From The Froghouse

Pounding away

2012-01-20T23:31:00.000Z

Having completed the third new site, I've recently turned my attention toward writing the instruction manual for the site's owners. This really feels like writing a fully fledged manual like one of the idiot's guides (not a commentary on my clients, you understand) except that, so far, I've only been writing pure text. The next step is the fun part, where I take that text and put it into inDesign and add graphics and formatting that will hopefully make it easier to follow.

Eventually, I hope to have loads of copy about each of the different modules, which can be used and reused with only a few changes made. Many of the sections - like log in and out - will be in every manual, but there'll be enough unique modules to keep me writing for a good wee while yet.

The beat goes on...

2012-01-09T15:17:00.000Z

A new year and a renewed energy.

At least, that's what I'm hoping for. I've now built 3 websites using the new framework and, touch wood, they seem to be working fine. The next thing I have to do there is build tutorials for the clients, so they don't need to call or email me every time they want to add or remove things. Not being a programmer, I'm limited in the complexity of site I can build myself, so discovering this framework was a godsend. I can design a site to look like anything I (or the client) want(s), integrate it into the framework and build functionality into it and there we are. It's not easy exactly, but it's a damn sight easier than spending 4 or 6 years in uni learning unix or C++ or whatever the 7 year old kids are doing these days.

I've spent the last few years looking for something like this - working with a great guy who built little php add-ons for me, but that way was limited. 6 or 7 months ago I found a couple of frameworks, one of which would let me work precisely as I wanted, with no need to involve anyone else. Not that I'm anti-social (at least, I hope not), but without an actual company or office or colleagues, I kinda need to be self sufficient. So here we are. And here we go...

Not much happening on the art front yet, but I'm meeting up with Guy and Jon to get to work on the Shooskie project. We've just discovered a means of producing music the way we want, so the whole thing can get started with no loss of life, limb or dignity. Well, life or limb at least.

New sounds coming soon. Excited yet?

Froggies and Gooses and Crows, oh my

2011-12-29T16:19:00.001Z

A year and a half.

That's how long it's been since I last posted on this particular blog. Don't ask me why, but I've decided to revive, rename and slightly re-purpose it, and when my actual website has been rebuilt (very soon, hopefully) I'll link this blog to it.

In the past year and a half, I've been busy, but not as busy as I'm going to be. First and foremost (as many of you will know) I got married. That was the single-best decision I ever made in my entire life. Thought I'd mention that, in case there was any confusion.

I've also been working on a number of new ways of building websites (and soon there'll be a business site for anyone wanting a website), developing painting ideas and working out new songs (though not actually gigging yet - but watch this space). There's even a new band called Shooskie. The original plan was to revive the Wild Geese under a new name and in time work on playing original material, but we've decided to scrub the ceilidh idea and go straight to the new material.

And as for the blog's name change, well, we live in a house full of frogs.

Well, we know where we're going...

2010-06-30T15:17:00.001+01:00

This is it.

This is the final post of this blog. In this format and space at least. I would ask for a moments silence, but I think there's been enough silence around here since this thing began at the start of 2006, so perhaps not,eh?

There's a new blog, built into the now online www.martinlennon.com along with a host of other regularly updated (honest!!) things.

At the start of this year (more or less) I began recording my then forthcoming debut CD. It's done. It's here and about to be available online and about to be available at the launch gig on my 50th birthday on July 3rd at Cabaret Voltaire. At 7.00pm. Consider yourself invited, I'd love to see you there. There's no entrance charge and you won't even have to buy the CD if you don't want to...

The gig, the site and the CD herald the ongoing tour of the world - the plan is to start touring in August and finish it the day I die. Whether it happens quite like that or not - well, we'll see. But that's the plan.

It's a desperately flexible plan - there will be painting: I did the cover of the CD...

... which has left me wanting to paint more and more. Painting is something I turn to now and again, but this time I feel like I've progressed a little, and I want that to continue, and it won't continue just by thinking about it.

The CD is only available as a physical object. (For now at least...) I thought about downloads and I'm quite sure there's a huge element of commercial suicide involved in eschewing them, but it's kinda just the way it is. I can't say I really trust the idea of downloads and, while I was never really a vinyl fan, I do miss the size and scope the 12" sleeve afforded the artwork. So, a physical object it is. I actually contemplated a limited edition wax cylinder, but I suspect that might be a bugger to play. I may relent on the downloads, but don't hold your breath...

So in the meantime, what's next? Well, the Gig of course, followed by a whole slew of them, hopefully. For the most part I'll be gigging alone, but there might be the odd group event. Beyond that, along with more painting, there's the next album. I have a bunch of ideas already and there's the FAWM summer event coming up which is usually good for a couple of numbers. One way or another, I'm going to be busy. I'll be maintaining my own site (including the blog...!) along with a few others, and I'll still be taking on the odd website build. Websites are becoming more and more complex in their coding needs and they're getting beyond me, to some extent. I like to think of myself as a decent old-school designer though, so as long as there's any call for that, I'll keep going and keep trying to keep up with the technology.

I want to thank anyone who's followed along with this blog with it's multiple stops and starts - more stops than starts - and I invite you all along to the afore-mentioned martinlennon.com. It's online and waiting for you - blog, guestbook and all!

The Wild Goose has left the building, never to return again. Thank you and goodnight!!

The show must go on...

2010-03-09T21:46:00.000Z

I know, I know... but give me a break. I'm working on it now and I've been busy this last wee while, what with the studio/office being built, web design things and, oh yeah... getting engaged!

In any case, I have been working on the album, albeit unintentionally. I wrote another batch of songs for this years' FAWM challenge. Out of 20 odd new songs, I've got around 8 that I reckon are ready to go. I'll work on the others later.

By way of an incentive to get the album recorded, I've gone ahead and booked the launch gig. I had originally wanted to get the Bongo Club, but it wasn't available on the nights that suited me and the other players, so... Cabaret Voltaire it is. July 3rd is the date, at 7.00pm. Hannah O'Reilly has agreed to play support and the indefatigable Andy Gilmour will, of course, be holding up the bass end of things. I've asked Rick Bamford to drum and, all things working according to plan, he'll be manning the traps with his customery gusto. This is a very great pleasure for me, since I've admired his work for rather a long time.

If that wasn't enough, the evening still has a little more charge to it than that. It turns out I'm a bit of an old git after all, and that night is also my 50th birthday. There will be cake, an album to buy, beer to drink and hopefully a fair old bit of fun to be had.

You won't miss it, will you?

Here comes the...?

2010-02-15T14:02:00.001Z

Prediction: This time next year, two things will be true - 1. Bandcamp will be one of the major players in disseminating unsigned (and possibly signed) music to the masses. Equally, mySpace will lose traffic at a heavy rate of knots - all that in response to a slightly surprising (but perhaps inevitable) comment on a recent post. 2. I will be a married man for the second (and final time) in my life. I'm a bit giddy about that...

In the meantime, work continues on the office/studio. This is what it looked like a wee while ago, without electricity, plaster or paint. A little of the decking was still to go on it too, and some of that snow really needed to not be there, but... it was almost finished. Now it's just the final touches and then the furniture etc goes in, and hopefully, the album comes out.

You will now be returned to your normal broadcast of silence until the album recording recommences.

Madness, madness, they call it madness...

2010-02-09T17:40:00.001Z

This is another interim post just to say hi (hi...) and update on some of the backend that's been happening. This being February, the madness of FAWM has once again struck and I'm busy writing new songs. You can never have enough songs...

As well as that, I've been preparing/rehearsing for recording without the security of a metronome or drum machine. It's really rather remarkable how addicted it's possible to get to these things. Scary too. This process has had another advantage, though - it's made me reconsider songs that I had discounted as unsuitable for the album. Whether they make it on or not doesn't really matter, it's nice to revisit older songs, if only for the purposes of playing them live.

I decided that at some point soon I'm going to set up a Bandcamp account and use it for songs/faux albums that I can release free or pay-what-you-want. After a while of watching that work, I'm convinced it's a good system, but I won't be releasing any actual album tracks on it. It's another reason for rehearsing and recording more than the album at this moment, because if I decide that songs shouldn't be on the CD, I won't hold them over to a second or third - by that time, I'll want to use newer material. So, they'll be bandcamped.

I'm crap at remembering lyrics, a fact to which many can attest, so I've been bordering on self-obsessed lately by having a CD of my demos in the car, not because I want to admire that wonderful early eq technique or reverb restraint (!), but because I do seem to learn songs better/quicker by singing them without lyrics in front of me - old news for some, but I've been used to having a book to work from for over 20 years now... it's very much time to trade up. Why? Well, because Hannah invited me to play at The Listening Room in the Blue Blazer on Spittal Street on the 21st of this here very month. It's unplugged, which is fine by me. As far as I know, I have no XLR, Jack or USB sockets anywhere up my person, so I'll cope fine. If you fancy coming along, the whole night starts at 8pm, and I'm on around 9pm. It costs no pounds and no pence, so it's not too expensive either.

It's not out of the question that I'll update again before the weekend, but if I don't, there might be a tasty little update next week.

Back To Life...

2010-02-01T16:59:00.002Z

A brief update in response to a request.

This last few weeks have been brilliant and funny and productive and yet, frustrating at the same time. The studio is being built as I type (and in a future blog, I'll upload some photos of the process) and it's been very difficult to really focus on recording. Any moment I might get a knock at the door asking some question or other, so getting into any kind of 'zone' is practically impossible.

I slightly stymied myself as well though, by having a break in the recording process: I overthink almost everything I do, and recording music is no exception, and I decided that I was recording most of the songs all wrong. Actually, arse-about-tit was the phrase I believe I used.

My previous modus operandi involved the use of drum machines or drum programmes, so I've gotten used to the unwanted-but-necessary use of the built-in metronome. I always wished I could avoid using one, and now that I had the opportunity, I still used it.

So. Some of the songs will remain as I recorded them, for a number of reasons (mostly because I like the versions) but the majority will have a nice, new, flawed, not-so-shiny makeover. They'll hopefully end up being more organic and alive.

Genuinely, I'm really, really happy about this...

Guess who just got back today...

2010-01-15T13:03:00.000Z

Just a very brief update today. As predicted, the updates will thin out a little over the next couple of days until we get back into a routine, and calm down the whole 'haven't seen each other for a month' shenanigans. Mostly.

The main thing that I did on Wednesday was to delete some of the tracks for Feels So Good. I've noticed that some of my stuff is coming out a little country which, on the whole is okay - I don't despise Country music quite as much as I once did - but it's not what I'm looking to do. Emmylou Harris, James Burton, the great Willie Nelson and a whole bunch of other guys produce great music, some of which falls into the Country category, but fundamentally they're just great musicians writing brilliant, emotive music. I'd have no problem being associated with that.

So I redid a few tracks for Feels So Good and I feel much better about that. On Thursday, Susie and I listened to what I've recorded over the past two weeks and, listening back, I could hear the Country thing sticking it's nose in, so once I get back to recording (next Tuesday probably) I'll attend to that.

In the meantime, there's life to live.

What a feeling...

2010-01-12T23:45:00.005Z

One of the very best things about writing songs is that, when you decide you don't like something you've done, you can change it. It might seem obvious, but it's not. Even when you understand that principle, there's still a nagging doubt rattling around... "Well, yes, but not that song surely?" Yes, that soon too. It's a wonderful liberating feeling. Just because a song has been around for a few years doesn't make it immune to change. One of the things I like about live music is live versions of songs I know well from the album...

I recorded a version of Easy Way To Fall for the CD recently, and when I listened back to it, it had stopped doing whatever it had done to me originally that made me rather like it. I tried re-recording parts, but fairly soon I had to come to the conclusion that I still liked the song, it was the arrangement I had a problem with. Okay.

The simple fact is I'm not well known, and neither are my songs. If I change it now, a few people will notice and perhaps one or two will miss the old arrangement, but I'm pretty sure they'll understand that it wasn't working for me. Even if I was well known, the song hasn't been released yet, and even if it had been, the change is only minor. If it had been major... it's still my song. So, in the words of my fellow wordsmithess, Hannah, "...take a valium and chill!" And no, I'm not very keen on my head exploding either.

I deleted the old version and began recording a new, slower and possibly darker version that, so far, I'm much happier with. This is the benefit of pausing, even for a moment, and listening back to what you've done as dispassionately as possible. Today I did a rough mix of all the songs so far and played them over a few times to see what stood out like a sore thumb. That was one of the biggest, and I'm fixing that now. There were a few other bits and pieces that needed work, but so far so reasonably good.

