Monday, June 06, 2005
I took the high road..
Monday, Monday (la laaaa, la-la-la-laa), so good to me.. All I hoped it would be, etc. Speaking of which, I could go for a ham sandwich right about now - but think I'll hold out for Angie, the bringer of mid-morning snacks. She should be here in a minute.
So, what a weekend. Managed the stupid o'clock start on Friday to fly up to Aberdeen without too many issues (apart from lack of sleep), and had a great time with the rest of All Wrapped Up as we flew/taxi'd it around to the hotel and the gig venue. It was a castle in Aberdeen that was a 4-star hotel and conference centre, so it was all pretty plush and accomodating, nice big stage to get all our gear on and still have room for a bit of a dance without tripping over anything (although apparently the stage wasn't that secure and I almost caused TonyI's keyboards to jump off their stand!). There was a bit of confusion as to whether or not the company - holding their annual summer barbecue - had hired the right band, they kept referring to us as being from Glasgow? So we wondered if they were expecting a traditional Scottish Celeidh band or something ("Would we get booed off stage for not playing sword-dancing music?") but they seemed to really enjoy the three sets we played, so I guess it wasn't a problem even if it was an issue! Very satisfying to see people rush up from their seats to join in on the dance floor - it was a mixed crowd in terms of age and taste, but I think we managed to get nearly everyone up and dancing at some point. The 50's rock and roll medley always seems to elicit the best response, which is cool for me as I love playing the guitar break in Bill Hailey's "rock around the clock" - it's so great to have people jitter-bugging through a guitar solo. Funnily enough, people never seem to jitter-bug during any of my other gigs! My grandparents used to win trophies for j-bugging back in the day - wish I could Michael J. Fox it back to the '40's and watch them throw themselves around while I knot my fingers together doing that jazzy, chromatic solo.
I set my personal best of 4 double Jack Daniels and coke before the set (as no-one was driving and the band had a free bar!) without it affecting my playing. I'm not generally one for getting drunk before a gig, but after the early start and journey up, I needed something to get me going! As I'm usually driving to gigs I don’t get the chance to get drunk, so I'll be using this as a benchmark. "Just 8 shots of JD for me please, I don’t want to over-do it.". It really warms my throat up for singing too, so there is a practical benefit to it. I had another three or four as the evening went on, without any adverse affects. It was good to have a few drinks as a band, we all had a blast doing the show and it was great to be flown up to a gig, have the hotels paid for, etc.
Took me and Tony Mac (drummer) about 10 hours to drive the van back down on Sat. We had to load it up at the venue 8am Sat morning, the others caught their flight back down at about 10am, but as I had to watch the Lion's first tour game, we had an hour or so in the hotel room supplied at the venue to wake up, drink coffee and watch the tourists do what was required against a Bay of Plenty team deprived of any Super 12 players. Gutted to see LBND end his tour with a fractured ankle, the All Blacks will be pleased to see him out of action, the Lions only have a really slim-to-non-existant chance of winning the series, and LBND was going to be a big part of that. OK, so Richard Hill will still be around (the same Richard Hill who single-handedly managed the entire All Black back row for 10 mins when Lozza and Neil Back were sin-binned when England beat them last time out) and I guess Martin Corry is capable of great things (possibly even Simon "Unfulfulled potential" Taylor), plus Michael Owen had a huge six nations, but Lozza would have been 1st choice. We shall see how the tour progresses.
But back to the weekend, the drive from Aberdeen to the Forth bridge took about 2 and a bit hours, the drive from Edinburgh to Carlisle took considerably longer but took in some of the most amazing countryside and views, ditto the drive through the Lake District, etc. Between us we managed to rustle up some quality CD's that helped make the drive pass pretty smoothly. Got back to Reading to unload the van at about 8.30pm, then I went over to Luke's (White Sunday bassist) for a barbecue/party which was great.
Sunday; caught up with my old housemate in town for a quick beer before a White Sunday rehearsal - I was pretty much dead on my feet as the last two days had caught up with me, but we nailed three new tunes so it was pretty productive. We have behind-the-scenes stuff happening too, so it's all good. We're getting a mix of good and bad reviews at the mo - we've learnt not to care too much as some people will really like what we do, some people will hate it, but the same goes for every band so all we can do it keep writing tunes that we love, that we think are valid musical statements, and everything else will unfold. We've got some beautiful melodies on the go, Mike has started sitting behind the keyboard again, he's such a talented bastard! We've all got a great creative dynamic now, we all listen to what everyone says and respect each other's opinions and viewpoints. I'm looking forward to seeing how we grow and develop, and what the future holds for us. John L Walters, writing in the Guardian, described us as "Third rate rock and roll", and Linda Serck at BBC Berkshire seems to enjoy watching me play guitar but has reservations about James' singing/performance. You can't please all of the people all of the time, I guess. As long as we keep playing gigs and getting reviewed in national media things will be fine by me. I keep thinking of biting and cutting retorts to bad reviews we get, but there's little point in rising to the bait. As long as I think that the reviewer is expressing an honest opinion in a professional way then I don’t have any problem, but some people seem to write in such a stupid way that I feel like I'm doing them a disservice by not pointing out their failings. Perhaps my problem is confounded by the fact that I think I'm a better writer/reviewer than half the people who write about us? At the end of the day I'd much rather be out there playing/writing/recording and being the subject of critical analysis than reporting on other people's efforts. Journalism is best reported by those who have actually walked the walk and are in a position to pass judgement/offer thoughts, so maybe in ten years time I'll be qualified to comment on other bands, etc. but for the time being I'll stick to my amateur scribblings as a part-time release from gigging, etc.
