Some new kit for band gigs!

Recently, my thoughts have turned to equipment, especially since last week when I played solo at Alexander's Chester,  my nylon acoustic's battery ran out. Doh! Luckily the sound-man had his wits about him and came to the rescue with a mic.

Since that experience, I couldn't then couldn't help myself when I came across some bargains in the local music shops;

I've been using a wah in BYs gigs & wanting a volume pedal,
this, from Snakey Jake's does both in one (without taking up extra space on my rather full little pedal-board).

A (probably) early 80s Japanese Gibson junior copy from R&B Music. I call her "River"

Band rehearsal or band practice or what?

To me a rehearsal is where you have your songs and music ready, and you have a run-through of each song or perhaps even a whole or partial set to prepare yourself/the band for an upcoming gig or tour. Practice is what you do, usually on your own, to get your fingers used to going to new places (in the case of guitar), trying new things out, sometimes by concentrating and sometimes by de-concentrating,  letting your mind wander and freeing yourself to noodle randomly around the fret-board in new ways, and always to keep moving yourself forward as a musician. Sometimes such noodling leads to new songs, sometimes it doesn't. 

Some rehearsals are not really rehearsals so much as everyone working out parts to new material, which is what the next few weeks with The Blue Yellows will entail before we start to rehearse again before setting out to perform some new live shows. 
Songwriting is another story, perhaps for another post one day.
Anyhow, my last "rehearsal" with the band was not really a rehearsal as much of the time was spent listening to some rough mixes of stuff we had recorded at T.J Lee's home studio last week, listening over several times while we discussed how we would like a final mix to sound so we could send the man himself some comments, then we just played a few songs just for the fun of it! We also has a special guest in the form of Casper, Em's baby. Casper seems really fascinated by music and always seems keen to join Emma on the piano, as well as having had a bash on her ukulele in our "No Tobacco" video. Similarly, on this occasion he fixated on my guitar for a while and got some thrills from making some noises with it. That thrill  never goes away! I'll be surprised if Casper doesn't turn out to be an accomplished muso like his mum and granddad!

Recording takes TLC.

On Saturday we did some recording at TLC studios in Northwich, now just in case you're having trouble googling that, it's really just Tim Lee's house. Tim, also known as T.J Lee is a superb songsmith and guitarist who is a prolific producer of his own recordings (see the link to his brand new album below) and it was very kind of him to give up his time to do this. Hopefully you'll hear the outcome sooner or later! (Photos by Tim, apart from the one of him and pooch, Yuffi).

Check out T.J. Lee's superb new album "Blossom", HERE

http://tjlee.bigcartel.com/product/blossom-t-j-lee-and-the-special-guests

Hail to the jam!

Well it was hail, storms thunder and lightening and the odd freaky-gust of wind that accompanied a group of very soggy musician's in Middlewich town centre on Saturday. The Muso's concerned were namely myself, Jon Butler-Meadows, Tom Harry Johnson, Emily Hargreaves and Little Rach. We took turns in playing some tunes and then having a bit of a jam together, and joining in with each-other much of the time in any case.
Some of these guys are regular stalwarts of Middle-of Middlewich music-provision & they were a lovely lot, without the ego-issues you sometimes get with ambitious musicians. Very easy to jam along with too, while my fingers still worked!

I was asked if I could do this by Lynne and Lizzie from the Cheshire Folk organisation for whom Middlewich will again be the center of attention soon when they play host to fabulous french(?) folk artist Flossie Malavialle and others (see the link below!). Thanks also to Lynne for the kind lift home, possibly saving me from hypothermia!
Ciao for now :)

Thanks to Lynne for the photo.

Check out the fantastic Little Rach's tour dates HERE.

Cheshire Folk Weekender (Flossie Malavialle & more),  HERE.

Love Music Hate Cancer

In the past we've supported an ace Staffordshire based band called Some Day, who were meant to play this gig but sadly, like so many bands, split up before the event. We were pleased to be asked to play in their place, it's always fun to play in a new area to us and a new venue (Burntwood, Near Cannock Chase), you never know what to expect!
Thanks to all the organiser's, especially Leanne Hulley who was also the Photographer on the night. Most importantly, lots of dosh was raised :)

You can see more of Leanne's photos from the night and all the cool bands that played here.

Thanks to Leanne Hulley Photography