THE FLOWERS AND THE WINE

Listen to THE FLOWERS AND THE WINE by Pete Atkin.

John again. I have no idea who Pete Atkin is, honestly. I stumbled across a mention of his albums as *very* British and thought “that’s for me then”. But *very* British means just that: *very*. Not, say, Nick Drake British, who made great tunes and just happened to be British as well. No, *very* British means something else entirely that I couldn’t adequately explain, and Pete Atkin seems to speak this voice… which is odd, because his lyrics were penned by an Australian, Clive James. Must not fall far from the tree.

Anyway, Pete and Clive had a good thing going for a time in the 70s, with a 6-album partnership on RCA and a solid following. When that ebbed, Pete tried his luck as a carpenter, before ending back up in showbiz in the radio production side of things. He even provided one of the voices for a “Wallace and Gromit” character. Oh, and as a freelance radio producer he churned out a 216-part (!) history of Britain which took 14 months to broadcast. *Very* British indeed.


Photo: snow.