Week 5 : 4th February 1977 : Rumours turns 40

Accompany music : The Chain

So we are still in 1977, 12 days after Pink Floyds ‘Animals’ is released, Fleetwood Mac release the epic album Rumours. My 9 year old soft rock/pop loving self would hear the singles and fall in love with the West Coast american rock sound, sublime songwrting and what seemed (to a 9 year olds ears) the happy upbeat themes. It wasn’t till much later I would realise the trauma that going on when the album was recorded, and then when own life experiences caught up, how perfect, relevant and bitter these songs are.

“People worry about kids playing with guns, and teenagers watching violent videos; we are scared that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands – literally thousands – of songs about broken hearts and rejection and pain and misery and loss.” ― Nick Hornby, High Fidelity

Breaking up is a horrendous process. Whether its a first love, a short or long term relationship, the breakdown of a marriage or even a whole country leaving a larger organisation. Inevitably it brings acrimony, hurt, fear, mistrust, grief, arguments and difficult decisions regarding ownership of albums and black t-shirts. The issues are not usually confined to the couple, unfortunately children are sometimes involved, family and friends also feel the pressure. It seems to me a lot of the issues stem from a lack of communication and people’s inability to express themselves on how they feel. Men are particularly bad at this.

One of my favourite authors, Nick Hornby has written some sublime books which capture mens inability to express how they feel themselves whilst having no problem in expressing their love of hobbies/pastimes. I especially love his book High-fidelity, but it sometimes feels a little too close for comfort. Rob Flemming owns a record shop ‘Championship Vinyl’ and spends his days making top 5 lists of songs and albums, with his colleagues. When his relationship breaks down, he copes the only ways he knows how. Writing a list of his top break-ups, reorganising his record collection and making mix tapes. Some of these are too familiar.

You will be happy to know, I am not going to embark on my own personal list of relationship disasters, but in times of stress I have been known to reorganise the record collection. The worse case examples were, organising from happy to sad (too subjective), organising chronologically (impossible to remember) and organising by the colour of the spine of the album (who knew so many spines were not the same colour as the front). Every time the albums were quickly put back to A to Z. I did the odd mixtape as well, although I never gave them to the target… again these like writing letters are far too subjective. What I do find eases the pain  is to play sad, sentimental songs.

“What came first – the music or the misery? Did I listen to the music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to the music? Do all those records turn you into a melancholy person?”― Nick Hornby, High Fidelity

There are tonnes of great examples of heartbreaker music that not only you can identify with, have a cry along to, sing defiantly along to or find strangely uplifting. In 2009, the Guardian published a list of 1000 spotify songs which were divided on 7 subjects, Heartbreak was one. I selected 32 as my own playlist and put them in my music diary. Amongst them, there are delicate songs that have a strange calming melancholy, Aint no Sunshine – Bill Withers, Flume – Bon Iver. Songs that pick up a direct feeling/situation which you can relate to, Suspicious Minds – Elvis Presley, Is She Really Going Out with Him – Joe Jackson. Or songs of real desperation, Take for instance, Winner Takes in All – Abba or Harry Neilsens cover version of Without you, which as well as being an impossible Kareoke song, actually makes you feel like things aren’t this bad. There are so many tracks not on here that apply also, including one or two which still cause me a  little discomfort as memories come back of times and places. But this is part of the Cathartic process that listening gives, helping us to move on and make us more happy of our current situation. Writing music/lyrics on such subjects especially about such situations must be a greater release. You see in so many cases, the other person is not involved (other than being a listener/unwilling victim when the song is released). So what happens when nearly all members of the band are involved in relationship issues and all writing songs about each other. Cue up ‘Rumours’

It has been 2 years since Fleetwood Mac released their 1975 eponymous album and the first album to feature partners Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks. It was a commercial success and spawned a great single Rhiannon which showed off the qualities of the new members. Entering the studio in 1976, the cracks in the band were beginning to show. Christine and John McVie are getting divorced whilst Buckingham and Nicks relationship was on/off. Even Fleetwood is reportedly having his own relationship issues. The thing that kept the band together was writing and recording music, which considering the majority of the subject matter was based on each other is surprising. Nine of the ten tracks are written by individuals and it is interesting to see their personal approaches. Both Buckingham (B) and Nicks (N) are writing candidly about each other and not pulling punches. whilst McVies (Mc) tracks are further on, considered and conciliatory. Its amazing that when these songs are put together along with the band credited (all) ‘Chain’, that a stunning complete album of human emotions is created.

