I wrote a lot of songs with Simon Chamberlain, including about 20 for the comedian Brian Conley on his saturday evening shows in the 90s that I was also in. We pitched several at producers and record companies but were discouraged when some nasty piece of work contacted us from somewhere (I have banished him and the company from my memory banks) and encouraged we turned up at the publishing company only to be told that our songs were shite, that were no hooks, that I wrote miserable lyrics and he then threw the cassette at me. It hit me on the head. Being in our twenties we were so gobsmacked that we left meekly. Time tells you how to deal with this sort of thing and I think now we would have spoken to his boss having thrown something back at him, but it put us off somewhat and hindered our partnership. Writing for LWT and Brian and Nigel Lithgow and also Andy Street was consequently a much less intimidating experience as was writing ‘Hey Get a Life’ together. Here is the demo we had so rudely thrown at us:
Here is one for a new version of a Kondos’ song called ‘My Baby Makes Me Sick’. (there is now a new version I’ve written for the Rudy Vees) Like most it was recorded in Simon’s front room:
This is ‘Forever‘ which we recorded at the famous Olympic Studios in Barnes! Simon knew one of the engineers and we used the ‘dead time’. In fact we recorded it at about ten o’clock at night.
This is McPherson Strut and Out of My Head. Mo Mulligan and Glynn Evans are on the latter. Very nice guys.
Kydd Chamberlain and Maskell
This was a one off that was briefly assembled and disassembled by me and Simon and guitarist John Maskell after we recorded some tracks and no one appeared interested. We did have a photo session though!
Here’s the demo:
We never really came up with a name!