Firework Moon > song book <
"Firework Moon, we go up like a rocket,
come down like a stick to the ground"

Very much the epic of the 2009 collection, Firework Moon was a fascinating music production concept from the moment I doodled the opening D chord on the acoustic, through the writing of the lyrical wordplay, to the solo recording leaving space for the layers of passion and conflict that were to follow.

This is one of the very very few songs whereby I have written the lyrics down - it's usually my way to use song lyrics only if they stay in my head long enough to build a song around them. And on this occasion, it was most necessary, as the original ideas were very intricate and in my mind at least, quite picturesque.

The concept came out of a November week in 2008 when not only was Rememberence Day in the news - essentially the last man standing issue that is now enveloping the last few remaining veterans of WW1 - but also Bonfire Night, our annual family gathering whereby we celebrate burning revolutionaries alive without really understanding the bigger picture, or asking why people would start a revolution in the first place.

I always remember attending bonfires as a child, the man with the torch, everyone waiting for the spark, huddled together in the cold like refugees around a funeral pyre. Reflecting on the past, looking to the future, hotwired and bracing ourselves as the the man unleases awesome firepower into the night sky.

I remember idly dreaming after one such occasion. 11 years old, stupidly sticking a lit sparkler into dead fireworks, I came across one that had misfired. To say that as it gave me the fright of my life as it burned the side of my face as it ignited and lifted upwards into the sky, is an understatement, as it also to say that I was very lucky to come through that moment with any sort of a life worth living.