Music - part 1

last updated April 23rd 2011

My music	James's home page
Band line-ups
Recordings	Grutness index page
Recent and future work

My music

For many years I have written and performed my own music. I mainly play guitar, but also play bass, keyboards and diverse other instruments. During the late 1980s and early 1990s I was in various bands: the Kaftans, the Moomins, Preemptive Sheep, and the Beaker People. Finally, in the mid 1990s I summoned up the courage to go solo.

Lyrics are very important to my music. I'm not convinced that separating the music and words is a good idea, but I have put some of my lyrics on this site. I have also occasionally been coerced into my other, more disreputable area of songwriting, the filk or parody song. I don't intend to talk about that here, but I have put some of my filk lyrics on this site as well.

As oif April 2011, I am again active musically after a few years hiatus. I am currently working on songs which I hope will see the light of day as a second solo album, and my first solo album, Partial rapture theory will shortly be available via iTunes. (watch this space!)

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Band line-ups

The Kaftans:
1st line-up - Alastair Agnew (guitar/vocals); James Dignan (guitar/vocals); Derek Bell (bass); Riki Agnew (drums).
2nd line-up - Alastair (guitar/vocals); James (guitar/vocals); Derek (bass); Nick Haywood (drums).
3rd line-up - James (guitar/vocals); Derek (bass/vocals); Nick (drums).

The Moomins:
1st line-up - James (guitar/vocals); Derek (bass/vocals); Evan McCarthy (guitar); John Matravers (drums).
2nd line-up - James (guitar/vocals); Derek (bass/vocals); Evan (guitar); John (drums); Renee Pearson (saxophone/flute).

Photo shows (back) James, Renee, John; (front) Evan, Derek.

The Beaker People:
Officially James, Sam Campbell, Colin Edwards (instrument roles varied). In practice, however, The Beaker People was James Dignan solo, but too shy to say so. "Colin Edwards" is a pseudonym I have used occasionally on the radio, and "Sam Campbell" is a toy labrador (who may or may not grace the cover of a planned future album).

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Recordings

The Kaftans:

No official recordings (although I still have some horrible old tapes of our practices).

The Moomins:

Songs for Swinging Yuppies (1989, Miscreant Tapes). Cassette only.

Tracks: Mines of wisdom *; Had to say #; Parallel universe *; Secret room *; Turtle song #; Sting in the scorpion's tail *; Two wires touching *; Mervyn (the 3/4 song) #; Everything you dream *; Won't be long #; Watching the island *; A sense of doubt #, Dream rain *; Caminine jin +.

Writers: * James Dignan; # Derek Bell; + Evan McCarthy. 50-second mp3 extracts from two of the tracks can be heard by clicking on the titles above. (warning - sound quality is not too good!). All of my lyrics from this cassette can be found here.

Preemptive Sheep (and their precursors, The Mysterons):

Basically a parody band. Several demos were played on local college radio, but nothing was released. Notable among these was the garage thrash Thunderbirds are go!, which still exists in demo form.

The Beaker People:

Track: Serpent at the gates of wisdom released on a CD tribute to the music of Robyn Hitchcock called Glass Flesh (Infinity Chair, 1996). This CD is a 'best of' from an on-going tribute series, which also contains The Beaker People's performance of the Robyn Hitchcock song Ride.

A companion series of cassettes to Glass Flesh called Fish Gloss contains original works by the artists involved in the Glass Flesh project. This series contains the Moomins track Mines of wisdom and Sting in the scorpion's tail, and my solo tracks Cold July rain and Time after time after time.

The nice folks involved with the Glass Flesh project interviewed me a few years back. That interview can be seen here.

Solo, as James Dignan:

Partial Rapture Theory (1996, Grutness) Originally released only in Cassette form, this has since been available in (hand-pressed) CD format and will be available on iTunes very shortly. Excerpts from several of the tracks can be heard via the links below.

Tracks: Down; Each an explorer!; Patch (How many times?); Omens on the run; Celia II; Bear town; Cold July rain; St. Leonards; Time after time after time; Taking time; 4J (If I only could); Outram no. 1; Outram (reproach).

All tracks written by James Dignan. 50-second mp3 extracts from three of the tracks can be heard by clicking on the titles above. All of the lyrics from this album can be found here.

Track: Into my hands released on cassette tribute to Australian band The Church, A Loveletter to Sydney (Seance Tapes, 1998).

Track: You're In A Bad Way (a St. Etienne cover), released via the 'net as part of a project run by Rex Broome in early 2011. Rex also covered a version of my song Cold July rain as part of the same project.

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Recent work

I have numerous demo tracks recorded, and an currently working on them in order to put our a second album, tentatively titled His Monster's Voice. At the moment, a possible tracklist will contain many of the following titles: Don't you see; The outside; She doesn't have to say what's on her mind; Monochrome yellow; Listening to the world; Nevertown; Big man; Gone too soon; Mines of wisdom; Earthspace; Great sun jester+; Unaware; Fay; On my way home; Cathy (So much to say); In the morning light;Albany Street; I know the felt of Judas; One more glass; Some kind of destiny; A month of Sundays #; You're in a bad way§.

All of these songs are written by James Dignan except + Moorcock/Trivers/Bloom and # Kilbey § Stanley/Wiggs/Cracknell.

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