Midlands musical pair prove there are reasons to keep hoping

Jon Lord of Hatton and his long-standing friend Graham Wale, who lives in Coventry, have aptly named their debut release ‘Nil Desperandum’ - which translates as ‘don’t despair’.

Their relationship has always been based around music and, although they recorded many tracks together during the late 1960s and have continued to meet up once a week to write songs right up until the present day, the pair never got round to producing a saleable CD.

Seventy-seven-year-old Jon said: “I thought that we had been playing around with music for so long but had never had anything out. I wanted to be able to say we had done something.”

He and Graham, who is registered blind, had recorded their demos on a tight budget at Jacksons’ Studio in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, run by Malcolm and John Jackson - sons of the bandleader and DJ Jack Jackson.

They sent their music to all the major record companies and music publishers but did not hear back from any of them - until they struck gold at a small record label in London.

The label was in fact so impressed with the pair’s work that one of their songs was selected to be included in the debut album of Marsha Hunt, who had at the time made a big name for herself as an actress in the West End musical Hair.

This coup filled Jon and Graham with hope and they began compiling what ended up being a few years of recorded material - which they planned to release as their own album once Marsha’s was released.

Unfortunately her album was never completed and, after spending some time attempting to release theirs, the pair’s tapes were put away in a cupboard at Jon’s house and forgotten about.

Fast forward to early 2012, when Jon had not long retired from his job running Cabin Studios in Coventry. The tapes were unearthed.

Jon said: “I wasn’t even sure they would even play, but they played back very well.

“So I thought I would like to get them out. We put the thing together on CD and it has now been released.”

Graham, 66, said: “When Jon brought this to me to listen to, I couldn’t remember most of it, so I was able to listen to it fresh. I was surprised by how good it sounded.

“The tracks are varied in style, rhythm and tempo. I’m really pleased with it. It sounds like us.”

He added: “It’s only now that we could do it because we could not have done it without the internet. We haven’t got any money behind us to plug it.”

Jon said: “We have proved that it’s never too late to do what you have always wanted to do.”

Nil Desperandum is available on all major download websites and from www.sonar-records.co.uk