It's been 35 years since I released my original 'The Thatcher Song' album.
In it's original format it was initially released in cassette and vinyl LP formats. The first version included many of my successful singles from that period including 'The Taoiseachs Hooley', 'Maggie and the Farmer', etc.
In 1988, after the rights and catalogue of Crubeen Records were sold to The Prism Leisure label, an enhanced version of an album (with some tracks omitted and newer ones added) under the same title, was put together that included two of my most successfully covered songs, 'Never too old to Love' and 'De valera'.
The sleeve design, from the people who worked on 'Spitting Image', actually cost more than the original album cost to record, which was a very low budget affair to say the least! It also featured some new material including 'Mother Englands Giro' and a freshly recorded version of my 'Drumshanbo Exile'. This 1988 version of my album is still on general release in digital and hard copy format.
Not bad for an album that was totally rejected and ignored by radio stations across the UK and Ireland.
To coincide with the anniversary I've put togther a little ditty about our new Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. He's making lots of positive projections in his early days and hopefully he'll be a positive contribution to our daily lives.
It's available via all normal streaming and download platforms incuding Spotify, Itunes, Google, Amazon, etc. It is not available in hard copy CD format.
I've just had the song remixed to make the lyrics/vocal clearer and to filter out some of the over busy backing tracks.
I'm getting lots of feedback on the song and have been asked for the lyrics of this and my 'No Hard Border Song' which I'll be adding to my lyrics page as soon as I get a chance.
Meanwhile the version below actually has the lyrics on the video with subtitles.
My last two singles 'The Ballad of Brexit' and 'The No Hard Border Song' are coming to the end of their shelf life in the topicality department imminently.
I wrote them both using my old style of writing that I had a lot of success with back in the 1980's-1990's, basing the theme on current characters and events.
The 'No Hard Border Song' single is about to be
deleted from the standard platforms but it will feature on a
forthcoming compilation album that I hope to release in the autumn.
It will continue to live on via youtube for the time being.
You can hear both songs on the videos below and you can buy the
tracks via the usual online outlets such as Itunes and Amazon music
or stream them via all the usual services such as Spotify, etc.
Many thanks to Tom and his family down in Bristol
a few weeks back, for the amazing welcome and hospitality
extended to me and my band for his birthday bash.
The pub was jammed to the doors and we all had a fabulous night.
At times Tom acted as our crowd controller, keeping the multitudes from spilling into the playing area, which was a job well done Tom and greatly appreciated!
St Patrick's weekend was a stormer for me and my band members. This year all of our St Patrick's week gigs were in the Greater London area, apart from March 9th which was at Sandown Park races.
Myself and Dicky and Nick did a fabulous gig up the road in the
afternoon in Shoreditch High Street at the 'Crown and Shuttle'.
The place was rocking to the timbers and the predominantly young crowd were with us all the way.
Exhausted at the end of it all but what a great way to get tired out! I'm already getting enquiries for next year and will let you know where and when in plenty of time.
'Jealous of the Angels' is a beautiful song written by Jenn Bostic about bereavement and I have had plays on it from across the globe and my Itunes sales have surprisingly been mainly in the USA, which of course is a great compliment. Country songs such as that are predominantly the domain of US artists.
It's now pretty much a standard request for me to sing at funeral services, which is something that I'm doing more and more of thesedays.
The other 9 tracks on the album were all written by me and have all received healthy streaming figures on the main platforms as well as respectable sales of both the album and individual tracks, especially 'Circle of Love'.
You can hear this album in full also on youtube via the following embedded player.
My football team are Millwall and it was certainly a nerve jangling season in 2018/2019.
The football season 2019/2020 is now well under way and like all footy fans I look forward to getting along to see and cheer my team along whenever I can, home and away.
Neil Harris has made some exciting new signings after quite a clearout and it'll be great to see how we get along in what is a really tough league, the Championship.
The relegation battle we found ourselves mired in last season, was red hot last Easter Monday. I was at a sell out Villa park for our narrow defeat while Rotherham were later locked in a ding dong battle with Villa's neighbours Birmingham City.
City fought back and won 3-1, which helped our survival chances dramatically. In the end we achieved safety with 2 games to go. I'm utterly delighted that we've kept our Championship status and look forward to seeing us cranking things up for a mighty Lions promotion challenge this season.