Some extracts from the Abbey Road sessions recording Kisses on a Postcard - with John Owen Jones, Lance Ellington, Evie Hoskins, Daisy Beaumont, Cordell Mosteller and others. Conducted by Martin Wheatley and Lola Frisby Williams.
Dom.......I've been following you for about 3 or 4 years now. You financial advice is brilliant. Your insight into the housing problem in the UK and its affect on the economy is more insightful than ANYTHING I've heard or read EVER (I'm 59). I find your standup amusing but not that funny. I'm hard to please where humour is concerned. I grew up in Huddersfield in the 70's where every evening's entertainment was slagging off everybody on the TV (think Gogglebox with no bleeping). It was a cultural thing handed down from grandparents to parents to children. Even when 'Not The Nine O'Clock News' appeared and then 'The Young Ones', they were slightly amusing but never got a full bellied laugh. It would take early Frankie Boyle with his scathing remarks to get a smile and a possible laugh out of me. I'm stating all of this because it's important for you to understand my comments. I am not a 'theatre-going luvvy' with half-a-brain but think they're so sophisticated. I'm a musician who has written a musical (a bit like this effort....a play with music) so I think as a song-writer and composer I have some idea of how music and words work together. There is something very wrong with what I've heard so far with Kisses on a Postcard. I'm sorry to be so blunt, because if anybody can imagine the work you and countless others have expended so far (not to mention the cost) in getting it to this stage, it's me. And your reason for doing it is so noble and right. I hate to say it, but the music is just not good enough for what you're trying to achieve. Let me qualify what I mean. I don't know the composer you've worked with. If it is the one you've worked with for your satirical songs, then maybe that is the problem. The musical language of what I've heard so far is not authentic. Love Andrew Lloyd Webber or hate him, he has an authenticity to his music. It sounds like him. What I've heard here, sounds like nothing but an idea of what a musical should sound like. It's such a difficult line between pastiche that brings nothing to the table and a stylistic song, that brings what you already know but then adds something that we find interesting, sometimes quirky and original. If this doesn't happen, we turn off. We don't engage our empathy with the characters, but merely glance at our watch and wonder if they have draught on tap at the bar instead of the indistinguishable bottles. I have not enjoyed writing this, because I have received so much from you over the years that I feel I'm almost betraying you. Not only that, but I'm not representative of the audience you may find with 'Kisses'. I also think however, the politics of today (see the latest on 'hate speech' in Norway and expressing the opinion that a man cannot be a lesbian) means that telling a story like 'kisses' needs to have some relevance to people living today. It can't just be stroll down memory lane....simply because of the fact that they're aren't many people around for whom the story will have any meaning. Again, I'm jumping the gun, I haven't listened to all four hours since the beginning wasn't good enough to make me want to listen further.
I really do hope you take these comments in the spirit they're intended. You are a top bloke, generous and funny and I only know the public you. If you're like the rest of us creatives, I've no doubt that comments like these are hard to take. Please do not let them stifle your creativity or dampen your belief in yourself. If the times we are living through at the moment forces us to draw upon our inner strengths, then self-belief is one we should hold dearly close to our hearts. Without that, we are nothing.
I wish you nothing but good things and will send those vibes out to the universe.
Maybe I'm wrong........just been making a cup of tea and the 'earworm' 'It won't be long'...has just been ringing around my head.
Dom.......I've been following you for about 3 or 4 years now. You financial advice is brilliant. Your insight into the housing problem in the UK and its affect on the economy is more insightful than ANYTHING I've heard or read EVER (I'm 59). I find your standup amusing but not that funny. I'm hard to please where humour is concerned. I grew up in Huddersfield in the 70's where every evening's entertainment was slagging off everybody on the TV (think Gogglebox with no bleeping). It was a cultural thing handed down from grandparents to parents to children. Even when 'Not The Nine O'Clock News' appeared and then 'The Young Ones', they were slightly amusing but never got a full bellied laugh. It would take early Frankie Boyle with his scathing remarks to get a smile and a possible laugh out of me. I'm stating all of this because it's important for you to understand my comments. I am not a 'theatre-going luvvy' with half-a-brain but think they're so sophisticated. I'm a musician who has written a musical (a bit like this effort....a play with music) so I think as a song-writer and composer I have some idea of how music and words work together. There is something very wrong with what I've heard so far with Kisses on a Postcard. I'm sorry to be so blunt, because if anybody can imagine the work you and countless others have expended so far (not to mention the cost) in getting it to this stage, it's me. And your reason for doing it is so noble and right. I hate to say it, but the music is just not good enough for what you're trying to achieve. Let me qualify what I mean. I don't know the composer you've worked with. If it is the one you've worked with for your satirical songs, then maybe that is the problem. The musical language of what I've heard so far is not authentic. Love Andrew Lloyd Webber or hate him, he has an authenticity to his music. It sounds like him. What I've heard here, sounds like nothing but an idea of what a musical should sound like. It's such a difficult line between pastiche that brings nothing to the table and a stylistic song, that brings what you already know but then adds something that we find interesting, sometimes quirky and original. If this doesn't happen, we turn off. We don't engage our empathy with the characters, but merely glance at our watch and wonder if they have draught on tap at the bar instead of the indistinguishable bottles. I have not enjoyed writing this, because I have received so much from you over the years that I feel I'm almost betraying you. Not only that, but I'm not representative of the audience you may find with 'Kisses'. I also think however, the politics of today (see the latest on 'hate speech' in Norway and expressing the opinion that a man cannot be a lesbian) means that telling a story like 'kisses' needs to have some relevance to people living today. It can't just be stroll down memory lane....simply because of the fact that they're aren't many people around for whom the story will have any meaning. Again, I'm jumping the gun, I haven't listened to all four hours since the beginning wasn't good enough to make me want to listen further.
I really do hope you take these comments in the spirit they're intended. You are a top bloke, generous and funny and I only know the public you. If you're like the rest of us creatives, I've no doubt that comments like these are hard to take. Please do not let them stifle your creativity or dampen your belief in yourself. If the times we are living through at the moment forces us to draw upon our inner strengths, then self-belief is one we should hold dearly close to our hearts. Without that, we are nothing.
I wish you nothing but good things and will send those vibes out to the universe.
Best of luck,
Al
https://soundcloud.com/altruistica/tracks