I'm putting my dad's story on hold for a few posts. I'll finish it off at some point in the future.

It's been quite some time since I uploaded my last vid, but it doesn't seem to have made any difference to my views. I recorded some requests recently, and this is the first of that batch.

It's a classic from the Carpenters. I saw a documentary about them just the other night. I think that had something to do with me uploading it.

It's entitled "For all we know", and this is my version.

Now for an update on the statistics. They've moved on a bit.

The total subscribers to my channel are now 1,368.

The channel views are 31,758.

Finally, the overall video views are 648,469.

The next song I'm hoping to upload is a much requested Neil Diamond classic. Then my second Fray cover. Until then :)

Youtube video 91, and finally a song that I chose myself. I thought I'd treat myself. I've been hearing a song going around for a little while, but haven't really paid attention to it until recently. Then when I did get around to having a sing-a-long, I discovered that it was pretty simple to sing, and very enjoyable at the same time. So It only seemed right to try it out. The title is "Use somebody" originally performed by the band "Kings of leon".

Check it out:

I thought I'd use the video opportunity to pump a website I made. It all came from answering my comments on Youtube. If you attempt more than 4 comments in 10 minutes, you get challenged by Captcha. You get asked to type in made up words that are sometimes very amusing. You can make it generate loads by continually clicking "Can't read". They were all fake words, and pretty soon I started imagining fake definitions for the words. I thought it would be funny if there was a dictionary with all the fake words in and fake definitions. It would be a great laugh. So I made just that website and called it "Captchionary".

I sat down for a day going through some of the captcha images I've collected and added them to the site with definitions. Anybody can submit their own Captcha words and definitions. The more the merrier. I'd love to read other entries.

So keep an eye out for those amusing Captcha words. If you see one that brings an amusing definition to mind then right click on the Captcha image and save it to your computer. Then got to the Captchionary at:

the captchionary

Fill out the form at the bottom and upload your image, or just provide another definition for one of the existing words. Then leave up to the vetting process. While you're on the site. Why not check out some of the existing words and definitions. You can click the "Hit me" link for random words. My cheeks already hurt from some that I've read.

Now down to the Youtube business. Here's the state of play with the stats.

Subscribers = 1,208

Channel views = 28,081

Total video views = 537,056

Until my next post...

My request list is way out of control now. it now exceeds three hundred. There's no way I can keep up with doing all of them, so the best course of action is for me to carefully select one every now and again. The first of those choices is "You've got a friend" by "James taylor". People have compared my voice to many vocalists over time, and James Taylor is one of those comparisons. I can't hear it myself, but then that's just me.

Check it out and see what you think:

My Dad part 12

The 2 other alcoholics beside my dad that I talked briefly about, were engaged in employment with my father for a short time at a firm called "Taylor woodrow" in Greenford. I got the distinct impression that the company were winding up operations on the site they were working on. I remember once being invited to their annual summer party. It was good fun, but I didn't really know anybody there. During his time there, I visited a number of times whilst he was working. I'm not sure what his job title was, but it seemed like he was some sort of security guard. The site was very larger, with many many buildings. Office and storage. There seemed to be a lack of staff though. It was a bit like a ghost town. I'd say that was probably the perfect environment for my father to work in. Nobody to see him drinking, and he did at work. There were many objects around his place of work, and if they weren't nailed down, then he would take them. Actually he probably also took some things that were nailed down. By the time his appointment was over, his house looked like a bit like the offices :)

The circumstances in which his employment ended are not important, and I don't know anyway. I just know he stopped working there.

My father used to like to give. His gifts consisted of all sorts including precious and valuable items. I later discovered that these were all a product of his pilfering habit. So what was bequeathed to me. Let's see now. After adding it all up it amounts to nothing. He stole them from me, probably to buy more alcohol. I'm not too bothered about that. I'm not really a wearer of jewellery, and i never considered them mine. In fact they weren't his to give either!

So, what does it feel like to be the son of a common thief and an alcoholic?

I imagine it's no different from anybody else. Most of us disagree with some of our parents actions, it's just that those of my father were illegal :)

To be continued...

The Youtube figures have been climbing steadily. My average daily viewing figures are roughly between 1,100 and 1,300. Oddly enough though. Occasionally one of my videos gets a boost in viewing figures for no apparent reason. One of my videos got 4,000 views in the space of two days. I am bewildered, but happy about it.

My subscribers have increased to 1,183.

The amount of times my channel has been seen is 27,367 and I'm pleased to say that the total video views have pushed over the half a million mark to 521,210.

Coming up next is more covering. There's a duet on the horizon, so I'm not sure if that's going to come first.

A small diversion from music at the moment. Here is something non-musical. How about some humour to start the year off with. I was recently looking through old videos of my daughter, and one of those was the first tape I ever made of her. There were a few moments on the video that continue to make me laugh, so I thought I'd share those moments with all and hope that everyone is just as amused as I am.

She was enjoying her solids now, so we were experimenting with different foods to see whether she liked the different flavours. At the festive end of her first year, I fed her some Nectarine, with hilarious results. She shuddered with each taste, but wanted more. I'm so glad I captured it on camera. It never fails to amuse me.

Here it is on my other Youtube channel:

Now the next part of my Dad's story.