Second Hand News (B) – ‘Someone has taken my place’ – Starting with what seems an uplifting song with Jangly guitar. Dig further and it has reflective lyrics about being dumped and moved out of the picture. There also seems to be a little bit of regret in this. Chorus couplets with Nicks are great and fascinating. Dreams (N) – ‘Now here you go again, You say you want your freedom’ – A Beautiful song with soft Nicks drawl. Laid back drums, bass, guitar and keyboards washes over the listener reflecting the mood. Lyrics recounting her partner wanting to move on, her happy to let them go and reflecting on how lonely they will be afterwards. You get what you sow. Going Back Again (B) – ‘I’m never going back again’. Another paired back track, with acoustic guitars and Buckingham jumping from amerciana to children’s nursery rhyme. Lyrics suggests trying to go back and sorting out issues, but giving up in the end.

Don’t Stop (Mc) – ‘It’ll be, better than before, Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone’ – Song about looking forward about the future, moving on, apologising for the past and looking after each other. Wrapped up in a wonderful singalong which has an ear worm of a catchy happy tune. Which belies the sadness of the situation. Go Your Own Way (B) – ‘Loving you, Isn’t the right thing to do’ – This is the song which I thought was the uplifting track as a child. Its musically brilliant, from opening acoustic riffs and Buckinghams verses then into the amazing singalong harmonised choruses. Fleetwoods drumming is powerful and drives the track along. The bridge gives enough space before the last resounding chorus. Buckingham lyrics placing the issues directly at the door of his ex. Songbird (Mc) – ‘And I love you, I love you, I love you, Like never before.’ – Beautiful track, with McVie singing along to acoustic piano. Lyrics show how much the relationship and she has moved on and how much she cares for her ex, wishing them the best for the future. Its delicate and sublime and pure McVie on this album.

The Chain (All) – ‘And if you don’t love me now. You will never love me again’. Only song credited to more than one writer and rightly in this case, to the whole band. The track seems to show a group of people recognising their issues and fighting that this will not effect the group. The track shows the band pulling together, from the initial drum, banjo, guitar americana start and harmonised vocals. Building in defiant stated choruses, and almost pledge like responses. McVies bass brings in the tremendous change in the song with Buckinghams stretched guitar solo and the rolling pace which was perfect for Grand Prix coverage. The final chorus, the shouts of ‘Keep us together’ is apt for a track the whole group contribute to. Making a stunning centrepiece. You Make Loving Fun (Mc) – ‘I never did believe in miracles, But I’ve a feeling it’s time to try’. Whilst every other song on Rumours seems to be backward looking, this is McVie looking forward and singing about her future and seemingly a new relationship. The whole song is a little more sexy, a little more comforting and uplifting. Lyrics are about renewal and giving love another try. It has a great chorus which stays in your head with angelic voice backing.

I Don’t Wanna Know (N) – ‘You say you love me, but you don’t know’. Another paired back Fleetwood Mac song, acoustic guitars, bass and drum prominent. Nicks and Buckingham singing in unison, about the confusion of love, coping with it and moving on.  Oh Daddy (Mc) – ‘If there’s been a fool around, It’s got to be me’. Dark, slightly sinister and melancholy track. McVie mournful lyrics searches for answers for what should be the end of a difficult relationship, but always end up going back to herself as being at fault. Gold Dust Woman (N) – ‘Take your silver spoon and dig your grave’. Great track in that great Americana tradition of painting portraits of people. Nicks bittersweet lyrics are given centre stage with the easy laid back playing and builds an effective and compelling background.

