[Paul]

I agree completely with you, Thomas.

[Paul]

Thanks, Tim. I’m glad you enjoyed the book.

Your idea for the ending of ‘Kinnell’ is great! Back to the drawing board… I would love to have known how Jake would have finished it.

[Paul]

Hi Tim,

Jake’s songs certainly don’t give you any scope for a lapse of concentration. They are beautifully constructed and, as you suggest, mixing and matching the content of verses definitely doesn’t work. You aren’t alone in finding yourself caught out on occasion!

If you are on Facebook, you will find more scope to chat with people on the Facebook Jake Thackray Appreciation Club page.

[Paul]

Hi Danny,

I hope you had a good gig. My show went really well – I was delighted at the size of the audience and the response to my songs. (Phew!)

I shall flag the issue you raise to the webmaster. It is worth bearing in mind that the forum predates Facebook etc! If you can bear to get yourself on to Facebook, the discussion group there (see my previous post) has a lot more activity because it is so much more part of the way people interact online now.

ATB
Paul

[Paul]

Welcome aboard, Tim. Posts on the forum are a little sporadic these days, but if you are on Facebook, it is worth seeking out the Jake Thackray Appreciation Club page, which has more than 300 members. Well done on performing On Again! On Again! – no mean feat!

I’m the co-author of Jake’s biography,and also perform his songs regularly – it is a joy sharing his songs with people, isn’t it?

I am sure Jake made a very conscious choice about the title and lyric of Brother Gorilla. You will know that Brassens sang ‘gare au gorille!’ in his song’s refrain, but simply called the song Le Gorille. ‘Brother’ is nicely judged to express some of the surprise/warning contained in ‘gare’, and perhaps also that he/we should be on the gorilla’s side politically, in its assault on a figure of authority.

Your suggestion that Jake might have avoided using ‘beware’ because he already had ‘The Bull’ in the works is intriguing. Here is my 2c! ‘The Bull’ first seems to have been performed eight years after ‘Brother Gorilla’, but in researching the biography I could find no trace of it before 1979. In 1977 his printed concert programme contained a list of songs he had written which includes reference to two songs which had not been released at that point: ‘One of Them’ (the working title is ‘This one’ll kill you’) and ‘The Appalling Mr Kinnell’. The latter is an unfinished song of which only a single verse of the lyric and no recording survives, and Jake was still talking about finishing it 15 years later! (With my co-author John Watterson I wrote and recorded a version of the song, reconstructed from Jake’s original verse and sketch ideas, which we released on an album. You can hear our take on the song here:https://youtu.be/3vkTFK756kA) Jake often wrote quickly, but clearly took years to finish some songs, so it is possible that ‘The Bull’ was in gestation for some time, but I think it unlikely that he had this in mind when he made his choices regarding the lyrics and title of Brother Gorilla. See what you think, as Jake used to say.

[Paul]

Hi Danny,

Welcome aboard! If you are new to Jake, you have lots of treats in store! Discussion on the website is rather sporadic these days, but if you do Facebook, it is worth seeking out the Jake Thackray Appreciation group page, which has 300 members now.

I am a card-carrying Thackray anorak. I am the co-author of Jake’s biography, and I also perform his songs regularly. I live in Lymm, Cheshire, and I’m putting on a show at Lymm Festival on Sunday evening. Most of the songs are my own comic/satirical writing (in the Thackray style), and I shall also be singing four of Jake’s lost songs, for which we found lyrics but no recording, and I came up with a tune. The event is almost sold out, but if you are interested in coming, info and tickets can be found here: https://www.lymmfestival.org.uk/events/songs-in-his-own-write-paul-thompson/

If you do come along, do come and say hello. It is always nice to meet Thackray fans.

Best wishes
Paul

[Paul]

Hi Joe, on behalf of the Project team, thanks for your feedback. It’s nice to be sharing the Thackstasy!

[Paul]

‘The Camera and the Song’ and ‘Thackray and Loudermilk’ are both wonderful, albeit very different, programmes. I reckon that if Jake had done more work like ‘The Camera and the Song’, he would have escaped being labelled as a novelty guest spot singer and got taken more seriously as a writer.

[Paul]

Thanks for posting your message, Andy TZ. I’m so glad you enjoyed the DVD collection. Getting it released was the culmination of years of work, and The Jake Thackray Project team is very proud to have got there in the end. Look out for a CD release in 2023…

[Paul]

Glad to hear it finally got to you, Pam. I admire your strength of will!

[Paul]

Thanks for your feedback! We are so proud to have released this collection at last and are so pleased at the reception it is rightfully receiving.

[Paul]

Hello there, all. It is rather quiet here. I’ve been madly busy posting the Jake Thackray at the BBC DVDs out. So, so pleased that we have finally been able to release this material and future-proof access to Jake’s performances against the privatisation or dismantling of the BBC!

[Paul]

How bizarre! Sorry to hear that, Michel.

[Paul]

Unfortunately it wasn’t possible to access EMI’s studio documentation when we researching the book because the archive was in the process of moving, and wasn’t even available to the staff of Warner Music Group (which has owned Jake’s catalogue since the demise of EMI).

Frank Horrox is definitely not he pianist on the Bantam Cock album because he died a month before the recording sessions. (He was only 48).

If anyone else has information about the musicians on Last Will and Bantam Cock, I, too, would love to hear what they have to say.

[Paul]

Thanks, Malcy. It was a great day!

[Author]

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