Life is a jumble sale of good fortune, bad luck and a winding road in between: January saw Gina and me perform Beefheart the Musical to a full house at Bury Museum and Art Gallery. By heck we did, after a mad scramble to write the thing in December. Bloop babloop budella bloop!
And after a lot of blood, sweat and tears, The Chefs vinyl compilation saw the light of day at last.It looks, and sounds beautiful. It was worth going to Yuba studios the December before when I had a gig in Hull, to meet Lee who remastered the 'lost' songs and made them fit on the new format. Here it is, if you didn't know already: https://damagedgoods.co.uk/discography/the-chefs-records-tea-the-best-f-the-chefs-and-lost-second-album/
I did loads of gigs including a couple as a member of Robert's band, playing his lovely songs. Alas, at the end of the year a spell of bad health meant that I had to cancel a gig, and those last-minute Christmas gigs were a no-no. But it was great to finish off with three wonderful gigs with Rachel Lovell and her band the Loveables. The last one was a gorgeous bijou gig downstairs at the Betsey Trotwood, surely one of London's best venues. The Betsey bends itself into all sorts of different shapes to suit whoever needs it, and that afternoon is probably one of my favourite gigs ever, full of friends and family and crucially, the other Dollymixtures. Outside, it was cold and miserable, but inside it was warm and affectionate and stuffed to the gills. I was offered a gig in Lisbon and can't remember now whether I gave them my contact details: time will tell. And of course let's not forget the other fab gigs- the joy of Ullapool, my home village of Wylam (an absolutely incredible night!), and lots of other amazing places: The Cumberland Arms with the ever-tuneful Girl With The Replaceable Head (sounding better than ever), the Talleyrand in Manchester with David Lance Callahan (fantastic to see so many friends at the gig!), Leith Depot (same!), The Con Club, Lewes, The Salvation Army Annexe (Canterbury), Soho Poly, and more. Big thanks as always to Caryne for supporting artists like me through thick and thin, and to the hearty-voiced 'youngsters' in Ullapool and Leith who bellowed their way merrily through At The Bathing Pond and warmed the cockles of my heart.
Of course, a large part of the year was spent recording Showtunes from the Shadows. Once again, the kitchen was the recording studio, but this time around after what I learned in engineering Drawing on my Dreams it was even more enjoyable, especially when it came to adding in the contributions from other musicians. Lester Square, Robert Rotifer, Terry Edwards and Jack Hayter home recorded their parts; Gina Birch, James McCallum and Winston Blissett came round and did theirs live. Then it was mixy mixy mixy, shakey shakey, shakey time; a play by Gideon Coe on the BBC6 Riley and Coe show sealed the deal, and the record will be coming out on January the 17th. You can listen here (it's available as a vinyl album, a CD and as a digital release): https://helenmcc.bandcamp.com/album/showtunes-from-the-shadows
Then there was the ever-wonderful KISMIF, powered by Paul Guerra's unshakeable energy backed up by Andy Bennett. No longer in academia, I proposed a collaborative political songwriting workshop for their summer school, which was a surprising hit. Two young people from a politically censorious country told me that they'd never be able to express themselves like this in their homeland, which justified the whole thing, really. An afternoon spent in Cristal Palace Gardens with Palmolive followed by an evening eating in the Casa Du Musica food court with Christine Feldman, Amina Boubia, Angels Bronsoms, Laura Way, and Paloma restored my faith in conversation and in the breaking-down of barriers through collaborative thinking. Long live international, intercultural talking, down with conflict and war! (which has never, ever solved anything, has it?)
