Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Tune in Tokyo..
Hi, been a while since I posted on here: have finally completed the move into my new flat, 5 mins walk from the Purple Turtle in Reading. Finally have room to set up all my modest recording stuff, get all my guitars out on display, etc. and hopefully entertain friends and strangers in the mode to which I am accustomed.
Musically, White Sunday played a blinder at the Half Moon in Putney last Wed - another great crowd came up from Reading to see us, and went home happy by all accounts. We've re-jigged some of the songs, resurrected a couple and put some on the back burner for the time being - which is great cos it means we can dip into a back catalogue as and when we feel we need to, helps keep things fresh for us, and varied for our audiences. Some of them have seen every gig we've played, so we must be doing something right if they aren’t getting bored of it all by now!
Also going to be recording a new EP this weekend, courtesy of our drummer/chief musician extraordinaire Dancin' Danny Lovegroove. 3 previously unrecorded tracks, plus an acoustic reprise fade-out track which threatens to sound UNBELIEVABLE. Love the acoustic versions of tracks that Jim and Mike do, gotta get them all committed to CD at some point. Had an amazing review posted on NME message board, http://www.nme.com/boards/showthread.htm?p=82788#post82788
Finally got round to finishing/writing lyrics for the new Müf track - completely highlighted for me the inherent insanity of writing lyrics. One day they'll just come tumbling out, perfect first time and without any effort at all (like the first 4 or 5 Müf tracks) and the next you're tearing some else's hair out with frustration because you've got a great tune, all the music is there but the lyrics are refusing to flow. Made me realise that I want to sing about things that matter as much as I want to write songs capturing epochs and moments in time. I used to worry that I didn’t have a song-writing "style", but now I rejoice in freedom and variety. Yay!
Also been listening to new/finished mixes of Red Antennae songs (although we have changed our name to Fitzroy.. It's yet to sink in with me), some of which sound fantastic, others still need work, but mostly they sound fantastic! They're a bit bass-heavy in places which means that my limited car stereo speakers distort, but on the stereo at home (with pwopah bass bins, innit) they sound amazingly dubby and vibed out. Still no luck finding a drummer.. Hopefully now the school terms have started we can scout around the drum/music colleges in London and get someone to come and drop the beats for us. We are struggling to maintain motivation without a drummer as no tub-thumper = no gigs. But the tunes are feelum buffa me braaaaas, in a manner of speaking.
Watched a TV show last night, "Dylan's Heroes" - as in Bob, and the people he looked up to. Awesome. Woody Guthrie, "Hurricane" Carter and Lenny Bruce. Prolly the best TV I've seen in a hundred years, but then I don't watch a lot of TV cos it's mostly pants. I'd rather be out doing something musical.
Had a message on the Müf forum from a guy I was at college with, a legend called Steve Sanders. He reminded me of my days in amateur dramatics at college, put a huge grin on my face thinking about my time as a Dwarvish Welsh playwright (typecasting?) in a production of Terry Pratchett's "Wyrd Sisters". Happy days - several centimetres beneath this musical exterior there is a luvvie just waiting to get out. But I've still not done everything I need to do musically, just got to get out of my system before I can even think of doing anything else. So far I've done 7 plays, 3 musicals, one Shakespearian tour, 2 pantos and a review. And - speaking of pantos - I have to get the script for "Reservoir Dwarves" to Mike for him to look at - Christmas is fast approaching! Would be amazing if we could put on a performace in Reading! Would need to rehearse a band and find some crazy people to act in it for free.. May even have a chance at finishing the sequel - "Lock, Stock, and one Smoking Lamp" in time for Jan. We shall see.
Jah bless, y'all.
Musically, White Sunday played a blinder at the Half Moon in Putney last Wed - another great crowd came up from Reading to see us, and went home happy by all accounts. We've re-jigged some of the songs, resurrected a couple and put some on the back burner for the time being - which is great cos it means we can dip into a back catalogue as and when we feel we need to, helps keep things fresh for us, and varied for our audiences. Some of them have seen every gig we've played, so we must be doing something right if they aren’t getting bored of it all by now!
