‘Jim Rockford’s Smile’ is the second Silverlake album. It was written, recorded and produced by the band.

So what’s it all about?

Pulling the threads together of something that should have seen the light of day a while ago. Hundreds of hours of electricity burned and then letting tracks slip away… 

‘Shake Your Head’ and ‘Jim Rockford’s Smile’ are at the core of this. They appeared incomplete. Work continued on siblings, or they drifted into the shadows. But here it is, remade and remodelled, completed as it should be.

It’s got rockets, cocktails, supernatural beings, bullet trains, bleeding skies, escalators, ponytails and a Nissan.

The album is available here.
 ‘Falling’ and other album videos are available here: here.

FACTS

1. James Garner starred as a private eye in the classic ‘The Rockford Files’ on TV from 1974 to 1980. In 2000 he had both knees replaced.

2. Sally Ann’s old Braun Alarm clock is set to 7.30pm every day. This reminds her that it is time to pour the Absinthe and drop the tone-arm on Madonna’s ‘Ray of Light’.

3. James Garner helped organize the Hollywood contingent of Martin Luther King's famous ‘March on Washington’ civil rights demonstration.

4. Silverlake has used a wide range of noise making devices on this album, including: Mandora, Animoog, Fender Precision and Jazz basses, Braun alarm clock, Gretsch Pro Jet, Cello, Finger Cymbals, Hofner President, Fender Telecaster and Wasp synthesiser.

Silverlake is:
Sally-Ann Parker – vocals
Tony Sherrard – bass & programming
R. R. Dallaway – guitar & keyboards

Press photograph available for download here.
Cover artwork: right click on image above to download JPEG, or high resolution PDF available here.
Download the Silverlake logo here.

Track by track by Sally-Ann and Rob

What year was it? Somewhere in the middle. The Middle Period. Middle of what?

Something about the production and style shifted. In a way I think it's less certain about itself but more sophisticated too. Is that progressive?

Jim Rockford’s Smile
Those sunny old clips tainted blue are kinda sad. Jim and all that glossy grin. It's all heading in the right direction but look close and the cracks appear. Rob must have had a vision for this song and the video. You might hear it and think one thing but there was no mistaking being right in the middle of the studio for dark nights of the soul. Leave a message. Please. 

Shake Your Head (with your black ponytail)
I know it can't be true because we were putting in the hours but it felt like Black Ponytail emerged all seamless and floating. We were putting it all out in little packaged gifts but with no plan... Check out the EP. Lives were like that too.

Overconnected
Overconnected is a real neat pop song with Ava Gardner on bongos. Rob jumped up when I finally got the chorus. A vocal delivery breakthrough for me and first take of THAT session.

The Man Made of Smoke
Still on the fags, the quivering croak was almost real but the man himself can be found in those relentless cyclic riffs in ‘Man Made of Smoke’. It reminds me of my ‘yellow’ uncle and all those trapped troubled guys. Too poisoned to care.

Missing
I love the lyrics in this song. Missing has always been in flux. I don't think we have ever really finished it. Have we?

Peaceful
Anti-work, trying to escape the background hum, a bit of fantasy about getting away from it all. A late summer afternoon in a Worcestershire wheat-field. It’s easy to miss the spike of the pylons at the end of the video.

Mercury Soul
Sometimes feeling as fast as light, sometimes heavy as lead, struggling against the tide of ‘normality’. Days when life feels like a bad fit.

Falling
After some relationships, you think ‘what the... how did that happen?’ Sometimes it’s like handcuffing yourself to a missile. It’s tricky isn’t it, romance versus reality?

Lost
Dislocation, excitement and fear when you’ve packed your bags, bought your ticket and stepped into someone else’s world.

Shooting the Jim Rockford video

For the video, I was keen to wear my newly found black and silver lame shirt. It's strange, I can’t recall where I got it from. I can usually pin the tail on the donkey for clothes and dates. But it was a jumbled mess of a few years. How did we get it together?

There are so many personal links in this video. Dominic Stringer took some stills, Major Dom, sadly no longer with us. It was like having a mini crew. And there were the signature like personal touches on set that are sweet to look back on. I had a ladder in my tights. How very tawdry glamour. We ate biscuits as usual.

Rob must have had a vision for this song and the video. You might hear it and think one thing but there was no mistaking being right in the middle of the studio for dark nights of the soul. Leave a message. Please.

Shot in one afternoon to evening at Aunty’s when we all went back to bed and then an impromptu filming of some almost homage to Riviera AKA Sunset Strip clips, shot on a particularly sunny day in Worcestershire. A bit of sun drenched hope amongst the cheap Moschino, I guess.