“Une Pause Dans Le Temps”

Photo : Malcolm Batty

The Blue-Berries, Lake Walk, Clacton-on Sea, 1964

Richard G, Paul, Richard H and David, 2013

Richard H handing copy of CD to Richard G at Malmaison, Manchester Picadilly, Dec 10th 2013      Photo : Inge, our waitress

Richard Higgins, once the drummer and singer with the Clacton-On-Sea 60s group, ‘The Blue-Berries’ writes, records and produces a CD every year - and has done so for nearly 20 years. Normally, he achieves this single-handed, playing all the instruments himself plus singing the melody and all the harmony parts and has acquired considerable multitracking skills.

This year was different however. To commemorate 50 years since the formation of the group which was to become ‘The Blue-Berries’, he came up with the brilliant and generous plan to track down and feature all the old band members on two tracks of this years CD. The name of the CD is ‘Welcome To The Here And Now’ and the theme is retrospective and reflective, but also deals with the reality that a long time has passed and we must face up to the present and hopefully the future.

The practicalities were a challenge! Richard H lives near Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Richard G is in Bedfordshire, Paul is in Somerset and David spends his time partly in Berkshire and partly in Brazil. The method we adopted was for Richard H to complete his parts as stereo WAVs and send them to Richard G, who loaded them into Cubase on a laptop. Richard G added guitar parts to five of the tracks, then travelled the country to visit Paul and David, adding their parts to two of those five. This all came back to Leighton Buzzard for final editing, mixing and mastering.

To listen to all the tracks and download the tracks and cover art (which is very classy and highly recommended) go to Richard H’s website : http://www.higgisongs.co.uk/discography.php  

The 5 tracks which feature Richard G (solos, except ‘Just Like This’) can also be heard here:

Welcome To The Here And Now

Sweet Memory

Why Don’t We Spend It First

Just Like This

David Henderson - sax solo

Paul Swan - guitar (RHS)

Richard Gleave - guitar (LHS)

So Young And Fearless

David Henderson - sax

Paul Swan - guitar (RHS)

Richard Gleave - guitar (LHS) and harmony solo

<< This song is very  poignant and tells the story of our first musical steps, all those years ago.

New! The Clacton Tapes 1974

Restored 2014 by RJG

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