A couple of the essays on PlanetSlade have inspired new recordings from artists like the folk singer Pete Morton and George Hinchliffe from The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
These talented people have already given me permission to post their recordings on-line and link to them from the essays concerned. These pages are here simply to act as a convenient round-up of the songs so far available via PlanetSlade, and to express my thanks again to all those who've contributed.
All the recordings remain the property of the performers involved. In most cases, the links below will allow you either to play them immediately or download them free to your own computer. Unless otherwise stated, the links will take you to Tindeck's music hosting service. For the full story behind each song, please see the relevant essay.
Pete wrote his own music for my first set of Nasra Ismail lyrics and performed the finished song for me at the Sun Hotel in Hitchin on April 6, 2008. The little chuckle at the beginning marks his amusement at my clumsy efforts as a recording engineer. To hear more of Pete's music, please visit his website at: http://www.petemorton.com
2) Scott Riley: The Headlines (Nasra's Song) [Riley/Slade/Riley]
Scott found my second set of Nasra lyrics on a songwriters' forum and put his own music to them. This YouTube link shows Scott performing the finished song at his home in Iowa. For a downloadable audio recording of the same performance, please visit this Soundcloud page.
3) Bernie Dembowski: The Ballad of Nasra Ismail (instrumental) [Dembowski/Slade]
Bernie found my first set of lyrics on another message board, and e-mailed me this piano rendition of his own music for the song.
4) George Hinchliffe: Lobby Lud The Mystery Man [Sandford/Malcolm]
While researching Lobby Lud, I found the sheet music to this Westminster Gazette promotional song in the British Library's archives. It was scored for ukulele, so I sent a photocopy to The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain's George Hinchliffe, who kindly recorded this version for me.
5) George Hinchliffe: Lobby Lud (instrumental) [Sandford/Malcolm]
George also recorded this instrumental version of the same song. To learn more about The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, please visit their website at: http://www.ukuleleorchestra.com
6) Philip Lyons: The Ballad of Helen Titchener [Lyons/Slade]
One Sunday evening in April 2016, I amused myself for a couple of hours by writing some murder ballad verses describing recent dramatic events in the BBC radio soap opera The Archers. I posted these online asking if anyone would care to add a tune and perform them, the programme's own Twitter feed passed this request along to its 43,000 followers, and that sent my lyrics bouncing round the internet for the rest of the day. By 5pm, the Colchester folk singer Philip Lyons had recorded the song and posted it on his Soundcloud page. In its first 24 hours online, Philip's performance racked up over 1,000 plays. It was only when it reached 1,700 plays next day that this steep climb started to level out. You can find my original lyrics here.