ComEnts

So, to the quest for a new drummer for Müf. I had been thinking this would be a total nightmare but so far we've had 4 people expressing potential interest. It's quite weird, I haven't heard or played with any of them yet but they all have quite different influences and so, potentially, styles. It's going to be really interesting jamming with them! First drummer, first jam on monday. Hey, maybe he'll be perfect for us and we won't have to look anymore! Wishful thinking. It's annoying not having a drummer, other people are booking gigs all over the place, I want gigs!

Müf CD is undergoing it's final mastering. Should have that by the end of the week hopefully.

What else is going on... oh, Cookoo Club gig tomorrow. I'm hardly going to any gigs at the moment - other than to watch Rebus it seems! and I'm really looking forward to it. The controversial Caged Baby are playing and it's the first big showcase for The Palestinians. Woo! And Three Litre and Return to Zero both of whom I'd go to see if it was just them on. What a good line-up.

A lot of rock bands are truly a legend in their own minds. David Lee Roth

Most rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read. Frank Zappa

Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it. Laurence J. Peter

Having recorded the Müf CD a few weeks ago, I went back to the studio over the weekend to record three tracks with White Sunday. It was a shame to spend the first sunny weekend of the year indoors slaving over a hot SM-58, but the results so far have been great. James still needs to do the vocals - this afternoon, I think - but the drums, bass and guitars sound pretty sweet so far. It's rubbish when you've built up momentum, and have got a good vibe going for the recording sesh only to find that you;ve run out of time and will have to come back and finish it off, but I hope James can pull it out of the bag and get some great "throat" down on the CD.

So, my mission this week - should I choose to accept it - is to crack on with finding a new drummer for Müf, rehearse and gig with White Sunday (Prince of Wales pub, Caversham, this Thursday - free entry, 8pm doors), try and catch as much sun as I can, and try not to be too happy about the Welsh Grand Slam, I don’t want to annoy the natives (who historically have always been prickly about not winning stuff).

More uplifting and inspirational stuff from my favourite morning pep-talk website:

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MountainWings A MountainWings Moment
#2099 Wings Over The Mountains of Life
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Anyway
=======
People are often unreasonable,
Illogical and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind,
People may accuse
You of selfish motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful,
You will win some false friends
And some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
People may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building,
Someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
They may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
People will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
And it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you have anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,
It is between you and God;
It never was between you and them anyway.
~Mother Teresa~

Another top weekend, the thrills and spills of a rock n'roll lifestyle - went out in Reading Fri for my mate Chayter's leaving party. He's off to live in Hastings as of the end of this month, and he will be sorely missed, being as he has been gym partner, footie-watching associate, alcamahol consuming running partner, and all-round legend. So, we thought we'd go out and get wasted one more time. Which we did. To cut a long story short (and to avoid publishing details of names and places), we got back to Chayter's place, where he crashed out but myself and his housemate were still up drinking when we got a call from three ladies we had been out with, they had failed to pull and were wondering if we fancied joining them at their place for some post-club frivolity.. We dashed over there at warp speed, full of the high-hopes and laddish intentions that a belly full of beer and a libidinous attitude will create under these circumstances, but after more vodka and then getting settled down on the sofa we ended up passing out watching DVD's instead.. Ah well..! Felt too hungover the next day to feel any real sense of disappointment!

Back to Chayters on Sat morn, big fried breakfast (de riguer after a night on the shant) and lots of water later and we had a day of sporting action ahead of us - saw some footie, some rugby (France ended my hopes of a Grand Slam showdown in Cardiff next weekend.. Sacre bleu!) then headed off for a White Sunday rehearsal at 5pm. Halfway there and James calls and says that Luke (bassist) was too ill to make it, so we cancelled. No worries, more time for me to get to Bristol for a flat-warming party. Picked up a crate of booze, and headed down the M4. Just as I walked through their new lounge doorway, the solo from Müf's "Drugs all day" was playing on the stereo! Now that's what I call timing!

Beaucoup alcohol later, was talking absolute shite to anyone within earshot. Why do I always do that? Apologies to everyone and anyone.. Still, at least I managed to out last Heff, who wussed out at about 10pm to get back to his hotel.. The big jessy.

Sunday was spent sleeping and eating and feeling rough after two nights away from my own bed.. And watching cool TV shows about how America is going to get wiped out by a super-volcano. It's not cool that America could get wiped out by a volcano, but the geology and science of it all was pretty fascinating - besides, the crux of the program was that a super volcano would probably happen in the next 40,000 years so plenty of time for the US to make other arrangements. If it happens in the next 40 years, that would be awful - it would affect the whole globe, etc. But if it's after my lifetime, and I don’t get to see it, meh: who cares? It's not as if anything can be done to avoid it - apart from evacuating 250 million Americans, etc.

