Bex Rennie turned up at rehearsals appearing somewhat bewildered and confused as to what she was doing there. We asked for a recorder player to replace Gill's flute. The flute was not really the sound we ever wanted but it worked at the time. The recorder was what Max always wrote Gill's parts on after all. Bex brought with her the Cello and this proved to be a very useful if not at times a frustrating addition to the Spriggan Mist sound.
We needed to replace Dave. Again a friend of the Band Rie Townsend suggested her "friend" Gary Hemmings could play a bit of guitar and he brought with him an amazing array of guitars. Gary was not Dave Lambert but he had a certain harsh rawness about his playing that we had concerns about but thought he'd grow as time went on. A likeable chap whose on stage persona was the ying to his yang offstage personality. This rawness added something to the early days of the re incarnation of Spriggs' it also made Maxine pick her game up to another level on guitar as it was clear Gary was not the kind of guitarist needed for some styles we required.
After a few drummer changes and auditions Colin Garratt was found. He was one of two drummers we saw on one night. They set up next to each other and played one after the other. You had Colin the older guy unassuming with a drum kit that was older than the other drummer who was young up and coming and flamboyant. The younger lad was very good but….Colin gave him a lesson in less is more. Rock solid and turning on the flair when needed but also holding back where required, Colin for me breezed it. The song that made our minds up? Shaking a Deadman's hand….more about that later.
So we had the line up and it was apparent that all of a sudden we were more rocky more edgy and dare I say it more popular with the energy we had on stage. We needed a CD however to reflect who we were now and Maxine had a load of songs that needed recording.
This is the story of the second CD Soul Retriever.
Without Dave's recording ability we had to look at studios and originally we were going to record with the Dolmen's Josh Elliot but Rie who kind of became our manager wasn't keen on the idea of us "traypsing " down to Dorset when we could record in Reading. We set about looking at Studios when we discovered Vamp just off The Oxford Road. Vamp is a small studio but Sam Barter was a pro he really did do us a great deal and what proved to be a great job too. We set aside three days to record, telling the band to be available for those days in March 2012 .This proved to be an issue but more about that later. It was a blistering hot weekend and when not recording we sat in Sam's yard and eat and drank and generally had "band" time
Soul Retriever
So this was the title track. Now a huge discussion as to where this sat on the album took place. Personally I wanted Life's Ride first, Maxine wanted this first and was adamant so it went on first. I seem to remember it writing itself almost.
Max seemed to just play it one day wanted me to sing in a raspy voice and then compliment it with the softer "where are you now" bit.I have always found that bit difficult but pulled it off for the recording well I thought. I think Soul Retriever was written as a reminder what this album or even Spriggs' was about. You see we had lost our way with Dave. This isn't criticism of him but I think Max wanted to write these kind of songs and she felt that some of the events leading to the split had weighed heavy on her soul. This song, this album was the soul retriever hence the name .We wanted to be back on track. The cover beautifully designed by David again showed a "Shamanka " retrieving souls and Sebastian the Spriggan on the otherside catching souls with a net…….
The song features Max's new found lead guitar skills a little ditty that goes around and around, Bex adds her backing which she does on live versions. The chanty "Soul Retriever" bit actually features Colin singing too.
Originally Gary had put a bit of guitar in that bit but it was cut from the final mix it just didn't work.
Life's Ride
Now this song had been knocking about a long time before this lineup came on board. In fact it became the opener for Spriggan Mist's live shows. Max wrote this about the ups and downs of life really but the thing with this song was it featured a bass solo. It's a simple little bass bit, roots and thirds with little progressions to each that goes around twice leading up to the guitar solo which Dave used to be very proficient at .Now up until the recording of this it was just bass drums and little incidentals from Max on guitar. After recording my track, on the third day ( a day that was to become the infamous third day ) Max and Bex went back into the studio and recorded a sax and recorder piece over it turning it quite funky.
