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Anonymous City
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.
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Morning Walk
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.
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Before Time
I created this for my mum’s memorial service – she died in 2011.
For me, writing the song was a really good way of sorting out my feelings and helping me to focus on my grief, when there were so many other pulls on my time and attention. Sorting through old photos and adding the slides has given the song another dimension, and invites me to come back, listen, watch, remember …
The “Before time” phrase, and a few fragments of the lines first came to me some years ago on a retreat, but I’d never found a place for them.
Before time – Lyrics
Music and Life on a Hill in Wales
Westsongs