Mornington Crescent was the debut Album from My Life Story. Originally due for release on January 30th 1995 it was delayed due to London Underground objecting to the cover artwork and was eventually released on the 6th February 1995. Produced by Pat Collier (The Wonder Stuff) it reached number 2 in the Indie chart. Finding a copy now, however is almost impossible. At the time the music press had this to say about it....

Jake Shillingford's My Life Story are a magnificent conceit: a low budget, high gloss revue led by a foppish cross between Anthony Newley, Martin Fry and Jarvis Cocker. Jake's vision takes in Larry Parnes and Soho showbiz, Bond theme glamour, acres of strings and brass and elaborately camp gestures. It will either make you laugh or cringe. And 'Mornington Crescent' - a posh sounding dump on the edge of Camden, a closed down tube station, a Radio 4 game no-one understands, and the place where Jake hatched the plot while leafleting for the Camden Palace venue - is a magnificent failure of a debut album.
A failure? Particularly in a five song mid-album stretch beginning with the overwrought 'Triumphant' and ending with the self-conscious John Barry-isms of 'Forever', in which Jake's cockernee vocal mannersims and reliance on the epic obscure the band's strong points.
But those strengths - thoughtful, unpredictable arrangements; attention to songwriting detail; Jake's sense of occasion - make the majority of the album an absorbing trawl through a world where Jake remains in the gutter staring at the stars while even the most mundane happening becomes a source of drama and intrigue.
The revenge of the dreamer reaches giddy pop heights with 'You Don't Sparkle' where Jake is "The greatest living singer/Stuck inside a damp bedsitter"; the early Teardrop Explodes swagger of 'Motorcade' and the 'Diamonds Are Forever' steals and cheers metaphors of '(Theme From) Checkmate'. All complete and almost sneering with self-confidence. But its album closer 'Angel', a simple story of falling in love told from the woman's perspective, where Jake reveals dimensions only hinted at elsewhere. For once the wordplay serves a genuinely touching purpose, and the strings are given space to build and create an air of graceful melancholia. The result is truly lovely.
'Mornington Crescent' does enough to prove that Jake Shillingford has a real talent behind the carefully contrived facade. It may reside in a "damp bedsitter" now - but the penthouse to match his ambition is beckoning.

Gary Mulholland, New Musical Express

The inner sleve contains 12 illustrations and oil paintings, one for each song, by Jakes father Alan Shillingford

The vinyl version, as with all My Life Story records has a message etched on the runouts on each side.
A: You are never given a dream...
B: Without also being given the power to make it come true

My Life Story - Mornington Crescent
With the jury still out on Electric Light Orchestra, the pedigree of the large-format pop group is open to debate. My Life Story, roughly the size of a small World Cup squad, are an assemblage of strings, horns and more conventional rock players who have gathered around the individualistic vision of Jake Shillingford. In a modish way, Shillingford intends to capture the shabby romance of modern life and modern London in a series of musical vignettes that can bring to mind everyone from Carter The Unstoppable Sex... to Lionel Bart and still, healthily, be its own music. The high camp and low drama of it all can become a little relentless but the singles Girl A, Girl B, Boy C and Funny Ha Ha are buoyantly likable and Angel is a superb piece that suggests My Life Story may be more than just a cute idea.
Stuart Maconie
Q Website

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