Peopleoids album (release date tbc)

Sons of Catford [released 20/12/24]

‘…the world’s most beautiful man, from Catford to Japan/with black Kung Fu slippers and a filterless Gitane/the world’s most beautiful man’

Sometime during the early 80s, David Sylvian was voted the world’s most beautiful man. I’m not sure if this ‘award’ exists anymore, but to my mind growing up in suburban south-east London, this seemed an extraordinary achievement for a lad from Catford. After Japan split (the song includes the line ‘we were too young to see you’ – I was 13 at the time, I think) I saw Sylvian in concert at the Royal Festival Hall, probably around the time he released ‘Secrets of the Beehive’, although I’m always rather hazy on dates. I don’t remember very much of it, but I’ve little doubt he rocked! Well, more jazzed I guess, given the direction his music went in. Nice.

I wanted to make sure that the others get a mention in the song too. I couldn’t resist a dig at Nick Rhodes from Duran Duran, who I always thought secretly wished he was in Japan, who were so much cooler than Le Bon and his mob, who to my teenage mind were just extremely unhip (which reminds me of Douglas Adams line in Hitchhikers Guide: ‘he’s so unhip it’s a wonder his bum doesn’t fall off’ – copyright Zaphod Beeblebrox). Hence ‘Nice try, Nick Rhodes, but you’ll never be as cool as Barbieri’. Followed by ‘Mick Karn’s moonwalk, Steve Jansen’s sublime drumming, extraordinary’. If you’ve seen the video footage from Japan’s final live shows, released as the ‘Oil on Canvas’ album and VHS you’ll know exactly to which I refer. Last but not least, there had to be a reference to the Prophet 5 synthesiser, but I decided to twist this to ‘Five prophets on the stage’. That way I can also tangentially include Masami Tsuchiya (and Rob Dean, sort of). The world’s most beautiful band indeed.

Battle scarred

This song is about dear departed friends. ‘Nuff said.

Danny the champion of the world

‘Danny the champion of the world, sits high up on my bookshelf/yet it’s the other Dalle, Beatrice, who now fills my dreams….’
I think we can all look back and mentally mark the time when we transition from childhood to adulthood. I grew up with Roald Dahl, and the last book I remember reading is ‘Danny’, as I’m confident it’s known to his fans. I think I read my sister’s copy of ‘A clockwork orange’ after that, so in that sense I jumped off a cliff into adulthood rather than ambling gently down a slope. Films – on VHS, naturally – were the things that also stick. That scene at the end of Blade Runner, where Rutger Hauer releases the dove: is there a more tragic scene in the history of film? Probably loads, but not in my memory locker. And Betty Blue. Now the film is a pretty hard watch, but of course I don’t remember it for that, just the diva who stars. Teenage me makes no apologies.

Lepidina

‘She writes to Claudia ‘soror anima’/and wishes that her friend wasn’t always so far, she’s so blue’
Lepidina is such a lovely name – it’s a shame that it’s fallen out of use. Sulpicia Lepidina we know from the Vindolanda writing tablets. Famously, her friend Claudia Severa writes to her to invite her to her birthday party, around the year AD100. Both are officer’s wive’s. We have Claudia’s letter, written in Latin, and – most importantly – signed off by Claudia in her own hand. Other correspondence makes it clear that they are close friends. But we don’t have Lepidina’s reply, although we do know that she suffered from headaches. Anyway, the point is she’s rather mysterious, so a great subject for a song. And, I will contend, this is the first time that Latin has been used in a pop song. Aside from ‘soror anima’ (loosely translated as ‘dear sister’), I managed to squeeze in a ‘vale’. Should it be sung with a ‘v’ or a ‘w’ sound? For authenticity the latter, but I fudge it a bit. (Otherwise it’s all gets a bit ‘Life of Brian’).
‘See the moondust on her hands…’ Ok, so Lepidina didn’t travel into space, but we’re all made of moondust after all. And the melody is a cheeky steal from Bowie’s ‘Starman’ (but that’s ok, because he stole it from ‘Somewhere over the rainbow’, and Suede stole it for ‘The Drowners’, and such is the cycle of life) so moondust it is. My niece, Niamh, does some lovely backing vocals on this track. Thank you, Niamh.

Other songs likely to feature:

The Ballad of Hilly Fields

Space junk
Max Blecher
Girl from Dyrrachium