The Children
Play
(TP010, 1999)

Sample song: Get Shaggin’

A true record
of the 20th century

Our first album was mostly recorded live, on our newly acquired Akai 12-track tape recorder, in the basement of the Welsh Congregational Chapel, the Borough, London SE1, with the assistance of a fantastic crew of players. A couple of the basic tracks – ‘People Rose’ and ‘Boychild’ – were recorded live on a cassette 4-track in our living room. And for ‘Get Shaggin’’ we went to an actual, honest-to-goodness, 24-tracks-on-a-tape recording studio, in an ex-pub in Tufnell Park, which still had the bar and fittings in the live room. (Wish I could remember its name.)

See The Children at work on Play

The Players

(some of whom appear in The Improvised Vision gallery: click on ‘portrait’)

Arike harmonica
Gail Brand trombone
Julia Doyle double bass (portrait)
Bertie Fritsch percussion
Alfredo Genovesi guitar & effects (portrait)
John Gibbens guitar & voice
Frank Hall drums
Jason Rogers double bass & fretless bass guitar
Armorel Weston voice
Veryan Weston piano (portrait)
Annie Whitehead trombone, on tracks 2 and 7 (portrait)
Anne Wood violin

Lyrics and sample clips

1. M.I.A. (Meanwhile I'm Alive) You could be hit by a loose power line or fall down the shaft of a disused mine

2. Get Shaggin’ She gave up on men (not that I don’t understand it)

3. Up Shook of All Unto a land I’ve never seen I sailed again last night [MP3 audio clip]

4. Boychild When you’re powerless to act you can always play the tough guy [MP3 audio clip]

5. Stargazer Shoes I’ve got those deep space blues, from the tips of my pointed ears down to the soles of my stargazer shoes

6. Deya Nights When we put our lips together, you can blow my grey skies blue

7. People Rose The people rose, until at last they outnumbered the triggers

8. Get to the Feeling Sometimes there’s no time to get where there’s no time

9. Soul Hole Hearts of gold grow hard and cold, digging down among the bones of old

10. Next Millennium An end to terror, an end to waste, an end to conflicts of creed and race [MP3 audio clip]

11. Feel Free You do the ocean roller, you do the swan, spread out those big wide wings and let me climb on [MP3 audio clip]

 

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Play
The Children
(TP010)

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