Diary: 8th-22nd October 2001
Next Previous Back to Diary: Contents
Monday 8th October
Ah, truly the recordings progress apace! Mr Valdarama was round at the weekend, the bass is now complete on the three tracks, and I've finished my guitars, and Mr David Picking has hit some things too, percussionist extraordinaire that he is! So all that remains is for Mr Dell'era to add electric guitar, and for me to warble over it, and 'twill be done!
Only taken all year! Not bad for three songs, eh?
Oh, and had our rehearsal last week for the gig with three-quarters of the all-new electric counterpoint ensemble, which was alright considering we'd never played together before. My electric guitar playing needs a bit of work, mind - I used to play electric, but I sold it to get an acoustic years ago, and have been playing just acoustic until very recently. (Fortunately Paul from Mocca had it for years so I just bought it back off him!) And playing electric is quite different in lots of ways. And although the songs are established and work well in their current format, there's a bit of re-jigging to do to get them to work (a) in a band format, and (b) in an electric guitar loud way. One thing I've re-realised about playing electric with distortion is that you need to be so on the ball and have so much control over what's going on, otherwise it all gets out of hand. Several times during the rehearsal I was thinking, what's that noise, where's it coming from? ... and it was me!
So there you go. But by the 26th, that'll all be sorted, and I'll be the very epitome of control and refinement on the guitar! And sing at the same time, oh yes!
P.S. You may notice an absence of comment about certain world events within these pages. I just can't go there, can't even think about it, I just despair ....
Sunday 14th October
Well, another week goes by ... actually rehearsed with the entire line-up this week, what a novel approach! And happily it seems to be getting better, so definitely moving in the right direction then. (Be depressing if it got worse each rehearsal, eh?). Haven't done any recording though, doh! But then again, Mr Dell'era is rather busy at the moment.
But hopefully I'll be able to get something sorted soon. What else has been happening? Hmm, dunno what else is going on worth mentioning really. I'm sure when I started this diary thing I had a clear idea of what it was for and what it was about and why people might want to read it, but now I'm going, why would anyone want to listen (metaphorically, speaking) to me drivelling on with urbane facts about my day to day existence? I'm sure I used to have things to say ....
P.S. Went into my local shop the other day, and they were playing "Give peace a chance". Glad it's not just me who thinks this whole "war" thing is absolute bullshit. (Oh, come to think of it, all my friends seem to feel the same way too). What are you going to achieve by bombing the shit out of Afghanistan, you morons? Oh, other than killing and injuring hundreds of innocent people and being directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of others through starvation, disease, etc. And who expected Blair to be such a demon? I mean Bush you expect to be a demon, bearing in mind his lineage, not to mention the whole redneck-moron thing. That's what you need, isn't it, the guy who's in charge of the most powerful country in the world acting like he thinks he's John Wayne. That's what we all need for a better world. (I did make an effort not to mention the "war". I did try not to go there, I really did.)
Monday 22nd October
Blek. Got a bit of a cold, feeling a bit rough. Still, gets it out of the way for Friday, eh?
Talking of which, been a bit of a change of plan on that front - having, as I have mentioned, been rehearsing the songs in a format which can only be described as rock, spoke to one of the promoters on Friday, and they were going, er, we're promoting it as an all-acoustic songwriters night, thought you knew, and I was like, I thought you knew I was doing it in a full-on rock stylee, etc .... So, one of those things - communication breakdown (brief burst of air guitar), these things happen. Especially around musicians.
So, there you go. But I have insisted on maintaining the line-up, because having got such excellent and generally in-demand musicians to devote their time and energy to the project, I'm determined that it won't be wasted. So we'll see how many songs we can get to work in an acoustic-ensemble way (I anticipate four or five), and I'll do a couple with me or just Rob (who knows a couple more already) or with Jo (I can now confirm that the fabulous Jo Hamilton will be appearing on a couple of numbers, which should be great, always really enjoy playing with Jo ....).
But it is, I fear, inevitable that some of the songs, and especially the new songs we were rehearsing (well, specifically because they were the songs that needed the full-electric format to work), won't work in an acoustic format. So (and I haven't really discussed this with the other guys yet so don't quote me) hopefully there'll be an opportunity to perform the full giant poisoned electric set at some point, ideally with these guys. For, as I mentioned a while ago I think, one of the things that I've been keen to explore, playing in these different ensemble line-ups that I've been privileged to be able to experience, is that you get a much better idea of the ways that different musicians interact, and how and why people work together, in terms of energy and style and all sorts.
So one of the things I've been hoping for is that a particular line-up would have an unusually good synergy, or vibe, or just be really good fun, or all of the above. And I must say that this particular combination of people seems really good, for me, at least - it's like, the sort of thing that everyone tends to play is often exactly the sort of thing that I would have imagined myself - or indeed often, wouldn't have thought of myself, but after hearing it in the song a few times, I find myself going, wow, yes, I wouldn't have thought of that but that's just perfect, which is fantastically exciting and enjoyable and satisfying! Wow! So in the rehearsals I've been standing there going, wow, wow, yes! yes! yes!, this is great!!, feeling like Dean Moriarty in On The Road, digging everything and just standing there with this idiotic grin on my face!
So hopefully some of that will remain.