Based in Northamptonshire in the U.K. Mel Has Been a Vocalist, Front Man and Entertainer for Over 25 Years
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Based in Northamptonshire in the U.K. Mel has been a vocalist, front man and entertainer for over 25 years. Performing his solo cabaret show, devising a successful theatre and cabaret show When Frankie Met Robbie and lead vocalist with Swings The Thing Big Band at venues across the UK. Having spent his whole career covering other peoples songs he decided when lockdown came along in March 2020 to try and write and record his own songs for an album. The album, titled SOUP?, due for release in the spring of 2021 with the first single, Freedom Hill, scheduled for November 1st 2020. The title SOUP? comes from the many influences that span his lifetime. From the pop music he was exposed to in his Auntie Velma’s record collection from the age of three to the early days of Radio 1 (He was listening when Kenny Everett got the sack) In his early teens he was listening to the likes of Genesis, Pink Floyd and other prog rockers of the early to mid-seventies but also had albums from Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Status Quo and Black Sabbath in his collection. In May 1973 aged fifteen he had the opportunity to DJ at Finedon Star Boys Club in his home town which meant playing all the chart music of the time. Mel progressed to being a very busy mobile and resident DJ through to when he was 28 when he hung up his decks feeling he was ‘too old to do 18th birthdays!’ This is the time he went to see many live concerts including, but not limited to, Big Country, Simple Minds, U2, Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart to name a few. It was another 20 years before he went back to music when on a whim he answered a newspaper advertisement and auditioned as a singer in a covers band and he hasn’t stopped performing since. More recently the like of Coldplay, Elbow, Rag n’ Bone Man and Noel Gallagher have been on his playlists. So SOUP? indeed. Freedom Hill (1969) Descriptor As an eleven-year-old growing up in the heart of rural England in 1969 I didn’t realise how idyllic it was. My grandparents had gone through two world wars, my Pop being a retained fireman in the East End during the blitz, my Nan relocating to Northamptonshire from Walthamstow just before the outbreak of the second world war eight months pregnant with my Mother. Most of my generation were the lucky ones. History was being made a quarter of a million miles away as Neil Armstrong stepped onto the surface of the moon. Meanwhile down on planet earth, in Finedon, a small town that buzzed with the boot and shoe industry that the county was famous for, children roamed the fields that had been scarred by sunken and open cast ironstone mining for decades up to the early sixties, but by this point had become the playgrounds for fertile imaginations. A huge jagged ironstone cliff that protruded from one part of the workings became ‘Devils tooth’. In a particularly accessible gully, by now overgrown with trees, moccasin twine “borrowed” from a local factory on a Sunday afternoon was strung between the branches and local boys would jump from the top of trees into ‘Spiders web’. Some of the workings were still in operation behind a few acres of mature trees known as The Firs and this area was fenced off and signed as private. This didn’t stop us patrolling as soldiers but hiding if the local gamekeeper was around. The other venue for mischief in the years that followed was Finedon Hall, now beautifully restored but back then had fallen into a dilapidated state. It became a magnet for pretend war games (It had been used by the Free French during the second world war and was visited by Charles de Gaulle on at least one occasion) and the inevitable ghost stories to send chills through some of us as we explored the ruins after dark. And on a lot of days it was jumpers for goalposts until you could not see to play anymore, rhubarb sticks with a bag of sugar and dodging PC Miller if we scrumped plums from a garden in Orchard Road. We went home when we were hungry. My hometown was Freedom Hill in 1969. Freedom Hill (1969) We roamed the fields over freedom hill, we ran with our own pack, We fished the lakes on the open cast, across old railway tracks, We kicked a ball on garage doors, howled our secret calls, We fought our wars with sticks and stones in the haunted hall. We scrambled over golden bales, stole fruit from Orchard Road, Ate rhubarb sticks with sugar bags, prodded snakes and toads. Jumped from trees in spiders web, sat on devils’ tooth, Played the age of innocence, before our surly youth. Sundown on freedom hill, When summer was the only season, The weeks bled into years, Sundown played the only soundtrack, Of all our hopes and fears. We crossed the brook along spring bridge, skinned our sodden knees, Hid from shadows in the firs, out of keepers’ reach, Thirty boys across the park, socks around our shins, We played until the light went out, but always next goal wins. Sundown on freedom hill, When summer was the only season, The weeks bled into years, Sundown played the only soundtrack, Of all our hopes and fears. Sundown (On freedom hill) Sundown (On freedom hill) Sundown (On freedom hill) Sundown (On freedom hill) Sundown (On freedom hill) Sundown on freedom hill, When summer was the only season, The weeks bled into years, Sundown played the only soundtrack, Of all our hopes and fears. Sundown (On freedom hill) Repeat To End Re-Trained and Ready to Rock ‘n Roll 23rd October 2020 For immediate release. Mel Peake from Northamptonshire is one of the many artists struggling to come to terms with the current COVID 19 crisis and his work as one of the UK’s busiest big band vocalists dried up overnight in March this year. But making full use of the time that this freed up has allowed Mel to follow government guidelines and re-train. Along with fellow musicians and vocalists he has worked with over the years, who provided their contributions remotely, Mel has recorded a number of songs for an original album, called SOUP? due for release in the Spring of 2021. The first track from this album, called Freedom Hill (1969), is released on Sunday November 1st, 2020 through his own publishing company and label he has set up especially. There is even a music video in production to accompany the song. In the last seven months, the 62-year-old has taught himself to write, compose, engineer and mix his own songs, in his own style, using the latest applications available on his home computer. Mel noted “I have tried on a few occasions over the last thirty years to work in collaboration with other musicians to come up with something original, but it never developed further than some raw ideas. The development of music applications and remote recording have finally given me the opportunity to realise a long-held ambition to write my own songs, I have certainly had the time lately. The support I have from fellow musicians for this project has been amazing.” Ends Contact: Events On Ltd 07851 051302. Email: [email protected] Skype: https://join.skype.com/invite/epdaT4tvist6 Website: melpeake.com.