After three albums since 2020, and with Colin and Andy now both over 70 (“surely not!” I hear you cry) how much longer can we carry on? Certainly Bern has no difficulty coming up with new material. It’s now a year since we last played a gig but we’ve been in and out of the studio, trying out new songs. If we decide to do so, we could probably put out two albums next year.
Despite only one of us having a full-time job, it is amazing how busy retired gentlefolk can be. Most of us have grandchildren; Colin has a 95-year-old mother. Priorities change over the years and physical strength and stamina do wane – though Andrew seems to have the constitution of a yeti.
The main factor, as always, is motivation. Motivation and momentum. Would you rather spend a week in Alicante or in a rehearsal studio in Cumnor? Of course it can be both, but getting four or five people in the same place at the same time when we’re strewn over southern England has been difficult. Nevertheless, we have half a dozen songs which are not far off being finished, with more at an earlier stage of development.
Glasshouse Studios, November 2024
Bernard, an Essex man by birth, has returned to his roots with a suite of songs that celebrate the attractions, or not, of Manningtree, Chelmsford, Tollesbury, Southend.. and even Frinton. Those iconic locations are the hooks on which he hangs his stories. The emotional turmoil of adolescence: desire, fear, ambition and utter confusion. Some things don’t diminish with age! But that’s only one aspect of what we are doing now. There are other songs, some gentle, others full-on.
The satisfaction that comes from being in a team trying to create something new, to the best of its ability, is immense. It’s a pleasure we would never want to forgo.
My first guitar was a nasty, cheap acoustic with steel strings and an action higher than a guillotine. My parents had clearly bought it with the object of putting me off. Despite it cutting my finger tips to shreds, I remained intent on becoming a rock star.
In 1973, for my 18th birthday, they generously bought me my first respectable guitar: a cream-white Hohner Telecaster copy, made in Japan. Dad made a huge speaker cabinet out of chipboard (3′ x 3′ x 1′), which I covered with blackboard paint. I borrowed the amp from my stereo; it would emit smoke after a while because it was attempting to drive a 15″ speaker.
It was a well-made guitar, but I sold it in 1974 shortly after going to university, because at the end of my first term I bought a black Antoria Les Paul Custom, made by Fuji Gengakki Seizō, from my neighbour. I stuck with it for six or seven years, from band to band, and was playing it when I joined One for the Wall.
The Antoria Les Paul at the Marquee Club
At around the same time as I acquired the Antoria, I went over to Rushworth’s in Liverpool and bought a Japanese-made Fender F-55 12-string acoustic, which I still have, though I never play it. This is another guitar, with a pick-up in the sound-hole, that I used in OftW’s early days.
With the Fender 12-string in 1979: Jo, me and Paul
Probably under the influence of Fairport Convention, I bought a mandolin (which my Dad insisted on calling a lute). I managed to learn two folk tunes. Eventually I gave it away.
I was living in northern Spain from October 1975 to June 1976. I managed to hold out without an axe until January, when I bought a nice Suzuki jumbo acoustic. I tried to sell it when I left, eventually leaving it with an acquaintance and never receiving any cash in exchange.
In 1980 I was awarded a lucrative academic scholarship, most of which I blew on a Shergold Custom Double, a sexy black double-neck made in England. (It was John McLaughlin rather than Jimmy Page who turned my head.) It is extremely heavy and awkward to hold but plays well and sounds great. I still have it, and recorded with it recently. (I reluctantly sold the Antoria for what I paid for it.)
Bob James, ex-Skin Alley, tries out my Shergold in France
After I started playing again in the 90s I bought an Applause AE-128 (i.e. a made-in-Korea Ovation) which, again, I still have and occasionally record with, even if it’s slightly warped (no comment necessary).
Bern with white Strat, me with black Tele
I have always had a love of Telecasters. When the band reformed I accepted that I wasn’t strong enough to haul the Shergold around, so I bought a black Fender Telecaster 72 Custom (made in Mexico). Naturally I had to have a new acoustic 12-string (a black Faith, made God knows where).
