Includes my version of Blue Monday by New Order
September 4, 2010
June 18, 2010
CHAPMAN’s Bare Bones Sessions
So what are CHAPMAN’s Bare Bones Sessions…?
Well…they are going to be a series of filmed ‘as live’ online only performances where CHAPMAN plays cover requests from fans alongside ‘Bare Bones’ versions of tracks from his own albums.
Every week there will be a new session. Each session will feature one cover song and one CHAPMAN original and is launching on YouTube in August 2010.
CHAPMAN is currently looking for suggestions of tracks to cover. Any genre, any style considered all performed in a stripped down ‘Bare Bones’ style.
Each cover song will be dedicated to the person who suggested it.
Please leave your cover song suggestions as comments on this blog…
May 4, 2010
Wisdom Tooth – It’s not the extraction, it’s the hole it leaves behind!
As part of my continuing dental story, I’ve just had a wisdom tooth removed. I have to say that the build up to any operation is always filled with others telling you how painful the actual act of removal is going to be what they don’t tell you about is the inconvenience and psychological effects of it.
First of all, I react well to strong painkillers I’ve always been receptive to them so to be honest I didn’t feel a thing, the extraction took about 45 seconds. As usual in a dentist chair I was wearing headphones and trying to zone out from what was about to happen and was honestly surprised when he told me to bite down on a swab such a short time after tipping me backwards, I hardly had time to get into the Bubble Puppy track on my ipod.
I got the usual post operative information and stumbled out into the hospital to look for a cab to take me home. I was feeling quite satisfied, numb and happy.
Now listen…what people don’t tell you about having a wisdom tooth removed is, it’s not the extraction, it’s the hole it leaves behind!
My first attempt at a meal was chilli…big mistake… despite my attempts to chew on the other side of my mouth the hole became clogged with mince. I had visions of my gum healing ‘con carne’. Ok so I did manage to get it out but since then I’ve been nervous of any food that can break itself into small pieces, to be honest I’ve been afraid to eat! Coupled with the constant throbbing pain it has made me grouchy ( sorry to everyone who has borne the brunt)
I’m really looking forward to my wisdom hole healing over ‘sans carne’!
April 17, 2010
Give Me the Morning (Amplification)
I should probably post this in the morning but it’s morning somewhere…
From the new album ‘The Amplification of Mr Ballad’
April 15, 2010
CHAPMAN – Beautiful Time (OneFourtyFour Remix)
I’m posting it here because this is one of my personal favourites from one of my three new albums ‘The Remix of Mr Ballad
Just released on 12th April.
Stick with it as it gets epic!!!!!
Visit mrballad.com for more
Video for Hum Along
This video has been doing the rounds on You Tube for a short while now but I realised I had never posted it to my blog which seems pretty mad! From one of my three new albums ‘The Amplification of Mr Ballad’ released this last Monday 12 April…I give you Hum Along!
March 19, 2010
IPOD FIVE STAR Shuffle #3 Please Sunrise – Augustus Pablo
I have a five star playlist on my ipod of all my favourite tracks. Every now and then I put that playlist on shuffle and write about the first track that comes up…
This track ‘Please Sunrise is from one of my Top 50 albums of all time, “This is…Augustus Pablo”.
Released in 1973, Augustus Pablo, or Horace Swaby as he was christened, took the melodica, an instrument used in Jamaican schools to teach children music, and used it to teach the world about reggae and dub.
This track and the album that spawned it was produced by Pablo’s childhood friend and critically acclaimed reggae producer Clive Chin. The album boasts an impressive list of session musicians including Ansel Collins on keyboards and Lloyd Parks and Aston Barrett both on bass guitar. The album was one of the first to showcase Pablo’s unique use of the melodica.
From the first ring of the snare and the laidback and haunting unison of upright piano and melodica you are transported to some ancient empty dancehall once you have been there a short while you are lifted into four bars of an almost childlike major key bridge that touches on optimism before sweeping back into a sorrowful but beautiful place again.
It was always a favourite in the days when I used to return home in the early hours from a club. It’s only 2m 40secs long of instrumental dub but it’s a killer track…
June 4, 2009
IPOD FIVE STAR Shuffle #2 90% of Me is You by Gwen McRae
This cool slow funk tale of the almost total consumption of someone by another never fails to move me. This is from Gwen McRae’s 1975 album ‘Rocking Chair’ The solid drums and bass with The Curtis Mayfield style string line operate under the tight wah-wah guitar duelling with the stoned ‘Wes Montgomery style’ jazzy stabs and riffs while Gwen explains how her body and mind have been taken over by her man despite her attempts to be strong and “…be the kind of woman that no man can move”
Much sampled by many hip hop acts of the 80s, 90s and 00s but most effective in it’s original form.
In her early career she formed a duo with her husband George McRae (of ‘Rock Your Baby’ fame) but the partners went their separate ways artistically and subsequently maritally. This track was written by Clarence Reid who went on to become the comic ‘Blowfly’ and the backing vocalists are Betty Wright (Clean up woman) George McRae (Hubby) and Henry Casey (as in ‘KC’ and the Sunshine Band) but enough of my facts – discover it and enjoy it!