During some of the rest of the day I was trawling around the web, looking at interesting links like this fella. The suggestion here is - give up mySpace. It sounds a bit radical, but then I thought to myself, what do I get from it? Yes, it's free, it's a well known name and it potentially reaches listeners I might not otherwise reach, but it's quickly losing it's online appeal as musicians gravitate towards bandcamp and reverbnation, among others - both of which do MUCH more for independent artists than mySpace. I haven't made a decision yet, but I have to wonder how much attention mySpace deserves. I don't say I will get rid of it, but I am thinking seriously about it. I'll have my own webspace up and running in the near future, and there's only so much promotional time in the day. Some of the time has to go towards music, eating, sleeping and... oh yes - SC is on her way back home as I type. You might not see me for a few days from Thursday.

On the subject of websites, I've found a lovely and wonderful new host. I say 'new', but I've been uploading stuff there for a while for a client of mine, but oddly, the control panel page has no link to the main site. I finally got hold of it, and spoke to one of the owners and from here on in, will be using and recommending them rather than the previous hosts I've been using. The old hosts were and are great, but they're just too expensive for most people. The new guys benefit in at least three ways - they don't cost as much, they're local (supporting local business!) and they include databases even on their most basic packages, which I'm now starting to need. I realise there are plenty of free hosts out there, but I'm afraid I simply don't trust them. I don't want random adverts on any of the sites I build either, so free is not the way for me.

If I haven't mentioned them already, another local business I'll be supporting is Great Junction Street Studios in Leith. I spoke to Chris who works there, and he suggested visiting, which I did yesterday. I met Angus - a local guy that I've chatted with in the Isobar several times - and he showed me round. I've chosen the room I want to record the drums in and I can't wait to get started on that part of it. I was going to record all the guitars and basses, then go into the rehearsal studio and record drums, then vocals, but I think it's going to be a bit less organised than that, which is absolutely fine. Like the songs, the process is flexible and organic.

Still haven't found what I'm looking for...

2010-01-11T23:44:00.003Z

I only just realised - in this last (admittedly, out of character) consecutive run of blog updates, I've doubled the total number of updates I posted during the entirety of last year. Perhaps after writing for six years or so for the paper, I got tired of writing anything but songs. Who knows? Or cares, really.

A good day today. Not much music, but the final call to Australia this morning, a pleasant drive around town in the non-snow (who thought it was possible to have a pleasant drive around Edinburgh??), some nice food, and a little music this evening. Just the one song in fact. I wasn't going to record anything today at all, but I'd been listening to a few CDs in pursuit of a nice production style (but which eludes me) and having a lovely, long and geeky blether with Andy the Bass. We talked, among other things, about eq'ing techniques, the use of effects and our changing approach to them (less is very much more) in our *ahem* advancing years. Andy is currently/was then wrestling with sound placement for a bass trio he's been toying with. Sadly, it's only a theoretical bass trio in which he is each of the players, but I'd pay to go and see an actual bass trio with him in it: Fretless, fretted and upright. If the upright were bowed occasionally, I'd pay even more. Lower range instruments like the bass and the cello don't get nearly enough exposure, if you ask me. And nor does Andy the Bass.

Andy also suggested that, since I'm recording most of the instruments for this CD that I should work out a kind of 'virtual band' set up - and then draw it. Five or six little Martins, each with a different instrument. The idea is that it would help with the planning of the production and instrument 'placement', but I have to say: one of me is considered one too many by enough people. An entire band of me would give them a permanent dose of Calvin and Hobbes-style conniptions. (The alternate title of todays update is, therefore, Army Of Me.)

With that in mind, I eventually decided to fire up Cubase and play something. Fingers In Your Hair seemed like a good choice for the mini-experiment I had in mind, and so it seemed to be. My Freshman has a built in pick up, so I plugged that into the right channel of the interface and the microphone into the left. I found myself recording two tracks, one mono and one stereo, which meant three channels in all. I haven't begun adding reverb or eq, but I'm very curious to play around with that set-up to see how it sounds. It sounds good and full so far, with no processing at all. I added the simplest little bit of bass, just to give it a bit of push and momentum and all it needs now is a vocal.

Oh yeah, and a production plan...

The only things that you can see is all that you lack...

2010-01-10T23:18:00.002Z

Following on from yesterdays pain fest, today went very much more smoothly. Three more songs in the can - Easy Way To Fall, Black Dog Walking and the final brand new one, I Always Knew.

This time around there was no pain at all and, while there were a number of takes on several parts, there weren't nearly as many as with Old Heart yesterday. I Always Knew was almost too easy. (I'll regret typing that, just you wait.) And, to be fair, Black Dog Walking only has two parts to it. They have to be the right two parts though, and that's the kind of thing that keeps me awake at night.

I'm very pleased to see this much progress though, but I'm fully aware that when I take a proper break from the process (before the drums and vocals are recorded) I might decide that I want to do them all over again. I'm known for constantly redoing paintings, to the point where several owners of work I've done have occasionally seen me looking at the paintings wistfully. "No. You can't have it to redo it. It's fine as it is." Oh well.

In this case though, if I'm not happy with the feel or the detail, I will redo the backing. My watchword (phrase?) here has to be - if I wouldn't spend money on this CD, why would I expect anyone else to?

I'm continually torn between wanting the performances to be note perfect or, alternatively, loose and lively. It might be that the CD ends up with a little of both, I'm not sure. I'll have a much better idea of where it's all heading when my producer gets back from her holiday in Oz this week.

Something I have noticed though: I was concerned that, when I began putting music to the four new songs, they would sound too similar because I was working on them in such quick succession, but that doesn't seem to have been a problem. They're certainly of the same family, but they're also quite distinctive. Of course, now I'm starting to worry that there's not enough meat to them, or they're too short or long or...

Oh, I really do love the recording process!

Go west...

2010-01-09T21:38:00.002Z

Today was probably the toughest day so far in the recording process. Day one was oddly easy, even knowing that I had hardly played much guitar or bass in months. Losing five songs was pretty bad, but then I had a fair idea that I would eventually at least re-record a few instruments, so I didn't get annoyed for more than a moment.

When I got up this morning, the first recording I did was to mess with Butterfly Girl and Kiss You - adding a part for one and replacing a part for the other. That went smoothly and quickly, so I thought I'd have a good time today. Particularly once I'd decided that the first song was going to be Old Heart - probably the song I've performed the most out of them all. Little did I know that it was the only song I'd get done.

I was slightly surprised to find that laying down the basic track was as difficult as it was, but then that's the difference between performance quality and recording quality. That's not to say that one performs any old way, but when a song is (hopefully) going to be listened to frequently on a CD, any major train wrecks in there are going to be a huge pimple, so recordings need an extra layer of effort. Though hopefully not so much as to take away the live quality I'm looking for... it's all so fraught!!

It took over twenty attempts to get the track down and I was truly relieved once it was done. (The fact that I re-recorded the whole track later is neither here nor there) I doubt I'll ever get to a point where I'll be over-rehearsed, but I was worrying that perhaps I'd been working the part too much. In any event, it was there for the moment, and I moved onto other guitar parts. I put down three in all - a main rhythm part, a high - almost tenor - part, an occasional lead part and a supplementary rhythm part. Then I went for the bass. I'd already been recording this one song for hours by the time I got to the bass, so I decided to record that, then make some food.

Halfway through the first pass, my left hand started aching, to the point where I couldn't keep playing. I've done some drop ins before, but ideally I don't like to. I'd rather get things in a single pass, so I tried again, with the same result. I took a coffee break, then tried again. In the end I got it with one drop in, with a long break in between. That was when I realised that the first guitar was a tad iffy. Sigh.

I would never have thought that I'd spend an entire day, feeling like I was grinding away at a track, but I suppose these things happen unexpectedly. Actually, I'd have predicted that Crow would have been the grinder, but you can never really tell in advance.

I had some food (after I re-recorded the main guitar) and went back to listen to it a few times. I'm happy with it now - the notes are right and the feel still seems to be there - but that may change when I listen through all the backing tracks later. We'll see.

Having decided to ease off for the night, I settled down to a rare thing: I watched some live TV! I say live, it was actually a fly on the wall documentary account of Obama's campaign and election to President. Or, as I've decided to think of it, West Wing 2008. They'd either been watching West Wing and copied it, or Sorkin really knew what he was talking about. Either way, I enjoyed it. Not going to tempt fate and watch any more telly though...

Celebrate good times - come on...

2010-01-08T22:25:00.001Z

I realise that, now that I've caught up and re-recorded all of the songs I'd lost, I'm still technically behind on where I would have been if I hadn't lost them in the first place (that made sense... honest), but regardless, I'm going to go ahead and be happy.

HURRAHHH!

Three songs today! I count it as three, because the bits I pinched from my own previous work didn't have to be done last time either. So. seven down, ten to go. There's now only one new song to do and again, I'll decide tomorrow if I'm going to do it sooner or later.

The thing I think I'm most pleased with is the speed with which my chops came back. (Boomerang Lamb?) I know full well that it could have taken months and that they might not have come back at all. Of course, when the CD comes out, people might listen and decide that I was fooling myself and that they're nowhere in sight after all. Meh... we'll see.

The only thing I'm not entirely happy with is the way I get tunnel vision when I'm recording. It's great to (be able to) concentrate so hard, but I need to remember to eat on time, and I need to have a walk outside every now and then. Even if it is cold, it'll at least get the blood flowing which can only be a good thing for my aging digits. Maybe I should drink less coffee...? No. Let's not go TOO far, eh...

Cause I gotta have...

2010-01-07T22:11:00.001Z

I'm happy to report that yesterday's setback has completely failed to break me in any way. I tried re-recording tracks last night and found that I had lost the thread of it, but I had enough faith that that would be a temporary situation, so I abandoned the attempt.

That faith was rewarded today when I picked up the Freshman (how aptly named was my guitar today?) and found myself recording an even better version of Butterfly girl. The last thing I recorded for it was 12 String guitar which, by happy coincidence was the first instrument for a much looser, more alive version of Kiss You.

Perhaps it was the call to Australia this morning that inspired me - I'd like to think so.

In any event, I now have only two and a half songs to go before I'm back to where I was the other evening. Two new songs and an old one. I'm stealing a bit of my own work for the older song - Map Of The World. I had programmed a lovely little drum pattern for this, which I've managed to rescue, so it's going in, along with some real drums later in the month.

I had also recorded another song (months ago) with a lovely (if I do say so myself) wee soundscape underpinning the whole thing. The song was in D minor, and Map Of The World is in Am so I had faith (that word again!) that it would marry nicely and it did. The soundscape was originally produced for a song I've since begun singing a capella, All The Long Day, which I wrote for SA before slightly stealing it back. The loop itself was recorded (as all of my loops/soundscapes are) with the now defunct Boss ME8. It only has a second worth of delay, rather than the gargantuan 20 minute delays you can get these days, but I like to think that it's limitations bred a little invention into me.

I ventured out into the snow to shop - can't be making music on an empty stomach, and more importantly, without coffee! It's not nearly as bad here as it is in other places but it's bad enough for me. At the very least it makes me reluctant to go outside again for a bit... even to catch up with old friends like RU. We had lost touch - as one does - and he texted my son to get me to call him, so I did and we had a brief but good natter in lieu of actually meeting for a cuppa very soon.

All in all, I think I'll call today a winner.

and the lights all went out...

2010-01-06T16:31:00.001Z

You might remember I mentioned that I might decide to re-record some of the parts on the songs so far - once my recording chops were up to scratch? It seems that the choice has been taken away from me.

I was doing rough mixes of the last song and decided to have a quick listen back to previous songs when I discovered that only a couple of them had been saved properly. Don't get me wrong - I save religiously every time I record something, but the tracks had been going somewhere else, and - because I'm obsessive about keeping a computer clean and organised (sigh) - I'd deleted the place where the files were going.

It's a salutory and painful lesson in watching what you're doing when you install programmes. I'm fairly experienced on computers and - while I'm by no means infalible - I do a pretty good job with them. Just goes to show you how easy it can be to stuff up. The lesson, believe me, has been learned.

The net result of all of this is that, out of seven recordings, I have only two whole and safe. Over the course of today and tomorrow I'll re-record them all, taking great care to save them in the right place and, who knows? Perhaps the new versions will be even better than the previous ones.

