On The Record 7 ‘Underground’ lyric and information page

Here is the seventh album in the On The Record series. ‘Underground’. Young music makers from across Somerset have written, rehearsed, played and recorded all the music you’ll hear on this record.

Interpretation of the title has once again been varied and creative. There are tracks that take the idea literally and others less so. ‘Shelter’ draws on how it must have felt hiding from the blitz and ‘Paddington’ takes on the atmosphere of the London Underground. ‘Echo’ looks at a young boy’s experience of the miner’s strike in the mid-eighties and ‘Caves’ is inspired by the sounds of caves and caverns, ‘Dark’ tells the story of a dark dark deed. Other tracks interpret the theme more metaphorically. Here the theme is used to explore the need to break out from buried anxieties, ‘Roundabout’ and ‘Down’, buried feelings of stagefright, ‘Reflection’, and the surfacing of new love, ‘Sense’.

Thanks go out to parents, teachers, lift-givers and others who have supported this project, particularly Naomi Honour Head of Music at Kingsmead School, Wiveliscombe and Rachael Parvin at CYM Taunton who made space and time possible for students to take part. We also gratefully acknowledge the support of our partners Sound Foundation Somerset.


1. Shelter - Drew Wookey

Vocals - Drew Wookey: Additional Vocals - Maria Coe, Tristan Gorman: Drums - Matt Fowler: Bass - Rubin Brennan: Guitars - Tristan Gorman, Will Hinks: Violas - Katy Burnett, Ella Lay: Cello - Ruby Tuckley: Piano/Organ - Lottie Bryant: Trombone - Sam Holmes.

Sirens blaring shouting wrecking my mind
Got nowhere to go except to hide
Screaming in fear
We’re stuck in a nightmare. No way to get out
There’s no future for us. We don’t know what’s coming around

Help! Help! We scream and we shout
We won’t let our country down
Help! Help! We scream and we shout
Hidden in our deadly town
If they want a war then they’ll get a war
If you stand by my side then you’ll be frightened no more

Hidden - Hunger - Underground in a shelter
From the raging war it’s all we’ve got
People bloodshot eyes staring back at me in them I see them in myself
There is no future for us. We don’t know what’s coming for us

Help! Help! We scream and we shout
We won’t let our country down
Help! Help! We scream and we shout
Hidden in our deadly town
If they want a war, they’ll get a war
If you stand by my side then you’ll be frightened no more

Differences can be our strength no matter what our stories are
United as one we stand together to escape our despair
Our future is now - we know what’s coming for us

Help! Help! We scream and we shout
We won’t let our country down
Help! Help! We scream and we shout
Hidden in our deadly town
If they want a war, they’ll get a war
If you stand by my side then you’ll be frightened no more
Help! Help! We scream and we shout
We won’t let our country down


2. Paddington - Arjun Ashok, Cora Edwards, Oscar Glancy, Georgia Hawkins, Molly Morgan, Felix Thompson

Processed Vocals - Georgia Hawkins: Cajon - Oscar Glancy: Cello - Molly Morgan: Double Bass - Felix Thomson: Violin - Cora Edwards.

3. Roundabout - Billy Brooking, Tyler Ellis

Vocals - Billy Brooking: Drums - Phil Horler: Bass - Owain Russell: Guitar - Will Hinks, Tristan Gorman: Saxes - Ross Conquer: Trombone - Sam Holmes.

In the deep dark underworld it’s an endless roundabout
Something’s gotta change soon before I keep on spinning around
I’m gonna rotate the way things are down here right now
The repeat thing has gotta stop before I end up at the gates of Hell

Oh - I am all alone
Oh - I just wanna go home to a world where

Everything is normal and full of lots of light
I’m treated like a human not some shadow in disguise
I get to be free no more caves or frights
And I get to live my life the way I like

So many stories not many to be told. Watcha gonna do when they all resolve?
They’re coming for you with darkness in tow
With creatures times ten and nowhere to go
Oh I’m gonna rotate the way things are down here right now
The repeat thing has gotta stop before I end up at the gates of Hell

Oh - I am all alone
Oh - I just wanna go home to a world where

Everything is normal and full of lots of light
I’m treated like a human not some shadow in disguise
I get to be free no more caves or frights
And I get to live my life the way I like

Being in the underworld is actually quite scary
You never know what’s behind ya
And that’s what makes things hairy
So to fight the creatures, the monsters the ghouls
You’ll need something handy - perhaps a tool
So look nowhere other than inside your head
And maybe, just maybe you’ll wind up not dead

Everything is normal and full of lots of light
I’m treated like a human not some shadow in disguise
I get to be free no more caves or frights
And I get to live my life the way I like

4. Dark - Teya Fowler

Vocals - Teya Fowler: Drums - Phil Horler: Bass - Rubin Brennan: Piano - Greg Geering: Guitar - Tristan Gorman.

