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        Pete Atkin >> Music >> Lakeside Sessions
        
(Message started by: Jan on Today at 01:22)

Title: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Jan on Today at 01:22

I've started a new thread because the other will get complicated enough!

on 12/05/06 at 16:15:08, Jim Grozier wrote :

I'd be interested to know the age of the Lakeside songs. When it came out I assumed they were all new, but then someone has mentioned on the forum that "The Eye of the Universe" was previously available in a very different format; also I think Pete mentioned at a concert that one of the songs had taken him years to write the music for, so I suppose that counts as new (but can't remember which one!)

Thats quite a tough query but snce I'm having trouble producng anything shorter than a top 42 of Atkin/James songs I thought I'd tackle it instead.

At least I've made an attempt but I know that Pete, Steve and a load of MVs have more knowledge about what happened to the songs between 1970 and 2000 than I have.
The major collections were:
(a) The Pathway Demos 1975 (the demos for the seventh album which wasn't made in the seventies)
and
(b) The souvenir album The Party's Moving On 1969 (very limited number produced and worth a fortune if you find one, possibly a four figure sum).
Other songs came from TV shows some were performed by Julie Covington and not Pete. I think Dreamboat was the one that took a long time to write.

Volume 1: History and Geography

1 HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY Performed at Monyash Festival Aug 1997. First performance?
2 CANOE Pathway demos Sept 1975
3 OVER THE HIGH SIDE Written for Pete’s play A&R 1977
4 MY BROTHER'S KEEPER Pathway demos Sept 1975
5 THE MAGIC WASN'T THERE The Party’s moving on 1969
6 DREAMBOAT First performed at SoD 2000 Milton Keynes
7 I FEEL LIKE MIDNIGHT Performed Empress Folk Club Feb 1998 but first performance?
8 A MAN WHO'S BEEN AROUND Clip on the web is from the 1970 TV show The Party’s Moving on
9 SUDDEN ARRIVALS The Party’s moving on 1969
10 FEMME FATALE Performed in 1999 at FoD Monyash but first performance??
11 URBAN GUERRILLA Pathway demos Sept 1975
12 GET IT OUT OF YOUR HEAD The Party’s moving on 1969
13 LET'S TRY THE WHOLE THING AGAIN Pathway demos Sept 1975
14 WISEACRE Pathway demos Sept 1975

Volume 2: A Dream of Fair Women

1 A DREAM OF FAIR WOMEN Performed at The Railway Winchester 1997 but first performance?
2 ICE CREAM MAN The Beautiful Changes Julie Covington 1971
3 THE EYE OF THE UNIVERSE Pathway demos Sept 1975
4 COLD BITCHES Pathway demos Sept 1975
5 WITH HER IT GOES DEEPER Single Julie Covington 1972
6 THE TROPHIES OF MY LOVERS GONE The Party’s moving on (1969)
7 YOU ALONE WILL BE MY LAST ADVENTURE Performed in 1999 at FoD Monyash but first performance??
8 LANDSCAPES Pathway demos Sept 1975
9 SEARCH AND DESTROY Pathway demos Sept 1975
10 MORE IN ANGER THAN IN SORROW Performed on TV show: What are you doing after the show. Sept 1970
11 EARLY DAYS TV show The Party’s Moving on 1970
12 THE COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER Pathway demos Sept 1975
13 THE TIES THAT BIND YOU Originally performed 1969 but rewritten 2001 for Bath Festival
14 JUST FOR ME (AMY'S BLUES) Written for Pete’s play A&R 1977

I know the alignment will be horrible! Corrections please.

Jan

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Secret Drinker on Today at 17:55

Hi Jan - thanks for the interesting list!

Not a correction, but I'm pretty sure I Feel Like Midnight definitely was first performed at the Islington Folk Club on 3/12/1998 (my unofficial review on my own PA webpage says "...the next was a real surprise and something of a scoop for those present. A brand new song, described by Pete as 'work in progress', called I Feel Like Midnight". If anyone's at all interested, the review can be found here (http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~gunning/paifcgig.html).)

I'm also pretty sure YAWBMFA was first performed at FoD 99, too.

Cheers

Paul

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Jan on Today at 21:04

Thanks Paul. I thought I'd read that I feel like midnight was quite recent but was far too lazy to check!

Its just occurred to me that Pete's pop song I can't let you go (http://www.peteatkin.com/da_r.htm)written for A&R (1977) has some melodic similarity to Femme fatale which might make the latter an earlier song than I'd supposed.

