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Life of Barrymore

by Steven Ball

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  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    A numbered, limited edition of 50 three inch CDRs, with hand stamped CD, packed in a 3" black flexible plastic micro DVD case and wraparound sleeve. Each copy also includes a laminated "business card".

    Includes unlimited streaming of Life of Barrymore via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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    Purchasable with gift card

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Includes pdf booklet of lyrics and images.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £6 GBP  or more

     

1.
Insulin 01:33
I was telling your lady on the phone I’ve made arrangements for myself I’m nearly eighty and I know about this all this kind of thing because I read about it in a newspaper called *UK Column* and there’s nothing but corruption and Stalinism in this country so I’m very lucky really I’m a diabetic and I’ve got lots of insulin in the house so when the time comes I shall use it [oh no] oh yes and before I do it I shall write a letter to the local council and the local paper and accuse them of murder I shall do that because it’s all I can do to save my children from going on the street and I don’t want that to happen at all and there won’t be just me there’ll be many many more people like me who are doing it not yet there’s no reason for it yet but if anything happened and I realised the time was up that’s what I would do - Petrie Hosken, LBC Radio, tx 21 October 2013
2.
Lizzie can you hear me? Lizzie wake up for me what did you do to her? she got stressed out and fainted maybe she doesn’t want to be woken she likes to hide from the world what made her fall asleep? she couldn’t bear to hear it it was as if she was somewhere else she smiled and lost consciousness you’ve been unconscious some time she likes to hide from the world is that where you think she is? she’s still not talking to me I know you find talking on the phone impossible but I have email here I have your prescription here and you can come back and see me I hope you were careful someone with a proper job someone who can pay the rent why don’t I deal with this? let’s see what we’ve got I could try you something for next week do you want to take a seat you are usually so well organised would you like to go through? Lizzie can you hear me? Lizzie wake up for me Lizzie can you hear me? Lizzie wake up for me - Doctors, BBC1, tx 22 October 2013
3.
4.
After Lucy 02:26
5.
this wasn’t supposed to be like this I’m sorry trouble with having a gap decade off is I haven’t really got myself back and err in front of an audience err I’ve been off oh God when it came in the first couple of times I said no and I’d been offered some other chat shows and I said no erm cos, erm, I’ve got myself really well the last three years and it’s the first time I’ve been on my own it’s just me it’s just me and Dave my dog my little Jack Russell I’ve got to a place I’ve got my flat in town I just spent time wandering around being Michael Barrymore I just and I didn’t think I could be on my own and I got there and I was quite I don’t sit waiting for the phone to ring I don’t ask for anything or expect anything pull yourself together erm I er, Christ! what is this going to look like? Jesus! I was so regimented right down to I didn’t even choose my clothes I mean she would pick my clothes for me in the studio I go into wardrobe they put a suit on to me that had been selected I didn’t even check the mirror to have a look at the suit you can tell I do it myself now she’d go “yeah that’s fine” don’t do that don’t mix with them don’t and I did and it worked there were about eight people there was eight people and then errrmm a couple went out I said there’s towels there if you want to use the Jacuzzi if you look at it it’s built round built in to the edge of the pool I didn’t go there various ones went there obviously Stuart did and a couple of the other guys as well I went with a couple of lads down here and had a joint which I later admitted to and we smoke the joint and the others was doing whatever they was doing and then I said to the, to the lads oh do you want to go in the Jacuzzi said OK walked back up the top here and there was one of... there was a new master being built down here the other one was up in the top corner up here right? went in there, got some towels, said there are some shorts here if you want them walked out and as we walked out we looked down you see where those two plug things are there? and Stuart was there seeming you know like lying you can’t judge from the depth of the water that’s the deep end by the way I just froze that was my very first thought and a weird thought went through my head thinking that not that I’ve ever had anything to compare it to that, I’ve never seen a body float in my life I thought that they float down like that I didn’t know I mean I knew it wasn’t good it was like, it was like laying like, like that way so I just found it a bit strange that I could you know looking down and I went oh well you can imagine the words that come out at that point I ran back into the house to get help and then the two boys started giving him CPR and then the ambulance was called for and then in turn called the police and I was still on this side just in complete shock the first thing I did wasn’t run away the first thing I did was to get help they don’t write that they’ve never written that I’m in the middle of a case right now which I’ve been working on for three years for wrongful arrest against the Essex police the rape and murder well someone has to be murdered and someone has to be raped to even, to even make that allegation the one thing that the tabloids went for me have succeeded in they did wipe wipe out my career but they did not wipe me out I’m still here you know they called me they call me shamed, disgraced, fallen it’s they who are shamed, they who are disgraced, they who are fallen the News of the World is gone I haven’t - Jeremy Kyle Celebrity Special, ITV, 9 June 2014
6.
Kisha Krush 03:35

about

"Extraordinary EP of new songs by the New Cross based sound/visual artist and composer Steven Ball (a member of the influencial DIY electronics group Storm Bugs with Philip Sanderson). "Life of Barrymore" is a collection of songs with lyrics transcribed from verbatim recordings of specially selected snatches of British television. Haunting, and occasionally uncomfortable, "Life of Barrymore" treats these found texts with utmost seriousness, and are sung by Ball in a moving and mesmeric fashion over specially created beds of electro-acoustic construction. "Life of Barrymore" is a gripping and unique experience." - Linear Obsessional

originally released on Linear Obsessional LOR 065

credits

released July 7, 2015

Recorded 2014-15

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all rights reserved

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about

Steven Ball London, UK

Steven Ball has been working as an artist since the early 1980s, in film, video, sound, installation, and performance, and has been a member of the post-punk DIY group Storm Bugs. In 2014 he started writing and recording songs as a solo project, being particularly concerned with experimenting with which kinds of texts might constitute a song lyric. ... more

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