14/11: CHARLIE ON NEW RAMONAS RELEASE
A couple of weeks ago, Charlie was back in the studio, to add some harmonica to a new recording by The Ramonas.
Subs fans will recall that Charlie has previously recorded a couple of harmonica solos for The Ramonas which appeared on their first two LPs, their debut 'First World Problems' and the follow up 'Acoustic Problems', and this time around it is for a special "...remote lockdown video" that the band have all recorded separately at home.
The song is called From Belgium With Love and it is a reworking of a track that appeared on their acoustic album.
The band will be releasing the video as well as a bandcamp download of the track on 4th December.
Recorded at Ali Gavan’s Brighton Road Recording Studios where Charlie's forthcoming new single on Time & Matter was cut, Ramonas bassist Vicky Smith - who played bass on one of Charlie's new tracks as well as on his second solo album 'Little Black Crow', told T&M that...
"I think we'd all say we were really excited to have Charlie guest on the track, we love his enthusiasm for new music and the harmonica was perfect for this track..."
https://theramonas.bandcamp.com/
http://ramonas.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/91357070682
13/11: NEW CHARLIE HARPER 7" UPDATE
As recently reported, Time & Matter Records will be releasing a brand-new Charlie Harper 7” single in the new year. Originally the duo of tracks were recorded for release with Charlie’s autobiography ‘An Anarchy Of Demons’, to be published by Rare Bird Books in LA, USA, however, due to publishing delays, Charlie offered the tracks to Time & Matter who obviously jumped at the chance of releasing them.
Billed as CHARLIE HARPER & THE SUB MACHINE, this gloriously fab new 7” single (T&M 041) will be a double A-sided offering on coloured vinyl, the two tracks being titled ‘Panic’ and ‘Post War Punks’.
Recorded, produced, engineered and mixed earlier this year at joint-owner’s Ali Gavan’s Brighton Road Recording Studios in Newtimber, West Sussex, the ‘Sub Machine’ musicians comprises brothers Marlon and Bram Payne alongside Marley Perez, who is Charlie Harper's grandson. That trio of youngsters were part of the excellent early-teen punk band from Brighton called A-M-I who released an album with Time & Matter back in 2014. Bram however, couldn’t make the recording of ‘Panic’, so Victoria Smith from the brilliant Ramonas played bass on that track.
‘Panic’ is a blistering battle cry for the world’s population to fully wake up to the ever-frightening global climate crisis and was inspired by the admirable and inspirational 17-year-old Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg. The equally impressive song ‘Post War Punks’ provides intriguing light relief on the other side, which Charlie describes as “a real surreal song”, this time the inspiration came via Marlon and Bram, who told Charlie about their mum having had a recent dream about “post-punk sandwiches”!
In typical Harper style, Charlie thought this was a great idea to base a song on, and the resulting recording will have you all singing along with the surreal chorus when you hear it.
Time & Matter are currently working on the sleeve artwork, from a recent photographic session by David Apps, and the single will boast a double sided illustrated inner sleeve with the song lyrics. The release will also come with a download code for the digitally minded.
These new solo recordings are something that Charlie is obviously very proud of, as he also revealed to T&M that he “would love to record an album” as Charlie Harper & the Sub Machine at some point post-pandemic.
Time & Matter will keep you up-to-date with the single’s production progress leading up to it being made available to pre-order on both our webstore platforms.
