Hi everyone,

On January 19th 2024, my father passed away, aged 81. He was not in a good state, physically and mentally, but his condition worsened in the last week and I managed to see him in hospital within 12 hours of him passing away. We never saw eye-to eye on a lot of things, but he was a man of morals and principles, and was always willing to help others. He had many talents when it came to practical things, as well as being able to play the accordion is his younger years, but lacked the ability to see other people’s points of view and only believed what he could see, He only ever believed his opinion to be the right one. He never understood why I wrote songs for so long and continued to when it didn’t result to any success. I tried to explain that we don’t do things just to make money – we do it for mental fulfilled, primarily.

I am writing this blog because I am, together with Mum, the Executor of his will. All of his money was left to charity and his wife/my Mum, and four siblings, received nothing. His body went for biological research. In 2019 and 2020 I was not in the best frame of mind. Life was becoming difficult for me, physically, mentally and musically. I remember thinking and discussing with a good friend of mine, when COVID-19 happened, that I would happily be first in-line to go, as I had no children and no-one was reliant upon me. I felt I had got as far as I could in life and wouldn’t be missed if I did die. However, I did wonder what would happen to my website, containing nearly 1000 lyrics/poems, SoundCloud which now contains hundreds of recordings which adds up to over 14 hours of music. Since 2019 I have released 11 albums and a 12th soon, together with a poetic lyrics book (which should be published soon, but seems to be taking forever!!) and, although the royalties are next to nothing, I still had to decide who takes control and inherits my creative history. I have no children, but my wife-to-be has. My best friend (my music partner) is older than me and I am one of the youngest of my close relatives and the lesser seen ones, that are younger, I sense have no interest in this part of my life.

So, this leads me to think that perhaps I should add a Stripe to my site. This is for two reasons: to financially aid my progression (so projects can be completed before it’s too late), and, secondly, identify who really does value what I do and so it helps me to decide who should inherit my portfolio. Hopefully, one of my grandchildren-in-law will be able to carry on what I have started (as he is learning to play guitar), but that I cannot predict, or take for granted. So, I do have to create my own will in due course. I must point out that my wife-to-be is older and her siblings are busy and prosperous in their own fields of work.

Am I thinking about this matter too soon? Maybe, or maybe not. Anyway, inbetween executor matters, my full-time day job, wedding organising, I must complete the last song (and title track) on my next album (not to mention another business venture that is developing). I was gonna release a couple of singles, but I don’t think I’ve got time and it’s usually pointless anyway. The album is almost complete but the intro on ‘Before Then After’ needs to be changed and the drum-beat and hook line need to be reinforced. It sounds okay on certain devices, but now good enough on others. It is a bit frustrating trying to do everything at once, but some things need to be done in life, especially the release of, ‘Before Then After’.

That’s all for now as I have other matters to deal with even as I sit here typing out this blog. So, that’s all I can say for now and any suggestions are welcomed.

Thanks.

Colin E. Pyle
The Lost Connection

PS. Also, Host In The Web (as currently known as) was just an idea to help create websites for others. Since the idea came to mind I have met someone who is very qualified in this area and we hope to make web-designing a business partnership in the near future. More things to deal with, but we all need to look at opportunities to progress in life in the best ways we can.

Hi everyone,

I hope this year will be enjoyable for everyone, and everything goes to plan for you all. In my life, big things lie ahead for me, and this is what I have planned:

1/ My book, The Words Behind The music: Volume One – Lost In Reality, should be released the early part of 2024 (but that is in the hands of Austin Macauley)
2/ The release of 2 singles: Covid- 19 and Glad To Be Fat
3/ Release another album: Before Then After (Things Are Getting Heavy!)
4/ Getting married at the end of September
5/ The release of another single, maybe: Our Big Day

That is all of the good things which I (and you, hopefully) have to look forward to this year but, unfortunately, my keyboard’s memory has somehow emptied. It’s not the first time it has occurred either. Due to the amount of songs and data that I create and store in my keyboards, it is always a major loss when it happens, and it could have been due to data overload (although the memory can be wiped if the keyboard is turned off while a new project is being saved – which I learnt the hard way in the past). In previous years, and decades, I have also had laptop breakdowns which has caused my recordings to be no longer accessible. This is why a lot of my songs were never produced as well as I would have liked. I used to record tunes and songs very quickly, and then move on to the next one, before reaching a satisfactory level for many of them, but felt I had to release the songs nonetheless (on ‘The Best Of The Lost Connection 2011 to 2019, Parts 1 – 5).

