Lyrics

The Doctor
Pour the wine, pour out your heart my child
You're my poor little Bethnal girl
In time that cut and bruise will mend
Just like the thought of your tears on that clinic floor

I must be so strong
That I can take the weight of all your world
You're full of pain and guilt
Those pills perpetuate your ills
And follow you from the bar to the club and haunt your sleep
So tonight I sit and I try to prescribe a list of Claire cures

I lent you my ear, I lent you my trust my dear
I spent my visiting hours by your bedside true
But I fear that when we traded places
You weren't the cure I was craving
You poured the poison that was killing me

I wasn't so strong
That I could take the weight of all my world
I was full of pain and guilt
Those pills perpetuated my ills
And followed me from the bar to the club and haunted my sleep
So all night and I'd try to apply at list of Claire cures

You pilfered part of my little world
When we parted outside the hospital
The life of the white roses in the infirmary
Expired as quickly as my respect for you that day I gestured goodbye

Nottingham Wasn't Built For Me
Drinking down the Trooper in our formative years
Hanging out in my bedroom talking over a couple of beers
Going through piles of records where we'd connect and relate
Skipping school and seeing bands at 1am blagging a place in Birmingham to stay

But now I only ever see you sparingly
At my midlands shows or your house parties
I'm sorry that Nottingham wasn't built for me
And now I only ever see you sparingly
As much as once a month is not enough
You're always in my thoughts my love

Aged eighteen I went through clearing to start our band
We found a house for fifty pounds, it was our empire on this land
Our philosophy never changed of swapping lectures for songs
The time we spent in that tiny house was the best but I guess people move on

But now I only ever see you sparingly
At my midlands shows or your house parties
I'm sorry that Nottingham wasn't built for me
And now I only ever see you sparingly
As much as once a month is not enough
You're always in my thoughts my love

Division Street Blues
I pack my bag, guitar and head down to the station
I plot my compass for the homeland, the city of my creation
I text friend A to Z to see if they're coming to the Foundry
But they're all working late, are tired or text "mate, I just can't make it"

Sheffield has lost all its individuality
The tiny independent shops are now all Starbucks on Division Street
Sheffield has lost its sense of camaraderie
The Frog was the first pub on our crawl now when I visit I drink alone

I try to kill some time by visiting the old haunts of mine
Jacks Records has moved down some tiny alleyway, it didn't used to be there in my day
The city center looks the same as every other that I pass through
All this makes me disconnected, disappointed and frankly pissed off

Sheffield has lost all its individuality
The tiny independent shops are now all Starbucks on Division Street
Sheffield has lost its sense of camaraderie
The Frog was the first pub on our crawl now when I visit I drink alone

This is the place where I was raised; screaming child to my teenage days
This is the place that I am proud of to sound out when I am asked where I come from
My favourite pubs are merely bricks without friends I care for dearly
Mates made places back in the day then one by one they said "I'm moving away"
Then they moved away
So I moved away too

Sheffield has lost all its individuality
The tiny independent shops are now all Starbucks on Division Street
Sheffield has lost its sense of camaraderie
The Frog was the first pub on our crawl now when I visit I drink alone
This place aint home to me now
It aint home to me now
It aint home to me now
It aint home

I can't expect to agree with all the needs of local government
Or how the tax payers money is spent

Five Year Plan
Monday night, All Bar One in the City
It's leaving drinks sandwiched in-between boardroom critiques
I've shook everyone in here's hand tonight
I know about their job, their pet, their wife
But they never ask a single detail about my life

In my twenty-five years I can count of one finger
The amount of my peers who give a fuck about this singer
It's clear to me that they don't give a damn
I'm stuck in mid-twenties no-mans-land
Because I don't work in finance: I don't have a five year plan
It's clear to me they don't give a damn

I'm disconnected from all these people you see
The talk of which Uni's carry the most credence for their degrees
Just because I didn't study economics at Warwick doesn't mean I cannot tell a good story
I'm sitting and I'm waiting, will they ever ask for my opinion?
Or interrupt each sentence; their ignorance is relentless
Will they ever get bored of being self-important pricks?

