Today we have some more new music from respected guitarist Chester Kamen, for all those of you who have been patiently waiting for his next creation. We know that a good number of you have been enjoying these songs. Amongst many other artists, Chester has toured with Roger Waters, joining his band in 2002 and playing on subsequent tours, and with David Gilmour on his 2016 Rattle That Lock tour. He first played with David back in 1985 during the Live Aid show - David and Chester were both part of Bryan Ferry's band for that show (as was Jon Carin).
Chester has, like many musicians, kept himself busy whilst lockdowns and restrictions due to Covid-19 have called a halt to many things - in particular, live performance. In October 2020, he shared his new piece of music called Take This, that runs for over 23 minutes. Chester told us that Take This is the first side of an album he is currently working on - following, or inspired by, the old Floyd blueprint of one long piece and several songs on the flip side. Since then we've seen the first songs on the second side of the album: Brand New Day, Swimming, I'd Love To Turn You, Lover's Lane, Come The Revolution, Child Of The Damned, Stories, The Wife Of The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, and Coat Of Many Colours. As albums go, we suspect Chester is starting to look at a double!
The new song from Chester will be a blast from the past for BD visitors of a certain age, and particularly UK based. Tommy Cooper, magician and comedian, released a comedy single in 1961 - Don't Jump Off The Roof Dad - which was a top 40 hit and later, often played on BBC radio (in particular, on a children's show called Junior Choice). Chester has taken the lyric and written a new tune. Chester told us that "Steve Monti (Curve, Jesus and Mary Chain, Sulphur) played drums on this one and I have done the rest. This song has had many incarnations (4 actually) and while this one may prove to be less than definitive I gotta stop somewhere. Gave me a chance to use my vibrato pedal in the old fashioned Floyd way, which was fun."
We'll update you as he progresses with the rest of the album, as we know from feedback we've had that the songs are proving very popular.