Pete Hartley: sometime dramaturg, perennial scribbler
A wander through Nomadness When I told singer-songwriter Dave Cousins that Nomadness was one of my favourite albums he cringed. It had been recorded at a difficult time. The Strawbs' popularity was waning, even on the far side of the Atlantic where it had recently burgeoned. They had parted company with keyboard player John Hawken … Continue reading Rehanging the Gallery
Listening to Ghosts Dark the night, not a soundDamp and cold, frosty groundAbove your head the lion screamsTo tear you from your moonlit dreams.Dave Cousins, Ghosts lyric Throughout 2021 I’m reflecting on the first tranche of Strawbs albums (including Dave Cousins' solo album Two Weeks Last Summer) in the order that they were released. This … Continue reading Angels and needles
I sense Autumn coming onThe mist has hung low all day He senses autumn coming on, says my literary hero (yes – literary - hero) at the start. So true. The mighty track that opens the ninth album to be released with Dave Cousins at the tiller summons the fall season magnificently. It also heralds … Continue reading The Hero in Autumn
Father and son discuss nature, nurture and the curse of creativity. Is storytelling in the blood? Plus where the weirdest ideas come from, where Guinea Pigs should never go, and the meerkats of the mind.
I couldn't believe my eyes. It was in the bargain LP display stand in Woolworths. My newly adopted favourite rock band were more successful than they'd ever been, having just clocked up a number two single and album, and here was a hitherto unreleased recording among the budget collections of compilation albums, popular classical orchestras … Continue reading Hallmarked from Woolworths
Spend some time at one of the lesser-known and more laid-back delights of Lancashire.
This is where it all began for me. This album spawned a life-long love and addiction, but it germinated far more than that. This was the mystical key. This was the ledger that unlocked the cauldron of creativity, this was the testament that told of the way to traverse the path through pain and pleasure, … Continue reading Bursting at the Seams
The memoir of a mill worker who wove his dreams into reality, 1902 - 1934.
A solo album is almost never a solo enterprise, and the musicians that are assembled here is one of the best kept open secrets of the prog-rock heyday. On board were Miller Anderson from The Keef Hartley Band; Rick Wakeman from Yes; Roger Glover from Deep Purple, and Jon Hiseman once of John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers.
One objective of fictional dystopia is to offer a hope of readdressing the hypocritical myopia in the real world. This album does that, putting duplicitous morality to the fire, ripping the finery off the self-righteous and unmasking the two-faced flag-bearers of bigotry.
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