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White Rose (War of the roses)

from 1985 by John Pattison

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White Rose (War of the Roses)

This is a song quite simply about two different girls. One from Yorkshire who gets the thumbs up and one from Lancashire who definitely doesn’t. It’s deliberately tongue in cheek about the fierce loyalty perceived and actual about ‘Yorkshireness’. I am a Yorkshireman by default. One side of my family is genuine Yorkshire and the other is not. Having been born in Warwickshire and not in Yorkshire means that I may never be allowed to play for the cricket team. That’s fine by me as I am definitely not a very accomplished sports person. I do however have a great fondness for the county having spent far more time in my life there than not.

The fake guitar solo was played on my secret weapon from 1985, the keytar. Mine wasn’t a fancy Moog Liberator like Jan Hammer used for the Miami Vice theme or even a Roland SH101 like my friend Jim Dickinson used in his excellent band Little Angels. My Keytar was a Yamaha CS01. It had miniature keys and a basic synth section with filters, one oscillator, ADSR and a Pulse Width Modulation feature. It also had breath control meaning you could control the VCO and the VCA by blowing, tonguing or growling into it like a wind instrument. The downside was that you looked like you were sucking an oversized dummy onstage!
It did afford me the freedom to roam around the stage and pull faces on high notes to make it look like it hurts, just like a real guitarist.

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from 1985, released February 7, 2021
Photo: John Pattison rehearsing at home in York. 1985

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John Pattison Scarborough, UK

Film and Theatre composer John Pattison has co-written several musicals with Alan Ayckbourn, John Godber and scores for many West End and international productions.

His film scores include G.M, The Balloonatic and two movies with French film director Alain Resnais, Smoking and No Smoking.

He is Associate Director and Musical Director at Beach Hut Theatre Company CIO.
www.beachhuttheatre.co.uk ... more

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