scene and had made booked appearances in most of the clubs.
Although this was an important period in my artistic development, it was a terrible time in my personal life. A failed relationship and the ensuing terrible situation at work led to a reliance on sleeping pills and near-breakdown. The resulting self-analysis and therapy helped inspire From Bullied to Bully - probably one of my most important songs.
Rehearsing and Recording
Recovery and a new start at work led to a much happier state of mind by the autumn of 1992. Furthermore, Chris Roughan had given me a tape of his unaccompanied songs and asked me to try to arrange them. This was the first step towards what eventually became the second Dead Parrots Society album. The first album Music of a Bygone Age, had just been released on vinyl only - it eventually became something of a cult classic among collectors of psychedelic folk-rock in Europe. For the second album, Chris was looking for a sound truer to himself - a more personal songwriter-based interpretation of his songs rather than the zany, group-based folk-rock of the Music of a Bygone Age. The songs he submitted to me lent themselves well to this direction and, as I continued to play his tape, the ideas gradually came.When I think of 1993 I mostly think of happy memories - playing live regularly but not fanatically and Chris coming round every couple of weeks to listen and comment on my latest four-track arrangement of one of his songs. I also had my first studio experience when I went on holiday to North Cyprus to visit Dylan in his new home. He arranged for me to spend an evening in the local studio where we recorded the version of Will You Remember which is on my CD. My second studio experience was in the autumn of 1993 when, after much re-arranging, key-changing and constructive discussion, Chris and I entered Rocking Horse Studios in East London to start recording the Dead Parrots Society album.
Over the next few months, Chris and I went to the studio about once a month, meeting up regularly to review our recordings and try further arrangements between sessions. During this period, I also started to meet up and work with Sam G., another songwriter from the London acoustic scene who I came to know principally via my friendship to Sam's former flatmate, Jan Johns. Sam played the violin and we started working together with a view to her playing on Chris' heroic song Dead Poets Society. As time went by, however, Sam's input increased and, as well as the violin part, she also sang backing vocals on several songs on both the Dead Parrots Society album and my own CD.
Gratified and inspired by my ability to arrange Chris' songs and the studio experiences, I started to formulate plans to record my own album by the spring of 1994. I made my first independent visit to Rocking Horse Studios in the autumn of that year and, over the next year, went about once a month to record my own album and add the occasional part to the Dead Parrots Society LP which was somewhat on the backburner whilst Chris settled into his new house and got married.
Unlike the Dead Parrots Society album, I had several friends and guest musicians on my LP. These included Sam on backing vocals, Richard Bellinger on bongos and the Bedford Rhythm Section of Jon Whittle and Nigel Brittain on two tracks. Our day out to the studio to record All The Right Keys is immortalised in Jon's poem Greg's Acoustic trip.
1995 was probably the busiest and most draining year of my life with me recording and arranging two albums, listening back to assess my recordings and demos, arranging rehearsals with the other musicians... and holding down a full time job. I finally finished recording the album in the autumn of 1995 but, for any self-funded album, this is merely the end of one stage rather than the end of the whole project. Following the recording stage, there are the equally draining mixing, mastering, processing and sorting out the art work stages. After overcoming several problems, especially in the last of these stages, I was very happy and relieved to finally receive delivery of 500 CDs and cassettes of my album in April 1996. To commemorate this achievement, I organised a launch party gig which was attended by most of those who had helped me along the way.
Releasing the Albums
The release of my album was the culmination of my musical career to that date. My emotions on achieving this aim were a slightly strange mixture of happiness, fulfilment, relief and a sense of finally having got something out of my system. All the hard work was definitely worth it in the end.By the late summer of 1996, however, I was back in the studio with Chris tying up the loose ends in the recording of the Dead Parrots Society album. Overall, the DPS album was less stressful and more enjoyable to make than my own LP. This was chiefly because there were two of us involved and it 'wasn't my baby' - my musical arrangements reflected my interpretation of Chris' feelings and intentions when writing a song rather than directly reflecting my own feelings.
Over the winter of 1996, Chris and I mixed and processed the DPS album, St. Cecilia, which was released in vinyl only format in the spring of 1997. The choice of format stems from the main purchasers of the previous DPS album being vinyl collectors in Europe. Orders have come in steadily and, at the time of writing (July 1998), over 200 copies of St. Cecilia have been purchased.
The Future
Since the release of St. Cecilia, I have been playing live reasonably regularly but have no plans at present to resume my recording career. I enjoyed arranging the Dead Parrots Society album and hope to work with Chris again at some point in the future. Chris is quite a prolific writer and has plenty of good, unreleased songs whereas I am a lot less prolific and feel that it may be quite a while before a second Greg Rose LP is in the pipeline. You, however, can help inspire our creative juices by showing appreciation and ordering our albums as detailed below...
