So it feels
like the last few weeks have been a (relative) hive of activity for the ex-members of Saloon
and their extended families, with our Rock-Family Tree seeming to spread its
branches further.
One of the
things I had been putting off for ages was getting the two Saloon synth
serviced. The guy I have been using for almost 15 years now is the best in the
business; the moog rogue is playing better than ever and the Moog Opus 3
finally has a working string section. The strings have never worked so this is
a big deal to me (but probably not of much interest to anyone else reading
this.)
Three tracks
from the July 2001 Saloon Peel session were aired again by the brilliant Gideon
Coe on his 6 Music Show. Someone emailed Gideon to say that he had fond
memories of us at Truck Fest (hopefully from the great 2003 show as opposed to
the ropey 2000 one where we were compared to The Corrs).
The Saloon
ex-members have spoken a fair bit about setting up a Saloon Bandcamp, giving
fans the chance to buy enhanced versions of the albums with extra bits and bobs.
Hopefully we can make that happen soon. In the meantime I have set up a
bandcamp for Arthur and Martha
which is looking quite nice. No rarities on there yet (as there aren’t really any)
although you can get the singles at a bargain price, as well as downloads of
the three A&M videos.
Alison and
Mark have started recording their new album for The Left Outsides. News and
links found on their Facebook.
They are also playing in a band The Trimdon Grange Explosion which has a new Facebook page also. I don’t know how the pair of them find the
time to be in so many bands!
Matt has been
doing some work with his other band The
Form Group, in demo-ing some new songs towards a proper album. He is also writing
songs for a new The Leaf Library
album and they have a new 7" single
coming out in June. A picture disc no less.
Mike’s
brother Rob with his Hot Chip hat on, posted a link the other day to a great
cover of William Onyeabor’s ‘Atomic
Bomb’ that he plays guitar on and will be released for a forthcoming remix
album which I think will be out for Record Store Day. Nice moog on the cover
too.
The news for
me is that although I hinted
previously that there might be another Arthur and Martha album in the pipeline,
Alice and I have agreed that the record I have been slowly working-on, probably
shouldn’t be an Arthur and Martha record. This is in part due to Alice’s
commitments to her band Cosines, but perhaps more due to the fact that it
really is an Adam solo album, and it’s very hard to pretend that its anything
else. So instead I will probably release it under my solo-Rodney Cromwell
moniker. Rodney Cromwell was the name I used back in 2002 when I recorded a
song– Radaghast the Brown – for the Bearos Records Tribute
to The Lord of the Rings (my song was inspired by the Spectum Lord of the
Rings game).
I mentioned
Alice’s band Cosines who played last night (which I missed due to family
commitments / general flakiness) well their new single Commuter Love is out
now via Fika Recordings and it’s a glam rock, glittertastic stonker. She
originally wrote it for A&M, which might explain the name-checking of the
old Moog Rogue, but obviously due to my aforementioned flakiness I never got
around to doing anything with it. Anyway
I hope you enjoy it along with everything Alison and Matt are doing – hopefully
one day I will have something new to contribute.
