Winter Newsletter 2010
Dear Friends
I trust I find you all in good working order. I too, am in fine fettle and as productive as ever. Things have been quiet on the release front this year, aside from the ‘Duel’ reissue and the ‘In Memoriam’ compilation, but behind the scenes I have been beavering away putting the final touches to the new album, ‘Grimm’, and adding extra bits and pieces to prepare ‘Masque’ for reissue in January as well as writing the odd book or two as usual.
‘Grimm’ was finished back in the spring so it has been very frustrating for someone as impatient as me to have to sit on it for 6 months, but as I had recorded it all myself (engineering as well as playing all the instruments) I felt it necessary to hand the finished tapes over to a professional studio to have the individual tracks digitally cleaned up, fine-tuned and re-mixed. I also had to wait until a new friend, female vocalist Rosie Eade, was available to add her contribution (the only musician to guest on the album). I must say I am delighted that I waited. Her quintessentially English voice has enriched the songs immeasurably, particularly those in which a female character is featured and on others which might have sounded monochromatic with just the one male voice throughout.
‘Grimm’ will be released on both Gaslight in the UK and Syborg in Germany in February, although PRAS members will be able to snap up a copy in January.
Reissues
I had envisaged reissuing ‘Masque’ with only one or two minor additions, but once I sat down to listen to it for the first time in almost 20 years(!) I could hear quite a number of things that needed retouching. Sometimes very small additions can make a great improvement and bring a track to life, such as the harmony vocals I added to the final choruses of ‘I Dreamt I Stood Upon The Scaffold’, or the bass I overdubbed on ‘Grantchester Fields’ to focus the very florid woodwind and string arrangement and gently propel the track along.
As with all the reissues, I did not remix but only added what I felt was missing and would have added at the time of the original recording had I not sent the master off straight away after the final mix.
‘Dr Syn’ now benefits from a double tracked vocal on the middle 8’s where the music had previously threatened to drown the words, while a second vocal strengthens the choruses and a tambourine adds sparkle in the verses. ‘Pharaoh’ became more cinematic by the simple edition of some sparse exotic percussion and an additional voice in the climactic verse, ‘Candy Says’ now sports a subtle dash of colour in the form of a simple harp line and double tracked vocals to lift it in places, the title track only required a double tracked vocal to fill out the choruses, as did ‘Cocoon’ where I added another vocal to the second half of the verses where the string ensemble threatened to overwhelm the poor suffering narrator.
But I didn’t feel the need to touch ‘The Ratcatcher’s Daughter’, ‘Meet Mr Scratch’, or ‘Triumphs Of A Taxidermist’ (other than to roll some bass frequencies off so that the drums were not so dominant as before). I gave the same treatment to ‘The Mind of William Gaines’ which had been overpowered by drums on the initial release plus I added a second lead vocal to strengthen it. ‘Matty Groves’ had been crying out for a double lead vocal and a subtle tremolo guitar now adds a nice touch although it is very quiet in the mix.
The other change I made was to the running order. Out went ‘Grantchester Fields’ (nice though it is) and ‘Matty Groves’ (the only cover version on the album) and in their place the arguably stronger ‘The Ratcatcher’s Daughter’ and ‘The Sea Captain’ (to which I added an ethereal sound in the instrumental choruses to support the tin whistle). The retouched ‘Grantchester Fields’ and the untouched ‘Ratcatcher’s Daughter’ now appear as bonus tracks along with an improved ‘The Sporting Life’ which has additional vocals and instruments to give it some much needed colour.
To complete the reissue I added two previously unreleased acoustic radio sessions, ‘Alice’s House’ and ‘Solitude’ (the Black Sabbath song!) recorded with Valerie Franco, with whom I toured in 1993. Valerie sings and plays flute while I play acoustic guitar as well as bass, violin(!), woodwind and percussion.
I always thought well of ‘Masque’, but I feel it is now a much richer album for the subtle additions and I hope you will enjoy it more too.
As I have said before, please do not be tempted to pay the crazy prices for the older albums offered by some dealers on ebay and Amazon. All of my albums will be reissued over the next 18 months or so – where possible in a 2-albums-on-1 CD package with bonus tracks and new booklets at a mid-price.
I am now working on ‘Roaring Boys’ AND ‘Sarabande’ to be issued on ONE CD with several previously unreleased tracks replacing the weaker ‘Sarabande’ songs and superfluous cover versions. The unreleased tracks should give ‘Sarabande’ a more consistent theme which I feel it always lacked. But that is another story for the next newsletter….
As always, please do not hesitate to write to me – I am always pleased to hear from you.
And let me take this opportunity to wish you all a merry, merry Xmas and a happy New Year from myself and all who help out at the PRAS – until next time.
Paul
PRAS PS
We thought you would like to know that we have a few copies left of ‘In Memoriam’ - the 2x CD compilation with the free book of interviews given by Paul to various magazines from 1980–2010. Although the compilation and book are FREE to members we need to make a small charge of 5 GBP (or 5 euros) to cover the cost of printing the book and postage. (Sorry to those members in distant lands but this offer only applies to members in the UK and EU due to the high cost of postage to America, Australia and Japan).
Payment can be made via paypal to the PRAS email address: 
rolandtowers
PRAS