I was quite disappointed with the split, I felt Orphan wasn’t finished with yet and had more to offer.
 I’d been writing a new batch of songs and thought perhaps this would be a good opportunity to reform the band but with a slightly different musical approach, yet still in an Orphan vein and, of course, re-install the name.
 So I got back into rehearsing regularly with Phil C, (we’d become pals again). My brother occasionally sat in as well, as we rehearsed the new stuff, even though Pete was working in a couple of other bands as well at the time.
 But with being off the road, Phil Vickers our drummer by this time had also moved on and joined another band, so now, if we were going to continue Orphan, we needed a drummer.
 We approached Richard Westwood to see if he would be interested in joining us, which, to my amazement, he did without hesitation. This was great. Richard was a well experienced, rock solid drummer who also had a good singing voice for backing vocals.
 Richard had been working a lot with another Birmingham songwriter, Tom Sorohan, a singer-songwriter whose band I’d seen a couple of times and really liked – very off-the wall, a bit like an avant garde Roxy Music with Noel Coward overtones! So with Richard we had the foundation to a new version of Orphan and began rehearsing the new stuff.
 A nice story about Tom Sorohan’s band, for me, was when Tom was playing at a place called The Waterworks one night. This I think happened much later on. Richard was drumming for him and I think my brother Pete was playing bass for him. I went down to watch. I always liked Tom’s stuff but I was totally blown away this particular night when the band suddenly went into one of my songs: ‘Trevor Howard.’ It was so cool to hear my own song being played back at me, but in a style that was so different. Almost Noel Coward-ish. A very fond memory. Although my timing here could be completely off-kilter as I seem to think Steve Layton also played guitar for Tom at that gig. Anyway, moving on.
 With Richard’s rock steady metronomic, up-front, drumming and my brother Pete’s musicality and creative bass playing, Orphan had a much more solid, driving, dynamic foundation, with slightly psychedelic overtones, courtesy of Phil C’s keyboards - and with the new songs came a much darker mood. Now, as a four piece, without having a lead guitar or any lead instrument, apart from keyboards, it forced us to be a bit more creative in how we structured the songs. I remember we even used one of those little Casio monophonic organy things, which Pete used to play in one of the songs. Not in any particular chord progression, it was just random notes but it added a strangeness to the song. I liked all that randomness over a solid bass and drums groove.
 We started gigging again, at the Barrel Organ at first and the odd college gig. Dave Morgan being our sound engineer – who always managed to do a fantastic job in mixing the sound. The people who followed the old band came back to see us, but I think it took a bit of time to get used to the new sound and material, but we gradually got through. I particularly liked this period of the band – to me it was a bit more ‘arty’.
 I seem to remember around this time we had Bob Jackson, a well-established saxophone player, join us for the occasional gig. Which again brought another dimension to the sound. (Although he only played when we could afford to pay him :)
 Phil Campion was experimenting a lot more with his keyboards – since we’d lost our lead instrument in Trevor (Wigley), and was coming up with some interesting sounds.
 Some of the new songs we were working in this period were:
Mouth To Mouth
R.S.V.P. You
Walking On Water
Julie Isn’t Julie In The Bath
The Night Before The End Of The World
Brand New Human Being
Time Bombs
And some others that we’d salvaged from the old band. At this stage, we didn’t know that we were actually working on the foundations for the album we would eventually record.
 I think around about this time as well, Mick Lawson (Emmitt Till), had just started recording one of his own albums at Lee Sounds. I think maybe I went down with him to a session one day and helped out with a couple of backing vocals or something. Not sure. But this became my first introduction to the larger than life character known in the industry as, (cue Jaws music) - Ron Lee!
 Mick introduced me to him and told him about Orphan and that we were gigging and writing our own material but looking to record.
 I suppose Ron, never one to pass up on a possibility of earning a bit of bunce from a band, either he came to see us at one of our gigs, or asked us to come into the studio and try something out – it’s all a bit vague now.
But this was the start of another quantum leap in the evolution of the Orphan genetic code.
I’m not entirely sure how the following events came about but I remember a bit of a power struggle developing within the band.
 As I was the main writer and founder of the band I always felt kind of responsible, creatively if you like, as to how Orphan should appear. Whereas Trevor (our lead guitarist) was like our internal manager, he certainly got things done. However, as mentioned previously, Trevor had also begun writing more material, although I felt at that time it wasn’t particularly Orphan friendly. Apart from You Must Be Jokin’, which I loved, a lot of his other stuff, for me, was over technical. Oh there was another song he wrote called Tell The Truth (Shame The Devil), which I have to say I hated. It had the distinction of turning me off the sound of a cow bell for life : ) – it most definitely wasn’t Orphan. Probably would’ve sounded great in one of those bars with chicken wire in front of the stage in somewhere like Kentucky!
