The Devotion Chamber

May God Protect Your Home, The Sweetness Lies Within,

I Stole a Bride, You've Been Prayed For

Four Track cassette released in 1996. Long since deleted.

May God Protect Your Home

 I'm tired of boys who fight with girls and stain their sheets,
And girls who tell stories of boys and graze their knees,
And where did you get to smell so sweet,
Is that sweetness for me,
And where did I find these eyes that I found,
They will surely let me down.

And your hair stops short of a line which starts at your neck,
And flows over your collar bone down to your breast,
Where my hand lies ever so gently.

And my hand starts to move down your stomach and in between those thighs,
To a soft warm place I call home and may god protect your home.

There's a lady who cries and builds a shrine for a miscarried child,
And a small boy who cries and cries and cries and cries and cries.
I see these sights with the sleepiest eyes and a heart so contentedly wise and tired,
And now I bathe in the light of the most beautiful angel this side of the sun.

The Sweetness Lies Within 

There's just a sea between us,
I know this hope will find us.
This serenade reminds us,
Be calm, be strong, be patient.
White skin and auburn hair that,
Just makes me stare and stare and,
You're a friend that really cares and,
You have a healing quality that I see.
But the sweetness lies within you,
And I swear I won't forget you.
When you're tying back your hair,
You have the prettiest of necks.
All the angels broke my heart,
Yes they really had a knack,
Because I loved life so,
And they didn't love me back.
But I swear it's not your beauty,
It's something inside,
It's the grace that you hide,
It's the sweetness that's within.
Beware of spiteful eyes because,
They know not what they do.
Wear clothes that look good on you,
And boys will flock from all of Europe.
Treasure time that was spent with me and,
I will wait for eternity and,
I belong between the angels knees and,
Those filthy little angels never want to sleep with me again.

I stole a bride

And every Prince, who lives in Greece,
Will tear themselves to pieces for this beauty,
Born of a swan,
Jesus don't be long, let her body sweat above mine in the summertime.
And was it she who wrote 'Porn is Woman Hatred' on my overcoat,
Christ I need that coat, it really shouldn't be this cold in summertime

When she lies with me, will she pretend I'm pretty, will she forget I'm ugly,
oh I've lived a lie, I stole a pretty bride during the summertime.

Why, must she taunt me so, she still has his sent, she still wears the suitors clothes,
oh I've lived a lie, I stole a pretty bride during the summertime.

And when the swan coupled with the goose, they conceived a holy beauty and they let her loose,
And she caused a war, for ten long years,
By running off with me she caused her husband tears.
And those big clipper ships are heading straight for me and I haven't even kissed her properly.

You've Been Prayed For
 

The foreign language TV shows make me feel so sick you know, and I've been gone three days or so and you're not on the answer phone.

And sex is very painful but at least it feels a night or so, I want to wake the neighbours with our cries of joy and ecstatic moans,

An what's the point of love when love brings only pain and as we settle down to rest we will sing this tired refrain.

You, you've been prayed for night and day, and I , I've been waiting to be saved. I won't want sex when I see your face is yawning but I'll pray that I'll be stronger in the morning.

Now watch the lame and sensitive, limp young man, spit and grieve, and feel the strength within your hands and see my face look naive, and hear me cry unselfishly for many broken rosary beads, and every now and then I start to think that you might have a heart.

Why won't you save some time and leave me here to rest my mind.

Why won't you cut your nose to spite your face and come round my place. What can I offer you, my special one you've all you need. I need more than your kiss I need you bones to dance with me.

I'm not even sure whether this should be included in a true discography. John isn't on it. Antony is, but he doesn't play drums (that's me!), just a few backing vocals. Some of the copies out there are just tape to tape copies I did myself on a shitty stereo. Hefner at the time was really just me. There had been line ups before, some of them including Antony on bass or percussion. I'd kind of decided to just do it myself at this point and gigs would most likely be me and a guitar. I played one show with Antony on bongos downstairs at The Monarch in Camden town with this fantastic band called Rhatigan who John played bass for and spent a year planning how to poach him.The songs all appear in better versions on later releases with the exception of 'You've Been Prayed For' which is quite strange in retrospect because its an OK song.

I did a short tour of Vancouver BC and Portland, Oregon completely off my own back playing with friends, Melt and the New Bad Things. It built up my confidence and I came back with a plan to release a single myself.

Photos (from top) - Early promo shot of Darren '96 (Geraldine Noel), first line up us Hefner, Darren, Stewart Mansey and Graham Ward (Antony Harding), Darren and Graham (A Harding), Darren and Geraldine , who sang on the Devotion Chamber (Geraldine Noel), A temporary line up of Hefner playing in Vancouver BC Canada '96 Darren, Willy Cortes and Joel Bourret , who later formed Stereo- Morphafonium with Darren (Jennifer Playford). Sign outside EJ's Portland (D.Hayman). Na early flyer for the band.