In my twenty-five years I can count of one finger
The amount of my peers who give a fuck about this singer
It's clear to me that they don't give a damn
I'm stuck in mid-twenties no-mans-land
Because I don't work in finance: I don't have a five year plan
It's clear to me they don't give a damn

Should I smoke another cigarette?
Or I drink another beer?
But these fuckers are the wasters here
So I smoke another cigarette
Then I drink another beer
Fuck me, I need to get out of here

In my twenty-five years I can count of one finger
The amount of my peers who give a fuck about this singer
It's clear to me that they don't give a damn
I'm stuck in mid-twenties no-mans-land
Because I don't work in finance: I don't have a five year plan
It's clear to me they don't give a damn

This isn't a damning statement about my peers or their patience
It's more a realisation that I'm not satisfied with my life
Maybe I just drink another beer, get more exercise or cross the road with more old dears
But none of that's changing the fact that I'm lonely

Okay At Best
I'm so bored of growing up
I type so many emails that I feel like I am groaning up
There's got to be more out there tha nos
We can't be flesh and bone just churning out these corporate prose

I want to fall asleep at my desk
But there's a fax over there over which I need to stress
Sometimes I wonder why I uprooted from my northern nest
Sometimes I wonder whether my life will be okay at best
Be okay at best

I mean I get by don't get me wrong
But my days they just aren't fulfilled and they're getting so fucking long
I need money so I have to work
But I just want to play my songs; I never plan on being a bank clerk

I want to fall asleep at my desk
But there's a fax over there over which I need to stress
Sometimes I wonder why I uprooted from my northern nest
Sometimes I wonder whether my life will be okay at best
Be okay at best

I'm not living any kind of dream
Stuck in this drab and dull daily routine
Do I need to be like all the rest?
Dressed up in my suit and tie looking to impress
Unlike you I can't be okay at best
Fuck being okay at best
Fuck being okay at best

Old Street Social Scene
I think I'll take a walk down the old route in Shoreditch
There's loads of public school kids, they're living in bedsits trying to prove their dads aren't uber rich
All that cocaine must be melting their insides
Because I swear I can see that they're so hollow

I'm at a house party down Brick Lane and I'm hammered to the point of shame
This playground is just not big enough for the lot of us, so I'll just stagger home
My face doesn't seem to fit into your scene
I'll wake up and wonder: where did my night derail?
Where the fucking hell have I been?
To hell and back on the Old Street social scene

I think I'll pop my head round the corner at Cargo
But I don't want the bar staff to turn out to be the people that I used to know
All that cocaine must be melting their insides
Because I swear I can see that they're so hollow

I'm at a house party down Brick Lane and I'm hammered to the point of shame
This playground is just not big enough for the lot of us, so I'll just stagger home
My face doesn't seem to fit into your scene
I'll wake up and wonder: where did my night derail?
Where the fucking hell have I been?
To hell and back on the Old Street social scene

M1 To The A52
I'm surrounded by spent beer cans and these strangers laughter is all around me
I'm hammered in Wakefield, the booze yet to yield and the hangover yet to make me feel empty

When I'm traveling and I have a second to daydream
I will be missing you from the M1 to the A25
Sometimes my spirit bends but in my heavy head
I will be watching you sleep so beautiful
This is my present to you when I'm miles away

I'm impounded by unfamiliar walls when I need to wake and haul myself to the train
But I'm enchanted by my new comrades, our wasted day and the floorspace where I lay in self-inflicted pain

When I'm traveling and I can't string a sentence of what I mean
I will be missing you from the M1 to the A25
When this week ends and I return to my bed
I will be watching you sleep so beautiful
This is my present to you when I'm miles away

Gigs

Upcoming

06/11/09 Cha Cha Cha, Watford
16/12/09 Buffalo Bar, London

2009

25/07/09 Indietracks Festival, Derbyshire
13/06/09 Fuel Cafe Bar, Manchester
24/05/09 Boogaloo, London
23/05/09 Cardigan Arms, Leeds
22/05/09 The Labour Club, Northampton
21/05/09 Roadhouse, Manchester
19/05/09 Yardbird, Birmingham
18/05/09 Mr Wolfs, Bristol
25/04/09 Primrose, Leeds
24/04/09 Pomona, Sheffield
23/04/09 The Fat Fox, Southsea
22/04/09 Mother Bar, London
21/04/09 The Boat Inn, Peterborough
20/04/09 The Maze, Nottingham
30/03/09 The Stock Room, Sheffield
29/03/09 Lucarlys, Cleethorpes
28/03/09 The Moseley Arms, Birmingham
25/03/09 Buffalo Bar, London
17/01/09 Cardigan Arms, Leeds

