NUMBERS

Well, obviously it’s a pun!  I wanted to say something about numbers; seven, for instance, or twenty-five or eighteen or nine….Well, fourteen, actually.  But also we refer to songs and pieces of music as numbers.  So that’s the pun.  They say that maths and music go together.  Jel was very good at maths at school and went on to become not only an excellent musician but also a real economist!  And they certainly did go together with me - although, unlike Jel, I was terrible at maths, so it worked a bit differently.  I once asked a question in class.  Sir, what are logarithms?  The teacher, who l liked because he taught Latin and I liked Latin, suddenly looked rather panicky and said, Hickson (yes, Hickson, it was that sort of school), Hickson, you’re in the D set.  I could answer your question and I think I could eventually make you understand, but you have your exams in less than six months, and I don’t think there’ll be time.  Just keep doing what I tell you and you might just scrape a pass.  

I didn’t….I scraped a fail.

The thing is if you don’t understand something you get bored.  And when I was bored I used to fantasize about playing music.  The most popular beat at the time was known as The Liverpool Beat, used by all the groups from….well, Liverpool.  It was in 4/4 time, four square, boom bang boom-boom bang, you know what I mean.  And that’s where I learned to drum - in maths lessons, at the back of the class, tapping softly with hands and feet, class after class, week after week, until it was second nature.  Later on, I used to hang around the school groups as they practised.  One time, after the practice was over, I sat down behind the drums and played the beat I knew.  I’d never been anywhere near a real drum kit before.  The leader of the group, Tim Cansfield, looked up and said, You’re better than Lister (yes, Lister, it was that sort of school), you should be our drummer.  The fact that Lister was being sacked and it was Lister’s own kit didn’t occur to anyone to be a problem.  I started to practise with them and eventually, after leaving school, we played at a couple of parties in London.  I was fine until we ventured into 3/4 time or a shuffle beat, which my right hand found difficult.  I didn’t last long as a serious drummer, but Tim made a very successful career in music, mainly as a session musician, the guitarist of choice for many, including The Bee Gees at one stage.

STUDIO DIARY

It’s May 2025.  I’d aimed to finish all the music for the new album by the end of the month, more or less three years since the release of In a 3-Some, and with These are the Things, the opening track in the can, everything is on schedule.  But it’s only 13 tracks, and I’d like 14, so Lottie and I decide to write another number.  What about a reprise of These are the Things, to book-end the whole album, as though the opening number is a list of things coming up, and the reprise a sort of epilogue or conclusion at the end?  Brilliant!  It’ll look like we had it all worked out from the beginning!!  A concept album (oh yes, I was there in the 70s), although in this case, of course, no concept.  So we do it, Keith Richards-type guitars from me, ghostly oohs from Lottie and Mick with sax parts from him too and Avvon going a little

bit bonkers on the drums (More like that, he says when I ask him what I should write next).  It’s finished before the end of the month.  The album’s done.  In the Company of Others.  Now for admin and art work with Ellen for CDs and distributing to streaming platforms and then….who knows?

New Album Cover

Back to numbers.  Why fourteen?  It’s not a magical number like three or seven are supposed to be (my birthday is 7th March - say no more) but it is important.  In the old days, most pop songs lasted about three minutes.  A vinyl long-player had total space of about 45 minutes.  This, including the short silences between tracks, would allow 7 three-minute pieces on each side - a total of 14.  In the Company of Others is 14 tracks.