And there we have it. Rumours is a classic album that does not date in 40 years. Mostly this has to do with the sublime songwriting, great production and the brilliant musicianship. The songs are beautiful and uplifting it their own right without having to understand the actual meaning of the tracks. The Heartfelt lyrics and their amazing delivery adds another dimension. Here we have musicians writing and singing through major emotional difficulties and these translate to the listeners own experiences. The feelings felt in love and in break-ups do not change over the years. Its difficult to know what Buckingham, Nicks and McVie were feeling when they wrote these songs, I can assume as above but a lot of this is built on reflecting on my own person experience. I especially relate to McVies contributions which moves away from blame and looks forward.

“Sentimental music has this great way of taking you back somewhere at the same time that it takes you forward, so you feel nostagic and hopeful all at the same time.”
― Nick Hornby, High Fidelity

Rumours is a classic, full of passion and pain but always leaves me comforted, a little bit fuzzy inside and very hopeful.

For the card for Rumours I wanted to portray the broken-ness within the band, that gave us such amazing individual songwriting that when it came together makes a stunning collective piece. I took the cover and a heart shape was cut out. This was divided into eleven pieces (one for each track). Then lyrics from each track were printed onto free slightly gothic-y (Stevie Nicks-like) backgrounds. Four colours are used corresponding to the writers of the tracks Nicks-Black, McVie-Red, Buckingham-green, Whole Band-Blue. The broken Heart pieces were used as templates to cut out each lyric, and were then glued together. A small tab placed between the two parts which is then used to attach to the card vis some small openings. And there we have a shattered heart of the album, with the ability to turn over each piece to access a lyric. The 3d stand up nature of the pieces gives great movement and texture to the front of the card. On the back a key is produced showing each writer, the colour of their pieces and a rough indication of the number.

Billy (still aged 9 at time of album release)

Cuts Like A Knife

Two Birthday cards and their unlikely connection

 

 

Its 3:00pm (ish) 14th October 1987 and its my 20th birthday. I’ve got a day off from college and have spent it meandering around town with nothing else to do. I bump into a mate and before we head off to our usual haunt, Trillians for a celebrationary drink we go on a little diversion. We end up outside the stage door of Newcastle City Hall where we try to get tickets for a sold out gig that night. As we wait with a couple of young women, the dulled tones of pop/rock bleed through the walls and we try to make out the tracks of the soundcheck. After a short while it falls silence and the doors open and an army of roadies, hangers on and the occaisional musicians appear. We get some autographs and then the double denimed main man appears and asks us ‘Hey lads do you know where the record shops are?’ to which I replied with a smirk and ‘Of course we do’….. to be continued…..

A former boss once introduced me in front of a staff team. ‘This is Billy, and he can’t walk past a record shop without buying something…’. This could be seen by the more sensitive person as a throwaway slur or a cheap stereotype, but considering its basically the truth, I saw it as a badge of honour.
As described in my previous piece for Record Store Day 2013, it is one of the great pleasures in life flicking through racks of vinyl old and new looking for that special album to buy, smuggle home and listen to in its entirety. A year on from RSD13, I am fashionably late heading into town for RSD14, its 8:00am in the morning and I am on the bus, passing the glorious sight of huge queues outside of all the independent music stores. I turn up at Beatdown records and by 8:20am have bought the majority of the special releases and picture discs I wanted. From the top downwards:

Between the Buried and Me – Colors Live : Bizarre Progressive rock/Metal album played in its entirety live, Opeth – Watershed : This is the album that cements the new direction of the Doom Metal band, Anathema – Untouchable 1&2 : A picture disc with studio and live versions of this classic, Ulver -Messe I.X-XI : Dark Gloomy Gothic metal bought classically to life with Scandanavian Orchestras, Mastodon – Live In Brixton : Stunning live show by one of the heaviest bands around, Mama Rosin / Moriarty : Swiss Cajun Punk band meets French American Cajun Jazz band

