A boxed set of 4 LPs featuring the 2020 recordings by The William Loveday Intention!
PLEASE NOTE: Pre-Sale for both of these will start on Tuesday 5th January, shipping by Royal Mail, Next Day Guaranteed in the UK and ‘Tracked and Signed’ or courier post for the rest of the world.
THE DEPT. OF DISCONTINUED LINES – DAMGOOD544LP-BOX – £85.00
100 copies only, numbered.
The four albums in the set are –
People Think They Know Me But They Don’t Know Me
Will There Ever Be A Day That You’re Hung Like A Thief?
Blud Under The Bridge
The Bearded Lady Also Sells The Candy Floss
These are ‘white’ label copies of each album, together with 4 cards, one for each album and an exclusive book with lyrics and photos.
This set is limited to 126 copies, 100 as described above and numbered.
THE DEPT. OF DISCONTINUED LINES – DAMGOOD544LP-BOX-X – £295.00
26 copies only, A thru Z
This is the very special version in an edition of 26 A-Z copies, these have the 4 LP’s, the Book, the 4 cards, as above PLUS an exclusive woodcut, signed and marked A thru to Z by William Loveday.
For the uninitiated, The William Loveday Intention is the latest band put together by Billy Childish. The four album project includes guest appearances by James Taylor (The Prisoners, JTQ), Dave Tattersall (The Wave Pictures) and Huddie Hamper (The Shadracks) amongst others.
Two of the albums are available separately already, the third and fourth will be available as stand-alone albums in January and February 2021
TRACKLISTING
LP One – People Think They Know Me But They Don’t Know Me
1 – Again and Again
2- I Wasn’t Made For This World
3 – People Think they Know Me (But They Don’t Know Me)
4 – This Wondrous day
5 – The Desert’s Flame
6 – A-Z of Your heart
7 – The Bitter Cup
8 – My Love For You
9 – Sonora’s Death Row
10 – I’m Hurting
11 – You’re The One I Idolise
12 – My Father Was A Railroad Man
13 – Again and Again (Reprise)
LP Two – Will There Ever Be A Day That You’re Hung Like A Thief
1 – 100 Yards of Crash Barrier
2 – A La Mort Surbite
3 – Celebrating Weakness
4 – I Don’t Like the Man I Am
5 – If They’ve Got What They Want They’ve Got You
6 – I’ll Tell You Who I’m Not So You’ll Know Who I Am
7 – A Self Inflicted Wound
8 – Will There Ever Be That You’re Hung Like a Thief?
9 – You’re the One I Idolise
10 – You Who Have Always Held Me
11 – Chatham Town Welcomes Desperate Men
LP Three – Blud Under The Bridge
1 – Where the Black Water Flows
2 – Exuberant Me
3 – God’s Reason Why
4 – It happened Before (Will It Happen Again?)
5 – Roll the Stone Back Across the Mouth of the Cave
6 – Do Not Be Indifferent to Me
7 – A Simple Twist of Fate
8 – Wise Blud
9 – White Whale Blues
10 – The Devil is Choked
11 – Blud Under the Bridge
LP Four – The Bearded Lady Also Sells The Candy Floss
1 – To Sing the Blues You Gotta Be Blue
2 – When the Eagle Becomes a Hen
3 – Celebrating Weakness
4 – Hanging By a Tenuous Thread
5 – The Bearded Lady Also Sells the Candy Floss
6 – What Kind of Friend Were You
7 – Oh Sister
8 – A Dull Blade
9 – The Department of Discontinued Lines
10 – Thatcher’s Children
11 – A Rusty Stain
We asked Mr Loveday about these albums…
The group’s name comes from my Grandmother, Ivy Loveday. When registering my birth it was mistakenly recorded as William Ivy Loveday, William being my great grandfather’s name.The beginning of The William Loveday Intention Group was ‘the intention’ to revisit some songs from the past that I had imagined could be orchestrated. (I’ve wanted to do something like this since Thee Headcoats with pieces like ‘This Wondrous Day.’) About 20 years ago I was approached with the idea of touring these songs with a small orchestra, an idea I was up for but never happened. In lockdown however it just came to my mind as something to follow through on. As is quite normal for me I booked the studio and under that pressure wrote two or three songs the night before – and on a few occasions, at eight in the morning just before I left for the studio. As usual there where no rehearsals and, due to the lockdown conditions, a few of the tracks are just me and Jim Riley (engineer) doing everything: drums, guitar, bass, organ etc – because no one else would brave the plague and come into the studio. Those tracks sit hidden within the actual group recordings, and sound the same as if recorded by the group. Influences – I’ve been a fan of Jaques Brel since Kyra (Thee Headcoatees) introduced me to his work (and drinking Hole – Le Mort Surbite). Kyra is Belgian and I visited Brussels a lot in the 1980s.
