This is a simple, acoustic guitar/ accordian & voice version of one of my all time favourite Scottish melodies. So haunting and beautiful, it could bring a small tear to 'The all-Seeing Eye'. I/we sang this, and many other folk songs at Junior School. It's a melody that has stuck with me all those years. These lyrics are set to the well know melody of, "The Shearing's nae for you my bonnie lassie-o"
There are a few different versions of the lyrics, some rather more 'earthy', about a girl who is pregnant, and so cannot help in the sheep shearing. These are the more romantic lyrics; but still poignant today, as so many soldiers are going off to war in places such as Afganistan.
I dedicate it to all soldiers serving in foreign fields.

"Spencer the Rover" is a favourite of mine by the saddly missed John Martyn. I hope you enjoy this wonderful song. I venture into Folk music now and again, and I must say, I've enjoyed covering this song. The guitar is tuned quite low, CGCFGC. all the instruments (and the mike) are routed through a Line 6 Pod (2.0). A great piece of kit.
David

"Theme for young lovers" is the latest installment in my on-going Twang Guitar series. All of them will be included in my next CD,
"Re-winding the broken memory machine".
Re-recording some of these tunes has forced me adopt a less cluttered sound, and to concentrate on melody. I'm enjoying this little side project. I hope you enjoy these tunes as much as I do.

This is a new version of a song that we played when I was a member of a 'proper ' indie rock group called Dolce Vita (1980-82). Eddie J Lockwood (lead vocalist & rhythm guitar) wrote it. This is my 2009 reconstruction of the song. Thanks Edddie. His soundclick site is . . .'Tangle fairy Music Company'. He's some nice pop tunes there. I hope you like the ska feel of this song. I submitted it for the latest Reggae flavoured Coconut Blues Club Challenge. Please go and visit the club.

"Lupus" is a song by a proper band I was once a member of. Martin Warhurst;- keyboards, bass and programming etc. Jackie Lister;- vocals and lyrics, David Briggs:- guitars.
I have recently found the lost cassette of silent Network songs at the back of a chest of drawers in my attic. I've cleaned up these analog recordings as best as I can. So watch out for more electronic /pop jems from Silent Network in the coming months. Oh how we tried !

"Chubby legs" is a tune that we recorded quite a while ago now. I feel it still holds a bit of innocent charm. It's a light hearted look at the changing of youth fashions, and the amusement it gives us in retrospect, even though it was serious to us at the time. So please forgive the slightly lo-fi sound. It gave Tony a chance to be Viv Stanshall in the intro and outro, and me to be a seventies guitar hero in the end solo section. ha ha

The latest CD by BIG SLEEP "...for the curious" is now available for £6. Over 60 minutes of original songs and instrumentals with a stunning cover drawn by Tony Webster (I designed the rear and inside artwork).
If you'd like to own a 'physical' copy, please send me a private message and I'll put wheels in motion and send one to you. All personal details will be treated with the utmost confidentiality.

David & Tony . . .(Big Sleep)

A brand new piece of 'music' that I especially created for a music project on Bill Nelson's web-site, 'Dreamsville' (www.billnelson.com) The brief was, 'Technology'. So being rather left-field, I set the 'Technology' in an alternative Victorian age. Call it Steampunk if you like. I had a lot of fun creating it, so I hope you enjoy your ride on the Sky-Train . . .

This is the latest song by BIG SLEEP. Tony putting in an outstanding vocal performance singing some of his really great lyrics, and me playing 'the band'. Tony also contributed the Oboe and Bassoon parts in the middle section and this fabulous artwork (Nice one Tony). Hope you all enjoy this new song. Please stick with it, as it's a little longer than some of our other tunes.
We're making this available as a FREE download for a limited period only, so treat yourself for Christmas . . . lol

David

A new tune, "Ngosi Leaves The Township & Finds The Blues" is my first attempt at the Kenyan Hi-life guitar style. I've not mastered it in any way at all, so this is a kind of African Blues Experiment . . . a story of a guitar playing boy who does as the title suggests.
Just as a matter of interest, "Cry the beloved Country" by Alan Patton ? is a great book about South Africa before the changes. (Great respect to Nelson Mandela for bringing about the eventual changes.) I seem to remember that Sidney Poitier played the lead role in the film version of the book, many years ago. Oops, hope I've spelled his name correctly !
Hope you enjoy this new project of mine.

