The Test Drive: Tom Hingley & Gordon Mackay – Decades

Tom Hingley & Gordon Mackay are set to drop their new album titled ‘Decades’ on January 20th. Designed as a memorial for a loved one, ‘Decades’ sees those memories become music with a feeling of somber resonance and solid songwriting from a pair of musicians who know how to write what they feel and come together with a signature sound and connect with any audience.

Part anthem yet all anthemic, ‘Decades’ takes those lessons learned and people honoroed and transcribes them into something that will outlive us all.

About ‘Decades’

Decades is the six-track, mini album featuring Gordon Mackay on guitar (Too Much Texas) and Tom Hingley (Inspiral Carpets) on vocals. The first recording that the pair have made together in 38 years.

Gordon and Tom were glass collecting staff at the Hacienda in the mid 80s when they formed the pre-Inspirals Manchester Indie band Too Much Texas. After a few years of supporting the likes of New Order,The Beloved, The House of Love and The Pastels, as well as recording a Peel session at the famous BBC Maida Vale studios, Tom jumped ship onto the Inspirals juggernaut whilst TMT continued on to record a track on the Ugly Man released Bananas compilation with new singer Lee Severin.

Spring forward to post pandemic 2021, Tom met up with Gordon who was newly mourning the recent passing of his sister Angela and Father, Ian. Tom suggested marking his friends 60th birthday in January 2023 by recording a memorial album , and that’s what we have here in ‘Decades’. One song for each of the decades of Gordon’s life.

The pair set about recruiting Gordon’s son Angus, to play bass and synthesiser. Local Oxford multi-instrumentalist Ben Heaney was drafted in to play violin, electric violin and piano on the last track. Scott Bearman-Brown was found via a Facebook post, calling out for Oxford based percussionists to play on two tracks.

The six songs were recorded and mixed by Stuart Jones in ex Fairport’s charming rural Woodworm studios, in St Michael near Banbury throughout Summer and Autumn 2022. The same studio that Radiohead cut their teeth and George Harrison also recorded material.

‘Decades’ features two kinds of songs , the plaintive memorials of ‘Ian’, dedicated to Gordon’s father who became deaf on a National Service rifle range as an instructor , but retained a tolerance to the challenges of both his children and grand children throughout his life . ‘Angela’ is a meditation on the passing of Gordon’s sister , an artist , who coincidently Tom was in a class with at Larkmead School as a teenager.

The other songs are more mischievous, ‘Document 6’ is a deceptively happy sounding song which really describes a serial killer incarnating his human prey, the chorus warning that “it’s Spring, Summer , Autumn, Winter outside”, ‘Tiny Shadow of Love’ is a song about an imaginary love triangle . ‘Killing Kittens’ is a song about esotericism, as a listener you will either know what the song is referring to, or have to find out.

The closer is ‘When Ali Came to Abingdon’ a pub singalong folk song detailing various events that did might or definitely didn’t happen when Muhammad Ali visited Abingdon Gordon’s Hometown in 1972 and 1987.

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