My Dad part 11

I said previously that my father was an alcoholic. That was to be the key component in dismantling his relationship with Sheila. The two children adored him, but Sheila was getting fed up with the other alcoholics that he brought into the house. The two I remember the most were Bernie and Adam. Bernie passed away a few years ago due to the abuse of alcohol. His great love was his football team Manchester city. Kashif liked Bernie and the love of Manchester city rubbed off on him. Now my father was never a big man. In fact he stood about 5 foot 5 and was very slim. I recall a chat with Bernie during one of his many drunken moments. Where the conversation started evades me, but he started talking about how he could easily take me down at any time (in a violent sense). The likelihood of that was so remote, considering he was so drunk and could hardly even walk, and I was completely sober. His suggestion amused me, but my father was less than impressed having overheard the conversation. Dad rushed in the living room in rage and put one hand around Bernie's throat and physically lifted him off the ground with one hand telling him "Never, ever threaten my son". I was quite surprised because Bernie probably weighed more that 12 stone, and my dad was only about 9 stone. It's amazing what strength adrenaline conjours up. The other alcoholic friend of my father's that I got to know was Adam. He was a guy that could handle his drink. A Scotsman that totally enjoyed a good debate. Especially with me. Whatever your opinion, he would always look at it from other angles. I enjoyed my chats with him. As far as I know he is still alive. I think he finally gave up the drink. Lucky man. At the time Adam also had a partner, who was also an alcoholic. One morning I received a call telling me that my father and Adam were in a police cell, arrested on suspicion of the rape of Adam's partner. I considered that I knew my father well enough to come to the conclusion that he wouldn't have done anything like that. It turned out that Adam's partner had a history of falsely accusing people of rape. Those are the people that make life more difficult for the genuine rape victims. That's just another one of those gifts from alcohol. It can make you do the strangest things.

To be continued.....

Now for the lowdown on the Youtube stats.

I now have 1,109 subscribers.

My channel, Jeffstunes has now been seen 25,766 times.

The total viewings for all my videos is fast approaching the half a million mark at 470,388.

There's another amusing clip from my daughter's first video, and I'll be putting that one up next. Until then....

On to video 89.

The title of this one is "Beautiful freak" and it comes off the album of the same name which was put out in 1996 by the band "The Eels". It's one of my all time favourite albums. At the time their music was cutting edge and I was a big fan of their lyrics. I've got my eye on covering another one of the songs off the album. The music is very much the same except I only used Piano, Bass, Cello and Strings. Here is my rendition of Beautiful freak by The Eels:

Now for the continuation of my dad's story.

My dad part 10.

When I finally met my father, he was having a relationship with a woman called Sheila, who had two children. Sima and Kashif. All I know is that she originated from Tiger bay in Wales, although she was certainly had an Asian heritage. Sima and Kashif had great affection for my father. I thought the relationship between him and Sheila was a little odd, although that may just have been how I was looking at it at the time. There was some criticism of the relationship from family, but as far as I was concerned, if it made him happy then everything was ok. I believe that everybody should be allowed to live the life they want, and befriend the people of their choice. Sheila resided in Southall with their dog Ruffles. Southall being west of London. For those who don't already know. The population in southall is mostly Asian. From being at the house many times, my father appeared a little bigoted, with negative comments about those from an Asian background. Yet he was romantically involved with an Asian. One possibility was that this was something that was drummed into him by those around him in his life, but it didn't seem likely, knowing his personality. He was proud to walk in the street with Sheila and her children, as was I.

It is possible that his comments may have originated from those walks with the family though, because he told me on several occasions about the dirty looks and insults he received from Asians in the street because he was with an Asian woman. That is something I experienced too. Just from walking with them. So if there was any racism, then it was coming from the Asians in the street who in my opinion were narrow minded to even consider such insult. We are all human beings. They just have a better tan than I do :)

To be continued......

I've been a Myspace member for a few years now, and I've finally decided to start doing something with it. Giving it some link love :) So here's the URL if you want to add me:

jeff edwards myspace page

I've been sitting in the corner on Facebook for a few years as well. When I joined Facebook it was a pretty quiet place. Not so much now :) I'll broadcast that too. Here it is:

jeff edwards facebook page

Now the lowdown on the current state of play on Youtube.

My Subscribers have raced forward to 1,061.

The channel views are up at 24,867 and the overall viewing figures for all my videos are 442,298.

Coming up next. I'm not really sure. I would like to do the other Eels track I wanted to do, but who knows.

I've reached video eighty eight. This time I'm singing Lost by Coldplay. A lot of people have asked me to sing this one so it's a popular request.

Check it out:

I'm going to continue my father's story in the next post, because I remembered something quite interesting and topical that I wanted to get out now. If you are in Britian then you might be familiar with a television show called "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here". One of the contestants was "David Van Day". I was at a friends house when I first saw that he was in there. My friend asked me who he was. I told him that he used to be in a group called Dollar, who had some success in the eighties, and that I didn't think too highly of him.

My opinion was based on one of my experiences as a teenager. At the age of seventeen I worked at a company called CRS (Co-operative Retail Services), at one of their branches in Uxbridge. During my lunch I popped into WH Smith to buy a few records. One of them being a song called Videotheque by Dollar. It was just pure chance that David Van Day and Therese Bazaar walked in whilst I was buying. The two members of Dollar. They were there for a signing session. David was quite a short man, and Therese was even shorter. Therese came over to me and picked my records from the counter and rifled through them. She told me that she thought I had good taste in music. Then we chatted for a little while. David was getting increasingly bothered by the lack of attention for him, and asked her to hurry up. So she signed my copy of their record, and took the disc over to him and more or less demanded that he sign it too.