 There was even a name change of the band for a brief while.
 I can remember us having a band meeting in a pub called The Garden Gate in Handsworth Wood. It seemed the general consensus was that Orphan seemed to be a bit of a ‘soft’ name. So it was decided we spend the night trying to come up with alternative, harder names. I didn’t think it was a good idea but being the good democrat that I am, I went along with it. So after a number of odd name suggestions, that included: Vasco Da Gama, Beating Hearts, Bleriot, and possibly a few other obscurities we somehow settled on the name Stoker! Why? I have no friggin’ idea – it was such a crap name.
 I think the main problem within the band was between myself and Trevor. The old band problem I suppose, lead guitarist versus vocalist – both being terminal attention seekers! I think we both wanted to shape the band in our own ways, although nothing was really said. I wanted us to retain the quirkiness we were known for; the short pop-like songs. But Trevor seemed to want to take the band into a harder, rock vein. Unfortunately I think Phil Campion even got briefly sucked into the rivalry, siding with Trev at the time. Which I found quite upsetting. This tug-of-war went on for a while and it seemed to coincide with gig attendance dropping off. (Possibly due to the name change?). It also made things a bit strained when we met up at gigs – it started to get me down and was seriously contemplating quitting. I’d had an idea for another band – even had some posters made up. It didn’t come to anything. But I still got one of the posters. (Ha).
 Although I never felt I consciously forced my opinion onto anyone, I believed I was writing some good stuff and thought Orphan would be stupid to revert back to some ordinary rock band status like, so many others around. So I guess something had to give. We struggled on for a while but with the decline in gigs and not being very happy when we met up to play, we eventually decided to disband.
 We all met up at Trevor’s house one night and terminated the band. It was all relatively amicable. No punch ups or anything like that. Thank Dog. We split what money there was (sale of the van, p.a., etc) and decided to go our separate ways. Trevor had at this stage planned to move to America - his wife Jan originally being from there - which they did not too long after our split.
ON A SIDE NOTE: I met Trevor again a few years after the split when I was working for Central Television.  My brother and he were quite close friends and Trevor had come over from America to visit him. We met in a pub called The James Brindley, (also affectionately known as The Myra Hindley!), which is on the canal basin behind what used to be Central T.V. I’d arranged to meet Pete for a drink and he said he was bringing someone else along but didn’t tell me who. It was Trev! I didn’t recognize him at first, he seemed much taller! The American influence I guess. But it was great to see him. I found out he was living in Fort Lauderdale in Florida, (nice), and was running a successful business, and he had a boat! It was really good to see him again. I think any animosity we possibly had between us had long evaporated.
 I don’t think Trevor was playing though, which I thought was a bit of a shame, ‘cause he was damn good and should be remembered for coming up with one of our most enduring live songs in Orphan’s set – ‘Sophie Tucker.’
First Released on the ‘Nervous’ Single in 1981 on Vinyl only.
Re-Released on the ‘Phobias’ Album in 1983 on Vinyl only.
I think I originally wrote this song around about 1979 – sounds about right, given the slightly ska influence - probably one of my knee jerk reactions to Margaret Thatcher’s Reign of Terror at the time.
Even back then I was fed up with the politics of England – Fascism dressed up as democracy! Probably set my controls towards leaving the country in the first place. It’s strange looking back on it. The song still resonates with me. In fact, I think it was probably a subliminal prototype to a more fleshed out song I recorded in 2011, with RoxyRejects, for our ‘There And Back To See How Far It Was’ album – the more recent song is called: ‘Goodbye Jack.’ A similar cynical sentiment I guess. Just goes to show that all the rhetoric and promises the politicians dole out to all us mere human beings, just trying to survive without the safety net of a generous expense account, never really amounts to very much. The same attitudes pervade. We still fall for the same old lies.
‘Little England sleep tonight
Don’t worry if things aren’t going right’
Written by: Phill Dunn
Performed by: Orphan
Featuring:
Lead Vocals / Electric Rhythm Guitar: Phill Dunn
Bass Guitars: Pete Dunn
Keyboards/Synthesizers: Phil Campion / Backing vocals
Drums/Percussion: Richard Westwood / Backing vocalsÂ
MORE about the released album and singles : http://orphanbanduk.tumblr.com/discography
I Don’t Want It Like That by Orphan
from the first album ‘Phobias’.
