When The World Knows Your Name
Written by Steve Hillier
Date Written AUGUST 1998
Place Written Hove, East Sussex
Released When JUNE 2000
Originally Sung By Sarah Blackwood
Features Roland S-760
Spotify Link
“Let’s make the memories that dreamers only claim”I was acutely aware that every new friend I was making in Brighton in 1998 either knew nothing about me at all, or that I was regularly on the TV with my pop act. An odd situation, hence the title.
‘When The World Knows Your Name’ was inspired by walking with a friend down Lansdowne Place in Hove to VAT’s bar, a dingy and fantastic late night drinking den under the Star of Brunswick pub (now long gone, but next to BIMM where I teach songwriting). The song is ‘what if?’, like when Mark Corrigan in Peep Show meets someone new and wonders ‘what if you’re the one?’ in nearly every episode. What if we, you and me, got together? What if we got together tonight? What if we did all those things that we’d talked about…right now? But the song is the realisation that it’s not going to happen, the disappointment and acceptance. Sometimes the thought of what you could have done is better than the memory of what you actually did.
There are two released versions of this song, one recorded at the Arts Centre with Spike and the demo, recorded in one take back at my flat during the Make It Better demo sessions. I’m not a fan of the version on the album so when EMI released a best of Dubstar I insisted they used the demo instead. They happily agreed, so when you want to hear the vocal version this is the version to play. Sarah sings the song perfectly and in one take, a fact that I hope she’s proud of.
INSIDE OUTLINES, the first collection of solo piano pieces by Stephen Hillier is out now: