Orlando Nation Company Communication 5

I bet you wondered where we'd got to? Well apart from the band having finally finished all the work for the album, Tim and Dickon managed to get out and about at this year's Reading Festival. Tim wanted to make sure we mentioned this as he wanted to say a very heart-felt thank you to everyone that came up to him and said hello. "It made it all the more special." Tim would also like to recommend 'Period Pains' to everyone, "The best band (at Reading) by miles". Dickon, meanwhile, has been the lesser-spotted-band-member-around-town, he found time to attend a few parties and of course everyone still loves him (like he ever listens!)

Anyway, the album "Passive Soul" will be released on Monday 29th September, It will be on CD only (Catalogue number: 0630 19718 2, all distribution by Warners) and will contain the following tracks:
Introduction
Furthest Point Away
Just For A Second
Nature's Hated
On Dry Land
Contained
Afraid Again
Happily Unhappy
Don't Sleep Alone
Save Yourself
Three Letters
Here (So Find Me)
Dickon and Tim have both written a short something on each track. Please remember that record shops don't stock records unless they know they can sell them, so always pester them and order in advance to avoid disappointment.

Orlando will play a couple of very special nights to promote the album. These will be on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd October. Both will be at 'Backyard @ The Water Rats' at 328 Grays Inn Road, Kings Cross, London. Tickets are £5 and can be obtained by phoning 0171 388 5588 for Box Office Information. Orlando will play two sets each night and we would like to stress that as these will be Orlando's only live shows this year (prior to heading back to the studios to record another album) they will sell out and anyone outside London should make a special effort to attend.

Tim has nearly completed his collection of Spice Girls items from the UK, and has decided to widen his search for items. He would like to know if there is anyone heading to Japan or Spain (or has contacts there) would they please get in touch with him as he needs someone to supply him with items from those countries (other countries also considered). "Is this an abuse of Company Communications?? I'm obsessed."

While we wait patiently for what may be the quietest and most important album release of the year we'd like to remind you that you can still write to the band via us. If you want to drop a line to Tim or Dickon and want to know that it will reach them unopened then do the following: stick your note in a sturdy envelope, address it to Dickon or Tim c/o Orlando Nation, PO Box 171, Brentford, Middlesex, TW8 OUD. Lastly make sure you write your address on the back (then we won't open it as we'll know that you were on the mailing list). Or if you have internet access you can mail Dickon directly at dickon@easynet.co.uk.

Until the next mail-out, see ya!


Orlando
Passive Soul


Notes by Tim (normal type) and Dickon (italics).

1. Introduction (The Red Flag)
I went to my first Labour conference in '85 and only half the crowd knew the words. I doubt the current lot even know the tune.

2. Furthest Point Away
"this damn passive soul"
Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell if Marvin was white, skinny and couldn't dance.
Disco music for people who don't get out much.

3. Just For A Second
"I'm afraid of being alone and I'm afraid of being not alone."
The debut single. Back when we wanted to be Take That. Didn't everyone?

4. Nature's Hated
Still the best lyric Dickon ever wrote. Still the best song Noel G. ever wrote. So Far.

5. On Dry Land
A gospel, live, one take. I bloody hate synthesisers.
More half-hearted optimism. Mustn't grumble. As long as you've got your health. Etc. Etc.

6. Contained
"a smile of sincerity is a crime on these streets"
Curtis Mayfield, Prince and Jimmy Web…never heard of 'em.
Not about child abuse, as some people think.

7. Afraid Again
"people never speak like or look like the way they write"
as gay as a window
There's a scene in "Broadcast News"…Holly Hunter tells her boss in tactless detail exactly why he's wrong and she's right, yet again. He pauses and then sneers with heavy sarcasm, "It must be good walking into a room of strangers and always knowing that you're the most intelligent person there." Hunter looks up at him, sincere and lonely tears suddenly in her eyes. "No it's not … it's horrible!"

8. Happily Unhappy We used a 50's Country Gent on this. He played the guitar. © Poor Quality Guitar Jokes 1997.
Sometimes living by default is at least, still living…

9. Don't Sleep Alone My dad's favourite although he thinks it's immoral. His dirty mind. It's about stuffed toys.
I always thought natural cynics like myself, a failed journalist turned musician, were just not loved enough. Is it possible, we mouth nightly, to have knowledge AND happiness? Too late now. Love is below us, we infer, and frankly we'd run a mile if anyone reciprocated our feelings for once… Far too cool to cuddle, we tiresomely yearn for an early death but suspect that, like Dorothy Parker and Pete Townshend, going public about such feelings will only secure us the agony of longevity. Sod's Law? Nature's funny sense of humour? Who cares. Pass the paroxetine and kindly leave the stage.

10. Save Yourself "who wants to live forever?"
Trying to wrest Bacharach back from the ironists and loungers.
"Shirley Valentine" meets Sandie Shaw

11. Three Letters "rich in tests, poor in friends"
The next LP will all sound like this.
Virginia Woolf planned her suicide meticulously, three days in advance, mailing separate letters to separate people. I never realised what school had really done to me until I left it.

12. Here (So Find Me) Using an orchestra is big and clever and expensive. Everyone else's next LP's will sound like this.
"Being Loved can never be a patch on Being Murdered. That's when someone really has risked their life for yours""- Quentin Crisp. I used to spend many an evening on Clifton Downs in Bristol screaming my guts out wordlessly.