Andrew Nicholson » People

Gerry Rafferty Tribute

Andrew — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:23:27 +0000

I was sad to hear about Gerry Rafferty passing away yesterday. Obviously I had heard “Stuck in the middle” many times growin’ up, partly because of the popularity it gained from “Reservoir Dogs”. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago I listened to Gerry’s solo music properly. A French dude who had a dodgy old Volkswagen convertible over in Glasgow I was chatting to whilst at uni happened to be playing his “Baker Street” compilation disc in his car with the top down (not exactly something you’d do often in Glasgow) and I just HAD to go out buy the CD myself. I went down to the local record shop, Fopp and bought the CD for £3.99 which in those days was ridiculously cheap (now it seems a more normal price for a CD ).

I was in awe of “Days gone Down”. I love the original version but I always wondered what an acoustic version would sound like (partly because of the piano/vocal only intro). So anyway last night I was playing this through a few times as a mark of respect to my fellow Scotsman. Here it is:

Love the lyrics “You still got that light in your eye”, “The first time I set eyes on you and I listened to you sing / We didn’t have to speak cause the words said everything”….

RIP Gerry…

Imogen Heap’s Birthday present…..

Andrew — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 09:52:41 +0000

A few weeks ago I posted a video to YouTube which contained my birthday message for Imogen Heap’s birthday on December 8th.

I included my rendition of her “The Song that never was”, which basically consists of Imogen’s provided vocal tracks with my interpretation of the music. I actually included a little background singing too over the the verses when the music kicks in fully.

Thought I would share here for keep’s sake.

Will be uploading my own rendition of “Hide & Seek” over the next week too, in time for the new year hopefully!

Michael Jackson 1958-2009

Andrew — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 18:34:33 +0000

I was sad to hear Michael Jackson died this week. Although I did not have tickets for any of the O2 shows (they seemed to have sold out in minutes as far as I could see) but I was hoping he would do well and give a new generation an insight as to the excitement of watching him perform live. Whether or not he could have pulled those shows off well I am not sure but I certainly was hoping he would make a come back. I had always been disappointed with the lack of new Michael Jackson music since History/Blood on the Dancefloor and although Invincible (2001) features some great tracks (Unbreakable / 2000 Watts / You Rock my World) it seemed to lack the creativity and productivity which I am sure he was capable of. I guess I was a bit of a fan of Michael in the 90s as I had bought all his cds and was always looking forward to seeing his new music videos.

I was lucky enough to have seen Michael Jackson perform live on Monday September 30th 1996 in the Amsterdam Arena. It was the second of a three night stand there. He came back for a further two nights in 1997. He toured all throughout Europe for around a year I believe without doing any shows in the USA. I am guessing that had to do with the bad press he was starting to get in the mid 90s. What I personally remember really well from the show I attended was the excitement of watching him perform, the amazing dancemoves, the custome changes, the great use of the huge screens, waving of the Dutch flag by MJ and especially the marvellous CGI style introduction (quite ahead of its time back then) played on the big screens which was customised for each city on the tour after which Micheal Jackson stood still on stage for minutes to the huge roar of the crowd. The concert introduction from that tour can be found in various YouTube clips online and I have posted one of the better quality ones here.

I found a couple of instrumental MJ tracks I did years back on a tape which belonged to my nan. I cannot fully remember the list of equipment I used to record these tracks but I think I did these using a Technics KN1000 keyboard along with the Yamaha MU100R sound canvas and a 4 track taperecorder. I used a lot of sequencing back then so the songs are more mechanical sounding than anything else I’ve done but I thought it would still be interesting to make some mp3s out of them and post them online to share. The date of the tape is 31st of October 1997 and thus the tracks must have been recorded before then. So from the vaults as a little homage to Michael Jackson here are “We are the world” and “Will you be there”.

Gregg Fulkerson, composer of “A Date With Destiny” dies aged just 44.

Andrew — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:28:18 +0000

I just read a sad report that singer/songwriter Gregg Fulkerson, the composer of the beautiful song “A Date With Destiny” passed away on Tuesday (April 14th). Gregg was only 44.

More information about Gregg and his music can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Fulkerson
http://www.myspace.com/wwwmyspacecomgreggfulkerson

“A Date With Destiny” was in fact rumoured to be a contender song to be on “Bat out of Hell II:Back into Hell” (by Steinman/Meat Loaf), it has remained unrecorded by any big named artists up until now. A gorgeous song in my opinion which has a very “Thunder Road”/Bruce Springsteen feel to it.

I recorded my own version of the song in 2006.

Rest in Peace Gregg….