THE CHEESEMAKERS 20

Now the dust has settled on Cheesemakers20 I want to send out a massive Thank You to everyone who came and got involved and helped make it a fabulous night. So many great moments, so many great people, far too many to mention.

I have compiled a list of photos and pics from the night here:

https://www.facebook.com/The-Cheesemakers-173231189403854/…

...don't know if it's everything or if everyone will be able to see all of it, but feel free to add pics or videos to it if you can. 

Who knows what the future holds for The Cheesemakers, let's face it, we've never really known, but one thing that will always be there is that Cheesemakers20 was a triumphant and brilliant night.

THANK YOU
Andy x

p.s. Anyone who didn't get a badge, let me know and I shall send you one, got a few left

https://www.facebook.com/The-Cheesemakers-173231189403854/?fref=nf

THE CHEESEMAKERS 20

SATURDAY 10th SEPTEMBER 2016

THE CENTRAL BAR, GATESHEAD

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Available NOW from

Reflex on-line

Reflex in-store

23 Nun St, Newcastle 0191 260 3246

See Tickets

Me in person

Tickets £5 

plus relevant booking fee

THE CHEESEMAKERS 20

The Cheesemakers formed in a car-park in Boldon in 1996 for a one-off gig and yet, against all odds, here they are 20 years later celebrating two decades of doing it their way.

After the gig in ’96, the band decided to continue on, despite the heavy, almost foreboding culture of cover/tribute bands which still dominates today, and ply their trade playing purely original material, something they have stuck too stringently in that time, with several albums and singles in the bands catalogue filled with varied original songs.  Many kind comments and somewhat surprised reviews have come the bands way in this time and people continue to be pleasantly amazed by how the band’s music affects them, as they weren’t expecting it to....this has been a theme!

Well over 100 songs and 20 years later they return to the stage to plunder that vast catalogue in a two-set extravaganza featuring old and new, borrowed and blue (dress), obscure and familiar in the company of their tragically loyal followers.

Some songs you may recall – Bob Bizarre, You Sold Your Records (1983), Hate The Milkman, Fly Buster, White Mouse, When The Girl In The Blue Dress Sings, Creatures, Leicester..........the list is almost endless

Taking to the stage tonight with the band will be a selection of special guests, faces from the past and present, all of whom contributed to the band’s creative & reactive output, stamina and downright elitist blinkered path through the shit to achieve this milestone (millstone)  ....Higher Than You!

So come and join The Cheesemakers as they say loud and clear from the stage ‘We Did It, and we did it with THESE SONGS!’

Each gig ticket comes with a special commemorative Cheesemakers20 pin badge that you can collect from the venue on the night. There may well be other surprises and giveaways on the night. Don’t be square be there!

Come Out and see the sun...............

THREE NEW LIVE VIDEOS

Have been added to the You Tubes all taken from our live set back in July at Flat Tops in Boldon, a fantastic music venue.

View them here:

White Mouse (Don't Forget Nancy Wake)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HObpMWVsqGo

Lyin' To Me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rjolw8WuzQ

Pinball
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPSJIPQhSok

THE CHEESEMAKERS NEW SINGLE - OUT NOW!

'When The Girl In The Blue Dress Sings'

Audio - https://soundcloud.com/cheesemaker-1
Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mUsFkYfPs8

The Cheesemakers new single, and Part Two of 'Inspiring Women' series. For Part One search 'Cheesemakers White Mouse' on the You Tubes

Synopsis: "A song about the songs of Bridie Jackson & The Arbour and how they make people feel. Part 2 of our 'Inspiring Women' series, (Part One is White Mouse about the life of WW2 heroine Nancy Wake). After talking with other listeners about this music they all agreed. This song describes how you can feel a breadth of emotions all within one tune, whilst listening to BJ&A you can have tears streaming down your face one minute then be laughing heartily the next, and within music this is an astonishing feat. I am very aware of how Bridie & the group wish to come across and they achieve that with aplomb. This song is The Cheesemakers attempt at describing that, and portaying how you can feel the whole spectrum of emotion all within 4 minutes."

http://www.bridieandthearbour.com/

 
With great thanks to Bridie Jackson and The Arbour for inspiration and Iona Frances Brown for making the film

WHITE MOUSE 
(DON'T FORGET NANCY WAKE)

NEW SINGLE RELEASED NOW 

As part of our plan to release 'singles' and impact releases, this is the first of a two-part series of individual tracks about inspiring women. The first one is, I believe, maybe the best song we've ever written and is inspired by the life of one Nancy Wake. Please go and find out about her after you have listened to the song, an amazing woman and hopefully she would appreciate our song about her life.

All we ask is you listen and let us know what you think

Listen to it here now -  https://soundcloud.com/cheesemaker-1/tracks 

WHITE MOUSE (DON'T FORGET NANCY WAKE)

From cosmopolitan Marseilles 1939

Seduced by proficient tango

Nancy married Henri, wealthy so he was

Charm & sophistication

Champagne & caviar

Living on a hill on the harbour

Who’d have thought that Nancy Wake

Would turn into the White Mouse?

Have you ever been afraid?

‘I’ve never been afraid in my life’

Nancy Wake The White Mouse said

500k through German checkpoints

I guess that’s not being afraid?

Nancy Wake The White Mouse

False papers & a purchased ambulance

Trained at Scotlands MOD

She joined the French Resistance

7,000 Maquis troops she led

The SS nor the Gestapo

Could capture The White Mouse

Who’d have thought that Nancy Wake

Would turn into the White Mouse?

Have you ever been afraid?

‘I’ve never been afraid in my life’

Nancy Wake The White Mouse said

A sleepless life on the move

The Plateau was her great win

Nancy Wake The White Mouse

On returning to Vichy in liberation

She learned Henri had died

For he would not betray her

Post war decorations came

And glory to this day

‘A lady till the fighting starts’

Who’d have thought that Nancy Wake

Would turn into the White Mouse?

Have you ever been afraid?

‘I’ve never been afraid in my life’

Nancy Wake The White Mouse said

Her ashes scattered on the hills she fought

‘That was good enough for me’

Nancy Wake The White Mouse said

The next song in the series is due mid-September and is about another inspiring woman's songs & lyrics, a film has been commissioned to go with it, so watch out for that 'impact' release very soon...

Thanks for listening and sharing

NEW SINGLE ANNOUNCED

Monday 11th May The Cheesemakers return to the studio to record a new single to be released thereafter in a matter of a week or two...it's a new concept and is free of charge, all we ask is you L I S T E N.......watch this space keenly

A NEW MORNING

I have been quiet on this, and other, forums over 'holiday' period and this year I will prefer to wish Happy New Year to folks in person. But to those I won't see..Happy New Year! As usual I declined the many party offers for NYE (thanks again to everyone) and the evening was going as it usually did...then something happened!! As I'm a poncy prat I've written this little number about it...hope it makes sense. See you all out and about in 2015!!!


A VISITATION

T’was an austere New Years Eve
Two thousand and fourteen
Another blank year
About to roll over and die
When a vision occurred
On approaching of midnight
That spoke with great words
I would seek to ignore

Said vision informed me
In no un-certain terms
That I had engulfed in the sadness
With gusto and reverie
“Such a sad fucking sight
You are” it spat forth
“Go and sit in your wallow
And let life drain from you”

I understood it’s resolve
Was to kick up my spirit
And by twelve and then thirty
I felt fresh and anew
Its warmth and clear breathing
Was still there in the morning!
Even sunshine was clear
It was time to begin

So after that visit
Harsh words were absorbed
And I’ve demanded of myself
The only path I can choose
That the pain and the misery
Can stay in the past
I can visit it sometimes
But it now will not last

A few years then some ago
I spoke gently the words
‘Don’t be scared darling’
And now it’s my turn
To walk into the street
Not knowing defeat
Take a breath of fresh air
It’s a brand new morning

Andy 1st January 2015 x

Saturday 15th March

So on Saturday The Cheesemakers go into battle at an un-disclosed secret location for a private audience that will hopefully be appreciative to their odd yet tuneful set-list! With fingers crossed the set will be recorded both in audio and video, so hopefully all and sundry will be able to enjoy in due course...it could well be epic! At least 2 songs will gain a debut, 'In The Garden' and ' When The Girl in the Blue Dress Sings' aboot wor Bridie get a first airing. Epic set? We shall see...Andy xxx

