SIMON BROMIDE: New single release from Friday’s debut album
LONDON-BASED indie rocker SIMON BROMIDE (aka Simon Berridge) has just released ‘The Skehans Song,’ the second taste of his debut solo album, ‘Following The Moon.’
Best known as the frontman of South London indie power pop outfit ‘Bromide,’ ‘Following The Moon’ is Simon’s first album as a solo artist.
Paying homage to one of South East London’s longest running acoustic nights, ‘The Easycome,’ a unique fixture in the South-London music scene, this song features the ‘Easycome Choir,’ with Andy Hankdog, Scarlett Woolfe and Vincent Davies.
‘The Easycome’ is run by Andy ‘Hank’ Hankdog, whose life has been steeped in rock ‘n’ roll, starting with his father producing the 1960’s TV music show ‘Ready Steady Go!’ Hank joined forces with Steve Jones and Paul Cook to found ‘The Professionals,’ and later found success with his band, ‘Hank Dogs’ in the late 1990’s, touring America with Joan Baez.
Creating a space where music can flourish, his club has hosted the likes of David Gray, Florence (Welch) Machine, Shingai (Noisettes), Goat Girl, and Misty Miller.
“In the 1990s, I used to frequent the Troubadour in Earls Court,” said Berridge. “This was my introduction to the curious sport of ‘open mic-ing’. Not exactly a contact sport, but not far-off. The inevitable dread of waiting to play, the terrible acts, the amazing acts, the tap on the shoulder, “I’m sorry, we can’t squeeze you on tonight,” the tea lights, egos and hushed silence watching pins drop and, or, your life slip away and then occasionally a room full of wild unexpected applause.
“I remember seeing Hankdog at these nights, who always mentioned ‘The Easycome,’ but it was over the other side of town in Nunhead and I never ventured over. Then time took me over to South East London and finally about five or six years ago I started going down regularly on Wednesdays.”
“The idea for the song just appeared at the club one day when I started singing about some of the regulars. Then the chords arrived and it felt like a fun idea to write a kind of list song about these characters that went down to watch and take part. Similarly, when we came to record it, we tried to capture the atmosphere of a sometimes noisy pub with this thing going on in the corner.”
‘The Skehans Song’ is available digitally at https://smarturl.it/skehanssongsimonbrom while
Simon Bromide performs for his album launch on Friday December 10th at Camberwell’s ‘The Old Dispensary’ along with Dirty Viv and Hankdog.
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