mostly david ephgrave

I went into London tonight to attend a Classic Album Session in Elephant & Castle (as you do) celebrating the 50th anniversary of Sgt Pepper, which was cancelled for unspecified reasons, but this wasn't the end of the world, as it gave me the chance to catch up with my friend Paul, who'd invited me along in the first place.  We've been trying to arrange a meeting for months, but our plans have unfortunately been scuppered each time without fail, so it was ironic that the one occasion the stars aligned for long enough for us to be in the same postcode, the hosts of event we were going to decided to pull the plug. It was okay though, as we're adaptable, and headed for the nearest pub instead.  Our conversation began inevitably with The Beatles, and more specifically Howard Goodall’s excellent recent BBC documentary on Pepper, which dealt with the well-trodden subject perfectly; so much so it reinvigorated the album in my mind, so ...

What does any self-respecting thirty-six-year-old who was given £30 in Amazon Gift Card vouchers for his birthday spend them on? Special Edition remasters of two of Paul McCartney’s best 1980s albums Tug of War and Flowers in the Dirt, that’s what. You’d think this many years into the game my interests might deviate, but apparently not; the man who first bought Flowers in the Dirt on cassette from Wembley Market in his early teens is buying it again in his mid-(don’t you dare say “late”)-thirties on a different format; give it another twenty years and I’ll be paying to have the album implanted into my head. Yet again, I prove where my allegiance lies; I didn’t use the vouchers to buy the 50 th Anniversary remaster of Sgt Pepper- even if that was essentially another Macca-led project; I spent them on his less-celebrated yet often as interesting solo work. A lot of people would sniff at that statement, but only because they’re comparing the man’s la...

With the fiftieth anniversary of The Beatles' Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band approaching, it’s worth noting that an Ephgrave painted the drumskin on the cover, either making me fictional or my family a whistle-blower for Paul McCartney’s apparent death. Black Pepper. You may not be aware of the Paul is Dead craze, which swept America primarily (no surprise there) in the late Sixties. If you’re not, the best way to summarise would be to say a group of stoned cretins began to spot supposed clues on The Beatles’ records and their artwork to suggest that McCartney had been killed in a motorcycle accident in 1966 and replaced by a look-alike, to literally save face. This was nonsense of course, yet the theory still managed to gain considerable momentum, which still hasn’t slowed to this day in the more overly-imaginative corners of the internet.  Exhibit A. The first LP to supposedly be littered with clues was Sgt Pepper, with the majo...

I was sad to wake to the news that George Martin passed away this morning. His cultural significance is incalculable, thanks to his work with The Beatles, not to mention everything else. Without him, John, Paul, George and Ringo would have been a completely different and less successful animal (or shoul d that say ' insect ' ?). Not only was he bold enough to take a chance on a band everyone else had turned down, p urely because he liked their personalit y ; he was also prepared to nurture their burgeoning, fledgling talent; gently nudging them along, realising and stoking their potential; creating incredible sonic landscapes with the most limited technology. His ear for production and arrangement was astounding. What he achieved with The Beatles in their seven-year recording career defies belief. If I were talking about anyone else, this would be hyperbole, but not with him. The examples of his crisp ability are endless, from the stark, concise non-sentimental s...