So that solo. Live, Gary had trouble with the second half of the solo and kept going off key so Max sat with him for ages and together they worked it out and 9/10 he started to hit the right key. On recording day Gary did all his bits on the afternoon of the second day I seem to remember. Most of the songs believe it or not Max Colin and I recorded them live with very few overdubs. I attribute this to Colin's rock solid timing and our tightness as a band. On the afternoon Gary pulled off the solo and remains his highlight of the recording as the high pitched whining guitar wiggles it way back to the verse. The rest of Gary's contribution in this song was considerably turned down in the mix as during recording his pick was constantly hitting his pick ups when he was strumming and this ruined his track a little. He wasn't able to come back and re do it on the third day so Sam was able to mask somewhat.
Now most Spriggs' regulars know that we start this live with a rolling rumble on the bass and drums as the instruments come in one by one. We recorded it like this but Sam had the idea of starting it without and cut it out and we agreed that on the CD sounded better
Shaking a Deadman's hand
A few years ago Mark Vine posted a poem up on The Dolmen Grove forum. It's based on a true story of a collapsed Anzac trench in WW1 where a dead soldier's hand was sticking out of the dirt and as the men went over the top to battle they shook it to bring them luck .Originally it was part of a set of lyrics written for an album called Soldiers for The Dolmen that never came to fruition. In fact The Dolmen's Eternal Soldier came from the same stable ie for that album and from Mark vine's lyrics as Shaking a Deadman's Hand. So I asked permission to use it and Mark thankfully allowed me to use the lyrics. I then set about playing a few chords on a Mandola and set it to a simple tune. I played it to the band a year earlier and Dave said it was really a solo acoustic song and our then drummer Shaun Finch said that the military style drumming I wanted on the song would not sound right and very corny. So it got shoved onto a back burner until Max and I got full control of the band. This song got Colin the gig in the band . He got what I wanted straight away and together with Max's guitar brought my idea to life. Bex underpins the song with Cello and Gary unfortunately apart from the opening few notes is actually faded out in the verses . He tracked quite badly on this recording and added very little to the song. So a decision was made to leave him out apart from in the chorus and you can just here him. So after Colin recorded his drums he asked Sam if he could record another set of drums to make it sound as if there were a few drummers ie like a military marching band. So this is what he did. To Sam's amazement Colin's drumming was so exact with the first track he had to slightly take the second track out of time a fraction just to give the illusion of two drummers. I recorded this on a Bouzouki which was mic'd as opposed to direct input (we tried that and Sam wanted to try to make it warmer)
The intro with drums and recorder which is now played live was a much later addition of Max's doing.
Gypsy Witch
Max wrote this one from a recorder "riff " she had played with years before. She played with the ditty on guitar and out came the tune. I'm not sure that this isn't a partial look into her ancestry but then she'd be able to tell you about that. I know I struggled with the double A notes in the verses for a while. I knew that this was a fast mover and it was possibly the most folk rock on the album so tried to get that folky bounce in my base line and then started walking to give it some movement. Bex has a cheerful recorder piece. Now this is where the seems fell apart for Gary. When Sam played this back on that third day he said that I must be off key as everything sounded wrong. Max and Bex told him that this was unlikely and slowly took tracks out …Gary had tracked out of tune. Max had to learn the rhythm guitar piece and record it there and then. She did want some Sax in the track but had no time left due to this delay. If you listen carefully you can hear some sax she managed to record .
Selina
The first song fully written by me to feature on a Spriggan Mist recording. I never knew this would divide people's opinion as it has. Selina was written following a family holiday to Cornwall. We went to The Bodmin Gaol Museum and on a specific floor Aaron our little boy stopped at the door and started getting a bit worried . He really didn't want to go on to the floor. He was ok all around the museum but this floor freaked him out no end. On the wall was a plaque and it showed a picture of a woman called Selina Wadge. In 1978 Selina Wadge was a 27year old , single woman, who was charged with the wilful murder of her illegitimate child, Henry Wadge, aged about two years, by drowning him in a well in a field at Tresmarrow, near Launceston. She had been an inmate of the Union Workhouse at Laurceston for about a year. She left the union with her two children aged five and two respactively, to live at her father's house at Trebant, about seven miles off. She and her two children were taken into Launceston in a farmer's cart and left in the town. She was seen walking out of Launceston shortly afterwards with both children towards the field in which a well is situated, and which is about a mile and a half from Launceston. The field is close by the high road, and she was seen about 500 yards from the field. She was at the union again in Launceston, but with only the elder child with her. On inquiries being made by her sister and others about the younger child the Selina stated that the child had died since she had last been in the workhouse, that the cause of death was an abscess and a throat complaint, that a doctor had attended it and that it was buried. On the afternoon of the same day she went to the house of a relative and told him that she had buried her other little boy at Alternun the week before, whereupon the boy who was with her said, " He's in a pit, mother," upon which she replied, "Hold your noise, or I will give you a slap." That night the prisoner slept at a lodging house, where the landlady asked after her baby. and she replied that it had died of a throat complaint at her mother's, and that the doctor had told her it would soon die.
