Real Love and Communication - Bard of Ely's entry in the YouBloom Music Awards

Bard of Ely's song Mañana got through to the semi-finals of the YouBloom Music Awards song contest the other year and, in so doing, got heard by Bob Geldof and a team of music industry judges. Although it didn't get any further, Geldof gave it a score of 10 and the team of judges will all remember the Bard's name now. Former NME editor Conor McNicholas and DJ and producer Sarah Lewitinn were among the judges and the latter said she wouldn't forget the song.

Having got that far at YouBloom, Bard of Ely gave it another go with another song was entered in the competition. The song was entitled Real Love and Communication.

Real Love and Communication (Dance mix) was a collaboration between the Bard of Ely and the late Chris Swambo aka Sqwab and Ned Zero, with backing vocals by Cardiff singer-songwriter Denise Tiley, who is also often simply known as Den. The idea was for her to provide some soaring very female vocals to contrast with the lead vocals. This she did admirably and Chris dubbed her "Diva Den!"

Chris Swambo produced the song and added his own lead electric guitar. He wanted to make it the sort of song that could be a hit in Dance clubs and at raves and used effects in some parts to give it that psychedelic touch.

Moonloonies

Chris very sadly passed away in March 2001, after being diagnosed with a brain tumour, but he used to be part of the legendary but defunct Shockhead and also The Moonloonies, two South Wales bands fronted by Crum, who was formerly a keyboards player for Hawkwind. Hawkwind are of course famous for the space-rock sound they created and their hit single Silver Machine.

Although the band came to fame in the late 1960s they are still playing today. Lemmy, who was originally in the band went on to form Motorhead and had a lot of hits in his hard-rocking style with songs like Ace of Spades.

The song Real Love and Communication was produced at Chris's house in Llandough and Den came over to record the backing vocals. Chris was also working on a collection of musical compositions under his Ned Zero name at the time and was a gifted electric guitarist and producer of psychedelic rock and electronic music.

Green Man Festival

Real Love and Communication was conceived as a song in the Dance genre, though it started life as a Ska or Reggae style number. An acoustic version of Real Love and Communication was released as part of the Green Man Festival album on Double Snazzy.

A pre-recording of the Druid's Oath is used as the intro to the song and the words: "We swear by peace and love to stand, heart to heart and hand in hand," fitted the theme of the song so well because it calls for unity in the world. It is intended as an anthem for peace.

The Druid's Oath had been recorded in a studio in Bath some time before and included the late Tim Sebastion, who was Archdruid of the Secular Order of Druids. Its live and acoustic nature contrasted well with the very electric and studio-produced feel of much of the song. It also reflects the fact that Bard of Ely is a Druid as a Quest Knight and Bard of the Loyal Arthurian Warband.

In 2009 Bard of Ely worked for several months in a school in Garachico in Tenerife and Real Love and Communication got included in the songs performed for Peace Day celebrations. The children had already been learning John Lennon's Imagine but were happy to learn this song too.

Bard of Ely used to take his acoustic guitar in to lessons and would practice the song with the children and teacher who helped by singing the chorus of "We all need a real love and communication."

It was a proud moment for Bard of Ely performing it live on stage at Peace Day and an even prouder one when one of the children, a boy called Juan, complimented him very highly by saying he thought Real Love and Communication was "better than the John Lennon song."