Clive Gregson - Bus Stop Conversations (2020 - 06) on CD

Description

In his 40th and final year as a touring performer, Clive Gregson is releasing an album every month in 2020. Clive says - "I've been thinking about making a record of songs about the north west of England for quite a while and have been stockpiling material that I thought might fit. I finally managed to pull it all together for the 2020 series of releases and so here it is." NORTH OF ENGLAND DAYS - "If memory serves, this was the first song I wrote for the project. I was tinkering away in my home studio in Nashville... It's hard to imagine that too many songs came out of Nashville referencing "ferret, flat cap and clogs"... ALL THE WAY BACK TO MANCHESTER - "I once read that "we spend the first half of our lives trying to get away from our roots and the second half trying to get back to them... The last verse is a roll call of places that have some musical significance for me... " ALDERLEY EDGE - "A very tongue in cheek look at the jewel of south Manchester/north Cheshire" BLACKPOOL, LANCASHIRE -"And by way of a contrast to the previous song..." SPARKLE STREET - "Sparkle Street is in Manchester, not far from Piccadilly Station, so named because it was in an area where the rag trade was the predominant industry... and one particular factory made shiny buttons. If buttons were damaged they were simply chucked onto the cobbled street, and the street sparkled" AT PETERLOO - "The Peterloo massacre of 1819 is arguably the single most important event in Manchester's history." NOBODY HITCHHIKES ANY MORE - "As I was the archetypal impoverished student, I regularly used to hitchhike. I saw every mile of the A34 between Congleton and Manchester from the passenger seat of a lorry cab and I was never once abducted or murdered!".THESE STREETS KNOW ME - "Tameside Metropolitan Borough, I salute you!" SUMMER'S ENDING - "Written on Southport front one September afternoon...". TOO MUCH FOR THIS TOWN - "Verse 1: The last "proper" job I had was at the Employment Centre in Hyde.One day I signed on David Smith, the man who shopped the Moors Murderers to the police..going through Smith's file at my desk that day made for pretty grim reading, I can tell you. My brother went to the same school as John Kilbride, the second victim... and my mum knew Winnie Johnson, the mother of Keith Bennett, the third victim. It was all very close to home... Verse 2: Hyde is about 3 miles from Hattersley... My eldest sister is a nurse and her job often brought her into contact with patients whose GP was Harold Shipman.... thought to be the most prolific serial killer in modern times. His practice was in Hyde. My chorus ponders where such evil can possibly come from." SOMETHING ABOUT THIS PLACE "In contrast to the previous song... a song about Saddleworth that focuses on the positive. It's a beautiful part of the world". PETERLOO SUNSET "With apologies to Ray Davies! John Wood is aways telling me that northern silver bands play English soul music... so I asked Will Roberts to try and conj