Bob Dylan –
When I was a kid we had The Times They are a-Changing on release – so I heard Dylan’s stuff in ’64, along with The Stones and The Beatles, etc . . . It might seem strange but I was brought up with Louis Armstrong and Sinatra records from before I can remember. When pop records came into the house I latched onto them right away – copying my elder brother and the girl from the terrace next door, Big Caroline (who was my favourite person). We also had the pirate radio station playing in the house most of the time – before my father left us he was into all that stuff. I never really bothered putting my poetry into pop music before, it showed up now and again but I never made a strong point of it preferring to keep disciplines separate but knowing ‘All Along the Watchtower’ by Hendrix ( i was a fan since i was a kid), I thought Jim was over produced and gave Bob’s a version a spin. Listening to Bob’s empty version sort of it sucked me in. Next thing I found myself peering into Bob’s world a bit more closely. I was amazed by the live version ‘Shelter From the Storm’ (about 1975) where it sounds like Joe Strummer singing. We tried recording that one as well. That lead to ‘Oh Sister’ etc. (which again was new to me only knowing Bob’s folk stuff from over 50 years previous. Then I thought – this stuff is easy – they call Bob a poet, well I am one, so I chucked a few lines and chords together and we were off. I’d say I’m not a Bob Dylan fan, just Bob curious. I am amazed at how bad he got, but when he is good he is great. I was also pleased to find out that we were inspired by the same artists: Little Richard, Buddy Holly, etc . . . Another thought – There was a news snippet in the NME in the early ‘80s where Bob went into Rock On Records in Camden and brought a few Milkshakes LPs. And we did do a cover of Hollis Brown on Sub Pop records in the early ‘90s so I guess it’s all there in the soup. I’ve known Jim Riley since 1977, he was in the local R’n’B group and I was in the local punk group. We are both obsessed with the ‘sound’ in music. It has to have an origin, an emptiness and a vulnerability. I don’t look for guitars to be impressive, I’m sick of impressive ego driven music – I want authentic heart music. No one asked for one LP of this stuff, now there are five (including the Hangman Records release The New and Improved Bob Dylan.) When mixing we see the whole thing visually – the room in the mind’s eye; where all the players sit; the drummer to the right; the vocalist stood up front; the wood paneling on the walls of a top end US studio in the ‘60s / ‘70s. This is how music is to me: a picture in sound. As in all my endeavours, games and life, I only do what I do irrespective of what’s wanted or required and then force it on the world regardless.
To the point –
For the vocal approach on some of these songs I found I was leaning into my version of what I think Richard Hell does – something I’ve done since at least Thee Headcoats, – if not The Pop Rivets – when approaching more ‘poet’ driven lyrics. Doing this I was surprised to realise how much Richard was taking from Dylan but then again it makes sense what with that overly arty NY punk thing: Patty Smith and Ginsburg, etc . . . Makes me think about what’s actually going on, and that strange, twisted lineage in music
It would be great if someone liked it enough to want to put a show on with the full line up. I’d have to learn it! – they’re as long as bloody novels some of those tracks. That’s what amused me about Dylan as well – how ridiculously long some songs were with an apparent contempt for the listener – I wanted to capture some of that – the total opposite of my ethos.
I’m so happy to have made these records that are for no audience – but hopefully will find one. These are as true to my heart as anything I’ve done.
William Loveday – December 1st 2020
PLEASE NOTE: A 4 CD VERSION OF THIS BOX SET WILL BE RELEASED IN FEBRUARY 2021 alongside the final two William Loveday Intention albums as stand-alone releases.
