MAKIN' TRACKS

Release Date: March 1973

Running Time:  43 minutes

The second album of fifteen songs from The Fivepenny Piece consolidated John Meeks and Colin Radcliffe's songwriting credentials, not forgetting Eddie Crotty's writing contributions. The much covered 'A Gradely Prayer' makes it debut on this album along with and number of songs that entered the Fivepenny repertoire and became fan favourites. the beautiful 'Winter Sun',  Eddie's homage to being under the thumb 'I'm Henpecked' and a reflective 'The Passing Of Today' among them. 'Makin' Tracks' achieved a no. 37 position on the album charts.

Recording produced by BOB BARRATT
Recording engineers: Dave Fleming and Alan Parsons
Strings and Woodwind arranged by Ed Welch
Front photo: P.H.V.
Location by kind permission of the Dinting Railway Center, Glossop, Derbyshire

And with special thanks to Philip Barlow and Kevin Godley on drums.

Side 1

1. Lou-Lay-Lye (Meeks / Radcliffe)
2. Land Of The Musical Telephone (Meeks / Radcliffe)
3. Winter Sun (Meeks / Radcliffe)
4. Homemade Brew (Meeks / Crotty / Radcliffe)
5. Emerald Dew (Meeks / Radcliffe)
6. The Old Tyrant (Meeks / Crotty)
7. He Willy Nilly (Meeks / Radcliffe)
8. The Journeys Of My Mind (Meeks / Radcliffe)

Side 2

1. The Time Is Now  (Meeks / Radcliffe)

The album cover shows the band posing next to a steam locomotive at the Dinting Railway Centre, Glossop, a former museum devoted to the preservation of old railway engines and equipment. The centre closed in 1990 and the stock relocated to the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway in Yorkshire.

For those interested, the loco shown in the picture is the 1935-built 5XP “Jubilee” Class 4-6-0 Bahamas no. 5596, in its pre-war LMS livery. It served BR until 1966 and it was saved from scrap in 1967 by enthusiasts who set up the Dinting Railway Museum to preserve it.