Luckily, the next album’s songs, I am reasonably pleased with so the loss of the hundreds of patches I created is, although sad, not a major loss. This has made me more eager to release the new songs as I can do very little to improve them now and it is time to move on. I am currently working on the song ‘Before Then After’, as this is the name of the next album and could be a good song to end on, but it does need refining, lyrically, and the music is still in its early stages of development.

Hopefully, I may finally get around to using more modern technology to create future tunes and songs so my music sounds a bit more current. I do have the necessary technology to do such, but It is just about finding time to master the art of playing music on a computer, rather than on a keyboard (although I can use my MIDI leads to transfer every stem from my PSR-9000 to my computer so they are safe and easier to modify). I sense though, in regard to The Lost Connection, I will probably churn out songs in the usual fashion, on future albums, to maintain the style in which many are used to, and to maintain that sense of Lost-ness I have.

Right, that is the update on things so far. My plans have been mentioned before, but now I feel there is more of a sense of urgency, but need to complete the new song and wait for the book to be released first. I’ll say no more for now, except, goodbye and hope you like the new songs when they are released.

Colin E. Pyle
The Lost Connection

PS. Does anybody reading this, still buy CDs or vinyls?

Hi everyone,
A big thank you to all of the SoundCloud listeners checking out my new songs over the last couple of months. It’s good to see interest grow massively – it makes me work harder on making them the best I can for my listeners. Hopefully these new songs will gain as much attention on Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, etc, once they have been released. Thanks again and looking forward to creating more songs for the next album.
Bye for now!
Colin E. Pyle
The Lost Connection

DistroKid Streaming Chart – Excluding Spotify Promotion (Spreadsheet) 22-10-2023 – THE LOST CONNECTION: The Words And Music Of (the-lost-connection.com)

Hi everyone,

Since the last streaming figure update, new reports have come through from Instagram/Facebook for the October – December 2022 period (not sure why they were reported so late!). ‘Two Shades Of Blue’ rose from 150th position in my chart, straight up to number 1 with over 7000 streamings. ‘Back To Work’ also gained a lot of attention in this period as well. ‘The Journey Of Uncertainty’, ‘Girl From The City’ and ‘Ha Ha Harmony’ all had many streamings during this 3 month period too. Although I made next to nothing from these streamings it is still great to see figures this high – crazy, but great!!!

Anybody know what country OU represents?

Hi everyone,

In the past I said I would spend more time working on future songs but, due to lack of time, I have been throwing songs together very quickly yet again.  I was hoping to concentrate on writing songs that other people could use, but I’ve got a feeling another album is brewing up for this year.  I had the pleasure of being at the I.O.W. Festival last week, but this week I’m home alone (except for the cat) so I’ve been rapidly throwing together new songs and making slight improvements to recent ones.  On SoundCloud I seem to get immediate listens and in their dozens now, as opposed to a few over a couple of weeks like in the past,  Whether this is because I am recording songs people like more now or just have more people checking out what I’m doing now.

I should be more careful as to what I upload, as many ears are listening to every song I upload now, but old habits die hard and I just have to keep churning out the ideas as they form and update them as they progress and improve.  Today I recorded ‘She’s Mine’ which is a very heavy and messy love song.  I also improved ‘You And Me’ which is an almost poppy love song, both of which are about real life.  ‘DistroKid’ I felt I had to record as I have used them since the end of 2019, instead of SongCast who I’d used from 2010 – 2016 and, as I wrote a song about them it only seemed right.  I did delve into the past to record ‘Test Of Time’ which has no relevance to the present.  This means I will either record a multi-styled love song album, or try and form a tenuous link between songs, about many different things from different decades (as I usually do) so no songs get excluded.

There is another idea I’m working on, and that is to bring back the Wicked Babies songs, in memory of Steve Emm, a friend musician who I started recorded songs with over 30 years ago when I first met him.  I recorded ‘Wicked Baby’ today, but cannot match Steve’s singing.  However, I have released other songs we practiced in the early 1990’s already and may group them all togehter on a playlist eventually.

If anybody is genuinely liking what I am doing, then  feel free to throw some suggestions at me.  I do upload songs onto the MyPart website to see if anyone wants them (the ones which I don’t want to release) but I don’t think the productions are good enough for the professional artists to consider.  If there are any producers, supervisors or publishers out there who think my songs are usable (even if it means re-recording them properly) please let me know.  I should seek these people out myself, but I still tend to just live in my self-indulgent bubble where life is fun and effortless.

