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All Power to the Bookshop

by Steve Roberts

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    All Power to the Bookshop, Steve's latest album, began as an Arts Council project about our relationship with books and reading. He explores how our memories, our hopes and dreams, our thoughts and emotional responses can be formed by the books we read and share. It’s an eclectic collection of songs that acts as propaganda for bookshops and reading.

    Wild and chaotic, capricious and frustrating, there are certain physical laws that govern secondhand bookshops and like gravity, they're pretty much nonnegotiable.
    Kathleen Tessaro

    Includes unlimited streaming of All Power to the Bookshop via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 2 days

      £9.99 GBP or more 

     

  • Streaming + Download

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

    Includes PDF version of cover art, booklet and photos.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £9.99 GBP  or more

     

1.
Must and dust and walls of wood,I'd call that a bookshop On rows and rows of shelves are stood, words to make your heart stop If you are looking to escape or maybe even claim your place Then it's all in an old bookshop Lines and spines of covered text waiting for a reader Maybe you will be the next nothing could be sweeter Than your eyes falling on a page and opening a golden age of time All from an old bookshop Bookshops here to feed us Always gonna need us Hoping for a reader Nothing could be sweeter W hat a prize is an old bookshop Peace and quiet or childish glee find it in a bookshop Somewhere where your thoughts are free and you can let your guard drop And open up your eyes to see the person who you want to be in this life I love an old bookshop
2.
Enid Blyton 04:18
Enid Blyton wrote the books that every child would read For 50 years she plied her trade oh my what a career She understood that children don’t want parents in the way They seek adventure through the night and they seek it in the day So it all comes down to Enid Blyton it doesn’t matter if you don’t like her So many do Enid Blyton’s Busy Bees wrote to her all the time All convinced that her lucky kids must have a lovely life On open days she serve her guests jelly and ice cream And like her books it all looked perfect and serene So it all comes down to Enid Blyton it doesn’t matter if you don’t like her There's no denying Enid Blyton and if you never enjoyed her writing So many do. Bows and arrows, sticks and stones A cave that narrow, escaping in the dark, then home. Now memory’s a strange old beast and there’s no way I’d defend her darker it can’t be denied that some books oh they offend. But feminists and socialists all loved the work she did Even anarchists share with capitalists a love for her as a kid
3.
Childhood Library I am a ghost of a childhood library A million memories in side me of happy days long ago All my shelves are packed with stories Fairy tales and ragged glories of worlds unknown all on loan all your life The cards and the tickets, the keys to your wishes The date stamps of readers now flown are with you at home The Famous Five and Little W omen Simple books with pictures in them are here for you as you know And you can share your gifts with others Read along sisters and brothers, my legacy to help you read all your life. The wind in the willows, your head on your pillow Your father, his voice in your bones, means you're never alone CozI'm the best idea, the best there ever was And I hope you can keep me here for I am wort the cost I am the words and your understanding I am the power that you're commanding so call on me and I'll be there I am the gift of imagination I'm a cause for celebration so rejoice with me, praise the genius of books And I am your library, oh you make me happy Defend me and keep me from harm, you're my lucky charm The quiet of your thunder The hope in your wonder The strength in your silence Your words to inspire us Childhood Library Choir
4.
He wrote I've always loved you You shook my world right up She never throw away his letter She left it in a book And when she had a clear out It went with all her muck slipped between the pages Just left in a book W as she hiding it from prying eyes So nobody could look Something she's ashamed of Hidden in a book Or was it marking chapters A quick unconscious tuck That meant nothing much to no one Just left there in a book He wrote remember Tuscany And all the food we cooked we toasted to our future And wished ourselves good luck And I wonder of as years go by If we'll ever be struck With a yearning for those memories of wine and airport books Vintage postcards, recipes Family photos, dry pressed leaves I hope they all found happiness I hope that life's been good Coz there's more than just one story written in a book
5.
A Visit Home 04:06
Several books have saved my life and changed my life. I still have the book of Victorian verse that the guy, who used to own the local second hand bookshop I went to as a punky teenager, put in the 20p box for me as he knew I didn't always have much money. I'd climb up onto a flat roof garage at the back of my house with a blanket and a flask of tea.The lady of Shalott and Lord Tennyson were a beautiful distraction when life was bad. Shelagh Delaney's A Taste of Honey was another second hand book that had a huge impact on me and I'd read that when my parents were shouting and plates were being thrown. I read everything I could get my hands on.I always loved books of folktales and fairy tales.Enid Blyton's Enchanted Wood and Wishing Chair. Ladybird book versions of Rumpelstiltskin and The Gingerbread man.I discovered Tolkien, Le Guin and a raft of fantasy authors. I read classics like Dickens, Hardy, the Bronte's and my favourite,Jane Austen. These are my best childhood memories. When I want to recall my childhood And there's nowhere left so I can take a look For they've built on the fields and the wildwood I can always take a visit in a book. Ralph, the second hand bookshop owner, some lovely librarians, one or two English teachers and my Nana influenced my early reading habits. Seeing John Cooper Clarke in my early teens prompted me to go out and find living poets and even write and perform