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Solihull Sampler

by The Drain On The Balcony

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1.
Square 03:50
I’m walking in the shopping square Where fountains used to flow The friends I had no longer there And some I now don’t even know The memories come rushing in It was a place for youth Our ragged hair and shirts pulled out Boys hanging out for truth. Where’s the party on Saturday night That’s what we need to know And who will get their invite And could we still just crash and go The memories come rushing in It was a place for youth With willing smiles and careful plans Girls trying out the truth Like shadows on the street She comes and she goes The sun shines – she’s always there Behind the cloud, that’s when she goes I don’t care where we are She’s always in my heart Now that I’m back in this place The years can never make us part We came together after school And gathered outside Smiths The girls would be not too impressed With our Smoke on the Water riffs The memories are fading now It is a time that’s passed Ghosts and echoes haunt the square Caught in a photograph
2.
123 02:48
The world is full of people saying I've let them down Don't they know I let myself down first? It's always me that ends off worst And there's so many problems And don't I know I've got too many of my own Come on, don't let me suffer alone Oh baby 1 2 3 - Lay your love on me Don't be too shy to say you're mine 4 5 6 - Show me some of your tricks Come over here & give me a good time Give me a good time There's just so many people telling me I'm wrong I need someone to tell me that I'm strong Oh, say it babe, even if you think it's wrong And I'm lost in a rainstorm Of lies and hate I need someone to shelter me from the rain Oh baby, you don't wanna see me in pain Do ya? 1 2 3 - Lay your love on me Don't be too shy to say you're mine 4 5 6 - Show me some of your tricks Come over here & give me a good time Give me a good time
3.
White Riot 03:08
Black man gotta lot a problems But they don't mind throwing a brick White people go to school Where they teach you how to be thick Everybody's doing Just what they're told to And nobody wants To go to jail White riot - I wanna riot White riot - a riot of my own White riot - I wanna riot White riot - a riot of my own Da da da da da da da-da Woh woh woh Da da da da da da da-da Woh woh woh Are you taking over or are you taking orders? Are you going backwards Or are you going forwards? White riot - I wanna riot White riot - a riot of my own White riot - I wanna riot White riot - a riot of my own All the power is in the hands Of the people rich enough to buy it While we walk the street Too chicken to even try it Everybody's doing Just what they're told to Nobody wants To go to jail White riot - I wanna riot White riot - a riot of my own White riot - I wanna riot White riot - a riot of my own White riot - I wanna riot White riot - a riot of my own White riot - I wanna riot White riot - a riot of my own
4.
I locked her name to a bridge on the Seine If it was up to me, I would do it again Our love surviving the wind and the rain Let the sun shine down on our padlock pain Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine. With that metal embrace we threw away the key Now our love will end at the point of infinity Lasting way beyond the death of you and me Just like the river flows out into the sea Let it flow, let it flow, let it flow. Padlocks of love Padlocks of love This could be Paris, this could be Rome This could be Berlin, this could be home Throw away the key from a bridge in Helsinki Throw away the key from a bridge in Helsinki Throw away the key from a bridge in Helsinki Throw away the key from a bridge in Helsinki Padlocks of love
5.
Look at me & I won't hide Tell me those rumours & I won't deny them I don't care I don't make false claims Won't pretend to be winning nobody's game But I can't stop dreaming Can't stop dreaming Can't stop dreaming Can't stop dreaming I waste my time I waste my words but don't we all yeah don't we just Don't tell me different 'cos I know you're just the same I ain't the first liar, ain't the first who's come crawling out the drain Spike top sister I'm looking at you I'm looking for reason I'm looking for truth What's the use we disgust them can't you see it in their eyes We never really get the girls, we only lie But I can't stop dreaming Can't stop dreaming Can't stop dreaming Can't stop dreaming
6.
The Sun goes down I look around for you Deep in the ground In lost and found for you The stars (scars) in the night sky They weep when I cry Where are you now? I need to know It’s been a thousand days I’ve searched in so many ways I’ve looked for you in every place For one last glimpse of your face You’ve gone without a trace Gone underground The world is lost to you Without a sound The earth is dust to you From ashes to ashes Wherever that is Where are you now? I need to know It’s been a thousand days I’ve searched in so many ways I’ve looked for you in every place For one last glimpse of your face You’ve gone without a trace For one last glimpse of your face You’ve gone without a trace
7.
Painting myself different colours Blue or green for the mood I'm in Watching you... jumping fences Don't you ever try jumping higher? You take things so easy that you can't fall flat on your face... Keep your back to the wall Watching people lie to each other It's so stupid... it makes my skin crawl My feet keep slipping off the ground My feet keep slipping off the ground My feet keep slipping off the ground My feet keep slipping off the ground I fail to see the point in you And everything that you try to do I never had no-one, you see I'm on my own But I don't care because I'm having fun And is your life really so good? And are you really always so cool? And does the one you love really love you? Or is it just... an illusion an illusion? You think you're living well I know You think you're living well I know You think you're living well I know You think you're living well I know you're dead.
8.
The woman who walks through walls Well she could just open doors The person she likes to haunt He's always expecting more So she waits for the night to fall For the time when the spiders crawl From the cracks in the plasterboard Through the dust on the flagstone floor And her touch melts through my skin, and froths my blood like cappucino And her eyes dance around my brain, like drunken lovers at a disco And in my peripheral view Like a polaroid of my youth She's making my coffee cool As she stands back in my bedroom She's the woman who writes the rules In a scripture of cheap perfume Now she's watching my eyelids move Making sure that my dreams are true And her silhouette hypnotises me, like smoke twisting in the night sky And her whisper seeps inside me, like a frost descending on my mind And she's watching the spit slide out From the side of my sleeping mouth It's the glue on my paper crown And it's starting to loosen now I'm the hangman who laughed too loud It's time that she cut me down It seems like my swinging round Is starting to bore the crowd And each day I search for her, like a broken sign on the roadside And each night she finds me, like a fox caught up in the headlights There's fish swimming round the insides of my eyes The answerphone blinks but the voice is too quiet There's a moth on the pillow to kiss me goodnight There's a spark from the wall when I switch off the lights She's a festival queen, she's a mad butterfly She's a saxophone solo fed back into the mics She's a rollercoast ride, on a white knuckle sky And I tap on the wall, just to check I'm alive Yeah she walks through the wall, just to give me a fright Oh I wait by the wall, I'm her waiter tonight I'm the naked maître d' in a salmonella restaurant Hey the dish of the day is my bones on a tin plate Lined up and numbered, she's gonna eat me tonight She gonna stir fry me, wine on me, dine on me She biting me Tip up the bed, turn on the lights I can smell the sadness of the night I can feel the waves lapping at the corners of my mind Pushing up driftwood colder than time...
9.
Maisy Says 03:39
Maisy says I wish I could fly Across the ocean Watch the waves Crash against the shore Reducing mountains Reaching down from the sky Maisy says that it’s time to say goodbye Maisy says I wish I could walk Across the desert Feel the sand Between my toes Shifting mirage I think that this could be my land Maisy says that it’s time to take me by the hand
10.
So.. you went back to black There's no return, and no comeback You took the trip, you chose to go But in the end I think you lost control You lived too fast - your feet don't touch the floor Preserved in wax - like those who went before Fame and drugs were - stronger than you And so you did - what you had to do Black Black Black Black An angel's voice from a mouth that sinned You were like a blowtorch in the wind You told it like it is and you can bet Now you've got no time left to regret Black Black Black Black
11.

