A little more about "A Taste of The Magnificent AK47" CD

Who would have thought it would come to this at the 2008 Ashton Keynes Music Festival when a motley crew of mainly villagers or unfortunate visiting relatives were coerced along to that very first Sing Like a Bloke workshop?  Well, since then the motley crew has eventually gone on from strength to strength, sailing the high seas of silliness and ploughing a furrow of sheer exuberance of singing low whilst wearing many hats.

So, there it is, “A Taste of The Magnificent AK47” our first proper(ish) CD that makes us almost sound like proper singers!  We hope you enjoy it as much as we have making it.  And to help you enjoy it, here are some of the sleeve notes that were prepared but we couldn't use this time round*.

The Vly - Imagine our excitement when “The Turnip Hoer’s Song” was unearthed by DR Sweeney, a song about our very own Wiltshire homeland.  The man himself can be heard at the beginning of the track reading a scene setting piece by another hero of ours, local writer Alfred Williams, the “Hammerman Poet”, before being rudely interrupted by a hearty rendition from the blokes.

Shed – A piece that we first learnt at BlokeFest 2012, written especially for the event by the wonderful Roger Jackson who captured the Blokey vibe perfectly with plaintive lyrics about modern manfolk’s tribulations and deceptively clever music with many intentionally tricky harmonies.  A third verse was added by our very own Mr Willoughby to explore the theme of man’s inner sanctum at the bottom of the garden.

And I Love Her – A regular performance favourite with heartfelt dedications to the ladies in our lives, captured here in one pristine take.  The arrangement was lent to us by the marvellous Mr Taberner, the Spookmeister himself, and we have tried to take very good care of it, as you can hear.

Unsung Heroes No. 10 – This charming and witty ditty was concocted by our very own Choirmeister Mr Samuel.  Inspired by the combination of our links with Stroud Brewery, one of their finest ales, and a fantastic inventor from around those parts, he penned this entertaining and educative ode to one of many unsung heroes – listen and learn.

Delilah – The unofficial Welsh anthem via Western Australia and an arrangement from Ryan “Lightpole” Morrison of the Spooky Men’s Chorale.  First learnt at BlokeFest 2012 and one of our firm favourites ever since, especially as we get to wear beards to sing it!

Land Shanty – We have been known to enjoy the occasional Sea Shanty and the opportunity to dress up as Pirates, but Mr Samuel thought it strange, us being from a land locked county, so he was prompted to unleash his inner minstrel and write this humdinger of an ode, full tales of high jinks on the choppy waves of the local Cotswold Water Park.

BlokeScape – A highlight of BlokeFest 2013 was the Saturday Night Cabaret in which a bloke suggested doing a “soundscape” – later in the pub a certain gentleman was inspired by seeing a row of chaps proudly wearing their BlokeFest T-Shirts to start singing “Bloke, Bloke, Bloke” which then lead to 5 minutes of sonic mayhem where odd ideas and musical themes were spontaneously explored, all of which we attempted to reproduce in another single take capturing a unique moment in the canon of BlokeSong.

With thanks to . . .

. . . Nick Beere of Mooncalf Studios for having so many blokes in his studio all together and coping with our special needs

. . . Chris (“Call me picky”) Samuel, our beloved Choirmeister, for being brilliant and inspiring and finally whipping us into a half decent sounding shape, and for helping create such a brilliant ethos to the group

. . . Stephen Taberner for the arrangement of And I Love her and Ryan Morrison for the arrangement of Delilah

. . . Roger Jackson for writing Shed, which gives us the metaphysical glue to put ourselves back together, and John Willoughby, for the extra verse to help us avoid life’s temptations

. . . Talking of which, a massive thank you to all our significant others for indulging us and allowing us to be weekend Pirates and for sparing us from chores to release us for all our hours of fun

. . . And finally, to all the Blokes who have built up such a rapport during our many adventures and many hats – here’s to many more (adventures and hats!).

Neil B
Chief Instigator
The Inner Circle of The Magnificent AK47

* in order to get the CD ready in time for the visit of The Spooky Men's Chorale gig it was decided to use a service called Making Music Mix who handle all the Performing Rights issues and actually produce the physical CD.  Unfortunately there are a few restrictions this imposes, such as the amount of information you put on the packaging, hence why these sleeve notes did not make it all on.

If you would like to hear a sampler of our Taster then have a listen at 

https://soundcloud.com/the-magnificent-ak47/a-taster-of-a-taste-of-the and if you would like your very own copy then on to our special website page at http://www.makingmusicmix.org.uk/group-designs/the-magnificent-ak47 and add to your basket and follow the usual sort of instructions from there.

If you do have a listen, we would love to hear from you - contact us via themagnificentak47@gmail.com.