Pinball And Other Stories

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Friendship and the fact that he’s a brilliant musician, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He’s also patient and meticulous in the recording process. Something I’m not.”

Working with song writing partner Martin Duncan, the album opens in style with Enjoy It, with it’s complex tongue twisting lyrics that work within the musical arrangements as well. a b c d e f g h i Colin Larkin, ed. (1992). The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Firsted.). Guinness Publishing. p.2009. ISBN 0-85112-939-0.I always thought Enjoy It should have been a big hit in the 70s. It should have been my second single but Chrysalis were afraid because it was so utterly different to Pinball. I was determined to have another look at it, and it worked. It turned out really well. I was really pleased with what we did with it and it was relatively successful. I think I actually made money on it – almost no one makes much money from streaming!” Martin would write a lyric in different sections and I somehow had to find a way to bind them together, while giving each individual section the kind of musical choices the words suggested. There was a lot of criticism about Martin from the record company. They tried to take his name off the first album, so it would look like I was the only contributor. I threatened to stop working on the album if they did that so they relented. The producer Del Newman wasn’t sure about the songs Martin participated in either. He preferred the songs I wrote alone. My songs were varied, but they weren’t as mad as Martin’s! We used some songs Martin and I wrote for a musical called Lotte’s Electric Opera. They were totally out of context, so they were even weirder! But I like that. Martin’s a great friend so I always wanted him to be involved.”

Pinball was a slow burner, really. It only got to number 22 in the chart, but it almost instantly made an impression. Kenny Everett played it a lot on Capital Radio. When I was on Top of the Pops, Carl Douglas was number 1 with Kung Fu Fighting. There was a lot of crap on it – god, Peter Shelley with Love Me Love My Dog. Pinball was very different. The joke was that I went on Top of the Pops when it was at 22, and the week after it went down! I didn’t know what I did wrong.” Nurture a good idea when you get one. Keep it alive in your mind. See it through to the end. Try not to be too judgemental. Don’t let it die.” Oh, thank you. I think the ‘Guilty Pleasures’ was one of the first compilations that I was on. But there have been several over the years, it’s been lovely.

Credits

The traditional showmanship is brough to the fore on The Good Brand Band Song, which has echoes of The Beatles and 10cc running through it, there’s a wonderful element of showmanship and English music hall or Pythonesque humour that is drip fed through Protheroe’s songwriting. In 1982 he was cast in the BBC Two play Spider's Web by Agatha Christie, and in the following year played the role of Edward IV in the BBC Television Shakespeare productions of Henry VI, Part 2, Henry VI, Part 3 and Richard III. In 1984 he played in the West End musical Pump Boys and Dinettes on piano and vocals and percussion.