CONCERT AFTERGLOW!

 

Well, the concert at St. George's is now over and we can look back on a performance to be proud of, as it was a great success. The new songs, that will later this year feature on our new album, went really well. The overall sound was good and the new foldback monitors gave us a reassuring balance on stage which was just what we wanted.

 

We can now look forward to our next gig, another BBQ for the GamBLE charity, at the end of August, where we hope to try out a few more of our new songs amongst the more well known playlist. The BBQ has a quite relaxed atmosphere and there is good fun when we jam with some of the regular local musicians. Fingers crossed for some dry weather!

 

Regards - John

Happy Anniversary!

The band have been asked to give a concert as part of the festival to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the church building. As the band played a concert when the church first opened this also marks ten years of live performances after a long period off the road concentrating on writing and recording.

The concert will feature a few of the new songs that will be on the new album that will be available later in the year. Some of the material has particular relevance for this year. One of the songs, 'Amongst the Roses' references the Battle of Waterloo which, coincidentally, has its 200 year anniversary a few days after the concert. Another song, 'The Agincourt Carol' celebrates the 600 year anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. If 'Broadside' makes the playlist it will mark 350 years since the plague of 1665. I am not sure I have time to write a song about the Magna Carta to commemorate 1215!

Concert at St. George's Church, Ashtead

Concert at St. George's Church, Ashtead

 

On the 23rd May We played a concert at St. George's Church in Ashtead, Surrey which was in aid of the Dell Project, a new building to provide facilities at their sister church, St. Giles. It all went very well and over £1000 was raised.

 

Unfortunately, Alice had a throat infection and was unable to sing on the night and her songs had to be covered by Dave and myself. It was obviously very frustrating for Alice having to be on stage playing the autoharp and frog but unable to participate in the singing apart from some choruses.

 

There was a lot of positive feedback from the audience and it would be great to play there again as it was such an enjoyable evening. I would like to thank Ian, Paul and Nathan for all their help with setting up and operating the church's sound and lighting systems for us.

 

Regards - John

 

John, Bruce, Alice and Dave giving it some wellie

 

Two thirds of the band took part in a fund-raising concert at Christ Church in Colliers Wood last night and did an acoustic set of four unaccompanied songs - Pastime, When Winter Walks, The Good Old Way and Shepherd Arise. It's a long time since we've done a gig where we haven't had a PA system and lots of equipment to set up and then take down. It's certainly a nice change to be able to walk on stage and perform without having to worry about any of the techy stuff.

 

Working up an acoustic set is certainly something we'll develop in the future alongside the full electric set up. With an acoustic option we'll be able to do small gigs and things like house concerts. I certainly won't miss humping equipment about on every occasion when we perform.

 

Regards - John

St. George's Church concert

A shot of Bruce, Alice, Dave and Derek (just) from the St.George's concert - courtesy of Conrad

Thanks to everyone who helped out with the concert at St. George's Church on Saturday 29th September, especially Robin and Nick for the great lights, Sue for the sound mixing and Anna, Ian, Rob and Clare who also helped out with the setting up/taking down of the stage/gantry on Friday night and Saturday night and not forgetting special thanks to Alice for the banana bread and Romey for the chocolate cake that kept us going during the day.

The concert was a great success and featured a number of songs from the new album, Shadowfall.

In the next few days we'll put up some more pictures from the concert and in due course there will be some video clips once they are downloaded and editted.

Regards - John



A quick note to say that the new album, Shadowfall, is finally ready and is available direct from the band and will also be on sale at our forthcoming concert at St. George's Church on the 29th September.

Regards - John

"Drumming through the mist" - (picture courtesy of Ian Gilchrist)

I can now report that all recording for the album has been completed with the final session of drum and percussion recording on Saturday. These parts are now being mixed in alongside the instrumental and vocal sections of the songs already mixed.

So, we are almost there and the album should be ready for release in the near future.With the album in its final stages the band are now concentrating on rehearsing for their next concert at St. George's on Saturday 29th September.

Regards - John

Upload your video - YouTube

A couple of weeks ago Dave, Bruce and I went to Dorking to record a brass quintet for part of the backing to a new song, Lucy Anna Martin, which will feature on a future album. Dave took some video of the session and here is a link to video:  http://youtu.be/gO3uNPMw2Qw

Regards - John

"Caw! A new video!"

Yes, I've finally finished the video to go along with the song 'Phaedra' from our album, Earth, Wind, Fire and Rain. Well, I say finished, but there are a few things I would like to change. But, no, I must let it alone, at least until 'the director's cut' in HD! In the meantime here is the link to the latest version for you to look at.

http://youtu.be/Po_KbU0O-x0

And now back to the corrections to the CD booklet.........

