Text for the So Far CD booklet (continued)
Although disappointed with the lack of response to my debut album, I continued to record material that varied from solo singer-songerwriter flavoured material to full band rock. I do not recall the eighties very fondly as far as the music mainstream is concerned. Ten years were to elapse before I had the opportunity to release any other material, this time under the pseudonym Lawrence Woolfe. A CD Bridging the Silence came out on the Koch label and I enjoyed playing a number of gigs in Belgium with the backing of a band. One highlight was appearing at the Dranouter folk festival in 1993.
However, once again, the music proved to be too out of kilter with the then current taste and elicited very little response visavis radio exposure. From my perspective now Bridging the Silence was too varied (the material came from 2 different projects) and suffered from production values that were too eighties. Apart from a couple of tracks it perhaps did not show my songwriting and playing off to best effect. I take the rap for lacking the confidence to go with my own instincts. The whole experience left me with little confidence and a sense of a loss of direction.
I retreated into the creative process and continued to write material, whilst of course keeping flesh and spirit alive. I didn't turn to alcohol or drugs or escapist culture, the combination of which fuels our superficial and voyeuristic celebrity myth making tendencies; you know, the puerile subculture that values and glamorises self-indulgence over human intellectual and spiritual substance. Let's not dwell too long on the negative aspect of the music business, but anyone with a sense of the music of the sixties and seventies knows how much music as a vehicle of expression has become a seriously devalued currency.
Despite the restraints of commerce and the dominance of sclerotic banalities, thankfully there are always bands, artist, writers who cannot help but create according to their own passions and appetites; who follow their own instinct and thereby give us music that has its own integrity.
Let's return to my story. Various adventures in Antwerp , Belgium , which I won't elaborate on, found me co-hosting and producing a programme on Radio Centraal, Marc and the Woolfeman, where we invited new bands and singer-songwriters to do live sessions and talk about their music as well as playing music that rarely if ever gets exposed on national radio. It is another programme maker and producer Gerald Van Waes who provides the link to the So Far story and me writing these notes. It was through Gerald's web site and programme Psyche van het Folk (www.psychevanhetfolk.homestead.com) that Peter Bonner (www.psychotronrecords.com) who had been trying to locate my whereabouts finally located me and started this chain of events. Imagine my surprise one day when I learned that So Far was now a much sought after item amongst record collectors. The fact that Peter was enthusiastic about the music (more than the obscurity value) and in letting others hear it, meant a great deal to me. A little before the interest became known to me, I had already been doing demos for a new collection of songs under the title of Playing it all for laughs. This was a decade after the Bridging the silence CD! On the face of it, it seems like a long recovery process, but as Sandy Denny wrote and sang "who knows where the time goes?".
Part of the recovery of self-belief came through involvement with other singers and songwriters and their struggles. There are a number of people who deserve a name check:
- Michel Van Montfort - guitarist, singer, writer and front man of Grand Theft
- Emmanuel Tzwern - guitarist, singer, writer and front man of Troubleman
- Bert Leysen - front man of Kinky Bing, guitarist, singer, writer and front man and co-producer of Playing it all for laughs
- Michael Klein - all round musician and producer who runs Heartbeat Sound in London
- Marc Van Den Bergh - radio producer and owner of Backtrack Records, Antwerp
18 dec 2003
I have just received the CD-R copy of the album from Canada and on listening to it, I am pleasantly surprised by aspects of the recordings, i.e. my backing vocals, the bass parts, the general vocal clarity, that the thought crossed my mind, how could I ever have been almost ashamed of the LP? From today's perspective.
Bob Theil
