Charity CD, FUNBUS & FRIENDS
In mid January 2010 Andy Mccourt can be heard trying to sing various lyrics into his Dictaphone trying to write a song about the Cumbrian floods and the loss of Bill Barker.
Not a very pleasant sound for those in earshot! Eventually a couple of verses and chorus of Rains Came Down are handed to Paul Rose to add some music. The song as it is then goes to Dave Connor at Target Sounds Studio in Whitehaven.
Dave constructed a middle 8, and we added a third verse, and the outro grew and grew between us and represents one man walking the length of the river in Workington, with no way of crossing the river. The choir at the end consists of Dave and Bill's children, representing the populous of Workington who for a period of time were split in two by the river but eventually became united by two new bridges over the next months.
So with the song improving and improving slowly, we then had to decide what we would do with it. It was important to us that the song couldn't be a three minute pop song given its content, nor should it be too sorrowful nor too cheesy
Hazel Barker, Bill's widow had been kept in the loop at every lyric change, and she was adamant she wanted the song released on a CD. We were more than happy for the song to be released but if people were going to cough up money for it, even though it was for charity, we still had to have a package worthy of the money. Funds were found to pay for the CD processing to professional standards. With this in mind we contacted some of our favourite artists.
THE SONGS AND ARTISTS:
Philip "Swill" Odgers singer guitarist with The Men They Couldn't Hang.
Paul Simmonds songwriter in chief for The Men They Couldn't Hang.
John & Wayne local West Cumbrian singer songwriters.
Reg Meuross, critically acclaimed and internationally renowned singer/songwriter.
Tom Spencer from Fastlane Roogalator. A London based band.
One Jenny Too Many are a talented new three piece of singer-songwriters from Glasgow.
Dave Connor, Record Producer, formerly in local band Delivo.
ESP features Sam Millar on vocals and Phil, Jack and Sips on guitar.
The CD which was due for release on November 20 also features a couple of Funbus circa 2009 songs, for those people who we didn't force to buy our debut CD "Tickets Please". Further details and songs from all of the above artists are available. Please visit their sites for details of other releases. Link from:
www.myspace.com.funbuslive
