NEVILLE’S ADVOCATE

After decades of playing guitar in various situations, Nev has finally got round to putting some of his own songs down

Remember when Eric Clapton re-emerged from his darkest days and got back into the studio, he made the cathartic, largely excellent and career-affirming, 461 Ocean Boulevard (named after the house in Florida where he stayed while recording it)? Well, I recall reading a contemporaneous interview with Eric where he said something like, “I was feeling pretty pleased with it until I heard Stevie Wonder’s Talking Book…”

Now, I’ve recently been putting some of my own songs down and, while I’d never dare compare my noodlings to music by artists of such rarified stature, I’ve discovered that, unless you’re superconfident in your abilities, it’s hard not to do exactly that. It’s humbling. I’m sure if you’ve ever committed anything to ‘tape’ you’ll know exactly what I mean. Plus I’ve never been here before so I’m feeling extra sensitive about the whole issue. I don’t know why it’s taken so long for me to get round to it. Maybe one gets to an age where the ‘feck it’ factor kicks in and you think, ‘What the hell?’ I mean, I’m not exactly aiming for the toppermost of the poppermost, am I?

Back in the 80s I co-wrote a few things with an old mate (who actually plays keys on this), and while he’s an excellent songwriter and extremely musical musician, we never had the confidence to do anything with the songs: like touting them to publishers in Tin Pan Alley; going to live in a squat in London (as many of our mates did); or even forming a band to play them and get a following. But here I am, 30-plus years down the line, finally doing it.

Some years ago, for reasons I can’t even recall, I started jotting down lyrics – not my deepest feelings about lost loves and all that, just little ideas that popped into my head about ‘stuff’. Then last year my aforementioned keyboard mate was recording some new material in a studio in Southend so I bit the bullet, booked a weekend, demo’d three tracks with him, sent them to our bassist and drummer and we did it. I was almost embarrassed at standing there singing (I ain’t no Don Henley!) and revealing my words.

But we did it… no-one laughed... or looked askance at the temerity of it… and they actually came out okay. Initially, I was so anti ‘looking like a prima donna’ that I’d let a lot of my own less-than-perfect stuff through as I didn’t want to appear too ‘up myself’. But as we got more and more tracks done over several visits and people weren’t giggling under their breath, I started to begin knowing what I wanted and making sure I got it, to the best of everyone’s ability.

Of course it’s blues-rock-pop as that’s where my tastes lie. One’s even called The Blues Headlines (as in my 20-year column in Guitarist – I originally nicked the title from Roy Hudd’s satirical radio show, The News Huddlines). Every track is different – there’s not a single ‘slow blues in G’ and they’ve just come back from being mixed and mastered.

I should put them on Spotify and iTunes, and maybe even print a few up should anyone be interested. Plus, editor Jamie and I are helping to launch a blues club in Bath and, who knows, I might even get the guys down to perform a few (I’ll make sure they put the bottle screen up, haha!).

And if 296 Acacia Avenue ever does see the light of day, you’ll be the first to know! See you next month.