Bio
The Vow 1989
From left to right: Graham Trust, Paul O’Brien, Jacqui Lancaster, Tony Potter and Martyn Gilbert.
Genesis
The Vow was formed in September 1989 around singer / songwriter Graham Trust. Previously members of Liverpool post punk 3 piece No Exit, Trust and lead guitarist Martyn Gilbert were joined on drums by Tony Potter, on bass guitar by Paul O’Brien and on vocals by Jacqui Lancaster. The Vow gave themselves 2 years to secure a record deal. By autumn 1990, it was decided a change of direction was required and a more raunchy, rockier style was adopted. Lancaster and O’Brien left the group and Nick Reynolds was drafted in on bass guitar. By Autumn 1991, having received only luke warm record company interest, The Vow had run its intended 2 year course and duly disbanded.
Rebirth
Motivated by the death of his organist / choirmaster father, Eric , and after a 13 year hiatus, Graham began writing once more in 2006. From this point onwards, his lyrics focused on themes of infinity, the transcendental and the fey. By the Summer of 2008, he’d written enough songs to fill an album, which had been intended to be a solo acoustic effort. However, when recording commenced in August 2008 at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool, he had been joined once again on lead guitar by Martyn Gilbert. Tony Potter flew in from his home in the United Arab Emirates to lay down drums on 12 tracks in a 2 day session in March 2009. Guy Davies played keyboards and co-produced, with Andy Strange, the band’s first commercial release in 2011 – the classic Spacedust EP. Thereafter, the 3 founding members continued with the album project. Mike Smith was drafted in on keyboards, and The Vow’s first album ‘For a Dreamer‘, was finally released in March 2012. It’s opening track “A Walk in the Sunshine” was selected as the single.
New Material
2013’s “Bluer Than You” consisted of several tracks not considered appropriate for their occasionally melancholic debut album. Here, there are re-workings of old Vow rockers like “Free the World” and bright, catchy ditties like “Someone to Talk To“. Amongst the new songs was the single “Falling Stars“.
“You Are?“, released in 2014, consists of newly re-recorded old Vow songs (I’m Over You, Flunky and Coal Fire) and new material, including the title track – “You Are“.
Their 2015 album “Ghost Writer” consists mainly of old Vow and old solo Graham Trust recordings from the ’80s and ’90s, all greatly enhanced for the 21st century. The only brand new song, “Ghost Writer” (about a romantic liaison with a dead Victorian authoress) was chosen as the single.
2017 saw the release of a new single “I am immortal” / “Je suis immortel” which is a tribute to the deceased French racing driver Jules Bianchi. The Grammy award winning producer Ken Lewis was involved with this one. The track appears on the compilation album “Free the World“.
During 2018 two more new songs were released:
“All the other boys” which concerns the so called Universal Laws which feature in the book and film of The Secret. The track appears on the eponymous compilation album “All the other boys“.
“That’ll be the day” is as sweet a ballad as The Vow have ever produced. It concerns an elusive love affair which can never be. Graham explained that “it’s more than just a song – it’s real. There are only 3 other songs I’ve ever written while fighting back the tears – “Spacedust (outro)“, “Heaven won’t hold me” and “To the End of The World“. “That’ll be the Day” opens the band’s “Love” compilation album followed by a reworking of “Caroline” accompanied by Simon Denny’s string arrangement.
The Future
Three more new songs are expected in the summer of 2019. “Madrid” is the most up tempo song The Vow have recorded so far (164 bpm for the aficionados). Its fundamental message is that it doesn’t matter to which beautiful place you travel, you can’t run away from yourself. “Venus Girl”, which is also up tempo was initially inspired by the title of a book “Men are from Mars…Women are from Venus“. It’s essentially a love song with a semi science fiction / fact theme plus a few Shakespearean allusions – “…my mind’s eye” and “…the stuff that our dreams are all made of.” Finally, there will be “Julia 1984” which explores the feelings Winston Smith had for Julia in George Orwell’s classic novel “Nineteen Eighty Four“. Watch this space for the eventual EP. The Vow hope also to release a “Best of” compilation some time in 2019 to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the band’s formation.
Interviews
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Tom Walker Interview (17.4.2017)
The Vow’s Graham Trust talks to Radio 4’s Tom Walker about his life in music, writing songs and singing the new single in French.
Listen
The idea for this song was given to me in the late 1980s by my friend Christine Abbott, who challenged me to write a song containing the word "vulnerable". I duly wrote a song called "I am Vulnerable" but failed to finish the lyrics as I couldn't think of enough to say on the theme of vulnerability. Little did I know then that my quest for the right words would last almost 30 years! Over that time I did refine the song structure, melody and harmonies and I eventually changed the title to "I am immortal". However, after several more months of struggle, it proved impossible for me to conjure up enough lyrics on the theme of immortality, and so I reverted back to "I am vulnerable".
Fortunately, over the years, I had been able to add the odd word or phrase here and there and, by July 2016, the lyrics were about 80% complete. However, I had once again hit a brick wall. Then one night, I began to think (I don't know why) about Jules Bianchi, the French racing driver who died in 2015 after a grand prix accident the year before. Within no more than 5 minutes of reading his wikipedia entry, I had finished my song. The missing lines came so quickly to me that I could hardly believe it. After all those years, the lyrics finally made complete sense. I read it over and over. It was perfect! No song of mine other than "Bluer than you" has ever had such a long gestation period as this one. Sometimes they take hours, sometimes weeks, sometimes months, sometimes years but rarely more than a quarter of a century. However, it was worth the wait! It always is.
Cynics might consider it disingenuous or even callous of me to use Jules Bianchi's tragic demise as the vehicle for finishing a silly pop song. They are, of course, entitled to their opinion, but that really isn't how it is. This is not my song. It is Jules's song and I was just the conduit through which it had to emerge. I worked exceptionally hard to finish it and then to record it. It was NOT easy, I can assure you. I began recording in July 2016 and didn't finish it until March 2017. In the words of Lennon and McCartney, "I got by with a little help from my friends" - Martyn Gilbert (electric guitar), Tony Potter (drums) and Wayne Wilson (keyboards). I hope "I am immortal", "Je suis immortel" will be played, sung and enjoyed for many, many, many years to come and that the memory of the late, great Jules Bianchi will be stirred each time it is heard.
Having co-produced all 4 of The Vow's albums with Andrea Wright, I felt it was time for a change. This time I enlisted the expertise of 7 times Grammy nominated producer Ken Lewis. Ken has a long list of number 1 hits to his name. He\'s worked with some true greats - Eminem, Jay Z, Bruno Mars, Drake, Alicia Keys, Usher and Kanye West - to name but a few. I figured that, if you want to improve your chances of having a hit record, you have to go to someone who has a good track record of producing hit records. In my opinion Ken has sprinkled my song with magic dust and given it the best possible start in life.
All income from the sale of I am immortal / Je suis immortel" will be donated to the Jules Bianchi Association
Graham Trust
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