Charley Stone: Here Comes The Actual Band

Charley Stone: Here Comes The Actual Band

(Self Released)

CD / DL / Streaming

Out Now

Buy Here

Prolific, in-demand guitarist and certified Indie Legend Charley Stone releases her debut album with ’the Actual Band’

If you’ve been to an Indie Gig at some point over the last 30 years you’ll have seen Charley playing guitar. Whether you were there for Salad, Gay Dad or more recently checking out Desparate Journilaist and Sleeper via numerous other acts including The Priscillas, Spy 51, Keith TOTP or the magnificent Fallen Women, an all-female Fall karaoke band, Charley will have been there.

The scene queen, former Durannie and  ‘Bonham Carter of Rock’ has put together a debut solo album, accompanied by her Actual Band, comprising Mar K (The Ethical Debating Society, The Charlemagnes, Thee Faction) on bass and Lily Rae (Fightmilk, Captain Handsome) on drums.

Whilst some of the 10 tracks on this album have previously been released as solo home-produced singles, she explains, “the arrangements are quite different for these Actual Band versions,” carefully adding the caveat, all songs and arrangements are subject to change for live performances or future recordings. There is no ‘definitive version’”. With the help of Mar and Lily,  the time is now right to release this collection”.

Here Comes The Actual Band is a lot of fun, often with a playful tongue-in-cheek spirit but also has depth when looking at relationships. Lyrically inspired by incidents and situations the artist has found herself in or experienced over the years. It’s maybe a little ironic that the opening track, Now, on the surface by the title could suggest a spark to begin the record however it’s actually about procrastination!

Recent single, Better With You, follows, the starting point of which is the image of a couple of very messy people stumbling out of a house and into a car, to go to a wedding that they really should not have been going to…. This is followed by Hangover Song, which was literally written during Lockdown when the artist was suffering one of the worst hangovers of her life. Initially recorded the evening following said hangover and released as a fragile acoustic demo the album version version is beefed up but is still one of the most effcting tracks and one of my favourites with Stone delivering a gorgeous vocal performance. It’s the kind of track you’ll replay before heading onto the next number.

The ‘aftermath of a breakup’ song, Does She Mention Me? comes next. This, along with the next track, Ghost, are amongst those which date back to a prolific purple period during the pandemic which saw Charley coming up with 55 song ideas in around 6 weeks.

Free Food you can imagine being recorded live in the studio with the 3 members of the band playing, facing one another and practically improvising on the spot. As the songwriter explains, “It  is a song about free food, except it’s not just about that. This is what happens when I try to write a song about wanting to live in a socialist utopia: it still comes out as a song about romantic longing.”

Mountain Top to me feels a little Bugeye-ish, not that that’s an issue. It’s a little trippy and was written, “after getting back from a festival having created an imaginary alter ego in my head who I imagined came towards me out of the woods.” So a good festival then?

Vocally, Not Your Number, for me at least, has the best performance on the album as Charley’s voice just soars as she realises the futility of making the effort for someone who doesn’t appreciate it or is interested. The penultimate track, Accidie, came, she says “after finding A Book Of Silence on a wall and reading it very slowly, and then hearing someone go on about “accidie” again in a Radio 4 podcast” The track is a little more psychedelic than the album to this point and bleeds into the final track, A Scream.

A Scream, another single, is the perfect album closer which sees the Actual Band rocking out and cutting loose, which, hopefully live will be be extended and drenched in feedback. In the track, Stone offers personal reflections on the creative process and was the first song she ever wrote on electric guitar. It also references the time a spider fell out of her hair whilst brushing it…

Here Comes The Actual Band is a long overdue album, a 30-minute blast which will put a smile on your face and you’ll want to revisit time and time again. Buy it on Bandcamp. 

Catch Charley live

6th June – The Golden Lion, Bristol
27th June – The Cavendish Arms, London

For more Charley click here

All words by Iain Key. See his author profile here or find him on X (Twitter) as @iainkey