Helen McCookerybook

Thursday, January 09, 2025

Day Nine

Day nine of the Madvent calendar, counting down to release date 17th January on @tinyglobalmusic.bsky.social : Margaux Mix, a chillout interlude.

Album available here to pre-order: https://helenmcc.bandcamp.com/album/showtunes-from-the-shadows

Wednesday, January 08, 2025

Shoes Airing on Upstairs Pub Windowsill in Northumberland Last Summer

Countdown to Release Date: Ten

Great review from Rocking Magpie

Big thanks to Alan Harrison for this!

https://rockingmagpie.wordpress.com/2025/01/08/helen-mccookerybook-showtunes-from-the-shadows/

Tuesday, January 07, 2025

Woman with Trolley and Flowers in Tufnell Park

I have just been thinking about Janice Long, and what a wonderfully tactful and gracious woman she was. Janice can take the credit for me being confident enough to record and mix my own songs. During lockdown she phoned me out of the blue, and asked me to record a session for her Radio Wales show.

We had a long chat; her husband had brought their baby in a pram to see Helen and the Horns, apparently. And she remembered me all that time.

I couldn't say no to that, could I?

But I was at home, with only my rudimentary home recording equipment. I just sat there and worked at it until I thought it sounded OK, then sent it to Ian Button to master (he does perfect mastering for radio). Bless his cotton socks, when he sent it back to me so I could forward it to Janice, he wrote that he hadn't had to do very much: just temper some of the high end sounds.

When the tracks were done and delivered, I listened to them on the show and they sounded great. No need to record anywhere else for my own stuff any more.

Janice didn't tell me she was poorly, but I think she must have had an inkling, and must have decided to tidy up everything in her life. So I didn't know she was terminally ill, and found out she had died and the funeral was being arranged from Twitter.

I wish I could have told her the impact that her kind-hearted offer of a session has had on me. I can feel my brain making musical decisions in a really confident way, not just for me but for other people that I work with (and for).

I can't say 'Always thank people as you go along' because of course I did that when we were chatting and laughing. But it's interesting to realise that some gifts that people give you take a long time to embed themselves within you. So thank you again, Janice! You were one hell of a dude!

Just Arrived!

Actual vinyl albums and CDs have just arrived on the doorstep.

Here they are, the little beauties!

Get yours here: https://helenmcc.bandcamp.com/album/showtunes-from-the-shadows

Countdown to Release Date: 11

Day 11 on the 'Showtunes from the Shadows' Madvent calendar: 'The Porter Rose at Dawn', a song inspired by Gina Arnold's Raymond Chandler project, with some lovely lap steel playing by Jack Hayter.

Album release date 17th January on Tiny Global Productions
Available on Bandcamp: https://helenmcc.bandcamp.com/album/showtunes-from-the-shadows

Sunday, January 05, 2025

Madvent Calendar Countdown Starts Tomorrow

Friday, January 03, 2025

Two Come Along At Once

It seemed odd to be listening to Riley and Coe and not drawing, but my friend Alison told me that Gideon Coe would be playing something of mine on his show last night. My drawing things were upstairs in the Cold Room, so I sat down with the Byline Times instead and listened in. It was great to hear The Boards of Canada again, and I enjoyed The Larks as well. Everything, in fact.

Shortly after 10, he announced The Chefs and played Records and Tea. I thought that was it, but much to my surprise the chords of Reaching for Hope twanged through the airwaves straight afterwards!

Link here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0026b5n

Thursday, January 02, 2025

2024 And Beyond

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?)