After paying for my records, I said farewell. Therese smiled and said goodbye. David just ignored me. I got the impression that he was a selfish individual.

From watching "I'm a celebrity, get me out of here" I see that he hasn't changed much. I have to add that I thought Therese was wonderful. I felt that she was happy for the conversation, which made me feel good.

Back to the Youtube stuff.

I've cracked it. The 1k sub mark has been passed, and I'm now at 1020.

There are 24,010 channel views and my total video viewings are 414,193.

I'm not sure what I'm doing next, but it may well be another cover. There's a few to do. I've also got a duet coming up :)

This is another collab with Ulf Pettersson. That wonderful musician from Sweden. The title of this one is "I wanna see". This is a song I wrote as a bit of a parody, but then Ulf heard it and requested to do the music for me. I was fascinated to see what he would come up with and this is the result. I think it beats my original music hands down.

Once again, this song does not appear on my album "Sight Or Sound".

Ulf is a guy that I'd love to do more with in time to come. I admire his work. He is very much a fan of my material, but we are both quite busy at the moment. I've been slaving away with my side of music, and Ulf is currently writing music for film and television. It's likely that you might have heard something by him without even knowing it :)

Here's the song I did with him. "I wanna see":

This is the next installment of bits frmo my Dad's life.

My Dad. Part 9.

I mentioned before that my father got involved with some unsavoury characters. I made a good number of friends myself before he came into my life, and before I even knew he existed. I was to find out later that some of those meetings were not by accident. As a person, I do not judge people. I never have. If somebody was friendly to me, then I spoke to them. There were a few of my friends that told me that I shouldn't really mix with some of the people I met, because they were trouble. I saw no reason to adhere to that. These people treated me well, and nothing untoward happened in their company. Beefcake is probably a bit of an insulting term, but they certainly weren't short on bravery. In fact, most people were afraid of them. Except me of course. There was never a reason to fear. My attitude was that if anything threatening came along, then you dealt with it. You shouldn't live in fear. Why worry about something that hasn't happened? It turned out that my father knew all of those questionable individuals. Even some of those I'd worked with when I left school.

I'm going to say this next bit is alleged. A tale from Cowgate road. This is something that my father recounted. He can't be sued because he is now dead. He wanted me to tell this. You may well have heard of the welsh singing star "Tom Jones". Well it involves him. I don't doubt that most of you reading this will know who I'm talking about. The story goes that he took a 14 year old girl into the fields at Cowgate road and had sex with her. Pregnancy followed, but the poor girls life was cut short, because she died from leukemia. It's likely that she gave consent, but that kind of act was still illegal. I can't say for sure if this story ever got out. It's certainly controversial, but probably not unusual in the sixties. A number of my family members are not exactly fans of Tom, but after knowning that story, it's not really surprising.

To be continued.......

I've been getting lots of interest in my album since the release. It's going to be a few months before it is on sale in all the places it has been sent. It's currently on CDBaby, Itunes and Amazon. You can find out more on my website at:

jeff edwards official website

Check my links page. You can find a link to Ulf Pettersson's site, and there are also some free downloads of other songs I've written!!

The youtube statistics section now.

I'm getting quite excited with the sub count. It's at 992. So, so close to the magic 1,000 mark now.

The channel views have raced forward to 23,296, and the viewing figures for all my videos combined is 397,648. They have seen an increase in their rate in the last several days.

Last, but by no means least....

That's the batch of originals out of the way. Now for a few cover songs. The next one will be "Lost" by "Coldplay". A song that's been requested of me quite a few times over the last month.

Here is the 4th out of 5 originals. This was originally an instrumental written by the extremely talented Swedish musician "Ulf Pettersson". As I listened to it, I could hear a potential vocal line in the song. I told Ulf about this, and suggested that I try my ideas out. He was curious to see the results. Ulf liked a lot of the stuff I did on my own, and there's a twist on one of those coming soon. For now though, this one is called "Swings and roundabouts". There are some good points about being involved in a relationship. There are also some good points to being single. There are some that you can't have in both though, and this is about one persons struggle with those problems.

Here's the song.

You can find a link to Ulf's website on my own website at:

jeff edwards official website

Back to the next part of my father's story.

My Dad. Part 8.

I didn't know about my dad's addiction to alcohol when I first met him. I should have really recognised it by the nickname that everybody had for him, "Woodsy". At the time I didn't even think about what it meant. Eventually I discovered that it was after the drink "Woods Navy Rum". His favourite flavour was Rum. If thr truth be known though. Anything that contained lots of alcohol would have gone down well. So that's how I found and met my father. Before I knew all the stories about him. Criticism may be levelled at his actions in life, and I know that I would not repeat what he did. I felt a lot of it was wrong. but he was still my father. I will never deny that. After all, he helped give me life.

The sixties were a time of drink and experimentation in drugs. My dad chose drink over drugs as a preference. He did however try a few things out, and did take part in sessions of drug taking, mainly in an effort to be in with the crowd. He didn't go seriously into any types of drug, but he did like a bit of cannabis. I remember watching a film with my dad about the sex pistols, and he chuckled knowingly at the scenes of smoking pot in the living room. He recounted the times when the rolling stones were doing exactly the same thing in his mothers bedroom. Now why do I find that likely? :) In a small twist. One of those members lives only a few miles from where I live.

