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The Corellas - Established 1964
The Corellas was the name of the group I joined in high school in 1964. Our first gig was in December 1964 at an old peoples Christmas party in a draughty church hall in Glasgow's southern suburbs.
In January 2015 I was at another fellow school pupil's book launch when a man introduced himself to me as Alex Smith another ex pupil from school days whose group The Concordes shared the same draughty stage. To my delight I found he was still playing the drums. As my last group had fallen apart we agreed to work together. The lineup of this incarnation of The Corellas was completed by the addition of David McLachlan on bass guitar. David and Alex had been working together for over thirty years so had a deep profound understanding of each others strengths and limitations as a rhythm section. I was delighted both with their playing ability but also as I was able to work with a tight unit without all the tiresome, counter productive bickering between group members which had plagued previous lineups. "Established 1964" was the first album by The Corellas and the first album recording as a four piece though we do have a few guests on backing vocals. The songs were all fairly new except "Too much heat on me" which I wrote in 1978 though I did rewrite some of the lyrics. The second album is nearly complete and I'm working with Jim Lang on final tweaks prior to mixing and mastering.
World of Wonders
World of Wonders was originally released on CD and on Bandcamp in 2018. The album was given no promotion at the time as my mental health was in a fairly fragile state. The songs came from various periods in my life covering a range of subjects and styles. It is the first album with The Corellas and featuring Jim Lang playing various instruments and co-producing. It is also the
only album featuring guest guitarists of which there were six. My home studio, which had seen many incarnations was used to record the basic rhythm tracks with The Corellas featuring Alex Smith on drums, David McLachlan on bass and myself on vocals and guitar. The lineup expanded in 2021 with the addition of Will 'Bongo" Purdie on percussion. This was to accommodate the fact that I wanted to develop the rhythm side of my composing and create more groove based uptempo numbers. Our recording methodology remains the same today.We meet at my place most Saturday mornings, have coffee and start practicing a new song until we are ready to record it. We record digitally but use no click tracks or metronomes. nor do we cut and paste. Our fifth Corella, Jim Lang, the George Martin of the band, has the unenviable task of cleaning up any glitches and lining up the tracks into grid form time wise. I still have a great affection for this first album and play it from time to time.
Maze in Your Head
During lockdown in 2020 I joined a Zoom group called Sunday Songwriting hosted by Becci Wallace and Rosie Bans. It was a tasked based group involving writing, recording and producing a song or creative piece in answer to a set task and playing the recording to the group the following week. The group was full of incredibly talented writers and performers and the quality of the songs written either solo or in collaboration was brilliant.Six of the nine songs on this album were written in the group. The exceptions being "Listen to the rain" and "Moonman" which I co-wrote with Ian Munro in the mid 1990's and "The only one" which I wrote in 1998 after I separated from my wife. This album is mostly myself on vocals and guitar with Jim Lang on all other instruments, backing vocals and co-production. We really loved the process of working as a duo for the songs were incredibly wide ranging in styles and a joyful challenge creatively in terms of arrangement and production. We also have a couple of featured guests on backing vocals from the lockdown group. The concept, title and artwork were created by Daniel McGarvey, a very talented eight year old local artist.
My second album with Jim is nearly complete and will probably be released around the same time as The Corellas second release.
RetroPop
Retropop was released in September, 2024..
Graffiti Days
Graffiti Days was released in September, 2024..
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