After a long musical hibernation, Sheppertonian Sally Kemp dusted off her old reel-to-reel tapes from the '70s, restored her past gems, and dropped an album called 'Songs From Then'. But that’s not all! She’s also writing new tunes, including a heartfelt piece titled 'Don't Look Away', aimed at raising awareness for hungry children around the globe. We dive into her journey of rediscovery and the spark that reignited her passion for songwriting, which, believe it or not, started with just some quiet reflection during the pandemic. So grab your headphones and get comfy, because we’re about to explore Sally's musical renaissance and what it means to keep creating, no matter the age!

• Follow Sally on Instagram
• Sally's website

• Follow Sally on Instagram
• Sally's website

Produced by Gareth Davies at The Sound Boutique

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Shepperton Matters

Shepperton Matters

Hello and welcome to the Sheppertonian. I'm Gareth and this is the local podcast bringing you stories, voices and creativity from in and around Shepperton.

Before we begin, a quick thank you to the local businesses supporting the Sheppertonian through the Sheppertonian Business Club. Their backing makes it possible to keep sharing local stories like this one. You'll find details of our supporters on the website.

And if you're a business in or around Shepperton and you'd like your message put in front of a local audience, just head to the business club page at www.thesheppertonian.uk.

in this episode we meet Sally Kemp, a Sheppertonian songwriter and singer whose musical journey spans decades and whose creative spark has reignited in recent years. After many years in what she describes as musical hibernation, Sally found herself inspired to start writing songs again.

I can't keep it to myself because it's eating up my heart and it's only my uncertainty that's keeping us apart but now I know for sure Yes, I know for sure.

Alongside her rediscovered catalogue, she's writing new music, including a song called Don't Look Away, due for release on Friday 27th February.

Written to bring attention to hungry and deprived children around the world, Sally's return to songwriting didn't begin with a big announcement or long term plan.

It started quietly by listening.

And because it was in Glasgow, there was a lot of publicity in this country and so we were subjected to a lot of it on the radio because I listened to a lot of radio, I was soaking it all up and I suddenly thought, I'm sure I wrote a song about this very subject way back in the 70s. And so I had a root around, dug out the lyrics and I couldn't remember the tune and I also wanted to tweak it a bit.

So I rewrote a couple of verses and invented a tune quickly. And it was not that long after the pandemic had started, so it was sort of quite good to keep myself occupied.

And then a friend a couple of years after that wrote a book about her turbulent marriage to an artist and I thought it was a lovely title. I read the book and I thought, God, I'm going To have a go at condensing that long story into a few verses of song. And it was great.

It gave me my discipline back. It. It got me thinking again and I enjoyed it.

That idea of discipline comes up again and again when Sally talks about writing, both then and now.

I think mainly I'd lost the discipline of sitting down and I hadn't played the guitar. Mostly in songwriting, you get an idea and you play with it. You sit down, try and stick it together.

But it is a hell of a lot of discipline just making yourself sit down and if necessary, staring at a sheet of paper and just getting on with it. And I think most writers would probably tell you that unless I'm the exception, I don't think I'm the exception.

And it's fine that, you know, you get up from the chair and you go make a cup of tea and come back and have another go. And I enjoyed it. I actually found I was enjoying doing it. It was making me use my brain again, which was good.

Recently, Sally released an album called Songs From Then, made up of recordings from earlier in her life. Listening back after many years brought a mix of reflection and surprise.

I don't listen to them a great deal, and I haven't listened to them a great deal over the years. Just when the occasional relative says, oh, do you remember this? And let's hear it. So.

And I'd never done anything about, you know, promoting them or sort of pushing them in any way, but I did listen to them again on the old reel to reel tapes, and I actually enjoyed them. I thought, they're not actually that bad because you're always worried about your own writing, I think.

So you always think there's always a bit of imposter syndrome, and you think, oh, gosh.

Anyway, I thought, well, before I get too much older, I might as well get them out there and just see what occurs, you know, and people who like them or they won't like them, but it'll be worth a go. I was at my sister's house a few weeks ago and my nephew said, they've got Alexa sitting in the corner of the blooming room.

And he said, alexa, play Sally Kemp's songs from then. And it did. Oh, cool.

Probably set off a load of Alexas.

Now we're not in this house. Yeah, but. God, yeah, it was quite something, actually. It's quite scary, but it was quite nice, you know, I can't deny it. It was a nice feeling.

Did anything about them surprise you when you listen back?

Yes, I suppose the Sound of my voice was a lot higher than I thought it would be because it's dropped considerably over the years. But, yeah, that did surprise me. And I thought, gosh, how did I get up there? Which.

Voice and change all become part of the story, but not obstacles.

Because I haven't sung for such a long time, I've lost the elasticity, I suppose, in my voice. So anything I do, if I'm going to stretch it a bit, I have to work out.

And I suppose I'm writing for a lower register, you know, it's something that's just. I'm going with what I've got.

Earlier in her career, Sally spent years touring, working in wine bars, doing session work across a wide range of styles.

I was on the road a lot in my early career with groups, with various bands, and then I started doing a lot of stuff because I wanted to stay home a bit more. I went into wine bars and very smoky joints because everywhere there was smoking in those days.

And then I was doing a lot of session work and I loved it, it was great. But that in itself gives you a lot of discipline because you got to turn up on time for a session. And I suppose I've been a little bit lax in.

