Ben Holland

I was going through old recordings the other day and I found one of the first takes of ‘Queen of Spades’.

It’s the longest song I’ve written and this early take came out at just over fifteen minutes. It was too long, so to half the length we decided to play it double time.

I sellotaped the lyrics to three mic stands and was bent double reading them off the floor by the last verse. It was a true bastard to record - so for the pain and for posterity, I’m posting it here.

Recorded at Ben McClean’s house who plays drums, Babu on the bass, and Andrew Ridge on guitar:

https://benholland.bandcamp.com/track/queen-of-spades-extended