Released in 1983 on Vinyl only.
Now this was always one of my favourite Orphan songs from the Phobias album. To me it has a kind of story-line that reflected my thoughts on suburbia at the time and how a lot of people in suburbia get sucked into that phony lifestyle through advertising. All that keeping up with Jones’s stuff, trapped in the financial vortex of mortgages and insurance. Kind of weird, considering I was probably working in advertising at the time I wrote it. My god, what a hypocrite I am!
The song basically represented me having a pop at the average Joe who spends his life struggling up the career ladder; a victim of peer pressure – always looking for betterment through new cars and houses while all the time life just passes him by.
Listening back now I find a lot of sarcasm in the lyric.
I love the musicality of the song because the chord sequence is quite unorthodox at the start and there is an underlying sadness, or pathos, in the choice of the chords against the lyric. The song starts in the key of D minor (major 7th ) then moves up to E with an added D. Not exactly pop song vernacular.
The song features the whole band: Richard Westwood, drums, Pete Dunn, bass guitar, Phil Campion, keyboards and myself, vocals and rhythm guitars, by the way, one of the rare times I played electric guitar. Richard and Phil C. supply backing vocals.
I always loved playing this song live – to me it was personal, but I always hoped anyone that heard the sentiment and was going through the same doubts on their own lifestyle would resonate with its meaning.
‘The next-door neighbour’s got a brand new car
 it goes with the job  -  he’s on a winner.
 And his wife it seems has cancelled the bread
 she’s losing weight  -  but he’s getting thinner!
 And they can’t break with the Habitat habit
 they paint and decorate morning and night
 Curtains, matching quilts and covers
 and the cat can’t sleep  -  it’s all so very bright
I don’t want it like that  - I don’t want it like that.’
Still don’t!
Written by: Phill Dunn
Performed by: Orphan
Featuring:
Lead Vocals / Electric Rhythm Guitar: Phill Dunn
Bass Guitars: Pete Dunn
Keyboards/Synthesizers: Phil Campion / Backing vocals
Drums/Percussion: Richard Westwood / Backing vocalsÂ
MORE about the released album and singles : http://orphanbanduk.tumblr.com/discography
Phobias by Orphan
From the first album ‘Phobias’. Released in 1983 on Vinyl only.
This song became the title track to the Orphan album of the same name.
I must admit it started out as a bit of fun. To me it was a relatively simple pop song, albeit with the usual quirky Orphan approach to chord progressions. But as time went by I thought about it on a very different level. The song suddenly came to represent a lot of stuff I was thinking about and going through at the time. Almost as if horrible things were constantly coming out of the woodwork to disrupt me.
Though on the surface the song could be taken quite literally in its meaning and lyrical sense; and in turn be nothing more than some kind of novelty song, further down the line I felt it took on a more metaphoric stance.
Using the analogy of halloween imagery: Snakes, spiders, shadows as phantoms, whose sole purpose was to stop me doing what I wanted to do, became the metaphors for the pay-off in the chorus:
‘No creepy-crawly’s ever going to get the best of me at all!’
We even did a video for this song utilizing real snakes and extremely dangerous spiders!
I always find it weird how sometimes when we write something that, at the time, we don’t fully understand what it is we’re writing, yet somehow it seems to be right.
Later on certain meanings gradually became apparent. I suppose it’s all about psychology. I’m sure a psychiatrist would have a field day with me. Especially today – based on some of the songs I’ve written recently! : ) There hangs another tale.
I think the song Phobias is a quite well-crafted song – quirky yes, but the playing on it is quite sublime. Even the key signature isn’t set in your normal pop song key: it happens to be A major 7th and the main vocal comes in on: D major.
The full band played on the track: Richard Westwood drums and timpani, Pete Dunn bass guitar, myself on rhythm guitar and vocals and Phil Campion on keyboards, who by the way, produced an exquisitely simple, baroque solo over a great chord sequence. We also employed the ubiquitous Melotron once more to add disembodied voices.
Though perhaps a difficult song to win over an audience with, to me it stands out as being unashamedly experimental, tongue in cheek and a bit oddball. Having said that, I can still listen to it today without cringing! : ) Always a good sign in my book.
