I guess the beauty of most of the music we love is that it can transport you somewhere else. To a place, a time, an experience.
I was hanging out with Robin, Joe, Garo and Growler a lot during the making of Goldrush’s 2007 album ‘The Heart is the Place’. They had a studio on a farm in Oxfordshire, nothing posh or noticeably state-of-the-art, but actually a couple of repurposed industrial containers. It was the same farm where they had started their own festival called Truck.
They were do-ers, excited and uncynical. They wanted to make things happen against the odds. It was an exciting time, of new friends, new music, new experiences. This album transported me somewhere romantic and magical back then, and now it transports me back to that farm fifteen years ago… equally romantic and magical from today, all these years away.
I’d just started making music under the name ‘Danny & The Champions of the World’ and these guys were the Champs. They still are, variously, every now and then. You’ll see Robin and Joe sometimes, now playing some of the instruments in the live version of Saint Etienne, or Bennett Wilson Poole, or Pete Gow, and more. Garo and Growler are often seen backing Gaz Coombes, Piney Gir, and others.
Goldrush were great and wide eyed, true believers. I love this record and I think not enough people have heard it. You should give it a whirl! It’s one of the Unspun Heroes, for sure.