Clive Nolan - Skeletons In The Cupboard

A few years ago Clive went through his drawers and found a lot of stuff that could be interesting to bring out on CD. It was more than he expected. That’s why this album is called: Skeletons In The Cupboard, Archive Vol: One. So I guess there’s more to come…

The way I see it this is a very personal collection. All kinds of bands in which Clive played and wrote songs for are on this CD. The quality of the recordings isn’t always that great. But this is not so strange if you realise that some of these recordings are more than ten years old and sometimes the only available recording was on a cassette!

In the booklet too you discover how personal this album is. It looks like Clive’s photo album with his own notes in it. He wrote a little something about every track, when it was recorded and where, things like that. Under the header ‘Anorak Alert’ he wrote some funny trivia about every song. These facts can be quite hilarious sometimes, like the story about Clive’s cat Chekov’s appearance on the track The Wistleblower by Shadowland!

The first song on the album is Walk On Water. Clive sings and plays keyboards (obviously he plays those on every track on this disc), Karl Groom plays guitar and bass and Fudge Smith (Pendragon) plays drums. This track is the bridge between Clive’s time with The Cast and the start of Shadowland.

Some of the tracks never appeared on an album before, like the next two tracks by Partners In Crime, with Clive on keyboards and backing vocals, Andy Smith on vocals and Melanie Reypert on backing vocals. These songs sound to me like real ‘eighties songs’. I like the parts with backing vocals by Clive and Melanie. I think Andy has a very nice voice to listen to.

A very special track, I think, is Old Priest Suite. This is a piece of film music written for the film Old Priest. According to the ‘Anorak Alert’, Clive actually appeared in this film in the role of a cowboy! I wonder if we can rent this film on video/DVD!

Then there’s a track called Beauty And The Beast sung by Tracy Hitchings and with Ian Salmon on bass! I really like Tracy’s voice and it’s a nice song, so for me it’s a joy listening to this track, represented in a "disco version" here.

The next two songs will sound familiar to many, because they are early demos of songs by Shadowland. It is nice to hear Jigsaw and The Wistleblower in their early stages.

The song In My Heart is sung by Tina Riley. It is one of the two demos that Clive wrote for her. After this Tina has sung some backing vocals for Pendragon. I like this song. It has a catchy chorus, with Clive’s backing vocals and Karl Groom plays a good guitar solo.

The last track is called Quantum Leap by Nolan & Orford. You’ll hear Clive and Martin Orford on keyboards, John Jowitt on bass, Dave Wagstaffe on drums and Karl Groom and Peter Gee on guitars. As you can imagine keyboards have a leading role in this instrumental track, it rocks! Those familiar with Landmarq will recognise it from this band’s debut album Solitary Witness on which Clive collaborated.

I think that this is a very interesting album if you like Clive’s musical work or if you want to find out more about his musical history. I think you will also have a good time reading the booklet, I sure had! I’m looking forward to hear what Clive has selected for the other three or four archive CD’s.

By: Mijke Campschroer