Today
The session with Mick last week went very well.We laid down the backing tracks of the three songs I'm recording with him.Mick has been helping me re-arrange them,putting extra choruses into the songs etc.It all sounds pretty good.This week he'll be filling out the tracks a little with percussion, bass, piano etc. and later I'll put on some backing vocals and re-do the lead vocal.
Today I'll be seeing the printer about the cover for "Stage Door Johnnies"..I hope you realise that they're bootlegs! It's true,I had to bootleg my own album! Unfortunately the masters were lost many years ago.I tried to get in touch with Ray(Davies) but he's a hard person to reach. Recently I heard him on the radio but I didn't have the heart to ring the BBC and hassle him!He'll always be a great guy no matter what. I still live in hope that they will be found languishing in some dusty lawyers office but as time goes by that seems increasingly unlikely.I'm sure Ray has no idea where they are.Never mind,the songs and the sentiments within them live on. It's Stage Door Johnnies that has the first recording of "you take my breath away".My version is different to Eva's.She must've heard the recording by Tuck and Patti which is more jazzy.
love
clairexxx
ps hello to Jeff and Brian...I'll be putting some different tracks up soon on myspace
10 Comments:
Hi Claire, came across your website blog quite by accident. I remember you from many years ago when you were just starting out, we met on a train in our native north east .. I haven't forgotten (because I was too shy to ask you out) but am sure you have! Sad to say but I don't have any other albums except your first so will have to rectify that. Unfortunately I'm rarely in the UK nowadays but hope I can make it to one of your gigs some time so will keep checking your site..
Great to hear you are in the studio again.
I await the cd "Stage Door Johnies" with antici.........pation. But all good things in life are worth waiting for.
Claire
Yeah I kinda guessed they were bootlegs. Don't matter to me.
Can I be a bit controversial here? I often get quite cross with the record industry (as opposed to the artists and musicians). Yet they go on about downloads from peer-to-peer sites yet do not provide the means for me to purchase the music I want. They go on about how it deprives the artist of their royalties (which is VERY important) yet by denying me access to material they are denying the artist royalties.
I think it is about time there was some mechanism where if a record company refuses to release back catalogue after a period of time then the artist can have them back.
I know there is the 50 year copyright rule (which some big corporate labels are trying to overturn because people like Cliff and Elvis will soon be out of copyright for the early stuff)but I want the music NOW.
So my idea helps me get the music I want and gets the artist exposure and royalties.
Another good thing would be if every record company made their entire back catalogue available online for a reasonable price. Universal have been threatening to do this recently.
I'll stop now - before my spleen explodes or something.
Jeff
Dear Claire,
In the beginning I would like apologise you for my poor English language, because I live in England for 15 months and I still learn this language. Let me try express my impressions during listening your CD “Love in the afternoon”.
I don’t want analyse music, but I must, I need tell you what I see, what I listen and what I feel.
I see beautiful woman, whit amazing, and beautiful libido.
I listen your voice with big pleasure and I would like seeing and listening you in the gig. Inform me please, if you will arrive to Bristol or maybe faster your concert will be in London? Then I will come to this city.
When I listen your voice, I feel like in heaven with beautiful woman in my arms. Your voice flow over my body, drift to my brain and make me happy. Amazing!
Thank you Claire.
boss@cdstudio.pl
well arthur I'm glad you like the sound of my libido!! I like your english it's funny and sweet! Seriously,I'm so happy you like the cd. It's always wonderful for me to get feedback from people like yourself.I'm planning a tour next spring.I hope you'll be able to come and see me then.You can always listen to new tracks on Myspace.I'll be putting up a different selection every few weeks
Hi Jeff you have no idea how difficult it is to get masters back from people.I have had three masters lost in the past and I'm about to add to that list as all entreaties to Voiceprint records for the return of the masters of "One House""October" "Abracadabra" "Summer" and "Stage Door" have fallen on deaf ears.It looks like I'm gonna have to take drastic action which is such a drag!
