Back Home in Coventry
Last week I had the honour to appear in the video for a new song by Coventry chart toppers Lieutenant Pigeon.
The song is entitled ‘Back Home in Coventry’ and is the tale of a someone who once moved away from Coventry and has finally returned and sees just how great a city he has left, and right there and then decides that he will stay here forever.
I was honoured to be playing the guide in the film showing the Pigeon boys (Nigel Fletcher and Rob Woodward) some of their own favourite haunts and iconic local landmarks. The film is brilliantly edited and produced by Bill Boswell and places like 25 Kingsway in the Stoke area of the city where Pigeon recorded their number one single ‘Mouldy Old Dough’ is of course featured.
The Lady Godiva statue and the cathedral are there plus some long gone pubs like the Old Canal Tavern and the Cheylesmore. We even get to pay homage to Abbey Road at the zebra crossing by The Flying Standard (once jewellers shop H Samuel).
We will probably get an official anthem for City of Culture at some point, but it’s great that many local artists are having a go right now (check out Danny Ansell’s superb “A Sky So Blue” off the wonderful Front Room Sessions project).
That and this are both contenders, this track however will appeal to Coventrians who are old enough to know what nostalgia is. Check it out on You Tube, just search for ‘Back Home in Coventry’.
Front Room Sessions a shining light…
If you haven’t checked out the City of Culture 2021 Front Room Sessions yet, then you won’t know that it’s packed with local talent, you won’t know that these musicians have all overcome working remotely, and you won’t realise that their collaborations with visual artists was a massive leap of faith for all the musicians involved.
This is where the creative process of a song is handed over to someone else, someone who will make a visual interpretation of your work in the way they see it.
Scary stuff, but all hail these amazing people that let this happen, and the visual artists that took their ideas to another level.
There is not a bad track on this album.
Coventry should be mighty proud that the calibre of musicianship is on here. I listen to local music all the time, but this project genuinely blew me away.
These tracks were all made in Covid-isolation and remotely, although the results feel empowered and dynamic, never claustrophobic or remote.
It would be unfair for me to pick tracks from this, as I said, it’s a superb album from start to finish.
Furthermore, its spread of genres (musically and visually) is a musical microcosm of this great multicultural and multitalented city of ours.
These artists have all worked so very hard in producing something special. The least you can do is have a listen.
