Hello everyone and a Happy New Year and Valentines Day to you all!

Last night I released an EP on Bandcamp, called “4-14-44”. It’s a collection of mostly instrumental music that was put together because I haven’t released anything under my own name since 2012 so I thought it was time to whet your appetites for more substantial musical offerings later in the year.

The tunes on the EP came to me as I was indulging in a brief and uncharacteristic bout of nostalgia for the Camden Town of the early 1990s. In particular, Saturday nights at The Laurel Tree when Paul Tunkin, James & Martin Karminsky, Ian Jackson and myself got away with playing all kinds of nonsense to a crowd that became more numerous and less inhibited week after week. The sounds ranged from TV theme tunes to 60’s dance classics via  passionate pop and eclectic electronica, all played on turntables that struggled to keep their needles in the grooves as the building heaved and shook under the weight of exuberant enjoyment. As befitted a night that seemed to be expanding beyond the ability of the venue to cope with it, the club became known as Blow Up. Just thinking about those dancing faces and that night bought back a host of half-remembered ideas for riffs and grooves which the technology of the day didn’t allow me to realize into finished pieces.

Camden Town has changed a lot since then, and The Laurel Tree is now a Brewdog bar, oblivious to its role in the personal histories of hundreds. However, many of the people I met during that time remain close friends, in love with life and still passionate about music. Some of them will hear this EP, and when they do I hope it makes them smile.

Rather like the “41” mini-album that I bought out in 2011, this was a project that was a lot of fun to do, and it’s been a welcome distraction from the bloody awful weather!  I’m currently producing an album which will be released by Acid Jazz records later this year, and am in collaboration with some very interesting people. More news to follow. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy listening to “4-14-44” as much I as enjoyed making it.  See you at a club night or a Paul Weller show soon.