On the Saturday she went into the union again, and on the Sunday (June 23), in the presence of the matron of the workhouse and several other persons who were called as witnesses, she stated that one James Westwood had taken the baby from her and put it in a well, and that be had threatened to drown the other boy as well, but that she had run away from him with the elder boy.
Subsequently, however, she confessed that she herself had put the child into the water, that no one was with her at the time except the elder little boy, and that he began to cry.
James Westwood was called, and said that he was engaged to be married to Selina, but that he was at Morwenstow and Kilkhampton during the week ended June 22.
The body of the child was found in the well by a policeman , and the medical evidence showed that death was caused by suffocation, and the appearance of the body was that of death by drowning. The prisoner seemed perfectly unconcerned throughout the trial.
The jury found the prisoner Guilty, but recommended her to mercy. Sentence of death was passed in the usual form.
, was executed within the walls of Bodmin Gaol for the murder of her illegitimate child, at Launceston, There had been no other execution in Cornwall for 16 years, and this being consequently the first since the abolition of public executions, there was a good deal of curiosity as to the proceedings, but the curious were disappointed, for the execution was conducted with the strictest privacy, even the representatives of the Press being denied admission.
The only persons present were the Governor of the gaol (Captain Colvill), the Under Sheriff, the county clerk, the gaol surgeon, two warders, Marwood (the executioner), and the chaplain.
The condemned woman had previously admitted the justice of her sentence, and was resigned to her fate. She was sobbing as she
approached the scaffold, and required assistance, but otherwise did not make any demonstration. Her final words as she walked to the gallows "Lord deliver me from this miserable world" She died almost instantaneously and without a struggle.
Mark Rablin, the paranormal expert and senior guide at Bodmin jail has on many occasions been asked by children visiting the jail with their parents who the lady in the long dress is that they saw crying in the jail cell. He also recalls that some pregnant women visitors often get very emotional when on the 3rd and 4th floor.
Maxine plays this strained screaming guitar that for me makes this song. She picked up on the feel of the subject matter perfectly. Bex's backing vocals also create a ghostly moody effect. During mixing I explained to Sam I wanted a cold feeling on the track , reverb on my voice and on the instruments and he delivered brilliantly.
My brother David? Won't listen to the song, he has left it off his ipod. Finds it too depressing. Played it to a colleague in the office ? She pleaded with me to turn it off and cried it was too sad. Recently Colin's wife Sara has also admitted she doesn't like the song due to its subject matter. We never play this live anymore I feel we can't get the feel that it has on the CD and every time we did play it live something or somebody went very wrong .
Some love it personally I feel I have done my job as a "writer" told the story and touched people's emotions be it emotions some don't want to feel.
Don't look back
This song was written by Maxine for a gig we played in 2011. It was The Pagan Federation's 40th anniversary we played at The Archangel in Knightsbridge London . It was a masked ball with Orpheus as a theme. Maxine wrote "Don't look back "about the most famous story in which Orpheus figures is that of his wife Eurydice (While walking among her people, the Cicones, in tall grass at her wedding, Eurydice was set upon by a satyr. In her efforts to escape the satyr, Eurydice fell into a nest of vipers and suffered a fatal bite on her heel. Her body was discovered by Orpheus who, overcome with grief, played such sad and mournful songs that all the nymphs and gods wept. On their advice, Orpheus travelled to the underworld and by his music softened the hearts of Hades and Persephone (he was the only person ever to do so), who agreed to allow Eurydice to return with him to earth on one condition: he should walk in front of her and not look back until they both had reached the upper world. He set off with Eurydice following, and, in his anxiety, as soon as he reached the upper world, he turned to look at her, forgetting that both needed to be in the upper world, and she vanished for the second time, but now forever. The Cello comes into its own here. Maxine originally played the Cello part on a midi keyboard to give Bex an idea of what she wanted.