Written by: Phill Dunn (Phillip James Dunn)
Performed by: Orphan
Featuring:
Lead Vocals / Electric Rhythm Guitar: Phill Dunn
Bass Guitars: Pete Dunn
Keyboards/Synthesizers: Phil Campion / Backing vocals
Drums/Percussion: Richard Westwood / Backing vocalsÂ
MORE about the released album and singles : http://orphanbanduk.tumblr.com/discographyÂ
‘I Don’t Want To Go To Work Tomorrow’ by Orphan
Private Pressing. Independently Released. 1000 limited edition Vinyls.
This is one of the two singles we recorded at Horizon Studios, the recording home of the Two Tone stable of artists like The Specials. Co-produced by Kim Thraves who worked with The Sex Pistols on the Great Rock ‘n Roll Swindle. Read the story behind.
Breakfast of Champions  :  Chapter 10 Part 1   Chapter 10 Part 2 Â
Song Written by: Phill Dunn
Performed by: Orphan
Featuring:
Lead Vocals / Electric Rhythm Guitar: Phill Dunn
Lead Guitar : Trevor Wigley / Backing vocals
Keyboards/Synthesizers: Phil Campion / Backing vocals
Bass Guitar: Pete Dunn
Drums : Phil VickersÂ
We managed to scrape enough money together and booked time at Horizon Studios in Coventry, the recording home of the Two Tone stable of artists like The Specials, Selector and Bad Manners (I think).
 As promised, Kim Thraves came up from London to do the session for us, he stayed with Phil Campion and his wife Sally while in Birmingham.
 So, ten-o-clock one Saturday morning, after negotiating Coventry’s illogical ring road system, we rocked up at Horizon Studios. I can’t recall if it was a 16 track or 24 track desk but it was a pretty impressive studio to me – it had been decorated by one of the owners with all these weird psychedelic murals. It had two sound studios, one of which contained a rather elegant grand piano which Phil C. used for our piano parts. This was the first proper recording studio we had encountered. I remember thinking ‘this is it – we’re on our way!’ (Cue mad megalomaniacal laughter!).
 Now ten-o-clock in the morning is definitely not the most ideal time of day to record. However Kim was already there before us and had managed to brief the recording engineers. We stumbled in carrying our instruments and Kim welcomed us enthusiastically enough and suggested we take breakfast first. Good idea we thought. However his idea of breakfast and ours were somewhat different. As we approached the mixing desk we saw five neat white lines of Columbian marching powder glowing seductively under the mixing desk lights. What to do?
 (Cue the sound of one pound notes being rolled up – yes, one pound notes!).
 So with breakfast over and feeling totally indestructible, we began recording. We did two new songs I’d written: ‘I Don’t Want To Go To Work Tomorrow’, backed with ‘Little Mother.’ Everything went very well.
 I remember listening to the playback in the studio and felt that perhaps there was something missing on the front of ‘I Don’t Want To Go To Work’ so I suggested we put the sound of a typewriter clattering away. It worked great and was a perfect introduction to Phil Vicker’s opening drum riff to bring the song in. There was a certain irony to the lyrics of the song as well, considering there were so many people out of work at the time. Thanks to Herr Thatcher.
 Not long after that, the record was cut and pressed and we were the proud owners of 1,000 vinyl discs with our two songs on them. We even put out a lyric sheet along with the record bag which was simply rubber stamped with the Orphan name. Although the record didn’t get us noticed very much, (probably only ourselves to blame for that, we weren’t that good at marketing ourselves), we did manage to sell quite a few at gigs – enough to buy a pair of big P.A. Bins I think.
 I played ‘I Don’t Want To Go To Work Tomorrow’ recently (someone uploaded the single on Youtube! Thanks to youtuber @psychotron9)  – I couldn’t believe how fast it was!
But I liked it a lot and it brought a big smile to my face. As for Little Mother (the other side) – what on earth was I thinking? (Not one I’m proud of).
 The record came together with the help of the following: Kim and Barry at Horizon and Colin, Micky, John, Rob, Tony, Chris, Julius who all kindly donated their time and talents at different intervals. (I really must try to remember surnames!).
The hardest part about being in a band, writing and performing original material, (back then), was getting the damn stuff recorded. The cost was always prohibitive. The money earned from our gigs was small after costs were settled.
However, around about that time, we found out that Kid Jenson (a B.B.C. Radio One DJ) was running a spot on his radio show called ‘Band of Hope and Glory,’ that featured new bands trying to break into the music scene.
We made contact and were offered the chance to record two songs in an old BBC Radio studio in Manchester. (Apparently where some of the Archers programmes were recorded, or so I was told).
