Merry Hell News No.28

MAKE MERRY HELL WITH THE KETTLES

The second Merry Hell song writing course took place over the weekend of 17th-19th February at the Music Projects in Pemberton, near Wigan. Virginia and Bob each led a group in the composition of a new song which was later recorded with John in the studio. Participants were split into two groups with those who had worked with Bob at the first song writing course being offered the chance to work with Virginia this time. An introductory Friday evening session saw Virginia, Bob and John give individual insights into their writing methods, each choosing a song they had composed and performing it acoustically before explaining the inspiration behind it. Virginia chose “A Little Warm”, an as yet unreleased song, which she has performed at all her recent solo outings, Bob went for “Come On, England!” and John, “We Need Each Other Now”.

The real work began on Saturday with all the writers having a short individual consultation on their own ideas before the two groups gathered in separate rooms to commence writing. It was interesting to drop in to the sessions to check on developments. Virginia's group seemed to be making rapid progress with a verse and chorus being quickly established.

Perhaps Bob’s reputation as a wordsmith had preceded him but on checking in with his group they weren’t exactly ‘shirking’ but were still writing lyrics for their eighth and possibly final verse! Many of the verses were culled before the recording. Not that there was any major panic, after breaking for lunch fine tuning of the two songs continued through till early evening. There was time for a spot of socialising in a nearby pub and a bite to eat before everyone returned for a demonstration of the studio and some background on recording techniques with John.

Sunday saw the arrangement and recording of the two songs, each group had just a few hours to accomplish this. Virginia had been lucky to inherit more players than singers so her group were able to add the exotic flavours of ukelele and harmonium to their song, "Storm Coming". Driven along by Bob's trusty acoustic, the other track, "Earth's Revolution" had thrown up a great singalong chorus and the group made the most of it, multi-tracking their massed vocals with great gusto. Virginia's group also devised some ethereal humming to compliment their song. Everyone threw off their inhibitions and everyone was able to make a contribution whether instrumentally or vocally. Both groups especially enjoyed watching John at work as he constructed and played instruments on both songs adding guitar, mandolin, bass and even sampled drums via a keyboard. Considering the limited time available to produce the two songs they are a credit to everyone involved.

Thanks to all the writers who attended - Martin Atherton, Paul Arris, Paul Clark, Ian Goodwin, Marvey Mills, Corrie Shelley, Ian Simpson, Antoinette Temp and Chris Frost. Chris has kindly posted both songs on his Soundcloud page so please check them out. If this has whetted anyone's appetite there will hopefully be another course in the not too distant future. The songs - "Storm Coming" and "Earth's Revolution".