Studio recording with the Faith
Now I was all set. But then a Chinese-manufactured Epiphone ES-339 caught my eye… a birthday present from myself, if nominally from The Wife. You always need a back-up (guitar that it), and it’s a hollow-bodied electric, which is completely different. Soon after that, I bought a Yamaha 6-string acoustic, just to have around.
Surely that’s enough guitars?
One ukulele led to another, then I felt an inexplicable and unjustifiable urge to own a hand-made guitar: a Flame, made in Sutton. I feel rather ashamed of myself.
Flame F2
The question: “have you nothing better to spend your money on?” may well be posed at this juncture. My answer being: “no, not really”. “But when will it all end?” I hear you cry. Surely eight (I’ve lost count) is enough? Sadly, it probably is… but only because arthritis has kicked in.
I ought to sell the Shergold, but I quite can’t get round to it. So there it sits, behind a bookcase in the bedroom, a piece of British guitar history. And part of mine.
After the Difficult Second Album, the Critically Acclaimed Third? We live in hope.
Launched at our Oxford gig on 1 March 2024, it’s entitled Memoryland. Once again, just a measly £10 UK, including postage. Just go to the Contact page and send us a message. You will hear back from us within 24 hours telling you how to obtain it. You can pay by PayPal, cheque (retro), cash (super-retro) or bank transfer.
Bernard Hanaway’s collage artwork for Memoryland
Feedback from listeners
“As always we were impressed with the new One for the Wall CD. Me as a country picker (three chords and one minor chord on Sundays) cannot comprehend how anyone can come up with such complicated melodies and arrangements. Impressive to say the least.”
“Wasting Our Time – Good tune, interesting lyrics. Sussex Garden – Strong melody, typically unpredictable progressions. Funny Afternoon – Different feel – brush drums feel jazzy. This is a really good song! The Consolation of The Stars – Maybe the best song on the album. Great vocal. Who Will Remember Us? – Unusual and atmospheric. Not a bad song to close the album.”
“Nice lead guitar work – particularly on I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon, Weird, Sussex Garden, The Stories and The Songs. I like the sax on the first song. More synthesiser additions than I’ve noticed on previous albums. Good enhancements to the overall sound. I keep noticing wry, insightful, and touching lyrics gleaned from looking at life when closer to the end than the beginning.”
“Favourite song: Funny Afternoon – I like mood/tone, balance of vocals/instrumentals (less frantic), modulation (‘nowhere feels like home’) – we understand musically how we’ve got there.”
“I have been enjoying listening to your CDs. It is great being able to read the words while listening to the songs. I think if I had to categorise your music I would say it is English Romanticism. My favourites are I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon and Weird. I hope your music can be heard by a wide audience. It certainly deserves it.”
Our own review notes
1. I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon
A gentle and reflective opening builds to a self-indulgent sax and guitar led coda à la Fleetwood Mac. Catchy, with relatively few chords.
2. Happy Planet
And who would not concur with the sentiment that there must be a better planet out there than this one… wherever and whenever it may be? A hint of Indy Brit Pop in the ensemble playing.
3. The Loneliest Heart
Teenage Love Song no. 1: unconsummated (needless to say.) Misty-eyed and nostalgic, even for this gang of pensioners.
4. Memoryland
The Fab Four having been name-checked in TLH, The Turtles now get a look-in. A tear-jerker that ends on a sombre tritone: Diabolus in Musica.
5. Weird
It definitely is. But we should be used to that by now.
6. Sussex Garden
A Laurel Canyon love-in. As for those original posh hippies, the Bloomsburys, does the art justify the crime? It certainly does not.
7. Monkeys in My Veins
Teenage Love Song no. 2: consummation is no longer out of the question. I want to hold your… whatever’s on offer. NB This is not about the intravenous drug-taking, see above.
8. Funny Afternoon
A sparse and fragile performance. Only the punters are laughing in this smoky night-club chanson.