The song does tell the whole story , so is quite long. The main riff Maxine played on so many occassions live just wouldn't work for her when recording the song. It was like that little red light would stop her playing. She got there in the end. Live this is played slightly different the chorus is rocked up somewhat but this was an addition to the song well after the recording .
Kultural Karma
Now this song had been knocking around since about 2007.Maxine wrote this when still in the covers band Stone Jesters. I have heard so many singers sing this over the years come and go. I never in a million years imagined I'd sing it as I could never sing and play the bass line at the same time. In fact we started playing this in the "Lambert era" Dave used to play the bass and I'd just sing it. It kind of fell by the wayside by the time the "new lineup " came along and then one day whilst I decided to really rock out with it on root notes and Bex picked up the old bass line on Cello, it worked and remains a must in the Spriggs' live set. Little gem for you….during recording I made a mistake in the lyric …"Chinese dancing dragon , drunk on a wagon" For some unknown reason I sung, "Dunc on a wagon" I remember doing it on one of the three times I sang it and I thought nothing more of it thinking it would end up deleted until we got the finished CD and there it was. I now sing Dunc on the wagon whenever the occasion arises that our friend (and occassional Spriggs' roady) Duncan Wilde is in the audience. The song itself is about life (I think) My take on it is things will be what they are and is a celebration of diversity and a resignation to that fact..Maxine will probably have a more deeper explanation. One of my favourites on the CD is a real rocker live too.
Electric Life
One of the songs Max wanted to include with the old lineup but was met with a lack of enthusiasm from them. It's about how we rely on modern technology and surround ourselves with gadgets and modern technology.It's a reminder that sometimes we need to go back to basics and ground ourselves The song starts with Bex on recorder and ends with her on Cello. The last note being a long Cello one. The Cello is an old instrument and signifies a return to the old . Another rocker this .Love the structure of this song and Colin's bass drum goes like a machine gun
Ostara
A song for the Pagan celebration of Ostara, a lot of people's favourite song from the album no less .
This recording is kind of incomplete. You'll notice that live that there is a lead part but on the recording there isnt. This was the start of the realisation that Gary's style of playing wasn't what we required. He couldn't put a lead part on this and due to time constraints Maxine couldn't go back and put another track on .Features Bex doing backing harmonies ends the album on a positive note.
The album proved to be the undoing of Gary. We aren't entirely sure why Gary tracked so bad at the studio. Lack of rehearsal due to work commitments maybe ? Girlfriend pressure ? Who knows? No where to hide in the studio but his performance on the day for whatever reason was marred by bad timing an anoying click where his pick was hitting his pick ups and nervous uncertainty. Maxine had to re track a great deal of his performance which was a real shame.
We had to let him go. Our relationship with Rie his now girlfriend was strained over a throw away comment she made on Facebook upsetting quite a few pagan friends in Weymouth. It was obvious Gary was stuck in the middle even to the extent that on recording day he was expected to go to a moot and you could see he was almost clock watching. As usual after a band conflab it was decided it was down to me to tell Gary we would have to let him go, and new guitarist should be sought
Ironically it was on the day that the CDs arrived that I told him. I went to his house called him out and gave him his copy of the CD and gently as possible told him we had to part. It was the hardest thing I had to do in the band as he was a really good friend. He took it very graciously and a little turbulance occurred from some quarters but we got throught it…
By the launch of the CD in Portsmouth we had a new guitarist in place . Simon Martin and he would bring with him a bag full of riffs and licksand more issues down the line....
A new Cd a new guitarist Spriggs' were rockin.
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