Plans 2014

The Cheesemakers returned to the stage January 4th @ The Lakeside in famous Hebburn (see picture, Hesh demonstrating 'The Hands of Dracula!') after a blank 2013 (apart from the superlative album 'Hard Freeze' and more action is afoot on stages around the country in 2014. Watch this space. A new Cheesemakers album is scheduled for Autumn 2014 but I will be following up my solo album of 2010(ish) with a new one before that. It's a body of work I've been wrestling with for a couple of years now but it will see the light of day in the Spring, more details to follow... So come out and see the sun, come out and touch the air this year with The Cheesemakers...the boys to entertain you! Andy x

Cheesemakers News

Hi folks Cheesemakers news very soon to follow In the meantime we need some gigs, any help or recommendations would be good. More stuff soon Keep the Faith Andy x

HARD FREEZE LINER NOTES

THE CHEESEMAKERS - HARD FREEZE
Released Monday 18th February

Here are the full liner notes to the album 'Hard Freeze'

When Hesh left the band a few years ago we were left with several decisions to make. Break up the band? Get a new member? Change the way we play?


The first option was out of the question, we tried the 2nd option very briefly but in the end the only real option was the latter, we would change the way we played to compensate. Basically this meant I had to play guitar both better and differently. Initially I thought, ‘OK, let’s just get LOUDER’, but that quickly proved to be a pretty lazy way forward and over time I found ways of filling the space left by the second guitar and also, in a strange way, leaving it there. Jim and Geoff also had to step up to the plate and play more interestingly, with more thought and attention to the detail in songs, which they did also, they found a way to listen for my gaps and fill them themselves. The result was a new batch of songs that you have with you right now.

Whilst recording, we had one main choice to make. My initial plan was to record the basic tracks then spend a long time dropping all sorts of instruments and fripperies into the album to make it a ‘sonic cathedral of sound’, however, after brief discussion with Jim and Geoff, I found that they really wanted the album to just sound like we do when the three of us play, so that is what you will hear, with very few exceptions where an extra acoustic guitar has been added for simple embellishment.

I was ‘lucky’ enough to be able to purchase a 24 track desk so that we could record the whole thing ourselves, dispensing with the cost and pressure of hiring a studio, and record in our practice space, so this album is 100% self-produced, for better or for worse! So expect a quicker turn-around of albums now that we have our own equipment. ‘Not holding our breath’, I hear a few say...Hope you enjoy it and full reviews are compulsory with a purchase of this album! Let us know what you think, it matters!!!

Here are a few words about each track...

1 – Waiting For The Rain : Part three of a very long gestated and complicated trilogy of songs with ‘Soul Into The Sky’ & ‘Soul Train’. Seems a bit silly that the third part should appear before the 2nd part on this album, with the 1st part appearing on the last album?

Yes, well, that’s this band for you, nothing and everything makes sense.
For now I’m happy to let you figure what the meaning of the trilogy is but all shall be revealed a few months after the album has been released when all three songs will be released in a video-trio telling the story.
Musically quite a departure, the like of which we’re known for. We’ve not done anything as broody as this before and the band took a while to get/like it but they’re on board now, and a classic set/album opener. Solid rumbling bass from Geoff, some of Jim’s most inventive drums ever and a few firsts on the guitar-playing front for me build to a crescendo when the volume peaks after the solo that Dunf assumed was a few guitars over-dubbed...but wasn’t! I take that as a heavy compliment, cheers.

2 – Lyin’ To Me : Put simply, our tribute to Dr.Feelgood and Wilko Johnson with a tale to a broken boy/girl situation with similarities to the story of ‘Sheila’s On The Bus’ and a good sister track to that classic. Pop punk music simplified and personified. This is the single and rightly so. It’s direct and immediate and shows our pop sensibilities on our best side. Poignant in that it comes out in the year that the great man maybe succumbs to a terminal illness and leaves us. We love you Wilko and always will, who could ever forget that sound and face.

