Sunday 17 September 2023

Hull and Leicester

 


Now the production process of my new album BREAK THE DARK is complete the masters have been delivered for manufacturing along with art work for the packaging. I’m actually relieved that my part in it is over along with any responsibility for the final stages. It’s been a very long process and has had some very intense times  I’ve loved making it and now it’s in the hands of Cherry Red / Esoteric who are well equipped to do it justice by way of promoting it properly. I feel very privileged to have signed to a major company. I think I deserve it but still it’s not usual at my age. 

So the record will be released on my birthday the 27th of October and the official launch date will be on the 11th of November at the DONKEY IN Leicester.I will be playing this show with my son Luke who will be playing his own set of beautiful songs.  

I will be playing WRECKING BALL ARTS in Hull on the 10th November. These will be the only dates I will play this year. If you can get to either date I can promise a night to remember  I will be playing some songs from the new album, some old songs and a couple of favourites.

Please check out developments at    https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550306140254

Peace


Wednesday 30 August 2023

BREAK THE DARK

                                                                  Photo Dave Randell 


Hi folks. It’s been a while. I hope you are coping as best you can in these strange times and under this ignominious government. 

As some of you will know I have a new album due for release on the 27th of October. It is called BREAK THE DARK. 

I began this work many years ago, when the Edgar Broughton band finally split up. I sent some instrumental tracks to Steve and Arthur in the hope that something would arise out of them. They were very different from the usual EBB offerings and my attempt at reinvention. Nothing really came of this, but the tracks remained on my computer and occasionally I worked on them. I was writing new songs simultaneously with this and for some months these occupied me completely and those original instrumental tracks were more or less forgotten. 

Occasionally I would play one of them and decide to work on it. I was surprised how easily the first few lines of lyrics or a chorus began to form itself in my mind, and in the pages of my notebooks. At the same time Covid was raging through the world and the UK and I was settling into a pseudo hermit like lifestyle. I didn’t go anywhere. I didn’t see anyone and all of my purchases were online with food and drink being delivered to my home. Although this had its restrictions, I was quite happy most of the time, to get out of my bed and begin to work with my music software where I had last left off. I became locked in to the music and the process of finally making serious strides towards the completion of a new album.

After sometime, I sent some songs to Arthur, my lifelong comrade and bass player. He liked what he heard and began to work on bass parts for the first couple of songs. The process was quite long but allowed for serious consideration of each part as it emerged. Unlike in the studio where money and time is always a consideration we could spend as long as we wanted and be as discerning as we liked about every single note that would eventually form the finished pieces.

Arthur would record his parts on his eight track digital recorder and send them to me so I could edit them and place them into my songs. We spoke on the phone many times during the whole process, but never met up in person. On Twitter, I asked if anyone knew of a cellist who would be willing to work with me. Someone suggested a young man called Calle Arngrip, who was based in Sweden and played cello and rock guitar. I sent him a song called Hymn and at his home he recorded some beautiful cello parts and sent them to me. We made four songs together and he also played guitar on a couple of tracks.  We’ve never met nor even spoken down the wires but did everything by email. Calle is now living in Scotland with his new wife, and I hope that in the New Year we will work together, in a new ensemble on tour, with my son Luke and a couple of other musicians. My son Luke and my good friend Dave Randell came by to record backing vocals.

Years ago, while working at Abbey Road, Studios on our first album a young man called John Leckie was the tape operator. It was one of his first duties in his new job. John later, worked on superchip with the Edgar Broughton band and so we have known him for a very long time. One day Arthur was speaking with him and mentioned that we were working together again. He asked if he could hear what we were doing. Arthur sent him a couple of MP3s. He liked them very much and offered to mix the new songs. John has been responsible for some of the greatest productions in contemporary music for several decades, including Radiohead, Muse, The Verve and many more. So this was a wonderful thing, and something very unexpected.

These new recordings have been a genuine labour of love, something I am very proud of.It’s taken a long time, but I am very pleased with the results. As I write this the final stage of mastering the songs is being undertaken and the graphics and artwork for the Cd case and booklet are also nearing completion.

I will be playing a few live gigs in November and will post them here very soon. There are a great deal of issues and thoughts I would like to post here and I will do so over the coming days but I wanted to touch base and announce the new album.