My humble purchases were a splash in the ocean compared to the eclectic mix of albums bought by my friend Chris. He had been committed enough to be up from 4am outside Windows Arcade awaiting for it to open. We met in Beatdown and then headed to find a beer at 9am to compare purchases. Chris has been a great friend for over 20 years and he has been there to celebrate my great experiences and pick me up for those sad times. He is a drinker of fine ale and whiskey, a stationery addict and long suffering fan of Newcastle/Bengals. Most of all he has a legendary  Record and CD collection with an amazing range of styles and versions. Chris can pull together a compilation on virtually any subject, play tracks for any mood or find that hidden song that needs to be purchased.  He has also the worlds largest stockpile of used cover versions. So when it came to his 50th birthday, what better to make for him then his own record shop with 50 albums celebrating his life.

The main body of the card was a thick brown card, folded to create a wide spine the approximate width of the record rack. The front cover has a couple of circular records made out of the materials that make up the rest of the card.

The Record Store element started as one design, essentially a box with no lid and a partial front face. This was drawn onto and then cut out of birch veneer but then the issues started. All the proposed folds to create the sides of the record rack were with the grain and easy to carry out but left sides too flexible. The bottom of the rack needed to fold upwards against the grain, and as much as this was done carefully, it had to split then snap. So an open topped box (made from the same material as the main card) was created to sit in the bottom of the rack to hold the albums and add stability to the structure. An additional piece of veneer was used to cover the inside back wall of the rack, with a small sign declaring ‘Album Sale… 50 years of listening’. Once constructed this was stuck down onto the card with additional small rectangular birch legs.

All that was needed now was albums to populate. The plan was 50 albums from 1964 – 2013, all different artists and all which Chris liked. I started with a skeleton made up of a list of his favourite 12 albums. I worked out the dates of these and then built the list out from there. Some years there was one stand out album, others there were too many or too few. I hope this covered Chris’s collection and tastes….

(64) Hard Days Night (65) Sound Of Music (66) Pet Sounds (67) Disraeli Gears (68) In Search Of the Lost Chord (69) Court of the Crimson King (70) Black Sabbath (71) Who’s Next (72) Simon and Garfunkles Greatest Hits (73) Selling England By The Pound (74) Crime Of The Century (75) Physical Graffiti (76) Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (77) Farewell To Kings (78) Van Halen I (79) Strangers In The Night (80) Leviathan (81) Tin Drum (82) Broadsword and The Beast (83) Frontiers (84) Love At First Sting (85) Storytellers Night (86) Mechanical Resonance (87) Hysteria (88) Imaginos (89) Tough It Out (90) Backstreet Symphony (91) Woodface (92) New Miserable Experience (93) Spilt Milk (94) Division Bell (95) Ozzmosis (96) The Forgotten Tales (97) Come On Over (98) Ray Of Light (99) Scenes From A Memory (00) In the Flesh (01) Southern Rock Opera (02) The Deep End (03) In keeping Secrets Of A Silent Earth (04) Reckoning Night (05) Black Halo (06) Black Stone Cherry (07) Colors (08) For Emma Forever Ago (09) Resistance (10) Blood Of Nations (11) Dust Bowl (12) The Pines (13) Life Sentence

Once albums were selected, 3cm square images were printed onto white card and cut out. The albums were placed into the rustic record store rack. It was then we noticed that any tipping of the card caused albums to spill out. So at the last moment (with 5 minutes before taxi to his party) I had some inspiration and grabbed a yellow Reflex bag, cut out a rectangle and created a smaller version of the bag with the distinctive lettering to carry all 50 LP’s. Strangely when people saw the card, this was the element that people talked about most.