2008

26/11/08 Primrose, Leeds
25/11/08 Barracuda, Derby
24/11/08 Musician, Leicester
22/11/08 Cardigan Arms, Leeds
21/11/08 The Fleece, Chelmsford
19/11/08 Latest Music Bar, Brighton
15/11/08 Shakespeares Head, Leicester
14/11/08 The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham
13/11/08 The Alma, Cambridge
11/11/08 The Twist, Colchester
08/11/08 The Good Ship, London
07/11/08 Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh (w/ Saint Jude's Infirmary)
06/11/08 Bloc, Glasgow
03/11/08 Cocomo, London
28/10/08 The Ruby Lounge, Manchester
27/10/08 Musician, Leicester
26/10/08 West Street Live, Sheffield
25/10/08 Adelphi, Leeds
23/10/08 Latest Music Bar, Brighton
22/10/08 Marie Lloyd Bar, London
20/10/08 Rhythm Factory, London
17/10/08 George II, Luton (w/ Rotary Ten)
16/10/08 The George & Vulture, London
14/10/08 The Old Queens Head, London (w/ Smoke Fairies)
13/10/08 Rhythm Factory, London
09/10/08 Olives Bar, Leicester
08/10/08 Primrose, Leeds
05/10/08 Northern Monkey, Leeds
20/08/08 Black Gardenia, London (w/ Frankmusik)
15/08/08 Aldenham Golf and Country Club, Watford
23/07/08 Bar Music Hall, London
21/07/08 Perseverance, London
10/07/08 2000 Trees Festival (Open Mic), Cheltenham

Buy

'The Doctor' single
1. The Doctor
2. Crystal Missile (demo)
Released: 08/06/09
Label: Self-released
Format: Download only
Order online: bigcartel.com








'One Day All This Will Work Out...' EP
1. Nottingham Wasn't Built For Me
2. Division Street Blues
3. Five Year Plan
4. Okay At Best
5. Old Street Social Scene
6. M1 To The A52

Released: 03/11/08
Label: Self-released
Formats: CD & iTunes
Order online: normanrecords.com / recordstore.co.uk



Stockists:
Action, 47A Church Street, Preston PR 3DH
Andy's Records, 16 Northgate Street, Aberystwyth, SY23 2JS
Avalanche, 63 Cockburn Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1BS
Banquet, 52 Eden St, Kingston, KT1 1EE
Jacks, Unit 1 Aberdeen Court, 95-97 Division Street, Sheffield, S14GE
Jumbo, 5/6 St Johns Centre, Leeds, LS2 8LQ
One Up, 17 Belmont Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1JR
Piccadilly, 53 Oldham Street, Manchester, M1 1JR
Reflex, 23 Nun Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 5AG
Rockaboom, 4 St. Martins Square, Leicester, LE1 5DF
Rough Trade East, 'Dray Walk', Old Truman Brewery, 91 Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL
Rough Trade West, 130 Talbot Road, London, W11 1JA
Rounder, 19 Brighton Square, Brighton, BN1 1HD
Sister Ray, 34-35 Berwick Street, London, W1V 8RP
Selectadisc, 21 Market St, Nottingham NG1 6HX
Spillers, The Hayes, Cardiff, CF10 1AJ

Downloads

Nottingham Wasn't Built For Me
From 'One Day All This Will Work Out...'
Division Street Blues
4-track demo
The Doctor
4-track demo
Holloway To Beeston Express
1680 demo
Draw Me A New Outline
Album demo

Press

Interviews

Comfort Comes
Dirty Sexy Music
Tasty Zine
There Goes The Fear

Reviews

Organ 'Single Of The Week'
Loyal Trooper is Andy Walker and this is his self-released six track EP (and I’m trying to string together late night sentences about the sentences he strings together). A quick fix short-cut explanation would be something along the lines of saying he’s a bit like Frank Turner. That would be a quick lazy convenient short cut though, nothing more, and there are rather a lot fledgling Frank Turners around at the moment, none of them with the natural instinctive magic that Frank has. It would be easy to just dismiss Loyal Trooper as yet another if he doesn’t catch you in the right frame of mind and you’re not in the mood to really take it (or him) in properly – yes I’m guilty, dismissed this twice already and only now am I realising how good these songs and sentiments actually are. He’s like Frank Turner in the same way Metallica are like Slayer – nothing like each other when it really comes down to it.

These are songs full of personal emotion, diary pages and life and counting on your fingers just who give an f and stuck in mid twenties no man’s land. Frustrations, emotions, searches - and all sung with such simple emotion over an expressive acoustic guitar that all flows over the cleaver details so easily. Beds of expressive background keyboards, friends helping out with additional vocals and production that’s all just so perfectly simply right. Simple acoustic sounds and songs and sentiments brought to life and all with a sense of camaraderie somewhere in the disconnection and all the identical coffee-chain shops where the friends he cares for dearly don’t go anymore. A beacon on individuality in the middle of the identikit sound the same bands who may as well be musical equivalent of the Starbucks experience – that and to hell and back on the Old Street social scene or looking for old friends in Sheffield or growing up and going to gigs and sleeping rough afterwards.

Oh look, six really good songs, six really strong recordings, they’ve been playing on repeat for hours now, I’d happily hit repeat again if that pile over there wasn’t demand attention. Everything has clearly been put in to this and yes I know you could argue that that’s the case with every piece of music ever, but it really has here, six fine songs, give them songs a chance or two, they deserve it.

CMU
Andy Walker is Loyal Trooper, he has self released, produced and toured the arse off this record. Now people are taking notice, such as Lamacq and the other BBC radio luminaries. Andy is a perfect remedy to all the bullshit we have to suffer through manufactured bands and lazy rich kids who sell an aesthetic to a salivating industry cabal of vileness William Burroughs could not convey. He communicates an honesty that is in keeping with a confessional alt. comic. This is an existential folk-pop album that illuminates the nausea of what is essentially a young artist suffering with the fading of his youth, the detachment of a Northerner who has made London his home and the ramifications this has on personal relationships (both friends and romantically). The content is bleak and in the case of 'Old Street Social Scene' embittered, yet there is a definite beauty in the wistful longing that pervades the songs (especially 'M1 to the A52' which is a stunningly sad duet). He conveys a feeling that something better and more sincere is attainable; offering hope, to use the cliché of the day. What is most important is that he truly communicates something through his songs like Billy Bragg, Jarvis Cocker, Bob Mould or Jeff Lewis does. This is set upon a folk, alternative rock and country background that is sophisticated whilst having a distinct pop-sensibility. The ever present acoustic strum mixes with overdriven guitars, organs, or is occasionally stripped down, but always impregnated with rousing choruses. This could be a very important album.

Room Thirteen
Loyal Trooper’s ‘One Day All This Will Work Out…’ is a real DIY affair, produced and recorded between bedrooms and with drums tracked at a Kettering Baptist Church. The result is therefore surprisingly convincing and sounds as slick as any of the indie gracing the radiowaves at the moment.

Loyal Trooper’s songs are well-written with personal lyrics that describe various strains and personal stresses, but yet manage to keep an upbeat sound and jangly indie cheer enough to prevent them from becoming miserable monologues. “Sheffield’s lost all of its individuality” sighs ‘Division Street Blues’. ‘Five Year Plan’ is a pretty guitar-led tune with glittering riffs and tense, honest vocals that speaks of being stuck in your mid twenties and is easy to identify with. There’s a hint of Belle and Sebastian-esque indie storytelling in much of the EP (especially the delicate vocal harmonies of ‘M1 To The A52’) but it’s more wry and gritty and far less twee, should that concern you.

Personal songs can often alienate a listener, but Loyal Trooper manages to strike the perfect balance between music that draws you in and mirrors the lyrical mood and simple modern poetry. For a self-produced EP, Loyal Trooper displays an abundant wealth of talent and definite songwriting strength that deserves to reach a large audience, definitely one to watch.

Quotes

"Perfectly simply right"
Organ 'Single Of The Week'

"Understated and beautiful"
The Music Magazine

"Delightful sunshine pop"
Comfort Comes

"An upbeat pop masterpiece. Song writing of this quality should be cherished"
Tasty Zine

"A collection guitar anthems for the jilted generation"
There Goes The Fear

"Expert arrangements and clever autobiographical lyrics. The word is 'talent'"
Subba-Cultcha

"Without doubt a raw talent that needs to have an eye kept on him"
Sonic Dice

"Loyal Trooper pulls out a skein of interesting stories like he was a magician with a nice line in singer songwriter"
New-Noise

"He truly communicates something through his songs like Billy Bragg, Jarvis Cocker, Bob Mould or Jeff Lewis does"
CMU

"His instantly familiar style of telling stories has the power to capture your attention in layered emotion"
Button Thief

"Displays an abundant wealth of talent and definite songwriting strength that deserves to reach a large audience. One to watch"
Room Thirteen

"In spirit it is not a million miles away with Billy Bragg's 1983 debut"
Whisperin & Hollerin