The songs would then be included in Kid Jenson’s show and a critical appraisal of them would be made by a famous guest. In our case we were appraised by Bob Geldof of The Boomtown Rats. (Pre-Sir Bob).Â
We recorded Circus and I think the other is You Must Be Jokin’. I was hoping for Bob to say ‘Yeah! Fuckin’ Bollocking, Arse’oling brilliant!!! He didn’t BUT he said he liked Circus! He liked that it had a Blondie type feel to it.(thanks to Johnny Boy, our lighting guy, who confirmed this) I thought well that’s o.k. Blondie had some credibility – plus Debbie Harry probably had the sexiest eyes in the world – mind you, I had better legs! So thanks Sir Bob.
The next time we recorded was at a small studio in Gosta Green Birmingham, I think it used to be an old ATV television studio. We recorded a batch of songs there with a view to selling them at gigs (on cassette tapes). I remember You Must Be Jokin’ was one of the songs, written by Trevor our lead guitarist, one I really, really liked, the others that we recorded I can’t recall, apart from Harry The Horse and probably Rain. All were recorded pretty much live. It wasn’t a bad recording but, it didn’t come to much. But we did manage to sell some cassettes.
It was on one of the nights we were playing at The Mercat Cross that someone by the name of Kim Thraves introduced himself to us. He’d come up from London and was checking out pub bands in Birmingham. It was a good night I remember, the place was packed. He told us he’d been working on the Great Rock ‘n Roll Swindle, the Julian Temple film about the Sex Pistols. He said he liked what we were doing and suggested that if we could raise the money and book a decent studio he would ‘produce’ a single for us. Big of him I thought!
But at last, someone was showing a positive interest in us and someone from London! Wow!
Oh the naivety of it all.
Anyway, I thought that rather than record something we already were playing in our live sets we should do something different.
Once in awhile, at an Orphan gig, we would get other bands asking if they could do a support spot before us. Generally from bands just starting out and trying to break into the pub scene, which was always a bit difficult, (as we knew), there were generally more bands around than places to play.
 The Barrel Organ was usually the place we let a couple of bands play a short set before us as it was a bit easier there to handle the equipment change overs. I think I did stipulate one condition though, that the bands should only be playing their own material. Didn’t want some young band appearing before us just doing cover versions of known stuff – didn’t want our gigs turning into some cabaret kind of event.
 I like to think we were generally accommodating to a couple of young bands, (though unfortunately I don’t remember any band names here), in trying to showcase their material to a ready-made audience. After all, we’d been through all that ourselves when we first started – trying to get a gig was always difficult. Plus, I think it helped us in a way, first it gave us the opportunity to play just the one set instead of our usual two; but a more concise set. Helped concentrate our song list to what we felt was the more important stuff. Of course a little friendly competition came into play, which I think made us sharper and more focused on what we were doing. Let’s face it, we couldn’t have a support band upstaging us now could we? :)
 I generally enjoyed the nights we had another band on with us. It created a kind of comradery and I particularly liked to hear what other bands were writing. It was also quite flattering to know that the support bands liked what we were doing.
 There was one particular night, this time at The Mercat Cross, I remember we were approached by a young band starting out, called The Beat. Though not a particularly easy gig to cater for two bands we nevertheless agreed. We were pulling in quite a big crowd at the time. The Beat were into the ‘ska’ thing, like The Specials, but a smaller unit and with a more edgy vein to their song writing but obviously very danceable. Originally two of the band had spoken to us at one of our previous Mercat gigs when they came to see us, their singer, Dave Wakeland was one of the guys – I liked them, they seemed so humble and genuine - so we agreed to them doing a short spot with us. They were good and obviously, with the ska influence, very danceable – I felt it was a nice contrast to what we were doing (nothing to do with dancing!). Mind you, I think part of their reason for approaching us for a support gig was they’d realized we generally had a full house at the Mercat and it would be a good opportunity for them. Ironically, as luck would have it, it was.
 I think it was only about a year later that The Beat were suddenly in the charts. Now named The International Beat and obviously with management and a record label onboard, they had a hit with ‘Mirror In The Bathroom’! I think they had another hit not long after with a song called ‘Stand Down Margaret’ which I liked a lot as it had a good pop at Margaret Thatcher! (Always good in my book).
 The next I knew of The International Beat they were doing a tour of America. The last I heard of Dave Wakeland was he was living there.
