Happy New Year to you. 2026 can be a glorious year on a personal and artistic level. Not so sure on the global level; I think the Doomsday Clock just hit 2.15 am, but that is another matter for another blog entry.
Reflecting on 2025, it has been one of the best years of my life. I left my band, The Beer Pigs, with whom I have played for the last 30 years. I felt restricted and wanted to try out new roads. It has been the best thing I could have done. My David Mackin Solo Show has taken me to so many brilliant new venues and allowed me to meet great new people.
I can now play any song I want in any way that I want. As a musician, one relishes the chance to move within the music and explore its possibilities. I have recorded my own backing tracks in my studio, totally exploring songs from the viewpoints of all instruments, and then organised some form of video backdrop to take the song out on the road. Creative joy!
And I got a brand-new knee.
On a sad note, I have lost some real inspiring legends from the music world: Brian Wilson, Chris Rea, Roberta Flack, Sly Stone, Ozzy Osbourne, Cleo Laine, Danny Thompson, and Steve Cropper. All have been so important in my musical development.
My new bands, Redska and The Local Heroes, also allow me to move within the songs that we perform. The freedom to do this is refreshing, and no classic song goes unconsidered. The volume levels are also sensible enough to help allow my hearing to recover too! I found playing with my old band to be too formulaic and rigid. Playing the same songs the same way week in and week out was stunting my creativity.
The most beautiful thing to happen to me in 2025 was a magical encounter with a real hero of mine. When people ask me who my favourite band is, I only ever have one answer: Was (Not Was). Yes, I love The Beatles and The Beach Boys and all the expected norms, but I think that my answer of Was (Not Was) surprises people. They may only know the band from ‘Walk The Dinosaur’ or from ‘Shake Your Head’ featuring the late great Ozzy Osbourne and the beautiful Kim Basinger. When I first heard the album ‘What Up Dog’ just after losing my own Dad, the songs spoke out to me so loudly and powerfully. Gems such as ‘Somewhere In America There’s A Street Named After My Dad’, “Boy’s Gone Crazy’, Anything Can Happen and ‘Shadow And Jimmy’ were, to me, examples of songwriting genius.
George Michael’s Wham released their very last single in 1986 called ‘Where Did Your Heart Go’ and it was a Was (Not Was) song. Over lockdown, I did a cover of it after hearing the very sad news that Sweet Pea Atkinson had died. Sweet Pea was the amazing Wilson Pickett-sounding singer of the band, who was beautifully blended with the golden vocals of O’Jay’s singer Harry Bowens.
David and Don Was are the creative powerhouses behind the band. They have allowed vocalists such as Leonard Cohen, Doug Fieger (from The Knack), Kris Kristofferson, Mel Torme, Madonna (they never used her vocal take), Ozzy Osbourne, and Frank Sinatra Junior to appear on their records. They have been involved with productions for The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Ricky Lee Jones, The B-52s, and so many more.
Around February time, I was listening to one of my favourite podcasts, ‘My80sography’ by Mark Pawlowski. He interviews legendary songwriters and producers from the 80s and had an amazing interview with David Was. I sent him a contribution to his podcast and mentioned the cover I had recorded. He asked me for a copy, loved it, and asked me if he could put it in the next part of the interview with David. What an honour.
I asked Mark if I could send a letter to David to tell him how much his songwriting has meant to me over the years. David is a songwriting genius. He reads the papers and transforms the stories into stunning songs. The soulful lyrics hide the sinister messages that he so expertly conveys. ‘Shadow And Jimmy’, which he wrote with Elvis Costello, is a song about two lonely drifters who never get the girl and rent out each other’s bowling shoes. ‘Zaz Turned Blue’, sung beautifully by Mel Torme, includes all of David’s friends who suffered in Vietnam. Even ‘Walk The Dinosaur’ has hidden screams about the nuclear holocaust held within.
In my letter, I told David that we had a saying in the Teesside area that ‘shy kids get nowt’. He mentioned in the podcast that he struggles to finish songs off these days. I am a songwriter who has been so heavily influenced by his writing. Could I help at all? Could I take any fragments of genius that he has and develop them for him? I was rewarded with the most stunning reply. This warm, funny, and amazingly intelligent man wrote me the most incredible email. He said he would love to send me some things to work on, and within a day, I got my first one. I have now written eight pieces with him that are brewing into something really special, and many more are on the way. David has moved my songwriting into territory that I could never have dreamed of. I have written songs about Area 51 aliens, middle-aged men who have lost focus to move through life. I am still pinching myself. 2026 will be a creative stunner.
I am tasking myself to write a new piece of music every day and really explore the deeper creativity of songwriting. I have prided myself on this blog to explore my favourite songwriters and get under the lid of what really made them tick. I am reading The Outsider by Colin Wilson, which is the book that inspired Gerry Rafferty in such a significant way. The character of the book weaves through works of literature, art, and philosophy to get into the grain of how humans really think from an outsider’s point of view. Chatting with David Was has given me insight into how a great intellect observes the world and channels it into his art.
Yes, my friends. 2026 will be a significant one. I just hope that there is a planet left viable enough for us to enjoy it.
“We’ll tak’ a cup o’ kindness yet,
for the sake o’ auld lang syne.”
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