Dark Side of Your Face -MYSTERY SOLVED!!!

The amazing track credited to Gabriel Ratchetts on the Casting The Runes (Do What Thou Wilt II) Compilation is in fact by none other than Laurice/ Laurie Marshall/Paul St. John (Grudge, Spiv etc...). For those who haven't heard the song, it's a stupendously haunting performance ....It was found on one side of an unnamed emidisc acetate, see the full story below. Amazing...

 

In 1973 I was working as a talent scout and as a writer with Pye Records in London. I often paid for private session so that I could perform my own songs aimed at various artists in England and the USA.

The Dark Side Of Your Face came about when I was fortunate enough to record three songs one evening at EMI studios in London. I had been recording all evening with a band, and The Dark Side Of Your Face was the last song I had to perform. This was all my own material. I actually recorded that high pitched voice you hear in the background on the recording. Yes, it was all me !

By the time I was ready to record the main vocal, not surprisingly my voice was cracked and tired. However, it appeared to suit the song so I just went with it. Up to that point I had never recorded anything quite like that before, so it was a very different sound for me. And I did a lot of recording in those days, as I was also a session singer at many of the main studios, including Abbey Road, where I often recorded, in Studios 1, 2 and 3.

The EMI studio I recorded The Dark Side Of Your Face at was a very large studio. So it was perfect for capturing the bleak, desolate and lonely ambience of this song, and I am very proud that I recorded it that day.  I brought an acetate of it to North America when I emigrated from Britain. I never did release the song. In those days it wasn't easy to just launch a recording like it is today. There was no Internet or computer home recording studios and you had to have money to even record anything then.

Laurice