Beachcombing

……………………………….......Finally !

You may hopefully still be interested to know that the new album ‘ Beachcombing ’ is finally at the pressing plant. ( I know I have been telling you it was called ‘Glow ’ for most of last year, but I have now decided that ‘ Beachcombing ’ seems to describe the feel of the album more accurately ) . Also, having told you that the album has been in the pipeline for about 2 years now I can confirm that, subject any further complications, it will be released in February 2011 - HONEST ! This post is partly to let you know about the forthcoming new album, but mainly my excuse to have a good old rant, and to explain how this could have possibly taken so long.

Those of you that have purchased any of the ‘ RE : ’ CDs may have noticed that they were on the Long Tale Recordings label. It took me a long time to realise that in fact this was not really a proper record label at all, ultimately just an enormous time wasting hinderance. Contrary to all the assurances and good intentions, it had no distribution in place, no publicity or promotional plan, or actually even any staff. There were constant promises and assurances of good things to come, but in reality nothing materialised and the result was the album being buried for most of 2009 and 2010.

So, I have gone completely full circle and have decided to do everything myself again, which is great from the control point of view, but does take up a lot of time in administration, promotion etc. - time I would obviously rather spend on with writing and recording.

Which leads me onto my next section of this little moan which is…………………….trying to get CD packaging that is slightly out of the norm, and more importantly, as environmental as possible. I have found it hard to believe that in 2010 it is still virtually impossible ( and much more expensive ) to use recycled materials without causing huge confusion and massive problems to the pressing plants. I’m sure if I’d asked for platinum plated rhino horn it would have cheaper and easier, but I didn’t think this would fit in with my environmental approach to CD manufacture ( even though it was actually slightly less expensive and more readily available ! ).

Well, now that’s off my chest I just wanted you to know that ‘ Beachcombing ’ will be available very soon now, in a 100% fully recycled cardboard sleeve printed with vegetable ink with not a hint of plastic anywhere ( except the CD of course ! ). I hope after all this time it will have been worth the very long wait, but at least if you don‘t like it when it finally arrives, you can throw it away with a clear conscience !

Thank you for all your support , I really do appreciate it. I’ll be in touch again soon.

Bob Holroyd.

Parallels

How does anyone respond to a visit to Auschwitz? Over and above the obvious unbelievable horror of seeing the neatly labelled suitcases of men, women and children, convinced they were just going to have a refreshing shower but never to return, or the piles of hair, or glasses, or shoes, or anything else that could be made use of before they were gassed in their hundreds of thousands, there were two things that struck me more than any of these appalling and distressing sights.

Firstly the scale of the place. I had seen photos and old film clips of the place before my visit, and knew that people had been sent by rail to this death camp, but I still wasn’t ready for what amounted to an actual small railway station within the vast grounds. Or the 5 huge ovens that burned day and night for months just to get rid of the bodies of so many people. Or the particularly sick and cynical sign above the gate proclaiming to the next wave of unfortunate prisoners, whilst being serenaded by the labour camp orchestra to their virtual certain death, that work would set them free.

The second thing is harder to describe. In the village that I grew up in there were numerous children with names I couldn’t spell or pronounce, but I never thought why. We just played football together, went to school together and lived in Elstead together. The reason they were there was due to the refugee camp on the common land on the outskirts of my home village, and the reason why that was there was due in no small part to the hideous place I had just visited. They were displaced Poles, but to me, as a child, and now as an adult, they are just other people I grew up with and still know.

Before I visited Auschwitz these connections to my own home seemed so distant as to be almost totally unrelated to my world in England. Perhaps obviously, the day I travelled to Kracow and then on to Birkenauw I met lots more people who looked and behaved incredibly similarly to me, and to those that I had grown up with. I had also arrived by train, having crossed various national boundaries that just wouldn’t have been open earlier in my life - a throwback still in existence to the war that spawned this terrible place.

I have tried to use the train journey as the metaphor for these connections. At the end of my street is a station similar in size to that at Auschwitz, although fortunately this one is used to transport people to actual work or hopefully opportunities of various kinds that really do exist. Just 3 stops along the same railway line is Brookwood, where lies the largest cemetery in England, and probably the largest in Western Europe. It is so big that it too had its own cemetery station, until the London terminus was bombed in the 2nd World War and the line was closed. It has a vast military section which houses row upon row of plain white gravestones bearing witness to the thousands of soldiers who gave their own lives to finally bring the war, and the death camps to a close.

It also has a small plot on the opposite side of the cemetery where my own grandfather is buried. He died prematurely when my father was just two years old, and as a result was known to neither of us. It was only after mentioning my visit that my dad told me that this is where his own father lay.

It is a odd feeling that I know more about a Nazi concentration camp in Poland than I do about my own grandfather, and as a result I am trying to learn more about both. My visits to these places put into context connections to my own life that I had never previously considered, and although on one level they are worlds apart, they are on another very much inter-related. Our paths and decisions have consequences and impacts far beyond the obvious, and for far longer than we can possibly imagine.

Win an iPod Shuffle! Plus an exclusive brand new track for every entrant... Win an iPod Shuffle! Now I have your attention, music aficionados, read on to find out about some potential big changes at Bob Holroyd Heights. Help me to help you to help yourselves and you’ll each get an exclusive brand new track and the chance towin an iPod Shuffle. I am of the generation that still wants to own a physical CD, or vinyl, or even old lumps of rock that the Parrot Record Player from the Flintstones used to play. But they tell me the world has moved on since then and I'm on a mission to find out the best way of doing things. I love making physical albums, designing the covers and generally conceptualising the whole project, but I also love the immediacy and accessibility of downloads, so I am considering releasing tracks in digital format only on a more regular basis. But more importantly, I want to know what YOU think! If most of you still want CDs then I will bow to your whim and judgement as I want to keep you disgustingly happy. Equally if you mostly purchase music as downloads, or don't mind me going down the digital-only route, please let me know – you are the people who make it possible after all. A quick poll here revealed that Simon in the studio is a CD junkie and stores his collection alphabetically by genre; Folktronica on one shelf, Clownstep and Raggacore on another. On the other end of the scale, Karen in the office is a download devotee and has turned all her old CDs into chandeliers and bird scarers. I even caught her using Hollow Man as a coaster the other week. She's on her first verbal warning. All you need to do is answer a few quick questions and we'll email you the exclusive brand new track! Your entry will go into a prize draw to win an iPod Shuffle. ENTER NOW! Good luck, Bob