Electric Fire

  • 1. Pressure On
  • 2. A Nation of Haircuts
  • 3. Believe in Yourself
  • 4. Surrender
  • 5. People on Streets
  • 6. The Whisperers
  • 7. Is It Me?
  • 8. No More Fun
  • 9. Tonight
  • 10. Where Are You Now?
  • 11. Working Class Hero
  • 12. London Town - C'Mon Down

Roger: “The most underrated of my efforts”

“I think it’s more accessible and it’s probably wider ranging. There’s a lot of different things; some hard rock and roll, some softer more introspective stuff. It’s a good wide ranging album I think.”

“It was an idea I had; a simple word play really. On the one hand the electric fire is a very ordinary domestic appliance, a rather unglamorous one, and on the other hand I suppose it sounds a bit like it’s electric and its on fire. I just liked the concept of the two meanings, and then I came across a painting done by Tim Mara from the Royal College of Art, and it’s just a hyper real electric fire, that’s what it is, a two bar electric fire, and I liked the painting a lot and just thought that fits very well – for me that was the sleeve. Then the record company told me to put my face on there as well, so, sorry about that folks.”

Like ‘Happiness?’ before it, Roger recorded his fourth solo album at his home studio in Surrey. The sessions spanned nearly 18 months; from early in 1997 to the summer of 1998.

Roger sang most of the vocals and played much of the music himself and co-produced the songs with Joshua J Macrae. The rest of the vocals were provided by Wire Daisies singer Treana Morris, who co-sang with Roger on ‘Surrender’, ‘Pressure On’ and ‘London Town – C’mon Down’. Roger wrote most of the songs himself, and recorded a cover by one of his greatest influences John Lennon, in ‘Working Class Hero’. One of the songs, ‘The Whisperers’, is part credited to Nicholas Evans. Evans was the author of the book ‘The Horse Whisperers’, and tells of the ancient art of training wild horses with softly spoken commands as opposed to force, and many quotes from the book were used in Roger’s song lyrics. The book was eventually made into a motion picture film.

As with the previous album ‘Happiness’, Jason Falloon played some guitar here, and Mike Crossley played keyboards on most tracks. Keith Prior was brought in on drums and Steve Barnacle on bass, and Matthew Exelby and Keith Airey also played guitar on some tracks. Jonathan Perkins from the band Miss World also added vocals and keyboards to ‘Surrender’, ‘People On Streets’ and ‘The Whisperers’.

A mysterious character called Arty makes himself known on the track ‘People On Streets’, which turned out to be Roger, using an acronym of his initials RT. Arty would appear again much later, in 2006, on a single credited to Felix and Arty on a download release of ‘Woman You’re So Beautiful (But Still A Pain In The Ass…)’. This was a collaboration between Roger and his oldest son Felix, who sings the song, while Roger plays drums, keyboards, guitar, backing vocals, and also produced the track.

The album cover concept was designed by Roger and Richard Gray. The depiction is that of an electric fire taken from a silkscreen and oil on canvas painting by Tim Hara, called ‘Two Bar Electric Fire No.1’, the original of which still resides inside Roger’s Surrey home. The back cover features a photograph of Roger’s son Rufus Tiger taken by friend Bob Geldof.

On 24th September 1998, a private concert, staged within a large barn in the grounds of Roger’s Surrey garden, was streamed live on the internet for fans worldwide to see and hear Roger perform a short live set. Called simply ‘Cyberbarn’, an invited audience watched Roger perform nine songs, then be interviewed by Virgin DJ Russ Williams, and finally take questions from people all over the world via the internet link up. Roger was also presented with a certificate by the ‘Guinness Book Of Records’, as the unique event drew the largest audience ever for an internet gig – 595,000 hits from around the world.

‘Electric Fire’ was released in the UK in September 1998 – the same day as the first single ‘Pressure On’ – and reached number 53 in the UK album chart. It was released on orange vinyl LP, cassette and CD formats. A single edit was released on limited 7″ orange vinyl and the CD and B-side included ‘People On Streets’ (Mashed) and ‘Tonight’ (dub Sangria), and on ‘The Independent Man UTD Supporters Association’ CD edition (released to stop the media mogul Rupert Murdoch taking over the Manchester United football club) were the tracks ‘Dear Mr Murdoch’ and ‘Keep A Knockin”, a cover version of the song made famous by Little Richard.

A second single, a radio re-mix of ‘Surrender’ (and produced by Chris Thomas) was released in the UK in March 1999 and reached number 38 in the charts. A limited numbered 7″ vinyl picture disc was issued with a single mix of ‘London Town – C’mon Down’ as the B-side and on Part 1 of the numbered limited edition CD was a club cut of ‘A Nation Of Haircuts’. Part 2 of the CD was a ‘live and enhanced’ edition featuring live versions of ‘Surrender’, ‘No More Fun’, ‘Tonight’ and ‘Surrender’. All tracks were recorded at the Cyberbarn internet event in September, which was released as a long form home video on VHS in October 1998. Clips of the DoRo directed concert were also included in the promo video. The single was used by the Devon and Cornwall Police to help tackle domestic violence and to raise awareness of the support available to victims of this crime.

In March 1995, Roger and his band took to the road for a 16 date UK tour, starting in Gloucester on the 15th and ending in London on 3rd April. Dubbed the ‘Surrender Tour’, Roger included songs from ‘Electric Fire’ as well as old Queen favourites like ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘A Kind Of Magic’, ‘These Are The Days Of Our Lives’, ‘Under Pressure’, ‘I’m In Love With My Car’, ‘I Want To Break Free’, ‘Tenement Funster’ and ‘Radio Ga Ga’, as well as other material from his previous solo albums.