Mumbles to Nashville & Back Again!

You just never know where life is going to take you. This weekend sees the launch of my new single ‘When You’re Away’, a duet with Nashville based Singer Songwriter Alyssa Bonagura. Now you might think to yourself how is ‘Mumbles Mal’ recording with a Country Queen from Tennessee and I have to say it’s quite a story…

Mal & Alyssa Backstage The Bunkhouse 2024

Firstly to the song itself. The record might be new, but the song is almost as old as I am. When I travelled to London on 17^th July 1973 to record my first session for John Peel on Radio 1 I took my 2 brothers and a guitar. When we got to the studio the first thing I noticed was a Steinway Grand Piano. This was the first real grand piano I had seen in real life, quite an upgrade from the upright I used to write songs on back home in Brynhyfryd.

At the piano with a song I couldn’t play…

The songs I recorded playing guitar took no time at all as I was well used to performing them in public. Playing songs on a piano was something I had only ever done in the house, but I knew that it would be good to have an up tempo song on the session. With that in mind I asked if I could play a relatively new song called ‘When You’re Away’. It didn’t take long for me to realise that it was going to be difficult to get a fault free piano performance in the time we had so in the end we decided to stick with the guitar tunes. The odd thing was that the photographer arrived just as I was sat at the piano and that was the shot the BBC used to promote the session.

By October 1973 I had signed to Rocket Records and I headed to London to start work on my album. Straight away the producer thought ‘When You’re Away’ would make a potential single and so we started work on the song with me playing piano with a bass and drum rhythm section. An hour passed and once again it was plain to hear that I wouldn’t be able to get through a whole take without a mistake or losing my timing. That was when the producer made the call to a keyboard player recommended by Terry Stannard, the drummer on the session.

Nicky Hopkins was skinny with long hair and a leather jacket. The first thing my dad wanted to do was go and buy him a burger as he thought he needed a good meal. Nicky didn’t say much but he was a wonderful piano player. It was only when he left that I found out he had just come back from being on tour with the Rolling Stones. With the album complete a ballad ‘I don’t know how to say goodbye’ was chosen as the first single with ‘When You’re Away’ lined up for the follow up. Sadly in the meantime my voice broke and the single and album where shelved.

It was 1975 when I walked in the Marquee Studios on Wardour Street to start work on a new album with Gus Dudgeon in the producer’s chair. Gus was one of the directors of Rocket Records and at the time the most successful producer in the world after big hits with Space Oddity for David Bowie and all of Elton’s big albums.

The band was made up of old and new members of the Elton John band with Davey Johnstone, the ever present blond haired lead guitarist, playing a starring role in the sessions. Gus was also convinced that ‘When You’re Away’ was a big hit and concentrated a lot of time and money on the song bringing in Richard Hewson to arrange the orchestra (Richard had arranged the Long and Winding Road for the Beatles) and Beach Boys soundalike band ‘First Class’ on backing vocals.

By the time the single was released Gus had fallen out with the Record company and I was left wondering what on earth had gone wrong again. With Gus gone I don’t think anyone really wanted to get behind the song and it disappeared along with my teenage idol dreams.

Anyway, It was in 2023 that I asked Elton John if I could have my songs back and he said yes. Over the past year or so I’ve been working through the back catalogue. The first thing I had to do was get the 2 inch tapes digitised so that I could work with them on my computer.

The first release was the ‘Rocket Boy’ album which was recorded in 1973 and finally released in 2023… but from that day I heard the recordings being transferred I knew I couldn’t wait to work on the Gus Dudgeon sessions.

Gus was a master craftsmen and also a perfectionist. He chose the best musicians and arrangers and the best studios. Listening back to the tracks was like travelling back in time. To a moment when I would travel back and for to the studios in a stretch limousine. To the nights we would stop work on my album to mix a track from the new Elton John ‘Captain Fantastic’ record. My biggest memory was falling asleep at the back of the studio the night the tapes came in from New York from the concert Elton did with John Lennon at Madison Square Garden.

Maldwyn Pope during the Gus Dudgeon Sessions.

My sessions with Gus were only a couple of months before Elton recorded ‘Don’t go Breaking My Heart’ and I think that must have been in my mind when I started thinking about what I should do as I reworked ‘When You’re Away’.

I first heard about Alyssa Bonagura from one of my neighbours named Anne. Her son Steve was a musician and actor based in London who had got a gig on a new video for a Nashville country artist. The song, ‘Other Side of the World’, told the story of a couple separated by the Atlantic Ocean. Anne sent a link to the video and straight away I was hooked. It was a great song; she was a great singer… this girl was the real deal.

Sometime later Anne said that Alyssa was coming to stay in Swansea. Apparently she and Steve had met up and were getting along quite well together. They had planned to do a gig at The Swig in the Marina on a Sunday afternoon and asked if I wanted to go. When I arrived the Swig was full of holiday makers and kids and some of Steve’s family and friends. Looking around I thought this is going to be a tough crowd for an artist doing original songs that no one knew… how wrong I was!

Alyssa was battle hardened, she had paid her dues and knew how to work the crowd. In no time she had the whole room singing along with her and Steve, yes live, this girl really was the real deal.

As time has passed Alyssa and Steve have become good friends and she often pops down to Swansea. One Christmas I asked her to sing a few songs with me for the ‘Everyone Deserves A Christmas’ Charity CD. She came to my studio and recorded lead and backing vocals in no time at all…. yes you guessed it she’s the real deal in the studio as well.

Steve, Alyssa and Kevin Costner

Last year she and Steve have played more gigs together including shows for Kevin Costner and Alyssa even sang the American National Anthem at an NFL game in London. Oh, and in December, they got engaged!!!