Category: Great British Holiday Songs
Rain All Summer Time by Darren Hayman – Video
Out of Season by Darren Hayman – Video
Caravan Song by Darren Hayman – Video
Great British Holiday EPs
Released 4th August 2008
Between 2005 and 2007 Darren released four EPs detailing his holidays in Britain, taking ukuleles, minidisks and Casio keyboards to caravan parks, Butlins and B&Bs. The songs are sweet and tender, lo-fi vignettes of lost youth, faded photographs and half-understood Britishness.
Also included is a DVD featuring 5 videos and an interview with Darren about the project shot on the coast in Kent.This is quite a package: as well as featuring all of the EP songs and all the original artwork in a 16 page booklet, Darren has recorded 3 holiday cover versions; Holiday Road (originally by Lyndsey Buckingham from the film National Lampoons Vacation), Margate (originally by Chas and Dave) and V.A.C.A.T.I.O.N. (originally by Connie Francis)
Buy the Great British Holiday EPs on CD and DVD.
Buy this on download from Bandcamp for 6.99
Minehead EP
Originally released 13th August 2007
Written and recorded at Butlins Holiday Camp in Minehead in October 2006, Minehead includes the tracks ‘Out of Season’, ‘Say It Ain’t So’, ‘The Way It Seems’ and ’1976′, and represents the last release in Darren’s series of holiday EPs.
Eastbourne Lights EP
Recorded on a Fostex 4-track tape machine at the Seabeach House Hotel, Eastbourne over two days during May 2006, Eastbourne Lights, consisting of the tracks ‘Eastbourne Lights’, ‘The Musgrave Collection’, ‘No Military Man’ and ‘Retirement Days’, is the third in the British Holiday EP series. Andy Field added drums to ‘No Military Man’ in Brighton, a bus-ride away from Eastbourne.
Ukulele Songs from the North Devon Coast EP
Originally released 10th April 2006 on Static Caravan.
The second in the series of British Holiday EPs, Ukulele Songs from the North Devon Coast saw Darren pack up his ukulele and head off to Devon, where he wrote and recorded the four tracks on this EP: ‘Rain All Summertime’, ‘The Only Kind of Light I Know’, ‘Hardcore No More’ and ‘8-Bit World’.
Caravan Songs EP
Originally released 14th July 2005 on Static Caravan.
A four-song, 7-inch EP released on Static Caravan, the tracks ‘Caravan Song’, ‘Future Song’ and ‘Loft Song’ were written and recorded in Darren’s wife’s uncle’s caravan at Cresswell Towers Caravan Park in August 2004; ‘Welcome To Cresswell Towers’ was written one year previously in the same location. Born out of the intention to create music with ‘a sparse, folky feel’, all songs were initially recorded with soprano and baritone ukulele and a minidisk machine; other instruments were later overdubbed in Darren’s own home.