The Fivepenny Piece Discography

Just Me And Some Of Mi Songs John Meeks Wednesday Music JMSLJ04 Release Date: 2004 After an absence of over twenty years, original member of The Fivepenny Piece and songwriter John Meeks has taken up the pen again to produce some new songs and returned to the studio to produce a brand-new CD Just Me and Some of Mi Songs. The CD contains some of John's best-loved songs from The Fivepenny Piece days, as well as some new ones. John produced the CD himself, singing and playing all the instruments. You can get your copy for £8.99 + P&P from the 5PP corner shop. Stalybridge Market Tadpoles In A Jam Jar Mi Grandfather's Day Sail Away Tin Soldier Friend Bonny Brid Miners' Life Brown Photographs Fine Feathers The Dutchman King Cotton A Gradely Prayer Stalybridge Station Doctor Bell (The Quack Doctor) Old Brown Jacket My Little Town

The Fivepenny Piece fans will recognise many of their favourite songs on John's new CD, including his new arrangements of the beautiful Brown Photographs; the thought-provoking King Cotton; the evocative Stalybridge Market; the nostalgia for the old Stalybridge Station; and the pensive Fine Feathers.

But alongside the old favourites there are some fabulous new songs which won't disappoint lovers of John's music. There's Tadpoles In A Jam Jar, a wistful look back at the games children used to play in the old days, and a comparison to the computer games machines and mobile phones the kids today all seem to prefer; My Little Town - not the Simon & Garfunkel song, but a homage to - where else? - John's home town of Stalybridge; and Old Brown Jacket, a moving tribute to a departed close member of the family. There's also Miner's Life, in honour of the Lancashire mining men; and John's setting to music a poem of another old "writing partner" of his, Sam Laycock - the tale of the quack Doctor Bell. These new songs show that John's songwriting ability is as strong as ever, and his return to writing and recording is the best news for Fivepenny Piece fans for many a year.

And as if all that isn't enough - the CD cover is from a lovely painting of the Ashton Canal at Portland Basin, by John's old songwriting partner in the Fivepenny Piece Colin Radcliffe, as mentioned by John below:

"The Fivepenny Piece have recorded lots of songs that I have written about the Lancashire area where my family have lived for over 100 years. I thought I would dust a few of them down and, together with a few new songs, put them together on this CD.

"It is a collection of memories, of brown photographs my grandmother used to show me, of games we used to play in my childhood, of rag & bone men, Whitsuntide clothes, of coal mines so plentiful then in Lancashire and, of course, the Cotton Industry which was so important to the area.

"Songs about Stalybridge, 'My Little Town', as it is today, the station as it was 25 years ago, the market as it was in 1820 with its 'Quack Doctors', memories of how hard times were during the cotton famine in the lovely 'Bonny Brid' by Samuel Laycock.

"My thanks to Colin Radcliffe for his fabulous cover painting and his lyrics. Hope you enjoy my memories of times gone by."

John Meeks