|
The Chica Boom Boom
Club is a dodgy club in Milan.
 |
|
Neil "Loadsa"
Murray
- vocals, guitar |
None of the Hamptons have actually been there but their mate
"dangerous" Delgado has told them about it and, along with
sundry clubs in various spots throughout Eastern Europe, and
one in Barcelona, highly recommends it (very dodgy…). We doubt
they play the Hamptons there!
Anyway, 2003 saw a return to Nashville where the good Mr
Dreyer massaged the raw Hamptons material into wondrous shape.
Unusually, it also contains three songs featuring female
vocals!
Sally makes her fully-fledged solo singing debut on "Shadowblind",
produced by Gene Rabbai in Nashville (separate team to Mark
Dreyer and his crew, who dealt with the rest - thanks to all).
Also featuring on the album is Sherri Boardo, who sang the
second verse of the Hamptons classic "Don't bypass my heart" -
re-done Nashville mix! - and on "Three wishes". Both these are
in the time honoured tradition of "you spend all your time
under the car or drinking beer" and "I just do the dishes"
versus "I have to go to work every day so we all stay afloat"
and "give me some space" - sound familiar?
 Anyway, this time Neil stayed in the Holiday Inn rather than
the truckers motel, witnessed (but didn't run in) the
Nashville marathon and entered into the "over sixteen section"
of the local Nashville talent competition and songs of love
and divorce - curiously enough, one of the judges, a female
lawyer (and presumably part-time musical judge) of thirty
something vintage - brassy blonde (you know the type) - came
up afterwards and said that Neil made her laugh the most and
did he fancy a beer at Tootsie's? To this day, I don’t think
she's forgiven him for not turning up!
The basic stuff was recorded at Easter time but finished in
the autumn, when, exhausted, Neil hightailed it to Shanghai,
Hong Kong, Sydney (World Cup Rugby quarter finals!), Auckland,
Tahiti and Mexico City - during which time he had a lot of fun
and encountered no musical inspiration whatsoever, though did
catch, rather curiously, UB40 on the shores of Tahiti and King
Crimson in Mexico City!.
The guy on the front is the "unknown Mexican trumpet player"
who was playing outside something which looked like a bank in
Mexico City - anyway, it fitted the bill and the Mexican bank
became the dodgy club in Milan, courtesy of some computer
wizardry perpetrated by skinny bearded blokes in a ramshackle
office in West Dulwich, London. Once again, the album was
recorded, mostly in Nashville and mixed by the Hamptons' good
friends Dominique and Alex at Wolf Studios in London.
Strange thing, life…
|