Also going to be recording a new EP this weekend, courtesy of our drummer/chief musician extraordinaire Dancin' Danny Lovegroove. 3 previously unrecorded tracks, plus an acoustic reprise fade-out track which threatens to sound UNBELIEVABLE. Love the acoustic versions of tracks that Jim and Mike do, gotta get them all committed to CD at some point. Had an amazing review posted on NME message board, http://www.nme.com/boards/showthread.htm?p=82788#post82788
Finally got round to finishing/writing lyrics for the new Müf track - completely highlighted for me the inherent insanity of writing lyrics. One day they'll just come tumbling out, perfect first time and without any effort at all (like the first 4 or 5 Müf tracks) and the next you're tearing some else's hair out with frustration because you've got a great tune, all the music is there but the lyrics are refusing to flow. Made me realise that I want to sing about things that matter as much as I want to write songs capturing epochs and moments in time. I used to worry that I didn’t have a song-writing "style", but now I rejoice in freedom and variety. Yay!
Also been listening to new/finished mixes of Red Antennae songs (although we have changed our name to Fitzroy.. It's yet to sink in with me), some of which sound fantastic, others still need work, but mostly they sound fantastic! They're a bit bass-heavy in places which means that my limited car stereo speakers distort, but on the stereo at home (with pwopah bass bins, innit) they sound amazingly dubby and vibed out. Still no luck finding a drummer.. Hopefully now the school terms have started we can scout around the drum/music colleges in London and get someone to come and drop the beats for us. We are struggling to maintain motivation without a drummer as no tub-thumper = no gigs. But the tunes are feelum buffa me braaaaas, in a manner of speaking.
Watched a TV show last night, "Dylan's Heroes" - as in Bob, and the people he looked up to. Awesome. Woody Guthrie, "Hurricane" Carter and Lenny Bruce. Prolly the best TV I've seen in a hundred years, but then I don't watch a lot of TV cos it's mostly pants. I'd rather be out doing something musical.
Had a message on the Müf forum from a guy I was at college with, a legend called Steve Sanders. He reminded me of my days in amateur dramatics at college, put a huge grin on my face thinking about my time as a Dwarvish Welsh playwright (typecasting?) in a production of Terry Pratchett's "Wyrd Sisters". Happy days - several centimetres beneath this musical exterior there is a luvvie just waiting to get out. But I've still not done everything I need to do musically, just got to get out of my system before I can even think of doing anything else. So far I've done 7 plays, 3 musicals, one Shakespearian tour, 2 pantos and a review. And - speaking of pantos - I have to get the script for "Reservoir Dwarves" to Mike for him to look at - Christmas is fast approaching! Would be amazing if we could put on a performace in Reading! Would need to rehearse a band and find some crazy people to act in it for free.. May even have a chance at finishing the sequel - "Lock, Stock, and one Smoking Lamp" in time for Jan. We shall see.
Jah bless, y'all.
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
Holy dot dot dash, Batman!
POSSIBILITY OF MUF TRACK BEING PLAYED ON SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO STATION *STOP* THIS MONTH SEES YET MORE INTENSE ACTIVITY FOR MYSELF AS I AM AUDITIONING NEW SINGERS AND A DEP GUITARIST AS WELL AS MOVING HOUSE *STOP* WHITE SUNDAY ARE SET TO STORM THE HALF MOON IN PUTNEY AGAIN AND ARE TRYING TO SORT OUT RECORDING SOME NEW SONGS *STOP* ARKADE.COM NOW HOSTS THE OFFICIAL DOWNLOAD SITE FOR THUNDER, AS WELL AS PRETTY MUCH ALL OF THE BANDS FROM READING WHICH IS CLEARLY ON FIRE *STOP* MAY HAVE RUN OUT OF NOVELTY WAYS TO POST ON COMENTS *DASH* HAD BETTER *STOP* BEFORE I GIVE IN TO OVERWHELMING URGE TO PLAGIARISE A BLACKADDER GOES FORTH TELEGRAPH JOKE *STOP* CARRY ON..
