17:40 PM Monday, 24/08/2026

Track notes:

This album [1 - Pieces Of Eight] essentially does three things:

1) It chronicles some of my earliest song lyrics and musical collaborations from 1980 and 1981 (With Phil Andrews, in particular, who came up with the chords in most cases).

2) It finally completes or augments some tracks I considered incomplete in 2026.

3) This album uses Suno AI, as I have, since January 2026, to "glue" new 2026 parts to the 1980-1981 parts, using Suno to generate chord progressions and new arrangements specified by using "Style Prompts", engineered by myself, or researched using Google, Gemini or ChatGPT (i.e. Further AI platforms). In some cases, the original stereo or 4 track cassette demos recorded in the early 1980's were used as a template and a starting point for further development.

4) In all cases, the lyrics are my own (With the first two verses of Forever/Together provided by Clive Earess in 1980, and a few early songs contributed by Murray and John). Although I have experimented with AI generated lyrics, none have been used on this album. I am not that keen on them to be honest. They seem a bit random and don't make a lot of sense. Some are better than others, but I often end up thinking "WTF?".

5) Disclosure: Images and audio on this site are AI generated and will have been created by Suno AI (Images and Audio) or ChatGPT (Images only).

1. "Send Me Away" deals with a young man disillusioned with college (Guess who). It was inspired by the Musical Tommy and The Who to some extent. This was probably our most practiced home baked track.

2. "Trick of the Trade" is a laid back love song lends itself to being pop reggae and The Police are influences of the original track. Another often played track. I modified the choruses and some of the verses slightly over the years. This is pure reggae, hence "Reggie B. Side & The Cavaliers" are the house AI band for this one.

3. "For Your Love" didn't get rehearsed as much as the others, if at all. It may be the last song of this batch, dated August 1983, post Assassin, Ego and Swift. I went for a prog rock flavour with this one. A bit of Foreigner and maybe even Van Halen. A guy waiting for a phone call from a girl he admires. For a week. And it's killing him. I like this track.

4. "Forever". Another love song, originally called "Together" and penned by Clive Earess, a singer we auditioned in the early 1980's. I added a chorus and a couple of extra verses to this one.

5. "Too Much". A difficult relationship results in this appeal to end it. Again, Reggae treatment seems to work for this one. We used to do it as an instrumental, probably I was not confident to both play drums and sing the main vocal for this one.

6. "Second Chance" is about a young songwriter trying to figure out how to break with convention and expectation and "make it in the music business", without having a clue how to go about it. It chronicles how he might actually make it and live his dreams.

7. "Nothing (The Void)" is about an alien menace invading the Earth and deciding to eliminate humanity. Fortunately for us, a friendly spirit awakens and decides to intervene. In 2026, I felt that the Celtic Goddess Aine would be the one who opposes the Master in his destruction of humanity. It promotes the idea that love is stronger than hate.

8. "Epic" was originally called "Phil's Latest Epic" and feels like it can be viewed as a sequel to the previous song, Nothing (The Void). After Earth is saved, the survivors can look out on the horizon and know they'll be okay. At least whilst the spirit of love continues to look after them. It's also a celebration of nature and the seasons.

Neil Paddock 19:32 PM 24/08/2026