I am also on X / Twitter       edgar broughton@instantainicus


https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550306140254


More later. Be happy. Stay safe.


Edgar Broughton 

 



Saturday 26 December 2020

Find the quiet. Stay safe.

 


I wish I could be out in the world of water and wilderness. I am inside with my medicine drum, singing bowls and flute and a range of tech trickery that offers escape to the geography in my thoughts. I’ve sorted my fishing stuff to the point where after years and years I know where it all is. This is some achievement because I leave a rod and bits of gear in other peoples houses who tolerate this old fishing fool. 

It’s  good to be engaged and to not worry about the things I can’t change. I could think of myself as a prisoner of covid in my own home but I choose to be on a quest, taking a very belated “gap year”, albeit in a small physical space. I don’t have a garden so I tend to the flowers in my digital music recording system while hopefully, digging out the weeds. I’ve chosen to use the time to try to be more positive and creative because of covid. I don’t care what the politicians say I am living by my own rules of survival and have done so since this first began. The best way to win a fight is to not be there if you can’t choose your battlefield and stratagem. So I choose to not be there. I go no where at this time. That’s the down side or one of them. How ever Ive found these strange times can have all sorts of unexpected upsides that offer unique opportunities to invest time in new ways of seeing and doing things differently. 

I’m not going to comment on any of the machinations of our leaders or their minions. Now is not the time for me to add to the poisoned feast of things to worry or be depressed about. Today I’m not going to be concerned with the things beyond my control or capacity. The things “I can’t do any thing about” are in “ their box”. There are several “boxes” in my mind. One is “Things to worry about” but it has clear priority over other boxes so that I can act more easily on the things I must and can do some thing about. It’s quite simple until contents spill out and into other boxes. But if I practice managing the system regularly and don’t neglect the necessary rituals involved, then depression and anxiety are knocking at the wrong door. It’s not fool proof and I have to use a variety of acquired tools to make it work. Positive and absorbing distraction is a good friend. 

These are very difficult times for many of us and some of us are more affected by worry and depression than others. I don’t want to minimise this or claim there are easy solutions for all. How ever it was astonishing to me to find that I could have much more control over how I respond to a crisis be it small or large. 

It’s good to share and ask for help. I find I’m talking on the phone more these days sharing good and bad stuff with my friends and colleagues. We often find small ways to help and support each other. Men are getting better at this but in my experience, generally speaking women are still better at listening and offering reasoned, empathetic input. I’m always grateful for this. 

The issue of our mental well being could be said to be trending. It’s a good trend. As a result people might speak up and ask for help and guidance and we should be on the look out for them and also for those who might still suffer in silence. Let’s not be ruled by archaic norms and useless conventions. Time to look after ourselves and each other with ever more care. Time to get used to new thinking as the planet increasingly continues to sign post the changes we all need to make. 


Stay strong. Stay safe. 


Peace

Monday 25 May 2020

hunker in my bunker

I hope you are all well and coping with the times we find ourselves in. I have listened to the government fools who continue to disappoint with errors of judgement compounded by their lies. I have decided to ignore their confusing offerings and hunker in my bunker. I will have no contact with my fellows or ever be outside when they are. I will hope that my reclusive life style will not deprive any one and that when there is a vaccine we can all get together to discuss the plan of action to over turn the values of the old brigade on a massive scale. 

We can surely see the damage caused to the very fabric of all that serves and protects us by government's economically driven obsessions and their evil off spring Austerity. This dishonourable and deceitful government has still not fixed the tower blocks at risk from fire and yet there are millions available to fight cover 19. It simple isn't it? The virus kills freaks like Jacob Rees Mogg as well as poor people and Cummings doesn't live in a tower block. Its not entirely their fault. The national aspirations and objectives are poor and mistaken and the culture of Westminster is toxic. It doesn't work any more.  

