So why now?

My long time friend and song writing partner, Martin unfortunately died two years ago. So to try to come to terms with that loss, this is a celebration of our times together, trying to bang out a few tunes and have a laugh. 

We did have a lot of fun, in between the usual ups and downs of life.

So these songs are mainly what we were getting up to in the later years. Martin does appear briefly ( very briefly!) on one of the tracks, as his playing became hindered by physical difficulties. But I have endeavoured to play bass somewhat in the ‘Martin Major style’ on these tracks 😉🙄. And whilst he did not collaborate on every song here, his ‘presence’ is everywhere on this album. It simply would not be here without him.

Yes, this whole thing really is all his fault, so if you have any complaints, you can take it up with him at MartinMaj@heaven.com. 

So thank you, Mart, I really did love being with you mate 👍🏻❤️  I really hope you knew that.👍🏻🙂 

And instead of this being a goodbye, or au revoir to you, it has been like you were still around as I worked on these songs which has felt great.

So I hope from whatever big cloud you are currently sitting on, you can hear these finished songs and you like them. Well, you’d better, you big brute, I worked bloody hard on this! 😉

 

So why The Loveliness Fountains, Jon? What's that all about then?

Some of our best times in the band would be quite incidental to the music! Half of the enjoyment would be such things as going down the pub to try to think up a 'good' name for the band.

I used to come along with a list, that would often start off fairly sensibly but quickly degenerate into stupid names I thought would make the rest of the band laugh.

Over a pint or ten, we would thoughtfully discuss band strategy, which would last about a minute, and then we'd be on to stupid names for the band. 👍

So I introduced such iconic ideas such Grandad’s Dead, The Loveliness Fountains,  and The Clean Botties, and Martin deftly countered with Beefy and The Hotpots, Dog’s Breath Kipper Factory, and, of course, The Knobs. 😑

(The song Best Band In The World has a little interplay on band names where I do an impersonation of Martin as we discuss the matter)

In the end, many years later, The Loveliness Fountains just seemed a good name and way to remember us.😊 Because we did try hard to be lovely most of the time, but unfortunately we couldn’t always manage it.  Probably like most of us...

The two albums are called Love, and Life because this refers back to a time when we were being interviewed on the radio and the presenter asked what our songs were mostly about. This caused Martin and I to look blankly at each other and shrug, and there was a few seconds of radio silence heaven until Martin chipped in with “Well, love and life, really.”

That made me have to stifle a laugh at the time, and that comment passed into band folklore as a fabulously soppy answer, but looking back now, Martin probably got it about right.

And I have divided the songs up roughly into those two categories. They could also have possibly been divided up into A) Out and Out Rampant Attempts At Commercialism By The Boys and B) Trying To be Edgy And Funny.

But they are not as catchy eh!

So here we are, this is us, we were here. And if sometimes  it sounds a little on the rough and ready side to you in one or two places, you’re spot on, because sometimes that’s exactly what we were!😉

Jon Mc

January 2024

 

And in case anyone’s interested, or there’s nothing better on the telly, here' s a quick explanation of our song writing ‘process’. ( Ha, Martin would  love reading our bumbling around with two guitars being called that!)

Martin was a lot of fun to work and write with, and we often ended up just fooling around as we tried to pen something half decent!

Our unspoken agreement was that our songs in all cases, whether written collaboratively or separately, would be penned as McCaffrey/Major compositions and I have kept faithful to that agreement for these two albums because it still feels right to do so.

Anyway this ‘process’ would inevitably start with the famous utterance, ‘Mate, I’ve got a new one.’

In my case, that would often mean I had mostly got the whole song, but maybe less the lyrics which would be worked on later. Martin would then advise me in that wonderful blunt style of his, which parts were good, which parts were not needed,  and which parts were absolutely awful. This process  generally decided if the song was a ‘goer’ for further development. Some song ideas would led to Martin uttering his immortal comment of ‘Never EVER play that thing to me ever again’!

With Martin’s song ideas, it was generally rare for him to come along with a complete song to a session, it tended more to be part of something, half an idea, or sometimes even just a few chords. And as you will see, on one occasion on here he only had the title of the song!

But none of that really mattered, half an idea, a single line was a springboard to try to create something. And we were both generous with giving each other room to try things out, even the shocking ideas, and there were more than a few of them! 

In the end, we were just two lads trying to create something that gave our view out on the world, and we just hoped someone out there would like us enough to give us some money! 👍

 

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