March 18, 2013 10:32

Government's junior transport minister Norman Baker to release an album

Lib Dem MP gets around recording songs he wrote 30 years ago with his band Reform Club

Photo: PA

Norman Baker, the Junior Transport Minister, has announced that he is releasing an album.

The Liberal Democrat, MP for Lewes since 1997, has a band called Reform Club which he founded around 30 years ago. He's the singer and lyricist in the band, and wrote the songs back when they first formed but never got around to recording them. He also hosts a Sunday afternoon radio show. He told the Sunday Times he's dreamed about making a record for years, and finally got round to it after writing a list of things he wanted to achieve before he dies.

He said: "I've done it now because I thought I should get round to it before I'm too clapped out. That'll be about 10 years hence," adding the album, 'Always Tomorrow' wasn't political or inspired by his boss David Cameron. "I wouldn't write a song slagging the prime minister. But I was never going to write about politics. That would be naff."

One track was written in 1983 after Baker and the band's guitarist lost their jobs in a music chain store. Another, 'Strange Days', has the lyric: "You were there with your long hair and I was there, or mostly there. That's how it was then, man." It doesn't sound as it Alex Turner has too much to worry about on the lyrics front.

Baker's day-to-day duties in the coalition government include responsibility for the railways, buses, taxis, traffic management, cleaner fuel, sustainable travel and alternatives to travel.

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