The recording of Bystanding began a few weeks before the release of Fidelity. The album deals with a variety of subjects in several diverse musical contexts. The Foolish Girl of Llantrisant explores that perennially popular theme of medieval Welsh retail therapy in a style reminiscent of the quieter moments of Led Zep III, whilst Film Francais -a homage to French cinema- naturally echoes the Kinks and early Stereolab with samples from Chicago thrown in for good measure. Aside from this playfulness there is even a trio of songs on the theme of love, one of which is appropriately entitled The Love Spell. Whatever next? Check out Pete
MySpace page.
The sound palette is considerably broadened on this recording by contributions from a number of old friends. Fellow Llamas Dominic Murcott and Marcus Holdaway feature on vibes and Rhodes respectively, whilst jazz masters Matt Skelton and Luke Annesley do their work with sticks and reeds. John Wilson takes time off from working with Paul McCartney (and a much smaller fee) to add still more Rhodes to the proceedings and Lewis Evans, Rob Smith and Ernisha Plummer contribute double bass, guitar and vocals. And no tale of medieval Welsh retail therapy would be complete without Bob Evans on the crwth.
Says Pete "I think this album is better than Fidelity. There's more variety and more polish-but not too much polish. I think Bystanding represents the end of phase one(in which Doris gets her oats.) I'm not sure what's going to happen next, but something will."
Bystanding was released in September 2002 through Cargo distribution in the UK and Euro Visions elsewhere in Europe. Available at
www.peteaves.co.uk and in shops.