 

Making changes or whole cards late sometimes pays off with those ‘fly by seat of the pants’ solutions found and difficult decisions having to be made. A month later I made a card for Chris’s sister, Lisa. She is a pub quiz team member, cider guru, personal shopper and Wham! fanatic. I wanted to do something different but again this was left to the last minute. An idea formed to create a card that is a birthday present with a secret inside. For this there was no planning, hurriedly making decisions as I went and tackling issues as they came.

I took 3 thick pieces of card and on one cut out an elongated rectangle from the centre. These three pieces were glued together with the holed piece in the centre and then the whole piece was wrapped with suitable wrapping paper (again glued). Once dry, a scalpel was used to cut a zig zag line across the whole present splitting it in two, all the time being careful not to rip the paper. Looking at either piece, at the cut end a chasm should be present.

I now concentrate on the rectangle I cut out of the middle rectangle piece above. This should fit perfectly back into the chasm, with half of the rectangle sitting above the zig zag cut. If at this point the other part of the present is placed on top it should hold it in place, making the present whole. But I needed to add the surprise. On the top half of the rectangle, stick on an image of the hidden thing… I used one of Lisa’s favourite people, added some birthday clip art  and then cut out around the person (leaving the bottom half as a rectangle fitting into the chasm). The top half of the print if placed over fitting snuggly and hiding the surprise. In fact it fitted to tight that it refused to open when it was handed over.

The finishing touches, was a wide ribbon to wrap around and cover the zig zag split, a couple of miniature bows and a gift tag with our message. So there you go,  a surprise Bryan Adams birthday present card.

Back in 1987, the denim rock star smiles at my response and asks for us to lead on. So there we were me, my mate (and two women) taking Bryan Adams record shopping in Newcastle. It was a really bizarre thing but Bryan was incredibly so down to earth. We asked a load of questions about the tour and his music, but he spent most of it asking about each of us. I remember he talked to me about college and then we all had a conversation about thrash metal which surprisingly he was very knowledgable about. All the time, our guest went unnoticed walking through the Newcastle streets. After a couple of shops we ended up in HMV where he asked us where the Country and Western section was. It was upstairs but by the time we reached the top step , the 80’s pop background music was brought to a sudden halt and ‘Its only Love’ started. Bryan said he had better go and we took him back to the gig venue. On the way back, we asked about tickets as it was my birthday. Unfortunately there were none… but hey, what a surprise birthday present, record shopping with Bryan Adams and who knew what card inspiration this would give.

Bryan Adams – Cuts Like A Knife

 

Pop-Up Diary (Jan 12) – The Answer My Friend is Blowing In The Wind

My first new year ever away from Tyneside had been great. A Time to relax with my partners family in Scotland with a programme of joyous celebrations interspersed with chill out periods and some fun activities (see this previous post to see us at our creative zenith). We were entertained via a ukelele, heard death curdling screams, got covered in kitten dust and even learnt the term for the water at the bottom of a loo brush holder. But all the time we were aware of the weather, the constant nagging feeling the wind was picking up, the possibility of rain or even snow. It didn’t effect our enjoyment – well not until January 3rd.

Four days earlier, Cyclone Ulli began to form off the coast of New Jersey.  In the next few days, it grew in strength as it travelled over the Atlantic. Finally reaching Ireland and wiping out power to over 10,000 homes. Meanwhile in Scotland (January 2nd) an amber warning for high winds and snow had been given out. Even at this point when visiting a local eatery the weather was gusty winds with squally showers. i.e. Very Scottish but still we didn’t expect what was to come….

January 3rd and It didn’t look hopeful. Opening the curtains that morning I first noticed a plastic heron which usually resides in a pond a few hundred yards away sat in the middle of the lawn. The trees blew in the distance to an almost constant 45 degrees and the bash of twigs against windows didn’t bode well for our journey home. A look at travel websites confirmed our fears, trains had been cancelled from Falkirk to Edinburgh, scuppering our usual initial start route. Looking at news sites showed the extent of the problem, the west coast of scotland was taking a complete battering. In Glasgow walls had fallen and cars were strewn with collapsed trees. The path the winds were taking followed almost our journey home, heading eastward towards Edinburgh where winds had been measured up to 102mph. Even at this point we continued to be hopeful, two friends had stayed over and were travelling back to the capital and offered us a lift. meaning we could directly get to Waverley station and hopefully escape to the less stormy North East of England. Bags were quickly packed, goodbyes said and our journey began….