I'm not getting upset about this, though I might have a few years ago. I'm going to look at it as an opportunity. To learn, to redo better than before and to remember that no matter how good I might think I can be with a computer, we all look like twats when we get the custard pie in our own face.

Sigh.

The world outside your window...

2010-01-05T15:51:00.002Z

This is getting really quite ridiculous. It's not even four o'clock and I've already got another TWO songs in the can! I have no idea what's going on and, I really must apologise for this outburst of productivity. It's really not like me at all.

Once again, I was up early(ish) this morning and wandering around the internet, vaguely thinking about what track I'd like to do today. Butterfly Girl, I thought to myself. An hour and a half later - before mid-day, that is - the bloody thing was recorded, and I'd even done a few takes on some tracks.

When I say recorded, I mean all the guitar tracks. If I haven't made it clear yet, I'm recording the drums later in a rehearsal studio - probably Great Junction Street Studios in currently-not-so-sunny Leith, once the guitars are all in. Once the drums are on, I might decide to re-record the odd guitar part, or add another one. I seem to be plumping for the 'more is more' approach at the moment. I'm sure that once I start mixing and EQing, the 'less is more' approach will rear it's head as I remove excess and wanton wankery.

After a light lunch, I though it might be nice to work on a new song. Most of these new songs - taken from the recent 50/90 songwriting splurge in summer - have no actual music written for them, I just have a good idea what sort of feel I'm looking for. That's kind of how I work... Title or concept, followed by lyric (subject to constant ongoing tweaking) which is usually written with 'feel' built in, followed by a few rough chords and an idea of melody. The more I play it, or if I record it, it then gets firmed up a bit. The last thing to do is the arrangement, although I often have a fair idea of how I want it to sound and what instruments I want to employ. Sometimes a song comes along that defies my arrangement ideas - possibly even my 'feel' and chordal ideas. Those are fun... songs with a mind of their own.

I had one song to which I put some chords yesterday - Big Black Cloud. This cheerful little ditty has a fairly laid back feel and I couldn't hear too many instruments in there - one or two guitars and bass, drums and a vocal. That was the plan. Stap me, if that's not how it worked out. The world outside might be covered in snow and inhospitability, but if this is how the next few weeks are going to go, then sod the world outside.

I wonder if I can do three in one day?

Incidentally, in the last few days I've modified the commenting rules. Anyone (whether they have a blogger account or not) can make a comment. I'm just saying, is all...

Inside a broken clock...

2010-01-04T23:15:00.004Z

Another productive day... any more of this and I might not recognise myself. Daily blogging, up before noon, successful recording session - I could almost be describing someone else entirely!

I was up early and as I trawled around the internet I came across the tidbit of information I posted earlier. It made me laugh all over again so I thought you might appreciate it too. I spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon going through my existing song lyrics. There are a bunch that I reckon are more or less finished and a much bigger bunch that aren't remotely finished, so I put them in two seperate files. It seemed like a good, organised idea. I know, I know... who is this organised person?

After a bit of food, I got down to the main business of the day. I'd decided to re-record Crow. Not that there was anything exactly wrong with the original, but I wanted one that I could play with and, more importantly - add some guest vocals to it. I'd say 'surprise' guest vocals, but many of you will already know whose voice box will be press-ganged into service, so I won't. I just won't mention them as yet.

Crow had/has it's own set of trip wires and hidden traps for me. It's a fiddly and slightly off the wall bit of picking, and I decided to add some fingerpicking to the pot - as well as a little background rhythm guitar on two sections and a tiny bit of high fretboard work as well, the latter two bits to be fairly buried in the mix. The net effect is to crowd the thing out without making it feel crowded. The trickiest part is not the mixing, it's the picking. It's reasonably easy to get the notes in the right place with this, what with it being quite metrical. The hard part is remembering the musicality. But then, that's more often than not the issue, I suppose.

One of the odd things about this process for me is that, I plan to put the vocals on later - probably in the rehearsal studio, but definitely once the instruments are done. I've been involved with a few sessions where I did no vocals until all the instruments were finished with, and there was something about that that felt right - like a natural progression. My brain didn't have to think about guitar playing after the singing - just the singing, which was very liberating.

I tweaked and tweaked, then I got a lovely telephone call, not from Istanbul, but from Melbourne, so I stopped tweaking, sat down and enjoyed the very best bit of the day. Then, grin super-glued to face, I went back to some further mild tweaking, noticed it was almost 11, and decided to call it a day.

New song tomorrow, I think.

I'll be a son of a gun...

2010-01-04T10:41:00.003Z

By way of a brief interlude, I thought I might share this with you. Anyone who has seen the Tom Waits movie, Big Time, will remember the song introduction he does that concerns the American Civil War:

"Well... look, I think the question I get asked the most is... I mean, it happens a lot. Enough that I would remark on it. A lot of people come up to me and they say, "Tom, is it possible for a woman to get pregnant without intercourse?" And eh my answer is always the same. I say, "Well, listen. We're gonna have to go all the way back to the Civil War." Apparently, a stray bullet actually pierced the testicle of a Union soldier, and then lodged itself in the ovaries of an eighteen year old girl, who was actually a hundred feet from him at the time. Well, the baby was fine. She was very happy, guilt free and eh... Of course, the soldier was a little pissed off. When you think about it, it's actually a FORM of intercourse, but NOT... for everyone. Those who love ACTION maybe."

When I first heard it years ago, I thought it was just the product of Waits' fertile (sorry) imagination. Turns out there's a little more to it than that...

Pregnant without intercourse: "Son of a Gun: Claim: During the Civil War, a woman was impregnated by sperm carried on a bullet that passed through the scrotum of a soldier and penetrated her ovaries. Origins: Sometimes touted as the origin of the phrase "son of a gun," the apocryphal tale of "the bullet through the balls" is a well- traveled legend, often reported by such infamous urban legend vectors as "Dear Abby," as in this example from her 6 November 1982 column: It seems that during the Civil War (May 12, 1863, to be exact), a young Virginia farm girl was standing on her front porch while a battle was raging nearby. A stray bullet first passed through the scrotum of a young Union cavalryman, then lodged in the reproductive tract of the young woman, who thus became pregnant by a man she had not been within 100 feet of! And nine months later she gave birth to a healthy baby!

The story, in fact, is completely false. The claim for the miraculous "bullet pregnancy" originated with an article that was printed as a joke in the journal The American Medical Weekly on 7 November 1874. Subsequent journals and books cited the article as fact without checking the original source or realizing that it was a put-on, and the story has been passed down through the years as an "actual case that appeared in a real medical journal many years ago." The long and tortuous history of this legend begins with an article entitled "ATTENTION GYNAECOLOGISTS! - NOTES FROM THE DIARY OF A FIELD AND HOSPITAL SURGEON, C.S.A." appearing under the name of an "L.G. Capers, M.D., Vicksburg, Miss." in the 7 November 1874 issue of The American Medical Weekly.

It recounts the now-familiar story of a Confederate field surgeon who dressed the wound of a soldier injured by a bullet that had entered the soldier's leg, ricocheted off the bone, and carried away his left testicle. Coincidentally, the same surgeon was then called upon a few moments later to administer aid to a young lady who had received a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Exactly 278 days later, the surgeon returned to the village and delivered a baby boy of the wounded women, although she steadfastly maintained that she was still a virgin.

The general tone and style of the article should have indicated to the astute reader that the whole thing was a gag. Even if they didn't, at least a few more obvious clues gave away the joke: The baby was said to have been born "with something wrong about the genitals," and upon examination the surgeon discovered that the ball which had wounded the soldier and impregnated the woman was lodged in the newborn infant's scrotum! Even more implausibly, the soldier, when told of his astonishingly-achieved fatherhood, quickly wed the child's mother! For those who still didn't catch on to the article's facetiousness, a note from the editor explaining that the whole thing was a bit of "fun" (complete with a pun on the putative author's name) was printed in the same journal two weeks later. (Note: The details of battle given in the original article do correspond to actual events.

In May of 1863, Union troops under the command of Major General James B. McPherson set out for Raymond, Mississippi, a town about fifteen miles from Jackson, the state capital. On May 12 a unit led by Major General John A. Logan ran into a Confederate brigade under the command of General John Gregg, and the battle of Raymond ensued, with Gregg eventually withdrawing his outnumbered forces from Raymond and heading down the road to Jackson.) Several months later, the British medical journal The Lancet reprinted (portions of) the 1874 article. Then, in 1896, George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle cited (and quoted from) The Lancet as a footnote to a section about artificial impregnation in their book Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine.

Even Gould and Pyle seem to have recognized the original article's drollery, however, as they mention that it is included "not because it bears any semblance of possibility, but as a curious example from the realms of imagination in medicine." F. Donald Napolitani, M.D., evidently didn't catch the article's whimsicality, though, as he presented all the same details as an "authenticated case report" in his 1959 article about "Two Unusual Cases of Gunshot Wounds of the Uterus" for the New York State Journal of Medicine. From then on, one or more of these sources has been cited as proof of an actual occurrence "carefully recorded for the annals of medicine" in everything from American Heritage magazine to "Dear Abby," with each source accepting the previous ones' references as accurate citations of a "real" medical journal article." (Source: Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2004 by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson)

Still. Ouch.

Ice, ice baby...

2010-01-03T22:15:00.003Z

Did I mention the snow? There's a bloody lot of it. Here. Have a looky.

Once upon a time, this was a garden and, with a little luck - and a thaw, it will be again.

I decided to have a bit of a break from the recording schedule today and wander into town. They need to rename the place Ice Rink. The name Edinburgh isn't remotely descriptive enough. It took ages and the assistance of a neighbour and 4 passers-by before I even got the car away from the side of the road. I thought that by the time I got onto the main roads, everything would be fine and clear. Not a bit of it. Five minutes on the road and I was beginning to deeply regret not just getting a bus. I'm not at all sure what I'm going to do to the next loudspeaker that blares 'White Christmas' at me, but it won't be pretty.

In any case, I got into ~~the ice rink~~ town and bought a shaker and some drum brushes. These are a bit heavier than the ones I'm used to, so I might try and find a lighter pair to go with them. I'm very much up for playing with sounds and seeing what I get - even from familiar items - but I just have an aversion to metal brushes. I don't know why, but I much prefer the plastic alternatives. So, I'm almost set for things to hit things with, now I just have to find some interesting things to hit. I'm not terribly keen on skip diving, but needs must. I'll wait til after the snow, though.

I also met up with and had a fine late lunch with NMcE, and we both sorted out all the problems in the world... well, the world of Doctor Who and the joys of CD recording, manufacture & release, performance and touring without record label 'assistance' these days.

Tomorrow, back to the recording bit. With gusto.

On the sunny side of the street...

2010-01-02T20:35:00.001Z

Despite sitting in a house taken hostage by the (still continuously falling) snow, I've got a decidedly sunny disposition about me. Maybe that's because Aussie Month is nearer the end than the beginning (true, but that feels selfish, so I'll say no more) or perhaps it's because I'm feeling more and more settled in my new home. I have to think of a name for it, since I already have a name for the studio - The Office (perhaps a trifle too prosaic, but I don't care, it's my bloody studio.)

In fact, the real reason I'm on the cheerier side of the street is because the recording is going well, at last. I put down the basic tracks for Kiss You today, along with a second guide vocal. I'm usually pretty good at getting a first take on songs, but it's been a while since I've sung regularly, so I really need to warm up. As a point of interest, on the whole, I'd much, much rather get a single performance in a single take - whether vocals, guitar, bass... whatever - than piece a track together, almost note by note. Fairly sure that's why we get to be called musicians and not computer operators. (Although, I think we know a song about that...)

I'm not sure if this version of Kiss You will make it through unchanged. As the weeks progress, I might decide to just re-record the whole thing, once I'm really au fait with the software and the return to the recording experience. We'll see. One thing is certain: I'm a lot better situated to record this than I have ever been in the past, so I'm hopeful.

I got past the stereo thingummy (keep up - there'll be lots of technical terms like this in blogs to come) and I'm aware that there are a few booby-traps waiting for me up ahead in the VST Effect whojumaflip department (told you...) but I'll deal with that issue later. Last time out I discovered the utter joy of FX channels, and that's the way to go this time too. EQ (the treble and bass controls to the rest of us...) is a big messy boggery of an area to go into, but this time I've been doing a lot of research on the subject. With a bit of luck, I'll get a nice shiny (or grungy) sound without layering piles of muddy effects and nonsense.

