Missed You

Hello,

I’m Amy and this is my newsletter Why Sing Goodbye Songs where I share stories and songs from the archive of my dad, the late singer-songwriter Pete Scott.

If you just want to hear the song without reading the story, click here.

Thanks for your warm reception for Only the Moon in September. I haven’t been doing the best job of keeping up with messages and comments but I always read everything from everyone and I really appreciate the enthusiasm. If you don’t know already, there is an option to leave a comment under the posts on Substack, where you can also interact with other Pete Scott fans. There’s not many of you, but you’re a very dedicated bunch!

If you listened to the Folk My Life podcast episode about Pete over the summer, you will have heard me talking about Pete’s long-time collaborator and close friend, the guitarist Jim Hornsby. Jim has a new album out called Low Key which is available to buy on CD or as a digital download via Bandcamp by clicking here. It’s also available to stream on all the usual platforms including Spotify and YouTube.

The new album seemed like a good opportunity to write about Jim’s impact on Pete, which I certainly can’t sum up in the space of one newsletter but I can give you a taste of what a difference he made to Pete’s life and his music and hopefully inspire you to check out Jim’s music if you don’t know it already.

Pete and Jim first met at a folk club in Gosforth during the 70s. Jim was impressed by Pete’s songwriting and watched his set intently. Pete mistook Jim’s look of concentration as aggression, so he was very relieved when the stranger who approached him afterwards didn’t try to lamp him but instead complimented his songs. Their shared taste in music and sardonic humour quickly cemented the friendship and they collaborated on Pete’s material throughout the course of the following 40 years. Several years after they met, Pete realised that their first meeting was not the first time Jim had appeared in his life. While Pete was teaching himself to play the guitar as a teenager, his father (with whom he had, shall we say, a slightly tense relationship) was always suggesting that he should learn to play Apache by The Shadows and would remark on how well the guitarist at the Jubilee Working Men’s Club in Walker played it. Pete developed quite a complex about both Apache and the guitarist at the Jubilee Club as a result of this. It was several years into their friendship before he realised it was Jim.

Pete and Jim performing on the TV special “Sounds Like Pete Scott” in 1977.

When Pete’s health started to deteriorate in the 2010s, it was Jim’s support that helped him continue to make music despite the challenges he was facing. Pete’s health was impacting his finger picking ability on the guitar, which was exacerbated by the stress and anxiety of being a solo performer and knowing that if he couldn’t manage something himself there was no one to fall back on. His gigs during this period became increasingly stressful for him (and for me too, if I’m being honest!)

Eventually a good friend of mine recommended a great oragnisation called the British Association for Performing Arts Medicine (BAPAM) who provided Pete with a series of counselling sessions with a therapist who specialized in performance anxiety. She recommended he should take some time away from gigging to address the problems he was having, rather than trying to power through. Pete was very reluctant to do this, fearing letting people down, but he eventually agreed to cancel a number of upcoming gigs, including one at his favourite venue, Cramlington Folk Club. Cancelling gigs was very out of character for Pete, so word quickly got round and Jim rang up to find out what was going on.

For the first time, Pete confessed the problems he’d been having playing the guitar and the stress it was causing him. In a response I will be forever grateful for, Jim told him, “Pete, no one comes to your gigs to hear you play the guitar. They come to hear your songs. Book some gigs in and I’ll play the guitar.” Jim went on to suggest they form a band to play at Pete’s gigs, which also included the guitarist Danny Holmes and the bassist Chris Ringer. Pete called them Hired Hands and they played several great gigs together around Tyneside up until the pandemic. Jim also appeared alongside Pete at Sunday for Sammy: an opportunity Pete would have had to turn down if it wasn’t for Jim.

In 2016, Hired Hands appeared on Pete’s final album Sweet Dreams of Contentment, which quite simply would never have been made if it wasn’t for Jim’s support and encouragement. I’m so grateful that we have that album, because it contains some of the best songs Pete ever wrote, including The Grotto, which he was especially proud of.

So, if you haven’t already, check out Jim’s new album Low Key by clicking here and follow him on Bandcamp.

Pete and Hired Hands performing at The Boatyard in Cullercoats in 2018.

This one has been a bit of a tearjerker for me to write, so we may as well end it with a tearjerker of a song! Most of the archive material I share here is from the 1970s, so I thought I’d change it up this time and share something a bit more recent, a recording from 2005 of a song called Missed You. I know that Pete will have been especially pleased with the rhyme for “grievances” in this one. Press play below to listen (opens in a new window if you’re reading this on email)

You can stream the song for free or download for £1 (or more if you’re feeling generous!) here.

Thanks for reading and see you next time,

Amy