Next month sees the release of "
Bonjour" a ten track record and CD that Glaswegian based musician Francis Macdonald made in collaboration with London based artist Harry Pye.
To celebrate it's arrival we have compiled a list of ten astonishing facts that you can impress your friends and fellow music lovers with.
1) The intro on the first track on the album ("Sometimes I Feel Like A Record That's Scratched") features the voice talents of celebrated comedy actor Kevin Eldon. Kindhearted Kevin spent a whole weekend practising his lines to make sure they were perfect.
2) Francis's favourite song on the album is, track two:
Sympathy For Jean Luc Godard. Francis and Harry each drew dozens of post card sized images inspired by Godard movies which film maker Gordon Beswick then edited together. The end results were first screened as part of the "This Is Our Art, This Is Our Music" exhibition at The David Risley Gallery in Copenhagen which also included contributions from R. Crumb, David Byrne, Captain Beefheart, The Soupdragons, and Faust.
3) A spoken word track on the album called "Mondrian in Liverpool" has been described as being both "distinctive and affecting" by Paul Carey-Kent (the former editor of Artworld magazine) and "very touching" by Paul Du Noyer (the founding editor of Mojo). The track is a largely about the death of Harry's father, the impact it had on him and how he came to love non representational, minimal paintings. Harry's favourite Piet Mondrian painting is called Broadway Boogie Woogie and it was made the same year that his Dad was born.
4) The silliest song on the album is "Mike Love Fan Club" which is celebration of a founding member of The Beach Boys not known for his modesty. Francis and Harry are both huge admirers of The Beach Boys and they genuinely love Mike Love.
5) Francis composes music for films/TV and has worked with Laura Cantrell, BMX Bandits, Alex Chilton, Robert Forster, Kevin Ayers and Kim Fowley but he is best known for playing drums with Teenage Fanclub.
Harry is pro re-cycling and has come up with a new twist on a very old gag.... “What’s the difference between Francis Macdonald and Walt Disney? “Francis plays drums for Teenage Fanclub and Walt Disney.”
6) When Harry met Ray Davies (of The Kinks) they got on just fine
7) When Francis met Mike Nesmith (of The Monkees) they got on like a house on fire
8) One of the tracks on the album is "Paul In Vauxhall" which is a song about Harry meeting up with a friend who lives in the same part of South London that Vincent Van Gogh stayed in. Curiously another track on the album "Come and Stay With Me" is about Vincent Van Gogh moving to the South of France and asking his friend Paul (Gauguin) to join him. Artist Howard Dyke is a fan of "Come and Stay with Me" and described the track as being "fucking beautiful".
9) Most of the album was recorded before Francis and Harry ever met (Harry emailed lyrics and Francis made recordings and emailed them back to Harry).
10) "
Bonjour
It's one of the few albums released this year that ends with a heartfelt tribute to the French artist and philosopher Jean Debuffet.
