Resurrected

Resurrected.

For me this is proving a year of resurrections, musically at least.  The musical highlight of the year has been an album and gigs from The Drays, led by one time Star of Heaven and Revenant Stephen Ryan. I have written about that album Look Away Down Collins Avenue at some length and am still listening to it months after its release. I have only managed to see them twice but hope to do so again next week. That would be more gigs than I went to in some recent years.

Probably the gigs I have enjoyed most over the last few years have been those of the revivified Blades, who I have also written about here. They also feature Conor Brady, a mainstay of The Drays. Jesus only brought one man back from the dead!

As well as these gigs The Blades have now also brought out new material, a four track E.P., Smalltime with a lead track which reminds me at once of Elvis Costello and Smokey Robinson and seems at once an elegy for and a celebration of a career spent in the shadows. Incredibly, after three decades the greatest run of singles by an Irish band has been extended in a way that does not diminish what has gone before.
***You can stream or buy the full E.P. here: https://bladesmusic.bandcamp.com/



But personally, the greatest resurrection offered by 2015 has been that of my own musical efforts, having got back together with Dave, Del and Eoin who formed part of an alternative family for me,  when we were The Knocking Shop / The Phantom Jets. The reason behind getting back together is to play a gig in London next January to launch an album which includes one of our tracks (of which more at a later date). The other reason is a mutual enthusiasm for what we did together.

Last weekend we were back in a rehearsal room for the first time in twenty years, trying to remember how we put some songs together and then trying to improve them. It was jarring to remember how much emotional impact singing these songs 'live' has for me. I've even been writing lyrics in the hope that we will manage to knock them together into songs. Here's what's hopefully a rough first draft of one:

The Gentle Joy of Failure

It’s been a while

A while, I guess its twenty years

Feels like forever

A few of our

Teenage dreams

Withered with the band

Now we’re back

But not to make

Some desperate last stand

The “What if?”s now

Are “Could have been”s

But we’re here after everything

Attempting harmony

Lets gather round and celebrate

The gentle joy of failure

That teaches you you’re just yourself

& not some fucking saviour

Yes gather round and celebrate

The gentle joy of failure

I’ve made mistakes

and still make them

Get more things wrong than right

My credit’s probably run out

Thanks to my spendthrift ways

But somehow someone’s there

To lend a helping hand

And I’m on the road again

My feet are sore

My legs are weak

I’ve almost lost

The will to speak

But we'll gather round and celebrate

The gentle joy of failure

That teaches you you’re just yourself

& not some fucking saviour

Yes gather round and celebrate

The gentle joy of failure

The rain falls down

And feeds the streams

That are the rivers

And the seas

That are the clouds

That are the rain

That falls only

To rise again

I’ve yet to fix

That creaking door

The toilet doesn’t flush

No more

The pack’s still flat

The grass uncut

The gardens full of unpicked fruit

Rotting on the branch

But next year will be different

I’ve got a hunch

(Just like last year)

We’ll pick ourselves up

And gather round to celebrate

The gentle joy of failure

That teaches you you’re just yourself

& not some fucking saviour

Yes gather round and celebrate

The gentle joy of failure

(repeat x3)

Here are the songs we were working on:



I guess this post is in some way an explanation of why this blog has become ever more moribund of late. Although don't discount the possibility of a resurrection...