PRICE:
$26.00
IN STOCK
ARTIST
TITLE
A Trip to the Coast
FORMAT
LP+CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
TR 280LP TR 280LP
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
4/15/2014

LP version. Includes a CD copy of the album. Bill Pritchard is a British singer/songwriter -- you may remember, you may not. He started writing songs for various bands at school but it wasn't until he spent time in Bordeaux as part of a college degree that his style flourished. He did a weekly show with two friends on the radio station La Vie au Grand Hertz (part of the burgeoning "radio libre" movement) and was introduced to a lot of French artists from Antoine to Taxi Girl. His eponymous debut album was released in 1987 on the Third Mind label, with a second following in 1988. He then signed to Belgian label PIAS Records. Working with and alongside the likes of Daniel Darc, Etienne Daho, Francoise Hardy, and Ian Broudie, Pritchard expanded his audience from Europe to the U.S., Canada, and Japan and became both commercially successful and a cult classic. In 1995 he formed the band Beatitude, his first collaboration with Tim Bradshaw as guitarist/keyboard player, releasing the single "Baby in Brylcream." In 1999 he released Happiness and Other Crimes, again with Bradshaw, which has become something of a rarity as the distributor of this album went bankrupt, although a few copies did escape. And then he disappeared a little before resurfacing with a new record deal and the more electronic album By Paris, By Taxi, By Accident, with versions both in French and English, and the album came out in France, Switzerland and Belgium on the Universal label. And then another little disappearance. Then something slightly strange happened. Tim Bradshaw moved to within a couple of miles of Bill's house in Staffordshire and after a gap of about eight years, there was suddenly the opportunity to work together again, something they'd talked about before. "We did the album together basically because we're mates and we thought we'd have fun doing it," said Bill, "with no label pressure we just did what we wanted to," he adds. "It was a time of change in my life and the album and the songs on it reflect that. And when Tim turned up out of the blue, it was perfect coincidental timing." A Trip to the Coast is the end of that period and the beginning of the next. Chapter closed. Chapter opened. The songs on the album are classic Bill Pritchard. Guitar pop, hooky chorus, melodic ballads and personal everyday lyrics about love, loss, and Stoke-On-Trent.