I thought that the polarisation and subsequent resentments caused by Brexit would be the big one and similar, in some respects, to the rifts caused by the miners strike. I was wrong the significant polarisation and rift might well be between people who participate in getting rid of this unworkable political structure of ours and those who continue to simply ask, "well what can you do"?
If you can't march you can sign the petitions that are rocking the whole of Westminster. Hundreds of thousands of people are signing dozens of petitions that high light the tragedy of errors that this government has wrought on us. I remember the first 38 degrees petition that really worked. It was very early in their illustrious history The petition was aimed at preventing the Tories from selling our forests to speculators from over seas. This would have denied access to the UK public in almost all of the forest land that we can still enjoy. The petition garnered thousands of signatures in days. The government backed down and completely abandoned the planned sell off. It works so please join in.

I have decided that during this period of lock down I am going to learn some new things. I have done a four part email course around yoking, the Sami vocalising. Its some thing I love. 
After dabbling for some time I have been learning to cook authentic Japanese food with the help of NHK tv and great on line food suppliers.


pork ramen with pickled celery, spring onion, 
wakame sea weed and soft boiled egg

I have bought a Native American styled A chant flute. It has two air chambers side by side at the mouth end. One is a continuous drone and the other side of the flute is for melody. It was made by a guy in Wales who makes all kinds of flutes and shamanic drums. I thought it would be very nice to play the flute during a quiet fishing spell where a fast Norwegian salmon river is running rapidly, through a forested ravine. I dream.

I have also bought a new drum and a beater / shaker. Good medicine. Good vibes. Out demons out. 
I'm knocking it out on Thursday for NHS and front line workers. The snake beaters are made by a guy in Ukraine. His work is very special. He also makes drums. I'm talking to some folk in Hungary who make beautiful sounding framed shamanic drums with a very special feature. They are tuneable with a small bicycle pump. I want one.
Ok these are tools of my trade but do I need them? Actually I think, with the exception of the snake beaters, indulgent and possibly an heirloom, I think I do need them. I have a plan. I also think there is merit and some personal satisfaction from buying functional art from the maker, especially right now.


drum with beater shaker


snake beater and shaker

So that's me for now. Got to get back to the recording. Its going especially well and I have lots of time to experiment and finish and re mix stuff to my hearts content. I work when I want to at any hour of day or night. Considering what is going on out there Im managing quite well in here and thankful for each day. Stay safe.

peace






Wednesday 1 April 2020

the silent enemy

Here I am self isolating in London the epicentre of covid 19 in the UK. I haven't been posting here for some time and to be honest I have enjoyed the break. I have been writing and recording my new opus and it creeps ever nearer towards completion.

Like most of us I have lots to say about this strange time we are living in. This lack lustre leadership has shown their contempt for us through the whole of their enforced austerity. If a small percentage of the money being spent now had been allocated to the welfare system and the NHS, we would be infinitely better off than we are today. We were told there was no money tree by Cameron and May so where are the billions needed now coming from? People might be forgiven for thinking that as soon as it was clear that the pandemic could and would infect the rich then billions could be found to fight it. Remember how Jeremy Corbyn's manifesto was reviled by the Tories as ridiculously expensive. If it had been actualised ten or more years ago we would not be in this mess of low capacity. Corbyn's manifesto was a drop in the ocean compared to the cost of fighting covid 19.

Some time ago the government was subjected to a test to see how a pandemic would be dealt with. It failed miserably and according to an ex Tory MP no steps were taken to address the issues high lighted by the test. Of course the most damning indicator is the lack of protection for NHS staff. A week ago the govt promised a heightened level of tests for NHS staff. The test kits are still unavailable. Yesterday the govt spokes person declared that testing kits were dependent on chemicals in scare supply. Today several companies have said that they have plenty of the chemicals required.

The UK Department of health wanted the UK to stay in The EU Early Warning and Response System to combat pandemics. No 10 has refused to stay signed up because they don't want this to impact on a clean break from the European Union.  

There is the possibility that farm produce will be difficult to buy if crops of vegetables and fruit cannot be harvested. Most of the Europeans that picked our food for us have gone home and most will not return. Many will not be allowed to return. So are all the Brexiteers who "wanted their country back" and the cessation of free movement of people, willing to get stuck in on the farm? 

Visas of foreign NHS staff, that are about to expire, will be automatically renewed. I guess even the Brexiteers don't want to die through lack of NHS staff so principals can be suspended, due to self interest, when it suits. Of course such consideration did not apply to the Wind rush victims of the government’s so called Hostile Environment policy. 

