Seven

THE WHEEL
Things can always be better and things can also be much worse. What things? – things you can’t see because the wheel is spinning too quick. But when it slows down you get to see that those ‘things’ are the spokes which have been holding everything together all this time. If you’re playing it now you’re listening to Nicla Vece on beat box and Alex Lowe on guitar.

DRIVE ON TO MOSCOW
A song retelling the angst of two despotic warriors who reached for the heart of Russia and were seriously vanquished before it. I guess it’s also a metaphor of life in that we can get fixated on a goal that is just unreachable. Ugh – tell me about it! The other thing worth mentioning is that the late Carl Wayne can be heard singing on this (check out the last minute), which places the song’s timeline back to sometime in the last century!

TANYA
A song for love and a song for Russia – it opens with a Russian proverb: ‘We are a dark people’. Originally written about a girl with the cover name of ‘Tanya’ (real name Tamara Bunke), a lover of the revolutionary leader Che Guevara. They both died in Bolivia in the 60s. “Will my name one day be forgotten and nothing of me remain on the Earth?” she wrote in a poem. Extra guitar parts are by Martin Smith.

DON’T LEAVE ME NOW
I’ll do anything. I’ll go where I don’t want to go, I’ll hang out with people I hate, I’ll change my hair style, my religion – Whatever. I’ll do what it takes, just don’t leave me! Guitarists Alex Lowe plus Steve Hudson (in Scotland) helped me get the right flavor of despair for this song about the blackness of separation.

LONG TIME COMING
That train just keeps on rolling and we keep on looking out for the destination promised on the ticket, but it never seems to show up. Never mind, the view is fantastic and you can just sit back and enjoy the journey. And there’s always the guitar playing of Mark Jago and Alex Lowe to listen to.

RED ROSE
I used to share a house with Bob & Megan back in the day. We bumped into each other at a gig: ‘Get up and sing Red Rose’ Bob shouted to me. ‘Red what?’ I asked. I had clean forgotten about this tune along with the situation that called it forth. Was it about a fallen woman or a fallen England, or what? Anyway here it is – refurbished, re-painted and decorated by MOrganisation.

THE GATES OF ETERNITY
Am I dreaming or what? It’s as high as the sky and as wide as forever. I can’t climb over it or go around it. All I can do is sail helpless toward it, listening to the chatter all around: ‘It’s not fair. Somebody should have told us. How come it’s a secret?’ … They all seem to be looking at me. I think they are blaming me for keeping it a secret. So here I am, not keeping it secret any more. Along with me singing you can hear Alex Lowe guitar-ing and Tony Clarkin of Magnum producing.

LOOKOUT ON THE HORIZON
A glimpse into one of those apocalyptic Hollywood futures when cities have become either a refuge or a prison. (This song was probably penned by the same angel who wrote ‘Escape from the Citadel’ for the Earth Rise album!). It wasn’t originally written about Syria but it has become my ode to that conflict (‘Say, can you see, an end to all this agony’). Piano part is by Richard Tandy, guitars by Alex Lowe, and the operatic chorus voice by Lisa Carter.