Released 26 March 2016
I thought I would record my acoustic cover of Soft Cell’s Where The Heart Is. My performance and the video is as much about the guitar I am playing as it is about the song.
My mid-1980s Ovation Celebrity was my only acoustic guitar for about 15 years. I used it for all acoustic guitar duties, whether practicing, performing or recording.
However, when I got my Taylor, I preferred the new guitar so much that the Ovation was cast to one side and even spent a number of years in my loft. I never expected to want to play it again…
… until I did play it again. Then I was reminded of the distinctive sound of Ovation guitars and the playability of mine. It’s narrow neck and low action make it easier to play than my Taylor; it’s more like playing an electric guitar than an acoustic.
So I kept my Ovation out of the loft and picked it up from time from time.
Ovations have a crisp clear trebly sound that came to the fore in the late 1970s, with players like Joan Armatrading, and was perfect for cutting through the big 1980s synth-rich sound – hence the idea of using it for this 1983 track by synth duo Soft Cell. My acoustic version is not a patch on the original, but I hope people see is a nice interpretation that brings out the composition that underlies the electronic classic by David Ball and Marc Almond.