Getting Ready To Record
Only a couple of weeks until we are in the studio working on that debut album. Been practising, practising, practising, making sure the songs work and we all know what we are doing. Polishing up lyrics adding in breaks to Paper Cuts and society, so that they have a bit more variety. Basically getting everything as good as we can, so that when we hit the studio we make the best use of o tie. No gigs planned yet, as we wanted to get the album out of the way first, then we’ll set about gigging and launching the thing. I think that we have agreed that the album will be called Dancing Outrageous. I wasn’t happy with lyrics of…
Latest Bar and Steve’s Arm
Sorry not to have written for a while, Christmas, families all that stuff sort of got in the way. Then I just sort of lost momentum and everything ground to a halt. But now I’m back, and I can tell you what Brighton Strangler have been up to. At the start of December we played the Latest Bar supported by POG and Jimmy and the Worn Out Shoes. Great gig, about fifty of you wonderful people turned up to see us. Great fun, people dancing and we tried two new songs; Wise Guys and Dancing Outrageous. They both went down well; I think that Wise Guys might be our pop hit, while Dancing Outrageous is just good old punk pop…
We’ve got Steve!
Yes, we’ve got Steve, he’s our new drummer. And even better, we have got a gig lined up for Sunday 25th November. Supporting us will be the almighty Pog and the wonderful Jimmy and the Worn Out Shoes. It really is so much nicer when you are playing with friends, both in the band and as support acts. As for Steve, he’s got to do a lot of song learning very quickly, but I reckon he’s up to the task. We might play a two or three new songs which we are working on, probably Dancing Outrageous, Started Alright and Wise Guys. I say probably, because we have a couple of other songs as well, but we’ve got limited time…
New Drummer
We might have got ourselves a new drummer, a guy called Steve. Mikey did some sterling work and found him through Band Mix. He is due to turn up on Sunday for band practice. Let’s see if he does, if he’s keen and the right fit. Fingers crossed that I’ll be able to enthuse about him after Sunday. If not it’ll be back to the drawing board and inertia, as we scrabble around looking for anyone prepared to hit things in rhythm. The Coalition of Chaos are not going to get a Christmas song done in time for Christmas. Can’t release it then until a year’s time. Bloody Christmas songs, you have to wait until Christmas…I broached with Shaggy…
The Search Goes On
Still no drummer, I’ve asked everybody, I’ve posted on facebook, I’ve put a request on Brighton Bands and Musicians. Mikey has put up an ad on BandMix, but we still haven’t found a drummer. We can even provide the drum kit if necessary, but nope no takers. It’s incredible how stunting it becomes when you lose the drummer, anyone else and we could probably cope, but the drummer is the glue that holds it all together and when they go, everything just falls apart. A few people have suggested a drum machine, but I need human beings in the band, not inanimate objects. And besides the drummer adds their own style and energy. My potential side project The Coalition…
Drummer Quits!
Bloody disaster! Tim had developed tinnitus, constant ringing in the ears, so the doctor has said that he has screwed his hearing and can’t do anything involving loud noise any more. So he can’t play in the band any more, can’t do his DJing, can’t go to gigs, loud music etc. That’s hard, it means he can’t do so many of those things he has always loved. He can’t even finish the album, which we were in the studio recording with him just at the start of the Summer. Poor Tim, he was an integral part of the band and leaves us with not just a drummer shaped hole, but we’ve lost someone who was skilled, easy to work…
Back From Hols and Energised
Just returned from a 3 week break to Bosnia and Serbia. It was hot, stunning scenery and half price beers. Trying to find food as a veggie was a bit problematic as they do like their meat. Ate a lot of pizzas and in spite of a lot of walking have managed to put on weight! Did think of the melody for a possible new song and managed to find a song that I have been hunting down for about the last 35 years. Heads Down No Nonsense Mindless Boogie by Albertos Y Los Trios Paranoias. Hear this a handful of times when I was 17 and adored it, then it just disappeared off the face of the earth. …
Easy Listening or Punk?
Been chatting to the other band members about the mixes from the recording studio. They aren’t very good. Yes we’ve got the instruments and vocals all laid down, but the mix has managed to make the songs all completely void of life. The vocals are fine, I’d even say that they have done a good job on them, unfortunately you can’t hear anything else. The drums, bass, guitar and keyboards are all there somewhere, but it’s just a quietish noise in the background. Not really punk at all, in fact I’d go as far as to say that the studio have managed to make our lively, noisy edgy punk songs easy listening! Somebody at a party suggested that this might…
Doing The Right Thing
After speaking to people involved in writing on a writers forum, I have decided not to go with the offer of publication, because as one of them put it, “you might get 60% of the royalties from sales, but 60% of nothing is still nothing.” So I have been encouraged to hold out for a better publisher, who will push my book more. Now that I have rationalised all this, I am feeling a lot better about it, and I have reasoned that I am now getting some interest in my novel, so perhaps somebody will bite. I’ve also just started sending queries directly to publishers. All this time I thought that you couldn’t as they all say “no unsolicited…
Book Publishing Offer Or Scam?
A few weeks back I entered a twitter competition, where you tweet about your book. People from the publishing world sift through the tweets and ‘like’ anything they are interested in. If you are liked you can sent them a query of your novel. So I was liked and duly sent off a query. A few days later I am asked for a full manuscript, this is the first time this has happened for me, so naturally I was quite excited. It was at this stage that I realised that I was being asked for my manuscript by a publisher and not an agent. It came as a great surprise when a few days later I received an offer of…