Saucerful Of Secrets singer and guitarist Gary Kemp has been discussing his latest single, Waiting For The Band in a new video clip which you can watch in full below.
The song, from Kemp's upcoming album, InSolo, out on July 16 via Columbia, was partly inspired by Gary attending two pivotal David Bowie shows in 1973; July’s final Ziggy Stardust show at Hammersmith Odeon and filming for the 1980 Floorshow at The Marquee in October.
“In this song I wanted to capture those teenage feelings that I had as a fan of music, of artists and bands, the anticipation of seeing them, I tried to capture that heady feeling, the thrill of being a disciple in the hunt for a hero," Kemp explains. "In the middle section of the song the protagonist - me - walks into the venue, heads into the pool of light in front of the stage and feels that sense of rising euphoria. In my head it was Hammersmith Odeon in 1973 and I was about to watch Bowie come on, but it could be any artist that ever turned you on, striding out onto the stage.”
One of the musicians that played with David Bowie on that fateful night in Summer 1973, the pianist Mike Garson, appears on a forthcoming remix of Waiting For The Band by Steven Wilson.
“I’m still waiting for that feeling to happen again waiting for that band, for him, her or them to come into my view and thrill me to the core, it’s never left me," Kemp continues. "It almost gets me through the day, the thought that those thrills might still lie ahead. Is that a feeling of nostalgia for music? For lost friends? Or just for lost youth? Whatever it is, I’m still deeply aware of it and wanted to tell it in song.
"As I began recording the song, I stumbled on some old footage of Bowie fans outside Earl’s Court in 1978 being interviewed before the show. I took some of their comments and placed them under the track. They bubbled up like ghosts, turning forever in their moment. There’s something about adding music to real events that fills them with poignancy, sadness. Their voices left me emotional. It was lost youth.”