If anyone wants to hear the songs I have been working on this year, who hasn’t visited my SoundCoud yet, then here is the link to my new stuff:
Stream The Lost Connection | Listen to 2023 playlist online for free on SoundCloud

Right, back to watching Glastonbury Festival on TV.   Today I discovered a few bands that I really like and never knew existed, eg. The Gabriels, The Lathums and a few others I didn’t acknowledge the names of (research to be done) and although known to all, Rick Astley surprised me by playing and singing ‘Highway To Hell’.  I can’t lie – I did actually enjoy his set.  Lizzo is now performing and my fiancée is actually there watching it live.

Thanks to all those reading my blogs, listening to my songs and following me on any site I’m on.  Luckily my followers are increasing on SoundCloud, which makes me wonder if I should release songs through SoundCloud instead/as well.

Bye for now!

Colin E. Pyle
The Lost Connection

Hi All,

As I subscribe to Microsoft 365 (Office) I thought I’d utilise the spreadsheet application to  enter all of the streaming figures for my songs.  I did use Microsoft Word to write the poetry manuscript and hope to utilise more of the facilities that Miscosoft 365 provides.  The link to the new page which I have just created is below.  Three of the albums’ songs have album links next to them so that the most popular songs can be found more easily.  The links to every album are at the bottom of the complete song release list.

Just thought I’d update you all as to webste amendments I am making.

Thanks to all subscribers for subscribing and hopefully more songs will be recorded later this year, but the book side has taken priority up until now.

Colin E. Pyle
The Lost Connection

DistroKid Streaming Chart – Excluding Spotify Promotion (Spreadsheet) – THE LOST CONNECTION: The Words And Music Of (the-lost-connection.com)

Hi subscribers,

Tomorrow, 30th April, I will be going on holiday for 13 days with my fiancée and will not be accessing the internet everyday like I usually do.   Hopefully, when I get back, I will have received a proof-read copy of my ‘Lost In Reality’ book.  I am also intending to learn more about web designing and how to reach-out to my current subscribers and attract more maybe.  Luckily, my good friend Mike, is going to give me a few tips and advice in regard to all website improvement and interactive matters.

Last week I recorded a new song ‘Living The Dream (For Real)’ which was written about having turned down a publishing deal in 1995 and finally released my own album in 2019.  It summarises the point at which I have now reached where life is good and writing, and recording songs, is very pleasurable and rewarding – not so much financially, but mentally.  Over the last 22 years financial losses were incurred due to con artists, fraudsters and scammers.  I also struggled with various industrial injuries and wear and tear issues, and endured an awkward relationship that, by 2020, became history and new things started to happen and better life became (apart from braking a toe and thumb in 2021).  The book of lyrical poetry (which will be published this year) will make everything I wrote become clearer, hopefully.   Life is not perfect but I feel relaxed, happy and in control and hope to start creating more new songs in the near future.  It would be good to make money out of my songs but it is not a necessity but, however, it would be good to see my book being bought (as I had to pay considerably more for this than I do for music releases) and hopefully make an interesting read and inspire others to write songs as well.

That’s all for now and I will make more musical progress in a fortnight, hopefully.

Thanks for reading this update and I wish you all the best.

Colin E. Pyle
The Lost Connection

Hi everyone,
I am considering the opportunity of creating websites for people.  The only trouble is I have only created this one, which is not a PRO website.  I have learnt many things while developing this website over the last 6 years, but not sure if I am qualified enough to do it as an actual job.   The sensible thing for me to do is learn more about web designing if this is the route I want to go down.  I don’t have much time to do that so do I just jump in the deep end and just go for it and charge a bit less due to my inexperience, and agreeing to not charge anything if things don’t go to plan.  Does anybody have any advice?   Team Bark (a company that give designers leads to apply for) are throwing me leads but I’m holding back for now.  Thanks to anyone who can give me some advice.
Colin Pyle

Not everything is black and white
Answers aren’t always wrong or right
The world revolves in a colourful way
But everything is a shade of grey.

So much lies in-between
We range from extreme to extreme
But as for our colour it’s fair to say
We’re all different shades of grey.

We are dark medium light
We’re not all just black and white
No-one’s coloured its fair to say
We’re all just shades of grey.

Black ain’t black, white ain’t white
Colour ain’t colour, we’re the same as each other
Chinese, african, american, indian
Russian, british, aussie or brazilian.

What more can I say?
We’re all different shades of grey
If we could be seen
On a black and white TV screen.

© 2023 – Colin E. Pyle