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It was in March of '96 that I decided to get together with some of my pals to record some songs, just for fun. I was moving house at the time, so I had a big empty room, which I utilised by turning it into a makeshift studio. My good friends at Sounds Control (music retailers) loaned me a Roland VS880 digital recording machine, which Duck (the shop's resident joker and keyboard maestro) operated for me. As Duck worked on a Saturday he always had Monday's off. I would pick him up at the Burgh Arms in Inverkeithint, 2 G&Ts and 2 pints of lager and he was ready to rock. Duck is a great sound engineer and also a screaming faggot! No that's not true I just made that up! He is in fact a terrible sound engineer.
At this point in my life, Big Country were taking a break due to whatever reasons. I had become friendly with my boyhood hero's Nazareth and they had me rehearsing with them 5 days a week. I can honestly say it was one of the funniest, wonderful times I had in my life. It was a privilege to play with them. Daryl Sweet (the best drummer in the band) had me in stitches recalling tour stories from the 70's "Ah remember thir wis us, Deep Purple and a hermaphrodite dwarf'.....
Anyway enough of that, it was through bass player Pete Agnew that I met his son Stevie (one third of the famous Agnew sisters). The other two being Lee and Chris. Three of the most talented musicians this side of Kelty. I thought... hold on this guy is in his early 20's good looking and sounds like a cross between Frankie Millar and Dan McCafferty. As an experiment I recorded Republican Party Reptile and Holiday (a song written by Zal Cleminson and Nazareth) and asked Stevie to sing on them. Well the rest is history we toured the world, did loads of coke and shagged every groupie in hte Rainbow Rooms. No wait! That's a lie as well! Stevie sung on four of the songs on this CD and I'm sure we will be hearing a lot from the Agnew Bros in the near future.
As I wanted to get a raw sleazy feel to this aural enema! I decided to hang out at Sinky's pub. Every Thursday night was Jam night and most of the musicians were recruited from there. I always remember one of the Sinclair brothers going into the toilets wearing rubber gloves to remove a turd from one of the urinals. His exact words were "Dirty Bastards! Oh hiya Bruce, d'ya fancy a toastie later on?" "Nah no thanks Ian!"
Eck Paton was the second recruit. Eck is a well-known character in Dunfermline. Every year we all hold a benefit concert for Eck's liver. Eck has an infectious laugh which sounds like an AK47 machine gun! He is also the only person to have fallen out of my car. We were driving past Oddbins, en route to record, when Eck woke up and said "Stop! I can smell the drink from here!" where upon he proceeded to fall out into the road! Anyway Eck did backing vocals on "Republican" and the great Ronnie Lessells played slide guitar. Ronnie used to play guitar with Alan Darby who played with Cado Belle and later on Bonnie Tyler. Alan is also the cousin of Pano (Mike Douglas) who used to manage Stuart Adamson and also built the first chopper in Dunfermline. He also sold the chopper to Shultz (Brian Charlton) who is Manny Charlton's brother formerly of Nazareth. Who coincidentally stayed next door to me in Jennie Rennie's Road in Dunfermline. How's that for a link?
Anyway back to rock and roll, I sang on "Highland Girl" only because I couldn't find a singer that week! Neil Millar sand on "The Days" and Aaron Fyvie sand on "Kingdom Come" if you read the credits everyone involved are mentioned.
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This album is dedicated to Fluff
Thanks to-:
Jeroen Sprenker, Phillip Alcorn, Martin Hetherington, Johnny Cordes, Stuart Arnott, Ian Stickland, Peter Hornberg, Randall Addison, Peter Trenning, Les Schriber, Andrew Bairley, Rorie McIntosh, Mattias Engvall, John Spencer, Steve Jara, Anne C. Ciurro, Rod Cohen, Damon Burkhart, Richard Visco, Dave & Sally Schwatrz, Allan Matthews, Ian Smith, Mark Griffin, Robert Oliver, Sabine Koehler, Filip Klippelaar, Wolfgang Niemeyer, Sergio Alvarado Solano, Donna Higgs, John De Keijzer, Emiel Van Dijk, Cees Jan Ploeger, Andy Thompson, John R Gouveia, Iain Galbraith, Nick Barnett, Chris Raaths, Sean Daly, Stephen Ashe, Richard Fitzgerald, John Davis, Paul Ashe, Ali & Paula, Michael Vinson, Ben Woodhouse, James Carnegie, Alex Duveen & Michale Wheeler (road tech).
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Bruce Watson's WILD BLUE YONDER Track Record www.1
Republican Party Reptile
(Adamson/Watson)
Stevie Agnew - Vox
Ronnie Lessels - Slide Guitar
"Machine Gun" Eck Paton - B/Vox
Duck - B/Vox
Bruce Watson - Guitar/Programming
Suspicious
(Watson)
Stevie Agnew - Vox
Jamie Pearce - Guitar Solo
Tony Porco - Sax & B/Vox
Duck - B/Vox
Bruce Watson - Guitar/Programming
Holiday
(Agnew/Cleminson/Charlton/McCafferty/Sweet/Naz songs ltd.)
Stevie Agnew - Vox
Ronnie Lessels - Slide Guitar
Bruce Watson - Guitar/Programming
Start My Engine
(Watson)
Stevie Agnew - Vox
Bruce Watson - Guitar/Programming
Duck - B/Vox
Highland Girl
(Watson)
Bruce Watson - Guitar/Vox
Ricky Carter - Bass
Duck - B/Vox
Engineered by Jamie Davidson
The Days
(MacCafferty/Watson)
Neil Millar - Vox
Dougie Gordon - Slide Guitar/Bazouki
Ricky Carter - Bass
Bruce Watson - E-Bow/Guitar/B/Vox
Kingdom Come
(Watson)
Aaron Fyvie - Vox
Anton Ellington - Pedal Steel
Ali Anderson - Programming
John Gray - Sax
Bruce Watson - Guitar/mandolin
Ricky Carter - Bass
Management: Ian Grant Management
Mastered by Roger Wake
Artwork by James Grant
Fanline - 0891 600 031(calls charged at 39p per minute cheap rate, 49p at all other times)
Country Club
Jan Bremner
PO BOX 59
Ashwell
Herts
SG7 5NG
Track www.1
C & P Track Records/Bruce Watson
All rights reserved.Unauthorized Copying,Reproduction,Hiring,Lending, Public Performance And Broadcasting Prohibited.
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