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Night School
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I can’t remember exactly when my old school burnt down, but I can tell you I was there. It had been closed for many years and was just sat there, abandoned, when someone decided to strike a match.
We watched from a wall on Durham Road as the flames and smoke did their thing. My memory is hazy but I’m sure we talked about times we’d had there. Music lessons in the school hall, good teachers, bad teachers, bad-breath teachers. That time Lee asked a famous footballer, ‘What’s a football?’ when none of the sporty kids had the guts to ask a question during a special assembly.
The image of the burning school, and the memories it contained, were in my mind when I wrote Night School. We’d played the song a lot live in 2014/2015 and when it came to record it we tried lots of different ways but just couldn’t do it justice.
Frustrated, we decided to improvise openly for a while and just move toward the song when we felt like it. And that’s what you hear on this album. One continuous take with no edits. It’s a deconstruction of the song followed by the song itself, like watching a building burning down in reverse.
It’s a big ask these days but I think the piece works best consumed whole from start to finish. There’s plenty of contour and detail to listen to but feel free to let your own imagination wander and drift as you listen, as if sitting in front of the fire, eyes stinging slightly from heat and memory.
- Chris Sharkey / June 2021
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