In 2009, Glaswegian Allan Watson, singer/songwriter and folk/rock guitarist, collaborated with Phil Rickman, author of the world-wide best-selling Merrily Watkins series of paranormal/murder mystery novels to bring to musical life, one of the main characters in Phil Rickman’s books, Lol Robinson. I love listening to Phil Rickman’s books on audio and, being a folksy kind of guitar player myself, I contacted Phil to ask if he had any more information about Lol. He told me what they were up to and put me in touch with Allan. I pestered Allan for the chords to the songs on the ensuing CD, “Songs From Lucy’s Cottage” and I eventually managed to play with Allan/Lol and members of his band Hazey Jane II at a combined book and CD launch, held at Kinnersley Castle, Herefordshire, in August 2009. Prior to this gig, Allan and I had only ever met via emails. Somewhere during our conversations, Allan had taken a look at my website and was ‘knocked out’ by my paintings – although he was actually a bit more industrially prosaic in his praise! He also said that, now I knew as much about the songs as he did, “why don’t you come along and play with the band”. That wasn’t the sort of invitation that I was going to refuse! It was an experience never to be forgotten and one which will live very long in my memory...pity the guitar I used was only on loan from Allan; it’s a Yamaha Compass Following the publication of ‘The Secrets of Pain’ (a novel in the Merrily Watkins series) by Phil Rickman, in 2011, another combined book signing and music gig was held on 28 August that year, with the chosen venue being Kentchurch Court in Herefordshire. The gig was due to be played outside, as the grounds had a natural ampitheatre, but the weather frowned upon us that day. So we had to scuttle inside, find a suitable stage where we would do no damage and set up the equipment again to play. One of the original members of the band, John Gilmour Smith, couldn’t make the gig. So I was “upgraded” to second guitar, rather than just playing rhythm, as I had done the first time round. This meant playing some extra twiddly bits as well as rhythm, but as I had spent months practising all the songs, I don’t think I let anyone down. An audience of over one hundred people enjoyed a mix of old and new songs by Lol Robinson and Hazey Jane II – which were greeted with thunderous applause – and later, Phil read from, and discussed, his new novel. The sun eventually decided to smile on us, so while Phil was busy with his talk, the rest of the band held an impromtu concert on the tiered lawns outside. Incidentally, Allan Watson, the voice behind Lol Robinson, is now gaining world-wide recognition as an author and you can find his work on Kindle. Watch this space for whatever happens at the next gig, whenever and wherever that might be! In early 2010, I sent Allan an image of one of my latest paintings (in the black and silver series) and he told me, though I thought that he was only joking at the time, that he felt a ‘song coming on’. Well, it did! Allan and Phil, together with the inclusion of a couple of phrases from Phil’s wife Carol, wrote “Feel The Colours Rise”. This song appeared on their new album, with a caption by the song title “for the artist Terry Hopwood-Jackson”, for which I will be eternally grateful and very privileged. Since then, I have painted a new black and silver picture entitled Moon’s Tune, which can be seen on the Gallery page. It’s dedicated to Lol’s acoustic instrumental of the same name. “A Message From The Morning” by Lol Robinson and Hazy Jane II was released in October 2010 on the Thin River Music label. <<< BACK TO MAIN ‘MUSIC’ PAGE