It could be the opening line of a song; ‘woke up one morning, 55 and redundant’ – one day the busy Headmaster of an independent prep school the next, school closed and out of work. But maybe, just maybe, this was meant to happen.
Life doesn’t often provide you with a second opportunity; I’ve loved every moment of my teaching career (everywhere from Hackney to Dubai) but every now and then I would take a wistful look over my shoulder at the recording contract offered back in the day that was never taken up. One small voice in my head; ‘a reggae album at your age – are you serious’ was countered by another ‘it’s never too late, go for it!’
So I did and here it is; a collection of songs that goes by the title of ‘nice work if you can get it.’ Reggae most certainly but it’s peppered with a few diversions; jazzy codas, heavy metal middle eights, some world music back beats as well as a little bit of dance and trance blended in. I really hope you like it.
I owe a huge debt of thanks to some very special and talented people; Emme Willcocks for loads of the high (very high) bits, Betty Lawrence for helping out with harmonies, Tristan Learmonth, resident of Brighton’s Meusli Mountain and engineer extraordinaire, Ali from Transmission Studios in Hove, Gerard Evans from Abisti Web Design for creating and maintaining this site and most importantly 'The Management' for a hundred years of indulging my ‘what if?’ moments – we will get there.
I also make art. If you want to see more then please visit my flickr account; just type wilcko into the search window. If you want to buy it then please go to Saatchi Online or Artbreak, or contact me directly.
Finally, I am not to be confused with the great graffiti artist Wilko – that's my son and you can see his stuff around Blackrock in Brighton and the usual graffiti websites, its good tackle so check it out. Listen, look, enjoy and thanks for your time.
Love, Peace and Harmonies, Wilcko
