NICE001 Chris Riley - Moments Stolen Back
This is the second of 2 EPs that I've ever recorded, but the first to have Nice Mind Records put to it. My dear friend Tristan Sturgeon, who I would later form The False Poets with, was a massive help with this. I was only really keeping my hand in with music by singing the odd cover at Ashington Folk Club at this time. He noted on a local music internet forum (possibly the NARC magazine one) that a music student was looking for an acoustic act to record as part of his coursework and he encouraged me to get in touch. So, I ended up getting the few studio sessions at the John Marley Centre, Benwell for free, otherwise it would never have been recorded.
I had about four songs unrecorded. I'm not the most prolific of writers, tending to wait til they come along of their own accord. Passing Through and Thistle I purposefully put the effort into completing to give me enough material to make it worthwhile as the sessions approached, however.
Recording sessions were relaxed with Thomas Moon doing a professional job of it. I think I was lacking confidence at that time, which may be evident in some of the vocals. The lead acoustic fill on Thistle took a few takes and I remember Thomas punching the air when I managed to get to the end of that without stumbling at all.
The title of the EP I took from Thistle which was the last song to be written for it. It's the only song of mine in the DADGAD tuning which might be why I only played it live once, in the Folk Bar of Ashington's 'Tute. It went down well. I wrote some of the lines to it when on a walk round Elsdon. I think it was Mike Jessop who made a quip about being careful not to be caught hanging around up there. A village famous for it's old gibbets!
I did record a version of Wild Mountain Thyme in these sessions, but the CD reproduction company noted that that song was still under copyright, so that was pulled from the EP.
One song which did make the final cut was my first recorded interpretation of a traditional folk song Hares on the Mountain, heavily informed by the Shirley Collins and Davey Graham version. There is grainy footage of my playing it of a Sunday lunchtime at The Archer in Jesmond here.
Tristan designed the cover, some old negatives of Ashington streets that he had lying around and helped me get the CDs pressed. I probably got too many done (hint hint there's still plenty left!). I think it was Tristan who wanted a label dreaming up for the design. Nice Mind Records was decided upon for the label name as Bran from Ashington bar Bubbles used to say "Nice, mind" a lot, be it verbally or on Facebook. It's got kind of a double meaning so, cheers Bran!
Overall, I think it's OK. There was a review or two. The Crack and NARC possibly. Nothing to write home about. I don't think it's as good a release as my first EP Cloudwalking in the Concreteworld when I had more fresh faced focus, but in Sugarbowl Moon and Thistle it has at least 2 good songs on it.
It also saw the launch of Nice Mind Records which wasn't to make its next appearance for another ten years...
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