Price: £29.99
Format: Vinyl
Artist: Sean Filkins
CatNo: PLGX05
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Sean Filkins War and Peace and Other Short St Double vinyl
Limited to just 250 copies and presented as a double 180g album with a 12-page album-sized insert, this is the sixth release in the "Plane Groovy Collector" series.
 
Sean Filkins is perhaps best known as a former vocalist for Big Big Train and War And Peace & Other Short Stories was his truly epic 2011 release made in conjunction with Lee Abraham alongside guests including John Mitchell and Gary Chandler.
 
Includes two bonus tracks, Show Of Shows (When I Met Steve Hogarth) and The English Eccentric (with Minor Giant).
 
Purchases through Burning Shed come with a download of full album upon release date (available in Your Account).
 
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In 2009 Lee Abraham (of Galahad} who was with me in The Indigo Pilots, was recording his fourth solo album, Black and White and he asked me if I would like to sing on it for him, which I duly did. Lee then wanted to take the album out on the road and asked if I would sing all the songs from the album live with The Lee Abraham Band, which I did, including two major gigs, The Winters End Progressive Rock Festival and The Peel, Kingston.
 
During this time, I asked Lee about recording my music and he said that if I had material, he would help. I wanted to write a progressive rock album, not necessarily a concept album, but one that encompassed things close to my heart. I went away and wrote some new material and worked on older material that I had written from my past. I then worked with my Indigo Pilots keyboard player and great friend, John Sammes on pre-production, sorting out which songs I thought worked, sorting out sounds and getting ready the six tracks that would finally make the album. Those six Tracks being. 1. Are You Sitting Comfortably? 2. The English Eccentric. 3. Prisoner Of Conscience Part1, The Soldier. 4. Prisoner Of Conscience Part2, The Ordinary Man. 5. Epitaph For A Mariner. And 6. Learn How To Learn.
 
I then took these to Lee Abraham and in his Dockside studio, started to record “War and Peace & Other Short Stories”, the title of which I had had since 1992, but had never had the chance to use until now.
 
During these sessions the core musicians were Lee Abraham, Bass and rhythm guitar, Gerald Mulligan on Drums and John Sammes on Keyboards. I wrote and arranged all the material, music and lyrics, except Learn How To Learn, which was originally written as an acoustic instrumental track by my good friend Geoff Webb, which I re-arranged and added lyrics and music to. John Sammes added some extra musical arrangement to the album mix.
 
Some great musicians helped me tell the stories of each track, with their individual styles of playing. These included Dave Meros from Spocks Beard, Gary Chandler from Jadis, John Mitchell from Frost, Arena & It Bites and Lorien Guitarist Darren Newitt, plus many others.
 
The album was Produced and mixed by Lee Abraham and myself and engineered by Lee. Mastering was done by Karl Groom of Threshold fame.
 
The album has been well received since its release and has had favourable reviews over the years from Fans and media alike, including a good review in Classic Rock Presents Prog magazine. The album has done really well and gets airplay on Progressive Rock Radio stations around the world and still gets the odd great review.
 
Being a double album, I have been able to add two bonus tracks that weren’t on the CD. These are “Show Of Shows (When I met Steve Hogarth}” a live recording of just me in the studio playing an acoustic track about meeting one’s musical heroes and a fantastic live recording of the wonderful Minor Giant and I performing an extended version of “The English Eccentric” live in the Netherlands. This track was mixed using multi-track recordings from Minor Giant’s “On The Road” album release party concert. There are no overdubs, it’s just live as it was on the night without a safety net!
 
Sean Filkins
 
A
1. Are You Sitting Comfortably? (1:06)
2. The English Eccentric (8:46)
3. Learn How To Learn (7:27)
 
B
1. Epitaph For A Mariner (20:50)
 
C
1. Prisoner Of Conscience. Part 1. The Soldier (19:21)
 
D
1. Prisoner Of Conscience. Part 2. The Ordinary Man (11:02)
2. Show Of Shows {When I Met Steve Hogarth} (Live) (3:44)
3. The English Eccentric (Live) (8:49)