Müf have a rehearsal with another drum candidate this week, will be good to start thinking about Müffy things again, it's been a while!
Have a good week, y'all.
So, what a weekend. Managed the stupid o'clock start on Friday to fly up to Aberdeen without too many issues (apart from lack of sleep), and had a great time with the rest of All Wrapped Up as we flew/taxi'd it around to the hotel and the gig venue. It was a castle in Aberdeen that was a 4-star hotel and conference centre, so it was all pretty plush and accomodating, nice big stage to get all our gear on and still have room for a bit of a dance without tripping over anything (although apparently the stage wasn't that secure and I almost caused TonyI's keyboards to jump off their stand!). There was a bit of confusion as to whether or not the company - holding their annual summer barbecue - had hired the right band, they kept referring to us as being from Glasgow? So we wondered if they were expecting a traditional Scottish Celeidh band or something ("Would we get booed off stage for not playing sword-dancing music?") but they seemed to really enjoy the three sets we played, so I guess it wasn't a problem even if it was an issue! Very satisfying to see people rush up from their seats to join in on the dance floor - it was a mixed crowd in terms of age and taste, but I think we managed to get nearly everyone up and dancing at some point. The 50's rock and roll medley always seems to elicit the best response, which is cool for me as I love playing the guitar break in Bill Hailey's "rock around the clock" - it's so great to have people jitter-bugging through a guitar solo. Funnily enough, people never seem to jitter-bug during any of my other gigs! My grandparents used to win trophies for j-bugging back in the day - wish I could Michael J. Fox it back to the '40's and watch them throw themselves around while I knot my fingers together doing that jazzy, chromatic solo.
I set my personal best of 4 double Jack Daniels and coke before the set (as no-one was driving and the band had a free bar!) without it affecting my playing. I'm not generally one for getting drunk before a gig, but after the early start and journey up, I needed something to get me going! As I'm usually driving to gigs I don’t get the chance to get drunk, so I'll be using this as a benchmark. "Just 8 shots of JD for me please, I don’t want to over-do it.". It really warms my throat up for singing too, so there is a practical benefit to it. I had another three or four as the evening went on, without any adverse affects. It was good to have a few drinks as a band, we all had a blast doing the show and it was great to be flown up to a gig, have the hotels paid for, etc.
Took me and Tony Mac (drummer) about 10 hours to drive the van back down on Sat. We had to load it up at the venue 8am Sat morning, the others caught their flight back down at about 10am, but as I had to watch the Lion's first tour game, we had an hour or so in the hotel room supplied at the venue to wake up, drink coffee and watch the tourists do what was required against a Bay of Plenty team deprived of any Super 12 players. Gutted to see LBND end his tour with a fractured ankle, the All Blacks will be pleased to see him out of action, the Lions only have a really slim-to-non-existant chance of winning the series, and LBND was going to be a big part of that. OK, so Richard Hill will still be around (the same Richard Hill who single-handedly managed the entire All Black back row for 10 mins when Lozza and Neil Back were sin-binned when England beat them last time out) and I guess Martin Corry is capable of great things (possibly even Simon "Unfulfulled potential" Taylor), plus Michael Owen had a huge six nations, but Lozza would have been 1st choice. We shall see how the tour progresses.
But back to the weekend, the drive from Aberdeen to the Forth bridge took about 2 and a bit hours, the drive from Edinburgh to Carlisle took considerably longer but took in some of the most amazing countryside and views, ditto the drive through the Lake District, etc. Between us we managed to rustle up some quality CD's that helped make the drive pass pretty smoothly. Got back to Reading to unload the van at about 8.30pm, then I went over to Luke's (White Sunday bassist) for a barbecue/party which was great.
Sunday; caught up with my old housemate in town for a quick beer before a White Sunday rehearsal - I was pretty much dead on my feet as the last two days had caught up with me, but we nailed three new tunes so it was pretty productive. We have behind-the-scenes stuff happening too, so it's all good. We're getting a mix of good and bad reviews at the mo - we've learnt not to care too much as some people will really like what we do, some people will hate it, but the same goes for every band so all we can do it keep writing tunes that we love, that we think are valid musical statements, and everything else will unfold. We've got some beautiful melodies on the go, Mike has started sitting behind the keyboard again, he's such a talented bastard! We've all got a great creative dynamic now, we all listen to what everyone says and respect each other's opinions and viewpoints. I'm looking forward to seeing how we grow and develop, and what the future holds for us. John L Walters, writing in the Guardian, described us as "Third rate rock and roll", and Linda Serck at BBC Berkshire seems to enjoy watching me play guitar but has reservations about James' singing/performance. You can't please all of the people all of the time, I guess. As long as we keep playing gigs and getting reviewed in national media things will be fine by me. I keep thinking of biting and cutting retorts to bad reviews we get, but there's little point in rising to the bait. As long as I think that the reviewer is expressing an honest opinion in a professional way then I don’t have any problem, but some people seem to write in such a stupid way that I feel like I'm doing them a disservice by not pointing out their failings. Perhaps my problem is confounded by the fact that I think I'm a better writer/reviewer than half the people who write about us? At the end of the day I'd much rather be out there playing/writing/recording and being the subject of critical analysis than reporting on other people's efforts. Journalism is best reported by those who have actually walked the walk and are in a position to pass judgement/offer thoughts, so maybe in ten years time I'll be qualified to comment on other bands, etc. but for the time being I'll stick to my amateur scribblings as a part-time release from gigging, etc.
Müf have a rehearsal with another drum candidate this week, will be good to start thinking about Müffy things again, it's been a while!
Have a good week, y'all.
# posted by AK @ 11:09 