3 – Pick It Up As You Go : Many people’s favourite and another departure stylistically. Came about via an acoustic folky number I was working on whilst trying to write my ‘Wild Wood’. I think I succeeded but not in the way I thought, it was never meant to be a band song but it’s become outstanding in our set. Pick of the lyrics is about how the longer you go on, the older you get, all you do is carry around a metaphorical sack of bad shit that happens and you can’t let it go, you just drag it around and it gradually slows you down –
“You pick it up as you go, and carry this heavy load, from a prince into a toad”
...in your teens you feel like a prince and always end up feeling like a reptile.
I love the tight inter-play between drums and bass in the drop-outs. Weller gets a look-in in the lyrics.

4 – Street Talk : Next in lineage from ‘The Big Hairy Wheel’ I feel. One of a few tracks here about ‘the street’ and trying to keep communication between individuals face to face in combat to the increasing alienation we all subject ourselves to with Facebook, Twitter and all those other horrible ‘apps’. Why not go out and meet your friend in the street, coffee shop or pub like back in the day. The demo featured a drop into ‘Physical’ by Olivia Newton-John! Try and figure out where it was. Highlight musically is Geoff’s superlatively melodical bass runs and Jims awesome Cow-Bell in the middle eight, complimented by Geoff and I’s human Cowbells! A slight link to the song ‘Water Falls’ is that the lyric mentions a ‘big tsunami’, a few weeks after this song was played for the first time, there was a very big and documented tsunami on Boxing Day, people haven’t looked at me the same since. It’ll be water, I promise...

5 – Yesterday’s Papers : Don’t you just hate those songs by bands about being in bands and being on the road? Well this is one of them, albeit with a slightly different plot. Yesterday’s Papers is what we are – 3 x 40-somethings with a variety of ailments playing original music. How more un-popular could that be? If we sent our music without a biog or a photo to a record company, we would probably get a deal, if we added a photo or some personal details, we definitely wouldn’t! How sad yet plain and simple is that? Some beautiful playing though and a beautiful harmony thought up by Herr Rose.

6 – Urban : Now this truly is a bag of rusty hammers! Primarily about life in Nun Street, Newcastle, home to the Last Shop Standing, Reflex Records. The verses paint a picture of the way of life of the street and those creatures that inhabit it, whilst the chorus poses a clever (if I say so myself) conundrum. The words are simple – ‘And it’s all because we don’t care’.

The question is, is it that we don’t care, as in not giving a shit, or do we not care ENOUGH!? Yeah...profound, I hear you say.

7 – Water Falls : One of my favourites of this album, mainly because of the discovery of a new chord, maybe the ‘lost’ chord that PT talked of? It’s about the fact that water is ever more prevalent on this planet and will be the eventual downfall and destruction of the planet. Not aliens, asteroids or anything else beginning with ‘A’, just water. Water will eventually cover all of this planet and at the risk of saying Kevin Costner was right, we will be a water-world with only the strongest surviving. Seriously, I wrote this song a few weeks before the Boxing Day tsunami and my kids have thought I was weird since!...

8 – Rolling Stock : Have wanted to write a song with this title for a long time, great title, and this just came about with the advent of a great rhythm and melody. The words don’t mean anything as far as I know, just sound good together, bit like Bowie’s cut and paste method. One of Jim’s favourites and a lovely little bit of rhythmic use of the floor tom in the verses from him. Not my best vocal ever but you can hear what I’m trying to do, and it’s meant to sound ‘withered’ anyway. Was really pleased with the funky soulful guitar in the break, a sign for the future folks....and of course as ever, powerful bass from the R.B.

9 – My So-Called Life : Well this appears on the album because of an accident. Whilst recording backing tracks in our studio, we were on a bit of a roll and I said to Geoff, ‘what’s next?’ and he replied, ‘My So-Called Life’ and off we went and delivered the backing track for the song. It was only when I got home and made my entry into the album recording log that I realised the song was only on the ‘bench’ for this album and was not in the original 12 song track listing, hence the album being 13 songs! Aside from that, it’s a Cheesemakers classic and on subject matter, look no further than the 1990’s USA T.V. series of the same name for a full explanation. ‘I don’t get going when the going gets tough’...

