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        Pete Atkin >> Music >> The Luck of the Draw - Scrapbooks at the ready
        
(Message started by: Pete Atkin on Today at 12:35)

Title: The Luck of the Draw - Scrapbooks at the ready
Post by Pete Atkin on Today at 12:35

OK, gang - The brand new issue of Shindig! Magazine includes the following outstandingly perceptive review of the new album. If you shell out for the actual print version, you'll also be blessed with a BIG picture of - hem hem - myself!

Pete Aticin revisits a bulging songbook without his partner for the first time
PHOTO: STEVE ULLATHORNE
Returning Legends
PETE ATKIN
The Luck Of The Draw
****
HILLSIDE MUSIC CD
The songs of Pete
Atkin and Clive James were never destined to achieve mass commercial
appeal. James wrote lyrics that were too cerebral, Atkin setting them to music that moved the heart more than the foot. Theirs is nonetheless a brilliant, unique body of work - songs that amuse, sadden and inspire.
It's a partnership that persists despite the death of James in 2019. Here Atkin returns to their vast songbook accompanied by a stellar band of jazz musicians led by pianist Simon Wallace.
There's a stateliness to the new version of the 1970 title track, a lively swing to '1 Wouldn't Hear A Word Against The Spring', a languid air to 'The Party's Moving On'.
Atkin sings in a warmly intimate voice lightly weathered by age. While he's previously recorded most of the material himself, the album also features his own reading of the lovely Winter Kept Us Warm' written for Julie Covington. And then there's the closing 'Together At Last', a witty and poignant self-reflection on creative collaboration and close friendshio.
Clive Webb

Title: Re: The Luck of the Draw - Scrapbooks at the ready
Post by Avner Greenberg on 13.08.23 at 16:30

So the big day is upon us, how very exciting.
Congrats to Pete and the band and vey best wishes for the launch of TLOTD.
Long may this legend return to us.

Title: Re: The Luck of the Draw - Scrapbooks at the ready
Post by Stradageek on 14.08.23 at 19:14

Just spun the new CD, didn't think 'Empty Table' and 'Eye of the Universe' (two of my favourites) could be improved upon - shows how much I know; and finally having the update that 'Have You Got a Biro' was always crying out for is just brilliant.

Love the CD,

As you often say Pete, keep on keeping on :)

PS when will those otherwise canny Bristolians (my daughter having just moved there) honour you with a gig spot?

Title: Re: The Luck of the Draw - Scrapbooks at the ready
Post by S J Birkill on 25.08.23 at 20:38

Nice review by Clive Davis in the Times. Starts like this -- you need to throw money to go any further... :(

https://www.peteatkin.com/images/TLOTD - Times review.jpg

Title: Re: The Luck of the Draw - Scrapbooks at the ready
Post by S J Birkill on 25.08.23 at 21:56

Clive Davis's Times review continues:

"Cocking a snook at the Grim Reaper, Atkin rounds off this set with Together at Last, a number written for the duo's live show that had never previously been recorded. How typical that the tongue-in-cheek list of legendary partnerships of yesteryear should include that Aussie tennis pairing of Ken Rosewall and Lew Hoad, not to mention the film legends Carole Lombard and Clark Gable.

"James's passion for the movies resurfaces in a new version of Screen-Freak, constructed around a virtuoso string of movie references. Atkin's voice, unassuming as ever, carries it off with aplomb. If James was a master of pastiche, there's no mistaking the emotional intensity of The Trophies of My Lovers Gone, a ballad that takes its inspiration from a Shakespeare sonnet. What a joy, too, to hear Atkins [sic] unearth The Party's Moving On, a song in which you can almost taste the odour of spent cigarettes. (Hillside Music)"
Released on September 1

[I suspect Davis's original copy flowed rather better (and longer) than this -- smacks of heavy sub-editing... SJB]

Title: Re: The Luck of the Draw - Scrapbooks at the ready
Post by Avner Greenberg on 03.09.23 at 10:17

Many thanks for these snippets Steve. Good to know that The Times has noted the launch of the new album.
I eagerly await a report on last night's event. Presumably you were there Kevin?