9. The Stories and The Songs
Unexpected foray into 1970s hard rock, with Chris and Colin, in particular, giving it some welly.
10. The Consolation of The Stars
Jo, in androgynous mezzo mode, tells a tale of teenage triumph over geekiness.
11. Wasting Our Time
All too true, but whatever… The band swing and bounce along in their wistful dotage.
12. Who Will Remember Us?
“We’re all doomed, Captain Mainwaring”. Send them on their away feeling suicidal.
The Difficult Second Album proved not to be so difficult after all. We have got used to getting together every couple of months at best, and we took to Covid lockdown rather well. Lots of emailing bits of music back and forth until we found arrangements we were happy with. Issuing a second CD less than two years after the first may not sound like a massive achievement to you but it does to us.
Released on 3 October 2022, it’s entitled Scent of the Moon. A measly £10 UK, including postage. Just go to the Contact page and send a message. You will hear back from us within 24 hours. You can pay by PayPal, cheque (retro), cash (super-retro) or bank transfer.
Bernard Hanaway’s collage artwork for Scent of the Moon
Feedback from listeners
“I’ve been listening to Scent of the Moon a lot and I’m enjoying it very much. Music and lyrics are all of a piece, and if anything I find it even more compelling than The Lover’s Song.“
“Love the use of minor chords, and what a voice she has! Might be fanciful but in places I detect sounds of times past, and love it. A genuine pleasure.“
“Major themes: time, friendship, nostalgia and regrets. Keep You Near: typically sinuous harmonies (‘I lose direction…’) and thoughtful words. A good opener. Move the Air: Clever lyrics and cool Spitfire effects. I love the switch from ‘What did you do in the war, Dad?’ to ‘What did your Dad do in the war?’ I really like this song. Broadleaf Summer: One of several songs on the album that captures a moment frozen in time, tinged with regret. A pine cone winter fell – what a nice line! Great nightingale – did I detect a French accent? I Dream of Flight: I like the fairground soundscape. Shades of Mr Kite, in places. Great lyrics. Time Enough to Tell: This works well. A moment of joy captured. Continues, along with the next track, the theme of friendship on the album. Friends: I detect a touch of the ‘Sandy Dennys’ in this one, and a bit of a Fairport jam at the end. Thoughtful lyrics about friendship and ageing. One of the strongest songs.”
“I’ve listened to the CD a few times now, and it’s not been easy to rank them. But I put it on again last night while cooking dinner, and was drawn in particular to I Dream of Flight. Partly because of the interesting use of birdsong at the start, and partly because in this household dreaming of flight is very much the daily theme! Next in preference is Ashby-de-la Zouch. Love the rhythm and vocals on this one. Lifts the spirits. The warm and laid-back Friends appeals too. A good follow up to the previous track, Time Enough to Tell, since it continues the gentle pace, but lightens the tone.“
“My favourite track is I Dream of Flight. But I think the best song is the title track – simple and touching. It succeeds at generalising the particular and particularising the general. And I like the Hank Marvinesque guitar work on the opening track, and also the lead playing towards the end of Friends.”
“I think Broadleaf Summer is my favourite.“
“Ashby-de-la-Zouch – not complicated, just straightforward and catchy.”
“Broadleaf Summer evokes my favourite time of the year and the song transports me to my youth when days were neverending, there was no past, no future, just now. My home town every summer hosted a very successful international folk festival over three days, where interesting looking people from all over the world would come and camp in their tents in fields along the gently flowing Owenmore river. The festival goers would meet in the magnificent ‘T’ shaped marquee to listen to a multitude of Irish and international musicians, such as The Dubliners, Christy Moore, The Bothy Band, Chuck Berry and Clannad, alongside many other international acts of the 70s.”
“Thank you very much for another great CD! I am glad to see that the band continues on this beautiful romantic pattern!”
“The two CDs are interesting and very nicely put together. Melodic and lyrical.”
Our own review notes
1. Keep You Near
This lively opener sings of exploration, the fear of losing one’s way, and those left behind. Themes to be developed in this Difficult Second Album. Catchier than Covid-19.
