Other Projects

During the making of our musical Clutterbuck, Carmel who plays the main character Beth, told me she had a band called Beach Head who played various gigs in the locality. “Well, bring them to the studio”, I said and that is exactly what she did.

What a great band! They played four cover songs which you can listen to below. Lovely people and skilled musicians. They recorded these songs live and I was blown away by the energy they put in. Listen to Carmel sing “Weak”. There is such power there demonstrating her ability to sing any genre of song be it a stage performance as in Clutterbuck or solid rock numbers as in these songs.

Songs recorded:

Crosstown Traffic (Foy Vance)
If it Hadn't Been for Love (Steeldrivers)
Saonteria (Sublime)
Weak (Skunkanasie)

The Band:

Carmel Hassell – vocals
Tim Wenman – guitar
Ted Nicholson – drums
'Northern' James – bass

Back in 2005, some friends got married and as a gift I pulled together some musician buddies and we did a couple of comedy songs to celebrate the great day.

The songs were recorded in a day and the CD presented to them.

One of the songs “If You Dress Like Rachel Dunn” is based on the wonderful tune of “Who Do You Think You're Kidding Mr Hitler” and features the Oral Trombone skills of Bowler Hartnet. We wanted a trombone, we didn't have one, nobody could play one so Bowler imitated one – genius!

The song is purely tongue-in-cheek so no offence is intended.

Mark Porch - Guitar
Alan Trimmer - Guitar
Colin Greenaway - Bass
Bowler Hartnet -  Vocal and 'trombone'
Steve Messenger - Percussion
Roger Betts - Mandolin

Production: Roger Betts

The story behind the song

The main characters, two lifelong friends, both in their sixties and miserable old sods in their own right, each with a passionate past time of their own. The first is Peter. His passion is writing, novels, childrens books and the odd rock opera with his mate Roger. The second is Monkey, who since his retirement has pursued his lifelong hobby of becoming a connoisseur of real ale, or in Pete’s language, a p***head.
On a cold, damp, November night, Peter turns up at his writing partners home with a view to working on Roger’s latest masterpiece, with Monkey tagging along as he was down for a visit with Peter and his family. After an hour or so, Roger, being the decent sort of chap that he is, offered them some refreshments. He had been told on many previous occasions that Money did not appreciate Lager or watery, weak, tasteless beers and so he offered a can of a famous beer from Yorkshire, the beer that had been immortalised for many years on the television adverts by a character called Arkwright,
On seeing the can, Monkey placed his hands affectionately on Roger’s shoulders, smiled and said,
“Roger, you plonker, if you ever give me this stuff again, I’ll shoot ya or stick it up your bleep!”
And so, within the next hour the not so classic masterpiece, entitled ‘The Bloody Wrong Beer’ was created.

The song is purely tongue-in-cheek so no offence is intended.
Enjoy!

Roger Betts - Music and Instrumentation
Peter Earp - Lyrics and vocal

Production: Roger Betts and Peter Earp

A former drummer for the Blah Street Gang, Steve Philips came to us one day with a song he had written some years back called 'Oh Julie'.

We heard an old version on a reel to reel tape recorder (remember them?) and liked it so much we decided to re-record it. Here is the result.

Done in 1950's style, this is such a sweet song with close backing harmonies and sung by Martin. Steve, of course, did the drumming.

Drums: Steve Philips
Guitars: Jerry Baker, Roger Betts
Keyboards: Roger Betts
Bass: Roger Betts
Written by Steve Philips
Produced by The Blah Street Gang