2017 sees the release of Mark Nevin’s 5th solo album MY UNFASHIONABLE OPINION. Co-produced with his former Fairground Attraction bandmate Simon Edwards and engineered and mixed by the mighty Phill Brown (Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin, Talk Talk), it features 12 brand new Mark Nevin songs. Basic tracks were recorded live to 16 track analogue tape over 4 days at north London’s Livingston Studios and taken to The Red Room in Bermondsey to be mixed.

Most of the songs stick to the core band of Roger Beaujolais on vibraphone and marimba, Simon Edwards on bass and Richard Marcangelo on drums – with the addition of the inspired Hammond organ of James Hallawell. The great Kick Horns bring their brass magic to a couple before Colette O’Leary and Louise Nevin add a little accordion and fiddle to the final song. Nevin explains: “The title track is about that feeling that a lot of people have in these days of social media: put a comma in the wrong place on Twitter and your life could be over!”. “I’m staying in with my unfashionable opinion, no logging on or mouthing off.”

“The writing process of this new album has been a different experience for me, something seems to have shifted in the songwriting section of my brain, I found that songs came easily and quickly and that it was possible to write about just about anything.” Hence titles like ‘Curly Wurly Boy’ where he refuses to accept his careers officers advice to get a job at the Cadbury Schweppes chocolate factory upon leaving school aged 15 or ‘Punching Above My Weight’ where he recalls being ‘the little one, in the rugby scrum’. ‘Forgotify’ is a website that randomly plays songs that have never had but a single listen on Spotify (4 million of them, so they claim). It has been a long and slow journey from his first steps as a vocalist to the release of ‘My Unfashionable Opinion’ – by far his most assured offering. “The music business has changed so much since I first made a record back in the eighties, but the excitement and sense of wonder when a new song demands to come into existence is as thrilling as ever.” On stage, with his brilliant band, he is a story teller, with a live show that draws on an enviable catalogue of songs, and he knows: a great song never goes out of fashion.