 Much later on, when I was already living in Singapore, I made a short film, (around about 2001), titled: ‘The Late Mr. Boat’, a bit of a strange, existential little film that included a number of obscure pieces of music in the narrative. Bits from Laurie Anderson, David Byrne etc., I remember looking for a piece of music that would be suitable for the run out for the end credits and suddenly hit on ‘Mirror In The Bathroom’, (a live version), it was quite raw but had a nice feel for what I wanted – it also worked perfectly for the storyline. So thanks Dave if you happen to read this any time : ) If so, drop me a line, it’d be good to hear what you’re up to now.
 But not all bands were as friendly as those who supported us. I particularly remember when we were in that position of supporting The Specials at one of the universities. We had a dressing room back stage. The Specials had a dressing room next door to us. We were getting ready to go on to do our spot and as we stepped out of our dressing room we passed the open door of theirs – I distinctly remember hearing one of the band saying, quite derogatively to another band member, ‘well you better fuckin’ go and get it before the long hairs go on!’ It made me realize that they weren’t too interested in us and perhaps thought of us as old school – in fact I don’t think any of The Specials even spoke to us that night. Mind you they were riding a crest of a wave at the time since their brand of good time ska had taken off.
 In contrast, when we shared a gig with Wilko Johnson’s band (after he’d left Dr. Feelgood), at another university I remember Wilko passing and saying a friendly ‘alright lads?’ The attitude between a seasoned muso and what I considered The Specials to be, a band with a short shelf life, was so different.
 I suppose there have been many good bands over the years who, like us, never seemed to get the break or the luck to be in the right place at the right time. Though I don’t think that should detract from what we did along the way. I truly believe Orphan was a good band – we had some good songs, some of which had the potential of a hit record – but luck really does play a huge part in this business. Without a hard-nosed manager or the support of good record company I guess we were always in the position of being the bridesmaid and never the bride. But the experiences and enjoyment we got back then was priceless.
 To quote a line from one of my recent songs: ‘I’ve been talking to the wrong people all my life.’
The video, even if unsubtle, does suggest the direction the song was originally intended to go in. And I still love the instrumental melody at the end.
Imagine that with an orchestral score! It could have been so cool.
A Demo Recording from the unreleased second album ‘Different Levels’.
‘Different Levels’ was to be Orphan’s follow up album after ‘Phobias’. Some demos were recorded but the album was never completed due to record label problems beyond Orphan’s control and was never released as the label owner left the business.
‘Walking On Water’ is a song of abstract images of religious hocus pocus and a tourist approach to war.
This song was one of my favourite Orphan songs from the new stuff I was writing and signalled a more aggressive stance for the band.
Richard Westwood’s powerful driving drum pattern and my brother Pete’s excellent bass lines create a powerful foundation for the clever interplay between Phil Campion’s keyboards and Keith Jones’ electric violin.
Keith’s violin solo is still one of my favourite moments in an Orphan song.Â
Song Written by: Phill Dunn
Performed by: Orphan
Featuring:
Lead Vocals / Electric Rhythm Guitar: Phill Dunn
Bass Guitars: Pete Dunn
Keyboards/Synthesizers: Phil Campion / Backing vocals
Electric Violin: Keith Jones
Drums/Percussion: Richard Westwood / Backing vocalsÂ
MORE about the unreleased second album : http://orphanbanduk.tumblr.com/unreleased
This was the other side to 'Julie Isn’t Julie In The Bath'. Both these songs used to go down really well at our live gigs. The sentiment for 'Time Bombs' is loosely based on my best mate and keyboard player in Orphan, Phil Campion. It’s basically about playing in a band being above everything else in life, even when things don’t quite work out. (I can honestly say, being in a band is probably the best education in the world).
The second verse sort of explains the theme:
My mate Terry, plays in a pop group
Rockin’ out the radio hits at the Legion
Saturday night, face all whiteÂ
He’s got to be stoned to get him through the night
But he writes some songs in the candlelight
He’s thirty years young and never lost sight
He’s got the Nazz but the band’s not right tonight.
Both songs feature Mick Lawson, (alias Emmitt Till a good song writer himself) on baritone vocals, Bob Bowman on lead guitar and Billy Paul on tenor sax. Tragically Billy is no longer with us; he passed away at the ridiculously young age of 32. He played with many of the famous bands at the time – Roy Wood’s Wizard, Ruby Turner, to name a couple. So sad, such a great sax player. Thanks Billy for leaving us with your soulful sax. You are sorely missed.Â
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