Today’s Organ Thing of The Day is brought to you by openly stealing the fine words of Suey Sue, words she apparently “stole off Mr Noel Parachute himself”. Here come the stolen words, typed out whilsT wearing hover boots to avoid wearing out the souls. Before anything else though, just how beautiful is England in The Rain, fifth song in, you really really (really!) need to check it out, something very special indeed.

“If you’re from Kingston and a certain age it’s pretty likely you will have come across Chris White, as part of the Mag 7, the Kytes, the New Victorians, the Lightbulb Heads (or by himself) – or quite possibly, the host of local musicians he influenced – Cardiacs, and The Trudy being the most durable amongst them – Englishness and childhood experiences being big themes in his work.  For his own influences, Syd Barrett, Nick Drake, Roy Harper, Peter Hammill, a bit of Caravan – I expect you get the picture. You can buy a collection of his finest stuff (Volume 1) on the new Bandcamp site, put up by his brother Dave, who did something musical himself once upon a time. But if you are a bit of a physical media collector, (I mean CDs) have Sunday 27th June free, and can make the Norbiton public house in Clifton Road between 1:00pm and 5:00pm, you might experience a chance to access some of his loveliness and the old luvvies who are still fond. Maybe see you there x”

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“Chris White LIved in Kingston for most of his life . He went to Latchmere school and then to Rivermead Boys School which was definitely the hardest school in Surrrey. At 15 he had a nervous breakdown and then recovered for a couple of years and this pattern repeated for most of his life . Along the way he created some interesting music. He finally died of a rare form of cancer still singing”.

And not to repeat but yes, to do just that, just how beautiful is England in The Rain, fifth song in, you really need to check it out, something very special indeed. I know nothing of Chris White, as far as I rememberr our paths never crossed, maybe they did in a pond somewhere? It was only the Kingston connection and the mention of The Trudy and moreover those Cardiacs and and clearly yes, Tim and Jim were obviously fans. There’s some beautifully English songs here, lost classics dare we say? Bits of Syd Barrett, bits of Nick Drake, lots of Kingston and that something that was happening there, bits of homemade Southern English surburban psychedelia and looking over a neighbours fence and lost umberellas and rocking horses and jack in the box and spick and span faces and never going out until stars shine bright and well just go enjoy, there’s all kinds of treasure to be found within those thirteen slightly delightfully strange songs. I like people who give spiders names, mind the triffids, beautiful… if you never checkout anything else we ever say you should checkout, just take five minutes, go to the Bandcamp page and listen to England in the Rain.. (sw)