My nan would have been horrified. She knew absolutely nothing about those events. In her eyes, her son John could do no wrong. Although she didn't know these things. Just about everybody else did.

In the next post I reveal something my dad told me about a certain celeb. It's a real shocker. So if you are a Tom Jones fan then be prepared. That's all I can say.

To be continued.......

It's Youtube time again.

I now have a total of 975 subscribers. 25 to go.

There has been 22,848 visits to my channel.

The sum total of my video views is 387,663.

I'm going to throw another one in here. I've had 5,952 comments on all my videos (excluding my replies).

The next song is the last in the chain of 5 originals, and it's another one with Ulf. I'm also going to tell you a little bit more about Ulf.

Here is the 3rd in the series of 5 original songs. This one is called "She freaks". It came out of an afternoon of experimental jamming with my pal "Steve Morgan". I ha written a rough template for the tune previously, and by the conclusion of events, we had a complete song. It's another one of those songs about a couple in a relationship. One of them being placid and the other being flighty. Some people can identify with this situation, and it can be the other way around to. Check it out and see what you think.

I quite like this song, but it didn't get on the album. Perhaps because I had so many others to choose from, and I wasn't totally happy with the production. Check out some sound clips of songs that did make it to the album through my website at:

http://www.jeffsmusic.co.uk

My Dad. Part 7.

Nan loved my dad dearly. Even though he got involved in the scrapes that he did. Everybody else in the family looked like a saint compared to him. He was just likeable. I was unaware of his existence until I was 18 years old. After I found out, I pondered over it for a little while and then left it until I was 21. I finally found him through my Grandmother Lily. Another person I'd never met. Once I discovered where she lived, I just went straight up to the front door. I wasn't sure what to feel when I was waiting on the doorstep. I used to watch families being reunited on TV shows. The tears and everything, but I have to say that I felt very little emotion at all. The only feeling in me was that I was curious. As the door swung open, there stood a short white haired old lady who greeted me with a hello. My response was something like "Hello, are you Lily?". She told me that she was that person. I uttered "I'm John's son. Jeffrey". She looked, smiled and invited me into her home. I was quite surprised, because she lived in a neighbourhood that wasn't very pleasant. I could have been anybody, and she just invited me in. Maybe she saw the resemblance. I have been informed on more than one occasion that my father and I look alike. So out came the tea and biscuits, and all the old photographs. During my visit, she called my father on the telephone to arrange a meeting with me in a local public house. Amazing with hindsight because he avoided other offspring.

The day arrived to meet him and I turned up at the pub, initally going into the wrong bar. I quickly found the right bar with the help of direction. As I walked in, all eyes were on me, and there was a crowd of people in the corner of the bar. My father being one of them. What do you do in those situations. I just homed in on him and said "Hello Dad". Then gave him a quick hug. I'd be lying if i said there was any emotion in that embrace. This is the first time I'd met this person. He was just like a stranger. He seemed pretty nervous to begin with, but once the ice was broken, a party mood ensued.

There's more on his life in future posts. Plus some celebrity stuff too.

To be continued.......

Back to the present and the Youtube progress.

The subscribers edge ever closer to the 1k mark and are now 970.

There are now 22,617 Channel views. The daily rate seems to be climbing now.

The viewing figures for all my videos is currently increasing at well over 1,000 a day and now stands at 382,179.

The next song I'll be talking about is a collaboration with an extremely talented Swedish musician called "Ulf"!

The second in a series of original songs that fell short of the "Sight Or Sound" Album. This one is called "Movement". A friend of mine asked me to write a song that was environmental. I thought over it for a while, and then came up with the idea of a global situation from the perspective of an animal. As animals seem to have a sixth sense about things we cannot detect on our own.

Here is the result of my efforts.

This one didn't make the album because I thought there were many others that were better in composition and arrangement. I mentioned previously that there are 10 songs that feature on my album, that are available to listen to in full on Youtube. I have so many great comments on all of my originals on Youtube. Now a small selection of those comments have been featured on my CDBaby page. You can check them out at:

jeff edwards - sight or sound

My Dad. Part 6.

It wasn't just Lulu that my father had a distaste for. P.J.Proby also made it into his hall of infamy. Apparently my father knocked him out for making a move on his girlfriend. Oops :) I would imagine that that sort of thing wasn't uncommon. Perhaps it was his pretence that my father didn't like. I was told by Dad that P.J. used to perform on stage wearing drainpipe trousers, and in an effort to impress the ladies, he used to put a section of hosepipe inside his trousers to make the girls think he was gifted in the groin. Oh what disappointment there must have been if he managed to attract anybody as a result of his efforts. That old saying "The truth will out" is probably the most fitting term to use.

Moving on to a tale of my Dad's D.I.Y. His sister wanted a bedroom painted, and my Dad told her that he would of course do it. For payment of course. It all seemingly came out very well. He pointed her to the room afterwards, and she was very pleased with the results. The pleasure was short lived though. A few days had gone by and because the room was freshly painted, she decided to arrange the room differently. That's when she found out that all my father had done was painted around everything. There were large unpainted areas behind all objects that were against a wall. I'm sure she must have had some choice words for him afterwards. He never told me those.

To be continued.......

Coming up to date again with the happenings on Youtube.

Only 39 subscribers to go now. It's currently on 961.

22,480 Channel views.

The total video views are 378,848.

The talented Guitarist "Steve Morgan" features in my next upload. It's a song that's been playlisted on a few internet radio stations!