Wonder if any Al-Quaeda will make use of the info and try to set the volcano (would like to think that they were going to call it "Mount Yogi" after Jellystone Park's most loveable resident) off? It would certainly be a Biblical ending - as predicted - to life as we know it. It truly would be fire and brimstone raining from the sky, etc. Death, Famine, Pestilence and Disease would surely all come trotting along soon afterwards, too. Can't see Bruce Willis saving the earth from that! Ah well, like I say, we should be good for another 40,000 years yet. *crosses fingers*

Likey what Mikey Hefflehoff said (below), Müf are getting ready to oversee the final mix of our eopnymous debut EP, which is receiving praise from the critics at the mo. My mum said she really liked "Schmindie", but damned us by faint praise with regards the other tracks ("You sing in tune" was about all she could muster, bless her!). My dad just said "that's not you singing" and "put the kettle on". Nat from Red Antennae said she really liked it, and my parent's cat - Dai - kind of purred a lot and started licking himself while we were playing it, so I reckon he was digging it too. If everybody who heard it started purring and licking themselves, I'd be very pleased. So basically now all the people who matter have heard it, I'm happy with it too.

And just to prove that the production was no fluke on the Müf CD, I'm taking White Sunday in to the same studio next weekend to do a new 3 track EP with them, too. The guy there is a genius, he could make a football team's FA Cup final song sound like a work of art. Maybe the FA should hire him to work on a world cup 2006 anthem? Think he'd hate the experience and would end up kung-fu-ing several players out of anger and frustration, but the tune would sound great.

Drummers - the bane of my life, maybe I should stop bad-mouthing them and generally belittling their trade? Nah. I wish there were more of them lying around the streets of Reading though. Red Ant - no drummer. Müf - no drummer. At least White Sunday have a sticksman for the time being, even though is signed as a solo "artiste" with his ambient rock electronica stuff, he records and is about to embark on a wee fortnight-long tour under the name Dialect, he's on Resonant Records (check him out!). Anyway, if you know any drummers who are looking for bands (and want to write and play original material) please get them to get in touch!

Come on Wales this weekend - dispatch the Sweaties tomorrow and set up the Grand Slam decider against the Oirish in Cardiff next Sat!

Thanks to Mike Matthews for sorting out the cover of the Müf CD too, we need to see what Sam thinks of it, but Mike and I are pretty pleased with the design that we're going to vote for.

Boom, boom, acka-lacka-lacka-boom.

Sorry for the lack of updates, I know, I know. That's about the tenth time I've posted that and we've been doing this blog for less than a year. AK's been keeping the content coming at least.

I've been a bit busy to update this recently.

Organising Berkshire Live Aid was taking up a lot of what little free time I have. It went really well, we haven't got the final tally of what we raised yet but hopefully it was a lot! The day went really smoothly, all twelve bands and all the other people who helped out were fantastic. If you didn't make it I took a bit of a photo diary of the event on my camera phone.

Kevin from Josaka got some cool photos as well. As a link to the next item here's us playing it:



Müf, has also been going really well. We played a couple more gigs, 4 in all now, and recorded our first ep. Got the CDs yesterday and it's sounding amazing. Hopefully we'll get some artwork together soon and you'll be able to get a copy! Sadly drummer Iain is now finally moving up to Manchester. We've been lucky to keep him this long really. I hope we can be as lucky with finding a drummer as we were getting him in the first place! In the meantime he might still be able to pop down for the odd gig here and there and we're going to take the opportunity to write some more stuff. Which should be easier now we're not in such a rush to do as much as we can before Iain goes.

Er... what else. Built a new Pete and the Pirates website. They've been in the studio recording and got some cool photos. I'm really looking forward to their single.





Attended The Palestinians 'secret' debut which was great. Look forward to their real debut at Colorz on the 24th.




Went to see Rebus at Club Infinity in London for their London Singles Launch which was an odd night with odd attendees like these guys:



Their single is great actually, I have reviewed it for josaka and I think I've seen them 3 times in the last fortnight! Let's hope it continues for them.

That'll do for the moment. Write at you soon.

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MountainWings A MountainWings Moment
#2063 Wings Over The Mountains of Life
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March 4th
==========
During college, my favorite television show was Star Trek.
The opening theme in Star Trek was:
"Space: The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. It's five-year mission: To explore strange new worlds... To seek out new life, and new civilizations...
To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before."

