044 - 055

The Moscow Gypsy (2:45) Initially written in Russia. this tune was conceived while waiting for the train at the Rizhskaya tube stop on the Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya line in Moscow. A band of gypsies were playing at the stop trying to drum up cash. One of the children. a small boy came over to me, and of course, asked for money. He looked so sad, his eyes were huge pools of sadness and hunger. Bare minimum of clothes. He kind of summed up Russia for me really. I gave him a thousand roubles, and he rushed over to his parents-they were so excited about the gift that they came over and thanked me (the father spoke fluent English) ..'for your kindness we will play for you our songs' he said - and the whole family played for me using fiddles, mandolin and guitar. They were great and the songs echoed through the tube, with others coming up joining us. We had a great time and ended up sitting around laughing and getting pissed together at the station. I finished the initial idea later in my hotel in Arbart and recorded the guitar part with my friend/engineer Boris. The recording was then left for about a year and a half and finished at Ian Blake's 'Blue Bear' studio's in Latham, Canberra, Australia where we added Cello and Violin.I had to re-record the guitar part at the 'Blue Bear' in the end as the recording in Arbart was too poor to use for CD. The Russian equipment that we were using was very ancient - very very analogue, kind of taped together and wired up recording contraptions.