This track was written in 2009, and was one of the more recent songs i've written. I remember exactly the time and place of writing this, it was the middle of the night in my old flat in Highgate, i couldnt sleep after a last minute gig we did in Chalk Farm in London. The gig was in a small pub near the tube station, a nice pub apparently so i was excited. We were all geared up to play, and there was only me and my then guitarist Jon Wright. When we got there the place was dead. the "promoter" was invisible and i was directed upstairs to find some idiot giving it big licks in my face about what we have to do. I was going along with it as i wanted to impress him. Anyway, we were shoehorned into the corner of the gritty little pub, right near the front door. There was 1 old bloke sat drowning his sorrows, he was about 60 and probably lived in a hostel with his pet rat. It was a shit place, empty in the music half, but to my suprise it was rammed in the other half just round the corner. the tennis was on, i think it was Andy Murray in a semi final at Wimbledon. so no body wanted to listen to these two cultural cows in the corner. I remember performing really well, really stressing about all the details and getting everything bang on, but i was so pissed off afterwards. Trying to compete with rowdy pub folk is not my thing, however the one old guy that was sat at the bar listened the whole way through. His foot was tapping and to be honest he got me full on for 30 minutes. He was all i had to perform to, and i even saw a smile on his rugged face towards the end...hence the lyrics..."as happiness creeps, on the Age Old Face...." I was deflated to a real low point afterwards. I'd only been gigging a month or so, and i pride myself on giving a live performance, or at least trying. I gear myself up by watching live shows of Freddie mercury, MJ and Frank in the day and then this. You can imagine I was gutted. I was angry and felt like giving it all up. It lasted about an hour, this feeling, until i started to think about it and got the words on paper when i got home. As always in a sort of essay style, not giving a thought for the song, just spilling everything out as quick as possible and trying to connect my brain to my pen! It had some sort of rhyme. I had a groove i always played at home and in rehearsal when we were messing around, it was this C-F thing. I cant really play so it was easy and sounded cool. I worked it in, set record and an hour later I had pieced it together into something much more :)
To listen to the song performed Live at the Proud Galleries, follow the link below
http://soundcloud.com/jonpaul-palombo/age-old-face
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