The downloads thing is a godsend for people like me who find it difficult to get stocked in the major music stores.It's definitely on my list to make all my music available thru download from my site as soon as I can.Then you all can have as many or as few tracks as you like and even make up your own "Claire Hamill" compilation.
love
claire
Dear Claire, Hello from another fan from the early days! A singer/guit./songwriter orig. from Boston, MA, USA, moved to Jerusalem in '85. Bought "Stage Door Johnnies" upon release in '74. 14 yrs.old, deep into all music since age 2, & a Kinks fan; 1 chorus of "Oh Daddy" w/Ray Davies on WBCN & I was hooked! I loved the record. I knew what this man meant when he wrote that hearing your voice he feels embraced etc. You have a unique "honey-sweet" timbre & the mixes had a nice intimate, up-close sound w/o reverb that gave the listener a sense of relationship with you. Refreshing to hear, so honest & soulful compared to a lot of the overslick disco-pop of the 70s. Now I must tell you something amazing: My old LP is long gone; played it alot & once lent it to a friend who never returned it (said it got lost - I bet!). In fact, since move here in '85 & slow changeover to CDs via tapes, it's 23 years since I put an LP on a turntable, & app.3 yrs. before this that my 'pal' didn't give back my Claire Hamill LP. Since then, I've been in many & sundry musical settings, from Javanese Gamelan to Punk Rock, Folk, Latin Jazz, Reggae, Blues, "Classic Rock", lone whitey in a Phila.Soul/Funk band, children's records, Jewish/Hasidic music & more! Only got 1st computer in 2002; for decades have been sadly out-of-touch w/your career. Then, to my small studio came an indie CD project for a lady from Liverpool whose vocal tone reminded me of you, only a bit higher range. Thought for a sec., Who does this voice remind me of? It took just a few secs. & suddenly your album started to play back in my mind! (I've got a weird sort of musical recall like an internal CD!) That's why I searched for you today, to tell you that I can STILL HEAR your vocal tone resonating in my mind even though it's over 25 YEARS since I actually heard it! I'm not joking! Please see my next message...!
(Pt.2/2) Dear Claire, Sorry to "hog the blog", but just to show how well I recall your 1st LP after 25 yrs.not hearing it, I'll type you,from memory (this no jive baby!),the words of "Oh Daddy": Just like a flower I am fading away/The doctor comes to see me most ev'ry day/But it don't do me no good...why?/'Cause I'm lonely for you/And if you care for me, you will listen to my plea/Oh Daddy, look what you're doing, look what you're doing to me/Oh Daddy, you & your foolin', think what you're losin'/All the little love I gave you/Is gonna make you feel so awfully blue/When you miss me, & long to kiss me/You'll curse the day that you ever quit me/Oh Daddy, think when you're all alone(?)/I know you are gettin' old/You'll miss the way I make your jelly roll/And Daddy, Daddy, you won't have no Mama at all!
Not too bad for 25 yrs? YOU DONE DONE IT TO ME! Ray D's oldtimey vox there always gave me a chuckle! Found your other albums at Amazon (Is the Japanese CD of S.D.J. also a 'bootleg'? Did you have to make the last edition from an LP? Maybe the masters are hidden deep in a record co.vault?) and looking forward to hearing them all, especially "Voices" which sounds very intriguing! I'd love to send you some songs I've done, maybe you'd wanna sing something I wrote, or maybe I could write or make some tracks for you? If you ever visit Israel, you're invited to come record something "on the house" in the world's smallest studio! Nice to hear you cherish your kids, as I do mine (all 6)! May you always keep singing, and always stay happy & healthy! Thanks for all the joy & beauty you've brought the world with your music!
Sincerely, P.D. Bernstein
Storage Room Sound
lovesong@netvision.net.il
Claire...I have both your konk albums. Was and still am a friend of Ray's. I never asked him though but did he sing any background vocals at all on those records. I don't recall his name being mentioned on the album cover that he had? I have most of my vinal in storeage so I can't get at it to look at it. By the way I saw Mick Avory 2 months ago in in May when he showed up at Ray's Royal Albert gig that I flew over to see...
Frank Lima
Montvale, New jersey
forgot my email address
krankiekat@aol.com
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