Muskie Paul's "See Ya Later" party

The Astor Theatre, Deal
29th November, 2012

Paul Clifford and family are heading back to Canada, which is a shame for all of us here in East Kent who've been lucky enough to get to know them, and jam with Paul. The unique Muskie Studios (source of much musical wonderment) has been packed up and shipped out to the Great White North. Random Article sessions won't be the same without him :(

A lot of great music that night, most (but not all) featuring Paul either on drums or guitar. Highlights included Will and Natasha playing a simple, tender love song he wrote for her last Christmas (and recorded at Paul's), then the rest of Cocos Lovers playing (minus Nicola, but reunited with James back behind the drums) a couple of Billy's songs..."Barcelona" was as powerful as I've ever heard them...AND Paul's version of the much-overlooked latter-day Neil Young classic "Piece Of Crap" (backed up very effectively by Phil, Dave and James, rocking out like their lives depended on it).

Miriam (violin) and I (saz) played along with "Walter", a song from Paul's first solo album Rootballs. We'd never played it before, but it worked pretty well. There's a little bit of that in the video. I even got a muffled recording of it from my Zoom H2 which was switched on, but left forgotten in my pocket...this also recorded me suddenly falling on my face in the street while running for the last train (my bootlaces got tangled — amazingly saz and self survived unscathed), something whihi may surface one day.

All best wishes to Paul, Anne and Gavin and their new life on Manatoulin Island, Ontario. A "goodbye" party wasn't quite the right vibe, so this was a "see ya later" party...and I'm already looking forward to visiting them out there.

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P.S. I've mentioned it before, but for those of you who haven't been paying attention, Paul played on one of my favourite albums, the Be Good Tanyas' Blue Horse, back in 2000 when he was drumming with them. It's so nice to listen to this now and imagine him behind the kit in the studio in Seattle, check it out: