Glyn Bailey and The Many Splendid Things
Acoustic / Alternative / Pop / Rock

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Last Updated: 08 Aug 2008
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The Band

Angela Potter - Keys/ vocals
Glyn Bailey - Songwriter, singer, instruments
John Gardner - Bass/vocals
Owen Wright - Drums, just drums
Phil Senior - Guitars, bass, backing vox

About us


For several years, the erstwhile egg-delivery man, former MP’s assistant and soft-furnishings salesman Glyn Bailey, played a supporting role in various bands from his Lancashire base before moving centre stage in 2005 with the launch of debut solo album Toys From Balsa.

Generating interest mostly from underground media, there was a major success with the track ‘The Plastic Bag Song’ featuring on a CBC docamentary.

Raw material for the music comes from the eclectic soup of such varied life experience. There are themes from internet cannibalism and abusive relationships, to a communist feast and Laurel & Hardy in heaven. Songs are peppered with references to strange clowns, moonwalkers and even the odd love song thrown in for good measure (we do mean odd).

There may be detectable influences including Nick Cave, David Bowie, Divine Comedy, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.

"This is a guy who would freak out Robyn Hitchcoc if the two ever met for a dandelion and burdock down the local" - Americana.co.uk

2007 brought forth a new album Songs From The Old Illawalla, described by one reviewer as "maybe one of Lancashire’s weirdest concept albums yet" [Manchester Music.co.uk]

All of life is here, or at least the darker side. Opener ‘Yahoo!’ is a spaghetti-western inspired swipe at big corporations and their threat to the planet, a theme echoed later in the haunting ‘Doomed Ship Allegory’. There are contrasts from the heartbreaking ‘Glory’, to the Beach-Boys vibe of ‘Down Amongst The Living’. Things get weird too. ‘Kafkaesque World’ goes under the skin of a torturer. There’s coercion and abuse in ‘Groomed’, the FIFA World Cup Final is revisited for a rousing ‘Zizou’s Big Day’, before stopping off for an uncomfortable ‘School Reunion’.

The Illawalla album concludes with an 8 minute narrative based on the true story of American singer and cold-war defector Dean Reed, which has received the endorsment of being featured on the singer’s official website [www.deanreed.de].

Live, Bailey is supported by 'The Many Splendid Things', featuring Phil Senior (guitar), John Gardner (bass), Owen Wright (drums), Angela Potter keyboards...Recent live dates with have included gigs with Waking The Witch, Emily Maguire and Vincent Vincent & The Villains.





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