The Legendary 10 Seconds

19^th May 2019

On Monday morning Lord Z recorded Pippa singing for the song about the Household expenses of Elizabeth of York. Then in the afternoon I drove up to Ludlow with Lord Z and we stayed overnight at a Travelodge hotel. I spent most of the journey and evening listening to him going on and on about the Game of Thrones TV series. He's been telling me all about it ever since I recently started recording a song about Elizabeth Lambert's walk of shame during the reign of Richard III. He says I should watch this programme but I think I'm too busy writing songs. The Game of Thrones also sounds even more gruesome than the battle of Towton and the Wars of the Roses!

On Tuesday morning we met up with Philip Hume, secretary of the Mortimer History Society and John Challis in Orleton. We were there to record John's vocal talents for a comedy song about the Mortimers. We had booked the local village hall for this and John's wife Carol, commented about the new kitchen there, that John had opened. She said he had also opened the new toilet. Here is a link to the 2018 unveiling of this new kitchen with John as the guest of honour.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/local-hubs/south-shropshire/ludlow/2018/11/24/john-challis-opens-new-kitchen-at-village-hall-near-orleton/

After a long delay the Mer De Mort album became available in digital format on 1st May 2019. So you can find it on itunes, Spotify, etc, even on the Japanese version of Amazon.

It's always quite exciting when Lord Z comes over on a Monday evening with one of my songs that he has finished recording and mastering. This Monday evening was a particularly good one with three tracks finished for the next albums. One is an instrumental called 'Lady of the Rivers' for the Instrumental Legends album and the other two for Devon Roses. I was especially pleased with the finished version of 'Fatal Match' with some lovely singing by Bridgit England including lots of her nice harmonies and a backing vocal sung by Jules Jones. The other song is 'Sanctuary' which I started recording several years ago and at last it is finished! I am now hoping that Lord Z can finish my songs called 'Act of Accord' and 'Duke of York's Wife'. Jules is singing the lead on both of these songs with a backing vocal sung by Bridgit on 'Act of Accord’.

By coincidence I saw Sarah Gristwood on TV this week talking about Beatrice Potter with Alan Titchmarsh. Sarah is an author who wrote a book that I read earlier this year called Blood Sisters and it was this book that gave me the lyrics for the 'Fatal Match' song. I purchased the book with a Christmas WH Smith gift card given to me by Jerry Brimicombe.

I have finished reading a book about John Howard by J Ashdown-Hill. This book gave me the idea for my song about Elizabeth Lambert. I an sent an mp3 of the song to Phil Swann (of the Estuary Buoys) to see if he might be interested in helping me with the recording of the song. He has recorded himself playing his 12 string acoustic guitar and mandolin for my song and has sent wav files of the recordings. I have been able to import these files into the Logic project of the song. I have been very impressed with his mandolin playing at the two gigs that I have seen of his band and he has told me that he also plays the bouzouki. I am always keen to record different instruments and it would be great if I could record him playing his bouzouki on one of my songs.

I am now in the process of recording a song about a science fiction story called 'The man who Evolved' which was written by Edmond Hamilton and was published in 1931 in Wonder Stories. I remember reading this story in my early teens in my Dad's car in the car park of Torquay Technical College and at the time it was the most exciting story I had ever read.

22^nd April 2019

On Monday 15^th April I recorded a new guitar solo for an instrumental called 'Trinity'. I started recording this instrumental a few years ago but so far it's not been finished. Lord Z now wants to add a few more tunes to the proposed 'Instrumental Legends' album so perhaps we may be able to now finish the 'Trinity' instrumental. Anyway I felt inspired to go back to it and quickly worked out a guitar solo which I am quite pleased with.

The next day Jules Jones came over in the morning and I recorded her singing three songs. Two of the songs, 'Over my Shoulder' and 'Bone Cupboard' are for a CD she is going to give to her mother as a present for Easter. The third song is the most recent one that I have composed called 'The Duke of York's Wife'. In the evening I recorded some lead acoustic guitar for the song and the following evening I recorded myself playing an electric guitar solo on the same song.

Later in the week I managed to do some work on the revised edition of my book which I think I will publish after the Devon Roses album has been finished. I want to include all the lyrics for that album. This is what I have just written for part of the chapter about the Mer de Mort album.

Philip Hume wrote historical narratives to introduce the songs and we recorded the actor John Challis reading these. My wife had briefly met John at a flower festival at Powderham Castle where he had a stall signing copies of a new book he had written. That evening my wife told me about this and said that John's book was about the garden he had created at his house in the grounds of a former abbey. She couldn't remember the name of the abbey but said it began with the letter 'W'. I think she said that John Challis mad mentioned that it had something to do with the Mortimers and she told John that her husband was in the process of recording an album for the Mortimers. He then said that there was a Mortimer castle near his house. As soon as she told me this I said that it must be Wigmore. I then sent an email to Philip Hume about this and he replied telling me that John Challis was the patron of the Mortimer History Society! I asked if it would be possible to arrange for John to be recorded reading the narratives. To cut a long story short by happy chance we were able to do this when John visited the Palace theatre in Paignton, Torbay where he gave an especially amusing talk about his very interesting career as an actor, most notably as Boycie in Only Fools Horses. Lord Zarquon recorded John reading the narratives at the theatre in the afternoon before his show on Saturday 25^th October 2018. 