Tomorrow I'll decide whether to plough ahead with another new song, or jump back to an older number. There are benefits to both, so I'll see how I feel in the morning. Bizarrely, I do mean morning - I got started to recording by 11 today. Unheard of...

Kiss Me, honey, honey...

2010-01-01T22:41:00.002Z

Today not only marks the beginning of a new year, it marks the end of David Tennant's run as the doctor, the commencement of my own 50th year and - for me, more importantly - the beginning of recording on my first album. With a bit of luck and a strong tail wind, it might even mark the start of more regular blog entries.

It's hard for me to accept that, at 49, I've never tried to produce an album of my own songs - not for serious consideration, at any rate. I've compiled collections of songs and instrumentals, and packaged them as I learned more and more about graphic design (through college or trial and error) but never an actual CD album of my own material. Still, that's all about to change.

As anyone that knows me will testify, I don't really do mornings. It's never likely that I'll start the day bright and early, even for creative pursuits, all of which I love and adore. So it was that this morning as I yawned my way into the day/coffee/first cigarette, and it was well into the afternoon before I began to even vaguely think about recording.

It's extremely lovely to have a copy of Cubase 5 (my previous copy was somewhat whiffy, if you know what I mean) but it has meant a fairly steep learning curve, or perhaps that should be re-learning curve. I knew how version 3 worked, but this newer version (actually, the very much cheaper Cubase Essential 5) has quite a few differences to it's older chum.

In any event, I began recording the first song for consideration (I'm going to record at least 20 - 30 tracks and chose those that I think are the best ones for the CD later), a slidey little number called Kiss You. 2 hours into the process and I discovered I had to abandon the whole thing. Not that the recording was desperately under par (although it never hurts to re-record a few times. At least until performance chops are fully engaged) but I was having a problem getting a stereo image, and subsequently managed to inadvertantly silence the whole thing. I'm sure I could have figured out what had happened and how to fix it - a simple undo was sadly not the solution - but I thought I might as well re-record and get a (hopefully) better performance into the can.

By this time, it was time for the aforementioned Mr Tennant's final foray into the time vortex, so I sat back with a bite to eat and was sadly underwhelmed by the show. The pacing seemed way off and so what should have been a magnificent last hurrah was, for me, a bit of a limp little wave. Oh well.

Assault #2 got underway after the confidential had finished, and all was going wonderfully. The song was really getting into my fingers and muscle memory and I felt like I was starting to get something of a performance out. You can just feel the 'but' coming, can't you?

For some reason the stereo issue hadn't resolved. I remember working with the software previously and there were a number of ways of panning tracks left and right, all without any major novelty set up, so what was going awry? I was used to recording via a stereo input, and figured that - even with new software - it would be just the same this time. Not so. I tried a mono input and lo and behold, it came out in glorious stereo, just like all the others ought to have been. I have NO idea why this is the way it is, and I don't much care. I'm not going to grumble because - even if I still don't have a usable song yet - I've had a solid day of finger-toughening and chop-regaining. And I've learned how to use the bloody software. Not wasted, just a little slower than I'd like.

Story of my life, that.

Folk-Blues? I won't poo when you tell me...

2009-12-17T22:46:00.004Z

I've been out of touch for a wee while - moving house, building websites and waving loved ones off on month-long trips to far off lands, but I'd have had to be dead to have not noticed the chart guff that's been happening recently.

In principle, I'm with RATM. I have to agree almost wholeheartedly though, with fellow string-mangler, Andy Gilmour in his overall assessment of the situation. I can't swear to the fact that RATM began life as just another struggling garage band, or that they genuinely are as full of conscience as they appear to be - I hope they are, but I couldn't swear to it. In any event, I'm glad that Shelter are getting something out of the whole sordid mess, but I agree - a donation to ones' favourite charity might better serve the noble intentions we're all wittering on about. That is, a donation instead of buying the Cowell thing.

On a broader note, I really, really wish that the charts would f-f-f-fade away. There are a WHOLE lot of much better emerging working models for musicians to embrace - the charts and the big business style of doing things must surely die out sometime? Wishful thinking? Almost certainly. After all, there are still a few of the old guard around that I'd happily go and listen to.

It's probably my age, but only a few short years ago there were plenty of new bands I was listening to and seeking out - I can't think of a single current/new band that I've encountered on my rare trips into the world of mainstreamland that I actually want to listen to. Most of the new stuff that gets my blood flowing is music I hear from following links online, or hearing about through friends or respected, trusted sources. But surely the mainstream world can't all be poo, can it?

Mumble, mumble... wasn't like this in my day... mumble... (or was it?)

Fifty year old man...

2009-11-25T11:32:00.005Z

Mark E Smith's celebration of his own half century serves as a fitting title for todays blog. One of my oldest mates, GC, is 50 today and on sunday afternoon, a bunch of ghosts from his past (including me and SC) got together to ambush him in, oddly, a bowling club. I won't bother to run through the events of the day, except to say that it was a genuine pleasure to see some old faces again. I was dragooned into playing a couple of songs - Psycho Killer and a very fucked up Back In The Night, both GC's choice. I understand that Jamie Frain and CBQ sang even more a bit later in the day. In fact, CBQ has a rather fabulous blog about the entire day, so I'll say no more about it, other than - Happy Birthday George...
A big surprise for me was hearing that a few old friends have found this blog, and actually read it when I bother to update the bloody thing. As this year closes and next year looms, I DO plan to update MUCH more frequently, especially once the 'taking over the world' plan gets properly under way.

In the meantime, I'm struggling painfully with learning php and mySql, to start building more interesting websites. Once I get the hang of it, it'll obviously become easier, but for the moment - it's being a difficult bastard. I'm working on a specific site just now (in fact, I should be doing that, not blogging) that had me stumped, so I put the word out for help and fortunately got a few replies. It's interesting to me how few people actually know php though. Clearly a bit of a hole in the marketplace

The 'taking over the world' plan is probably not all that secret anymore, but I'm still going to keep it largely under wraps. It's basically a response to the fact that, with my own 50th birthday looming, I reckon it's time to finally get my finger out and make something of myself.

... money, for god's sake

2009-09-30T10:27:00.002+01:00

Having apparently completely abandoned regular blogging, I find myself compelled to weigh in once more, as a result of reading Amanda Palmer's ongoing blog. Her current rant concerns money and ways in which artists and musicians receive/get it. It's brilliant.

What have I been up to? Well apart from getting delightfully entangled with the wonderful SC, I've been writing loads of songs, building websites and doing graphics for people, trying to set up in business, playing the odd gig, preparing to record an actual bonafide album, and just generally having a ball with life, not much.

Since we last spoke, I got two new guitars and a few other toys (including a lovely Mazda 323, belonging to the lovely SC) which will all be used in service of the 'taking over the world' project I'm currently planning. Speaking of plans, in the next few weeks and months I'll be revealing just what those plans are. There'll be a brand new website (which will link to this very blog, or one just like it), and there'll also be an awful lot of travelling involved.

Where have you been, my blue eyed son...?

2009-06-04T20:48:00.003+01:00

I suppose I've been deeply neglectful. I haven't blogged in an age and a half. Not like me at all *rolls eyes*. It's been a fairly busy time though. Building websites for people in preparation for starting a business doing exactly that, and more recently preparing for a show here in Edinburgh. I'll write more about them later (honest, I will) but I've been moved to blog because of one thing in particular: One of the the blogs I follow/sites I visit is that of Amanda Palmer.

Her most recent blog carried this speech by Karl Paulnack. It answered a number of questions I've been asking myself, and a few I hadn't even thought of. Not surprisingly (knowing me) I'm listening to Robert Fripp's soundscapes from the World Financial Centre on Nov. 30, 2000 as I type this and re-read his address.

It's a long(ish) speech, but it's worth it.

Why Music Matters
Karl Paulnack, Director, Music Division
The Boston Conservatory

Dr. Karl Paulnack’s Welcome Address to parents of incoming students, September 2004

“One of my parents’ deepest fears, I suspect, is that society would not properly value me as a musician… I had very good grades in high school, I was good in science and math, and they imagined that as a doctor or a research chemist or an engineer, I might be more appreciated… I still remember my mother’s remark when I announced my decision to apply to music school. She said, “You’re wasting your SAT scores!” On some level, I think, my parents were not sure themselves what the value of music was, what its purpose was. And they loved music: they listened to classical music all the time. They just weren’t really clear about its function. So let me talk about that a little bit, because we live in a society that puts music in the “arts and entertainment” section of the newspaper, and serious music, the kind your kids are about to engage in, has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with entertainment, in fact it’s the opposite… Let me talk a little bit about music, and how it works.

One of the first cultures to articulate how music really works were the ancient Greeks. And this is going to fascinate you: the Greeks said that music and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was seen as the study of relationships between observable, permanent, external objects, and music was seen as the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden objects. Music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside us. Let me give you some examples of how this works.

One of the most profound musical compositions of all time is the Quartet for the End of Time written by French composer Olivier Messiaen in 1940. Messiaen was 31 years old when France entered the war against Nazi Germany. He was captured by the Germans in June of 1940 and imprisoned in a prisoner-of-war camp.

He was fortunate to find a sympathetic prison guard who gave him paper and a place to compose, and fortunate to have musician colleagues in the camp, a cellist, a violinist, and a clarinetist. Messiaen wrote his quartet with these specific players in mind. It was performed in January 1941 for four thousand prisoners and guards in the prison camp. Today it is one of the most famous masterworks in the repertoire.

Given what we have since learned about life in the Nazi camps, why would anyone in his right mind waste time and energy writing or playing music? There was barely enough energy on a good day to find food and water, to avoid a beating, to stay warm, to escape torture — why would anyone bother with music? And yet even from the concentration camps we have poetry, we have music, we have visual art; it wasn’t just this one fanatic Messiaen; many, many people created art. Why? Well, in a place where people are only focused on survival, on the bare necessities, the obvious conclusion is that art must be, somehow, essential for life. The camps were without money, without hope, without commerce, without recreation, without basic respect, but they were not without art. Art is part of survival; art is part of the human spirit, an unquenchable expression of who we are. Art is one of the ways in which we say, “I am alive, and my life has meaning.”

In September of 2001 I was a resident of Manhattan. On the morning of September 12, 2001 I reached a new understanding of my art and its relationship to the world. I sat down at the piano that morning at 10 AM to practice as was my daily routine; I did it by force of habit, without thinking about it. I lifted the cover on the keyboard, and opened my music, and put my hands on the keys and took my hands off the keys. And I sat there and thought, does this even matter? Isn’t this completely irrelevant? Playing the piano right now, given what happened in this city yesterday, seems silly, absurd, irreverent, pointless. Why am I here? What place has a musician in this moment in time? Who needs a piano player right now? I was completely lost.

And then I, along with the rest of New York, went through the journey of getting through that week. I did not play the piano that day, in fact I contemplated briefly whether I would ever want to play the piano again. And then I observed how we got through the day.

At least in my neighborhood, we didn’t shoot hoops or play Scrabble. We didn’t play cards to pass the time, we didn’t watch TV, we didn’t shop, we most certainly did not go to the mall. The first organized activity that I saw in New York, on the very evening of September 11th, was singing. People sang. People sang around fire houses, people sang “We Shall Overcome.” Lots of people sang “America the Beautiful.” The first organized public event that I remember was the Brahms Requiem, later that week, at Lincoln Center, with the New York Philharmonic. The first organized public expression of grief, our first communal response to that historic event, was a concert. That was the beginning of a sense that life might go on. The US Military secured the airspace, but recovery was led by the arts, and by music in particular, that very night.

From these two experiences, I have come to understand that music is not part of “arts and entertainment” as the newspaper section would have us believe. It’s not a luxury, a lavish thing that we fund from leftovers of our budgets, not a plaything or an amusement or a pastime. Music is a basic need of human survival. Music is one of the ways we make sense of our lives, one of the ways in which we express feelings when we have no words, a way for us to understand things with our hearts when we can’t with our minds.

Some of you may know Samuel Barber’s heart wrenchingly beautiful piece “Adagio for Strings.” If you don’t know it by that name, then some of you may know it as the background music which accompanied the Oliver Stone movie “Platoon,” a film about the Vietnam War. If you know that piece of music either way, you know it has the ability to crack your heart open like a walnut; it can make you cry over sadness you didn’t know you had. Music can slip beneath our conscious reality to get at what’s really going on inside us the way a good therapist does.