. . .David

I've saved this old instrumental from my vast archive of abandoned projects. Because my 'Gormenghast series' was so well received, I thought I might let this one see the light of day for a while. I'll admit, it's got a few sonic imperfections, but on the whole, it's not a total basket case. Quite a number of years ago, my friend and musical collaborator Tony Webster, came up with the idea of creating a soundtrack for this story by Ray Bradbury. I've created the opening scene setting soundtrack, using samples and played instruments.
The plot is descibed in detail on Wikipedia, Just type the book's title. It's a great book by the way and much easier to read than Gormenghast !. . .
Hope you enjoy it.
David & Tony

I‘ve just added another instrumental track [in The Valiant B’s section]. It’s entitled, “The Stone Lanes” (the last for the moment in this series)
For anyone who is familiar with the story so far . . . it’s the ‘episode’ in the first book, when Steerpike runs away from The Great Kitchen, and becomes lost in The Stone Lanes. I hope it creates a creepy atmosphere of panic and darkness. There are lots of played, reversed and sampled sounds. The ‘B movie thriller’ guitar, picks up the running- away theme nicely.
Hope you all enjoy this new instalment in the series.

I've added quite a few new/old songs, on to the Big sleep section of my site. These were recorded a few years ago. Most of the guitar sounds were from my Korg AX100G multi-effects pedal . . .before I'd bought the amazing red kidney-bean shaped POD(2.0) Tony on vocals and me on instruments etc. :-
"I ain't done nothing "..."Stare"..."In love with the Revolution"..."Who's fooling who"

They'll be more to follow I think ! Hope you enjoy these high energy tracks.

David & Tony (Big Sleep)

I've always counted 'Gormenghast' & 'Titus Groan' by Mervyn Peake, as amongst my all time favourite books. Not an easy read, but with a little persistance, they are well worth the effort, because once inside, and taken over by their gothic splendor, you'll find yourself hooked.
My ambient instrumental "Fusia's Secret Attic", is my attempt to create a soundtrack to this story.
Fusia's Secret Attic is a cob-webbed domain, filled with mystery, sparkling with floating dust mites, and full of old and broken toys, discarded stage props and scenery.
Hope you enjoy the strangeness . . .
This is going to be a long on-going project, watch this space for more tracks . . . and sketches

I've added some old analog recordings for your amusement. Seriously though, they're not that bad to say they were recorded on a old, and sometimes faulty Fostex X-16, 4-track cassette machine. Oh how I tried . . .lol
So here they are, from the 'pre-digital age', when cassettes were what most of us recorded our music onto . . . 1990's

This is the latest project by BIG SLEEP (David Briggs & Tony Webster) Tony wrote the lyrics and sang the lead vocals, I played all the instruments, sang backing vocals and performed all the usual studio 'jiggery-pokery' ! hope you like it. as you can see, it's in two parts. Part 1 is a gentle 'pastoral' intro. The main song is a little louder ! so get it turned up . . . just one other thing ; both parts could stand alone, but here I've joined them as one track.

'Feel so Heavenly' (Major Snagg with Rodrica Rudge) . . . this is a brand new version of a song we played when I was in a band called 'Silent Network' in the early 1980's. The vocalist in the band at the time, was a girl called Jackie Lister. It's one of my favourite songs by 'Silent Network'. I especially wanted to keep the female lead vocals as in the original, so I asked Rodrica Rudge if she'd like to collaborate on it. I'm very happy that she said yes.
Rodrica has an done an absolutely first class job in adding her vocals and harmonies to my backing track. Just like the original 1980's version, I wig-out a little at the end with the guitar solo . . .!
Thanks Rodrica,
I hope you all like this song.

David

We've just finished another lively pop tune to follow on from the last one. At this rate we'll have enough songs for a mini-album or maybe an EP. If you know what that is; then you're probably a similar age to me ! lol
Thanks to everyone for checking out our last song "Me and You and You and Me" and for leaving your supportive comments. Your interest is very much appreciated,

David and Tony (Big Sleep)

This is a new song that's still 'hot' from the pressing plant at David's Multi-coloured psychedelic music workshop.
We hope you all like it's happy jangly Summer sound. More new songs to follow vey soon.

David & Tony (Big Sleep)

We've just finished a new song . . ."In the blink of an eye".
This is the finished 'demo' version. Tony taking the lead vocals and me playing the band ! We may tidy-up some of the frayed edges . . . but then again, we may just leave it as it is. A Big Sleep song, recorded and mixed, all in the space of one day. Oh by the way, I must say that the picture I stumbled upon for the avatar, is perfect for the song. Cool scooter, and Mod chic. Those were the days . . .