Now for some original songs. This one is the 1st out of a number of original compositions that didn't make the cut for the album for various reasons. Check out sound bytes for songs that did make the album "Sight Or Sound" at:

sight or sound - jeff edwards

So far you can also get these songs at Amazon and Ruckus . 10 of the songs are in full on my Youtube channel, and the other 5 are not.

This particular song is called "Tell me why". This is another from a large batch of songs I composed several years ago. It is centred around the demise of a relationship, that ended mysteriously. I'm sure there are many that can identify with that situation. I am fond of this tune, but the chorus was a little too weak for my ears. I considered there were better songs to choose from.

Take a listen here:

Moving on to the events of my father.

My Dad. Part 5.

I said in previous posts that my father was in "Cowgate road" in Greenford, West London. In his mother's residence. Music was one of the loves of his life. So it wasn't long before he started to get involved in the scene. His tools of choice were the Guitar and Harmonica. He was only ever a part of one band in his life. Their name was "The frasier chorus". It was a group of four harmonica players. My father wielded the chromatic. They didn't end up cutting any discs, and their achievements were very limited. On the upside, they got to tour with some bigger names.

Being on the scene, meant that he mixed with names that are still recognised today. He has recounted a few tales to me. I found one or two very surprising. Even by the standards of today. I suppose it wasn't so much of an issue in the 60's. I can't be one hundred percent sure that this occurred in Cowgate road, but it's a tale of Brian Poole from the Tremeloes and Lulu. My father never really liked Lulu. He had a few names for her but none of them are repeatable here. He informed me that Lulu used all the tools at her disposal in order to achieve fame. I don't find that sort of thing surprising. Many people did that. According to my father, Lulu and Brian poole were engaging in sexual activity behind my grandmother's sofa. Floors are cold and hard. Well this one was. Why didn't they use the couch. It would have been far more comfortable. Unless someone else was sitting there :)

To be continued.......

As always. Here are the Youtube figures to up to the time this was posted.

My subscribers are up to 953.

My channel views are now 22,268.

Total videos views are 374,240.

Another original next that was a result of a suggestion.

82 videos done now. This latest one is my cover of the full version of "Run" by "Snow patrol". A number of people have asked me to do this, and I didn't recognise the song by the name alone, but when I found it and played it, I knew it straight away.

I think the song is great. I have used pictures of roads, paths and lighting to set the mood of the video. It's just a slideshow again :)

I hope you enjoy it. Here it is:

My album page on CDBaby has had over 100 hits now, and the product has been delivered to 3 companies so far.

Those are Amazon, Napster and Ruckus. One of my daily tasks is to check on those sites for availability. They are not on sale on any of them yet. There's also an online shop with T-shirts etc that will be up soon. If you fancy checking out some

of the samples from my album you can go to my CDBaby page at:

sight or sound - jeff edwards

Now for more on my father.

My Dad. Part 4.

The relationship between my mother and father didn't last very long. Their first meeting was when she was going out with someone called Michael. After her and Michael broke up, my father appeared back on the scene. It might be difficult to understand how they got together, unless you met him yourself. He had an irresistable personality. An absolute charmer. Just about everybody loved him, and a lot of them knew what he was like. Perhaps it's that old thing about being attracted to risk and danger. It wasn't long before my mother became pregnant with me. I've asked her what was the breaking point for her in the relationship, and there were a few things that swung it. One of the times was when my dad robbed the electricity meter at the place they rented, and left my mother to take the blame. My mother would not take anything from anyone, and she felt so bad to be accused of taking the money. She knew it was my father that was responsible. There were only 3 people that moved in and out of the house, and she was sure that it wasn't the landlord. She could only deny what she was accused of. The landlord adored my father, and refused to believe that it could have been him.

The other event that helped to break the relationship was my mother's eighteenth birthday party. My dad came to the party, but not alone. There was a woman on each arm. I think that would just about do it for most people. I don't know if he did that deliberately to get her to end it instead of him. Knowing him, I'd say it was certainly a possibility.

So the relationship ended before I was born. My mother then had a relationship with a man called "Jeffrey". He is the man I am named after. He pleaded with my mother not to reveal to me the identity of my real father. Instead he wanted to pretend that he was my natural father. Everything was fine until his own child came along. There was a noticeable bias torwards his daughter. My mother believed in fairness, so as a counter measure, she showed bias toward me. Unlike my real father, my stepfather had a violent streak, and displayed that to my mother. This resulted in my mother fleeing with me as a baby to places of refuge. One such location was in the attic of a convent. The last time I remember living in the same house as him was when I was about 7. I never realised that he wasn't my father until I was 18 years old, and i didn't meet my real father until I was 21. The stories I tell about his life before me have been collected from him and confirmed by other family members. There's more to come. I can understand why my mother kept me away from him. She didn't want me to grow up with his habits, and I'm glad she made that decision.

To be continued.......

Youtube time, and it's the big race to the thousand subs.

It's done pretty well over the last week. There is now 938 subscribers.

The channel views are also doing well at 21,815 and the total viewings for all my videos are 364,724. I am averaging over one thousand views a day at the moment.

That's the last of the cover songs for a little while. I'm planning to upload a number of my original songs, to complement the release of my album. The first four of these didn't make the cut for the album.

