Pete Astor has a new album Tall Stories And New Religions set for release. It arrives as he clocks up forty years of recording, and revisits a selection of songs from his voluminous back catalogue. He’s accompanied by a cluster of familiar co-conspirators; drummer Ian Button, bassist Andy Lewis, guitarist Wilson Neil Scott , and keyboardist/ multi-instrumentalist/ producer Sean Read
These aren’t ‘greatest hits’ or even ‘career highlights’ they’re songs from across the years which on reflection or simply whim seemed to require another go. Newly observed recording deficiencies, or freshly grasped meanings; the older performer’s viewpoint hidden from his younger self now revealed.
The first song to surface is ‘Model Village’, written for The Loft when they reconvened in 2005 after a hiatus of twenty years: “Model villages always struck me as beautifully sad; their attempt to depict that complex and difficult thing called life in miniature by attempting to contain it in a static, idealised image of a neat, ordered world… Since writing it the song has been in pretty much every live set I’ve played and this has meant that I think I’ve learnt to sing and play and inhabit it far better. “
Tracklisting:
A1) Model Village
A2) Ladies And Gentlemen
A3) Chinese Cadillac
A4) The Emperor, The Dealer And The Birthday Boy
A5) She Comes From The Rain
A6) Nancy True Knot
B1) Caesar Boots
B2) Head Over Heels
B3) Marsh Blues
B4) Emblem
B5) Disney Queen
B6) On Top Above The Driver
Tall Stories And New Religions is released by Tapete Records on 15th March
Bucketfull Of Brains 