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In use day & night

by Ben Holland

supported by
Gary Padbury
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Gary Padbury Thanks to 6Music / Tom Robinson (via Joan Armatrading) for putting me onto this guy. Favorite track: Your Gods Won't Tell You.
Allan Ross
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Allan Ross Ben your a class guy
First met you in a tube station Piccadilly Circus I stopped to talk cause I was gobsmacked with your talent you gave me a cd
/
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1.
Outside I hear the river raging The streets are filled with thieves not worth saving My heart now rides a hearse The poor thing died of thirst And now it's raining Inside I wish your face forgotten You're memory from me is barred from top to bottom I'm searching for a trick To somehow spin your silk Into cotton Bring me a surgeon not a priest Or this hurt will never cease Draw the curtain But there's no such thing as peace It's war from west to east And that's for certain I'm weary And the road is endless Broken down, penniless, and friendless If it wasn't for my doubt If I found a cowards way out I'd end this Shame And humiliation And the distance between the tongues of every nation It's the heart that must be slain To kill the phantom pain Of separation Bring me a surgeon not a priest Or this hurt will never cease Draw the curtain But there's no such thing as peace It's war from west to east And that's for certain Love Offered no resistance The sky's alive with gunfire in the distance The kiss didn't leave a scratch Tenderness is no match For deaths persistence Still I love you more than ever I could no more change my heart than change the weather This head will always need This heart will always bleed To be together Bring me a surgeon not a priest Or this hurt will never cease Draw the curtain But there's no such thing as peace It's war from west to east And that's for certain Outside I hear the river raging The streets are filled with thieves not worth saving My heart now rides a hearse The poor thing died of thirst And now it's raining.
2.
Everyone who breathes here is guilty He who's blood runs holds a grudge In this prison nothing gets forgiven Everyones a witness and a judge So take care who that you talk to Choose well who that you serve Your Gods won't tell you though they aught to We get the world we deserve They're taking down the banners midsummer The snow came early this year They're hanging heads from the edge of every window To cure the children of their fear The hunter looks along his rifle His moral compass never swerves The luck of the draw, the fight for survival We get the world we deserve There's a riot in the heart of the city Two tigers born inside a cage Father and mother, vengeance and mercy Schizophrenics born of faith and rage The bars were torn down from the prison The warden's lost his nerve And all the inmates cried to the sky We get the world we deserve Some believe that all chains should be broken Some believe that freedom is a curse While lies are sold and the truth remains unspoken Hearts are emptied just to fill a purse There's time enough to serve your endless sentence To laugh and cry around this endless curve But know your words are wasted on repentance We get the world we deserve There's a fire in the garden of eden Like a sun it burns through the night Like Maria who holds back her tears For the darkness when he turns out the light So take care who that you talk to Choose well who that you serve Your Gods won't tell you though they aught to We get the world we deserve.
3.
My name means next to nothing I was born in north Iraq Now I wear the name of immigrant Like a chain around my neck Born into bad luck Born with nothing more than this All I know is cruelty I feel the teeth behind the kiss My homeland was a battleground I barely left alive Traded all that I have loved All just to survive Born into bad luck Born with nothing more than this All I know is cruelty I feel the teeth behind the kiss I sold the family business Now my brother isn't here My father too was a murdered man And I fled my home in fear Born into bad luck Born with nothing more than this All I know is cruelty I feel the teeth behind the kiss I paid the driver all I had To take me far away Destination no idea Just that I would stay Born into bad luck Born with nothing more than this All I know is cruelty I feel the teeth behind the kiss I arrived to be arrested A policeman pulled me free Told me this is England Where I had come to be Born into bad luck Born with nothing more than this All I know is cruelty I feel the teeth behind the kiss They said I'd be deported But I begged that I could work And I found a roof and labour Picking carrots from the earth Born into bad luck Born with nothing more than this All I know is cruelty I feel the teeth behind the kiss I wait to hear my fate Saving every coin I find To pay the driver once again For the one I left behind Born into bad luck Born with nothing more than this All I know is cruelty I feel the teeth behind the kiss I've lived life as a prisoner Of the politics of man Of people I will never know Or ever understand Born into bad luck Born with nothing more than this All I know is cruelty I feel the teeth behind the kiss I recieved a letter yesterday To say I had a son All I feel is pity As here comes another one Born into bad luck Born with nothing more than this All I know is cruelty I feel the teeth behind the kiss.
