Mother Nature Calls

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Liverpool legends Cast celebrate the 25th Anniversary of their classic debut album ‘All Change’. Originally released on 16th October 1995 it became the highest-selling debut album in the history of the Polydor label. I knew I had something there, and it turned out to be something special. It was a soaring song which became the standard-bearer that gave me a taste for it. It wasn’t confident because confidence means you think you can do it and you know you can do it. I had a will to want to do it, but it gave me a taste for it and to understand what it's like to write a song that you know is good and has got all the parts. It's a great pop song and it’s uplifting and it’s powerful in its own right. Tell It Like It Is is a favourite song. I remember getting the intro riff and singing over it. The melodies just came to me, it's a very haunting and wistful song, and there's something unknowing and uplifting about it. I'm singing about that feeling of being taken over by something. And then the choruses are realist, trying to look through the bullshit and facades that we are given and told is what we are capable of and what we should put up with. 'Tell It Like It Is' says what it's about and where it's at.

I thought somewhere along the line I needed to try something else for my own wellbeing. I had the idea for Cast by then, and every night in the show the last words to be sung were "The change is cast" from the La’s song 'Looking Glass'. I thought that was a sign. At that age, we were into the mysticism of the universe which the band was well connected to. I thought, "the change is cast" and it's telling me every night that that’s maybe what I'm going to have to do. Selected items are only available for delivery via the Royal Mail 48® service and other items are available for delivery using this service for a charge. Did you feel pressure after the success of All Change going in to record the second album Mother Nature Calls? Fine Time is a vital record for what it says because it's always a fine time to make the right decisions. It’s never too late to make the right decisions and there's never a wrong time to make the right decisions although it might feel like you've missed it. The present is the time to make your life changes. Follow Me Down' actually could have gone on the album. Maybe I wanted to get rid of it because it was something I did with the La’s. I think in the very early days of Cast I was a little bit confused about where I was standing in my relationship with the La’s. Whereas now I can see things a lot clearer and my love for both bands and where I was. 'Follow Me Down' with the riff that Skin got and the Dr Who vibe going down on it on a waltz that could have easily been on the album. The B-sides where great, 'Better Man,' 'Hourglass' and 'Satellites' I had already written. 'Better Man' was one of the first completed songs that I had because I have memories of playing that outside the La’s practice place. I think it was the first song I played to a friend of mine Henry Epstein and he still reminds me about the first time I played it to him outside leaning on his car in the sun.With Fine Time I had the verse when I left the La’s, but I didn't have the chorus, and I didn't have the middle eight. A lot of this album was written walking around. I had left the La’s, and I still had a circle of friends, and I was staying at my ma’s or staying wherever, and I would get up out of bed in the morning and just walk across to my mates’. If no one was in, you would end up wandering around all day trying to catch the trail of your buddies or somewhere where you think people would generally hang out and meet midday. So there was a lot of mulling things over as I was just walking around and 'Fine Time' was one of those songs. The little riff at the beginning of Two of a Kind was probably one of the first things I ever wrote. When I learned a G chord and a C, that's what I did - I had that for ages. In those days we would be up at three in the morning with my mates, and I would sing it and play that little riff and melody. Which was nothing it was a real naïve riff like a little croon, and then it ultimately became the epic song of the album and always had to close the album. We used to finish our live shows with it as well. We hadn’t played it in donkeys, and I played it in December, and it was great. Sandstorm is very close to my heart. The third verse is the first one I wrote. I sang that, and I loved the melody and the punctuation of it all and the actual shape of it – I still do. It's a very special song that's dear to me and very close to my being. Of all the songs that I've written, I still find a familiarity when I sing it and play it. It's slightly childlike in its melody, and even my eight-year-old daughter sings it. She stood up in school and sang that on her own. She likes the tune, and I understand entirely why.

The great thing about that era was when you released the singles from All Change the B-sides were great songs too like ‘Follow Me Down,’ and ‘Better Man.’ Mankind has a slightly Hunky-Dory sort of vibe. Dare I say it? It’s Bowie-esque in a Cast version. It's another great song with a great melody and guitar riffs. We did some gigs in Liverpool last December where we played a different one of our albums each night, and we played All Change in full. One thing I realised when we played it was that it's a youthful album. I had to run hard to keep up with it. It's fast and it’s got energy. 'Mankind' is idealistic. A lot of the songs on the album are about your time, your place and your moment, And recognising that we as a generation have your chance to say something and shape things the way that you feel. 'Mankind' is just another chapter in that book. The reality of us getting signed and numerous recording sessions and tours and problems within the tours and issues within ourselves were starting to tell on our bearing. It's a weight upon your shoulders and somewhere within all that I started thinking, "Okay I've got these songs, and I may have to play my joker card and try and go and form something myself." Mother Nature Calls is the second album by the English band Cast, released on 14 April 1997 by Polydor. It spawned four singles: " Free Me", " Guiding Star", " Live the Dream" and " I'm So Lonely".I said to my mate, "That's me from the other night," and I could see from his face that he was startled. He was a mate of mine who knew his way around a record collection, and I appreciated his musical ear. Every time you are writing a song, especially at that age and that period in your life you are looking for little nuances and things that people say or do. I can specifically remember walking down roads, across parks singing the chorus, singing the middle eight and just singing the songs all day. I still make a lot of arrangements in my head. I’m working on things now I've got ideas, and I’m trying to find one idea to fit another. I've got many ideas all in different corners of the room of my head. Because somewhere down the line there’s always a perfect addition to an idea. Sometimes you've already got the chorus that you need, and I suppose that was the same with 'Fine Time.' I was wandering around, and I got it together. It became the first single off the album and the first single played on the radio, and it was a hit. It had a significant effect on all the band members individually. It was the song that they all finally realised that their dream was coming true, which is what it was. I think each of the band members will have their memory of where they were when 'Fine Time' came on the radio. The debut single from your debut album is on the radio in the summer we thought, "Shit this is happening it's great! Everything I thought was going to happen."