Cromerzone

20/09/2024

Between 2005 and 2007 I produced and arranged two albums for Terry Stamp, lead singer of Third World War. That band's eponymous debut album, is one of the greatest albums that you have never heard. Released in 1971 on Fly Records (T.Rex's early label) it was a proto-punk album years before punk had been thought of.

The albums I produced, Bootlace Johnnie and the 99s and Howling for the Highway Home are half Americana but written and sung by an expat Londoner. There is more that I could I say but I won't. They are both available at Burning Shed

A few month's ago Terry sent me this video of him singing a song, Isle of Purbeck that he wrote in 1969. I liked it and did a light arrangement of the song to add to his guitar and vocal. Like the songs on the albums I produced he uses a sense of history, to create an aura of English timelessness. In a world full of cloned musicians he is with out doubt a one-off.

Isle Of Purbeck - ( by Terry Stamp - 1969 )BMI Work #: 733933 - Registered 1971.Original Publisher: Schroeder Music Publishing Co. - Berkeley Street - Lon...

13/09/2024

Last month's My Prog page featuring The Curator.

05/09/2024

Possibly a final post about the gig that I am playing at a historic building a few miles out of Cromer on the afternoon of Sunday October 13th 2024. There are only a few places left.

It is to celebrate 50 years of making music with Mark Fletcher. The gig will be recorded and videoed in its entirety, for release at a later time. Mark and I will be joined by Jeremy Salmon, Steve Bingham and Brenda Stewart.

The gig will be by invitation only. There is no ticket charge although donations towards the band's expenses (but not mine) will be accepted. More of a party than a gig. If you would like to come along please message me, here or email me at [email protected].

06/05/2024

Faith pointed out a typo on this poster - which gives me an excuse to put it up again. Come and see us all on Thursday, with a guest appearance by Brian Gulland of Gryphon. There might be prizes*.

*but probably not.

02/05/2024

A reminder that I will playing the Wells Maltings in Norfolk in a week's time on Thursday 9th. We will have a guest appearance of Brian Gulland of Gryphon playing a few numbers with us along with all the usual suspects, Mark Fletcher on Bass, Jeremy Salmon on Guitar and Percussion and Steve Bingham on Violin (along with Brenda Stewart joining us on Viola). A splendid time is guaranteed for all!

16/04/2024

I will be playing at the Wells Maltings (Norfolk) on the 9th of May. I am particularly pleased to say that Brian Gulland of Gryphon will be appearing with us for some numbers. Steve Bingham and Brenda Stewart will be playing with us as well as doing a short solo set themselves. It goes without saying (but I had better say it anyway) that the usual suspects, Mark Fletcher and Jeremy Salmon will also be doing their thing, expertly and with rare panache, concurrent with my thing doing.

Golly.

26/03/2024

Nag, Nag, Nag.

08/03/2024

The first of many reminders.

28/02/2024

Sometime last year at the time of the release of my most recent album there was (as my father liked to say), much brave talk, from people living in Norfolk, asking when I would next be playing in the county. Well here it is, Thursday 9th May, at Wells Maltings in (surprisingly), Wells.

I will be playing with my fellow conspirators, Mark Fletcher, Jeremy Salmon, and Steve Bingham and playing songs old and new.

Please come along if you are in Norfolk, or even East Anglia. There will be lots of prizes.*

* This last sentence is fake news. But the rest is gospel. Honest!

An evening of sublime music courtesy of The Curator. The Curator is Norfolk based musician, writer, arranger and composer Alistair Murphy, who released a new album, Living Space in September 2023. It is the sixth Curator album, following Sometime Soon (2010), Inside The Whale And Other Stories (2013...

13/12/2023

Today, St Lucia's Day, marks the earliest sunset of the year. This is the end of 6 months where the sun has been setting earlier each night than the previous one. Tomorrow the sunset will be slightly later (only by a fraction of a second admittedly). But time to start thinking about summer clothes nonetheless.

This does not mean the days are getting longer - that only happens on the night of the Winter Solstice (21st-22nd) but due to circumstances too difficult explain here, it is at this point in time that the evenings start drawing out (but by a lesser amount than the mornings are still getting darker).

Is that clear?

08/12/2023

Well today my album, Living Space, starts to go up on Spotify. A couple of tracks, one today and one next month before the whole album goes up at the beginning of February. Today it is 'In The Glare", and here is yet another classy video from Chris O. A recent review of the album talked about 'stylistic backflips' - perhaps the writer, Paul Hocker, had this song in mind.

Spotify is an odd thing. I can't say that I use it. But it has helped my songs to be heard in places I can't even spell. I was looking at the statistics the other day. My most listened to song is 'Courtiers', by my standards, a reasonably conventional rock song. At the other end of the scale my most unloved song is called The Light of Setting Suns. Now every barrel has to have some scrapings in it. But this track is possibly the song that I am most satisfied with how it turned out. It sounds like I wanted it to sound.

I mentioned this to Faith; that my least listened to track was a 28 minute long setting of a Wordsworth poem arranged for Piano and Strings. She just said 'Go figure...'

Oh, and apparently there is a review of this album in the January edition of Mojo, which I have not seen yet.

In The Glare (We Fall But We Fly)by The Curator.Written, recorded and produced by The Curator. Taken from the the album Living Space by The Curator. Released...

03/03/2022

A very complimentary review from Hi-Fi Choice last month. So far the reviews of the new album have referenced the Troggs, Prokofiev, Bowie, Nick Drake and now Elbow and Divine Comedy - which makes a change from being compared to Paul Weller as I seemed to be constantly in the late 80s and 90s.

For those of you who might have been puzzled by a scathing review of my album by Nick Kent from a 1979 copy of the NME that I put up a week or so ago; well it was a joke. No really.

11/02/2022

Courtiers (revisited) - released today. A reworking and re-recording of a song from the 2013 album "Inside the Whale". Complete with exemplary guitar work by Mr. Jeremy Salmon. (Take a bow Jez).
Available for streaming and download on all major platforms, including (and particularly) Bandcamp. Another wonderful video from the striatory* and fulferrinous* Chris O.
*neither of these words appear in any known dictionary to the best of my knowledge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qwgLyLmI5M

06/02/2022

05/02/2022

News of a recently restored artifact from The Curator's extensive collection to be made available on all major streaming and download services next Friday the 11th, video c/o the curiously ridulant* Chris O.

*Don't both looking up the adjective "ridulant" - no such adjective exists in the English language (or to our knowledge has ever existed).

Preview of Courtiers (revisited) by The Curator. Written and produced by The Curator.Available for downloading and streaming from all major platforms on 11th...