Decades

Description

Decades is a critically acclaimed collaboration between singer/songwriter David Palfreyman and writer/actor Nicholas Pegg, who describe it as a great big double concept album with all the trimmings. Together with producer/engineer Ian Caple (Tindersticks, Suede, Tricky, Kate Bush), they have created a double album which entwines Palfreymans music and lyrics with Peggs linking narrative, building into a meditation on the fragility of time, memory, and personal history.

Lead vocalists on the album include Sarah Jane Morris (best known for singing Dont Leave Me This Way with The Communards), Cassidy Janson (star of Leading Ladies and the West End shows Chess and Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), Ian Shaw (twice winner of Best Jazz Vocalist at the BBC Jazz Awards), Mitch Benn (singer/comedian on BBC Radio 4s The Now Show), and Jessica Lee Morgan (daughter of legendary producer Tony Visconti and singer Mary Hopkin, currently promoting her own solo album Around the Block). Other musicians on Decades include Gary Barnacle (saxophonist on classic tracks including David Bowies Absolute Beginners, Tina Turners I Dont Wanna Lose You, and TPaus China In Your Hand), David Clayton (keyboardist for George Michael, David Bowie, Depeche Mode, Elton John, U2 and many others), and Terry Edwards (multi-instrumentalist with Madness, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, The Blockheads and Julian Cope). Linking the songs are dialogue scenes featuring an all-star cast headed by David Warner (Titanic, The Omen, Time Bandits), Richard Coyle (Coupling, Prince of Persia, Born To Kill), Jacqueline Pearce (White Mischief, Plague of the Zombies, and galactic villainess Servalan in Blakes 7), Jan Ravens (Spitting Image and Dead Ringers, currently turning heads with her uncannily accurate Theresa May), and Simon Greenall (best known as Alan Partridges Geordie friend Michael, and the voice of the Meerkats in a certain famous series of commercials). David Palfreyman, who released his debut album RadioMagnetofon in 2010 under the name Malf, has toured extensively in the UK, Europe and the USA.

Nicholas Peggs writing credits include stage shows, audio plays, and the acclaimed book The Complete David Bowie (a noted Bowie expert, he has worked as consultant on many projects including the V&A exhibition David Bowie Is, the BBCs Five Years documentaries, and the Royal Mails recent set of commemorative Bowie stamps), while his acting credits include regular appearances as a Dalek in Doctor Who.

This is an epic album remarkably brave and certainly brilliant. One of the best of the year. SPILL MAGAZINE
Outstanding performances an ambitious, thought-provoking musical drama about the cycle of life. RECORD COLLECTOR
Decades is a serious, awesome piece of work. The music and songs are phenomenally strong. PETER ANTONY, RADIO CAROLINE