Episode 4 of the monthly photography podcast that I run is now available to play/download.

Clearing out the garden shed just before Christmas I unearthed a box with a load of mini discs and 7″ vinyl; bit of a treasure trove truth be told. In amongst some other gems (like the Business Machines track) were three live recordings from the 1999 Big Ray tour of France. I’ve not listened to all three gigs that closely, but I have trawled through one of them, from Club Jimmy in Bordeaux, and edited out the half-decent songs. I’ll get onto the other 2 gigs sometime soon.

 Play the whole concert in your media player: Download

 

 Buzzing: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 I Envy You: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Mefloquine Dreams: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 The Love You Gave Me: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 House At Wilson: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Iron Days: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Ticking Over: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Spaces Inbetween: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Dance Class: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Evergreen: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Driven: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Shadowplay: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The line-up for the France tour was a one-off (i.e. not a seasoned outfit) so we had only just started to really get our shit together when the tour finished, but for all that there were some really decent moments onstage and it has to be said, it was by far the most fun tour I’ve ever been on. Great spirit all round, loads of laughs and our man, Didier Bouyer at the helm.

Points of interest from this particular gig:

• The Love You Gave Me is an unrelelased track that we were supposed to record for the Business Class album, but never did. Not sure why as it’s a decent song.
• This was the most poorly attended gig of the whole tour. Shame because it’s a nice club and everyone was very cool.
• Fluck was the support band.
• Recorded straight onto MiniDisc with a stereo microphone.
• We did a short set because there wasn’t much of a crowd; I dropped 4 songs for this post.

The Line-Up:

• Ed Wenn - Vocals and guitar
• Paul Duncan - Bass (2nd half of the set)
• Reado - Drums and vocals
• James Allen - Guitar
• Jason Green - Bass (1st half of the set)
• Sarah Parkin - Vocals

Just came across these cheesecake shots of myself, Jason and James that we shot one winter lunchtime in 1999 in Ipswich in preparation for the French tour later that year.

In an attempt to get some more music up on this site I’m having a Big Ray splurge for the new year. Here’s the 2nd album, You Get What You Deserve. This is our ‘classic rock’ album in the vein of those early 70’s Who albums, Mott The Hoople and maybe a touch or two of the ever present Neil Young (and his occasional colleagues Crosby, Stills & Nash). The album was recorded and mixed at Gemini in Ipswich sometime in 1993 and was supposed to come out on a couple of different labels, but was then shelved due to a whole load of shit that went down in a short space of time and essentially the band split up.

Roll forward a few years and our knight in shining armour, our Sugar Daddy, Monsieur Didier Bouyer got in touch from his power base in France to say that he’d got hold of cassette of the unreleased album at some pointing the past 5 years and that it had saved his life or something - it was never made clear exactly what he meant by this, but he said it in the sincerest of tones and we believed him. As a result of its apprently life-saving qualities he had made it his mission to bring the 2nd Big Ray album to the attention of the world. It was his quest, his mission…or something like that. Who was I to stand in his way? The man’s a god, a genius, a wonderful person and has impeccable taste in music

Re-invigorated by some outside interest, Paul, Roop and I dusted off the old multi-track tapes, booked into a cheap studio in Hoxton for 3 or 4 days and overdubbed/remixed the stuff we needed to to finish the album. We enlisted the help of our buddy, Colleen, in New York to knock up some rather tasty artwork and we were set.

Hope you like it. More info, photos and lyrics to follow.

Line Up:

As with the other 2 Big Ray albums, there are a lot of different musiscians dotted around the various songs on You Get What You Deserve, but the core band is as follows:

• Ed Wenn - Lead vocals & guitar
• John Ruscoe - Lead guitar & vocals
• Paul Duncan - Bass
• Reado - Drums & vocals
• Steve Cox - Keyboards

One of the most bizarre music ventures I embarked upon was a techno track called Sophisticated Weaponry. There was no ‘band’ per se, but whatever we were I decided to call us, Business Machines…..seemed appropriate enough. I’m not sure what year this was even, but I was well into Death In Vegas, The Propellerheads, Chemical Brothers etc. etc. so that should place it; I have a feeling it was sometime around 1997.

 

 Sophisticated Weaponry: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The track’s a weird one for me mainly because I’m not sure I actually played anything on it (although the keyboard riff does sound like something I’d knock up). Andy Ruscoe (John’s brother and then the bassist in Chocolate) came up with the bassline and his mate, Spencer, played the all of the guitar parts. I supplied the samples (taken from the movie The Falcon & The Snowman) and Tom Withers pretty much did everything else. In a former life Tom had been the main man in the Stupids, but for years now has been better known as Klute. The whole thing was recorded and mixed in a single session at Gemini studio in Ipswich. Listening back to it now I think it drags a little towards the end, but the central feel is excellent and I think Tom, Spencer and Andy did a great job given the time constraints. Oh yeah, I think my other main contribution was that I paid for the session!!