While
Ed’s band had been asked to be the main support act
for EC
and his up & coming world tour
Why
me?
they
asked, maybe a hundred times or more
Why
me?
Well
life’s a lottery, it’s just the luck of the draw
Well
little Luke, he was so thrilled
to win
the raffle at the school fair
While
Mrs Haines and her attic antique
were
very grateful to the Road Show
Nick’s
goal meant United won the cup
And
Ann was high, she’d beaten 50 others to the job
While
out in Hollywood a lady of the night
was
finding fame & fortune ‘cause of one untrue Brit
Why
me?
they
asked, maybe a hundred times or more
Why
me?
Well
life’s a lottery, it’s just the luck of the draw
How
come I was the one who got picked? they said
How
come it wasn’t somebody else instead?
Could
have been anybody. Please, someone say
what
did I ever do to deserve such a fate?
Why
me?
they
asked, maybe a hundred times or more
Why
me?
Well
life’s a lottery, it’s just the luck of the draw
THE RELATIVES : FEUD OF LOVE
Roy Bainton, freelance music journalist and for many
years The Blues Band's Fan Club organiser, had this to say about The
Relatives' CD Feud of Love, which whilst available to purchase at
Blues Band gigs and via the BB website, was recorded more for fun and
"(he)art’s sake" than as a commercial endeavour:
"The term 'Labour of Love' can be applied to most
works of art. If you don't 'love' what you're making, then why bother? I
can vouch for the fact that a lot of love and labour has gone into this
recording, to say nothing of a stream of disagreement and a dash of
familial bile. The Relatives are, if you don't know it, Gary & Hilary
Fletcher. Any collection of songs which includes in their covering
dedication 'Thanks to Betty at Relate' is going to be nothing if not
textured.
First of all, if you are expecting an R&B record,
then this is not for you. The fine-spun, mature pop music is hard to pin
down. All the influences which have gone into Gary and Hilary's musical
marriage get their airing, and this one of the disc's strong points.
Because Gary Fletcher's background, unlike the rest of The Blues Band, is
not the usual Chicago Blues package, then when Gary plays away from the BB
formula, something very different comes out.
Feud of Love's lyrics, legibly laid out in the 16
page booklet, reveal a depth of thought, drama and something which today
is often sadly only found in the 'remaindered' bin - a social conscience.
Hilary's spoken verse on The Caring Eighties encompasses the steady
atrophy of our collective social thinking over the past 18 years, and
Gary's Summer Fuss points up all the fears of mature men living in the
nasty 90s ... a fragile positivity against a steep, dark wall of doom:
'Some of us are lucky, some of us are not
Some of us would kill for what some of us have got ...'
I don't want to make a big thing of this aspect,
because this album is, in the main, a very personal testimony of a
relationship, and in some ways a chronicle of family life.
Considering the more 'down home' restrictions of
working at the Coalhole Studios in Twickenham, both the bright and clear
production and the multi-layered instrumental backings illustrate a flair
and verve more usually associated with bands with mega budgets recording
in sun-kissed Caribbean complexes. As we would expect, the bass playing is
excellent, but it is refreshing to hear the other side of Gary with
thoughtful electric and acoustic guitar, and both the drum programming and
use of keyboards are outstanding.
Some of the songs are so traditionally 'rootsy' in
their approach, too; it may be the purity of Hilary's voice on the opening
track, More than just Love, or even the headily exotic feel of the
first few bars of Dangerous Times, but these songs have stories;
these words have been somewhere before they crept into a microphone.
There's the weary cynicism which besets the best
marriages in Devoted, with the face-slapping chorus which observes:
'Oh they're devoted
to keeping it going
even though it's already gone ....'
Of course, we're totally biased here at Ready. But
the question is, had I been sent this album as a total stranger to Gary's
other musical work, would it have passed the playback test. What test? The
test that asks you in two days' time, 'What the hell is that
tune/lyric/phrase I can't get out of my head?' The more I listen to
Feud of Love the more it grows on me. It's got a long, long life as
far as we're concerned, and if you love good, well-crafted music, you'll
not buy a better bargain this year."
y Bainton, freelance music journalist and for many
years The Blues Band's Fan Club organiser, had this to say about The
Relatives' CD Feud of Love, which whilst available to purchase at
Blues Band gigs and via the BB website, was recorded more for fun and
"(he)art’s sake" than as a commercial endeavour:
First of all, if you are expecting an R&B record,
then this is not for you. The fine-spun, mature pop music is hard to pin
down. All the influences which have gone into Gary and Hilary's musical
marriage get their airing, and this one of the disc's strong points.
Because Gary Fletcher's background, unlike the rest of The Blues Band, is
not the usual Chicago Blues package, then when Gary plays away from the BB
formula, something very different comes out.
Considering the more 'down home' restrictions of
working at the Coalhole Studios in Twickenham, both the bright and clear
production and the multi-layered instrumental backings illustrate a flair
and verve more usually associated with bands with mega budgets recording
in sun-kissed Caribbean complexes. As we would expect, the bass playing is
excellent, but it is refreshing to hear the other side of Gary with
thoughtful electric and acoustic guitar, and both the drum programming and
use of keyboards are outstanding.