Pay Day

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 response to my last post sharing Blue and Yellow Morning. I can now exclusively reveal that Pete did not in fact take over Eric Burdon’s paper round. He made that up on the spot and was actually pretty sheepish when it was repeated on the news.

I’ve been doing this newsletter for just over a year now and so many completely unexpected things have happened as a result. I’m really grateful to everyone who has been following along. It’s lovely to know there’s still so much enthusiasm for Pete’s music among his very dedicated fans. Thank you for being here.

Today (7^th of May) is Pete’s birthday, so it felt like a good moment to send a quick note to let anyone in Tyneside know that there is now a memorial plaque to Pete on a bench overlooking Tynemouth Longsands on the north side of the beach. It’s the perfect spot to grab yourself a take away coffee from the Boatyard in Pete’s honour and admire the view.

Pete was such a regular at the Boatyard that someone once managed to successfully send him a postcard from Spain by addressing it to Pete Scott, The Boatyard, Cullercoats, Sundays 10am, England. The waitress handed it to him along with his black Americano and veggie breakfast, which he didn’t have to order because all the staff knew him and knew what he wanted. He held his 70^th birthday party there and did a series of gigs with his band Hired Hands there over the summer of 2018.

The song I’m sharing this time is Pay Day, recorded in 2009. This song was a regular feature of Pete’s live set at the time but never made it onto an album. This version was recorded during the sessions for the album Why Sing Goodbye Songs but didn’t make the final tracklist because he was keen to make sure that the balance of comic songs to serious songs didn’t tip too far away from the light side of life on that album. I’m sure many of you will remember this one. I was really pleased to discover there was a recording of it.

Press play below to hear the song (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