Sixteen years after a near-fatal car accident, theaudience’s Billy Reeves stumbled upon a box of demos he had no recollection of creating. With the help of The Bluetones’ Mark Morriss, instrumentalist Chris Anderson, and an eclectic mix of guests including members of Cocteau Twins and Gazpacho, The Helicopter Of The Holy Ghost’s debut, Afters, has emerged. Prog uncovers an unusual tale of a band that might never have existed were it not for a strange twist of fate.

Words: Mike Barnes Images: David Bartholomew

Afters-lifers, L-R: Chris Anderson, Mark Morriss and Billy Reeves

“I t’s definitely me that wrote it, but I’ve no memory of writing it,” says Billy Reeves about the imagery of Difficult Song on The Helicopter Of The Holy Ghost’s debut album Afters. “It seems bitter and angry. Maybe it’s a breakup song, but I haven’t been in a breakup for a long time. I wish I knew what it was about.”

But far from being another example of the evasiveness some songwriters display when asked about the meaning of their lyrics, he genuinely has no idea. The album has a unique backstory. Reeves was involved in a near-fatal car accident in 2001 and suffered amnesia – two years either side of the accident remain hazy. The police gave some items from the wreckage of his Morris Minor to his brother, who kept the box in his loft until 2017, when Reeves played one of the mislabelled MiniDiscs. He was surprised to find that it contained a number of song demos.