Playlist
The view from the office this morning...
Into week 29? Yep week 29...
Tasty breakfast...
And then, discussion 1st thing amongst me, JB and Keith as to where the band ought to be going...
JW read all the posts but did not chip in...
JB was wondering what we might play on Friday when we reconvene - it will be his first session with the band since our gig at the start of March...
...so, almost 5 months away from the band - during which time we rehearsed with Martin and played the Stewart Brewing 48 song, four set gig - now over a month ago...
My first thought was, well, we have nothing to rehearse for, so we should probably look at the songs that changed or newly added during Martin's time with the group, which would be...
American Pie - newly introduced to the set
Take it Easy - solo was shortened
The Model - Martin played the motif during the instrumental parts
Love is the Drug - song was shortened
Candy - one of the chords was changed to a 7 version of the major chord
Folsom Prison Blues - extra guitar solo was introduced
Heroes - Martin played Robert Fripp's motif note for note throughout the song
Human - the song was redone using the correct chord sequences as per the record
Make Me Smile - new intro from Keith
Ring of Fire - newly introduced to the set
Stuck in the Middle - guitar solo introduced, song slowed down
Summer of 69 - newly introduced to the set
Another Brick in the Wall - newly introduced to the set
Valerie - newly introduced to the set
Sit Down - newly introduced to the set
I'm a Believer - newly introduced to the set
Sugar Sugar - Martin played the wee catchy motif during the intro/choruses
However, I also posed the question as to whether anyone could face playing all these yet again...
We awaited JW and Keith's input...
In the meantime, I noted too that disappointingly, there had been zero reaction from JW or Keith to my ideas, put forward in early June, pre Stewart Brewing, that I'd like to write some new Capital Models songs to play alongside the original canon, which we've played a few times - and even released on Bandcamp...
....but not managed live...
With that in mind, I'd posted up three new song ideas that we might perhaps work on when we got back together with Johnny B...
I felt they had that same oblique feeling which permeates much of the original work...
But, fucksake, tumbleweeds...
Today, I opined that perhaps the time has come to be a "real" band as opposed to a covers band and play our own stuff...
All the skills we have in playing crowd pleasers might be put to more gratifying use...
Stewart Brewing and, latterly, the Dockers, were not great experiences (apart from the cash - which we've all agreed, while nice, we don't actually need)....
I did enjoy the March gig (10 top songs - a rehearsal for which I'm listening to as I type) - mainly because I wasn't having to play almost 30 songs which I don't actually like that much...
JB thought songwriting in a band isn't easy. He said it's a "spark" thing that may emerge in a jam or from a strong idea. He wasn't sure how we'd get there. He said usually someone has to step forward with an idea everyone can get into and apply some energy...
Keith popped up, helpfully, with "I’ve been hard at work since 05.30 this morning and had other things to do rather than respond to “hobby” communication so far. That’s not going to change quickly either."
To be fair, with the Edinburgh Festival upcoming, this is probably Keith's busiest time of the year - he's the only band member now with a regular job...
JB reckoned Keith was right - but while what we do might well be seen as a "hobby", the band still means something and maybe we should start the session with a coffee and chat...
... and then, all being well, try to work towards a set that's more of a challenge for us all, just to get the juice flowing...
He reckoned that one idea would be to do a whole album set - for example, he sees bands doing a "Revolver" set, a "VU banana album" set, a "Rumours" set etc...
And it doesn't have to be faithful to the source either. A kind of post modern jukebox thing. Like the Bowie/Velvets/Roxy/Eno set we played at Fopp last summer...
I thought that sounded like a good idea...
Keith agreed re coffee and chat to start re Friday's session but that, while it would be great to be able to do all of what was being suggested, he'd rather rehearse fairly regularly and keep on top of things rather than cramming it, leading up to a gig....
He was still up for covers stuff, but not any of the "cheesy shit" like "Amarillo"...
He put forward that if any one of us really doesn’t want to do a number, we shouldn’t be doing it...
Of course that could decimate our repertoire pretty quickly!
I said, ok, we should keep our powder dry, so to speak, until Friday and then we can discuss matters and take notes re how we want to move forward...
I suggested we all bring all of our song sheets along, alpha order for ease of location and we can hopefully play through a few songs and ideas...
John B said we could have a think about how we might adapt the current set material - for example, if not a classic album then a night of Dylan or Bowie etc...
I reckoned a night of Dylan would be fairly easy and Keith said he'd recently bought his first ever Dylan LP, "Highway 61 Revisited" and enjoyed it...
I closed the discussion with "Maybe we could do that one!"...
Lunch - and the remains of yesterday's top Pilaf...
As for the rest of the day, it was mostly spent writing up entries here and finally getting up to date...
A lead I ordered yesterday to play the mobile unit "wired" via the Sony speakers turned out to be no use, as the Sonys will only accept stereo plugs - so it's impossible to play stereo sound through the two speakers using a wire...
Annoying but only £3 down the pan...
We also started watching "The Beast in Me" with Claire Daines from "Homeland"...
Promising...
Late on, I found a recent Alice Cooper concert, professionally recorded so nabbed that...
Prior to that, through out the day, Caravan, Yes, Pink Floyd, Matthew Florianz and John McLaughlin had been soundtracking nicely...
And I picked up some more Greg Belisle-Chi too - which wasn't quite as good as the LP I got yesterday...
That was it, I think...
Highlight of the Day : Band discussions and ideas...
Today's New Music :
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