Roy Watson presents Good Morning, Mr Bland Cemental Health Records EEG15 All tracks recorded at Winter Headquarters/Condemned Angel  except Sympathy For The Devil and Koyaanisqatsi recorded at Ghetto, tarted up at Winter HQ/Condemned Angel. Symnpathy For The Devil recorded Spring 1983;  Koyaanisqatsi recorded Spring 1985; vocal tracks on Word On A Wing (two of three),  The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, Sunspots recorded March 1987;  tart-ups and all other recording executed August 1986–January 1987. Produced by Roy Watson, engineered by Iain Walker.  Mixed at Ghetto 30/03/1987 by R.W. Digitally remastered November 2004. Thanks to John Catherwood, Endel Öpik and Iain Walker for equipment;  to Val Widdowson for the title; to CHealth for patience;  and to my dear friends who guested on vocals. Cover: doctored reproduction of Masterpiece by Roy Lichtenstein. This title (P) 1987, 2004 Cemental Health Records.

Roy Watson plays guitar, bass guitar, guitar outrage, keyboards, digital samples, harmonica, recorder, balalaika, rhythm programming.
Iain Walker programmed the rhythm and plays second synthetic fiddle on Sunspots.

The Roy Watson story: a word from our sponsor
One afternoon in 1982, having just set up CHealth and looking for a roster of shit-hot young guerrillas, I was walking idly past a council tip (as one does) when I heard a hauntingly, tearfully beautiful melody.  I knew at once I had to find its source and, picking my way gingerly through the refuse, I caught my first tantalising glimpse of Roy: an elfin waif perched atop a pile of rotting fish, clad only in a loincloth made out of old Telegraphs and playing a set of Pan pipes as I had never heard them played before (nor ever have since).  Coming up to him at last, I uttered the immortal words: “Stick with me, kid, and I'll make you a star.”
Within weeks he had grasped the principles of electronic sound synthesis, and was hard at work creating the collection of pieces which subsequently emerged as The Twinkie Plea (EEG05, a collection in which I am proud to have assisted).  I introduced him to Iain Walker, who immediately spotted the potential of this fey young dynamo and offered him a permanent gig with The Problem Of Pain.  He's there to this day, but has never fought shy of helping out with other CHealth combos, and everyone at the label speaks of him with warmth, admiration, love not untinged with a little awe.
In early ’84 I told Roy of a running joke I had with Val Widdowson: it concerned freaking an ultra-straight neighbour of mine by bursting into his bedroom at 5:00 a.m. shrieking, “Good morning, Mr. Bland,” and the opening line of some popular ditty or another, tugging all the while at his tripod and tufts.  The anecdote inspired Roy to begin work on this collection – a couple of those early works can be heard here, in updated form – but, what with one thing or another, the project was repeatedly delayed; in particular, Roy had always hankered after stable home and working environments (entirely understandable in view of his background).  Finally, a few months ago he returned from his sabbatical spent working alongside Micronesian scratch-artists with the necessary moolah to purchase a place of his own and soon, comfortably ensconced in his very own pile of rotting fish, he was working on ...Mr. Bland with a dervish-like intensity.
Roy, for all his radiant genius and unselfconscious saintliness, is a self-effacing cove, and has never been persuaded to stand before a mike; he prefers, he says, “the dynamic interactions possible with my dear friends” by asking them to guest on vocals.  I'm particularly humbled to have been asked to contribute on so many tracks, and I know I speak for us all when I say how much of a privilege it's been to have worked with such a legend.  We all salute you, Roy!

Major recording companies are respectfully requested to indulge Cemental Health Records’ tribute to some of the monumental noises they have produced, and to excuse the teensy-weensy breaches of copyright attendant thereto.
 
 

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