Very few of you have ever been to a wedding where there was absolutely no music. There might have been only a little music, there might have been some really bad music, but with few exceptions there is some music. And something very predictable happens at weddings-people get all pent up with all kinds of emotions, and then there’s some musical moment where the action of the wedding stops and someone sings or plays the flute or something. And even if the music is lame, even if the quality isn’t good, predictably 30 or 40 percent of the people who are going to cry at a wedding cry a couple of moments after the music starts. Why? The Greeks. Music allows us to move around those big invisible pieces of ourselves and rearrange our insides so that we can express what we feel even when we can’t talk about it. Can you imagine watching Indiana Jones or Superman or Star Wars with the dialogue but no music? What is it about the music swelling up at just the right moment in ET so that all the softies in the audience start crying at exactly the same moment? I guarantee you if you showed the movie with the music stripped out, it wouldn’t happen that way. The Greeks. Music is the understanding of the relationship between invisible internal objects.

I’ll give you one more example. The most important concert of my entire life took place in a nursing home in a small Mid-western town a few years ago.

I was playing with a very dear friend of mine who is a violinist. We began, as we often do, with Aaron Copland’s Sonata, which was written during World War II and dedicated to a young friend of Copland’s, a young pilot who was shot down during the war. Now we often talk to our audiences about the pieces we are going to play rather than providing them with written program notes. But in this case, because we began the concert with this piece, we decided to talk about the piece later in the program and to just come out and play the music without explanation.

Midway through the piece, an elderly man seated in a wheelchair near the front of the concert hall began to weep. This man, whom I later met, was clearly a soldier. Even in his 70’s it was clear from his buzz-cut hair, square jaw and general demeanor that he had spent a good deal of his life in the military. I thought it a little bit odd that someone would be moved to tears by that particular movement of that particular piece, but it wasn’t the first time I’ve heard crying in a concert and we went on with the concert and finished the piece.

When we came out to play the next piece on the program, we decided to talk about both the first and second pieces, and we described the circumstances in which the Copland was written and mentioned its dedication to a downed pilot. The man in the front of the audience became so disturbed that he had to leave the auditorium. I honestly figured that we would not see him again, but he did come backstage afterwards, tears and all, to explain himself.

What he told us was this: “During World War II I was a pilot, and I was in an aerial combat situation where one of my team’s planes was hit. I watched my friend bail out, and watched his parachute open, but the Japanese planes which had engaged us returned and machine gunned across the parachute cords so as to separate the parachute from the pilot, and I watched my friend drop away into the ocean, realizing that he was lost. I have not thought about this for many years, but during that first piece of music you played, this memory returned to me so vividly that it was as though I was reliving it. I didn’t understand why this was happening, why now, but then when you came out to explain that this piece of music was written to commemorate a lost pilot, it was a little more than I could handle. How does the music do that? How did it find those feelings and those memories in me?”

Remember the Greeks: music is the study of invisible relationships between internal objects. The concert in the nursing home was the most important work I have ever done. For me to play for this old soldier and help him connect, somehow, with Aaron Copland, and to connect their memories of their lost friends, to help him remember and mourn his friend, this is my work. This is why music matters.

The responsibility I will charge your sons and daughters with is this: “If we were a medical school, and you were here as a med student practicing appendectomies, you’d take your work very seriously because you would imagine that some night at 2 AM someone is going to waltz into your emergency room and you’re going to have to save their life. Well, my friends, someday at 8 PM someone is going to walk into your concert hall and bring you a mind that is confused, a heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that is weary. Whether they go out whole again will depend partly on how well you do your craft.

“You’re not here to become an entertainer, and you don’t have to sell yourself. The truth is you don’t have anything to sell; being a musician isn’t about dispensing a product, like selling used cars. I’m not an entertainer; I’m a lot closer to a paramedic, a firefighter, a rescue worker. You’re here to become a sort of therapist for the human soul, a spiritual version of a chiropractor, physical therapist, someone who works with our insides to see if they get things to line up, to see if we can come into harmony with ourselves and be healthy and happy and well.

“Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I expect you not only to master music, I expect you to save the planet. If there is a future wave of wellness on this planet, of harmony, of peace, of an end to war, of mutual understanding, of equality, of fairness, I don’t expect it will come from a government, a military force or a corporation. I no longer even expect it to come from the religions of the world, which together seem to have brought us as much war as they have peace. If there is a future of peace for humankind, if there is to be an understanding of how these invisible, internal things should fit together, I expect it will come from the artists, because that’s what we do. As in the concentration camp and the evening of 9/11, the artists are the ones who might be able to help us with our internal, invisible lives.”

Moving on down the line

2009-03-02T17:57:00.004Z

Nothing progresses quite like progress. At least, I think it's all progress...

In addition to this blog, facebook and myspace, I've now signed up for twitter. On one hand it does seem rather aptly named, but actually it's proving to be fun. Those people for whom the internet is an aberration will hate it, some of the rest of us will sigh, and the geeks among us will giggle and dive right in. I'm somewhere between the last two.

There has been some progress in other areas of my life, but I can't say anymore, so I won't.

I will say that I'm playing a gig tomorrow night at the Leith Folk Club, in support of the Marc Atkinson Trio. After hearing a couple of tracks on Leith FM, I checked the band out online and, all I can say is, "WOW!" Atkinson plays guitar in the gypsy jazz style, but it's a definite progression from the way Django did it. I can't wait.

For my part, I'll be playing a good two or three brand new songs - hot from this years' FAWM challenge. There'll be a couple of my older songs too - favourites of mine at least, but I'm looking forward to seeing what people think of the new ones.

I'm sure I had a million other things to say, but they'll keep for another post I'm sure

May you never...

2009-02-06T11:29:00.003Z

It's almost impossible to imagine a world without John Martyn.

Reputed to be unpredictable - sometimes grumpy, sometimes generous, but always a genius (and those are just words beginning with 'g') - his contribution to music was incalculable. For me personally, he was one of my strongest inspirations.

Davy Graham died a few weeks ago - yet another of my inspirations. Because these two guys existed, because they wrote the things they did, I picked up a guitar. They and others like them helped me define who I am. I feel their loss, and I only knew them through their work. I can't imagine what their loved ones and friends must be feeling, and my thoughts go to them.

I was asked to play at the Leith Folk Club again on Monday there. It seemed only right that I start the set with a song of John's that I've sung for many, many years. I don't think it ever had quite so much resonance for me as it did this time though.

The full set list was:

May You Never
Old Heart
This Water
Crying
Easy Way To Fall
Blue Eyes
Idiot
Anyway

This Water and Crying had their first outing, as did Anyway - the difference is, Anyway was written some 24 hours earlier. Possibly a risky choice for a closing song, but it's a simple piece, and I thought it could cope. As far as I could tell, it did.

Anyway was the first song from this year's month long FAWM songwriting challenge. So far I've got five songs written, one with music, a few with musical ideas. And this is only day 6. It's a good start, but February doesn't last forever.

Fa la la la la la la...

2008-12-24T12:40:00.002Z

So...

A happy Mithrastide (or whatever it is kids are celebrating these days...) and a joyful future to one and all.

M

... Hold The Candle Steady...

2008-12-13T14:32:00.012Z

I'm working desperately hard on my self-restraint today. I mentioned the Leith FM show last time, and the date has been set for this Sunday, the 14th of December. I've been invited to 'spin a few platters' on the Music Routes radio show that the Leith Folk Club run every Sunday afternoon (repeated 8 days later in the evening) on Leith FM. I can barely resist the temptation to play King Crimson improvs, Yes prog epics or virtually unlistenable minimalism by Reich or Glass (despite the fact that Glass hates that description) or even some of Keith Jarret's meandering piano. But I shall. If you're interested to hear what I do decide to play, then tune in to Leith FM at 2.00pm (98.8 FM) and all will be revealed.

To recap how the following came about: I was asked to come and play another support gig at the Leith Folk Club this past week, on a Wednesday for a change. Normally, the club operates on Tuesdays, but for this week's show - featuring St Andrew And The Rare Wee Helps - they sold out almost immediately. Clearly, there was scope for a spill-over night, but they didn't have a support act, so at the last minute, they called me. The other oddity here was that what was usually a 25 - 30 minute set was expanded to 40 - 45 minutes.

I looked through the songs I've been doing for the last 8 months or so and decided I needed some fresh blood. A man on a mission, I got 8 new songs chorded up and equiped with more-or-less melodies and played them through a few times. There was no way I'd be able to commit them to memory, but thanks to the drugs I'm on just now, I wouldn't have trusted my memory anyway.

On the night, 4 lovely people turned up to cheer me on: SA, OA, The Serial Procrastinator (whose birthday it is today - Joyous Anniversaire, Mon Ami)(Pardon my poor French), and SD, who also loaned me his guitar for the event - the electrics on mine have inexplicably given up the ghost. No idea what that's about, or how to fix it.

I had prepared 17 songs, but in the end, only used 10 of them:

Old Heart
Crow
Gone, Gone, Gone
Idiot
Prison Gates
Black Dog Walking
Blue Eyes
All The Long Day
Fingers In Your Hair
At The Mercy Of Your Love

Of those, only Prison Gates and Blue Eyes were new songs. The plan was to build confidence with the older songs, throw in some new ones towards the end, and finish with a familiar older number. Ah well. One thing it told me was that I'm not far away from having enough material for an entire headline set. I thought I was still miles away from that, so that's good news.

Headliners St Andrew And The Rare Wee Helps, featuring the immortal Michael Marra, got a well-deserved rare wee 4 star review from the Scotsman's Sue Wilson. Not unexpectedly, I didn't get a mention, but that's fine with me. I'm still wending my way up the experience ladder, so reviews right now might not be as kind as I might hope.

By way of an amusement, I was sent an ancient photograph today that recalls the history of the Wild Geese Ceilidh Band. Now, I'll check with Andy The Bass, but I reckon this pic is about 11 or 12 years old, since it looks to me like it was taken in the King's House Hotel in Glencoe. In any event, I find it downright f***ing terrifying.

Clearly, one of us didn't understand the basic concept of beard-trimming. Or haircutting.

This night wounds time

2008-12-07T13:18:00.005Z

I guess it's safe to say that change is in the air. The paper has decided that it needs to make cuts and so one of the first things to go is reviews - aka, me. This is fine since it doesn't really alter my precarious financial position, it just shifts it a little. Sometime this week I'll be making a major start on setting up in business. Not actually starting it, but preparing for it in earnest. Hopefully I'll get something of a database construction lesson, and I'll be setting up templates for future development and a whole host of fun things.

In the meantime, I'm preparing for an unexpected joy: I was asked to do a support slot at the Leith Folk Club this coming Wednesday and it turns out that it's already sold out - not on my account, I hasten to add. St Andrew and The Rare Wee Helps may be an unknown outfit to me, but some people clearly know who they are, and the fact that Michael Marra is one of the band. In addition to the unexpectedness of the gig, it's much longer than I normally do there. This time it's a 45 minute slot. I'm very much hoping that the painkillers I take will be up to the job, but I have a couple of a cappella numbers in store just in case. It'll be fine.

I've got a setlist all ready and there are 8 previously unperformed songs in there - 6 of which I only just finalised the melodies and chords for. Talk about pressure. I think it's a good set list, but it's not for me to say, of course. A few good, good friends will be there and I trust them to tell me how it worked. I also trust their opinions implicitly.

The exhibition is still up and running, but I've had no contact with any of the other artists as to how it's doing. One of the last small scale reviews at the paper was by good friend Neil where he proclaimed the work on display to be worthy of attention. Again, despite the fact that we're friends, I trust him to have been professional, impartial and honest in his review.

As I mentioned before, at some point in the near future, Leith FM want me to come on the Music Routes show to play some songs that have inspired or influenced me. Given the nature of the show, I won't be putting on anything too crunchy - like selections from King Crimson's THRaKaTTaK mini album, but there might be a few surprises - there'll certainly be at least one Frippertrack. I reckon that'll be happening in a couple of weeks and, if you're interested in tuning in, you'll find it on 98.8 FM on Sunday between 2 and 4 - always assuming you're within broadcast range. Once I have an actual date, I'll stick it up here.

What I am is what I am

2008-11-24T23:08:00.005Z

A while ago, I made a decision. I was only going to make paintings and drawings in a style that felt like it came from me. I have no problem with occasionally doing a pastiche, if it felt right, but for the most part, any piece of work with my name on it - actually, whether art, music or writing - it had to be something I believed in.

