"BEFORE HIS RENOWN AS A POP HISTORIAN, HE FIRST SURFACED AS LEADER OF CLAYSON & THE ARGONAUTS, “ONE OF THE MORE EXTRAORDINARY FIGURES TO EMERGE FROM ROCK’N’ROLL” (THE INDEPENDENT). HIS STAGE ACT DEFIES SUCCINCT DESCRIPTION, & FEEDBACK FROM BRITAIN & NORTH AMERICA SUGGESTS HE’S BECOMING MORE THAN A CULT CELEBRITY. HIS LAST ALBUM WAS SOIREE, & THERE IS THE PROMISE OF MORE SURPRISES YET TO COME."

 NINE TIMES TWO: ENGLISH CONTEMPORARY CHANSON

(Irregular Records IRR046)  www.irregularrecords.co.uk

Released in April 2002, this contains two songs each by brand-leaders of an English form of chanson, perhaps the most mature and sophisticated form of popular song.  There is is sufficient interest in the movement to have sustained a seven-week season of contemporary English chanson in London last year. Another run in a larger venue is planned for summer 2002.

The relevance of Nine Times Two  here is that it includes two Clayson tracks:-

(a) 'The Last Show On Earth' Presently a highlight of the Clayson stage act, this doom-laden ballad was composed by Alan shortly after he attended Screaming Lord Sutch's burial at Pinner New Cemetary in July 1999. It is an attempt to come to terms with David's apparent suicide. Three weeks before, David and Alan had lunch together in a cafe near the house in South Harrow where he was found hanged. Things seemed to be looking up for David, with the recent shooting of an ITV breakfast commercial, and a more apposite booking for an optimum moment during a Halloween Feast Of Sixties Trash And Exotica in Las Vegas. Nevertheless, the residual depression which had been exacerbated by his mother's death in 1997 was still evident, but he was trying to be optimistic about the long road ahead - much the same as he'd been the previous November when he and Alan had taped what neither of them knew was to be his farewell interview (published in Record Collector No. 241 in September 1999).   

 'The Last Show On Earth' was recorded in Wreckless Eric's studio in Brighton on a hot day last September. Alan played harmonium, while Eric - who produced the session - contributes guitars, bass, percussion and samplings of his Lordship's voice. 

(b) 'The Moonlight Skater' This is a new version - embracing the twittering of a nightingale and the bridge section heard in recent concerts - of the much-covered composition by Alan Clayson and Jim McCarty. It was recorded at Wired Studios in Reading in July 2001.    

Here's further raw information:-

Produced by Chris Britton and Alan Clayson for Weird City Records
Arranged by John Whittaker and Alan Clayson
Guitars: Alan Clayson and Martin Vincent
'Cellos: John Whittaker
Violins: Andy Taylor
Woodwinds: John Harries
Percussion: Chris Britton

Andy Taylor and John Harries are both former Argonauts. John Whittaker (and 
John Harries) were both key members of Billy and the Conquerors. 

The photograph of Alan in the Nine Times Two booklet was taken by Garry 
Jones in a disused graveyard near Garry's house in Arborfield, Berkshire.

Nine Times Two is available from record shops or via 
Irregular Records,
PO Box 72
Hounslow,
Middlesex TW5 0YB.  E-mail: rjj@irregular.freeserve.co.uk