2. Our Wild Adventure
Bless my soul. Not a requiem, but an invitation to celebrate something. Copulation, perhaps? An atomic pas-de-deux, mon pied. And who are the lizards? This critic hasn’t a clue.
3. Move the Air
A military fly-past in 2/4, featuring an understated vocal from Flt. Lt. Smith over a massed band of guitars and synths. This could only be OftW. As played on your actual BBC Radio.
4. Broadleaf Summer
Fairport and Pentangle are often name-checked as influences, but it’s not much like either. The Portuguese call it saudade: a sigh for what might have been – even if it couldn’t have been.
5. I Dream of Flight
Luscinia megarhynchos gives way to rhamphorhynchus. We flap, we hold our breath and we’re airborne. Mary Poppins is on a trip, while Bernard dusts off his instrument collection.
6. Ashby-de-la-Zouch
A rasping evocation of the English traffic jam featuring Hanaway on harp and CW on slide. If only S&G had warbled about the A551 rather than the New Jersey Turnpike. All gone to look for Uttoxeter.
7. The Tower
Come on Elaine! Lady Joanna channels Tennyson in this Hymn to Fear and Self-Loathing. All because of lurve. Burnham stars on fretless bass. And that’s Shallot. Grimm.
8. These Same Stars
Kicks off with Planet Earth’s first space shanty and leaves no musical stone unturned. It’s Warp Factor 9 by the end. More guitars than you get at an Eagles gig. Play fortissimo.
9. Time Enough to Tell
And that time is 15/8. Love at first sight: dramatic and strange. Lead vocal and guitar solo by Bernard. Jo tickles the ivories and Chris shakes.
10. Friends
Jo takes on a ballad first recorded during that halcyon summer of 1979. It has since changed key and – surprise, surprise – got longer. Lush sounds culminate in a guitar solo from Bern.
11. Scent of the Moon
But less, even for us, sometimes really can be more. Close your eyes, chill out and sniff up.
Eleven of Bernard Hanaway’s tunes for only £10 UK, delivered in a chichi shiny-white padded bag. Play The Lover’s Song over and over in the discomfort of your own home, droning along until you go hoarse. It comes with a 12-page booklet with the lyrics, cleverly printed so that you can read them without a magnifying glass.
Recorded and mixed by bassist Andrew Burnham, who was also responsible for the design of the CD package. And it would be remiss not to mention the rest of us: lead singer Jo Nicholson Smith; guitarist, synth player and webmaster Colin Wight; and Chris Ford, guest drummer. Not forgetting Penny Hedger at Alpha Duplication (High Wycombe), Jamie Hyatt at Glasshouse Studios (Cumnor), and Kate Roncoroni (Herne Hill) who re-designed the OftW logo.
But how to purchase, I hear you cry? Just go to the Contact page and send a message. You will hear back from us within 24 hours. You can pay by PayPal, cheque or bank transfer.
Feedback from listeners
“Thank you for the music! It is a fantastic album, I have it in the car and listen to it when the going gets tough … quite often, in other words!”
“For a country guitarist this is complicated music, and tellingly Cowboys and Astronauts is my favourite cut (it’s also the simplest song). Just shows you how much I know.”
“Guiding Hand – yes! Also Cowboys and Astronauts, Planet of Our Dreams, The Lover’s Song. I do like good words (lots of those), and the confident musical style and production. I like the harmonies – they bring up all sorts of references etc – but still fully itself. Where there’s a clear narrative thread, that can be heard in the mix. Good/clever/fleetfooted words. Harmonic shifts interesting but not too elusive, nice production.”
“I like Planet… very true sentiment. Integrated playing of guitars with keys and very skilled vocals… the subtle melodic changes are difficult to sing! The Lover’s Song – good song. Catchy chorus! I liked And When She Woke a lot too: the care and thoughtfulness in the lyrics, musical ideas, arrangements and instrumental performances. They are complex songs. Jo’s vocal is also very pleasing.”