What stuns me most is not the fact that I decided to do that, but the fact that I hadn't made that decision many, many years ago. I make no claims that the things I produce now are better or worth more, but they feel better. If I could, I'd go back in time and tell my younger self how good it feels.

This kind of thing is repeated over and over again by professionals in every field - 'be true to yourself'. To be fair, I think I always convinced myself that I was, but clearly I wasn't. Just because I can do something in a given style, doesn't mean that I should. I haven't had the opportunity to put this into practice very much, and nor will I until the tendonitus goes away, but I've found that not only does it apply to every part of my life, now that I'm very aware of the principle, it keeps coming up.

I can't remember when I first discovered it, but months ago I came across this blog. The blogger, Irene Gallo is the Art Director for a publishing company in America and she often links to fabulous articles and sites featuring great artists, more often than not, in the fantasy field. Recently, she pointed to an interview with Brad Holland, a painter whose work I've enjoyed tremendously since the 80's. One of the things he had to say was this:

"I made a conscious decision when I was 19 that I’d only do my kind of picture and I wouldn’t make changes. It cost me a lot of jobs at first. Art directors were always having to take their assignments back. But after I was able to get art directors like Art Paul behind me at Playboy, or J-C Suares at the Times, then I was able to create a market for the kind of pictures I’d otherwise have been doing for myself. And once I had established that, there was really no distinction between my personal work and the stuff I did for clients."

To recognise the need to work like that, at such an early age, is a remarkable gift, and it goes some way to explaining why his work is so unique and as good as it is. The rest of the interview is (for me, at least) just as inspiring.

I'm lucky. I recognised this principle and its values while I can still take advantage of its rewards. I'm quite sure there are umpteen billion people out there who think that being a creative chameleon is the only road to success (and it might help, but it's sure as hell not the road to satisfaction).

Also, for the last few weeks, Tor.com (the amazing site with the Brad Holland interview) have been running Saturday morning animations - two a week. I've been enjoying them, and they don't tend to last too long, so they don't impinge on my day too much. This page currently features the lot so far, though I'm not sure how long the link will be valid. (I'll check back in a week to see if it still works). So far, Josie's La La Land is my favourite, but the rest are pretty damn good too. Also, if you like scifi check out the rest of the site. Even if you're not a sci-fi fan, it's still worth a gander...

Oh, and regarding NaNoWriMo, I'm failing miserably... 7,569 words out of 50,000 so far with the end of November fast approaching, so I'm pretty sure I'm not going to succeed. This year, at least. I'm going to carry on writing the piece, but I'll do it at my own speed for this one. I have a lot of other things I want to write, so finishing this will help with learning discipline for the next few. So, although I said I was failing, I'm not. And there's always next year.

... it's only words

2008-11-20T00:10:00.005Z

I'm writing this, although I perhaps shouldn't be - I have a ton of things to be getting on with, but then variety is the spice of life, after all.

My uninspired NaNoWriMo total sits at a dejectedly modest 5 and a half thousand, while SA and OA are leaps and bounds ahead at 34 thousand. I have a fair bit of catching up to do if I'm to achieve the 50 thousand words by the end of the month. And as I said, it's not like I've got nothing else to do. I'm encouraged by SA's timely reminder that, at this point, I'm not trying to write the Great British/Scottish/Edinburgh/Whatever novel, I'm getting 50 thousand more or less relevant words of guff on paper (actually, in a Word file) which I then get to edit into shape. Right now, it's quantity over quality all the way, which rankles somewhat. I do like to be pernickety. (If that's even a word.)

Practically speaking, I should be all about website building right now. Except for the fact that, since I'm setting up properly as a business, I also have to think in terms of setting up my accounts, spreadsheets, client databases... all that stuff, which takes me away from building sites and, just as important, constantly upgrading my knowledge base so I can build better sites.

The other thing that's happening (and I say 'happening', not that I'm making it happen) is that I'm part of an exhibition being held in Edinburgh from the end of November for 3 or 4 weeks. I've not been able to make it along to the meetings for the last few months for one reason or another, but the organising has continued apace. The others have been kind enough not to throw me out of the group for non-participation, for which I'm deeply grateful, and so along with them, I'll be showing paintings like this one.

This is one of a number of paintings I've produced over this year, slowly - layer upon layer, partly because of physical restrictions and partly because I grew to enjoy the slower process. Turning a disadvantage to an advantage, so to speak. I have less to show than I'd like, but then, since it's part of a group show, we all show less than we might do in an individual exhibition.

I've not been writing songs as profusely recently, and I've certainly not been playing guitar nearly as much because what little 'active' time I have in a day has been taken up with the above activities. There's plenty of time for that once the websites are contributing to my day to day living requirements. That said, my brain is still wandering off on it's own and coming back with lyric snippets and tune ideas, so perhaps another songwriting frenzy is on it's way.

This is the 4th post in a month, and the month's not even over yet. I can't remember the last time that happened. It's only words, indeed.

Still rock 'n' roll to me

2008-11-08T17:59:00.006Z

There are a number of things about which I'm disinclined to discuss on this blog. Very personal issues and matters like, for example, pain. That said, I'm somewhat irritated by the fact that the previously mentioned and not-to-be-discussed pain has meant that every damn thing that I'm doing at the moment has slowed down to a crawl.

Still, a date appears to have been set for the resolution of the claim against my previous employer so at least something appears to be moving along.

I've been asked to become something of a pop-picker by the boys at the Leith Folk Club on Leith FM. They want me to go on the radio show and play and discuss 10 or so tracks that I think are influential or inspriring to me, so I'm presently thinking about that and trawling through my collection of discs, hunting for doozies. A phrase I'm sure will one day be the name of some wacky non-inspirational 14 year old beat-combo. Maybe.

It's all got me thinking about the songs and music I'm writing myself at the moment. What, in actual fact, is it? Is it folk, blues, folky-blues, flues... what?

On the whole I'm not desperately fond of categories and pigeon-holes, and ideally, it would all just be 'music'. I'm realistic enough, however, to know that, if I plan to perform and sell CDs and T shirts and hot-pants (note to self: "You're not Seasick Steve - he shouldn't have been trying to sell branded hot-pants and, really, neither should you...") and all manner of merchandise, there should at least be a family of music, a genre to which these songs can be attributed.

Problem is, that with All The Long Day, the whole blues thing goes out of the window, and while it's folkish, it's not really folk. Normally, when a songwriter's output straddles genres, they get put into the universal dumping ground of 'rock', but really, some things you can only stretch so far. Gone, Gone, Gone and Black Dog Walking certainly fit the blues clothespeg, but Idiot, Crow and Let Go - at least in their current arrangements - really don't.

It won't fit the alt-country bucket, nor will the excessively general 'acoustic' tag work, because, at least eventually, they won't all be.

I guess that folk-blues will be the label I end up using, albeit grudgingly, because it sort of fits, and because conventional wisdom says that you have to call it something, but I'm really not sure I want to. There's nothing wrong with any of those labels, (except insofar as they are labels, which I feel are intrinsically bad) but the more I think about it, the less I can think of anyone who slots neatly into a single category.

I guess that means that the 43 minute epic poem set to music for three rock bands, two string quartets, a mandolin and a jaw-harp, with optional four-part harmony group and seven symbolic cannons is likely to be a step too far in my search for classification then...

Paperback Writer

2008-11-06T14:13:00.003Z

Work has begun on the NaNoWriMo novel, but I'm trailing badly at the moment. I've written about 2,000 words so far while SA has raced ahead with over 11,000 words. She said it wasn't a competition, and frankly, it's just as well. That'd be me kinda getting my ass whupped if it was. Still, I know the story I want to tell, and it's just a matter of sitting down and writing it relentlessly.

A deeply odd thing happened last night. I was due to go to a restaurant to write a review on it, but we discovered that it had closed... The Boss had a trawl around the yellow pages, then suggested a wee place just along from where I live: Khublai Khan. Dragging my darling daughter along with me, we headed in search of the bizarre and unusual, and we found it. Wild Boar, Ostrich, Shark, Venison, Springbok, kangaroo and Zebra were all on offer, in addition to the more pedestrian animals like Cow, Sheep and Pig.

Not sure how I managed it, but while K went for the slightly mundane Wild Boar (Pig in a shaggier coat, basically) I went mad and had Zebra and Springbok/Antelope. Nothing at all like Chicken, I assure you. The Zebra was a bit on the tough side, though the Springbok was pretty good. I'm going to go back and devour Skippy next time.

Had a fine time last week grooving to the unexpectedly funky sounds of Tangerine Dream with Mr Quartet and Dr Prog. While they toddled upstairs to the aftershow party to meet the band, I scurried home to write the review. That won't be happening tomorrow night if the same offer is presented. Paul R and I are heading to the same venue to see Todd Rundgren touring his new album. I've been given an advance copy and it's a lovely return to the riff based side of the man with the gymnastic voice. Very nice indeed. Having interviewed him for the paper in 2004, it'd be fun to meet him too.

Tuesday saw me back at the Leith Folk Club, this time playing in support to amazing one man blues band, Mike Whellans. Photographer Paul Preacher was there and took these stunning shots of yours truly, for which I am deeply grateful. I don't look remotely this good in real life, so I reckon he's got a beta copy of that wonderful new filter, 'Photoshop Flatter'. He's happy for me to use them in publicity too, which means he's a very, very nice man.

The set list was similar to the first outing there:

All the Long Day
Gone, Gone, Gone,
Old Heart
Black Dog Walking
Fingers In Your Hair
Nothing To Lose
Anji
Easy Way To Fall

I even told a wee story about a dog, ahead of BDW and spoke about the influence and inspiration of Davy Graham, the composer of Anji. Normally, I don't plan to play covers when I'm out singing my own material, but every so often I get this urge to roll my beloved old workhorse tune out, and since Davy is't really playing it much these days, it's up to the rest of us geeky fanboys to keep it going, I reckon.

I have a few blog topics in mind for the near future, so as and when I get around to them, I'll post them up here. I don't think I've written a post with as many links as this one ever before - certainly not for a while, if I have. Perhaps this is the start of a new trend...

Papa's got a brand new tag (Slight return)

2008-11-02T16:58:00.007Z

Today is DDHR day. Not only am I going to see Tangerine Dream in the company of the mighty Mr Quartet and Dr Prog (apparently), but I'm going to respond to his tagging - the revelation of six random facts about myself. I'm deeply interested in, touched by the gift of, grateful for, and quietly excited at the thought of the Tangerine Dream megamix CD he's burned in honour of the day and the gig. It'll certainly help with the writing of the review. I remembered owning a copy of Phaedra, their 5th album, many years ago, but I'd forgotten that somewhere in the mists of time I must have owned Rubycon too, because when I checked them out on You Tube, I remembered the 'tune'. If you've ever listened to T. Dream, you'll realise that's not quite as straight forward as it might seem.

This being November, I've decided to take part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month - their site is slow as hell... no surprise considering the number of people currently writing their own masterpieces. Including a few beloved friends and loved ones). Given that I'm not terribly busy at the moment what with starting up my own design/music/art company producing something in the regions of 5 websites, 2 corporate Id's, several paintings and, oh, 60 or 70 song rewrites, in addition to the reviews for the paper, gearing up for a tribunal and being in a fair old bit of pain most of the time thanks to this 'condition' and the cold weather, I thought it'd be a good idea to fill up my copious free time by writing a 50,000 word novel. Actually, that's really only a novella or a short novel or a bloody long short story, but trust me - it's more than enough to be getting on with.

I watched a documentary on music in LA in the 60's/70's today, which prompted me to dig out Joni Mitchell's Blue album. This was one of my 'No duds' albums from a very previous post. It's prompted me to make a rare list - this time it's my favourite songs of all time. I reread the post today and I mentioned the fact that that list didn't mention my favourite individual songs. This one will rectify that. I'll either add it as an edit to this post or I'll put up another mini post later.

On that subject, I think I need to blog a bit more. One post a month is a bit lazy. Even for me. They might be short blogs, but they'll be bloggy nonetheless.

On to the tagging and, according to MrQ, there are six rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you. That'll be DDHR himself, then.
2. Post the rules on your blog. That's this...
3. Write six random things about yourself. See below...
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them. Hrmm...
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up. Here it comes, Dave.

I don't actually know six blogging people - odd when you consider how many people actually do blog. I'll tag as many as I can, though.