4.
Her mother named her Annie Her father didn't care He once bit the lord mayor's son And threw him down the stairs Annie had her mothers eyes And her fathers fangs There'll never be another like Annie of the elephant gang Annie saw the poor Who lived to work and worked to live Annie saw the rich Who'd take and never give She saw the chains of poverty That ran across the land There'll never be another like Annie of the elephant gang In nineteen and fourteen Annie signed for war Not to fight in France But to fight for her front door When she joined that night on old kent road All the kings head sang There'll never be another like Annie of the elephant gang She went from rags to riches With stealing as her game She stole from Oxford Circus She stole from Park Lane She had a brain for robbery And a gamblers slight of hand There'll never be another like Annie of the elephant gang Annie hit the headlines In nineteen seventeen It read the roughest diamond The world has ever seen She liked the way that sounded She liked the way it rang Then she was known all over as Diamond of the elephant gang Diamond was a natural She soon became the boss And gave a home to every orphan The gang would come across The orphans all had mother Tattooed on a diamond on their hand There'll never be a mother like Diamond of the elephant gang They once arrested Charlie Diamonds friend for life She waltzed into the jailhouse With just a carving knife No one said a word As she led him free by the hand There'll never be another like Diamond of the elephant gang She said the police think their kings But they never will see I make them As much as they make me When she handcuffed one inspector He swore he'd see her hang But they'll never catch the queen, Diamond of the elephant gang The men were willing victims They came from all around She'd fool them into love Then steal the ring and gown She'd leave them at the alter As the church bell rang There'll never be a lover like diamond of the elephant gang The landlords strangled London They thought they owned the town But every time they upped the rent Diamond took it down She couldn't stand no one That thought they owned the land There'll never be another like Diamond of the elephant gang Some will rob you with a mortgage Some will rob you with a note Or rob you of your dignity Or of your right to vote But she never hurt no one Who didn't deserve the back of her hand There'll never be another like Diamond of the elephant gang So the rich men got together Decided diamond had to die They bought the best assassins Their money could buy Diamond always said She'd leave here with a bang There'll never be another like Diamond of the elephant gang They followed Diamond through the fog Thought they had the upper hand Little did they know They'd soon be dead where they stand There was one assassin less As the first shot rang There'll never be another like Diamond of the elephant gang When the bloody day had ended All the men were lying dead Diamond dropped her pistols And staggered up to bed There she lay forever Diamonds in her hands There'll never be another like Diamond of the elephant gang Every eye was filled with tears But no one made a sound It seemed the whole of London came To see her in the ground Everyone just listened As the orphan sang There'll never be another like Diamond of the elephant gang.
5.
Annalise, Annalise Did you want it to be Did you see from the start of October Did you plan With that man Having kids in Japan I'll be there if I ever get Sober Annalise, Annalise Do you ever think of me There's a hole in my chest Where my heart used to be I've been up I've been blue All thinking of you Feckless and ship-less At sea And when I needed you You said you're bleeding too I walk the edge of a blade But don't dare ask me why You must lie and die In the bed you have made Annalise, Annalise Did you want it to be Did you see from the start of October Did you plan With that man Having kids in Japan I'll be there if I ever get Sober.
6.
