Paul Golder writes for the Brentwood Gazette
One of the things we always love doing on Phoenix FM is promoting local music of all genres. We’re in a priviliged position to get brilliant artists on the FM band who would normally be overlooked by the restrictive music policies of commercial radio.
One duo we’ve been tracking for some time are The Screens, a duo featuring Neil Watson and Brentwood’s Colin Wade, well known in the town for his work with Brentwood Mind and other mental health organisations.
They’ve just released their new album, “Wakes, Weddings and Bar Mitzvahs”, and Colin came down to Mike Jones’s lunchtime One 2 Three show last week to officially launch the album.
The album contains many local singers familiar to Phoenix FM including Paolo Morena, Bee Arnold, Harry, Katy Forkings, Mary Ann Adams and our very own Michelle Ward too.
There are also guest contributions from rock musicians including King Crimson’s lead singer Jakko Jakszyk who contributes guitar to one track.
Musically Colin describes the band’s sound as pop music but the band feature some classic acts among their influences, including The Kinks, The Beatles, Rodgers & Hammerstein, The Walker Brothers, Dusty Springfield and John Barry.
The production values and depth of songwriting definitely reflect that heritage. If any of those pique your interest this album is definitely for you. I’ve been playing the album all week and still loving it.
You can hear Colin’s in-depth interview at phoenixfm.com and you can buy or stream the album by going to iTunes, Spotify, Amazon or any other major download site.
* More live music coming up in the next week with Glenn Godfrey, John Paul Elliott, Mark Searby, Flamezee and Sam Callahan all popping in to the studio to chat or play live.