So. Six random facts:

1. As I mentioned before, I'm writing a novel this month. This won't be my first, though. Way back a million years or so ago, while I was at school, I attempted to write one - a really, truly appalling piece of shit, set in America. Nominally 'crime fiction', I seem to remember it being part of an ongoing fascination for what we then called 'boofter' movies and TV shows. Sigh.

2. I have never broken a bone. I do, however have a couple of quite impressive scars. One for Pyloric Stenosis, and the other for a condition, the name of which escapes me. Both scars were donated before the advent of keyhole surgery, and as a result, I have some lovely Frankensteiny decoration on my belly and head. Fabby. No, you can't see. Oh... you didn't ask to...

3. I have a complete and utter distrust of helicopters and hot-air balloons. I won't go up in one of either. It's not an irrational fear, it's a perfectly sensible one. Planes have wings, so they can glide under the right circumstances. Not so with helicopters or balloons. I don't care what people who know about these things say. I won't believe it.

4. I'm not at all fond of strobes.

5. The first piece of jazz I knowingly heard, and sought out information about was Miles Davis' Milestones. I heard a wee local band playing it at the then Calton Studios, not long after it opened. I fell in love with Davis' music that night.

6. The first song I remember writing was called It's So Sad. It was a sort of protest song and I can still remember most of it. I will never ever sing it again - no matter what briberies are offered. I think I was about 13 when it spewed forth, and I thank the stars and the lady moon that few ever heard it.

Bonus fact... in response to one of Mr Q's. I have no idea where I was conceived in 1960, and not much inclination to find out. (even if I could!) In any case, I visited Butlins in 1973 during the period around my 13th birthday and, although I've never encountered it anywhere else, the smell of the place has never left my nasal memory.

There you go. Another bunch of useless stuff about me you never knew, and probably never cared to know in the first place. I now nominate Neil McEwan, Hannah O'reilly, Andy Gilmour and Jo Bennie to similarly divulge, and if I can think of two more, I'll add them in an edit.

I'm just back from the Tangerine Dream gig, and I only just finished the list. It's now midnight, so I better get the review written and get some sleep.

Shut up and play His guitar...

2008-09-25T11:46:00.005+01:00

A brief blog today:

Noodling through my usual morning routine, which involves a trawl through certain well-thumbed websites, I chanced upon this beauty. Click on the workshop diary link, but only if you want to witness what true craftsmanship is really all about.

This guy makes guitars by hand. There are power tools involved but he makes guitars one at a time - a slow and laborious undertaking which you should only attempt if you absolutely love that level of detail. There's almost no mass production involved here at all. It's waaaay beyond geekiness and obsession.

He's got an informal style of blogging and he uses millions of 'how I do it' photos, which meant that I was locked onto his site for over 2 hours. At the end of that I was thinking... "ONLY 2 hours?"

Just to be clear here, this isn't Andy The Bass in disguise - it really is me. I'd LOVE one of his guitars and though I don't normally wibble on about such things, when I saw how much work went into building these beasts, I thought I had to share. The guy's a true craftsman and he's obviously taken obsession to mental-illness status, all for the benefit of musos out there far beyond my humble abilities.

Like... a Certain Guitarist, for example.

Can you tell what it is yet?

Dum de dum dum...

2008-09-03T23:14:00.006+01:00

I imagine only a few regular readers will know where the lyric I used for today's title comes from. It's both the title and a lyric from a song by one of the best singer/songwriters in Edinburgh today. Or Yesterday. (Oooh... another clue.)

It's Edinburgh based singer/songwriters I'm going to talk about today. Well, actually just one. Me, in fact.

Last night (tuesday), I did something I haven't done for around 30 years - I sang my own songs to a paying, fully engaged and listening audience. Not a pub full of punters drinking and flirting and trying to get away from that unpleasant specimen of whatever gender trying to get off with them. Not that there's anything wrong with pubs. I spend a lot of time in them. I talk and drink and do many of the things others do in pubs when much better and more experienced singers have been performing. I'm sorry guys, but there you have it. I'm human.

The fact is that, while pubs are great places to play - and I've played in a huge number of them - and I reckon that wherever I am at the moment musically, is in part thanks to the recent and ongoing sessions at The Star, but if you want an attentive audience, pubs are not for you.

It's a different matter with somewhere like Out Of The Bedroom, where the mostly supportive audience are almost all in the same boat as you, but such gigs are few and far between and, ultimately, uncharged and unpaid.

Annnnnyway.

I've done loads of reviews at the Leith Folk Club over the years and, a few months ago - during the songwriting frenzy I've been enjoying - I mentioned to Ents Managery person, Fozzie, that it'd be a larf to actually play a gig there. "Why not?" was his response. We kept chatting about it from time to time, but nothing ever came of it. Then in the last two weeks, it started to turn from a thought to an intention, to a plan and finally, into a booking. Then last night, I did it.

I know. To most people who do gigs on a regular basis, this is old. Let's face it, gigging, for me, is way old too. I've sung thousands of other peoples songs in front of a huge number of enormously varied audiences. I know how this works. I also have no idea whatsoever how it works. Simultaneously.

I was nervous as hell beforehand. Much more than I let on, and I let on to a lot. Honestly, it felt more like my first ever gig than a natural progression for a 48 year old musician, well used to bangin' them out for revellers all over the country. In my mind at least, it really was 'written all over' my face. (Last clue...)

Old Heart
Gone, gone, gone
Crow
Black Dog Walking
Fingers In Your Hair
Easy Way To Fall
At The Mercy Of Your Love

That was the setlist. Anyone who's seen me play at The Star will know all of those. There was nothing new to trip me up, so I had no excuse for messing anything up. Thank fuck I didn't then, eh?

I think I did pretty good. Partway through the second song, I really found my feet. I realised that, whatever else happens in my life, this was home. I could never not paint. It's in my blood, and I feel exactly the same way about music and singing. I used to find myself in a weird situation - whenever I was painting, I wanted to be playing music and when ever I was playing music.... well,you get the idea. Not now though. Right now I know exactly what I want to be doing at any one time, more than which, when I feel I need to do one or the other, I can fit myself into exactly the right mindset. For me, that's a huge leap forward.

This feels like it's been a long and rambling post, but then - it's been a long(ish) and rambling life to get me to where I want to be. I have a LOT of details to work out and an HUGE amount of work to do to get to where I need to be next, but I know I can do it now.

Diamonds AND gold

2008-07-28T03:43:00.006+01:00

Oh. My. God.

It seems fitting (to me at least) that my 100th posting on this blog should be about something which was, if not life changing, then at least life affirming.

Tom Waits. In concert.

There were, oh, several hundred songs that he could have played that he didn't. There are a number of players that could have been on stage with him that weren't. There were a whole host of stories and gags he could have told that, in fact he didn't.

But oh, what he did...

I couldn't care less if I come across as a mindless fanboy here. It's only the internet, not real life, or even song after all, so it's not like it's even real. But good grief.

I have no idea how I managed to remotely rein myself in sufficiently to write even a reasonably objective review of his show, but I think I managed to do at least that. It wasn't easy, I'll say that.

I don't want to be Tom Waits, even if that were possible, and even if I come across that way. I don't even want to write songs the way he does. What I wouldn't object to having though, even for a moment, is a glimpse through his eyes. The opportunity to see this often unpleasant, frequently flawed and sometimes evil world through his discerning and poetic eyes.

My own will do. I'm actually very pleased with and even proud of the view I have of the world and the way in which I translate that into song. The thing I can't even reasonably hope for - and yet thing I do yearn and hope for - is that one day even just one person will enjoy my take on the world the way I enjoy his obscure, bizarre, weird, twisted view of life on planet Earth.

A man, or a woman, has to have a dream.

Fish And Bird

2008-07-27T01:37:00.005+01:00

I have to say, I'm not sure I've ever been as fired up for a gig as I currently am. Those who know me well and speak to me often will, I'm sure, be pig-sick of me wittering on and on about Tom bloody Waits. I'm sorry. Well, no. No I'm not. I'm actually excited.

That simple fact gives a great deal of pleasure. Music excites me still. I know a number of people for whom music is work. The joy of this genuinely astounding language has been reduced to simple labour for them and, even on good days, it doesn't get much better than 'okay'. It's often the way that, when you work with the thing or person you love, that thing or person becomes inseperable from the drudgery that work can be from time to time. So I'm very, very lucky. Two of the things I do that are connected to music - one for money, one not for money yet - are things I would do for free forever. And it still excites me.

This July has been remarkable for me: This coming week I'm responsible for each and every review the paper will publish. Two today, and one a day for the rest of the week. It's a lot of 'work', but it's also a great joy and an enormous privilege. Last week that privilege allowed me to finally see a long time inspiration, Leonard Cohen, for the first time. Tomorrow I get to see Tom Waits, again for the first time. I fully appreciate that both Cohen and Waits - two vastly different, yet for me, oddly similar characters - are considered 'difficult to listen to' by some people and, that's fine. They more than do it for me, and I'm getting to see them both within a few days of each other. Not only do I not have to pay to see them, I get paid to watch! The one downside is that I have to force myself to be objective about the performance, something I usually have very little problem with, even with musicians I like. These two are a bit different though. I don't just like them, they inspire me. Not just with their singing or musical skills, much as I appreciate them, but with their sheer storytelling ability, their lyricism and the fact that, chances are, they're each going to have to be pulled away from a microphone, kicking and screaming, by the grim reaper him/herself. They won't go down easily, that's for sure. Seeing past their inspirational qualities, making sure that however I write about them, it's about them, and not about my fanboy adulation - that's the hard part. Boo hoo. I'll deal with it.

Cohen was amazing. More stamina and energy than a gaggle of boyish bands put together and infinitely more literacy and charisma. Based on the reports of his current tour, I'd be gobsmacked if Waits was any less than stunning.

And if a little bit of fanboy creeps into the reviews... sue me. I'll be too busy grinning to notice.

A smudge of paint upon the wall

2008-07-21T00:49:00.006+01:00

What an odd day.

It began with music. Very enjoyably, actually. Apart from being torn between Messrs Cohen and Waits - remembering vs looking forward to - I had the exceptional pleasure of Andy The Bass' company for much of the afternoon as we ran through the songs up for selection to be played at the Star Bar on the 3rd of August. Having only heard my own versions of things, whether solo or multitracked up into a faux band, it was a delight to finally hear his take on some of these things. One or two songs benefited from a slight adjusment in feel, but for the most part, it all worked out beautifully. In my very humble opinion, of course. I certainly enjoyed the noise we were making and since he didn't run away screaming, I suspect ATB didn't hate it at all.

After another fabby kedgeree of sorts, I wandered up to the Star for this evenings' performance, to discover that the amp wasn't working despite the supposed fix being utilised, and we were once again reduced to performing acoustically. In the raw, as it were. Acoustic performances are actually great, because there's a whole different feel to a song - even if it's exactly the same arrangement - when there's nothing between the performer and their instrument, and the audience.

Following a marvelously revitalising conversation about travel and art, I was then possibly about-to-be-becoming commissioned to make a few paintings. More conversation towmorrow will see how that develops and, as usual, watching this space will probably prove to be informative. In the meantime, I have a new-found urge to sketch and draw, which I haven't had since I don't know when, despite knowing a number of artists who do, with great results, and despite having had the good fortune to review a number of exhibitions of sketches and monochromatic drawings. It's funny how being reminded in the right time and the right place seems to work when all other prods - that ought to work - don't...

PS: On the subject of art, I posted this link a great many moons ago, and it's about time I posted it again, I think. Oh, and don't forget to left click occasionally. What fun!

Hallelujah

2008-07-18T20:45:00.010+01:00

This week I fulfilled a (more or less) lifelong wish, by seeing Leonard Cohen in concert. Writing for the paper, I went along and found myself at the Castle in a fantastic seat for watching and listening, if not photography.

Leonard Cohen and a bunch of lonesome heroes
(You kinda need to know his work to see what I did there. Don't you wish you did?)

Honest... that's him in the middle.

Magnificent concert which I gave a more than favourable review. For me personally, the fact that there were a few songs that I'd have loved to hear that weren't played weren't a problem, and it certainly didn't marr my enjoyment of the show. There's no way on earth someone is going to play everyones fave songs in one concert.

As if that wasn't more than enough of a musical orgasm, at the end of this month, I'm going to see Tom Waits at the Playhouse. Fantastic or what? These gigs more than make up for all the pish I've had to see over the years. And then some.

