In
1998, Dr Keith Halden, winner of two ‘Sony
Radio Awards’ created for BBC 2 TV Scotland,
a powerful visual montage based on the words
of the song ‘Planet for $ale’. Over
the next seven years ‘Planet for $ale’
became a full length album and a project.
The song is a series of questions … “Planet
for $ale in need of renovation, who’ll
give us two pence for a dead old globe”
and “Why are the rich so bloody greedy,
Why are governments so corrupt right to the
core?”
... and answers … “It needs a change
of thinking, if we’re to go on living,
bringing up our children on this planet green
and blue, yes it needs a change of living, to
keep the garden beautiful, we’re only
the caretakers, and we’re only passing
through”.
This album and project are independent of the
music ‘biz’ and so of course any
help with publicising them in any way is very
welcome.
Nigel
Mazlyn Jones ploughs an independent musical
route. As a young man he worked with the great
apes at Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust which
was the vision of Gerald Durrell, the prescient
and outspoken wildlife campaigner, ecologist
and novelist. Durrell and John Muir ‘the
first ecologist’ have something to say
in the album sleeve notes. Those early days
in Jersey influenced Maz all the way through
his life and musical career. This new album
reflects that journey.
Notes from the
songwriter
“I compare the way animals behave with
the way we humans behave both in relationship
to this life-nurturing planet and to each other
and draw my conclusions from there. I worked
part-time for many years at Dudley Zoo and observed
the behaviour of the people watching the animals
in the zoo. Later I worked at the Jersey Trust
where Durrell’s ethics impressed me and
I learned to hate enclosures physical and mental.
I realised that it’s humans not animals
who have most to learn about how to live on
this planet. I have been drawn to this subject
many times and never more so than now when there
is incontrovertible proof of human impact on
our life support system. Part of the proceeds
of this album will go to charities helping to
solve environmental problems.
‘Planet for
$ale’ was written unaccompanied with variations
on the theme developed later in the studio.
The BBC TV programme was a project that thrilled
and challenged me and over the next seven years
it became a full length album. Artist friends
from other music genres heard sections of the
developing album and got involved creating re-mixes
drawn from the vast array of my recordings and
original samples.
It took a lot of commitment
to get to the finished results with many giving
their time freely and without them this album
and web site would not exist so I want to make
that energy input work for others. The result
is the new Planet for $ale album and the fund.
I make no apologies for the aim of the lyric.
Let’s have the truth on the table and
really see what’s going down on this planet
we all share. As John Lennon once said ‘all
I want is the truth, just give me some truth!’
As spin was invented by bowlers we have to learn
to bat better.”
Watch
Planet For $ale Video
"Planet
For $ale" Page 2
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