my own stuff. I think the beauty of fictional characters is you can identify with them.You see yourself as you could, would or might be and you escape into some other person's head and world.You see through their eyes, you live through their mistakes and hopefully learn something from every character you encounter. I had a turquoise petit typewriter that I lugged everywhere when I was small.It was a toy really and I used to have to beg for new ribbons. I wrote and performed poems in my teens and it was whilst doing a poetry gig that I was approached to write a play.I didn't have a clue how to write a play but I was a bolshie working class teenager and I said 'yes'.I got my first play commissioned at 19 and I've written, devised and made over 30 plays since. I have a poem carved into stone in a park in my hometown. So books, books are a life raft when everything else is terrible.They help you escape, they show you your own world can be different. Books are friends, best friends sometimes. I know it might sound trite but I do believe books have saved my life. Spoken lyrics by:Sarah Miller Chorus lyrics by Steve Piano:David Oliver Chorus sung by Craig
6.
I've lived in castles and I've been a king Chased rainbows to a pot of gold I've slain green dragons for a silver ring And I am only 9 years old I've lived on planets in the milky way W here the atmosphere was cold I left at night and returned by day And I am only 9 years old I did all this lying in my bed A world of fun living in my head And it all comes from the books I've read And I know that I Like books I've sailed with pirates and swam with sharks I've boxed with a kangaroo I've fought with lions and they left no mark And every 9 year old can too. If you're shy and a little quiet And don't think you are bold, well you can make a dinosaur jump with fright ! Although you're only 9 years old Although you're only 9 years old
7.
Bestsellers 03:13
There are books that fill a space and look good on your bookcase or on the coffee table placed so people see them And there are books with purple prose, many spend their time with those I should buy some I suppose then I could read them But I’m a simple guy that’s no word of a lie I like bestsellers I read them morning noon and night On the commuter train, in bed to ease my aching brain I like bestsellers, I like a story to unfold and maybe comfort me and so I always choose to read bestsellers So when I’m on the beach or in the bath I like to reach For a story that’s a peach and I want to lose myself in time Take a break from my own mind Leave my worries all behind, like millions all do. I’m a simple guy and this is how I spend my time.
8.
There are certain books that break my heart And I only have to catch a look at their cover art To be taken back to my mum and dads It’s like I see my self on their library shelf My dad was a reader all his life. It wasn’t highbrow literature but he knew what he liked Maybe cowboy books or cops and crooks Now they’re bittersweet treasured memories. Girls in summer dresses breaking hearts Hard drinking detectives and space ships off to Mars Oh I always knew, yes I always knew I’d be a reader too. My mum never really opened books She never had the eyesight that would let her take a look So she never read what she did instead W as listen to books that read to you. Of girls in summer dresses breaking hearts Adventures to impress you and romance after dark So I always knew that I could listen too Yes I always knew that I’d be a reader too There are certain books that break my heart.
9.
Margaret Atwood, Enid Blyton, Thomas Hardy,Thomas Paine, the Brontë's, Norman Mailer, Matt Haig, B Barry Hines, Terry Pratchett, Carol Birch, Louisa May Alcott, Roald Dahl, Richard Bach, Caitlin Moran, Stephen Donaldson, Stella Gibbons,George Orwell. There are books for your leisure , There are books for the life that you lead, there are books to bring pleasure, there are books that are easy to read There are books for your vacation , there are books that you don't know you need, there are books for education, there are books that you just have to read There are books for your memories, there are books for the person you'll be, there are books you'll share with children, there are books that you'll just love to read. There are books for your sadness, there are books for your hopes and your dreams, there are books for your madness, there are books that you just want to read There are books yeah Isaac Asimov, Gore Vidal, Penelope Fitzgerald, Kate Atkinson, John Le Carre, Mick Herron, Laurence Block, Daphne Du Maurier, Virginia Woolf, J .K.Rowling, Isabell Allende, John Steinbeck, Victoria Whitehead, Harper Lee. There are books when you're broken, there are books when you're down on your knees, there are books that are spoken, these are books that you don't have to read There are books for your romance, there are books when your love's just a seed, there are books for a slow dance, there are books that you'll both want to read There are books yeah
10.

about

All Power to the Bookshop, Steve's latest album, began as an Arts Council project about our relationship with books and reading. He explores how our memories, our hopes and dreams, our thoughts and emotional responses can be formed by the books we read and share. It’s an eclectic collection of songs that acts as propaganda for bookshops and reading.

Wild and chaotic, capricious and frustrating, there are certain physical laws that govern secondhand bookshops and like gravity, they're pretty much nonnegotiable.
Kathleen Tessaro

credits

released January 1, 2022

Steve Roberts, songwriting, vocals, guitars, keyboards, programming.
Craig Edmondson, guitars, keyboards, programming, backing vocals
Richard Snow Hattersley - 12 string electric guitar
Kate Campbell Green - trumpet, backing vocal
Childhood Library Choir

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about

Steve Roberts Glossop

Steve was/is the singer and songwriter with Liverpool’s 16 Tambourines who signed to BMG and toured and recorded throughout Europe in the late 80s and 90s.
He’s since recorded 3 solo albums and one with the band Captain Pop. He’s also written for TV and semi theatre pieces about the Cold War and Surveillance. He lives in the Peak District.
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