Jan

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by S J Birkill on Today at 22:31

In his review of the Islington gig (http://www.peteatkin.com/islrevgs.htm) for Smash Flops, Gerry Smith wrote:

Quote:

Hard on the heels of RAIN-WHEELS was a piece of pure gold. I FEEL LIKE MIDNIGHT made its debut. A completely new song, the lyric of which was faxed to Pete by Clive James only a fortnight ago. Truly a case of work in progress, a blinding song in the making and a distillation of the things I like best about Pete's music. A strong melody, with rich, evocative and eccentric harmony. Definite echoes of THE MAGIC WASN'T THERE and THE DOUBLE AGENT along with many transient references to the style of composition identified throughout the MV postings. A must for the seventh album and high on the order too.

Of the same moment, Richard Corfield (http://www.peteatkin.com/islrevrc.htm) wrote:

Quote:

"I ask your indulgence for this; this is a work in progress," a handful of minor chords and then, "This song is based on a phrase that haunted me and Clive for a very long time, a wonderful 1948 film called FORCE OF EVIL which was written and directed by a man who suffered greatly at the hands of the McCarthy witch hunts, Abraham Polonsky. It's a New York gangster film, a film noir, and the line, 'I feel like midnight and I don't know what tomorrow will be...' begins it." And so to the first airing of the all-new (as in two weeks old!) Atkin/James song, I FEEL LIKE MIDNIGHT.

Now that gives us what must be the ultimate time coordinate, doesn't it! I'd guess the re-awakening of Clive's lyric-writing powers may have been inspired by the Buxton (http://www.peteatkin.com/leaflet.htm) collaboration only a couple of months before.

SJB

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by David Morgan on 07.12.06 at 14:29

Jan

Fascinating list for us Lakeside fans - Thanks again. A query about History & Geography: I'm surprised by the 1997 date because I'd somehow pigeonholed this song as 'a young man's lyric'. So I now wonder whether I was plain wrong, or could it have been lying around unperformed for a couple of decades? Maybe Pete will enlighten us about this and the other question marks on your note!

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Gerry Smith on 08.12.06 at 14:16

David, much of the material on the Lakeside Sessions was far from new at the time. As far as I recall, it was a collection of 'back burner' stuff, songs which had not made it onto albums previously, demos etc as well as at least one from A&R.

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Jim Grozier on 08.12.06 at 14:43

Thanks for all the info, guys. I originally thought that The Lakeside sessions was the result of Pete and Clive getting together again, and writing a whole load of new songs! However, the odd one that is genuinely new is proof enough that the songwriting talents are still there.

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by David Morgan on 10.12.06 at 21:08

Gerry

Thanks for your reply above. Yes - I knew that most of the Lakeside songs dated from the 70s, and this was reconfirmed by Jan's list, which gave performance/demo dates going way back. But for History and Geography we had 1997 as first perfomance date, so I'm still curious about that one's origins.

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Ian Chippett on 11.12.06 at 07:15

For some reason, I've always supposed that History And Geography goes back to very early days. Perhaps it's the plane-flying-into-the homeland image which it shares with Prince Of Acquitaine. If so, I can't understand why it didn't get included on one of the early albums.

Ian C

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Jan on 11.12.06 at 11:11

I understand from the archives that the first Monyash concert was videoed and a limited number sold to the lucky MVs at that time. Could someone in possession of the video check it to see what, if anything, Pete said about History and Geography in his introduction?
Jan

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Jim Grozier on 12.12.06 at 09:54

I wonder if History & Geography was the one that Pete said had taken him years to write the music for? That might explain the conundrum - old lyric, new song.

I remember Pete talking about this when I went to see Pete & Clive at the Gardner Centre in Brighton in 200? (sorry don't remember date but it is probably on a spreadsheet somewhere!)and I'm pretty sure he sang "History & Geography" at that gig too, because I remember one of them mentioning the quote from Shakespeare ("For I am all the daughters of my father's house and all the brothers too").

Jim.

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Pete Atkin on 12.12.06 at 10:55

I can't date H&G precisely, but I know it was around and on the possibles list at the time of the Pathway demo sessions. I've no idea why it wasn't included at the time, apart from there simply not being time to do everything. The same goes for Femme Fatale. And, yes, I did cannibalise the music for the 'hit' song in 'A&R'.

Among the songs that took me years to figure out how to do are Prayers Against the Hitman and Dreamboat. Maybe one of those is the one Jim remembers?

The main impetus for the Lakeside Sessions was more to put down some kind of version of previously unrecorded songs rather than to make a new album. That's the reason there are some oddities and some really old things in there. As before I started in on the things I most fancied doing. In the end I figured I'd go ahead and make pretty much all of them available on the basis that most MVs would be interested. That proved to be not exactly the case and I think now perhaps I'd have done better to put together a single more coherent album. But this is now and that was then.

Onward!

Pete

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Richard_Hales on 12.12.06 at 16:53

Pete, I have just bought LS and only just joined MV.

I have most of your original output on worn out LPs and have posted a request for downloadable early albums so I can enjoy your music without the clicks and distortion. (See No More Deleted Albums...)

