Hope is the Conclusion is all my own work. The album consists of 8 original songs - one in two parts - and two instrumentals derived from the album's themes. While the arrangements were influenced by The Moody Blues, the songs themselves are equally rooted in the singer-songwriters of the 60s and 70s, with Joan Baez, James Taylor, Leonard Cohen and Cat Stevens being referenced in style. The music was written after a long period of "writer's block" and the methodology employed in kick-starting creativity was to draw from the very surface of consciousness - the vain things that charm me most, as the old hymn puts it. 1. Mellotron Overture (instrumental) 2. Games People Play (based on the book by Eric Berne) 4:20 3. Stylus (a hymn to the vinyl LP) 8:39 4. I Went to the Jungle the Other Day... (pt 1 of Jungle Suite) 14:57 5. Don't Break the Jungle (words by Esther, aged 3) 18:07 6. Colour (autobiographical song, Joan Baez influenced) 22:23 7. Clarence (the inventor of 'sod's law', Leonard Cohen style) 27:17 8. Tourist Town (cautionary tale for Tenby, Cat Stevens style) 33:26 9. Eternity (Moody Blues style song written on a foggy day) 38:02 10. Late in the Day / Clarence Goes to Town (instrumental) 43:14 11. Creator of Stars (a Messianic Christmas hymn) 52:50 Further notes... The cover art visible throughout this video is a painting by Phil Travers (who painted the Moody Blues and solo album covers from 1968 to 1976, and kindly gave me permission to use the painting for Hope is the Conclusion). The painting is called December evening, St. Ives. Prints are available from his website. Clarence and Tourist Town are twins. They both started out from the tune that can be heard in the instrumental Clarence Goes to Town. Hope is the Conclusion was released on CD in 2010 in a limited edition digipack together with my Moody Blues covers album, Meanwhile and Far Away, which had been recorded two years earlier using completely different instruments and technology and was previously unreleased. Only 50 of this set were ever made, as the manufacture and copyright licence was very expensive. It was my first public music release, although I had been making albums of some sort or other since 1988. STYLUS Listen to the gentle sound, Over 33 emotions turning round, Music you can see and feel, And a stylus makes it real. It was 1991, I looked around and you were gone. The compact age had come and it seemed it appealed to everyone, But I owe my dreams to you, Though your time has slipped on by, guess I'll always need a stylus 'til I die. Some people want a chart tune playing on an FM radio, Young people with their mobiles singing or their iPods on the go; But I listen for the sound of the sylus as it hits the vinyl groove; Songwriters & the soul teachers that can always move me. Oh, Stylus, keep on turning round and round. Oh, Stylus, Now's the time to be refound. Oh, Stylus - that's the sound. Well you've travelled many miles But I know just where you are. All your life is spent in circles But you're reaching out so far, With the sound of rock and blues Or progressive a.o.r., the Fender Rhodes or pedal steel guitar. Some people... Oh Stylus... I'm thinking back to the record racks at the start of the 1980s; Shiny and new, they had 12 inch views, glossy photographs and paintings. And rock'n'roll, r'n'b and soul sat among the chart pop airwaves, But I would choose the new Moody Blues hanging right above the staircase. Listen to the gentle sound of the Mellotron®, you can really feel you're flying somewhere. So fly away with me, switch an old record on, Dream away those modern cares. If I had my way today, I would own a record store Selling all the new releases, Many albums from before; I'd sell laserdiscs as well, and players by the score. They would have 12-inch diameters for sure. I remember Boots and Smiths and Woolworths having records by the door. Now there's nothing there but calendars and there's no Woolworths anymore. Our Price, Virgin and the MVC lie in pieces on the floor. There's little money now in secondhand; The proprietors are so poor. Oh, Stylus...

• published: 29 Mar 2014
• views: 391