Now the CD is finally out there we have decided to add a page of comments and reviews. If you have anything you would like to say about the CD please use the contact page and we will put it up. We will, of course, moderate the comments and in the 'corporate speak' world we have all been forced into, we reserve the right to chose what appears on this page.
So here are the first two.
'The CD Has Landed! :-) It dropped through my door this morning, matey. I have to say, I'm impressed with the Royal Mail for being able to deliver a package addressed to the Psychedelic Birmingham Tourist Board, and it actually reaching me! :-) I'm just listening to the CD now. The CD is brilliant! The opening track is as good as anything Pink Floyd came up with on Wish You Were Here. And I love the CD packaging too! Was it expensive to produce the CD with the gatefold sleeve and the lyrics insert? I love the melody in the verses of Harpies. The intro to Happy has a Led Zep feel to it and then it morphs into Gilmour's Floyd. This is such a gorgeous LP. I love it! But my fave has to be last track. It's the song Dave Gilmour has yet to write. It's absolutely ace!'
(a quick note here. Damien is an excellent singer / songwriter. I have know him for some years and at on point I referred to his home town, Manchester, as Psychedelic Birmingham. It has stuck.)
'Blimey, Roy, this new album is terrific!! So glad i bought it. I particularly love Blank Moments...and This Torch ...excellent songs and great music. Well done all!! I am sorry i've missed your gigs (mostly due to ill health or builders ...sometimes both!). Hope to see you soon.'
Hearing Roy's and Steve's vocals again - they haven't changed much at all (is that a compliment - only you can decide...). And we both commented that he is a damn good guitarist.
It was a bit strange to hear 'Harpies' and 'Blank Moments' sounding oh-so-familiar but slightly unfamiliar. Strange - but good.
Hearing things that sound familiar but not, and things that sound unfamiliar but not and trying to work out where you've changed what you're doing and what's different about it was interesting. And I don't think that you've changed a lot over the years (this is not a bad thing, btw) but are still making sounds that are accessible and rocky but just - a little - odd.
Oh hell's teeth, I'm not very good at this critique thingy! How about - yes, I enjoyed it and will listen to it more than once!
Mous (ex Dogwatch / Last Post Lighting person)
I like the cd a lot. I think it's very strong both musically and lyrics-wise. Some of the 'tunes' eg The Rage, Blank Moments and This Torch are very evocative of certain emotional states, and many of the lyrics are, also.
I guess that's the intention of the 'Skeleton Key' idea?....that the songs, although technically one person's experience, are universal (unless you're brain dead and/or have had a very sheltered existence).
And, lots of the lyrics are actually poems, I think, which would work with or without music ...lovely, unusual rhyme schemes. Very pleased to have bought it!
Dianne Granger
1, 2, 3 go! That Legendary Wooden Lion have a new CD out called Writing in a Skeleton Key and I’ve been giving it a good listen. I should say that although unknown to me they have in fact been around in some form or other since the early seventies, even playing the Windsor and Watchfield free festivals, so we’re not talking about a bunch wet behind the ears. And nor do they sound it. 10 tracks on the CD all played with an assurance that comes with experience and with song writing skills to match. Their style is a bit harder to put the old finger on. Think 70’s power pop a la The Motors..? Nope.. not passionate enough, New Model Army perhaps.
You see what we have in the main, is a set of upbeat rousing rock/pop songs. Take track two Sulphur and Heat, a song about well, staring death in the face, which is a catchy little number sung in the style of football hooligans. Don’t get me wrong; I loved it. In fact the chorus has been playing in my head for the past week. There is, however, also a lot of reflection going on here, they are men of a certain age after all. Bitterness, anger and regret usually make for impassioned music an d it’s certainly the case here. The tempo does vary from time to time; take Blank Moments for example, a cheerful little ditty about those wasting time by doing nothing. Fair enough but to be honest I long for the chance of doing nothing.
I also have to mention how amazingly presented the CD is. It comes in a gate-fold digi thingy with a booklet featuring lyrics, bio and pics. The artwork too is something special and is indicative of the care put into the product as a whole. Not that I’m recommending the CD on the strength of the sleeve. I’d happily recommend it on the strength of the content though. My mate gave the opinion that it was “geezer prog” and although I wouldn’t use that term myself I can see where he is coming from. Good passionate music from a bunch of guys whose hearts are firmly on their sleeves.
Sound Awesome June 2011
THAT LEGENDARY WOODEN LION
Writing In A Skeleton Key
Turquoise Road CD
Roy Weard (as featured in the last issue of Shindig!) returns to the music business after a gap of nearly 30 years to reform his space/prog band Wooden Lion. The band shared many a bill with the freak-rock acts of the mid-70s and have clearly never mellowed out to this day.
I’m always sceptical about such reunion albums but this one is genuinely good. The band’s total lack of success in their original formation means there’s nothing to live up to on this album. It’s at its best when the band abandon any hoary rock clichés and marry their authentic ’70s synth and electronic sound to strong melodies and soaring guitars.
The obvious closest comparison would be to Hawkwind but there’s a lot of personality in the vocal delivery and a clear emphasis on songs rather than never-ending boogie jams.
Austin Matthews (Shindig Magazine)
THAT LEGENDARY WOODEN LION
Many years ago when the world was young, or at least when I was in my early thirties, my first wife and I used to run the fan club for a mercurial dude called Steve Harley. Our relationship with him lasted about five years, and during those years we accompanied him on a number of British tours. A fixture on the earliest and best of these tours was a lanky dude called Roy Weard who had long blonde hair and wild staring eyes and manned the soundboard. He was very kind to me and Alison, and although first he, and then I left the Harley camp I never forgot him. I knew vaguely that he was a musician of some repute as well as a legendary sound guy, but apart from a couple of low fi things on YouTube I had never heard any of his music. Then, to my great delight, the other week when Dave B-P and I were in Brighton, I found my old mate Roy behind the mixing desk.
We got talking, swapped addresses, and he promised to send me a copy of his latest album.
The album arrived in the post yesterday, and today - when I had finished doing the daily blogs, and my various correspondence - I sat down in my favourite armchair. Immediately two small kittens crawled into my lap and fell asleep, so I had to talk Mother through the intricacies of working the hi-fi. But she managed it and I slumped back to enjoy the album.
I don't know what I was expecting, but what I got was a very sonically interesting mix of electronica, strummed 12 string guitars, and intermittently some powerful riffing. The album is bookended by my two favourite tracks, which are quite possibly the strangest. On the closing one, in particular the electronic avant-soundscapes and the harmonics of the 12 string guitars mesh together into something gloriously strange.
This band are well into Gonzo territory, so expect an interview with them very soon.
Jonathan Downes - Gonzo Magazine #29 08/06/2013