ASHMORE PAYNE profile picture

ASHMORE PAYNE

About Me

In the mid-Sixties, school pals Rob and Tom formed their first band - The Chosen Few, playing most of the big hits of the time at small time dances and private parties. Over the years original Ashmore-Payne material featured increasingly in the sets. In 1968 the pair felt sufficiently confident to make their first visit to Denmark Street, London's Tin pan Alley, where they met with disappointment but friendly encouragement at Pan Music, when their song "Spanish Blood" was considered for publication. Later that year, their song "When Diana Paints the Picture" was published by Mills Music, and recorded by Rob, under the name of Robbi Curtice. The final mix of the recording left much to be desired however and eventually it was decided to issue the recording in the USA only, with the song "The Soul of a Man", written by Ralph Murphy and Vic Smith, Robbi's erstwhile managers, as the A side. This did quite well on the US West coast. Ashmore Payne continued to write their songs until Rob moved to Cyprus in 1972, whereupon they put their dreams away for another day and both got on with the day jobs - for about the next 30 years! The internet was largely responsible for the revival of interest - it was in the early 2000s that "Soul of a Man" could be heard on an alternative sixties jukebox site. Soon afterwards "When Diana .." was included on a Swedish compilation of Sixties Unsung Heroes - Fading Yellow Vol. 3. Then "Soul of a Man" and a home studio demo of their song "Gospel Lane" were included on Fading Yellow Volume 4 (both volumes are still available from Amazon). "Gospel lane" attracted a lot of interest and was chosen by French film director Serge Bozon as background music for his 2007 film "La France", starring Sylvie Testud. Rob and Tom have both now retired from education and the law respectively and are once again enjoying writing their songs, with the benefit of modern studio technology. The digital age means that songs at various stages of development can wing through the air between Warwickshire and Wiltshire with ease. There is still much to come from this duo.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 14/11/2007
Band Website: www.myspace.com/robbicurtice
Band Members: Ashmore-Payne (Rob and Tom). Other members of The Chosen Few (and various other names) included Chris Ward, Grev Norman, Jim (Keith) Smith, Mike Hazeldene, Chris Southall and John Powell.
Influences: Music: Lennon-McCartney, Jim Webb, The Band, The Bee Gees (1967-68 vintage), Cat Stevens, Paul Simon, Clifford T Ward, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Goffin and King, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Tom Petty, Elton John, The Bush, Tree and Me and smallwhitelight and Fugu. Then there's Rain, Birth and Death, Football - Birmingham City and Wolves, love and friendship, loyalty and trust, Cheddar cheese and Stella Artois. Favourite films: The 39 Steps, Zulu, Avanti, Oklahoma, The Odessa File, and the biggest film of 2007 - LA FRANCE. Writers: Thomas Hardy, Tolstoy, Stephen King, Arnold Bennett, William Shakespeare and John Keats
Sounds Like: Listen to some of our songs and decide for yourself. Two of the songs you can hear on the page are new ones - "Bring Back the Sun" and "Too Late" were completed in 2007 and recorded by Stephen Waters at Tom's home studio. Several more are in the pipeline - watch this myspace. The other four songs date back to Ashmore Payne's previous creative burst in the late sixties. "April Came in August" was originally intended as the follow-up to "When Diana Paints the Picture"; it could have been a good one. Incidentally, "Diana" was written about Tom's girl friend of that name and, not to be outdone, "The Things I Do for Pamela" was all about one of Rob's girlfriends (written when things were not going too well); you can hear that song on the Robbi Curtice MySpace page. "Alibi" is one of our favourite songs and could be updated very successfully - we're working on it. It's about the moment, playful but very serious, when a couple realise how much they mean to each other; there are also lots of internal rhymes in the song. "A Face in the Crowd" was originally intended as the centrepiece of an album to be called "Faces in the Crowd" - pictures in song of interesting people - perhaps one day we can complete it. The song was written from the point of view of a succesful star - anticipating the isolation and loneliness that would come with such adulation. "Friday Never Comes at All" was recorded on a Thursday and we always planned to finish it tomorrow - we always enjoy listening to it. See what you think and, if you have a moment, let us know. Thank you.
Record Label: Sidewalk;Flower Machine; Third Side
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

New ASHMORE PAYNE song on MySpace

A new old ASHMORE PAYNE song called Shrubbery Road has been added to their MySpace page today. It dates back to the Sixties and is a demo recording which somehow never got taken any further. See what ...
Posted by on Fri, 04 Apr 2008 05:22:00 GMT

Robbi Curtice sings Gospel Lane (See our Video section!)

On Wednesday March 19th Rob and Tom went to the Institut Francais in London for the UK premiere of Serge Bozon’s film "La France", which features Ashmore-Payne’s sixties demo track"Gospel ...
Posted by on Fri, 28 Mar 2008 07:55:00 GMT

GOSPEL LANE NOW AVAILABLE ON I-TUNES

Gospel Lane on iTunes Pleased to report that our song GOSPEL LANE - recorded by Robbi Curtice and Tom Payne -  is now available worldwide to download on iTunes. So what are you waiting for? ...
Posted by on Wed, 09 Jan 2008 16:15:00 GMT