10 – Pinball : One of our signature songs now and a powerhouse tune. Just a bunch of lyrical couplets that say that people aren’t as good as they used to be and that life used to surely be a bit easier but some of us are still trying. Lots of power chords vie with neat bass runs and solid ‘piss off’ drums to make just a great tune from start to finish, not the best metaphorically or lyrically but musically awesome.

11 – Soul Train : See track one for a part explanation, this is part of the Soul into the Sky trilogy, part two, and has been around for several years, only finally getting recorded now. As stated on track one the whole story will be told in due course but as a stand alone song, it now holds it’s own in the set, with the rest of the band initially reluctant to embrace it, they now love it. To be fair, it’s probably fairly boring for them to play but the importance of the song and it’s sheer musicality has won them round.

12 – Tony : Another pretty old song, several years for sure, that has only just made the cut but it’s another band favourite just for the sheer intensity of it. Lyrically about the scum on the streets in the North of England these days, it’s like an epidemic, scum everywhere that need stamping out! The amount of years defined by a generation these days is getting down to 14-16 years as opposed to 25-30 years when I was a kid, it’s nauseous. Musically a powerhouse of a song, that just rumbles along with a tense quieter interlude towards the end. The title is really ‘Falling’, cos that’s what society is doing, but in typical Cheesemakers style, when we were initially working on the song, I happened to mention that the bass should sound more ‘toney’, to which all three members of the band immediately piped up in Italian mafia accents, ‘Hey Tony, it warnts to be more Tony’, hence the end title! (Sigh)

13 – Sparkle In Your Eyes : Quite possibly the most important song I’ve ever written and a sadly classic example of how a song can change in meaning all of it’s own accord. This song was written to describe how my wife, Vicky, was feeling after her Dad, Joe, died from cancer. She was struggling to come to terms with it and the song was written in a deeply personal way from me to her, generally saying, ‘I’ll be here for you, I AM here for you, you can make it and it’ll be OK in the end.’ Vicky heard the song a few times via different versions, finally hearing it live for the only time at Charlotte’s fund-raising concert at The Office in South Shields. Vicky was not one for bold announcements from the stage so we privately agreed before-hand, so she knew which song it was about her, I would announce it as ‘the song after My So-Called Life’. She liked it and appreciated the sentiment. In a cruelly ironic way, (I hate life and there is no god) this concert was her last ever night out as she spent the whole evening with her sprained ankle up on a stool, that same sprained ankle would soon change EVERYTHING.

To try and find some solace from the event, I now remember it as Vicky’s last ever night out, where she saw my daughter Charlotte perform with the band on-stage, a hugely proud moment for me, but a moment that Vicky described to me later that night as “one of my proudest nights...my husband playing music better than ever, one of my daughters singing on-stage with him and my other daughter sitting taking entrance money from people who ended up being in the wrong venue!”

But then, after Vicky had fallen gravely ill, I had been urged to keep busy by getting the band playing again, and so reviewing some recent songs before our first practice in some time I came across the lyrics to this song and physically shook in shock at how the meaning of the words to this song had changed because of Vicky’s condition. Suddenly, without altering a word from day of writing it had moved from being a song about how Vicky felt about the loss of her Dad, to now being a song about her terrible predicament, the grave injuries she had suffered and the struggle she now faced to get well again! Lines like ‘want to open my eyes and for it all to be alright’, ‘I want to hold you when the darkness comes’, and ‘we can make it, there is no maybe’, suddenly took on a whole new meaning. As a songwriter, I cannot describe how this change in meaning affected me.

The tragedy of this song is that in the end, Vicky never got over the death of her father and she did not recover from her illness and died, an event that will shadow, destroy, haunt and consume me for the rest of my life. So all of my hopefully encouraging words of support in the song ended up counting for nothing, and ended up being fruitless words on a page. That’s the truly tragic blanket that the song finds itself wrapped in forever. And that’s why it will always remain a desperately difficult song for me to listen to or perform, I know I’ll never write another song more significant than this one ever.

When you listen to this album and you get to this track, please read these notes through first, then listen to the song with the lyric sheet, only then will you feel the true impact of this track with both of it’s implications and the end that followed and I doubt you will get to the end without shedding a tear.

