Summer 2022

Well, after all the excitement of the Blue Plaque and the opening of the Lieutenant Pigeon exhibition at Coventry's Music Museum, things have quietened down a little. That's not to say things aren't happening! The exhibition has been a huge success so far and with the big Radio One Weekend coming to Coventry very soon, there will doubtless be many more visitors.

Also, Will Hodgkinson, the famous journalist, has this book coming out in September in which we have helped fill in some past details for him. It should be a good read, especially for those of us who remember the 1970s!



Lastly there's another Stavely Makepeace single in the pipeline. The boys have broken away from their usual style somewhat for this track which is a mild protest song about the brainwashing and propaganda we all suffer from our media and government. The title is "The Truth is in there Somewhere", and we hope it will make people think.

Incidentally, viewing figures for the "Mouldy Old Dough 50 years" video on YouTube have now topped 80,000. Not bad for something so far in the past eh!

The very best Bill Boswell.

Easter 2022

It's a little early for our Easter Newsletter but so much has been afoot lately that it warrants an early issue this time.

Firstly our good friend Pete Chambers, curator of the Coventry Music Museum, has decided to devote the rest of 2022 to a Lieutenant Pigeon exhibition in his museum in honour of the 50th anniversary of the big hit, "Mouldy Old Dough". This has already opened and the press reception took place on February 18th, (exactly 50 years to the day since "Mouldy Old Dough" was released). The exhibition opened to the public the following day.

Not only this but Pete has managed to get a blue heritage plaque placed on the building where "Mouldy" was recorded! The unveiling ceremony, with Rob and Nigel carrying out the unveiling, also took place on February 18th. Both the BBC and ITV local news bulletins covered the event. Some of the filming, by kind permission of the current owners, was actually done inside the old Woodward family home at 25 Kingsway where they had their recording studio all those years ago!

            
ITV Central News               BBC Midland News

As promised the celebratory Lieutenant Pigeon CD single, "All for one and one for all", is now ready for release and will come up on the Sales Page any time now. Let's hope the rest of the year is as busy as these first 2 months have been!

The very best Bill Boswell.

Winter 2021

The City of Coventry year of Culture celebrations are in full swing and our song, "Back Home in Coventry" has played its part in a big way. It's time now to concentrate on next year's big Lieutenant Pigeon celebration single. This will be "All for one and one for all" which is to be launched on February 18th 2022 -- exactly fifty years to the day since "Mouldy Old Dough" was released.

Talking of "Mouldy Old Dough", tune into Channel 5 on November 5th and you might have a surprise. You will be transported back in time to those heady Glam Rock days, when Lieutenant Pigeon ruled the roost, in a series about 1970s hit records. Click on this link "RadioTimes.com" and you will see listings of the first two episodes of this musical extravaganza.

Talking of which, this Lt Pigeon track singing the praises of the city of Coventry, has been widely accepted as one of the main tunes to promote the City of Culture 2021 year. If you've yet to hear it it is available as a download via all the major download sites

And, whilst we are on the subject of links, have a peep at this one. "FaceBook Interview" Don Powell, drummer with Slade, and an old pal of Rob and Nigel's, is currently recording a series of Zoom chats with many of the stars stars of yesteryear. Recently he reminisced with 'our Nige'.

Not too long to go 'til Christmas!!
Cheers.  Bill B

Autumn 2021

Firstly let me apologise to you all for the web site being off line for a month. This came suddenly and surprised us all! However, at last we are up and running again and hopefully all will be back to normal now.

As regular visitors to our site will have noticed we have tweaked a few things and updated the group biogs whilst the site was off line. As for other news, thanks to Fab Radio UK's plugging of "Back Home in Coventry" by Lieutenant Pigeon, the single has made it into several 'on line' radio station's chart listings. It's nice to see the song doing so well outside the limits of Coventry!

Talking of which, this Lt Pigeon track singing the praises of the city of Coventry, has been widely accepted as one of the main tunes to promote the City of Culture 2021 year. If you've yet to hear it it is available as a download via all the major download sites

Lastly the boys have been working on the new single to celebrate next year's 50th anniversary of the 1972 No1 hit "Mouldy Old Dough". This will be called, "All For One and One For All", and will feature the same raucous sound as the number one hit all those years ago. Look out for further news of this great track!

All for now.  Bill B

Summer 2021

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our great friend and former Stavely Makepeace member Don Ker. He was 79. He hadn't enjoyed the best of health for some time but when we last spoke to him he was in good spirits and humour and still the Don we all loved and remembered. R.I.P Don, a fine musician and a fine friend!!



On a brighter note, at last the Coventry City of Culture 2021 has arrived. Pete Chambers, the Curator of the Coventry Music museum, has submitted the Lieutenant Pigeon CD, "Back Home in Coventry" to the official committee as a possible contender for the official theme for the year. Fingers crossed they adopt it!

The CD will be released on June 4th and has three other tracks, all based on a very local theme. One of these tracks, "Gosford Street Rag", was recorded by the group nearly 40 years ago! Let's hope that this culture year will highlight many aspects of the plethora of local talent, both musical and otherwise.

More soon! Bill Boswell

Easter 2021

Well, the Easter Newsletter would probably have been packed with items normally but with this pandemic lingering on there’s very little to write about. Rob has taken advantage of the studio being quiet and has given everything a thorough service – something long overdue! Nige has been working on two huge data bases trying to catalogue all the Makepeace Music tracks into a much simpler form.

There’s publicity in the pipeline too. Big MG Radio wish to feature an interview very soon and Colin Surey, who runs the Cozooks of Brixham Blog, has dug deep into the archives whilst researching the “Decca World Of” series of vinyl LPs to discover more about the LP that never was. Namely “The World of Lieutenant Pigeon”. This blog makes a very interesting read. Link to "LP excerpt"

There’s been no more CD releases in 2021 but we’ve experienced a welcome surge of downloads during this current lock down and there are still plans to issue, “Back Home in Coventry”, as a CD on May 1st to coincide with the launch of the “Coventry City of Culture” year. So it’s all fingers crossed that this wretched pandemic will be over by then and we don’t slip into an Italian style “3rd wave”!

The very best Bill B.