6. Monday Morning – Friends of the Stars
My friend Craig has time cancer. Normally, it manifests itself with progressive lateness, and an inability to wake pre-noon.
However, sometimes it has more significant implications.
When’s the album coming out Craig?
“Mid-2006”
“Make that later in 2006”
“Sometime in 2006”
“…okay so, actually, it’ll probably be 2007…”
Still, I’ve heard it and it’s great and it’ll be worth the wait. They’re called Friends of the Stars, they’re local to Moseley — spiritually, if not actually — and they write music that sounds as if country music has always been native to the Wild West Midlands, and not an import.
The album is (or will be) called ‘Lighting and Electrical’.
This is country folk raised on Jarvis, Billy Bragg, Mike Harding, Elvis Costello — and that really good Dexys album.
It’s a self-deprecating, pint down the pub after (or instead of) work, melancholy sort of album, with the odd track that could easily make the jump to butter commercial on the telly.
Anna, Craig and Cam make up the core of the band. Anna’s vocals are something in themselves, but she’s also one of the few DJs I know of that can play Fats Waller and Led Zeppelin back to back in a crowded room.
Cam is as close to being a raconteur as anyone I’ve ever met. He’s very funny — and I think we understand each other because of our Scottish heritage, only I’m not Scottish.
Craig is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, banjo-noodler, haver of great ideas, sucker for Girls Aloud* and my drinking partner of choice. He’s a flawed genius — and I think I mentioned the time cancer.
Ring-in bass-player Del is from the Mexicolas, who are — unlike Friends of the Stars — going to be famous.
And I contributed the album’s running order. I told Craig which order I liked listening to the songs in, and then he said ‘that’ll do’.
Friends of the Stars are going to be one of those bands that 100 or so people in every town around the world are going to keep as a closely-guarded secret. They’ll get a little airplay on some of the few remaining radio stations where the music takes precendence over the shareholders — mostly US Public Radio, I’m guessing — and people in the know will buy their records.
Hopefully, that’ll be just enough people so Craig can spend his time making music, rather than having to work the kind of gig where people are all unreasonable and expect you to be in certain places by certain times.
At any rate, you and I know to buy their record. If they ever get it out. Perhaps the butter commercial’s going to be the key here.
Anyway – it’s a Monday track on a Monday. I figured let’s do a week of ‘Day of the Week’ posts. Yeah, I ran out of ideas that quickly.
Disclaimer: this is the unmastered version of Monday Morning. The finished album version will be shinier.
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*By that I mean he likes their music. That’s not his job.