With love, Andy X

HARD FREEZE LYRICS

THE CHEESEMAKERS - HARD FREEZE
Released Monday 18th February

Here are the full lyrics to the album 'Hard Freeze'

WAITING FOR THE RAIN


And now the soul train, Has gone and left me, No-One to find me, No soul to bind. It left the station, Three minutes early, Missed my connection, and now I’m blind. One day a rain will come, And wash the streets of scum, Until that day it dawns, Humility just yawns. Compassion stays on pause, Although it’s early doors, Destruction time again, As we wait for the rain. And now the soul train, Has gone and left me, No-One to find me, No soul to bind. It left the station, Three minutes early, Missed my connection, and now I’m blind. And now my heart has sank, Into the sea of shit.

LYIN’ TO ME

When did you leave, I read your note, I can’t conceive, It was what you wrote, You’re Lyin To Me. I think you made, The whole thing up, i’ll do a trade, I won’t shut up, No more Lyin’ To Me. I can’t explain, What you doin’ to me, I’m in pain, Baby can’t you see, I need you back. I will find, You n bring you back, I wouldn’t mind, But my world is black. You’re Lyin To Me, No more Lyin To Me, I need you back, Cos my world is black.

PICK IT UP AS YOU GO

There need to be some joy, For every girl and boy, This world is now a toy, That needs new batteries. You pick it up as you go, And carry this heavy load, From a prince into a toad, Compliments & flatteries. It’s all over before it’s begun. Twenty days go by, Without a fresh alibi, Now I don’t mean to pry, But it feels the same. As when Weller put it down, With a growl and twisted frown, We are gonna drown, And we’re all to blame. It’s all over before it’s begun, It seems our day is done, We need to feel the sun………on our skin. When I was growin up, When I was just a little pup, They said things were looking up, That was 30 years now. Its worse than ever before, You can stick your holy war, Its all been done before, Theres no sacred cow. Its all over before its begun

STREET TALK

Something going down, On the street below, We need a conversation, Tell me what you know. Something coming up, From the valley below, We have a situation, Tell me where to go. Street talk, street talk let me hear your street talk. Street talk, street talk I wanna hear your sweet talk. This is a jumble sale, No going back, We have a little cash to spend, On the bric-a-brac. No flash flood, Can wash it out, It would take a big tsunami, To flush it all out. Street talk, street talk let me hear your street talk. Street talk, street talk I wanna hear your sweet talk.

YESTERDAY’S PAPERS (MONOCHROMIA)

We’re yesterday’s papers. We’re yesterdays news, Yesterdays stories, Dressed in yesterdays shoes, We’re yesterdays newsprint, Condemned with yesterdays views. We’re yesterdays papers, We’re yesterdays news. Yesterdays Stop-Press, Paying yesterdays dues, Yesterdays headlines, Drenched in yesterdays blues. One day you cross the line, When you fail to make a difference, You come up to the wire, You pale to insignificance, And that’s you....and....I....my friend. We’re yesterdays papers, Yesterdays news, Yesterdays broadsheets, Filled with yesterdays views, We’re yesterdays typecast, In yesterdays shades and hues. One day you cross the line, When you fail to make the cut, You come up to the door, To find it so slammed shut, And that’s you....and....I....my friend. Outside of it all!

URBAN

All the people talking stocks and shares, While the crazy woman stops and stares. Shitty car music constantly blares. And there’s the guy in the useless flares. Penny pinching in the charity shop, Tramps vomit clogging up the mop, Short lived shops surely for the chop, Early mornings drinking hairy pop. And its all, because, we don’t, care. Throwing London rubbish in the street, Before you sit you must check the seat, Skivers whinging ‘bout the smell of meat, Normal people with the taste of defeat. Suddenly the temperature soars, Flashing lights from the blues n twos, City centre with a million wars, People attack with knives and shoes, Sobriety has its fees, Society on its knees

WATERFALLS

The waterfalls are high, The waterfalls are low, The waterfalls are everywhere. The waterflow is high, The waterflow is low, The waterflow is everwhere. And if you look into the sun, And if you look into the sky, If you’re searching for an answer, You may find, It’s all been answered long ago. The raging sea is high, The rolling sea is low, The raging rolling everwhere. The ragged wind it roars, The raping wind it soars, The ragged wind is everwhere. And if you look into the futureAnd if you look into the past, And if you’re searching for a story, You will find, It’s all been told long long ago. Have we seen, The end of the dream, Have we seen, The end of days

