Sentinel and the fools of the Finest Degree - Re-release 2008
Kissing Spell Records KSCD957. Original release 1979 on vinyl IOL/666/2

The songs on this album were first drafted travelling on the road through the late seventies after the first album ‘Ship to Shore’ was released. I re-discovered the original drafts amidst doodles, poems and letters I wrote but never posted. I decided to let those writings paint what life was like when these songs were pouring out while I travelled round the UK and European gig circuits so I will put them on the website in the new year.

Trawling the tape archive it surprised me to hear my own words from 30 years ago ringing in my head and I realised I don’t feel much different about things now. In 1978 the year 2000 seemed like a far away sci-fi time that would never arrive. The words in the songs shocked me as it seemed they could have been written today as we face current realities onthis planet in this millennium. Although radically different, thirty years later the album ‘Planet for $ale’ feels like a lyrical continuum of‘'Sentinel and the Fools of the Finest Degree’. Perhaps what is deep inour hearts doesn’t change if it means a lot to us.

The ‘extra tracks’ and original album songs were first recorded in my home in Port Isaac overlooking the harbour whilst preparing to record the final album in Millstream Studio in Cheltenham in1978. I used a four track reel to reel Teac A3340 and mixed down on a Soundcraft Series 1 desk to a stereo Revox A77. A few songs went straight onto the Revox as they were written instantly. I had minimal recording gear but great views of the sea. Vinyl albums had limits to the length of playing time without reducing the bass response so some songs just weren’t going to get on the original album. This CD format re-release resolves that issue."

Nigel