@Skiffledog

4 years ago

The River Tyne video was nearly 50 years in the making. Back in 1969, I went to California to record my first solo album All In Your Head and ended up living there for several years. About a year into it, I was feeling very homesick. It was Summer, 1970 in Laurel Canyon. I was sitting on the rooftop contemplating where I was in this life. I remember feeling the warm air, looking up at the blue skies, yet longing for the cold winds and dampness of Northeast England when suddenly the words to River Tyne just started flowing. I eventually recorded it onto a cassette tape where it stayed forgotten about until 1998 when my wife Germaine stumbled upon it whilst rifling through my cassette collection. Then, as she tells it, "I knew about the solo LP that he released but the tracks on this cassette were different so I was intrigued. He had never spoken about any other recordings. Hilton wasn't home. I popped it into the cassette player and started listening, and fast forwarding after a verse or so through the first 3 songs; then River Tyne started. Immediately, my ears were fully engaged, I started getting goosebumps, and there I sat mesmerized by the lyrics; the anguish coming through the vocals. The song ended. I ran to the phone, dialed Hilton and excitedly started asking him about this song. He asked me to repeat the title. I rewound the tape and played a bit of it for him over the phone. I stopped it and exclaimed, "You have GOT to record this! This song is fantastic! I feel how much you miss your homeland". He had forgotten all about the song. He came home and played it and it transported him back to 1970 remembering the feelings that led to the creation of the song. "Not bad" he said". I was too busy touring and it went back on the shelf again, collecting dust until our move to the States at the end of 1999 where it sat in a box until 2004. I had stopped touring with the band and my wife suggested I play my acoustic guitar solo. She remembered the tape, dug it out of storage and I listened to it in its entirety. I actually found another song on that tape I liked as well, so I practiced them, wrote a couple more songs, and we booked a studio to record them for a proper release; the CD titled It's Folk 'N' Skiffle, Mate!. For the guitar solo on River Tyne my wife remembered that her brother had a Rotovibe effects pedal and suggested to me that I try it for that, as it produces a watery type effect. I loved it! We have always wanted a video to be made for River Tyne but it never happened until one day in April Germaine said "No more delay. This video must be made". As Germaine continues, "Casey Sattler, from Eclectic Gorilla Studios had talked in the past about filming Hilton so I asked if he was still interested and thankfully, he gave me a resounding yes! When we viewed the video for the first time I was so excited to see the water effects added to the video during the guitar solo! I hadn't mentioned anything to him about it and the fact that he created visually what Hilton and the Rotovibe created audibly must have been kismet! This video was worth the wait!"

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