Time for a little update! We’re proud to be seemingly one of the first acts who’ve covered the Rolling Stones’ latest hit, Sweet Sounds Of Heaven – at least, as a release, not a live cover. Obviously, this song would be a bit tricky given that we have one singer and one guitarist (as long as Ody is bashing the kit!). While it proved a bit of challenge, the result “isn’t half bad” as Pellie put it. “It’s really quite amazing – at my humble age – to see the Beatles and the Stones releasing songs. I didn’t expect to see that happen, myself!” he explained, “I heard Angry from the new Hackney Diamonds album and while the Stones vibe was there, it didn’t quite make me grab a guitar, you know. Then I listened to Sweet Sounds Of Heaven and I fell in love. It was all there, Keith on rhythm, Ronnie’s tasty licks, Mick sounding as strong as ever and a fitting bass line. Simple, but so soulful – a bluesy number like only they can do it! I was strumming it within minutes – and I knew I wanted to cover it.”
Of course it was a bit of a challenge for the band, but we managed to get something down on piano and organ that works together with Bia on harmonica replacing the original wind section. A few layers of guitars that worked together in a studio environment and brilliant vocals together with Ody’s tactful drums.
While we couldn’t get even half the parts in the video, we agreed that it would be fun to show a little more of us instead of our old formula, like we did on Before You Accuse Me and The Oriental. “The Tele I’m playing in the clip is on the record, but a lot of what you hear is actually my Les Paul and Ody used an electronic kit for his part – it’s not live footage, but it fits and it gave me an opportunity to slap on a sweatband for a change instead of the regular ponytail or uh, Christmas hat…!” Pellie outlined. “Stevie [Wonder] and Lady Gaga are obviously not exactly the type of artists we tend to go for, but I’ve always had a lot of respect for Stevie’s chops and with this song Gaga certainly earned some points in my book. I like her voice, honestly, just most of her music is a bit too modern for my tastes.”
When asked if the band is considering more material from the album we won’t rule it out, but there are other things in the works – as usual a couple of rather predictable numbers, but also one or two that may come as a surprise – stay tuned!