“It’s bright, fresh, and has some lovely melodies. It’s reminiscent of Fairport Convention. It’s been well produced and there are many songs with a catch to them. I personally like The Lover’s Song.”
“My favourite song is And When She Woke. I love the way the words of all the songs are so poetic and tell a story, the whole album is growing on me. Jo’s voice is beautiful and blends very well with the other voice and the instrumentation is very good. You can really feel the care and time that has been put into the production of it.”
“We listened to the CD the evening we received it. Very impressed, especially with Jo’s vocal range.”
“My top track is The Wrong Words – nice combination of bitter-sweet lyrics, arrangement, and musicianship. Other highlights for me include the instrumental section on The Lover’s Song and the array of guitar sounds used across the album.”
“I’ve really enjoyed listening to it. The arrangement of the tracks works particularly well, though I was immediately drawn to one called Cowboys and Astronauts – my current favourites are Beware the Sensitive Child and the title track. It’s now vying for ‘album of the year’ alongside Mary Chapin Carpenter’s The Dirt and the Stars.”
“My first impressions are very favourable and that it is in parts reminiscent of early Fairport Convention with Sandy Denny, a band I still listen to regularly.”
“For me music always comes first and words second, but I have found with your album it’s really worth listening to both. You do have a very gifted composer and writer. My knowledge of music outside classical mainstream is pathetic (putting aside my adolescent years), so I don’t know how to compare you with others. But put all that aside. I liked the sound very much and the songs I was particularly drawn to were in the middle: Cowboys and Astronauts and Planet of Our Dreams.”
“Well, a lovely surprise arrived in the post today ! My favourite is Litter on the Shore.”
“You should be very pleased with yourselves for producing a fine piece of work. I like the vocal harmonies, the harmonica and keyboards. It’s a pity it isn’t a concept album as the writing lends itself to telling a story. Why is it I can’t get ‘into your arms’ out of my head? How dare you!”
“Excellent stuff: reminiscent of Fairport Convention. Your vocalist has a distinct Sandy Denny/ Maddy Prior feel. I liked Cowboys and Astronauts particularly. Liked the ballads with lots of minor chords. Overall, great job.”
“Just listened to the album again. I really like Cowboys and Astronauts, Planet of Our Dreams and I’m So Lazy. Candy’s favourite is North Parade!”
“So,.. favourite? The Lover’s Song or Sensitive Child or Guiding Hand. Nice solid guitar work all through, and I liked what your drummer was doing too.”
“Thanks very much for linking me to your album, which I have much enjoyed listening to whilst reading the lyrics. It’s impressive in every way. What an amazing range of instruments you can play!”
“I’ve much enjoyed your CD, somewhat to my surprise… because I’ve never liked pop music. But this is quite different, with its fascinating complexity of harmony and melody, and words that are written to be listened to and enjoyed. I also enjoyed the lovely sweet voice of the principal singer. How wise of her not to go into dreadful mock American when she sings, something that’s always seemed absurd to me. I expect the pub in ‘North Parade’ is the Rose and Crown, not the Gardeners Arms, which was my local for many years.”
Bernard Hanaway’s collage artwork for The Lover’s Song
Our own review notes
*Other reviews may be available (“These deluded dinosaurs etc…”)
1. Guiding Hand
Hanaway sets a cracking pace and they sprint away like Blondie in their pomp. A joyful ditty – almost a hymn, with its hint of divine providence. When we look up at the stars, is somebody looking down at us? Deeply profound.
2. Litter on the Shore
Quirky love tale with a whiff of The Kinks, narrated by JNS over an ocean of 70s sound. C, Bb, D minor, E, C9, A, D, B minor, F# minor, G, F, E minor, Bb, F and back to C, Bb… right in the eau-zone.
3. And When She Woke
Lordy me, Maestro Hanaway’s haunting finger-pickin’ tunes! This lyric coruscates with sprinklings of Lear and magic dust courtesy of La Smith and her mark-tree. Astral waltzing that made one critic swoon.
