In 2000, I was commissioned by 'Northern Sky Music' to write a song for 'A Full Head of Steam', a collection of 15 songs about trains from the birthplace of railways celebrating the 175th anniversary of the first passenger steam train from Stockton to Darlington in 1825... all by North East of England artists.
The song I wrote, 'Full Circle', was recorded by my band The Whisky Priests and chosen to be the closing track on the project's 15-track CD 'A Full Head of Steam'.
Other artists featured on the CD include Bob Fox & Stu Luckley, Vin Garbutt, Richard Grainger, Lindisfarne, Skerne, Martin Stephenson, Eddie Walker, The Wilson Family, and the Bev Sanders Band (a.k.a. Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies in disguise for contractual reasons!).
I performed 'Full Circle', either with The Whisky Priests or as a duo with my twin brother Glenn, at several launch events for 'A Full Head of Steam' in and around the Darlington area, for example, at an outdoor festival in Darlington Market Place, at Darlington Railway Museum, and in various folk clubs.
Although we didn't realise it at the time, 'Full Circle' ended up being the final studio recording by The Whisky Priests. The song was subsequently re-launched in 2012 when it was re-released by Whippet Records as the lead track on the 'Full Circle' EP in 2012, when a possible Whisky Priests reunion was in the works for 2013. Despite a series of band rehearsals and tentative tour planning, the proposed 2013 reunion was ultimately shelved, however, a reunion tour did eventually happen five years later in 2018.