29th November 2008
Mixed up !
so heres the deal
I was in a car crash today, when this little old lady rear ended me as I was waiting to turn
The 1st thing i did as any decent person would was to check that she was ok, so as I got out of my car she started screaming obscenities at me like it was my fault, calling me a yob and f... this and c...t that, which I have to say shocked me alot, as firstly, as a man I have always been brought up to respect my elders and am probably one of the last of a rare breed of men my age and younger that believe in old fashioned good manners and values, I refer to anyone of a respectful age as Sir and always open doors and stand up when a lady enters the room.
I am finding though of late, especially in the area I live that the elder generation are ruder and more ignorant than the young people I meet, a classic example of this and a real pet hate for me is when your in your car and you wait for someone to pull out or wait behind a parked car on the side of the road so the other person has the advantage...and you get not so much as a wave of thanks!! that jerks my chain in a way I cant even begin to tell you, and its nearly always older folks that ignore your generosity!
But....on the other side of the coin,a couple of days ago as me and my partner Tara were coming home from the pub, we drove past this old guy trying to walk up a hill,this was also 9 at night and it was freezing cold, he was out of breath and just standing there half way up obviousely in distress.
So....I got out of the car and as he saw me approach I could sense he was worried so to put him at ease straight away I said " Sir, are you ok?"
His face lit up and I was able to help him to the car so me and Tara could take him where he wanted to go.
Turns out this poor old guy had a part time job working for an estate agent that had sent him down to pulborough from london with a package to be delivered to an address he had no directions for and no telephone number to call and had been wandereing around pulborough for 4 hours!
Now tell me this......how many cars must have gone by him? how many pedestrians must have seen him?
we see this all the time...folks just ignoring people that are obviousely in distress..why?
so heres the thing...the point I`m getting at....people can be rude..old people can be obnoxious, and people can be real jerks in general....but do you have to be? do we have to stoop to their level?
Hell no!....things are not always as they seem, turned out the old lady had taken the car from her son and was suffering from Senile Dementia the poor old thing, so now I want to see she`s ok, and the old fella who I stayed with until we got the package to the right place and then put him back on a train ( with a pretty rude phone call to his employer telling him to get his ass to the old guys home station and take him home or else i would be doing something about it) was an old war veteran of 81 and such an interesting guy to talk to..and gratefull, even though it was me who was humbled by his presence.
which reminds me of one other short thing, which politician fucking scumbag decides who gets what? this guy has fought wars to keep us out of shit and doesnt even have the pension to stop working, what kind of a fucked up government thinks thats ok, get these far arsed peaces of shit that run the country to take a paycut and give it to these old guys instead, god knows they deserve it more!
anyway thats for another time, just be cool and stop if you think someone is in trouble, manners and kindness cost nothing!
15th November 2008
I recently had to film a video promo of a cover song for an audition I was doing, my favourite song is Elton John, Dont Let The Sun Go Down On Me, so I thought I`d perform it, heres the video.
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30th January I have 30 songs finally that I like, after 2 years of writing and recording more demo`s than I`v ever done for just one record, as you can see from my youtube video, me and Alan were pretty tired by the time we had a semblance of an idea of what type of record we were producing. So now I have to find the best 14 and I`v decided to leave that up to you, I`ll be emailing a load of demo`s around and you`ll have to tell me ha ha!! 7th FEB ok, here is the track listing in no particular order right now 15 the light Long Way Down Other side of the sun Angel Time of our lives World watch out Ordinary Guy The End suicide in fractions where you belong England Serafina take your time So we can now go into full production!! 9th FEB - How I record I got an email from a guy called Tom (hi Tom!) asking me what all the kit he saw in the videos was I was taught all about recording and production by a genius of a guy called John Oram, and as such I wont do anything without his outboard, his EQ is by far the most superior out there and though plenty of companies have tried to copy it, its too unique to be able to. My desk is an Oram BEQ Series 24, its an 80 channel desk which gives me all the scope I need, and my D.A.W is Cubase sx, I`ve tried pro tools and logic, but I find cubase to be the most band friendly,I dont need 100`s of effects and plug ins and pretty much use it as a tape machine! My favourite mic chain is Neuman u87 or AKG 4000b for vocals(although this is my voice) through an Oram MWS Mic Pre, and I use Nomad Factory or Waves compressors, though just a little pre, and I add a tiny bit of reverb post just for ambiance that way the reverb is not actually recorded, I never record effects preferring to deal with all that during the mix. Drums are recorded with akg 1000`s as overheads, where I place them depends on the room and style I want, sure SM57`s or Benson Audio 30`s on snares and toms, sometimes I`ll under mic the snare, if i use a sm57 ontop, I will mic with a BA30 underneith, Kick drums I use an AKG D112 and cover the whole drum with a thick blanket, I feel this absorbs bleed and also give you a bit more bass thickness, Hats and rides are miced depending on the brass being used but I usually like a crisp sound so I will use AKG 1000`s and add PSP`s vintage warmer for a little analogue warmth overdrive! Acoustic Guitars really depend on the timbre, just like vocals, but I use Charvel and Martins and find that AKG 1000`s work great for a real roomy crispness and BA 30`s work great for a more mid end sound, once again always through an mws mic pre and I add a little compression using nomad factory, just enough for flavour. I really believe there are no rules to recording, hell I`v used washing up bowels, hose pipes, and all manner of starnge things to get sounds I want, and the real deal is this regardless of mic, recording system, instrument, player and song, if it`s the sound you want, record it, if it isnt, keep experimenting till it is..then..record it!