Captain Kirk spoke that. Captain James Tiberius Kirk.
He was a fictional character but a real type of spirit.
We all have a final frontier and it is not in space, at least not outer space. It's in inner space. That's where all of the real battles are fought. That's where the real untamed territory is. That's where the greatest victories and defeats happen.
Far too often, we stay closed within confining walls that we think are safe, but actually, they are just a prison.

Dreams will never be realized without risks.
Love will never be experienced without exposure.

You can't even help another person without risking being hurt yourself.
The more people we reach with MountainWings, the more we help. Always among each new few thousands, there is someone unbalanced and filled with hate who will lash out at us. It's a risk.
Inner and outer space has dangers.

So many wish for things that are never achieved.

Love, financial security, good health, peace of mind, even just a good night's sleep are things that often elude many for life.

Mike Murdock put it like this:
"If you want something you've never had,
you've got to do something you've never done."

You've got to boldly go where you've never gone before.

One definition of a fool is a person who keeps doing the same thing and expecting different results.

We often stand on the dock but are afraid to launch out into the deep. Afraid to go into space, afraid to move, afraid to speak, even afraid to dance.

If you want something you've never had...
Do you?
Want something you've never had.
If so, then maybe today is the perfect day to start.
Why today?
Because it's March 4th.
March forth on March 4th.
Boldly go where you've never gone before.
You've got new life to discover.

March Forth!

~A MountainWings Original~

I think I am suffering from sleep deprivation. This might be a totally incoherent post. If so that proves my point!

A long, long weekend in prospect with Berkshire Live Aid taking up the whole of Saturday from the early morning until nighttime and then some of the next morning too.

Not only are Müf playing but I'm one of the co-organisers and stage managing 12 bands! Of the bands playing I've played with almost all of them before and they are very professional so hopefully it'll all go smoothly. It's going to be hard work but really good fun I hope! Please come! It'd suck to have such a great event with no-one there.

AK's Matador CD review might come a bit late as they are about to split up! BLA is their last gig. I also have a backlog of CDs to review. SixNationState, Ben Marwood's new one and now Rebus' single that they ideally want reviewed before their second launch gig on the 7th. I guess as a double A side it can have two launches.

Tonight I'm taking advantage of having the flat and some time to myself to chill out with my girlfriend. Good opportunity to drink the first of my new batch of wine that was delivered yesterday. Internet wine ordering, a dangerous pursuit but oh so good! And let's face it I'd be drinking anyway so getting it cheaper and someone to bring it to the flat is a really good thing... maybe not drinking quite so much though.

Need a holiday. When's Easter?

Played a great gig with White Sunday at the 3B's in Reading last night - singer James and guitarist Mike both "stepped in" to stop a fight caused by this idiot with a mohican, who had attacked one of Jim's mates for no reason, just before we were due to start playing, so it really was an adrenalised start to our set! Jim did a stripped down version of one of his older songs with Mike playing keyboard too, it sounded odd to hear it played that way, but it worked really well - think we may have to include it in the set from now on.

The gig itself was a little disorganised for my liking, but after calling on Sam (Müf bassist) for his expert help and the use of his bass amp - as well as having Colby Sipson step in to do the sound for the night, many thanks! - we pieced together a pa and actually got a pretty good sound out of it. I was so tired and mentally exhausted after a hard day slaving over a pc that I was close to giving up and going home at one point. I'm glad I didn’t though, it was a top gig and good for us all, we need to keep tightening up as a band before we take the show further afield. Think our next gig will be at the Prince of Wales pub in Caversham before the end of the month.

This Thurs I'm putting the finishing touches to the Müf CD, just a few vocal parts to record and then Rob can wave his magic production wand and make us all sound like heros!
Berkslive Aid this Sat, unbelievably good line-up for a hastily-organised charity event, looking forward to Vespertine, although I bet I'll get a load of grief for not having reviewed their CD! Actually, I think I told Hayley that I wouldn’t have time to review hers, but I've still got Adam's (Matador) CD and it's really, really good. I need to sort something out cos he's been waiting ages..

A quick mention of the Welsh victory in Paris; I was Best man at my cousin's wedding on Sat so I didn’t see any of the action, but a magnificent Welsh comeback was the cherry on top of the cake. What a brilliant day, sullied only by my cousin's refusal to let me stow away in his luggage to his honeymoon destination of St. Lucia. Some people are soooo stubborn.