4. Cowboys and Astronauts
Childhood games morph into first love, recollected in wistful tranquillity by Miss Smith. Hanaway blows a campfire harmonica over the wall of guitars, bass and drums. Are y’all listening, Nashville?
5. Planet of Our Dreams
A witty and surreal concoction that just might be a chanson by Juliette Gréco. Dare I mention “Petula Clark”? The rarely-heard Suzuki Q-Chord brings even more sparkle to a catchy tune. ¡Cha cha cha!
6. I’m So Lazy
They used to open with this shuffle back in the last century, and it’s survived largely unadulterated. BH shows off on guitar, piano and vocal – with APB’s “precision” bass to the fore. A whole lotta chords.
7. Beware the Sensitive Child
Fun and mayhem as the crumblies attempt to keep a tiny tot entertained. How quickly a baby becomes an independent – not to say opinionated – little madam! Granny Smith puts us across her knee.
8. The Wrong Words
Another that harks back to the 80s, remodelled and with a pronounced Latin accent by Don Bernardo. Rock solid from the band, harmony vocals from the Tuneful Twosome and slinky gee-tar from “Isla” Wight.
9. Other Hearts
Deuxième chanson pour Mme Smith, over piano and guitars. You can almost hear the tears. Terminal communication breakdown (an OftW speciality), as l’amour goes sour. Dripping with distress and distain.
10. The Lover’s Song
Hail the English ballad from J. Barleycorn to R. Thompson! An anthem to close Glastonbury – permanently. Wave your virtual lighter and sing that tune that’s buried deep in your heart.
11. North Parade
They used to rehearse in a basement up Banbury Road, then go to the pub and talk of becoming musicians. Bah! Still talking about it 40 years on. Tempus, as they say, fugit, before you can shout “T.S. Eliot”!
A nasty old year 2020 is turning out to be. But for the band, there’s been a few ups to go with the downs. Like being on the radio.
We enjoy playing music in the old-fashioned way, all in the same room at the same time. We don’t get together often but we’ve had a lot of fun. Of course we’ve spent a lot more time in the studio than in front of an audience, but that’s hardly unusual. This January we played our first gig for a while: not (yet) the hour+ show we had been planning, but a slot at Oxford’s Klub Kakofanney. We were invited back… then COVID-19 put paid to all that.
For the last 10 months we’ve not been able to meet, so we’ve been at home (in four different counties) tweaking the tracks laid down at Cumnor’s Glasshouse Studios. A CD will be coming… soon. Very old-fashioned of us, but we don’t care.
***
Supermarine Spitfire Mk1: RAF official photographer, from the collections of Imperial War Museums
We’ve also been working on new stuff. For the first time we’ve completed a song that we’ve never once played as an ensemble. Andrew uploaded that song, “Move the Air”, to BBC Oxford’s website, and Dave Gilyeat quickly emailed to say that he wanted to play it on his show, Introducing in Oxfordshire. Our hope was that it would go out to coincide with Battle of Britain Day (15 September) but there was a backlog of tracks so it wasn’t broadcast until last weekend, by which time we’d almost forgotten we’d sent it.
So it was a nice surprise to hear it, with a short introduction from Bern. It was the final song of the evening, so we’ve cut out the preceding 55 minutes! Lovely vocals from Jo.
After a productive weekend rehearsing at Glasshouse Studios in Cumnor in September 2018, we decided to drop in on the popular open mic night on Sunday evening at the Harcourt Arms in Jericho to see if we could play a few songs. We arrived good and early so it was soon sorted. After our first mini-set, one of the other musical contributors approached us.
“I’ve seen you guys before,” he said. “We’ve been here a couple of times.” “No, I mean before before”. “Eh?” “St Peter’s College JCR. October 1978, I think.”
He could remember several of our song titles – bear in mind that then as now we were playing original material – and even quote some of the words! He remembered we had some difficulty with the fold-back monitors. He wondered if we were going to play “I’m So Lazy” later… maybe in the hope that we might finally be able to get it right!
