Westsongs

I wrote this in 1980, partly autobiographical, partly not – it’s the story of a young gay man finding his feet in London, which is true of me at that time, although I’d actually already been around the block a bit by then, having left the family home some years earlier. It does cover the same sort of ground as ‘Smalltown Boy’, but I’m pleased to say that it predates Bronski Beat by a couple of years! There have been a few versions of it over the years, but I wanted to ‘finish’ it as it does capture something of that time. This was a few years before everything changed with the arrival of AIDS of course. But that’s another story. Special thanks to Phil Stanton for the saxophone parts and help with the production.

This song is dedicated to Rachel Stevens, my wonderful friend who died at the end of 2023. The song isn’t just about her, although I did have her in mind for much of it. It’s really about love, and the gifts we give each other as we weave in and out of each others lives.
Some of the faces, names, places, memories, have long since left this world. Some are still here. But all bound to me in the ways they have shaped, guided and inspired.

For creating the song itself, I’m very grateful to Phil Stanton, who helped me with the mixing and gave me the confidence to actually finish it. x

Rachel and her sisters, by the way, created an amazing website chronicling her family’s history through WWII – very interesting and well worth a read: Schrotter / Stevens Family Story

This might be the equivalent of me getting the baby photos out, but you can never have too much Gwen and Emrys in my opinion.

Actually, I’m wanting to catch these moments with Gwen. As you can see from the video she doesn’t walk that easily, and it may be that she won’t want to do this walk for too much longer. Time is precious. As are memories.