Cambridge Circus by Papernut Cambridge

The album of the show that never was, with songs written and sung by different members of Papernut Cambridge, backed by the band. Recorded mostly live at the Arcola Theatre, London, 2015.

Synopsis:
A British agent falls unexpectedly in love with the target he’s shadowing. She’s a Soviet agent fronting as a trapeze artist in a circus. They meet by accident at a gig - they love the same music. Papernut Cambridge songs interweave with, soundtrack and mirror their relationship - gig-going, secret meetings in London etc. He wishes he could leave the secret service. She wants ultimately to defect to the US, so any UK situation for her is slightly second best. For both of them, in love, their primary missions have been forgotten about, and of course compromised.
One night our agent's supposed best friend gives him a sinister warning about his Russian love, and she dies in a freak circus accident, but next day on the radio he thinks he hears a message from her in another Papernut song telling him not to be lonely.
Finally he’s at a gig on his own, and it dawns on him through the song that Papernut Cambridge are actually part of the MI6 operation that’s been running him all along - all the inclusive good-time sentiments in the music were just a subliminal recruitment/brainwashing ploy, and now all he’s got left now is to go back to them.

"Roll up for the Circus, there’s nothing to discuss…you just have to trust us…."

Kent based project formed by Ian Button - formerly guitarist with Death In Vegas, Thrashing Doves and many others, now prolific underground producer/writer and co-founder of Gare du Nord Records in 2013.