So we can all see the lack of transparency from our English government. The Scots seem to have a much clearer, honest way of communicating with out much back tracking. A more European attitude perhaps. I believe we should all be wary of the new powers that govt have afforded themselves. I fear that increased authoritarianism might undermine our basic rights still further. The Tories have stealthily whittled away many employment and civic rights long before this emergency. 

So what is good today? Still we are here. We love and breathe.
My local shop keeper has offered to deliver food for no extra charge. He even offered to keep a tab until I had cash. I’m not keen to visit an ATM yet. There is plenty of this unsolicited good will pouring out of people but there will always be a percentage of folk who are destructive and dangerous. They are ignorant and damaged and life has made them selfish and greedy or needy depending on how charitable you feel towards them. No amount of pleas to get in line, to save lives, will register with them enough for them to change course. At the same time the best of folk are working day and night to save our lives at great risk to them selves.

I hope there will be a great deal of new thinking after this. Some of us will be reluctant to spend money with the countless profiteers who see this as a commercial opportunity. I hope it is the end for companies such as Sports Direct, JD Sports and Witherspoons who only changed step when they were embarrassed into it. We don't really need what they sell. 

Actually this applies to much of the stuff in High St Stores. It isn't just the online competition hitting sales but I think it is also an underlying but growing lack of desire for what is on offer. In the same chain of shops in any town you can buy exactly the same offerings. A  great deal of the crap on sale is extremely detrimental to the health of the planet. Most of the shops will soon be flogging 5G phones. 5G technology and High definition streaming is adding to the carbon foot print of the world in a massive way. Apparently streaming produces the same carbon foot print as all air travel. So we have to make choices and this crisis across the world might focus all of us to choose more carefully and more safely in the future. 

NASA have announced that their satellites can film the earth more clearly than for thirty years. Can we halve air travel at a stroke when things return to a new normal born of a new reality? Do we need to drive a car so far, so often and with no passengers? Can we better care for our poorest and most vulnerable? We stand together now so can we stand together for a more meaningful and worth while existence for every one? We need to restore public services to a workable level and re evaluate who are the most important members in society. If we are to pay the top money to the best of us then who should get it? After this is all over I think many of us will have new ideas about that and the way this free market world has let us all down. 

With time to think I hope we might all challenge our own ideas about what is our status quo. I hope we can find new ways to be more effective with out doing so much damage to the possibility of a future for the youngest of us. I hope we can find some new happiness in the new reality forced upon us by the silent enemy and that our personal victories will encourage and sustain us towards a better place for every one.


Be safe.

Tuesday 26 November 2019

A righteous mission


Down the years the Edgar Broughton Band was always up for a benefit gig in a good cause.Nothing has changed and as you can see my son Luke is deeply in the mix with this one. I know he has worked very hard to make this work along side special folk who really care what happens next and what happens next to the people most in need of our help and support.
I will be the oldest performer at this gig, the youngest a fourteen year old young man. I feel honoured and proud to be involved and thankful, knowing that I can still support and physically contribute to some thing righteous. Enough said for now.

The links below will give you all of the info you need. Please come along and join with all of us on what I feel sure will be a very special and unique occasion. 

Event Page https://www.facebook.com/events/1218059158381604/

https://www.lesolidarity.co.uk/

https://www.after18.org.uk/

BUY TICKETS   https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4333706?fbclid=f



Break the dark

What have we done
to the children?
Why do some of them run?
from 
the light
can break the dark

Trees all shattered and white
In the ashes of  things
we  never needed
no one goes home tonight
the rain keeps coming
like we deserve it
I close my eyes I can see
The all fall down and the left behind
Those in gravest jeopardy
The all fall down for miles and miles

What have we done
to the children?
Why do some of them run?
from
The light
can break the dark
Some one to hold
to be held by
take you gently by the arm
When you’re hanging on by finger tips
a kindly word
can break the dark

Flags lie tattered and torn
In the of middle dreams
turned into nightmare
The seas are sick and tired
Shock waves coming
No where to hide
I close my eyes I can see
all will fail when few succeed
wont be enough to buy some time
The all fall down for miles and miles
Those in gravest jeopardy
The all fall down and the left behind
The all fall down for miles and miles

What have we done?



peace