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Released September 2005 – Afterdark Records AFDA0004
Recorded at Earth Terminal Studios, December 2004
Additional recording at Nick Andrew’s home studio in Tilsworth,
Bedfordshire, and at Russ Wilson and Martin Lawrie’s home studios,
February – June 2005
Produced by Nick Andrew
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Musicians:
Martin Lawrie
– keyboards
Steve Marshall
– bass, flute
Russell Wilson
– drums, percussion
Nick Andrew
– guitars
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Tracks:
Future Dance
Ouz
Steppin’ Out
Waltzing on Water
People Make The World Go Round
Straight From the Icebox
The Dance of the 3 Famous Belgians
Bob’s Groove
3 Funk
J & Z
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‘Steve Marshall - "For me ‘Hold The Front Page’
is everything we’ve been working towards, capturing the energy
of Curfew live but combining this with a truly professional production
job (thanks Nick!) to create an album that has real ‘polish’
and some fantastically innovative arrangements yet retains the true
spirit of the band, which (like so many good bands) is basically 4 people
in a room creating something with a life of its own. The album cover
gives the story behind each track so I won’t repeat those here
– the story behind the album as a whole started in early 2004 with
a series of sessions that licked into shape new numbers ‘Future
Dance’, ‘Steppin’ Out’, and ‘People make The
World Go Round’, plus new arrangements of several others. September
2004 with a series of rehearsals at Earth Terminal Studios in their
new home in a converted hop kiln in Hampshire, culminating in a 2-day
session laying down the basic tracks, including Gilad Atzmon’s
‘Ouz’ at the last minute.
The following months saw us under Nick’s expert guidance working
on various arrangement ideas and overdubs on guitar (including the ‘string
quartet’ on ‘Ouz’), keyboards and percussion. The music
files give a flavour of what we achieved – to find out more, please
go to the main ‘CD Releases’ page on this website and order
a copy – you will not regret it! From a purely personal point of
view, I would draw your particular attention to:
- The keyboard playing of Martin Lawrie – I’ve been in bands
with him for 30 years but I’ve never heard him play better.
- The drumming of Russell Wilson – no ‘fixes’ for this
guy – this is all one-take stuff, but he does it with ease. Some
great percussion too.
- The all-round abilities of Nick Andrew – there’s evidence
on every track, but check out the acoustic guitar on ‘Waltzing
On Water’ for sheer drama, or the solo on ‘Dance of the 3
Famous Belgians’ – this is world-class playing. And from the
personal point of view of someone who’s always wanted his flute
playing to sound like Nik Turner on ‘Silver Machine’ but never
managed it, check out the production job on the flute solo in ‘J
& Z’.
So there you go – should be coming live to a venue near you very
shortly!"
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