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"nudemo" - any crowded ceiling

Yet another trawl of the Reincheque archive has thrown up this little gem, originally released in 1991. Mr P., our favourite recording artist, takes up the story.

"I'd reached the stage in my recording 'career' that I felt I need to take a drastic step. So I decided to put together a demo tape, under the Any Crowded Ceiling name, and to take it to London to see what I could do with it.

"I recorded four tracks - the original demo versions of Cologne and Heaven Scent, songs which were later to appear in re-recorded forms on Good Riddance, a song called Love Love Love, which almost made it on to Good Riddance in an instrumental version (called 3 X Love Groove), and a fourth song which has not yet been released by Reincheque, called Never Be Sad. With the obvious exception of Cologne, all the other tracks were recorded 'live', in that all the music had been pre-MIDI'd and was recorded live with the vocals on top. If there was a problem with the mix or the vocals (and believe me, there was...) the entire song had to be re-recorded. Not exactly Frank Sinatra and the Nelson Riddle orchestra, but you get the idea.

"On the August Bank Holiday weekend in 1991, I took the bus and ferry to London, staying with my friend Pat Jameson in his flat in Highgate (I think...). I spent an entire Saturday riding the Tube, and hand delivering copies of the tape to as many record companies and music publishers as I could find out about before my trip. I'd bought an A to Z and had Post-it notes identifying companies which were situated in various parts of London. I still have the A to Z and the most of the Post-it notes are still attached to this day.

"Since you are no doubt aware that I do not have a plush address in Beverly Hills, you can take it as read that I got absolutely no reaction from the demo. In fact, all I got from the trip to London was:-

an awareness that the scale of the maps in the A to Z are very deceptive. London is a big bloody city
an awareness that when faced with a choice of two Tube stations allegedly situated near a particular location, I will invariably pick the wrong stations
some rather fine blisters on my heels.

"I hadn't heard these tracks for well over ten years, and I'd completely forgotten about Never Be Sad. Leaving aside the bass-heavy original mixes, the horrendous tape hiss and the off key singing (particularly on Love Love Love, where the vocals are pitched way too low), there is a certain naive quality about the tracks that brings a wry smile to my face. The tracks have been re-mastered and re-EQ'd, so they sound as good as they can, under the circumstances.

"Love Love Love was written as a potential entry for the Irish National Song Contest. It got nowhere. I was going to pitch Heaven Scent to a particular Irish singer who'd had a high international profile some years before, but I bottled out of sending him the track. Such is the story of my life.

"You'll be well familiar with Cologne by now. I think it's a measure of it's musical merit that I can still pitch the track some fifteen years after it was originally composed. The 'nudemo' version is somewhat slower in tempo than that which appeared on Good Riddance. I think this slower pace adds to the grandeur of the track.

"And Never Be Sad was, bizarrely, inspired by a Pere Ubu track (you'll never think it when you hear it). And if anyone reading this can correctly guess the particular Pere Ubu track , and contacts me with the right answer, I will donate EUR50 to the charity of their choice."

"Oh, and the reason why the tape was called 'nudemo' was that I couldn't be arsed to design a cover for the tape, so I released it in it's nude state."

Heaven Scent (demo) - Never Be Sad - Love Love Love - Cologne (demo)