new video

Asleep at the guitar - photo courtesy of Ian Gilchrist

Well, Christmas is over and 2010 is nearly done. Just time to upload a video of a song from our recent concert. The song is 'Ritual' which was on our last album. The live version is a bit faster than the album version and has more menace to it. Don't be frightened!

Regards - John

photo courtesy of Ian Gilchrist

Well, the Winter Solstice has past and it's the evening of Christmas Eve and all is quiet and there is just time to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and best wishes for the New Year - let's hope it is better than the 'Old' Year.

Rehearsals start in a couple of week's time in preparation for our concert in Birling, near Maidstone in Kent, in March. The two traditional songs I sent demo recordings of to the others seem to have met with approval so we might well try and work them up for the concert.

In between rehearsals we will be recording the final tracks for the new CD and hope to be starting mixing it during February.

So, happy wassailing to one and all and an enjoyable Plough Monday.

Regards - John

A shot from the St. George's concert courtesy of Ian Gilchrist

Steady progress is being made on the recording of the new album. I must try and remember where the files are on the computer. You knew where you were with several ten inch square boxes of half inch magnetic tape - or at least the cupboard where they were!

I've just finished putting together a rough edit of the recent concert footage so that the band can see what was going on with all the amazing lighting around us. Thanks again to '10 out of 10' for organising all that. The next stage will be to choose a few of the songs to go on a DVD which will eventually be available for sale. In the meantime I will try and get a song up on the blog for people to listen to.

A few weeks ago, with Alice and Bruce's help, Sue and I hosted a house concert for Susan Enan, an English singer-songwriter now based in the USA, and currently touring the UK following Europe, Canada and USA . It was a great success and it made me think it would be great to be able to an acoustic concert ourselves. It would certainly save on the hours of setting up and taking down that goes with a full PA performance. Mind you there are six of us which will start to fill up your front room before you add in 20-25 audience members. So if you have a large lounge and you would like us to play an intimate concert for you ........

I've also found a couple more traditional songs that might work well for the band. I've prepared a demo of each and I will be sending them to the others for consideration in due course.

Regards - John

On stage at the St George's concert - a still from our video footage

Well, the St George's concert is over now and went very well by all accounts. The lighting was amazing and our thanks go to all at '10 out of 10' for providing it. Eventually the concert will be available on DVD. In the meantime we are concentrating on completing the new album.

A date for our first concert in 2011 has been confirmed for March 19th and will be at Birling in Kent. More details will be available in the new year.

Regards - John

What's that down there? - photo courtesy of Ian Gilchrist

Hi - Less than a fortnight now until our concert at St Georges on Saturday 16th October. One more rehearsal to go. The set list has been finalised and I am really looking forward to playing there again. This will be our fifth time. I hope you can come along.

Unfortunately the planned launch of the new CD has been delayed because of the continuing building work at the Salomonjay Studios and recording has been put on hold. Hopefully things will improve in the near future and we are hopeful of having the CD completed early in the new year. I will keep you posted on progress.

Regards - John

an illustration from the demo video of 'A 1000 Ships'

In the last blog I mentioned that the song about Helen of Troy didn't end up quite like I had intended. Well I did a series of illustrations to go with it when I read the lyrics as a poem for an informal do at Christmas. The drawing above is the characters taking their final bow at the end of the piece. I have animated it against the demo I did of the song and there will be a clip in the 'Work in Progress' section on the web site in due course. I'll probably put the full thing up on the site once we have recorded it for the album with Dave on vocals.

In the same lighter vein as 'A 1000 Ships' I have now finished another song about the exploits of one 'Lucy Anna Martin' and her exploits when kidnapped for ransom by pirates. It has sixteen verses at the moment, so is a bit of a epic piece, lasting some seven minutes. We haven't tried it in rehearsal yet so I don't know how it will change in the transfer from demo to band. Again there will bes a sample in the 'Work in Progress' section.

And Bruce has composed an instrumental piece called 'Warp and Weft' - because the various instrumental lines weave in and out. He composed it on his new iPad whilst on holiday. I'm not sure we'll do it live as Bruce doesn't have that many hands but it will be on the album.

Regards - John

Live at Hunton Village Hall - a gig in aid of the charity gamBLE

Thank you to everyone who came along to the gig at Hunton Village Hall last weekend. It was a great success and I understand the evening raised enough money to pay for another teacher for a year.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and everything went very well apart from the initial scare when Dave manged to fall off stage before a note had been played. Luckily he wasn't hurt and was able to continue. Take more water with it next time, Dave!

Now attention transfers to recording songs for the new CD which we intend will be ready for sale at our next planned gig at St George's on 16th October.

Regards - John