Now on to the eighty first vid. This was yet another request, and it's called "Afternoons and coffee spoons" originally by "The crash test dummies". I felt I wanted to do something a little cheeky with the video. You see so many people singing in the privacy of their own home, using whatever they can get their hands on as a microphone. Well, I went a bit further than that :)

See what you think of my version of "Afternoons and coffee spoons". There's a role call of objects in the video

description, but I think you'd have to go to Youtube and view it to see that :)

Now for the continuation of some of the events of my father's life.

My Dad. Part 3.

My Dad's mother (Nan) lived a large part of her life in a place called "Cowgate road" in a suburb of London called Greenford. That place has a few memories for a number of people, as I will explain later. It wasn't long before my father became involved in criminal activities. He became involved in a west london gang, and became quite an influential member. Dad couldn't keep his hands off of other people's property. Unfortunately at some point during his involvement, firearms came into play, though I never heard of an instance of him using any.

I've got two interesting stories to tell about this time. One was a robbery that he was a part of. It was an art robbery in Chelsea. He told me that he was running away from the scene with his hands full, across Chelsea bridge, and had to lighten the load. So one of the artworks was tossed into the river thames. If the authorities ever wondered where one of the missing paintings went to. The answer to that question is "At the bottom of the thames". He hid the rest of his stash in his mother's attic without her knowledge. So she was quite surprised when the police raided her house and discovered a collection of paintings. They finally caught up with him and he paid for the crime.

One thing that you could never underestimate about him was his silver tongue. On one occasion he was arrested for a crime, and conviction and prison were sure to follow, but amazingly he managed to talk his way out of the situation. He engaged one of the officers in conversation about music. There weren't many people that weren't fascinated by music in those times. Anyway, this policeman revealed to my father that he had an old violin. My father enthusiastically suggested he bring it in for him to examine. He managed to convince him that he was an expert in old musical instruments (which he wasn't). Very soon the officer brought the violin into the station and allowed my father to examine it. There was a lot of excitement from my father and he made him believe that this was the violin he always wanted, and he offered a few hundred pounds to buy it from him. Now that was an awful lot of money then. The policeman quickly accepted, and my father obtained the funds through contacts, and the result was one happy policeman. My father didn't even get charged for the crime. Oh yes. The violin. It was totally worthless. I don't know where my father got the money, but one thing I can be sure about. It wasn't his own money.

To be continued......

More news about the album. I've been getting used to the control panel on CDBaby. It's pretty good, because it tells me how many people visit my page on a daily basis. Also which companies the album has been sent to for distribution. I think it's probably reached all of them now. So it's listed on the likes of Amazon, Itunes, Napster etc.

Check out some clips of songs from my album at:

jeff edwards - sight or sound

This is the latest on Youtube.

Subscriptions to my channel are now up to 920.

Those that have viewed my channel now total 21,490.

Aggregate video views are 358,999.

The next one up will be the last cover for a while. It's going to be "Run" by "Snow patrol".

There 2 subjects I want to go over in this post. One is a song on someone else's Youtube channel, and the other is my first album "Sight Or Sound".

I'm going to talk about the album first.

It's been on sale for a while now. It's available through CDBaby and other selling points. That's ITunes, Amazon, Napster and a number of others. The album is a digital release only, so CD's are not currently available, but they may be in the future. This depends on how well it goes, and whether there are any offers for investment.

The track order for the album is as follows.

01) Soaked to the bone. *

02) So blue.

03) Convey. +

04) Take me home.

05) Don't wish it away.

06) Broadcast fantasy.

07) Keep on waiting (The stood up song). *

08) Escape.

09) Twist of fate.

10) Blow away.

11) Unknown. *

12) Counting down the days. *

13) Sight Or Sound. #

14) When I grow.

15) You think it's all over. *

I've put some marks at the end of some of those to give you a bit of extra information below. So where these symbols appear, this is what they mean.

* = These tracks are not currently on Youtube.

# = Features the wonderful talents of guitarist "Steve Morgan".

+ = This is the albums promo track that will be offered royalty free for promotional purposes only.

There's a fascinating story behind the last track on the album. It actually started out as a sports song, and was converted into a normal song. It normally happens the other way around! In it's original form, it was aired several times on a number of radio stations during the 2006 world cup campaign. It was then called "They think it's all over", after the famous Kenneth wolstenholme quote.

You can preview clips from all songs on the "Sight Or Sound" album by visiting the purchase page, at the following link:

jeff edwards - sight or sound album

Now to the Youtube video. This was uploaded by a Youtube user called "KarenEng". It's a duet with me. It's that wonderful old classic "You don't bring me flowers" by Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand. I've wanted to put this one up for a long time, but finding the right female vocal wasn't easy. That was until I found Karen. She has a wonderful voice. Take a listen and see what you think :)

Now for the regular dose of stats from Youtube.

My subscribers have breezed over the 900 mark to 912. That magic 1,000 doesn't seem so far away now.

My channel viewings are picking up and are now up to 21,373.

All of my videos have been watched a total of 356,896.

I mentioned a video order in the last post. It was a bit wrong. I do know that the next upload will be "Afternoons and Coffee spoons" by the "Crash test dummies", because I've already made the song and video :)

More on my father's story in the next post.

Now I'm going to do something acoustic. This is the third of my dad's all time favourite songs. There are so many different ones he loved, but I chose to do only three together. There's a possibility that I'll run out some more in time. This one is called "Baby can I hold you tonight". There was a very well known cover version by Boyzone, but my favourite is stil the original by "Tracy Chapman". It comes from a fantastic album.

