Thursday, March 13, 2014

Singing in the bathroom...

Playlist
Capital Models - Last Night's Rehearsal
Various - iPod Shuffleplay
  • The Fireman, My Morning Jacket, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Kansas, New York Dolls, Placebo, Gary Pucket & The Union Gap, The Hollies, 2raumwohnung, Roy Wood & Wizzard and Culture along with pieces by Tavener, Hindemith, Vivaldi, Lorentzen, Henriques, Frith, Vivaldi, Haydn, Bartok and Gluck...
Cloudland Blue Quartet - The Razor Drone (From TwentyFour Paintings)
Hindemith - Piano Music

As an opening gambit, I'd like to say that, when it popped up on shuffleplay today, I realised that, in the light of Operation Yewtree, Gary Pucket & The Union Gap's Number One Hit "Young Girl" seems less than appropriate...

In the inbox this morning a link to some old CBQ music added to the interweb...

Some of the best stuff I've ever done perhaps...

In the bathroom this morning...



...some singing from Meg the Black Cat...



Sadly, no sound recordings made...

Out into the world...


...but little to report other than a purchaseless trip to Fopp, involving a good walk...

I was soundtracked, in part, by a listen back to the hour long recording of last night's Capital Models work - much learning of what to play...

At this point in proceedings, not some of the best stuff I've ever done...

In the old band, Jamie Frain played excellent bass, I started off playing bass very early on but, when we recruited Jamie, I switched to just singing, later singing and playing occasional synthesiser, while Angus Bolton and Eric Merrill and, later, Nicky Hind played superb guitar and, initially Jim Park and then Keith Apter kept the beat...

Angus, while he's up for jam sessions etc, no longer has any interest in playing live and Jim is a stand up comedian and can't make the commitment - Eric hasn't been seen for decades and Nicky lives in San Francisco...

So now we're now around 6 weeks away from the gig - having booked it 6 weeks ago - and Jamie, Keith, new recruit Andy Wilson and I haven't played as a full band at all this year due to other stuff getting in the way...

All we've been able to do in the last six weeks, have been two duo rehearsals trying to play the old songs with me on guitar and Jamie on bass, using probably inappropriate drum loops; one duo rehearsal with me on bass and Andy on keys, playing along to the 2011 reunion recordings featuring me, Jamie, Keith, Gus and Jim; and last night's trio rehearsal (again playing along to the 2011 tapes to have Keith "present")...

Now I am singing and playing bass - including bass on some songs on which I didn't play bass before - although I have been practising on my own since deciding not to play guitar - let's just say I'm not quite replicating Jamie's magnificent lines but needs must as he is a much better guitarist than me...

Meanwhile, last night, Jamie played guitar on these songs for the first time ever, while Andy is doing a great job in reproducing my original synth lines and introducing new keyboards to the overall sound - but, due to lack of time to do anything further on his own between meetings, he has to be re-taught the lines when we meet up...

On his return from Cuba, Keith will once again be at the drumkit...

Having said all that, and discounting the fact that we've not even started on brushing up on the covers sets, the tape from last night shows, even at this early stage, that we are sounding not too bad at all, really...

It's a challenge though....

It'll be another two weeks at least till Keith returns and then we have a very short window before Andy goes to Portugal for a fortnight, returning just a couple of days before the gig...

When we booked it, I thought we'd have plenty time for the three of us to get it all together and then Keith would slot in easily because, frankly, he is just so good...

But now I reckon we might only be able to squeeze in around two or three full band rehearsals before we perform...

There is the seat of some pants, and it is being flown by - oh for the easy days of being Cloudland Blue Quartet on my own...

Back in reality, the Exec Producer and I enjoyed last night's tivo'd "Line of Duty" - just when we thought we had it sussed, it's all been twisted round again - quite the best thing that's been on TV for ages...

"Question Time" then, asleep to "This Week"..

Bed...

Highlight of the Day : Finding out that maybe the band will be ok...

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