Retroactive (2022)

Retroactive is the first album cementing the new lineup featuring Scott, Paul, John and Reuben. a fairly straight ahead rock album with, of course, an 80's flavour. The songs came quickly and simply and the band recorded them in quick succession. The only exception was New Solution (more on that below).

With its pronounced 80's theme we were searching for a title and were playing with 'Retrospective' until Reuben came up with the eminently preferable 'Retroactive'. With that title in hand I then went off and wrote the title song in a kind of circular reference.

The lyric itself nods to many of my favourite albums and songs growing up, from Deep Purple and 'Smoke on the Water' to Kate Bush and 'Hounds of Love', to the Cars, Springsteen, The Police, The Blue Nile and Pink Floyd.

Retroactive it’s a song I used to know
It was all so fantastic
Retroactive here I go

Shining Light is a major key piece of pop that launches straight into the chorus chord pattern and then follows up with an interesting verse structure. I like the contrast between the sweet sounding chorus and the more mysterious verse. It’s a wonderful song to play live and is usually our opening song—it just gets us going especially with the key changes at the end.

Perhaps reminiscent of bands like The Fixx or Comsat Angels One X One grooves along with a great bass hook and tom work on the drums and plenty of guitar atmospherics. Also a great song to play live. Fun fact, Paul and I were quite big fans of The Fixx and while living in London I went to see them at the Borderline which was a smallish sized club and afterwards had a chat with a few of the members.

The album was written and recorded during perhaps the most disruptive period humanity has seen since WWII, the global pandemic. Places in Between is a commentary on the rise of fanatical conspiracy theories, science denial and general craziness that has since permeated the culture around the world. So many people caught in a place between reality and madness.

Gone Too Soon is a lament to a friend and colleague who passed away from cancer in her early fifties, leaving behind two kids and a husband. She was a wonderful singer and she and I had performed many times at work functions. A vibrant, funny and beautiful lady—gone too soon.

Ever had that feeling when out and about and socialising and a sudden melancholy or sadness descends? Maybe it's an introvert thing but Saturday Night is when everything shoud be perfect and fun but somehow isn't. The protangonist in the song is a teenage girl who is experiencing this, or perhaps she is home in her room wishing she was with her friends? The song provides a welcome acoustic mid point break in the album, a time to catch breath.

Limousine Life started as a riff John had been playing around with that we extended into a song. It's a full on work out for the bass player and Reuben always did a marvellous job of it. I based the lyrics on a Boomtown Rats song 'Diamond Smiles' which followed the descent of an actress struggling with her career fading away. LL is more about a young woman who had it all but found out in the end it wasn't enough to make her happy. All over a stonking good time riff!

And here's another song I borrowed themeatically. Staring at the Moon is a homage to one of my favourite songs of all time 'The Whole of the Moon' by the Waterboys. It's such a joyous, humble tune that build and builds. Our song isn't similar musically but the lyrical inspiration is the same, looking upon the brilliance of someone else and coming up short in your own expectations.

You could name the stars, that shine at night
While I just stared at beams of light
You ran the race, you won the fight
I fell behind, I ran away in fright
You told the story, you wrote the song
I saw the movie, I just sang along

Let it Fall is built on the huge analog synth riff that opens the song. You might hear echoes of Killing Joke in the guitar lines. The lyric adds further to concerns about the rise of right wing authoritarianism across the world—again. If that's the answer then maybe we just let it fall and start again?

About twenty years ago we recorded a version of A New Solution that never quite gelled. For some reason we pulled it out and tried it with the new lineup and it seemed to work and fitted with the sound of the album. John added his drums and we left Barry's original bass part and added a new vocal take and voila it finally came to life all these years later.

Fade Away started from a jam with John contributing that oddball drum pattern that somehow works nicely with Reuben's flowing bassline and the fender rhodes and guitar flourishes. To me it has a vague Van Morrison type feel. It's also one of the few (only?) PG songs that features saxophone in not one but two solos courtesy of Patrick Hayes. The song provides a gentle outro for the record with a long fade out—as all good records should!

SW
September 2025