Toast Of The Town: Darling Boy Releases Single Golden Hour

Where have I seen this fella before? Lemme help you. Alexander Gold, aka, Darling Boy, is a natural-born performer. His list of credentials is robust for sure, including triumphs of pairing up with Jonathan Rhys Meyers’ Joe Strummer as Topper Headon in the feature film London Town and playing the one and only John Lennon on the world’s largest cruise ship as a resident Beatle. However, a calling came for the self-taught musician to reveal himself more, albeit a forced one, as theatres shut and confinement commenced. 

Flown back from the golden glow of the Caribbean, he devoted himself to getting past tough times through song. As he reflects, 

“There was really only one thing to do: make art… And along came Golden Number, which just sort of fell out. I really believe it was a gift - a sonic flat-pack of love and light. It gave me my hope back.”

This lockdown tale does not end here though. Believing whole-heartedly that the universe would deliver, and that his fortunes would change, the track was bundled up and posted to respected broadcaster Mark Ellen, whose ear matched the sound to New Wave’s XTC. Gold sought contact with the band’s singer Andy Partridge, who saw something in the lad and offered his expertise as producer and editor-in-absentia. Alexander exposes, 

“We spent about two hours on the phone just talking about songwriting as a science as well as an art, and he gave me some homework in which I was instructed to basically rip the arse out of Golden Number to make it in Andy’s words, “Olympic Fit. No Fat”. So I did. Then the craziest thing ever happened...”

Travelling the distance to Argentina, the New Doom brewery in Buenos Aires heard the tune and were taken by it so commissioned a Golden Number beer to celebrate. Phew, after all that, what about the song? Guitar Pop in a bottle, it is beat free until the chorus where a chanting, steady pulse supplies a charming contrast to the airy singing of Darling; it is easy to hear he is fulfilled in the field and could be a third buddy of Kane and Turner.

A psychedelic interlude greets us taking us to a Strawberry Feilds tribute, complete with a hint of a xylophone, to match the late 60's colour spectrum and attitude of the imagery and artwork. Lyrics "You're the pen and the autograph, for your epitaph," urge us to create and chase our destiny, just like our Darling Boy managed and who knows the places we will go...

Article by Beverley Knight