8^th April 2019

I spent Saturday afternoon promoting the History Book Part One album via my laptop while listening to Torquay United playing away against Woking on BBC Radio Devon. It was very stressful and I had difficulty concentrating on the promotion possibilities, the promoting of the new album and the possible promotion of Torquay United football club. Despair when I heard that Torquay had hit the woodwork and then Woking scored, followed by elation when we equalised via Jamie Reid, further despair when Woking went ahead by two more goals ( I nearly switched off the radio, there's only so much that a Gulls football fan can take! ), hope when Torquay got a second goal near the end of the game ( the vision of John Cleese in a ditch in the film clockwise comes back once again... I can cope with failure it's the hope that I can't endure or something along those lines. Any supporter of TUAFC should be able to relate to this sentiment ), joy when Torquay get a very late equaliser, and total relief when I hear the game has finished. Oh and I can get back to concentrating on The Legendary Ten Seconds. Well it was another crunch game! There's another one next weekend at home to Eastbourne.

Back to some music. The next day, Sunday afternoon, 7^th April I recorded myself playing acoustic rhythm guitar for my new song about Richard III's mother. I have recorded two versions, one in F# and one in E. I've done this because I'm not sure which is the best one for Jules Jones to sing. I went through this new song with Jules last week and I think we decided that E was better for her but I didn't make a note of it and it might be that it was F#. In the evening Fleur Elliott came over to my house  and I recorded her singing some backing vocals on a song called 'The Act of Accord'. The song is about Richard III's father being killed at the battle of Wakefield, so yes another jolly tune with miserable lyrics. I recorded the song several years ago but have now decided that most of my guitar playing on it was total rubbish and have deleted the worst of it as well as my singing but retained Jules Jones as the lead vocalist. Also recorded Fleur singing on a track about the most famous of the Roger Mortimers ( the one who deposed Edward II ). The song is called 'A Rare Romance' and didn't make it onto the Mer de Mort album but perhaps it could be included on History Book Part Two?

This morning Bridgit England visited me so that I could record her singing on some of my songs. 

She has let me record her singing lead and harmony vocals on 'I Greet You Well', lead and harmony on 'Fatal Match' and a harmony vocal on the chorus of 'The Act of Accord'. I have changed the lyrics and chords of 'Right Trusty Sister' and turned it into 'I Greet You Well'.

Sir Ian and Lord Z have a lot of work to do

Lots of things happening for the LTS at the moment. Graham has finished the artwork for the 'History Book Part One' album and has also finished the cover for Part Two. I now need to get all the files submitted to CD Baby for the digital distribution and make a master CD so that the physical album CD's can be duplicated. 

Lord Zarquon has finished another song for the 'Devon Roses' album. This song is called 'Wife to the Kingmaker' with Elaine singing the lead vocal. This one was inspired by a book of the same title which was written by Sandra Heath Wilson. “Hear the scratching of the quill, the smell of hot wax to make the seal” are some of the lyrics and those words are in the first page of her book.

I am in the middle of writing another song, this one is about Richard III's mother. After and if I get this one finished then I am going to make a concerted effort to stop writing songs about Richard III. Perhaps I could get an entry in the Guinness Book of Records as the person that has written the most songs about Richard III? I'd really like to record a science fiction concept album about some of my favourite stories that I read in a book called 'Before the Golden Age.' Would also like to make a comedy album but not sure if Lord Z would be able to cope with this!

Just before Lord Z came over to see me this morning, I recorded Elaine singing a small harmony vocal for a new song called 'Her Household Requires'. Pippa is singing the lead vocal on this one with Jules singing the main backing vocal. It's another one for the 'Devon Roses' album.

Loads to do, Lord Z has a long list and I've got a long list as well. Must try to remember to do some more work on the revised edition of my book. Lord Z tells me that Georgie has made a start on the artwork for the 'Devon Roses' album, We are going to dedicate it to the Devon & Cornwall branch of the Richard III Society as it's their 40^th anniversary this year. We've completed the recording of about 6 songs for it, or maybe it's 7?, I don't know, there are so many songs flying about for various albums that I think I'm losing the plot”! Nearly forgot to mention another album called 'Instrumental Legends'. All the tunes have been recorded, mixed and mastered for it and Lord Z needs to create the album cover. I didn't like the first cover he made for it because I looked fat in the photo.