The Songs
La Grande Vadrouille – literally the big jaunt – is my collection of songs. The collection started life as an album entitled Old Enough to Know Better. It was my attempt to realise my ambition to create a whole album of my own songs and perhaps a few arrangements of my own favourites.
It all started with Too Young, memories of my first love as a child when I lived in the south of England, through numerous examples of my love affair with France and French music, via I love you I really do; written about Katie as she prepared to travel the world and then right up to date with Sometimes;
So why the desire to write produce an album?
Well my motives couldn’t be less pretentious. It’s just a bit of fun and born out of two things – frustration from my guitar teacher, the fantastically patient Ian Lang, because I just wouldn’t practice and secondly a wealth of material that had built up over the years of ‘not practicing’.
So it remains a work in process and always room for improvement but a good learning experience. Never destined to be best seller but it is something I have achieved and become better and more accomplished at as a result.
Making anything is good, but making music is just good fun and when I first heard Too Young coming from the speakers in a store in Lyon and heard people singing along in their cars I realised that if other people like what you make then so much the better.
That is all it is – a big jaunt!