I had a comment recently from someone telling me that I should stop relying on backing tracks. So I sat in front of my camera and played this on guitar. I'll give you my view on using backing tracks. In my opinion, there is noting wrong at all in using them. Not everybody can play a musical instrument, and backing tracks can come in very handy. How many lead singers are there that don't play a musical instrument? I can think of many. Some people forget that the voice is probably one of the most versatile instruments you can play. So my advice to those using backing tracks. Keep on. If people criticise you for it, then just ignore it. The most important thing above anything else, is that you enjoy what you are doing. Not all people will like it. Could you tell me any singer that is loved by 100% of the world's population? Some people love you, and some people hate you. I saw a statement recently that said if you can get just 1% of the worlds population to like what you are doing, then you can consider yourself a success, because 1% is over 60 million :)

Anyway. On to the song. I hope you enjoy my tender rendition of this beautiful song.

My Dad. Part 2

My father was a bit of a ladies man, and had many, many associations in his lifetime. Sometimes having just one was not enough. There was one story I was told about two girlfriends he had. They were bi-sexual and were very much into each other, if you know what I mean. Anyway the sleeping arrangement were three people, one bed. This lasted for a while. I'm curious to know what the neighbours were thinking.

It's baffling how he became to be my father. Even more so when you know my mother's background. If fate had chosen another path, then my father may have been a certain "Mungo Jerry". Does that name sound familiar? How about his number one hit "In the summertime"? Mungo spent some time pursuing my mother. It all came to a head when he asked her why she wouldn't go out with him. I think the answer put him off for good. Perhaps it hurt his pride. When asked, my mother replied "It's because you are too ugly". Now I know where I got that compulsion to be honest. Looking at old pictures of him, I have to say I'm inclined to agree. Good call mum :) I have no doubt that there were many women out there who found his chiselled features attractive. Just not my mother.

As time passed, the paths of my mother and father crossed. If you took their backgrounds into consideration, you would be scratching your head at the union. My father's family history was fairly unspectacular, whilst the bloodline of my mother's family can be traced to the aristocracy of the 19th century. That's as far as I've looked back so far. I'll probably research the family tree at a later date to see how far I can take it back. I reckon the mothers side of my family will be easy to map out, but I'm not as confident with tracing my father's roots.

To be continued...

Now for the nitty gritty stuff. The Youtube figures. There's been a bit of a yo-yo effect with my subscribers over the last 5 days, but they have still climbed. Another 3 hve been added overall and the figure is now 893. Channel views are up to 20,958 and the total viewing figures for all my videos is now at 349,427.

So what's coming next?

I've prepared some covers to upload whilst I've been working on my album. I'll give a track listing in the next post. My next few vids are a crash test dummies request, and a rather special Youtube duet with a lady who has a wonderful voice.

This is the second of three songs in tribute to my father who passed away. It's my version of Through the barricades, originally performed by the group Spandau ballet. For those that don't know, it's about Northern Ireland.

See what you think.

I mentioned I was going to say a few things about my dad's life, and so I will. I only know a small part of what happened in his life. Still there's enough to mention that will astonish even the most resolute.

My Dad. Part 1

I'll begin with the basic stuff. His birthplace was a place called Hammersmith, in West London. His mum Lily was a loving and kind person, but his father sadly did not live up to that reputation. An Irish waiter by trade. If you can call it a trade. The father used to beat his mother whilst John was looking on. It's no surprise that he had deep seated dislike for him. His father wasn't around for long, and this explains the fact that his brothers and sisters have a different surname to him. As a youngster he used to get into lots of trouble. This was just a sign of what was to come in the future. Just a sign though. Some of the individuals he met in life ended up quite successful, and some of those achieved fame.

John enlisted into the Navy as a teenager. Although his service lasted less than four years, due to his dismissal. He got a reputation for fighting, and as a gambling man, he used to set up fighting fixtures with side betting. During his service, and many fights, he managed to get away with only one loss. During his service, he opted to take it upon himself to depart from the Navy, before his compulsory term had finished. concealing himself within the ranks of travelling gypsies, and eventually hiding out at his mothers house. This is where the M.P.s finally tracked him down. As they were talking to his mother on the doorstep, John was climbing out of the back window, but he didn't get far before they carted him back into service.

To be continued...

On another note. This is quite exciting for me. I've finally put together my first album. It's titled "Sight Or Sound". As I'm working on a shoestring budget, the album is going out on digital release only. It has been a struggle doing all the jobs myself. The performing, mixing mastering and artwork etc. It's certainly kept the costs down though. It will be on sale in over 40 places apparently. Some of those include Itunes, Amazon and Napster. Not wanting to sound like an anorak, but I was really pleased when I got the barcode for the album. Yipee! It has a global product identity. It's official :)

It's looking like it's going to be available to buy in about a month from now. Then it will spread to other online stores in the next few months. I will be updating my blog about it when it happens, and writing about any reviews etc.

Let's get down to the youtube stats.

My subscribers have increased to 890. Only 10 off 900.

The channel viewings have passed the 20k landmark, and now stand at 20,672.

The total video views are now 343,712.

Next up is an acoustic cover. The third of my dad's favourites.

In august 2008 my father died. He reached the age of 70 years, which was an achievement in itself, considering he was an alcoholic. It was this addiction that finally took its toll on him.

I didn't manage to see him before he died. As per usual, he went on the missing list, before admitting himself to hospital. He died only a day later.