You know, when you do your own thing, you don't worry about stuff like that.

But the discipline of working in a studio most days, it did help, you know, it gave me that discipline and enjoyed it, met a lot of interesting people. But with the session work, you didn't know what you were going to get. I mean, it would be anything from reggae.

I did a lot of reggae, which was brilliant, and then you'd get another chord and you'd find yourself in a studio with people like you probably never heard of. Now, Armando Ross, he had a big, big orchestra, you know, and it was a Latin orchestra and one of my Latin heroes.

And of course, I got into the studio and discovered it was him. And there were about six of us singing. I was given a sheet of paper with a million dots on it, and panic sets in. Oh, my God.

And so you do everything, you know, straight away. You get one quick run through and then you do it.

So it ranged from reggae, where it was a little bit more free and easy, to something like that, very disciplined, lots of notes on a page, and trying to fight your way through it.

I have to be honest, I'm sure sometimes, I mean, fortunately, I had a little bit of musical nous, so maybe I didn't exactly follow the dots as it was, but I got away with it, I think. Yes. And then the fact that I was still working in wine bars and breathing in all that smoke really took its toll.

And eventually I was trying to sing one night and I thought, God, what's that? That's just come out of my mouth. This weird sound had come out over a period of about two weeks.

I became quite scared to sing because I didn't know what was going to come out of my mouth. It had damaged vocal cords.

Coming back to songwriting also led to something new.

I was listening to a Radio 4 Today programme one morning and I switched on, of course, almost at the end of an interview that was being given with a spokesman from a charity, a children's charity. And I don't know which one it was, but I think I know the presenter. It was a lady presenter. And she asked him what.

When people were seeing all these horrible images and photographs and, you know, being bombarded with it in your homes through the television, what would be the one thing you would ask of them? And he said, just don't look away. And it resonated with me and I just. I couldn't get those words out of my head.

So in a couple of weeks I sat down, I thought, well, give it a go, see what comes out of it. Because it's always mostly for me, it's an idea, a title that gets you going.

So wrote about this, and I think the important thing is it's not just that there's poverty all over the world. It's here, right here as well, you know, probably even closer to home than we like to think.

And it came out actually quite easy, that song, and I enjoyed writing it.

The song Don't Look Away was recorded with the CAST Youth Theatre Group here in Shepparton with the intention of raising money for a children's charity.

The CAST Youth Theatre group very generously gave their time and their talent, and we went down there and recorded it. Gareth, you know, you've mixed it and made it sound pretty damn good, I think.

And so the intention is to get it out there, try and make some money for a children's charity. We haven't quite decided which one yet, but we will do very soon. So we've got to get it out onto social media.

That is something I haven't done before, so it's all new to me. I always used to think I was reasonably technically savvy, but I've realised. I've realised I haven't got a clue.

I press the buttons when it says, do this, and that's going to happen and I press the button and something totally different happens. And I have to say, if it wasn't for you, I don't know where I'd be with it.

But it's been interesting fun and I am learning a little bit and some of it is going in and staying there. But I am very reliant on people who know what they're doing.

I asked Sally what she hopes people will feel when they hear Don't Look Away.

I hope it pricks their conscience a little bit because we are, myself included, pretty complacent. We have fairly easy lives and we just don't think about these poor people and these poor kids, you know, it's mainly.

Well, everybody suffers, the grown ups suffer, but it's the kids that get to you, you know, isn't that not their fault? They don't stand a chance, poor little things.

So I hope that it will, it will just cause a few people to have a think about it and maybe put their hands in their pockets.

There's also something important about sharing this work locally.

But I haven't really got too involved with stuff, I suppose I kept myself to myself, you know, doing up the house, sort of getting on with life. So I'm hoping that they may just take pity on me and perhaps play the songs a bit, you know, and play, play the song a bit.

I would love to think that the community could get involved because, you know, all the proceeds from that single will go to a children's charity. I'm not going to hike it in for myself and I hope that they'll come on board with it. I'm sure they will.

From what I've seen from looking at the local Facebook page, they're pretty generous bunch around here.

Before we finished, I asked Sally what she'd say to anyone with an old creative project tucked away.

Oh, just, just sit down and start, you know, it's. It's always starting. It. That's the, the very first time you've got to sit down, make yourself sit down with a pen and a paper and get on with it.

And, and that really is all it's all about.

I'm sure there are loads of people around here with lots of stuff to say, lots of creative ideas, you know, just talking to people if you're out shopping. And some of these people, they make me laugh, you know, they've got stories to tell.

But it really is the first step is just sitting down with a pen and paper making a plan. Or if you, you know, in my case, if you're going to write a song, sit down and wait until the first line comes.

Or if you've got the first line, stick that down and just get on with it.

Go make a cup of tea, have a walk around the room, but come back to it and make sure you so I'm going to spend two, three hours, I'm going to sit down and I'm going to work at it. And that applies now. It's always applied. And I bet it applies with you, too, Gareth.

That was Sally Kemp. You'll find links to her new album, Songs From Then in the show notes.

And my thanks again to the businesses supporting the Sheppertonian via the Sheppertonian Business Club. Their support helps keep this podcast rooted in the community and allows it to continue episode by episode. I'm Gareth.

This has been the Sheppertonian. Thanks for listening and see you around.