News and Forthcoming Gigs!
The "Demos & Rarities 2" CD is now finally out! Yes, ladies and gents, your eyes aren't failing you, it's out and can be ordered through the online shop by clicking on the image below which will transport you straight there:
TMTCH will continue to work on their new album and you can find a short story and some lyric snippets at their official website and download a demo version of "The Man In The Subway" here!
The Rising Road – Paul's debut solo album
Hi folks, well my debut solo album is all done and being pressed up at the factory. In the end I called it ‘The Rising Road’ after one of the tracks. The full track listing is:
- Brixton Hill
- My Side of the Bed
- Lead Me To The Gallows
- Rising Road
- Whisky and Wine
- Winter Wind
- Red Paint, Blue Powder
- Cocaine Housewife
- The Snow Is Falling
- More Love
- (They Call The Wind) Maria
All tracks are by me except ‘Maria’, which is a take on the old Lerner/Lowe classic. You can hear ‘My Side of the Bed’ on the sample section of the TMTCH website.
So I am now taking pre-orders. There are 2 ways to do this at the moment.
Firstly direct to me – a cheque for £11 (inc post/packaging) made out to Paul Simmonds – see blog for address!
Secondly, via PayPal on the TMTCH web site. Just go to the mail order page.
Delivery will be around the end of June.
The first 150 orders will also get a free spoken word download called ‘His Heart Danced With The Men At The Bar’ – a 7 minute comedic short story about a night in a karaoke bar. Just specify whether you want it on CD-R with the album or as mp3 to your email.
Down the line I will be making the album available for download on various sites and, of course, it will be sold at gigs.
All feedback very welcome…
Paul Simmonds
TMTCH are now on iTunes!
Four of the Men They Couldn't Hang albums are now available on iTunes, these are:
* How Green Is The Valley
* Waiting For Bonaparte
* The Domino Club
* The Cherry Red Jukebox
The following are also available for download:
TMTCH "The Cherry Red Jukebox"
Odgers & Simmonds "Baby Fishlips"
Biography
The Men They Couldn't Hang were officially formed in early 1984. The founding members were Phil "Swill" Odgers (vocals, guitar), Paul Simmonds (guitar, bouzouki, keyboards) and Jon Odgers (drums) from punk-pop band "Catch 22" with Shanne Bradley (bass, flute - former member of Shane MacGowan's band "The Nips") and Stefan Cush (vocals, guitar), whom they met while busking in West London.
Shanne in 1985 - Christmas party in Leeds.
photo by Mo Dixon - thanks a lot for this great pic!
TMTCH appeared at a St Patrick's Day festival in 1984 and were also asked to play at a benefit gig for the striking miners. Paul Simmonds wrote the song "Shirt Of Blue" on the way to the gig when he watched a whole police force gathering.
The Men's first big hit was their cover version of Eric Bogle's "Green Fields Of France", which ended up in John Peel's Festive Fifties two years running!
In 1985 they released their first album "Night Of A Thousand Candles", closely followed by "How Green Is The Valley" in 1986. Among the TMTCH fans, these two album remain the most popular due to now classic Men songs like "Ironmasters", "Ghosts Of Cable Street" and "Shirt Of Blue".
Shanne Bradley left in 1987 and was replaced by Ricky McGuire, a former member of punk band the UK Subs.
The third album "Waiting For Bonaparte", released in 1988, was again bursting with great songs such as "The Colours", "Smugglers" and "Bounty Hunter", which became live favourites.
By now they had attracted the attention of the rest of Europe and by the time they released their album "Silvertown" in 1989, they were asked to play at a big festival in Estonia in front of thousands of people.
Their fifth album "Domino Club" released in 1991 showed a darker mood with the songs "Family Way" and "Great Expectations", while the single "The Lion And The Unicorn" was very reminiscent of their first three albums.
By this time cracks and uncertainty about the way forward started to show in the band's makeup and they decided to call it a day. A Farewell Tour produced the live recording "Alive, Alive-O" and filming "The Shooting" at the Town and Country Club in London (now known as The Forum).
Paul and Swill, together with Paul's equally talented brother Neil Simmonds, started a new project called Liberty Cage while Cush and Ricky played and toured extensively with Folkfinger. Jon Odgers meanwhile decided to settle down and worked for Northern Irish noise merchants Therapy? as a drum technician.
Cush and Shanne at the Mean Fiddler, London in 1994
many thanks to Sean Taylor for the photo!
By 1996 they were missing the thrills of working together as TMTCH too much and duly reformed the band after playing the occasional gig together.
They released the album "Never Born To Follow" and the EP "Six Pack" in 1996 and 1997 respectively and toured Germany with their new sound less mandolin, bouzouki and 12-string guitar which Paul used to play.
In 1997 they were invited to play in Egypt. Click here to read Swill's report on this rather unusual tour.
Two compilation albums of their best songs were released in 1998, which were followed in 2003 by "Cherry Red Jukebox", an album with all new songs written by Paul Simmonds.
Last year TMTCH have played an acoustic gig at the St Patrick's Day festivities organised by the Mayor of London, where Paul decided to pick up the mandolin again. Having gotten the taste for playing acoustic shows, they are planning on more as well as having the recording studio booked to record new songs and adding old ones in acoustic version for a brand new album. Watch this space for more news soon!
An extensive discography can be found at their Official Website.
To order TMTCH and related goodies, please follow this link to their online merchandise shop.
More TMTCH stuff is available at Barn End Video.
Other TMTCH links:
official TMTCH band website with news, downloads and lots of info
join the TMTCH mailing list at Yahoo Groups!
TMTCH page at Tagworld.com gig listings with more extensive info and a music player with an endless supply of songs!
TMTCH at YouTube add some videos to your profile!
TMTCH at Wikipedia biography
TMTCH discography
TMTCH at Last.fm get "scrobbling"!
Paul Simmonds' MySpace page with new demo songs from TMTCH's main songwriter!
Swill and the Swaggerband at MySpace
Swill and the Swaggerband at Last.fm more scrobbling to get Swill played!
Liberty Cage at MySpace
Have we missed out anything??? If you know something we don't, drop us a line!
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