Nineteen
Nineteen – The Covid Diaries My son Joseph is 19 the same as the Coronavirus. I’m 59 so have already had a good portion of my life. I worry that Joseph and Sidney 17 may never get to have the opportunities that I’ve enjoyed. It feels like the world is changing, and that Covid 19 is a wake up call. An alarm bell beeping away on the phone. But do we choose to hear it’s call; wake up, get up and do what needs to be done. Or do we turn, it off, roll over and slumber our way towards Armageddon? Even the snooze button doesn’t do the job, the time is now, we need to act and act fast.…
Basking in the Afterglow – Sort of
Meant to post this a couple of months ago, but it’s interring to see it now as things have moved on. More about that later… A hectic few months meant that I neglected Blog writing duties. So we recorded the album and launched it last November. I’ve sent the album and video out to about 400 music journalists, websites, blogs, radio stations, and now we just wait….and wait…and wait to see if anybody picks it up. So it’s mostly all done and I can sit and bask in pleasure of a job well done. Sort of…but it’s a bit unsatisfactory, because I want the world to hear my music and the response is minimal and slow. Yes we got played…
Live Gigs
Did Prince Albert, did Patchfest, did Brighton Electric. All great gigs, the Albert because we supported Too Many Crooks, and hey I’ve played the Albert, which was only a dream. Then Patchfest was fun because we played 30 minutes of punk rock to assembled families, kids, dogs and general onlookers. I did have a highlight, when two songs in a small girl ran across in front of the stage with her fingers in her ears, as if she was being assaulted by the worst cacophony ever. Then we had our launch at Brighton Electric. Loved every minute of it, played the whole album and must have had 70 or so people. Even got to play a new song You Got…
Patchfest
Been a busy few weeks, played our first festival at Patchfest, to an audience of about 200. Not sure they new what to expect, as we came on after a jazz band. Bit of an inauspicious start as halfway through the set a small child ran off with her fingers in her ears. Never mind, everyone else stayed and enjoyed themselves. The mc was very complimentary, “takes me back to the bands I used to see when I was young.” We also got some good video footage from people recording on their phones. We’ll post some up on YouTube. Maybe Dancing Outrageous and 90 Miles. Also got a stack of good phots, courtesy of the festival photographer and the Evening…
Ball of Confusion
Ball of confusion Currently trying to juggle a number of things and never quite sure which I’m doing next. So two gigs coming up that’s the Prince Albert this Friday supporting Too Many Crooks and Dolly Doom. Should be great fun and I know Too Many Crooks will get everyone dancing. Really looking forward to it, tickets available from Punker Bunker and Resident. Then we’ve got Patchfest, I think we’re just after a jazz band, so we should wake everyone up! Both these gigs will be a great chance to play some of the songs from our forthcoming album. Talking of which, we’re well on the way to getting it mixed. I think Ian has more or less done 7…
Gigs Coming Up
So we are playing at the Albert on Friday 5th July, supporting Too Many Crooks and Dolly Doom. I reckon we’ll be on at about 8.15. Never played the Albert before so this should be very exciting. In fact it’s one of those iconic Brighton venues where I’ve seen load of bands. You know how you stand at gigs thinking it must be great playing up there, but never in your wildest dreams imagining it could be you? Well that’s what I’m feeling like at the prospect of playing at the Albert. Other people do those sort of things; me I’m not one of those people. These people are in proper bands; me I’m in Brighton Strangler, a band I…
Richmond Gig
It was good to get back to doing a live gig again, after being in the studio recording. The stage at the Richmond is small and both Robert and Steve were crammed into infeasibly small spaces, Rob practically sitting on his keyboard and Steve hidden deep in the recess of an alcove. We were a bit rusty but were pleased to play a ten song set, including the two new breaks in Paper Cuts and Society. This is more difficult than it sounds, as when you are so used to playing a song in a particular way it is easy to slip back into that. It only takes one band member to get the timing, rhythm or tune wrong, by…
Laying Down the Vocals Part 1
Was back at Northbrook Studio with Nick, to record the vocals over the top of the music we’ve already laid down. I thought naively, that we would have it all wrapped up in an evening, but after singing each song 3 times, and re-doing the bits where I got it wrong, we managed 6 songs. So I’ve called this part 1 as we’re going in next week to finish it off hopefully. I’m confident that we should get the recording completed next week as the engineer Alex seems pretty on the ball. He said that his favourite song is Ketamine, which pleased me. Mikey’s been working on Art design for the album, and have come up with a few suggestions.…
Northbrook Studios Part 2
Much better than last time, when we arrived Alex had pretty much set up. So we were fairly quickly into the sound check. We all worked hard and Alex worked his magic, so that by the end of the day we had laid down the music for the six remaining tracks. We were really pleased as this means that we only now need to put the vocals over the top, which we do next week. The tracks we did this time were Paper Cuts, which proved to be a bit of a pain, as we have inserted a break, which we kept screwing up on. Then we completed Nice Guys, Society, Hey Hey, Baby You Are Not For Me and…
Northbrook Studios
We went into the studio last Saturday, it started badly as we arrived at 9.30 and then had to hang around for three hours while they set it all up. To be fair this is the first time they have let the public in and we are getting it cheap. But if they want to get any more bookings they need to be set up to start when the band arrives. So we had 3 hours of playing, and Alex the technician is a nice guy, who seems to know what he is doing. We laid down the music for 5 tracks, 90 Miles, Dancing Outrageous, Let’s Party, End of the Line and can’t remember what else. I do that,…