Simons Music
Simon had a wide range of musical appreciation from The Clash to Cash and from Rock to Reggae. This section celebrates just that…
"I am the Truth" by Reality?
The song is by Reality? and features Hannah W. singing, Becky. J speaking and is produced by Meka Sonic. It was made to simply say that in life we should seek the truth.
Often the media will portray things in a certain way, and that will lead to speculation and rumour, and we need to wait until we have all the facts before we can come to the realisation of what the truth really is. This song is for Simon’s friends and family, and to those that have supported them, to say thank you, send my love to them and to raise awareness amongst others of the projects that are continuing in Simon’s name. Hit play below to listen.
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"SiMurden" by Dfunkafyre
Simon’s loss has affected family, friends, and his And Albert Foundation work so deeply. Every day we all miss him terribly. This Song written by Dred, one of our good friends in London, he says is "straight from Simon". The Track is called "SiMurden". D'Moore productions from Birmingham created the beat. Big C from "Dfunkafyre" (London) did the recording. The M.C. is Azire (Dred) from Dfunkafyre in London, who also wrote the Lyrics, as he says, "along with Simon's help!". Hit play below to listen.
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Travellers Rest, Bolgatanga, Ghana, Nov 2005
This is our Yorkshire Tea and fried egg sandwich essential stopping point in North Ghana in the basket making region of Bolgatanga. Linda and her brothers will provide a welcome break for our film party with David Bellamy in November. The Fra Fra tribe are very good musicians and singers and we hope Lindas brother Richard will provide music as we arrive. Look out for them and other groups we are helping as we do the first of many films supporting their cultural heritage.
Electric Picnic, 3rd-5th September 2005
Simon's brother Jonathan got married to the lovely Tina Geogehan on Saturday 17th September. Congatulations to them both. For Jonny’s stag weekend he went to the Electric Picnic Festival in Stradbally, just South of Dublin, with the lads above. A good time was had by all with plenty of good bands to see and lots of drink flowing as is usual with such occasions.Jonny and Simon went to a lot of music festivals and have clocked up at least 10 Glastonburys together between them.
One of the highlights of the festival was the performance by ’Toots and the Maytals’, the classic reggae band who invented the term ’Reggae’. They were one of Simon’s favourite bands and he had seen them at Glastonbury several times. The picture above was taken in the crowd whilst they were playing. We hardly stopped dancing the whole time whilst they played such tunes as ’Monkey Man’, ’Pressure Drop’ and ’Reggae got Soul’. The gig was an absolute blinder. Cheers Toots and the Maytals. We loved you.
We all wore our ’SimonMurden.com’ T-shirts and waved the ’Simon Says’ car stickers around pretty much for the whole festival. We managed to sticker all over the place: on tents, signs, backs of trucks and even the toilets were covered by the end. Everybody who talked to us about Simon was sympathetic and listened to what we had to say. People were walking around with the stickers on their t-shirts, up their jeans legs and even the guy on stilts had one on. Everyone played brilliantly and everyone had a great time.
Above from left to right: Back Row: Ash ,Tony, Matthew, Max, Jonny, Alex, Cheeky Ali, Mat, Herbs | Front Row: Richie and Chippers (Elvis took the picture)
Carbon Silicon, May 23rd 2005
About 15 of Simon’s friends and family went to see the gig as Simon was a huge Clash fan and had seen Carbon Silicon (Mick Jones, ex-Clash and Tony James, ex-Generation X) play at Sheffield Leadmill last year. The gig went down a storm, Carbon Silicon played brilliantly and the crowd loved it. Afterwards we got a chance to meet the Band and tell them a little about Simon. They were very sympathetic and understanding. Simon's family and friends really appreciate them taking time out to talk to us.
Cheers Carbon Silicon!
Some of Simon’s Favourite Tunes
- Redemption Song - Joe Strummer/Johnny Cash. Simon and his Dad’s favourite song. This version we only found a couple of weeks ago off the web but Si was so excited to get me to hear it with him. The last time we heard it last week (Friday) we both hugged and cried.
- Bittersweet Symphony - Verve. Another favourite we often played in the van when Si, Tony and Dad sang as many words as we knew and Si banged the beat on the steering wheel…
- Sit Down - James. Our favourite James song often played travelling in the van.
- Johnny Cash - our new sing along tunes when travelling in the van: "Man in Black"..Simon said to me only last week, "Dad are you the man in Black!" I said "trying to be"…he said "I will help you!". "Hurt". Nuff said&hellipeverybody hurts. We all loved the album he recorded live at San Quentin and it got played through repeatedly many a time. Classic funnies such as "Boy Named Sue" and "One Piece at a Time" kept us amused whilst the brilliance of his newer American Recordings collections kept us amazed.
- Clash - Pretty much every album became strong travelling tapes, and classics such as "Working for the Clamp down";"Bank Robber". (No we aint going to try that one) and "Armagideon Time" became instant anthems. Cheers to Joe and the lads for creating such mint songs. Check out Mick Jones’ new band Carbon Silicon above.
- Eleanor Rigby - Beatles. The one Simon told me he identified with and wanted that "all of us should be there for the lonely".
- Rocky Dawuni. A friend of Simon’s dads who is from one of their project areas Simon visited only a few weeks ago. He is now a respected reggae musician in USA and called "the new Bob Marley". We are asking him to write a song for Simon. Anyway Simon’s favourite from one of his album’s was The Sufferer’s Anthem…nuff said again!
- Do you really like reggae - Simon could move and groove to this as he could to another one of friends from remote North Ghana who has a small band writing their own local lyrics: Ivan and the Black Wailers. Simon’s favourite: "Sunshine"
- Be Aware by Jimmy Cliff - Simon understood and loved this tune so much that it immediately gained "van classic" status and it probably appeared on nearly very mix tape he ever did. He chose it for his skate session on the upcoming DVD Gettin thru the Winter (see Simons Crew page).
Below from left to right: In the mud at Glastonbury, a frequent yearly haunt! | Max, Jonny and Simon at Glasto | Simons friends Big Mike and Max meet Joe Strummer at Glasto2000 | Simon (age 16) the youngest of the "posse" with Ash (age 32) the oldest - when he still had hair! | Joe has a drink with the lads at Glasto'2000
If you would like to find out more about the Projects in Africa that Simon was passionate about, visit the And Albert website or simply send us an email to davidmurden@africalandstrust.org.