The Legendary 10 Seconds

11^th October 2020

At the present time Lord Zarquon is very busy recording some of his Prophets of Zarquon songs for a second album. I would imagine that he is enjoying a well earned rest from my interesting guitar playing. I am still writing new songs. The latest one is about the explorer Percy Fawcett who was born in Torquay. I have recently finished reading a very interesting book about him called the Lost City of Z by David Grann. I was a bit dissapointed that it didn't mention anything about Percy's time in Torquay.

PERCY FAWCETT

HE WAS BORN IN A HOUSE IN TORQUAY

COMMISSIONED WITH THE ROYAL ARTILLERY

A NOVEL BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

WAS INSPIRED BY PERCY ON THE AMAZON SOIL

EL DORADO AND THE LOST CITY OF Z

AN OBSSESSION ALWAYS IN HIS HEAD

THE AMAZON FOREST A LIVING HELL

PERCY FAWCETT THE EXPLORER KNEW IT SO WELL

IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR HE FACED DANGER AGAIN

HE WITNESSED THE HORROR OF SO MANY SLAIN

AND THE HORRORS OF THE JUNGLE WERE JUST AS BAD

THE AMAZON COULD DRIVE THE BRAVEST MAN MAD

EL DORADO AND THE LOST CITY OF Z

AN OBSSESSION ALWAYS IN HIS HEAD

THE AMAZON FOREST A LIVING HELL

PERCY FAWCETT THE EXPLORER KNEW IT SO WELL

SO STRANGE TO THINK HE WAS BORN HERE

I HAD WONDERED WHERE AND IT WAS SO NEAR

A SHAME THAT DEVONIA VILLA HAS GONE

THE SIGHT OF SHIRLEY TOWERS FEELS SO WRONG

EL DORADO AND THE LOST CITY OF Z

AN OBSESSION ALWAYS IN HIS HEAD

THE AMAZON FOREST A LIVING HELL

PERCY FAWCETT THE EXPLORER KNEW IT SO WELL

As well as writing new songs I have also been doing some recording with Phil Swann for another album in a similar vein to the Acoustic Almanac only this one will be a Semi Acoustic Almanac. Phil has recently purchased some new music software and has become very interested in the mastering process. He is enjoying being able to learn how to do a bit of mastering for some of my songs.
Editors note: But hopefully not ones Lord Z has been involved with.

27^th September 2020

Here are the lyrics to my latest song called Cadewell House. It makes me think about all of the children that played with me on the green at Cadewell Park Road. Tony Perry, Simon French, Jonathan Gibbs, Duncan Jones, Robert Fraser and Jethro Miles were just some of them. We had a wonderful time in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Cadewell House

A naval man purchased Cadewell field

Part of his land on which to build

The grandest house Shiphay has known

The admiral died far from his home

On his ship far from his home

As children we played on the green

Near to where that house had been

Near to where Cadewell House had been

The estate passed to the eldest son

Then purchased by Horatio Carlyon

See where the town hall stands

A business man who bought that land

An architect and a business man

As children we played on the green

Near to where that house had been

Near to where Cadewell House had been

After Mr Carlyon died

Mr Chapman retired there to reside 

His wife like Dresden china

Of the ladies none were finer

None were as kind as her

As children we played on the green

Near to where that house had been

Near to where Cadewell House had been

It's a shame the house was knocked down

The Yankee army came to our town

Their depot where the house had been

They built the road around the green

Cadewell Park Road around the green

As children we played on the green

Near to where that house had been

Near to where Cadewell House had been

Near to where Cadewell House had been

13^th September 2020

Back in the late 1990s John Kelland wrote a booklet about the history of the district of Shiphay in Torquay. My parents purchased a copy and I remember reading it several years ago. Last week I had another read through of this booklet and once again found it interesting. It brought back happy memories of my childhood growing up in Shiphay in the 1960s and 1970s. Remembering the country lane next to the infant school for instance which has just about disappeared. I always thought it was a shame when the school lost one of it's playing fields when a new housing estate was built. We used to have our sports day on that field.

Of particular interest was the section about Cadewell House which was demolished before I was born. One of my work colleagues lives in a house on the site of where the Georgian house used to be and she used to visit the library to try to find out some information about it. As a child I used to play on the green in Cadewell Park Road which was part of the extensive grounds of the estate of Cadewell House. When I first started playing in Cadewell Park Road with my friends the green was covered in stinging nettles and we had great fun cutting pathways through those nettles. My hands had a few blisters on them after a busy day of whacking down nettles with a stick. When the stinging nettles disappeared the green was not very green and I remember it being a field of brown earth. We would then have mud fights! Later on there was grass and then we used to play football and cricket on it. I recall that there were a few relics such as the remains of a concrete sand bag from when it was used as an American fuel depot during the second world war.

I am currently in the process of writing a song about Cadewell House and if I finish it I will try to remember to put the lyrics onto this blog

30^th August 2020

Graham Moores has sent me some CDs that he has put together with very lovely artwork. One of the CDs contains a collection of songs of Iain Smith and this reminded me of my first day at Torquay Boys Grammar school. The first person I sat next to in the school room was Iain.This was when I discovered that there was an alternative spelling of my christian name.

Iain formed a band with another Torquay Boys Grammar school chum called Steve Rawson in the sixth form called The Gatecrashers, who then became the Shift. I saw at least one Shift gig where they played with two bass players which is very unusual. The drummer in the Shift was Steve Milton who had previously played in the legendary Torquay punk band Systum. This punk band was fronted by Martin Johnson who was also the lead vocalist in Decontrol. Martin had a shop in Market Street in the 1980's called Individual Fashions.

It always makes me laugh when Steve Honeywill tells me the story about when he was in a band called the Walking Wounded ( later called MIA ) with Steve Rawson. They paid a visit to Martin's shop to see if he could arrange a gig for them, I think it was Steve Rawson's idea. Martin said       “ We want bands Rawson that are threatening the system not funky salsa rubbish.” Martin actually used a rather more offensive word than rubbish, one beginning with c and ending in p.

I remember that Iain Smith went to Exeter University to study after our last year at school. I would see him occasionally but then in the very early eighties I didn't see him for ages until I happened to visit the rehearsal room in Swan Street. This was somewhere that most of the local bands used to rehearse. Iain was rehearsing with a new band and Richard Hele ( previously in the Golgotha Boys ) was playing bass. I think he had a really rubbish Satellite bass that had originally belonged to Gary Long who then gave it to me. Later possibly I had given it to Richard? The machine heads were made of plastic and one had broken off so that Richard had to tune it with a pair of pliers. I recall Phil Andrews once saying to me that you only had to blow at the machine heads of a Satellite guitar and it would go out of tune.