Mark Nevin

It's been so long since the olden days when I was on Top of the Pops prancing around with Fairground Attraction. That year we won awards for the best single (Perfect) and best album (The First of a Million Kisses) on the worst TV show ever (the 1989 Brit Awards with Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood) before, like all good groups, we fell out when the royalties came in. I had all these songs that were supposed to be our second album, so my good friend Brian Kennedy and me became Sweetmouth and made Goodbye to Songtown. After that I got a call from Morrissey, “send me some music” he said, I sent it, we recorded an album (Kill Uncle ) and a bit (Your Arsenal ) and four singles (Our Frank, Sing Your Life, My Love Life, Pregnant For The Last Time). Kirsty MacColl, my old mate from way back yonder, got back in touch and we wrote the story of our lives falling to pieces (Titanic Days). I was popular back then, all sorts of people asked me to write songs for them or with them. The brilliant Carleen Anderson and I wrote a song called Let it Last, I wrote songs with cowboys in Nashville and recorded Love Ruins Everything with Lloyd Cole in New York. I wrote a song with Carole King (!) - David Bowie covered 'I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday' (a song I wrote with Morrissey) - I even had George Martin conducting the orchestra on ‘I’m Yours’ a song I wrote with Ringo Starr. But that’s all over now, back in 1999, my publisher told me I was committing commercial suicide when I decided to keep the songs to myself and record a solo album. But I did anyway, with Liam Watson (who went on to win a Grammy for his work with The White Stripes) at the crusty old mixing desk of the legendary and now defunct Pathway Studios. With the help of my Fairground friends, Roy Dodds on drums and Roger Beaujolais on vibraphone, we made Insensitive Songwriter. My publisher was right, but that didn’t stop me doing another one, and in 2002 I put out The Mighty Dove . Both records are flawed but, I think, they contain some really good stuff too. So now? I’ve done another one! It's called ‘Stand Beside Me In The Sun’ and it is out now. go to my website www.marknevin.com for details of live dates