Albums.
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Greg Rose: the albumTrack Listing: Love On A Student Grant Cheque/ From Bullied To Bully/ All The Right Keys/ Jenny Sleeping/ Paranoid Girl/ Busking By The Riverside/ This Time...Next Time/ Will You Remember/ Waiting For The Light/ Alcohol/ Three Years |
My Track By Track Review Of Greg Rose
Love On A Student Grant Cheque - Humorous, anti-materialistic folk-rock
From Bullied To Bully - Pleased with my guitar playing and the important message - I may have never got to know Jan and Sam if I hadn't written this song.
All The Right Keys - Positive folk-rock with words by Mike Eveleigh and excellent backing by the Bedford Rhythm Section.
Jenny Sleeping - My lighter version of Chris's song - his vocal is on the St. Cecilia version. This is the only song by Chris which, in my opinion, suits my vocal style more than his - why not buy both albums and judge for yourself!
Paranoid Girl - An epic of three songs in one about the feeling of helplessness as someone is crying in front of my eyes. Excellent backing vocals by Sam.
Busking By The Riverside - A whimsical end to side one inspired by regular trips to Camden Market when I first moved to London.
This Time...Next Time - Probably my saddest song though I'm very pleased with the arrangement which people tell me sounds like Joy Division.
Will You Remember - The definitive version recorded in North Cyprus in 1993. Please read the lyrics rather than listen to them...
Waiting For The Light - A love song of deceptive depth - I've never told anyone who this was written for although I imagine that some people have guessed. Excellent backing by Jon and Nigel - their contribution to the arrangement warranted and should have produced a co-writers' credit.
Alcohol - Usually introduced live as a series of observations. An element of trip-hop in what is easily my most remixable song.
Three Years - A touching but hopefully not over-sentimental reflection of times passed. Written with Dylan, Bin and James, the author of this Web site, particularly in mind.
The Dead Parrots Society: St. Cecilia
| The Dead Parrots are Chris Roughan, Greg Rose and Sam G. The album St.Cecila is in large part the outpouring of Chris Roughan's vocal songs, given further musical dimension by Greg's arrangements.
Track Listing: Dead Poets Society/ Painter Of Deams/ To Be Seen With Anybody/ Praphai/ Angel With A Number/ Paranoid Girl/ Amsterdam/ Child/ Jenny Sleeping/ Part Of Loving/ Buterfly. |
My Track By Track Review Of St. Cecilia
Dead Poets Society - Driving folk-rock and heroic lyrics which epitomise the ideals and spirit behind the Dead Parrots Society project.Painter Of Dreams - A more reflective song about liberating the creative spirit. Inspired by the cover artist.
To Be Seen With Anybody - The first of my two songs on St. Cecilia. A true story with a lyric which still feel relevant to me now. I had a lot of trouble finding the right keys for this song - the effort was definitely worth it.
Praphai - The first of two haunting, beautiful, political songs inspired by Chris' experiences and observations of the position of many women in Eastern society.
Angel With A Number - The equally beautiful companion piece to Praphai. One of my absolute favourites - I'm particularly pleased with my guitar playing and the overall arrangement.
Paranoid Girl - A remastered version of the song which also appears on the Greg Rose CD.
Amsterdam - A clever, witty little song - the closest thing on St. Cecilia to acoustic pop.
Child - Quintessentially English with a strong arrangement. A song which epitomises the album - Chris and I both thought that it would make the best representative single.
Jenny Sleeping - Chris' more melancholic original version of the song covered by me on Greg Rose.
Part Of Loving - The gradually building romantic epic from the second half of St. Cecilia.
Butterfly - A pretty, Dylanesque put-down to complete the album which shows among other things that we're not always so nice!
How to Obtain Greg Rose and St. Cecilia
Greg Rose is available on CD, price £8.00, and cassette, price £6.00 (both including postage and packaging) from Gred and St. Cecelia from Chris
e-mail: Current contact details: Teal will get back to you with contact addresses(2006)
11:15 PM 8/14/98 by Teal Ray. Background courtesy of: Ace of Sp ace .
DISCLAIMER: This site is in no way commercially associated with Greg Rose or the Dead Parrot's Society.The above prices are now very old and issued for guidance only.
Also enquiries as to current gigs would be best directed to the links given for sales.
Thanks for the definitive autobiographyand track-by-track comments are owed to Greg himself.
Some lyrics may follow here soon: until then I will go out with my credits:
Original Art from the record covers by Nicole Rose (Greg Rose) and John Melhuish Strudwick (Dead Parrots).. All opinions expressed herein are those of Greg Rose, transmitted unreliably by Teal.
Page Design: Teal Ray...
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