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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Pre-orders come with signed print (limited to first 100 orders only)

    Includes unlimited streaming of Overcome via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Compact disc version of the new album.

    Our first studio album in 12 years - and perhaps our most meaningful and immediate.

    The title comes from an area of language I had been exploring with my students; the contranym – words which are the opposite of themselves. Dust, buckle and sanction are all good examples of these. I liked how The Miserable Rich Overcome could have interpretations of strength and of weakness.

    In truth, the album came about due to both these things. It is the product of us getting together because some of us were going through some particularly difficult times. The music was a good excuse to hang out. Pizza, beer. Talk. Occasional tune. After a while, we kind of had an album.

    On many hills in Sussex, you can see these beautifully bent hawthorn trees. They incredibly compelling, shaped by the harsh coastal winds, and it is hard not to anthropomorphise them. They are beautiful to us because they look like they have been through great difficulty. Without this – the less misshapen trees are far less eye-catching. The beauty is the product of this perceived pain.

    I thought this would be a fitting emblem for the album. I googled images and found an amazing one. I found the photographer on Facebook and asked him where it was. He was very kind and sent me a pin, it was just next to Cuckmere Haven – a very special place for me wife and I. it is where we took our son’s ashes – a place we go back to each year on the anniversary of his death to launch a boat I carve for him and mu wife fills with orange flowers she has collected for him. It is very close to the place we organise a sponsored walk each year for the charity we started in his name.

    I photographed the tree in winter and in late spring bloom to represent both the desperation and the hope that are part of making and meaning of the record. You can flip the vinyl over to reflect which side is closest to your mood.

    Includes the final song to be added - 'Poem For Suzanne'.

    Release date: 2nd Feb 2024

    Includes unlimited streaming of Overcome via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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about

This is more of a vibe than a song. It celebrates the joy of having the sun/son in our lives. The brass section was recorded in two sessions of about half an hour each.

The trumpet and scat were recorded at the mansion where I work in about half an hour on a very busy day. The imitable Jack Kendon rolled up the drive in his BMW (successful gambler and impresario as well as jazz head), gave me a big hug and was in and out in a flash, leaving his cologne and brilliance behind him. Sax player Dan Cartwright recorded at my house with a sleeping baby upstairs. He took a little longer. Maybe 45 minutes. He really liked thew cake I gave him.
The birds are from Will’s garden.

lyrics

‘Son/sun come into my room
Lift up my eyes as I awake
Bird sing a song as the flowers bloom
I’ll sing along for heaven’s sake’

credits

from Overcome, released February 2, 2024
Music: J. Briffett, W. Calderbank, M. Deering, J. de Malplaquet, R. Lovell
Lyrics: J. de Malplaquet

Guest horns:
Tuba: Bruce Stevens
Trumpet and scat: Jack Kendon
Sax: Dan Cartwright

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all rights reserved

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about

The Miserable Rich Brighton, UK

creators of the fiery chamber music for song lovers: tellers of tales, writers of tunes, forgetters of punchlines. equal parts surly, silly and sumptuous.

the sound of one lip kissing.

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