The Children
Come Aboard
(TP011, 2002)

Sample song: Before You Fall

Thames blues
and cosmopolitan folk

When we made our debut album, Play, our accommodation was one whole floor of a former clog factory in Lant Street at the Borough, London SE1 – a majestic space that would have been way beyond our means on the open market. We had a fully equipped rehearsal space, right there beside our kitchen table.

For this, our second album, we had to downsize a bit: now our studio was the living room of a one-bedroom council flat in a block beside the New Kent Road. So we worked as a duo, on our inbuilt resources – voices, bass, guitars, harmonica, percussion – and with a little help from our new-found friends, Roland and Dr Rhythm (a little Boss drum machine and a JX-8P synthesizer).

There’s a good deal of blues here, but skewed blues, and eddies of folk, and the mainstream pop is from another mainstream in a different river. Following the music down, we found the current in places clear and gentle, in others bubbling over some irregular rock, or heading underground, leaving that turbulent, beckoning sound in its tracks.

Read the Videograms

Lyrics and audio clips:

Hitchhiker’s Guide Let your fourteen-wheeler rumble till the morning sky turns red [MP3 audio clip]
Underground Rider I ride the Piccadilly, I ride the Central, I ride the Northern from Morden to Finchley
Blues and Stout This band are no beginners, they’re all well-practised sinners [MP3 audio clip]
Good Luck Child I need your arms to run to and your legs to hold me tight
Open Up the Doors Everything inside is yours
Drinking Water Talking bad luck and trouble, well you know I’ve had my share
Thank You, Henry History’s bunk, let’s put a trunk road through your village
Dodge Pouring down on you from above – how you gonna dodge when it’s love? [MP3 audio clip]
Uptomystic One and two and four is seven, you and me is us [MP3 audio clip]
Before You Fall You lost the plot, the cameras and the costumes and the lot
Howling Wolf Saw your lamplight shining, just like honey through the pines
Out Into the Light We were dancing underground and passing round and round, now we’re coming…
Grey Cat & the Blackbird Teach to me the wooing tune you sing to your brown lady [MP3 audio clip]

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Come Aboard
The Children
(TP011)

UK: £7 (inc. P&P)

Overseas: £8 (inc. P&P)

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