Sequences

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Once described as a ‘melting pot for ideas that wouldn’t fit anywhere else’, Sequences became a fixture in our live set and a firm favourite with our fans. Over the years it has varied in length from just under 10 minutes (SKAN Demos/First Tape Album) to well over 20 minutes, with live versions released on both Live At The Target and Live And Let Live albums.

This, however, is the first time a studio version with vocals has been recorded and, once the opportunity arose to fill this major missing piece of our musical output, we decided to release it to commemorate the centenary of the end of ‘The Great War’, and at the same time raise some funds for the Poppy Appeal.

Although named Sequences, because it was a sequence of musical ideas, we felt it had developed into a coherent and moving piece of instrumental music by 1981, but then Geoff added his lyrics and the piece took on a whole new meaning.

These lyrics tell the story of a young man volunteering for the army at the outbreak of war in 1914 and, having signed up, coming under the scornful gaze of first the Regimental Sergeant Major and then the Colonel of the regiment. After a sleepless night (or two) he finally goes over the top and into battle. The aftermath of the battle sees him surrounded by the casualties of war and questioning what it was all for…

Most of the initial recording was done at Mark’s home studio, as he had written a working version some years ago to help him learn various parts to play live when he joined the band in 2007. We enlisted help from our good friends Dean Baker, who has played keyboards with us live from 2010, and Andy Faulkner who also played with us in 2012. Dean arranged and performed the piano interpretations (track 3), while Mark wrote the orchestral parts for tracks 1 & 2, the first time any of our music has had such instrumentation added to it.

The CD is presented in a digipak format and has a 16-page booklet with sleeve notes explaining how the song developed from its earliest days back in 1979. The lyrics are illustrated by a number of powerful photographs, sourced by our designer Paul Tippett to whom we are indebted. We would like to thank him for representing our ideas so perfectly.

Andy Revell: “We are proud of what we have achieved reinterpreting this piece that has occupied a central part of our repertoire throughout its existence, and we hope our fans will enjoy this, our first studio recording since 1994, as much as we have enjoyed making it.”