ROLLING STOCK

Hear the sound hear the sound of the rolling stock, Look at me look at me I’m a laughing stock, Touch the ground touch the ground with the chopping block, Take it wide take it wide it’s a broken lock, And we’re making no progress. Its a trial, No need to smile, It’s been a while, You mystify. Take the grail take the grail to the gravity, Stroke the snail stroke the snail save your sanity, Take a knee take a knee that’s the end of it, Hands free hands free that’s the poncy bit, And we’re making no progress. Understand understand it is all in hand, Make a stand make a stand in this dying land, Runaway runaway if it’s all too much, Don’t stay don’t stay if you’re out of touch, And we’re making no progress

MY SO-CALLED LIFE *

It’s not easy to be strong, When everything you do seems to be wrong. I’m trying hard but it’s not enough, I don’t get going when the going get’s tough. It’s not easy being one of the boys, I’ve got to be careful I’m not playing with toys, This is My So-Called Life, Yes it’s My So-Called Life. They say life is full of things to say, Full of things you maybe shouldn’t say, I’m gonna take it one day at a time, Just take it easy and the words will rhyme.

PINBALL

The times are changing as we speak, It gets worse from week to week, We try to keep our nerves, With a series of deft swerves. We used to live in harmony, Now that’s just a fallacy, We’re like a pinball on a table, A reactor that’s unstable. And it’s all just gone astray. It used to be simplicity, A simple story of what will be, Like lookin in a mirror, In time it became much clearer, It seems the past has gone away, Pastimes that couldn’t stay, But like a pinball on table, It bounce right back on a cable. But it’s all just gone astray. I guess we have to work out some more, Flex the muscle till we’re on the floor, Fill the suitcase to the brim, And get down to the gym, With the very best intent, We began the swift descent, But like a pinball on a table, It was clear we were unable. And now it’s all just gone astray.

SOUL TRAIN *

Standing in the station, Waiting for elevation, I am gonna try send my soul into the sky. I know that I can make it, I don’t need to fake it, I can walk the talk, I can talk the walk. Time to take a ride, No place to hide on the Soul Train, Time to step inside, No place to hide on the Soul Train. I made a reservation for mystic elevation, Now it’s up to me, Fulfil a fantasy. Don’t need a conversation to touch a revelation, Somewhere there’s a twist, Something that you missed. Nietsche cannot teach ya, The ways that I can reach ya, And there’s more to this, More to this. Somewhere in the twilight, Is a major highlight, Dancing in the arclight, Dancing in the arclight.

TONY *

Feel I’m fading, Feel I’m falling. Is it fate? It’s appalling. Anticipating, something stalling. It’s too late, Here I’m falling. I can’t belive you’d walk away, What you receive you give away. There is a squad, It’s a calling, In the lion’s den, It’s a mauling. No safety net to stop you falling, No insect spray, To stop the crawling. Society has lost it’s face, Society is a disgrace. On the streets, Cracks are showing, Into the abyss, we are going. The scum it breeds, And it’s growing, I can see it, It’s just knowing. Salvation comes when we attack, Salvation comes when we fight back!

SPARKLE IN YOUR EYES

I wanna wake in the morning light, Wanna open my eyes and for it all to be alright, For i still have faith in you. I wanna hold you when the darkness comes, Wanna tell you just a loser turns and runs, And ‘a loser’ ain’t describing you. I wanna see the sparkle in your eyes, Too long it’s faded by the tears you’ve had to cry, I know that you’re still in there. I’m gonna be here when the sunlight shines through, There’s only one girl for me and that’s you, I’ve seen you’re still in there somewhere. Hold on to me, In time you’ll see, The pain will fade and dim, And then you’ll win. So i’ll be waiting on the other side, Just like the time when you became my beautiful bride, We’re still the same people, you know. So hold your head up and be strong baby, We can make it there is no maybe, On and on together we’ll go

(c) All Rights reserved. All songs written by Andy,Geoff & Jim except * written by Andy, Geoff, Hesh & Jim.

