Over the Moon by David Essex

Author:David Essex
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780753547632
Publisher: Ebury Publishing

12

FAIRGROUND ATTRACTIONS

AT LEAST ONE good thing came out of my Los Angeles trip. While in the City of Angels, another song had come to me from nowhere, almost fully formed: a simple, upbeat little number called ‘Hold Me Close’, further proof of my theory that the catchiest, most successful tunes arrive via inspiration, not perspiration.

It got me off to another good start with the writing of my third album. The 1970s were the days when record companies expected their main artists to produce an album every year, not one every two or three years as is the case nowadays, and CBS were keen to move quickly to capitalise on the success of David Essex and its three hit singles.

For the concept behind the album, I went back to the future – to the lure of the fairground, and my gypsy roots. Travelling fairs have always excited me, ever since I worked on the funfair in Canning Town in my early teens, and I guess That’ll Be the Day had brought that lifestyle to the front of my mind again.

Even as a kid, I was aware that fairs had a unique glamour and sense of danger. I loved the way that the fun and frivolity of the rides and candyfloss were delivered with an edginess that hinted at an undercurrent of violence in the rough-and-ready workers and the loud rock ’n’ roll music. Even the smell of fairs had a unique, heady allure.

The album was to be called All the Fun of the Fair, and the opening track, of the same name, set the scene:

Roll on up, see the main attraction,

Get your money ready to step inside…

Unusually, I was able fully to concentrate on All the Fun of the Fair without having to juggle the commitments of a film or a theatre production at the same time, and the album was a joy to record. Jeff and I were on the same wavelength, the band were tight from spending months playing together, and we brought in Liverpool soul band the Real Thing to add some rich, honeyed backing vocals.

Jeff and I might have loved making the album but we were not working as quickly as CBS wanted and their delivery dead-line passed. Eventually the record company lost patience and fixed a date for the playback for executives who were flown in from all corners of the globe.

It’s a sign of how tardy we were that we had to keep the CBS big cheeses waiting in the studio reception for an hour and a half as we finished off the last track, ‘Hold Me Close’. I only had time for two vocal takes and Jeff had to speed-mix it in thirty minutes, so it was kind of ironic that it went on to be such a big hit for me.

Record-label album playbacks are always fraught affairs, with all the yes-men and lesser executives trying to gauge the mood of the big boss man before deciding how to react themselves. The CBS head honcho enjoyed hearing All the Fun of the Fair so we were good to go.

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