The long period of touring after releasing The Betrayal of the Self album saw Neil Leyton perform live not just in the UK but also throughout Finland, Sweden, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and Slovenia. During one of the last Neil Leyton tours of that period, the acoustic solo “A Reckoning” tour, Leyton returned to Sound-pool Studios, run by Joachim Poschmann and located in Westphalia. Sound-pool took up the ground floor of a barn, in a beautiful rural scenario in the German countryside. Leyton had originally recorded at Sound Pool during the “Hyperventilating” tour. This time, being in the middle of a solo acoustic tour, he arranged to be joined at Sound Pool by Chris McDougall, who Leyton had met in London, and The Ghosts’ drummer Tommie Riot, from Stockholm.
The Leyton Rifles turned out to round out the last – unfinished – third attempt at recording the follow-up album to The Betrayal of the Self. The first try, at Stockholm’s Acetone Studios, had been a sort of “continuation” of The Betrayal of the Self” approach and yielded the extra tracks that are part of the 10th Anniversary edition of Betrayal of the Self. Then, back in London, Leyton toyed with the idea of making a duets album (some of these recordings will feature in the upcoming “So Not Alone” EP); however that project also lacked focus. In the days before high-speed internet and 5G, it wasn’t yet common to collaborate long-distance on recording music and the sheer number of invited guests stalled the duets album so that it remains an EP – with some finished and unfinished tracks that point to many roads that could have been.
And so, the road brought Leyton to doing some shows in Slovenia as a power-trio: Chris McDougall named the combo The Leyton Rifles (think the Jam’s Eton Rifles) and off they went on their merry way to a chaotic, residency-like inhabiting of the Metelkova squat in Ljubljana, before it became fashionable. Thanks to Izak Kosir, who started out as a booking agent and became a close friend of the band’s, The Leyton Rifles played more shows in Slovenia than in any other country in 2008 and by the time the Sound Pool recordings took place they were a well oiled machine, by all definitions.
5 songs were tracked at Sound Pool, including 4 originals (2 of which co-writes with Chris McDougall) and a Carl Nanders song from what could have become Aceface’s Song-Cycle “Anto”: a Nanders masterpiece, fully recorded, never released. Leyton explains, “It is an honour to present you with “Semtex Superstar”, one of Carl’s best moments in “Anto”. I sure hope he gets to release the full Songcycle one day!”
The Leyton Rifles can now be heard on your favourite streaming platform: https://lnk.to/LeytonRifles