Black was the colour of those endless eyes Cut from the night of an eastern sky We counted swallows as they passed us by Last year Fortune came and fortune went I had some luck but the money got spent I'm going back to where the west wind went My dear She found work up in Abberdeen Trouble found me like I'd never seen I'm heading off to where I've never been In fear And the days run away like wild horses over the hills And the gifts that you left me are dying on my window sill Black was the colour of those endless eyes Cut from the night of an eastern sky I saw the swallows as they passed me by This year.
7.
A soldier says a prayer into his gun Don't die on me before our job is done His fingers reach the handle of the door But theres nothing left to die for anymore Ruby red sparkles on the sand As she's rolling loose her golden wedding band She tastes the colour of her tears Still married to a stranger after all these years To live so long To love so all in vain She smiles as she steps onto the train She knows that she'll never need home again That smile was the last her daddy saw Now theres no one left to cry for anymore The priest lifts his hands up to the sky My God gives me the right to choose who has to die He kneels and puts his hands against the floor But theres nothing there to kill for anymore To live so long To love so all in vain I can hear the drumming of the rain It keeps me from finding that dream again The nightmares come steady through the door And theres nothing left to dream for anymore.
8.
On a moonless night On a dark boat By a matches light He wrote a short note Someday Mother I swear we’ll be free Not chained to the role of refugee How the blood was running From our home town Every seed was falling On the hard ground Someday Mother I swear we’ll be free Not chained to the role of refugee Fled one battleground Found another Lost my left eye there And my brother Someday Mother I swear we’ll be free Not chained to the role of refugee We’re just human pawns In a sick play But believe my words When I say Someday Mother I swear we’ll be free Not chained to the role of refugee Seen their fishing nets Entwined with white bone Seen the tide turn red Each wave a gravestone Someday Mother I swear we’ll be free Not chained to the role of refugee Seen some sink before Seen some make it If I must stake my life Then I’ll stake it Someday Mother I swear we’ll be free Not chained to the role of refugee Water rising high In the stairwell Ink was fading fast From his farewell Someday Mother I swear we’ll be free Not chained to the role of refugee On a moonless night Round about three Not a thing in sight On the dark sea.
9.
Sunrise on a dead world Where the wasteland never blooms Where the hotels are all fully booked Filled with empty rooms Where the keys turn slowly in the doors And no one ever knocks Where the sundials are too dim to read And no one winds the clocks Sunrise on a dead world Through the grey paper rain Where the old ones never use them Where the young ones have no names Where simple acts of kindness Go followed by a knife Where you have to learn to take first If you wish to keep your life Sunrise on a dead world Where prison is the place to be In there the bars are everywhere And the drinks are always free Everyones an inmate In here or back outside Born with it all against us We can say at least we tried Sunrise on a dead world Where the children speak in rhyme Where the judges work the nightshift Where the hangmen take their time Some sing of the future But the songs are all the same Don't forget tomorrow Or today is all in vain Sunrise on a dead world Where the kings are the ones to blame They turned the air to ashes Just to rule the flame They sold the whole of history Like so many wasted years They sold it down the river Just to buy some souvenirs Sunrise on a dead world Our undiscovered home The crown is for the taking But who would want the throne The beggar lifts his head Still searching for a sign Just sunrise on a dead world With nothing left but time.

credits

released April 3, 2016

'Here lies a heart that loved you- holds no hard feelings now. Here are notes scribbled on the way to the gallows. No word of a god- just the swan song of a prisoner sung through the noose under a silent sky. Take care sweet Annalise, Saint Anne- I'm off beyond the old black and doubtful I'll be back. One man's land is another man's poison- all of us refugees fleeing winter into a distant spring. See you there again sweet one, if we both make it till spring...'

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Ben Holland: Vocal, Guitar, Harmonica
Ross Anderson: Electric Guitar, Double Bass
Babu: Bass
Ben McClean: Drums

Engineered and Produced by: Ross Anderson, Jon Alexander & Ben Holland
Mixed and Mastered by: Rob Bagshaw & Jon Alexander

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Ben Holland London, UK

Staying one step ahead of my feet.

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