about

Sometime in the recent past a photo appeared on Facebook. Taken forty years ago, it captures a moment in time when a bunch of teenagers was trying to break free from the suffocating restrictions of a straitjacketed English upbringing in a dull Midlands town. Their main escape routes were the music they were listening to, and the daily meetings between opposite sexes, after school in the local shopping precinct.

Some of those teenagers formed The Drain On The Balcony, and forty years on they were inspired by that photograph to write a song about those heady days of 1976, when the only thing that mattered in life was whether they would get in to this weekend’s house party.

Turns out that a few other people were also inspired by that photo, and our good friend Sara has gone ahead and booked a venue, so after a short break of something over 36 years it looks like we will soon be playing a short live set.

In case you were wondering what we’ve been doing for the last five years since we reformed, here’s a sampler featuring a few of our recordings - Local Underground is releasing it as a pay-what-you-want album, so feel free to enter 'zero' in the pricing box. While you're here you can also have a browse through the label's back catalogue here... localunderground.bandcamp.com

credits

released June 11, 2016

Solihull Sampler by The Drain On The Balcony

Tracks 2, 3, and 5 are from the Local Underground album ‘Drainwaves’ by The Drain On The Balcony: localunderground.bandcamp.com/album/drainwaves

Tracks 6, 8, and 10 are from the Local Underground album ‘The Dark Side Of The Drain’ by The Drain On The Balcony: localunderground.bandcamp.com/album/the-dark-side-of-the-drain

Tracks 1, and 9 are from the forthcoming third album by The Drain On The Balcony

Track 4 is previously unreleased

Track 7 is from the compilation album ‘Raving Pop Blast - A Tribute To The Groove Farm’ on A Work Of Heart Records

Track 11 is from the forthcoming compilation album ’A Tribute To Prolapse’ on Odd Box Records


The Drain On The Balcony are:
Gary - Bass, Guitar, Vocals
Gordon - Guitar, Vocals
Gran / Rocker - Drums, Programming, Vocals
Martin - Keyboards, Vocals

With The Drainettes:
Caitlin - Vocals on tracks 06 (Lead), 07, 10
Eira - Vocals on tracks 06, 10
Emma - Vocals on tracks 01, 02, 06, 07, 09; 10
Jemma - Vocals on track 01, 09
Hattie - Vocals on Track 01, 09

Plus guests:
Brad San Martin - Trumpet on track 07
Harry Furniss - Cornet on track 01
John Slattery - Violin on track 10
Sas Payne - Flute on track 06
Simon Birchall - Violin on track 08
Brian Price - Vocal on track 11
Ynys Yo - Vocal on track 11


Recorded, produced and engineered 2011 - 2016 by Rocker at StAR Studios, Bristol, UK, on his trusty AKAI DPS24 and a Mac running Reason, except track 04 recorded at Green Lane Studios, Shipston

All songs written, ℗ and © by The Drain On The Balcony, except:
Track 03 Written by Strummer, Jones ℗ Riva Music
Track 07 Written by A. Jarrett, copyright control
Track 11 Written by Prolapse, ℗ Cherry Red

Sleeve design by PS I Love You
Sleeve photo by K. Dickinson
Other photos by D. Vernon

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Local Underground Bristol, UK

Eclectic music label based in Bristol, UK. Specialising in short run limited editions that nevertheless shift very few copies. Local Underground is Rocker's baby, baby.

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