If you have been asked this before, please accept my apologies, but why no "guitar" songs on LS?

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Pete Atkin on 12.12.06 at 18:11

Hi Richard -- I've just responded to your post on the No More Deleted Albums? thread, without having read this first, so -

No particular reason for TLS being so heavily keyboard-based, not a conscious one anyway. It was just that we got a good little set-up going in the (tiny) studio, and it seemed to make sense to carry on putting tracks down using the keyboard, and only to think about moving on to a guitar-led set-up afterwards. In practice, I never did get around to that second phase - not that there were all that many guitar-based songs waiting around. I think I tried one or two things, but they didn't seem to fit with the mood of the rest. A lot of the tracks do have guitar on them, of course, but not in that featured way. Realistically, I suppose it reflects the fact that even when I was gigging back in the seventies with only a guitar, I always thought of myself as primarily a piano player - my guitar playing was always functional at best. Come to think of it, so was my piano playing. So, no answer, really. Sorry.

Pete

Title: You Tube
Post by Ian Chippett on 12.12.06 at 19:34

I have just (belatedly) discovered You Tube in all its glory and immediately entered the name of our hero and what did I get but this? You have to wait about 30 seconds to see the name light up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT9dzQQLwa4

Ian C

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Jim Grozier on 13.12.06 at 12:04

on 12/12/06 at 10:55:46, Pete Atkin wrote :

Among the songs that took me years to figure out how to do are Prayers Against the Hitman and Dreamboat. Maybe one of those is the one Jim remembers?

It was probably Dreamboat. I hadn't heard Prayers Against The Hitman before about last week.

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Secret Drinker on 13.12.06 at 13:35

on 12/13/06 at 12:04:36, Jim Grozier wrote :

It was probably Dreamboat. I hadn't heard Prayers Against The Hitman before about last week.

I commented on Dreamboat: "The lyric had been around for a while and Pete had only recently been able to see a way into it" based on what Pete said at the time - this was at the SoD2K (http://www.peteatkin.com/sodrevpg.htm) event, where Dreamboat was premiered. Mind you, Hitman was also first heard there, but I didn't note anything similar down about that (could just be an admission on my part though).

Cheers

Paul

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Gerry Smith on 13.12.06 at 16:43

Reviewing the Islington 1999 gig, I wrote:

"But what comes first for Pete, piano or guitar? He steadfastly refused to be drawn on this point. I suppose it could be a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other but I still reckon he'd reach for the guitar on an even field. As on every occasion in the past year when I've seen Pete, the room was plunged into silence with all eyes to the front as he reached for his guitar and played SENIOR CITIZENS, a truly beautiful song. Spellbinding. And all those chords right the way up the neck of the instrument in THE PRINCE OF AQUITAINE and other songs? It just seems to me that he goes for the guitar when a song needs maximum effect which suggests a greater instinctive affinity with the instrument."

and today, Pete Wrote"

"Realistically, I suppose it reflects the fact that even when I was gigging back in the seventies with only a guitar, I always thought of myself as primarily a piano player - my guitar playing was always functional at best. Come to think of it, so was my piano playing."

Well, I'm sure we'll take that with a pinch of salt on both counts. But how wrong it seems I was!

Gerry
Eating my hat in Five Ashes.

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Secret Drinker on 13.12.06 at 16:59

on 12/13/06 at 13:35:25, Secret Drinker wrote :

(could just be an admission on my part though).

(Doh!) please read 'omission' for 'admission' (I was stone cold sober, too)

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Ian Chippett on 13.12.06 at 18:07

Pete Wrote"

"Realistically, I suppose it reflects the fact that even when I was gigging back in the seventies with only a guitar, I always thought of myself as primarily a piano player - my guitar playing was always functional at best. Come to think of it, so was my piano playing."

Then Gerry wrote:

Well, I'm sure we'll take that with a pinch of salt on both counts. But how wrong it seems I was!

Now pull yourself together Gerry: I was standing behind you when Pete said exactly the same thing at Buxton all those years ago! In fact, I don't think anybody plays the guitar if they can play the piano: the problem is guitars are much cheaper and transportable. One question: why did Pete not play the piano on "Perfect Moments?"

Ian C

Title: Re: Lakeside Sessions
Post by Pete Atkin on 17.12.06 at 10:27

Well, Ian, same reasons as I didn't play piano on all those other tracks on King At Nightfall and Road Of Silk: for one thing, Mike Moran was/is a far better player than me, and for another with studio time as tight as it was I wanted to be able to give maximum attention to the *whole* of the instrumental performance; if I'd been playing I'd necessarily have been thinking mainly about myself. Yes, I know I did play on Secret Drinker, but maybe I'd acquired a bit more (misplaced?) self-confidence by then; the record might have been better if I'd stuck to the previous plan.

Best - Pete