Tuesday 1 August 2006

For some reason I feel compelled to write something here today, but nothing seems quite appropriate. It’s too early after the day’s events for the conventional types of writing in these circumstances. And it’s too early for anything to make sense. But here goes.

About 10 years ago I was amazed that there didn’t seem to be a band called Lion. What a great name, I thought. It’s got strength without being too macho, it’s Scottish without being exclusively so, it’s short, easy to recognise. All I need is a band and I’ll call it Lion. It doesn’t seem to fit a baroque group, and I’ve got one of those with a dodgy name already.

So when we were recording Spring Any Day Now, and I had the idea of getting Katherine and Alison together with me and DG, and it all seemed to work very well indeed, I thought, maybe this is the group to call Lion. And gradually the idea grew up of our quartet as a kind of touring subset of Concerto Caledonia – the defining core of the group, and its R&D department. We felt like a real group from the beginning: everyone developed a musical and personal connection with everyone else, we all had our own musical backgrounds and skills, and we looked after one another when things didn’t go as well as we would have liked. We even have four little button badges with the lion/lamb on, one each. From time to time people would ask me ‘What’s with the lion thing?’ and I’d try and explain and say ‘It’ll all make sense when the Lion CD comes out’: the one that’s been in production for three years (I finally got the sample clearance forms out of Universal Music yesterday after a month’s wait, incidentally – the planned release date of 1 September will probably slip a bit). Last year, when the four of us were living in Canada, Scotland, Sweden, and England, we still felt like a real group: whenever three of us are in the same place, it’s a rule that the three have to call the other one.

Well, maybe it was too good to last. As of today, and the news of Katherine’s death, Lion as a group is no more. We won’t be looking for another fourth member - no-one can replace her.

Well, there you are. I wrote something. A self-centred musical distraction from the profound shock and upset of losing someone close. The usual blogstuff of ego-massage and self-administered therapy. Enough.