Aled Jones Did Not Sing On The Snowman

Being the start of the Christmas Season, I thought I'd add my single: Christmas Is A Sham (Elegy For Aled Jones) to the blog roll.

The track is available on iTunes

Christmas Is A Sham

Recorded in 2010, this single is perhaps the only festive lamentation for the popular misconception that Aled Jones sang on The Snowman.

It was of course sung by Peter Auty.

Here is the official video:

The track is available on iTunes 

And for those who wish to sing along:

It’s Christmas
Very merry, merry Christmas,
It’s Christmas
Though I wrote this in September
I'm so happy, I could just lie down and cry,

It’s Christmas
Very merry, merry Christmas,
It’s Christmas
I'm so very ecstatic at the prospect that,

I will now drink myself into the joy of alcoholic coma,

The great escape is on TV,
Oh my lord, we're just oh so very happy.
Thank you for Christmas, we are going to celebrate,
By spending money that we don't have, on things that we don't need,
Just like it says in the bible.
God is good, god is great,
Hallelujah

But lock your doors and say your prayers,
Steel thyself for a shock,
For last night I learnt a terrible thing,

Aled Jones did not sing in the snowman,
He just sang it on the album,

And if this is a lie, then what else is a lie,
And if this is not true, then nothing is true,

Christmas is a sham,

Aled Jones thou art a liar,
You believe in god and yet you lie,
I want all the children to awake on Christmas day and sing,

Aled Jones, thou art a liar,
Aled Jones, you lied to me as a child (when you were but a child)
Aled Jones, thou art a liar,
Aled Jones, you lied to me from the past whilst you were still but a child,

But in the spirit of Christmas,
And in the likeness of our lord,
I’d just like to say,

I forgive you,
Aled,
And if I can forgive you Aled, probably god might too,

I forgive you,
Aled,
And if I can forgive you maybe so will the other guy, who isn't as famous as you,

Aled, thou art forgiven.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

 

The imagined village and other stories...

I've been very quiet on here of late and it is due mainly to the rather hectic nature of my projects. At present I'm in the seemingly perpetual state of 'almost finished' on a number of things.

Currently I am going through the extremely mundane task of colour-correcting the latest Shields Of Justice Trailer, which should go live at the end of the year.

That's right! Shields even features a desert scene!

As projects go, Shields Of Justice has been a biggie, draining hundreds, maybe even thousands of man hours.  We should hopefully wrap shooting in the next month or so and with the rough cut already complete, there will no doubt be many hours of colour-correction and foley work ahead...

On top of Shields, the other major projects I have been focusing on, are my book and album.

The Peasant's Songbook, is a thirteen track studio album featuring songs centred around poverty and hardship - two particularly entertaining subjects in my opinion. The album is planned for a late spring release, though planning is often a fool's errand on these things. The quality of production is tenfold improved over The Melody Of Distaste.  The album will be a follow-up to my single Prince Of The Holy Sacrament, though this track will remain exclusive and not be featured on the album.





My follow-up to Cold Highways, is currently being editing after completing the drafting process this year.  Centring around a family living in depression-era America, it thematically flanks my album in some ways.  It's a fairly intense work if i do say so myself, dealing with themes love, morality and the burden of choice.
It's original title 'War Of Ages', will no doubt change before completion. I was always on the fence about it, as the title could potentially seem misleading.  However, I've recently learnt that a metal band has the same name, so I'll try and come up with something more original in good time.

So, what adventures have I been up to since my last posting? Well, in the world of Shields, there have been many as we churned our way through the rather exciting Vietnam War Sequence.

The Bionic Badass - Vladamir Khlor from Shields of Justice.

We also have had a few radio spots as well as a video interview for Devon and Cornwall film:

I myself have also been doing the rounds, musically speaking. I did a solo spot on the regional BBC radio, as well as several local stations such as Phonic and Riviera FM.

One of the more exciting happenings this year was where i was given the opportunity to play with The Imagined village. I must admit, I have rarely been so nervous, but the band were a  lovely bunch and it was an extreme pleasure to meet them all. It was  amazing to sit in on a rehearsal and hear some of their new songs live.





All in all 2012, has been a fun and exciting year. I'm about ready to be done with some of these projects though. I am especially keen to try and find the time to concentrate on some more musical endeavours.

Anyway, as always, check out my website and do chime in to follow me on facebook and twitter for less stilted updates!

Featurettes... Of Justice.

The last few months have been pretty frantic as Shields Of Justice has taken over my life.

We've just finished the first of several shoots for our Vietnam sequence and are lining up the last few shoots that will wrap the project.

One thing we have just put out though is a duo of mini featurettes - basically to identify the difference between Crash and Burn in the film.

Here they be...er, are!

And some outtakes:

I give you...The Demagogues

The Demagogues are live at last - first demo is up and more will be added over the next few weeks.

Enjoy!

Tallamy on the radio.

I recently appeared on Jackson Cooper's Radio show and played a few songs live.

Jackson Cooper and Ben Tallamy

Below is a couple of links to the show and a video that was taken in the studio.

Nick williams is on at 21:00 and Ben Tallamy is on at 1:12 – of course, you’ll want to listen to the whole show!

To find out more, about Jackson Cooper's show, visit this link:

Jackson Cooper's Riviera Showcase

The Demagogues...almost there.

Busy weekend, popped on Riviera FM Friday night for a interview and to play a few tracks live - hopefully should be a recording up at some point.
Was a little tricky playing as my top E broke just before leaving and I had no choice but to put on a B string and tune it up to an E.
The result was a string so taut that it felt like playing on a razor blade - will definitely keep some spare E strings in stock from now on.

Saturday was a fun day of recording some demos with my newest band, The Demagogues.  We'll probably get some better recordings done eventually but with the use of some pretty tasty kit, we got a few nice tracks down.
Just need to have them mixed and mastered now!

On Sunday we had a little photoshoot with Emily Ings, who took some gorgeous photos of the band.

I'll sneak a couple in below but hopefully it shouldn't be long before the band emerges from the shadows at last - watch this space!

The Demagogues by Emily Ings

The Demagogues by Emily Ings

Following Ben Tallamy

Just a quick blog to link to The new Reverbnation page my music is on:

Ben's ReverbNation page

I'm obviously on all the usual stuff as well, such as; Myspace, twitter, facebook, soundcloud etc.

Visit www.bentallamy.com for more on those....

Updates...Of sorts.

Not been much activity...or at least it would seem that way.

Currently approaching the end of several mind boggling projects and am focused on the finish line for the moment.

If all goes according to plan, the summer should see the release of Shields Of Justice, as well as my new new novel.

Also my band, The Demagogues will emerge at last, tackling folk music in its unique way.

I'm also currently trying to work on my new album but along with everything else, I'm making sure not to rush it.

Temptation is to record my twenty minute version of 'The Cruel Sister' and release it as a stop-gap single.

Anyway, as always, check out my website at www.bentallamy.com to see my other projects.

I've also been uploading some demo's of old tracks on Soundcloud and will probably preview some of my new songs there soon:

Latest tracks by Ben tallamy