In those days a high proportion of our audience would have been loyal friends, or friends of friends, who would have seen us on more than one occasion and come to know the songs. But none of us recognised him. Perhaps he was just a member of St Peter’s JCR and had chanced on the gig? No, he was at another college. “I saw it advertised, and it sounded interesting.”
And who was Mr Memory? Jonathan Luxmoore, now of the noted Oxford-based folk trio Jesters. What were the chances of him and us being in the same venue 40 years later? And why did we not leave such a favourable impression on anyone else, and become successful and famous?
During the gig, someone posted a video on social media. At the end of the evening, we were shown a response: “I remember them – I’ve still got a cassette they made in the 1980s!” Two former fans found in one evening. This one is now living in Venezuela…
Eyebrows were raised at last month’s OftW Zoomed Board meeting when Colin Wight, Chair and CEO, announced that he had spent 115% of the annual equipment budget on a plectrum.
“It’s not your run-of-the-mill sort of pick,” said Mr Wight. “It’s made from Jimi Hendrix’s ground-up metacarpals infused with Gibeon meteorite and bonded with pyramid-cured crystals that channels Jimi’s muscle memory into your own”.
“First you’ll have to find a muscle,” mused Lady Joanna Jingly-Smith, a remark which the Chair considered disrespectful.
“It will be a great investment, believe me,” blustered Mr Wight. Drinks were served.
***
Eyebrows were raised at last week’s OftW Zoomed Board when Bernard Hanaway announced that he had spent £420% of the annual investment budget on buying the rights to the back catalogue of the cult band’s cult band’s cult band’s cult band Nonchalant Sphincter. Often referred to – if at all – as the Purgative Proggers from Pangbourne, they are chiefly known, by hardly anyone, for playing their version of Tales From Topographic Oceans entirely on traditional RAF marimbas.
“So what exactly have you acquired?” was the not unreasonable question from a sceptical Board. It transpired that Nonchalant Sphincter recorded a concept album called Looking up God’s Nostril, which, sadly, was never released.
“We could do our own version,” suggested Mr Hanaway, “using traditional Royal Navy vibraslaps”. Drinks were served.
***
No eyebrows were raised at yesterday’s Zoomed OftW Board meeting after it had, in an attempt to look a few months younger, voted to spend 3750% of the annual well-being budget on botox. It was not judged to be a success.
Lockdown has given us the opportunity to get round to things that we’ve put off for years. Hence this website for One for the Wall.
Although we are now playing brand-new material, many of the songs we present here go back to our early days in the late 70s and early 80s. We were young in those days. Of course we didn’t see ourselves as particularly young: Andrew and Colin (me) were 23 when the band came together. Now they (we) are 65.
Despite a lack of money and industry support we were ambitious, and excited to be recording in a studio in Banbury Road that Andy and our housemate Peter “Three degrees” Hancock built from scratch! We were intellectuals and perfectionists (in Oxford, hardly surprising) and not very interested in serving up stuff people already knew. We made it hard for ourselves, because the audience was presented with a repertoire that was, for the most part, unfamiliar and, with a few exceptions, not music to dance to. We did have our fans, but you could call it a select group.
We might have made it in the business if we had been more dedicated, although it was never going to be easy. Only Andy had a job (six days a week) – fortunately in a shop up Cowley Road that hired out guitar amps and PAs!
When I listen to the earliest recordings, now digitised from 4-track tape and with all their faults, I still sense the unique atmosphere that Jo Elford’s voice could create; the rest of us were in awe. I believe it made us try harder. I know that my own playing improved hugely, because she told me!
When we reached the Final of the Melody Maker Rock/Folk competition we were just starting out. There were only three songs we knew well enough to play in public. By the end of summer ’79, while working or studying for degrees, we had enough material for an album.
Andy, Wiff, Colin and Jo: L-R
Then Jo went to London to start a job, then got married. It took more than three decades to get her back!
One for the Wall 