Grand Tour - Clocks That Tick (But Never Talk) (2019)

2nd release by British progressive rock group Grand Tour from Scotland, which features Hew Montgomery, formerly keyboard player with Glasgow’s Abel Ganz, current Comedy of Errors men Joe Cairney on vocals and Bruce Levick on drums, and former Errors guitarist Mark Spalding.

For Grand Tour, 2005 was the year it all started…having played keyboards with Glasgow’s Abel Ganz since 1982, Hew Montgomery had begun to feel the need to take more direct control of his own material as the Ganz machine moved off in a slightly different musical direction from his. Grand Tour was born from a long held fascination with the cold war years and the nuclear stand-off between the super powers - the film “On the Beach” was a huge influence to the music as well, and many of the musical ideas flowed from the visual imagery of the movie.

Hew was joined first by local guitarist Andrew Young, a guitarist with a background in electronic and rock music who had played with a number of bands but who was interested in making the move into the progressive rock genre. The two worked away on the material and song ideas were gradually developed.

Hew and Andrew were joined in 2007 by Joe Cairney, formerly vocalist with the then dormant Comedy of Errors. Joe had had a long and illustrious singing career with the Errors and was keen to get back to singing after a gap of many years - initially he got in touch with Abel Ganz who were struggling to find a new vocalist, but when that didn’t work out he was quickly snapped up by Hew to work on the Grand Tour vocals.

With Hew, Andrew and Joe working away at the music, the whole project was given a huge boost by the addition of drummer Bruce Levick in 2009. Bruce and Andrew had been corresponding for some time on the internet but had never actually met until they teamed up in Grand Tour! Bruce’s drive gave the project a whole new impetus, and all the tracks were gradually reviewed with the addition of Bruce’s drumming.

In 2010 Andrew Young was replaced by Joe’s old friend and former Comedy of Errors guitarist Mark Spalding, who agreed to join up after a brief listen to the existing demos. Mark’s powerful and varied style of playing is now one of the major features of the project. In 2015 the band produced the first work ''Heavy on the Beach' through the band’s own distributors, Grand Tour Music.