All  My  Own  Work

As you'll hear,  all of the music tracks for these songs are recorded,  and as described under each individual song,  they all have vocals of one sort or another on them.    Hence,  for these three songs it's just a case of re-recording the vocals and re-mixing the result.

From when it was first written in the mid-1970's,  everyone who's ever sung Battle Hymn has said that it's a hard song to sing,  not in terms of range or complexity,  but simply by virtue of the fact that the choruses have a lot of words in not a lot of space.    For the sake of getting a version of it on to the website,  I did the vocals myself,  and on the strength of that experience  ( and speaking as I do as a non-singer )  I'd have to agree.    Ideally what I'd be looking for on this song is a male vocalist in the style of Greg Lake,  and even better,  in the style of Greg Lake circa mid-seventies,  as opposed to Greg Lake now  ( i.e.  after thirty-odd years of smoking ! ).    Failing that,  Fish  ( Marillion )  would come a pretty close second,  or if Peter Gabriel is reading this,  he too should feel free to respond.    The song was never written with a female vocalist in mind,  but if that's you and you fancy having a go,  and if you've got the kind of voice that shakes tall buildings,  then by all means let me know.

When it came to recording "Promise Me",  Tracy Gilmore  ( the then singer with the band )  made a stirling effort.    However,  she was never truly comfortable with the song,  and like the rest of the material  ( with the exception of  'I Don't Know You Any More' ),  it had never been written with a female vocalist in mind in any case.    If you are a female vocalist,  you'll have to have a pretty strong voice to make a better job of it than Tracy;   but,  if you think you can,  by all means let me know.    Ideally,  though,  I'm looking for a male vocalist for this one,  and since the song was originally conceived,  like  'Battle Hymn' )  in the heady days of E L P's domination of the known universe,  the style I'm after would be much the same as above  -  i.e. a Greg Lake / Fish / Peter Gabriel soundalike.    Seriously,  y'know,  Greg,  if you are reading this ...

After going through many female singers in the recording of the vocal track for this song,  I was finally lucky enough to find Abigail Deacon,  who lent a silky,  romantic quality to the track.    Since I was very happy with the result,  there would obviously be no point in my repeating the process unless the incumbent vocalist had a voice that was significantly different to Abigail's.     At risk of repeating myself,  this song was  ( you won't be at all surprised to read,  by now )  written with a male vocalist in mind in the style of Greg Lake,  and if I was going to re-record the vocal track now,  it would have to either be a male voice in that ilk,  or a powerful female voice that impressed me as much as Eve Robertson  ( "I Don't Know You Any More" )  or Helen Ramsay  ( "Lost In You" ).

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Covered  Up

The songs listed below are in varying states of progress  :  some already have the music tracks fully recorded,  others haven't been started on yet.    The exact state of play of each song is described in the blurb underneath that song.

This was always going to be an interesting one to cover,  inasmuch as there aren't too many male vocalists with a voice like Mickey Dolenz circa 1969.    In all honesty,  I'll be quite impressed if you can even remember what Mickey Dolenz sounded like in 1969.    In the event that you can't  ( and that probably covers 99% of the people who will read this )  I would suggest that if you're even half-interested,  you might want to visit the  'Covered Up'  page and play the track first.    As you'll gather,  Mr. Dolenz had a register that made Sting sound like Lee Marvin  ( and if you don't remember Lee Marvin either,  ask your parents ).    For that reason I would willingly entertain the idea of a female vocalist.    It being the case that this is so far untried,  I'd entertain any offers  :  as with all the other tracks,  I'll know what I think is the right voice when I hear it,  so if you fancy giving it a shot,  contact me.

At the time of writing,  this song hasn't yet been started on,  so none of the music tracks are yet recorded.    Due to other commitments,  I know that I'm not going to be able to get this recorded in the immediate future;   hence,  if this one takes your fancy,  we'd be looking at at least four to eight weeks from the date of agreeing to do it.

As you can hear,  all the music for this is recorded and ready to go,  and so far,  I've had three singers have a shot at it,  one male and two female.    The last of these was Tamiya,  whose version of the song is the one that appears on the  'Covered Up'  page.    Obviously it goes without saying that the song was written for a male vocalist,  and ideally I'm looking for someone who can do a creditable Sting impression.    Having had three goes at this already,  I'm in no hurry to revisit it unless it's with a singer who comes within one percent either way of being exactly what I'm looking for ... and since,  ideally,  I'm looking for someone who sings the song exactly the way Sting does,  that's likely to be a pretty tall order.    If you think I could close my eyes and you could convince me you were Sting,  give me a call;   otherwise,  this probably isn't the song for you.

This is another one that hasn't been started on yet,  and therefore would not be ready for vocals for anywhere from four to eight weeks from the date of agreeing to do the song.    As with the rest of the covers,  in an ideal world I'd like a singer that was as close as possible to Russ Ballard,  who sang the song with Argent originally.    As with the rest of the covers,  I'm well aware that the chances of finding a male vocalist with this register aren't great.    Although I'd prefer a male vocalist,  if possible,  I'd be quite willing to entertain the idea of a female singer  -  if it was a female singer with a strong enough voice.

This almost falls into the same category as  'Every Breath You Take'  inasmuch as the song is recorded and has vocals on it.    The difference between this and  'Every Breath'  is that in this case,  for the sake of getting it finished,  the vocals in question are mine  -  which means that it still needs a proper singer.    However,  as with all of the Police covers,  I'm holding out for someone who sounds enough like Sting to fool his own mother.    So,  as far as this song is concerned,  only male Sting soundalikes  -  and good Sting soundalikes at that  -  need apply.

As regards the singer for this song,  if you've read the information on the two Police covers above,  you'll know by now that I either need Sting himself to sing on this one,  or at least someone who sounds enough like him that you'd need a voiceprint to tell the difference.    The only thing about this song that's different from the other two is that this one doesn't have the music tracks recorded yet,  and as mentioned above,  prior commitments are such that it would be anywhere from four to eight weeks before I was ready to record a vocal track.