THE CHEESEMAKERS – HARD FREEZE

Pre-Order details

So here is the follow up to ‘Panic Now’, it’s been a few years since that album but we’ve lost a member, changed style somewhat and found our feet again, so the wait is a bit more justified than the last time. Hope you like the results.

On the day of release, the full lyrics and complete liner notes will be published here on this blog for your edification. If you require printed versions, just ask.

This album will not be available for download.

This album has been mixed loud so may not be suitable for playback on PCs, i-Pods and such like.

Limited Edition of only 50 (fifty) copies of 13 track new album on picture CD

Release date : Monday 18th February 2013

Price - £5.00 Shipping – UK free / Europe £1 / Rest of World £2
Please send orders along with payment via Paypal to afne04343@blueyonder.co.uk
For orders to be shipped please ensure full delivery address is included.

Orders can be collected in person from Reflex by prior appointment (in other words, let me know when you’re coming!) and can of course be paid for in English Moneycash

Cheers, Andy

ALBUM COVER!

...COMING SOON FOLKS

Vintage Video on You Tubes and New Album Update

In 2003 we put together a video for one of our classic tracks, 'You Sold Your Records (1983)', it was never seen publically. It has now been re-mastered and uploaded to the You Tubes! View it here:



All hand-made and DIY, just like the new video and album....

...The new video for the lead-off 'single' from 'Hard Freeze' is called 'Lyin' To Me' and is in post-production as we speak, hopefully on the Tubes in a few days.

The album, 'Hard Freeze' is musically finished, mixed and mastered and is awaiting artwork finishing and production. Estimated release is in about 3 weeks.

13 brand new tracks (well, coupla old-ish ones in there) for you to salivate over.

'How to get it' here soon

Cheers me Dears
Andy x

New Album Cover Shot?

Shot by Miss G.J.Ferguson...

One Year Gone

Today, Sunday 16th September, marks one year since we lost Vicky. I wrote this poem some time ago. Hopefully it will help you understand how I feel, how we feel...

IF ONLY (WHAT I WOULD DO)


If only we could have one more day

If only we could have one more hour

If only we could have one more minute

If only we could have one more second



If only I could travel back in time

If only I could hold you once again

If only I could see your beautiful face

If only we could cuddle on asda escalators again



If only I’d used the phone at midday

If only I’d insisted on driving there

If only I’d not trusted my instincts

If only the doctors had seen it before



If only these words were not in vain

If only I’d feel your warmth again

If only the car was back on the drive

If only you were still alive



If only I’d made you walk around

If only I’d rubbed your ankle more

If only we’d swim once more together

If only we’d dine out again together



If only 17 years could be 18 or more

If only these children weren’t half empty

If only I could wake up next to you

If only it wasn’t folded washing instead



If only we could plan holidays again

If only we could order take-away again

If only I could go to another New Years party

If only I could enjoy Xmas again



If only I could swap this for ANYTHING else

If only we could have gone together

If only we’d just have grown old together

If only I wasn’t angry at old couples in the street



If only I didn’t feel 100% a different person

If only the 31st July didn’t happen

If only the 16th September didn’t happen

If only the 26th September didn’t happen



If only you’d come back to haunt me

If only just to see you again

If only I wouldn’t be frightened

If only because I told you not to be



If only I hadn’t felt your final breath

If only I hadn’t felt your final heartbeat

If only the doctors had been wrong

If only my instinct had been strong



If only I could cook for you once more

If only I could clean for you once more

If only I could brew up tea for you

If only you’d go cute and say ‘sowwy dardy’



If only we could Xmas wrap at midnight

If only you could be the tooth fairy

If only I could play one joker card

If only that would give us one more chance



If only I wasn’t collecting trinkets

If only I wasn’t building a shrine

If only we could share that lovely new bedding

If only we could lie-in on a Sunday



If only I could talk to you not photos

If only you would answer from the photos

If only you could have talked those final weeks

If only you could have smiled some final smiles



If only I could have known what you were thinking

If only we could have talked alone for days

If only we could have at least said goodbye together

If only a God actually existed



If only we could have one more day

If only we could have one more hour

If only we could have one more minute

If only we could have one more second



If only...

How does it feel to lose your wife?

Well I’ve tried to explain...Andy