Rock ’n’ rail: British minister makes album

LONDON (AFP) ― Britain’s junior transport minister Norman Baker is releasing his debut rock album at the age of 55, The Sunday Times newspaper reported.

The Liberal Democrat lawmaker is the lead singer and main lyricist with the Reform Club, a group he originally formed decades earlier.

He had thought about cutting an album for 30 years but finally got round to it after writing a list of things he wanted to achieve before he dies.

“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,” he said.

He said the album, entitled “Always Tomorrow,” was not political.

“I wouldn’t write a song slagging the prime minister. But I was never going to write about politics. That would be naff,” he said.

One track was written in 1983 after Baker and the band’s guitarist lost their jobs in a music chain store.

Another, entitled “Strange Days,” has the lyrics: “You were there with your long hair and I was there, or mostly there. That’s how it was then, man.”

Baker’s day-to-day duties in the coalition government include responsibility for the railways, buses, taxis and traffic management.