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Where do I start?
Since my last post Reading Fringe Festival and Reading Festival proper have been and gone. So much happened in that week that I might have to split it over a couple of posts.
It was an incredible week for music. I saw some phenomenal performances, Six Nation State at the BBBs, Aqua Livi at Screwball Cabaret and Iron Maiden at Reading festival to mention a few.
The standard of the Fringe events seems to have been really high. Our publicity got people into the venues and they seemed to be enjoying themselves when they got there! Let's hope they keep coming to gigs now it's all over.
From a personal point of view the Müf/Six Nation State gig was a highlight. I thought we played pretty well, our new songs went down well and we really enjoyed ourselves. Six Nation State were absolutely brilliant though. Thank goodness we decided to go on first! Not sure how anything could have followed that.
Screwball Cabaret was an incredible amount of work/organisation and stress but oh so worth it. The acts we booked did their best to help out and all played as well as we hoped. Suitable Case for Treatment were a highlight because I'd never seen them before. Definitely going to try and get their album which I think is in the shops now. When we first imagined the HeBGBs stage (also known, slightly inaccurately, as the acoustic stage)I thought that Carter would be a perfect band for it and so they proved to be. Excellent. Ben Marwood was good as always although most of his set I spent running around desperately searching for equipment/moving amps around. Polar Remote were really good, their flowing atmospheric music really suited the venue.. and what can I say about Aqua Livi? The man is a legend. Before the venue even opened he gave a masterclass in how to perform a perfect soundcheck and once he started we couldn't get him off stage! Not that we wanted to, his 30 minute set went on for well over an hour and it was absolutely amazing. It might have been hard work but we're going to have to do another one.
To be honest, if we can get acts like this at the Fringe I'm not sure why it's worth spending £125 + booking fee on the real festival.
Other than Maiden of course.
More on the real festival later.
It was an incredible week for music. I saw some phenomenal performances, Six Nation State at the BBBs, Aqua Livi at Screwball Cabaret and Iron Maiden at Reading festival to mention a few.
The standard of the Fringe events seems to have been really high. Our publicity got people into the venues and they seemed to be enjoying themselves when they got there! Let's hope they keep coming to gigs now it's all over.
From a personal point of view the Müf/Six Nation State gig was a highlight. I thought we played pretty well, our new songs went down well and we really enjoyed ourselves. Six Nation State were absolutely brilliant though. Thank goodness we decided to go on first! Not sure how anything could have followed that.
Screwball Cabaret was an incredible amount of work/organisation and stress but oh so worth it. The acts we booked did their best to help out and all played as well as we hoped. Suitable Case for Treatment were a highlight because I'd never seen them before. Definitely going to try and get their album which I think is in the shops now. When we first imagined the HeBGBs stage (also known, slightly inaccurately, as the acoustic stage)I thought that Carter would be a perfect band for it and so they proved to be. Excellent. Ben Marwood was good as always although most of his set I spent running around desperately searching for equipment/moving amps around. Polar Remote were really good, their flowing atmospheric music really suited the venue.. and what can I say about Aqua Livi? The man is a legend. Before the venue even opened he gave a masterclass in how to perform a perfect soundcheck and once he started we couldn't get him off stage! Not that we wanted to, his 30 minute set went on for well over an hour and it was absolutely amazing. It might have been hard work but we're going to have to do another one.
To be honest, if we can get acts like this at the Fringe I'm not sure why it's worth spending £125 + booking fee on the real festival.
Other than Maiden of course.
More on the real festival later.
