News Archive

16/01/2012 - Local singer wanted

16/12/2011 - Good cheer

18/04/2011 - New single Summer Days set for release

08/03/2011 - 'Notes From the Incurable' pulled

16/02/2011 - A couple of things

30/01/2011 - One of Chris's Guitars for Sale

20/12/2010 - New interview with Chris online

25/10/2010 - New Interview Online

10/10/2010 - Album Release and Search for Reviews

21/08/2010 - New Release date

17/08/2010 - Album to be released in September

31/07/2010 - New Songs Up On Myspace And Facebook

29/04/2010 - Album moving toward completion

13/01/2010 - Vocalist wanted

07/01/2010 - Stuff and nonsense

22/12/2009 - Well, the weather outside is frightful...

12/10/2009 - Studio Report

10/08/2009 - This is the headline

19/04/2009 - Two new albums written!

26/11/2008 - Just a little update

04/05/2008 - Chris Francis Leaves TEN

26/03/2008 - A lot of fun

19/12/2007 - New Project

23/03/2007 - Live Appearances

02/10/2006 - Welcome to the new site!

NEWS

19/04/2009

Two new albums written!

Hi there. I have now completed all of the writing for two albums (to be recorded under the name SCRATCHED MATINÉE), titled “Notes From The Incurable” and “Lives And Archives”. I am as proud as... in fact, I’m so proud of these albums that I won’t besmirch them with facetious similes. Here are the track listings:

“Notes From The Incurable”

1. Intro
2. The Scarlet Ice
3. Boiling Zone
4. Rewrite
5. This Good Bye
6. Mother Medicine
7. Horror Show
8. Centre Stage
9. Ward 19
10. Hello, Mr Spencer
11. The Artist’s Bride
12. A Gunpowder-paint Tragedy
13. Last Respects
14. Outro

“Lives And Archives”

1. A Lifetime To Prove
2. Ashes, Apes and Dinner Plates
3. Fall On The Flies
4. Lifestyles Of The Kitsch And Shameless
5. Like Mike
6. Little Eye Spy
7. Here’s One For You...
8. Princess Parlour Maid
9. How To Give The Heels Their Own Way
10. Do What You Do Best
11. Insane
12. I Remember Them
13. Lives And Archives

The songs that comprise “Notes From The Incurable” deal with the themes of insanity and death, and the album is quite theatrical. It’s one of those not-quite-concept albums. Think if Edgar Allen Poe, Tim Burton, Jellyfish and Megadeth all bumped into each other in the gents at a pub called “The Dying Jester” and decided they’d do a project together.

“Lives And Archives” is not a concept album at all but the songs generally deal with different perceptions of truth, and as a writing experience they were more personal to me than those on “Notes...” which is entertainment for its own glorious sake, with no (well, hardly any) politics and what-not. Musically, this one’s a little poppier, I’d say – It’s Alternative while also being what Alternative is the alternative to. It’s Heavy Metal but it’s Bubblegum Pop. It doesn’t know whether it’s Pomp or Punk (actually, I can help it out there – it’s neither). Well, quelle surprise! Another artist is trying to suggest their music simply can’t be labelled! Well ok, the following are artists that none of my music sounds anything like: Nickleback, Jack Johnson. It also is most certainly not “good honest rock n’ roll” (as many bands seem to be proudly describing themselves as exponents of at the moment) – It is ostentatious, high risk, ambitious rock foppery!

So anyway, all I’ve got to do now is record the damn things! I will be at it hammer and tongs until they’re done. You may be wondering why I don’t record just one, release that, and see how it goes? Well, that sounds very sane (and that type of thing never was my bag), but the trouble is that, having written these songs, I have a DESPERATE compulsion for them to take on the form in which I can hear them in my head in order that people can hear them and I can move onto the next project, having apparently forgotten that making the last one nearly drove me stark-staring tonto. Unfortunately, my head has decided to play these songs to me with A LOT of instrumentation and fairly complex arrangements, particularly “Notes From...” so I’ve got my work cut out.

Be well, my friends.
Chris