the long lost recordings of the late peter thomson, lead vocalist and songwriter of 1980s glasgow synth-band secession, have been unearthed and reveal a tortured musician at the height of his game.
peter thomson and secession found a cult following during their active years in 1983 and 1987, and they were originally signed to beggars banquet, releasing two singles fire island and touch, in 1984.
the latter single became a dancefloor favourite in countries such as germany and the us and was covered by epic records artist noho, who enjoyed even greater success with the song, taking it into the billboard chart.
secession went on to sign to siren records, then a subsidiary of virgin. they released five singles — michael, radioland, promise, sneakyville, and the magician between 1986 and 1987, by which time they had delivered their debut and only album, a dark enchantment.
though the single michael had been picked up and a-listed by radio 1 in the uk, a difference of opinion between the band and siren over the mixes resulted in siren being accused by peter thomson of failing to manufacture enough copies of the single to satisfy demand.
having narrowly missed out on the uk top 40. secession disbanded even before the album a dark enchantment was released.
peter thomson had carried on writing and recorded some new songs on his home studio setup, using an emulator ii+ hd keyboard, yamaha dx7 keyboard, roland 909 drum machine and sequencer, as well as fender and rickenbacker guitars, and a fostex 4 track analog cassette recorder.
he gave hamish brown copies of those final songs on cassette, and hamish took them to california.
peter, who battled alcohol addiction, and what has since been identified as an undiagnosed mental illness, took took his own life on march 28th, 2001.
the cassettes remained unplayed until late 2017 after peter thomson’s widow, margaret thomson, contacted hamish to discuss ways of honoring peter’s memory.
the final songs that peter wrote are... tomorrow belongs to me, make you cry, finest hour, 2001 (instrumental), disco vampire, and 2001 (i'm afraid of getting old). these final songs reveal him to be someone using his creative output to cry for help, yet peter’s enigmatic style and tortured lyrics reveal a pop sensibility.
margaret thomson (peter's widow) and hamish brown have partnered to release these new peter thomson songs, and select songs from the secession catalogue.
additional information and copies of Peter's new album, 2001 (I'm Afraid of Getting Old), can be found here... http://www.peterthomsonmusic.com
finally, a remastered version of secession's album, a dark enchantment, has been uploaded to all of our favorite streaming services and you can listen to it by following the link below...
