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RB: I know. It's scary. The time rushes past, doesn't it? Flies past. Anyway, so 2016, there was a
few tracks on that that I thought I want to get some horns. So we were working – we actually had
a record deal in those days [laughs]. So I said to the record label, listen, I want to get some horns,
and the guy running the record was also the producer of the record and he got it straight away,
said yeah, okay. Actually, what happened was it's funny but my drummer, Craig Bacon, who is not
working with me all the time anymore but was at that time, put me in touch with a couple of guys
called Jack Birchwood and Nik Carter, who together had a little thing called the Blackjack Horns,
and Craig had been working with them on another project and he said they'd be great for this.
I got in touch with Nik Carter,
and he said, yeah, we'd be up
for doing that. And then he
said, well, we're also working
with another gentleman called
Gary Barnacle, and Gary,
funnily enough, I met Gary for
the first time years and years
ago, I’m going back in another
life. Way back in the 1980s,
because Gary's played with
everybody. Gary's played with
some very well-known people,
including me [laughs]. Sorry.
I'd met Gary sometime in the
80s when we did a punk
record. He came in and did the
session at a different time, but I did get to meet him, and I hadn't seen him for 30 years. Anyway
so he got involved and he's got a studio, nice studio in his house, and we actually recorded the
horn parts there and then we sort of sent them remotely across to the other studio where we'd
been recording “No More A Secret”, and we put it all together, and there we are. So I thought well
I want this. This is what I want.
So in 2019, we managed to get a gig. It took us three years to get a gig, but we got a gig at the blues
festival, Matt Williams's festival in Worcestershire and he put us on there. Then we were ready
to do loads of gigs and then, of course, COVID happened, so that put a stop to it for a couple of
years, unfortunately. But in the meantime, I'd actually done all the arrangements for about 15
tracks with Jack the trumpet player who played on the original recordings of which I spoke. Jack's
a great arranger. He's got this software called Sibelius, which is what all the horn arrangements
used, and most musical arrangements use to do scores. So I said, listen, let's get in some really
nice horn arrangements like Atlantic Soul Machine-type horn arrangements and let's sort of see
what we can do with this. So I spent a couple of days over at Jack’s place, bashing out what we
could do with the tunes, and we bashed them out. I mean the arrangements, I loved them. I’m very
proud of them.
BiTS: Well, I don't blame you. I've already told you that I think this is an absolutely fabulous
record. It's sensationally good. There's nothing like it in British blues music at the moment at all.
In fact, there probably never has been. I think it's wonderful.
RB: [Laughs] Oh, you're too kind. That’s very kind words, Ian. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Thank you for that, mate. Thank you. Yes. So anyway, it's just onwards and upwards. I thought,
well, I want to do a whole album with this, and we've added the horn arrangements to tunes that