Regards - John

I thought you said we could fix it in the mix? - photo courtesy of Sue Richards

As you can see from the picture, the new album is in the final stages of mixing. "Turn it up" "No, turn it down". As you can see, Alice has the right idea, carry on with her Viking weaving until the rest of the committee have argued themselves to a standstill and then give the casting vote.

For a change the majority of the album comprises traditional songs. Traditional material has always made up a significant part of our repertoire so it seemed appropriate to feature more of it this time. In doing research for the CD notes I realised that my exposure to English traditional song dates back to 1969 and the release of three albums that had a great influence on my musical outlook from then until the present day.

The first was 'Liege and Lief' by Fairport Convention. It marked their move from contemporary American West Coast singer/songwriter material to find a more 'English' sound and in turn set off the folk rock genre. We had already been covering a number of their earlier songs so it was logical to explore the origins of the songs on their ground-breaking album.

The second was 'Anthems in Eden' by Shirley and Dolly Collins. Not only did it feature wonderful songs sung by Shirley in her natural Sussex accent and Dolly's distinctive instrumental settings on portative organ and piano, but it also featured the Early Music Consort lead by David Munro and began my love affair with the sound of medieval instruments and trying to play them!

The third was 'Galleries' by the Young Tradition which introduced me to the more than distinctive voice of Peter Bellamy. This album was released shortly before they broke up but it started off my interest in unaccompanied singing which in turn led to discovering The Watersons and back to the Copper Family. The 'Galleries' album also featured the Early Music Consort.

That's enough for now. So I will conclude by wishing you all, on behalf of everyone in Childe Rolande, a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Regards - John

A concert shot courtesy of Ian Gilchrist

We've done some initial mixing of the album and the intention is to get a rough version for everyone in the band to listen to on different systems and to make comments on instrument balance and whether anything needs to be re-recorded or added. At the moment it looks like the album will be twelve tracks with three of them self compositions and the rest traditional although some have new melodies. Bruce will be putting some short clips of some of the 'work in progress' song mixes up on the website for you to listen to in due course.

I am getting near to finishing the shooting for the video of Phaedra and hope to have it uploaded by the end of the year. While on the subject of videos we've had a couple of favourable comments on videos already on YouTube - Film Noir and Shepherds Arise. Thank you to the people concerned. It 's certainly nice to have positive feedback. It makes everything worthwhile.

Regards - John

Shepherds Arise live at Birling Church March 2011

Well, I have finally finished uploading the video of us performing Shepherds Arise and you can see it by clicking on the link below. Our lingering memory of the concert is that it was bitterly cold in the church that evening - probably you can hear our teeth chattering in the background. In strict rhythm, of course! Nevertheless, we really enjoyed it and we got lots of positive feedback in the days following the concert. Maybe we'll go back again - when it's warmer!

Regards - John

A still from the forthcoming Phaedra video

Work is coming along well on the new album and the final recording sessions will be taking place over the next few weeks. Alongside the recording over the last few months I have been putting together a video for the song, Phaedra. It's going to take a while before it's ready to go onto YouTube. In the meantime there will shortly be a video uploaded of the live performance of the unaccompanied traditional song, Shepherds Arise, for you to enjoy. Recorded at the recent Birling concert.

Regards - John

Behind you! A view from the back line at the Birling concert

The concert at Birling Church on Saturday night was a great success. It was very well attended and raised some much needed money for the fund for the repair of the stone boundary wall. Our thanks to Nick, Rob and Robin for the design and set up of the stage lighting and to everyone else who helped - Sue on the sound desk, Clare for looking after us and Romey for the chocolate cake!

Attention now switches to completing the recording for the new album.

Regards - John

Photo courtesy of Ian Gilchrist

The concert at Birling Church is now only a week away. Tickets are £8 (which includes refreshments) - give Dave or Margaret a call on 01732 521022 or 01732 842216 respectively to reserve a seat. The concert starts at 7.30pm. The church is in the centre of Birling at the junction of Ryarsh Road, Bull Road and Snodland Road. For you SatNav folk the address is Birling Church, Snodland Road, Birling, ME19 5 Kent. There is a car park just behind the church. Birling is just north of the M20 at the junction with the A228 for Snodland and then taking Snodland Road westward to Birling.

We will be featuring some of the songs that will be found on our new album which should be nearing completion around Easter.

Hope to see you at the concert.

Regards - John

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