He had a very colourful existence, and there are many tales of his adventures, and happenings that surrounded him. He has been in the company of many in his life, and that includes a number of famous names. There's some tales to tell about them as well.

I'm will be going over some of those in my future posts.

I can't say that my father was a saint, because he most certainly wasn't. He stepped on the wrong side of morality many times, but he nearly always seemed to get away with it. I think his persuasive and infectious personality had a lot to do with it.

I Thought I'd cover a few of his favourite tunes on Youtube. One of his greatest loves in life was music, and he had wide ranging tastes. From the 50's to the present. I suppose that's where I inherited my love for music. The first of his favourites I've uploaded to Youtube is one of his all time top songs, "Kingston town" by "UB40". This is a song that never failed to get him up dancing, and he liked to dance. Not just on a dance floor, but anywhere. This was the song that I used at the end of his funeral. The original version that is.

This is my version:

I've got some stories to tell. I don't really know where i should start. I think I will not do it in any particular order. He was unorthodox, so it seems right. I think I've got to be a bit careful about some of the stories because they cause a bit of fuss. I think the use of the word "Allegedly", is going to be the order of the day. Lol.

Getting back around to Youtube. The numbers have still been climbing well, even though I've been away from it for a while.

My subscriptions are now up to 851. A pretty good increase from the last post.

The channel viewings are also doing well at 19,745.

The overall video views are now at 320,952. Still racing forward.

I'm looking at getting a few more of my father's favourites up next. Then I'll do a few of the cover versions that some people have requested, and two of my own songs.

It's been a while since I last posted, and uploaded a video to Youtube. I've had a lot to do over the past month, and hardly any of that has had anything to do with music. I went to the wedding of a very good friend, and it was one of the best weddings I've ever attended. We were very well looked after. Coaches were provided between all destinations, so that we could concentrate on the important things, like raising our alcohol levels :)

It took place on the Isle of Man. A highlight of the day was a tram that was hired out exclusively to transport us all to the peak of snaefell mountain. A bagpiper joined us. Together with plenty to eat and a sufficient supply of champagne.

I very much enjoyed the whole thing, and was extremely pleased for them both, that the event went so well, and the weather took a break from raining.

I finally got back to doing a couple of cover songs. This particular one is another Coldplay song called "Amsterdam". It featured on the album "A rush of blood to the head". This is one of my all time favourites of Coldplay. The vid just shows a collection of pictures. I admit I didn't spend much time on the vid, but the song was far more important to me :)

See what you think :)

There are many other things I've been doing over the month, though I'm not going to bother writing about it. It would fill several pages. I'm just update the Youtube stats.

Well. I may not have been doing much on Youtube, but the figures have been increasing very well on their own.

I've now got 806 subscribers. I'd worked out previously that I should get to 1,000 by the end of this year, but at the current rate of increase, it seems like it could easily surpass that sooner.

Channel viewings are now up to 18,423. They are rolling along well.

Last, but by no means least. The total video views have inreased to 291,498. The 300k landmark is less than 2 weeks away now.

I have prepared another cover version, and I am hoping that i can spend some time making the video amusing. It's another "Crash test dummies" song. I would like to get that one up pretty soon. Rather than disappear for another month :)

I chose to do a different song, but remain with the same band. Coldplay. After I'd uploaded "Violet hill", I got quite a few requests to sing "Viva la vida". There were too many to to pass it off. So I deided to record that one next. It's the second song of theirs that I've done from their latest album, which goes by the same name.

I know that some people think that it's a bit of a cop out to do cover songs to backing tracks, but I always find a way of learning something in most things I do. I really want to improve my production skills. It's great to record all the musical parts perfectly, but if the mix isn't produced properly, then all that work means very little.

I've recently been trying to match the vocal production in the last few songs, to the original songs. I think it's made a big difference in the result, and it's teaching me how to produce my own voice in relation to the different types of music.

I've used a vocal boost on this one. Plus low to moderate plate reverb in the verses. I've used the Chorus effect and a heavier plate reverb in the choruses.

Here it is. Viva la vida.

Now for some up to date figures from my Youtube account.

I've had a few subs come and go, but yesterday I woke up to 6 new subscribers overnight. The total now stands at 727.

The channel views are now up at 16,529.

My total video views have done it! They've broken the quarter of a million views. All of this within a year of posting my first video. The current figure now stands at 254,512.

I'm hoping I can now do that old album track cover that I said I was going to do in the first place :)

Now for some covers. This one is quite a recent tune, and is called "Violet hill". It's covered from the Coldplay album "Viva la vida".

I had several Coldplay songs lined up to cover, and I chose this as the first of the batch. I really struggled with the falsetto in this one, so I had to take the music down a key. I still struggled to reach the highest note, but did get there in the end.

It was a bit noisy above my village when I recorded this. I live quite near to a place called Goodwood. They hold a number of annual events and one of them is called "The festival of speed". So whilst it was in progress, I took a few pictures of the aircraft from my rear garden. I have added those to the vid. All I'm going to say is that one in particular got very close, and it wasn't a small aircraft!!!

Check out my cover of this brilliant song, and see my snaps:

The Youtube stats are still moving well.

I now have 721 subscribers in total.

My channel viewings are now up to 16,254.

The overall video views are so close now. 249,532. Barring disasters, it will pass the quarter of a million tomorrow :)

My next one will probably be another Coldplay song. There's a track on one of their albums that I've always wanted to sing :)