4th March - BROKEN BRITAIN So heres the thing! I'm not exactly what you'd call the cleverest bull in the meathouse, but recently I`v been quite bitter about the state this country is getting itself into.Why?Well I might sound like a boring middle aged man, but I live in a so called quiet little village, so called because recently these little fuckers with nothing better to do have been terrorising the locals, pissed up on god knows what at a time when their parents who should know better have been letting em out at times when they should be in bed for school the next day. I have already had a run in with a bunch of them because regardless of what the police seem to think, I'm fucked if I'm going to let em get away with it, a clout round the head is EXACTLY what they need. In a country where you get taken to prison for defending yourself against intruders whilst your wife and kids are asleep upstairs, in a country where the IQ of the nation is going down hill fast due to the fact that the idiots running round the streets are offspring of the idiots who used to run around the streets, who the hell have they got as role models? The worst of all is that this nation was built on Farming, small cottage industry and Integrity, we had young guys fighting in wars at the age of 18 and younger, and for what, so Gormless Gordon and his minions can tax us out of house n Home, get rid of our Hospitals, Turf farmers off their land and kill their livelihoods so they go and kill themselves and generally ruin small business and cottage industry to make way for power, corruption and greed. We are run by cowards who send troops into phoney wars whilst they puff their fat cigars and drink their expensive ports in the safety of their big expensive houses, and for what...when it all comes down to it, more power and money. If we stopped paying these ridiculous taxes, I mean the whole damn country just said NO...No to Big Brother watching over us, NO to the Nanny state that is turning us all into a nation of lazy P.C loving fools, NO to laws not allowing you to defend what's rightfully yours, and NO to these little pen pushing assoles who are assigned these jobs of power with absolutely no clue or experience in them, then maybe we might just win one! They can't send the whole country to jail after all. If we took away their big fat paycheques and let them live like most of us, in fear each month from when the next pennies coming from, I bet they'd soon start to actually work for a living instead of acting like rich little playground children seeing who can get one up on the other. The crap thing is, of course we could................ If the whole country rebelled and said NO, it would happen........But of course it won't, because things just don't work like that do they. So we continue to go downhill as a nation, just remember this, those kids who are running around pissed up causing all sorts of heartache, they are the new England.thats pretty frightening. I know nothing about politics..But I know when I'm being cheated.... If we all just said NO then maybe...just maybe this country would be given back to the people who really make a difference in it, not those assoles in Westminster, US!!! |
15th september
I have finally finished the new studio and can get down to finishing the album, Al and I will be done sometime in December
18th September
The Light now being played on the ABC radio network, USA.
20th October
The End and Ordinary Guy now playing on No Coast Radio.
5th November - Where`s the live music scene?
The financial climate of the country, the over pc obsessed polticians have made a right hard life of it for your average gigging musician.
I remember 15 years ago, back in the good old days when pubs and clubs were a little smokey,you could walk into a country pub anywhere in England and some old guy would be sitting in the corner with a guitar or banjo and everyone would be joining in on a knees up, letting their hair down and generally trying to forget about the hard days work they just put in.
Open Mics were rife, clubs would help promote bands and bands would be helpfull to other bands.
Today due to the fact that 1000`s of pubs are closing everyday, and the great old music clubs I remember deem new music too hard to promote, trying to find an audience is getting harder and harder.
I used to have three residencies, and everytime I played it was to a packed house, and though I like to think it was because of me, the truth is as any gigging musician knows,it is all about the atmosphere you as a performer AND the establishment your playing provide, as soon as the smoking ban came in and drink prices became too expensive for your average punter to afford,..well everyone stopped coming out and all three venues have actually now closed.
I try and keep in touch with an audience via the web and have a considerable fan base I manage via email and video, through different corners of the globe, and I hope to again get the chance to get to Germany and afar to play, if I can get financing to support a tour, either by myself or with the band (interested parties...get in touch!!)
I hope things improve, because everytime I go and see a band play, all I see is a dodgy promoter at the door caring more about the money he retains than actually promoting anything, audiences of 10 people who have actually made an effort..all drinking water and an encredibly bored looking band wondering why they were not helped in the weeks leading up to the gig by the promoter that booked them.
I have spent hours upon hours trying to persuade venues to let me start open mics, or band evenings to no avail, even talent nights..anything to create a buzz and get a night going, but the stark truth is, landlords,and venues are becoming to scared to try anything new..and this is a sad thing.
so what do we do?
we keep plugging away and hope things pick up, we try and find people who will help us as musicians, because no matter how hard you work to get your music out there, you cant do everything after all.
