It’s over a year since Nev featured on this blog where he told great stories about signing record deals, Radio One sessions, London, Amsterdam, Berlin gigs, and playing Leeds with Joy Division and Public Image Limited – all with Newcastle based post punk band Punishment of Luxury.
Later there is news of new creative adventures from Punilux, but first, Nev invites us to tune in….
The first Punilux album The Laughing Academy, will be unfolded during a SKY Arts programme on Friday 14th May at 9pm courtesy of musician Matt Deighton (Mother Earth, Paul Weller).
The programme is dedicated to Matt’s exceptional creative journey, and once again he shows his support and love of the band, by mentioning Punishment of Luxury in a short excerpt of his musical inspirations.
BABY DON’T JUMP
I first communicated with Matt a couple of years ago on the Punishment of Luxury Fans Facebook page when I responded to his question about lyrics to ‘Baby Don’t Jump’.
It was an interesting question, and it was then that I discovered Matt is a gifted writer, musician and performer with a notable history with his band Mother Earth, along with collaborations with Oasis and Paul Weller.
He asked me if the band would like to release all of their material in a compilation, so after a band chat we all decided it was a great idea, so he arranged a meeting with Cherry Red, hence the Puppet Life box set so a big thank you Matt.
In time Matt shared his work, CDs and vinyl’s with me which in turn encouraged me to look again at some of my own approaches to music resulting in the revisiting of guitar tunings and to the creation of a new collection of acoustic excursions.
This inspired period also prompted me to return to work and develop some of my contemporary musical and media writing, embodied within stories, some of which I aim to complete and reveal this year.
DIGITAL DECAY
During all of this creative inferno I received an unpleasant dose of digital decay which resulted in the loss of a large part of that music which I planned to share with the band in hope of contributing to the release of a new album.
Thankfully I am an old school practitioner and print off all my words and practice almost every day so I can recall much of the work.
Brian Bond (vocals/keys) and Jimmy Giro (bass) have been busy too and shared some of their songs, and I have applied the Brain Bomb methodology to one of them. Fortunately, I captured this on my phone but lost all of the other additions.
One song about A message and an Alien – territorial rather than terrestrial, survived, and as Brian and I used to share lead vocal on songs such as All White Jack and Metropolis, this one I envisage could help revisit our strength with new vitality and topical relevance.
NEW ENERGY
However, we have all been separated for a while now, and I think the band always work best while meeting face to face and sharing ideas, where the best songs can be tested, rehearsed and then gigged, because for me, this is where the fun and energy lives.
There is much to do, ponder and hope for in the near future and we will share and keep you updated on the band web and Facebook pages.
Matt Deighton – Overshadowed on Sky Arts is on Friday 14th May 9pm.
Check out previous Punishment of Luxury interviews:
FROM NEWCASTLE WITH LOVE part 3/4 with actor & musician Brian Rapkin | ALIKIVI (garyalikivi.com)
Alikivi May 2021.
ALIKIVI : NORTH EAST UK 