It was raining that night
My skin was cold - I had no sight
Couldn’t breathe the heat was light
Almost never there, I couldn’t hold my thoughts
All I could do was not that

‘Keep going. Keep digging’ he said
That’s all I could hear
I knew my life was over then
The light is gone - the blood is stained
There’s nothing you can do - the flood is here
It’s time to play pretend
That’s all I can do
It’s time to play pretend
That’s all I can do
It’s time to play pretend

It was damp but not like the mist
The sky was clear in my mind
I always knew the sun, the wind, the rain
All made me feel what’s true
Don’t let your demons define you

‘Keep going. Keep digging’ he said
That’s all I could hear
I knew my life was over then
The light is gone - the blood is stained
There’s nothing you can do - the flood is here
It’s time to play pretend
That’s all I can do
It’s time to play pretend
That’s all I can do
It’s time to play pretend

5. Caves - Evie King

6. Reflection - Edwina Cochran

Vocals - Edwina Cochrane: Drums - Freddy Chester: Bass -Tristan Gorman: Guitars - Matt Fowler: Piano - Greg Geering: Additional Vocals - Maria Coe, Tristan Gorman.

See my reflection, don’t know what it’s like
When I go onstage will I win this fight?
Look in the mirror, see my smile
Think to myself it’s been a while
Temperature’s rising, and tears roll down my face
When I go up on stage will I win first place

All of my secrets are underground
Well they can never be found
You know I can’t do this anymore
What is it all for?

I see my reflection, don’t know what to do
You know it’s been a while since I seen you
So I look in the mirror just one last time
Before I go and change my mind
Temperature’s rising, and tears roll down my face
When I go up on stage will I win first place

All of my secrets are underground
Well they can never be found
You know I can’t do this anymore
What is it all for?

Centre stage with a spotlight on my face
I think of all the times I’ve asked you to stay but - no

All of my secrets are underground
Well they can never be found
You know I can’t do this anymore
What is it all for?

7. Echo - Matt Fowler

Vocals - Tristan Gorman: Drums/Guitars - Matt Fowler: Bass - Rubin Brennan: Additional Vocals - Maria Coe.

In the valleys to the west - in an old miner’s town
There’s the sound of my old man screaming aloud
‘The pit is your life - Don’t give me that lip’
I said ‘I’m cold and tired - Don’t make me go down’

Don’t make me go down
Don’t belong underground

I can remember the mood in the crowd
In March ’84 when it all turned around
‘Will we stand or give in - the say we are done’
‘We stand - They’ll not break us down’

Against horses and truncheons he stood his ground
Cries and insults I still hear the sound
Saw his face through the bars - I heard him say
‘That’s it for me Boy - they’re taking me down’

Battle lines were drawn in the dust of the coal
As a war was waged for an industry’s soul
As I watched from my window I saw them arrive
Brothers and fathers, daughters and wives
United as one ‘gainst the force of the law
And each of them knowing just what they fought for

They took it down

8. Down - Rhiannon Eagle, Ebony Ford

Pianos/Vocals - Rhiannon Eagle, Ebony Ford: Drums/Guitar - Matt Fowler: Congas/Claves - Phil Horler: Bass - Rubin Brennan: Additional Vocals - Maria Coe, Tristan Gorman.

I’m going under again
These waves come and I can’t escape
Broken hearts still racing
How long ’til you can face it
We’re stuck underground

Farther and farther, deeper you push me down
Don’t let me be like Alice and her rabbit hole
She just got a bit too much for this world that’s all
Don’t patronise me anymore
It’s all made up of spirals and whirls

Down Down - Underground

Have you ever felt so low that it feels like you can’t go down any more?
You’re already at the ocean floor
Sometimes it’s really hard to hold on when you fall apart
I can’t do this - and I sure can’t be this
And every time I look around I realise there’s no way out
Just need to shout it out
And every time I see your face I don’t know how much more of this I can take

Further and further I drift away from myself
I feel like I have been left here on the shelf
So don’t you drag me down
Don’t you let me drown

Have you ever felt so low that it feels like you can’t go down any more?
You’re already at the ocean floor
Sometimes it’s really hard to hold on when you fall apart
I can’t do this - and I sure can’t be this
And every time I look around I realise there’s no way out
Just need to shout it out
And every time I see your face I don’t know how much more of this I can take

You’ve been holding on for so long
You ask yourself what for
You’ve been fighting so hard
Why can’t you just walk out that door and leave it all behind
You’re staying here but you’re losing your mind

Have you ever felt so low that it feels like you can’t go down any more?
You’re already at the ocean floor
Sometimes it’s really hard to hold on when you fall apart
I can’t do this - and I sure can’t be this
And every time I look around I realise there’s no way out
Just need to shout it out
And every time I see your face I don’t know how much more of this I can take

9. Sense - Ella Gush

Piano/Vocals: Ella Gush: Drums - Tristan Gorman: Bass - Leonie Housham

When I first met you, you threw me over
And now it’s so clear we’re moving closer
You walk right up to me and you put your hand down
You say - Come take a walk with me and I pointed to the clouds

You show me the world that I meant to breathe in
You open up my eyes and I can see why
I want you by my side every minute every day
No finer way

After a while you made me smile
And we laughed and laughed
Until the sun when down

Your sense overpowering mine
Your true colours emerging with mine
Your sense drove me over the wall



Check out these links to organisations, bands, young musicians and artists involved in this album.

www.actiontrackperformance.co.uk
www.soundfoundationsomerset.org.uk
www.cymtaunton.org.uk
soundcloud.com/mattsfowler
www.youtube.com/user/noiseSquidMusic
www.facebook.com/sunsetsundayofficial/
www.soundcloud.com/sunsetsundayofficial
sunsetsunday.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/osmiumblacksmiths/