Within 400 yards we had seen our first collapsed tree, conveniently it hadn’t fallen over the drive but away to the side. It would be the first of many that littered the sides of the road. Radio news was filled with the latest reports warning of not going out in the car unless absolutely necessary, but we continued on carefully on the motorway until diverted after a goods truck had tipped over on the outskirts. Finally we reached the usual bustling city, that was very windswept and slightly desolate. Police warning tape blew in the wind around pavement areas where century old granite stone work had fallen, in another street a traffic light swayed like a dandelion stalk that had lost its flower and in another an errant rubbish bin slowly meandered down a hill… Relief at reaching the station was quickly met with disappointment as we found it closed. A large group of travellers awaited outside seeking a way out. In this confusion nothing was apparent, no radio reports was indicating why… only the clear thinking of our friends who invited us to their home, to find out information and have a tea… It was only then I noticed the vibration of my phone, my parents calling from Gateshead relaying BBC news coverage of a collapsed station roof and the suspension of the East Coast Rail line to Newcastle.

With a warm brew in hand we watched the constant news stream looking for a sign of hope but it was very apparent no trains were leaving possibly that day. We were lucky not only did our hosts offer instantly to put us up but our employers understood our perdicament and allowed us another days holiday. Another night in Edinburgh is not a hardship, and with the wind continually blowing it would have been easy to stay in and keep warm… but we ended up going out. A walk into town was kind of dangerous, with the roaring through the trees and the creaking of metalwork. Again bits of stonework, flashing and roofing had found itself onto footpaths as we strolled up to a desolate Princes Street. Later we would take shelter in the Kenilworth and the fantastic Stockbridge Tap and then return to the flat for food, warmth and a good laugh. In the end did the weather spoil our day… No it created a great experience.

The ever changing British weather constantly creates our days, our topics of conversation and our moods. I love the snow (except when 2 inches cause the Metro system to seize up), I love the summer sun for our 2 days a year (except when I get sunburnt) and I even quite like rain (except when my hoodie gets soggy and I have to wear it all day). Most of all I am blessed with where I live and the weather conditions we get. The text above sounds dramatic, and sometimes at the time it was, but this was just a strong gale (like Hurricane Bawbag before it). It wasn’t a proper Hurricane or a Tornado. There wasn’t a Tsunami or a Monsoon. We don’t get massive earthquakes or tremors. Infact all we usually get is the odd high wind, the odd whiteout of snow and a few floods. We are so lucky where we live.

So as the British weather changes so quickly, why did it take me so Long to make this pop-up? It shouldn’t have been hard, its only a simple Pull tab with moving picture. It comprises of two pieces, a backplate with a half  of the two images adjoined together and a  second piece comprising of the missing images separated by an equally sized gap, a pull tab and a small obstruction piece. These fit snuggly into a sleeve  allowing the mechanism to work freely with the latter mechanism on top. An image sized window is cut out from the sleeve. This was then placed into another sleeve with yet another window cut out, to form the actual postcard itself. Initially when lined up in the picture is made up of the 2 halves of image B (one each from the upper and lower piece). As the tab moves and is it finally held in place by the small obstruction piece, stopping exactly with the cut out gap fitting over image A on the lower and in turn revealing its own Image A, forming the whole picture. (See the roughly drawn diagram). This exactness is what caused the issues, the lining up of pictures and the cutting of windows and obstruction pieces were as complicated as this explanation.

The final effect is a postcard showing a traditional set of Edinburgh views which is transformed when a tab is pushed in following the wind direction. The scene changes from the well known tranquil vistas to the images of mayhem and destruction on January 3rd 2012.