My 50/90 count is sitting at 18 and counting. Well ahead of schedule there, but - while I have music for a few - I have yet to add soundfiles for any of them yet. I'm too busy selecting tracks to record for the dreaded return of Martin Goose. Painting's been at more or less a standstill, but I have some drawing and painting to do over the weekend, some of which I might put up here.

Still laughing my ass off at those links I posted in the last blog. Do click on them if you haven't already, and you'll see what has the power to take away Mr. Grumpy's grump.

Doctor, lawyer, beggerman, thief...

2008-07-08T17:43:00.006+01:00

A brief little update.

5 FAWM 50/90 songs down, 45 to go. So far they've been easy enough births, but I'm realistic enough to realise that that's unlikely to continue. I think probably the best thing to do is for me to get as many done while the muse is hovering to offset those days when it wanders off for a cuppa. If I can get even 20 worthwhile and long-lasting songs out of this I'll be chuffed silly. Any more will be a huge bonus. Big whoops to the mighty Hannah, who's announced that she's taken up the 50/90 challenge too.

With reference to a previous post, a letter has gone out from a legal friend of mine to a certain ex-employer. I'm quite certain I shouldn't say any more for now.

I'm rapidly approaching the end of yet another decade, but I've never felt so alive or creatively active, despite all of the medical and financial issues. Life is good.

PS: I've been meaning to post some links for a wee while now. I'm not generally known as a chuckle peddler, but these have made me crack a grin occasionally. If you've never been there before, then you want to go here and here. Note: these may or may not be work safe, although I can't recall seeing anything downright pornographic or even naked. You may be huckled for laughing too much, however.

Boogie woogie bugle boy...

2008-07-05T09:44:00.003+01:00

Well, not so much a bugle as a trumpet - but...

A couple of weeks ago I went up to the Star to do my usual run-through of some of these recent songs of mine, but the show didn't go quite as planned. The European champion something or other footie match was playing - Spain v someone, and had run into extra extra time, so the music had to wait. By the time it got started, we only had a little over an hour left for musicking. But what an hour!

A trio of young men, musicians as it turned out, had shown up in the bar, presumably for a beer. As the evening progressed, they asked Hannah if they could join in. I was onstage at the time and between numbers, she asked me if I'd mind. I was about to play 'Longer' - a song with plenty of space for other instruments in it, and not many changes, so I said yes. A pianist and a trumpet player called Charles stepped up and joined in and, considering they were only given the key of the piece, they leapt around the tune pretty effortlessly. I've got their number, and they'll be asked back to join in again, if they're interested. In a weird moment of small world-ness, it also turned out that all three musos (the third is a violinist) are very familiar with a good friend of mine, violinist, PB.

A few days later, I spotted Hannah again, this time at the Lou Reed: Berlin gig. I was there to do a review but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Reed has a not-too-lovely actual voice, but boy, can he perform.

During the week, I went for a beer with the former SP where we nattered, among other things, about ways in which I could rake in some cash. Portrait painting came up, along with hopefully selling some of these semi-abstract landscapes of mine, and another idea I haven't thought about for a long time - which is odd, considering the title of this blog - returning to the stage as the Wild Goose, with all that repertoire, plus a few new songs and even a few of my original numbers. This wouldn't be a return to ceilidh, just to the pub gig songs that we used to do. I've already spoken to Andy the Bass and he'd be up for joining in as often as time and fatherhood permits. Very exciting!

In the meantime, the pace of writing songs in response to the challenge of FAWM seems barely over, when a new one has reared its head: 50/90 is fairly aptly named - write fifty songs in ninety days. Yikes! But I'm going for it. I even have the beginnings of a new song to inaugurate the challenge. Yet again, watch this space...

Closer to the art

2008-06-22T16:13:00.002+01:00

Friday night saw me enjoying good food, wonderful wine and the company of Messrs Paul Reynolds and George Coleman. Oh, and an up and coming trio of young musicians by the name of Rush. I've tried and I've tried to get into their music but, despite having a long history of listening to the overblown, extended noodlings (as some would have it) of the likes of Yes, King Crimson and Genesis, to name but a few, Rush have somehow never appealed. We discovered, however, that Rush might best be listened to while actually watching them. Paul made me a tape of Rush many moons ago, which failed to impress. There are now threats of Rush DVDs being loaned to me in a last ditch attempt to persuade me of their loveliness. Who knows.

Tonight (Sunday) sees me returning to the Star bar for yet another assault on the musical tastes of its punters as I debut yet another 2 or 3 new songs, along with, hopefully, the refinement of what are becoming staples of my live set. The pain in my joints has extended to my wrists and hands, so I'm forced to simplify the accompaniments, and in the case of All The Long Day, eliminate it altogether, but I'm actually finding myself preferring the more basic qualities of the songs.

I haven't painted at all in the last week or two, but there are three pieces sitting on my metaphorical easel patiently waiting for me to tickle them again. One - a larger piece - is all but finished, and I'm reluctant to apply much more paint without a lot of reflection. I do like the look of it as it stands, and I may even decide that it's complete. We'll see. In any event, this week feels like it's going to be a painting week to me.

The fire, the fire still burns

2008-06-12T21:40:00.005+01:00

A few weeks ago I stepped in front of a microphone, with a guitar strapped on for the first time in maybe 2 years. It had been something in the region of 30 years, however, since I last stepped in front of a mic to sing my own songs. I last wrote a few songs in the mid 80's but I mostly hated them and I never sang them live. Prior to that, I had only sung my own songs a few times at proper gigs - never in pubs to members of the general public.

I was shit scared the first time I did it a few weeks ago. I told very few people that I was doing it, and a couple of people I knew were there for the evening anyway.

I wasn't desperately pleased with my performance in the first set, but as I said, I was scared and it was the first time in a lonnnnnnng time, so I forgave me. The second set went much better though, since I had relaxed a bit and was becoming a bit more used to the material.

I've had something of an epic run at writing new material, a run which doesn't seem to be slowing down very much, but not all of it has settings yet, so those songs'll be a while gestating. The first batch got an encouraging reception, and when I played some of them again this Sunday past, they came out a little easier. Also on that occasion, Justin the Former Serial Procrastinator took some pics on his mobile, for which I thank him. One of them, an arty black and white beastie, is strategically positioned above and right for your perusal/amusement.

The venue for all of this is the Star Bar on Northumberland place, where I once and briefly ran the open mic night. It's now being run in far better fashion by the lovely Hannah and I'll be back there as long the reviewing work allows.

Speaking of work, I got fired from the lighting hire place. Watch this space for future developments there.

I've also been painting like a bit of a madman, and I'm really starting to 'find my voice'. The paintings I'm doing now really feel like what I see in my head - barren landscapes which seem empty, till you look a little closer. I'm very pleased with them, and with the way my work and style are developing. For the first time in a long time, painting is beginning to really excite me.

The light dies down...

2008-04-27T11:58:00.007+01:00

We lost Alistair.

I had all kinds of things I was going to say about him. Historical facts and funny annecdotes. I was going to say that he was one of the smartest guys I ever met and that he was warm, kind and thoughtful. Mr Alistair Watt was all of those things and so much more, but those who knew him knew that, and those who didn't know him missed an opportunity, and nothing I can write would be a substitute for the experience of the genuine article. So I'm not going to say any of those things.

I'm just going to miss him.

... no secret anymore

2008-04-02T10:14:00.003+01:00

The old work-life equation rears it's ugly head again: having completed the spreadsheet project, I was all set to get stuck into the fleet management thing when January's polyarthropathy kicked in again. That is, it's never actually gone away, but it did recede a wee bit. I noticed, however, that I hadn't been nearly as productive once I was back at work with the department fully open. February, of course, saw me writing 15 songs while working, so maybe I'm just blethering, but it doesn't feel like I've done anything much new recently. Until now, hopefully.

I'm off to the doctor again tomorrow and expect to be kept off work for a few weeks. Given that much 'free' time, I won't be able to sit still, so there will be new painting and music as often as the muscles can cope. I feel I'm being told something here.

I went to a gig a few weeks back, where I thought I'd see Hannah and Mr Q perform, which I very much did. What I hadn't expected was seeing quite so many people that I knew, or that I'd get to see old friend John Philips play with his band The Angel Conversations, or that Peter Michael Rowan had one of the most eclectic groups (Fanattica) out there, as well as being such a well respected singer songwriter. Oh, and he also plays a mean fiddle. I knew that John was a wizard with a soldering iron and a master of the repair of instruments and amps - I didn't know he was that good on the other side of a plank as well!

I hadn't seen Mr Quartet play live for decades. That's horrible - not only because he's bloody good and I should have made the effort long before now, cos I've clearly missed some great gigs, but also because - how dare so many years go by without permission? The evening was about getting local bands with CD's up on stage and also selling some of their wares. Mr Q has a great many wares to sell - probably more than anyone else in Edinburgh and possibly more than most people anywhere with the exception of maybe Bob Dylan. Prolific is not the word and, bucking statistics, the songs are fucking solid too. If I were to review him in my not-so-secret identity, he'd be hard pushed to get below 4 stars. He played most or all of a new album, together with James Jamieson - yet another long lost figure from my past - on guitar. Magic.

I've already reviewed Hannah and PMR (as a soloist) and they came out top and swinging then too. I loved her work so much, I even asked her to take over the open mic at the Star Bar when it was time to move on, which she did brilliantly. I've been trying to follow her musical progress since then but, as I mentioned to her at the gig, it's hard to follow someone who blogs even less than me! Fortunately, she heard and (almost) promptly got back in there. I've never seen a gig where she didn't own the stage. Why isn't she on really big stages by now?

She did a lovely set, aided and abetted apparently (but not obviously) by that lovely trio Mr Daniels and Mr Coke (with Mr Ice on percussion) on refreshments and, more pertinently, by Susanna McDonald on (if I remember correctly) Killed The Man. I need to get out and review these people soon. I wish Edinburgh had a bigger audience for this stuff.

Right... where's my Ibuprofen?

Busy doing nothing?

2008-03-21T00:34:00.004Z

Busy as a busy thing: three new paintings are well underway, three songs each are up and available on the FAWM page and my mySpace music page and this weekend I'm going to finish a website I started on sometime early last year, come hell, highwater or St Andrews.

Things have even progressed in the day job - for the last three days I've been flying a desk as I collate all of the company's hire stock, comparing the prices with all of our major competitors so that we can see just where we stand. So far it all seems fairly even. As well as having whatever computer skills I might have used more, I've been given responsibility for 'fleet management'. Our fleet is a whopping two vans, so there won't be much to do there. That said, we do tend to thrash them into the ground. On top of that, there's another sub-section of the hire department I've been tasked with organising and getting into action within the next three months, so I'm not exactly going to be kicking back with cups of lukewarm coffee for the next wee while. My left arm still hurts, so it's good to have jobs that don't involve lifting stupidly heavy steel-deck and what-have-you while it mends. At least, I hope it's going to mend!

As if all of that wasn't enough, I've resumed my secret identity as reviewer for the News once more, having recovered from the madness that was the 2007 fringe. Four or five shows under my belt so far, including a stonking show by - of all people - Chris Rea. Reports of his retirement 2 years back may have been slightly and utterly wrong

I've also been asked to write a regular weekly art column for the paper, with my name all big and a photy and everything. That's quite a commitment, so I thought long and hard about it before finally saying yes. Not sure when that'll begin, but if anyone's interested, I'll post details here as soon as I know.

I'm off to collapse in a heap somewhere warm.

Sounds like beating wings...

2008-03-01T21:27:00.005Z

Not a quiet month by any means, I've been writing my butt off and recording a fair bit. The only downside has been that the painting has suffered a bit, but arguably not by too much.

The FAWM challenge is now over and I managed to rise to it and complete the 15 songs in the alloted time. How good they are is up to anyone who reads or hears them, but I'm at least chuffed that I got them done.

I've recorded two of them (so far) and as of this posting they're up and available to anyone who has the time or the inclination to have a listen. If that's you, then you'll find my wee page here. These are 'full band' versions, which I put in parenthesis because the full band in question is just me myself. In time, the genuine full band will assemble to rehearse, record and perform these and quite a few more original songs in an, as yet unnamed, all new, non-bird related musical venture.

The idea of writing songs so close to one another under (albeit self imposed) pressure has been fascinating and even a little exhilarating. I think one or two of the songs haven't reached their potential yet and will need some editing and tweaking before I want to play them live. By contrast, the songs I wrote in the almost-a-year before FAWM benefited from being fiddled with, though I know I'm also guilty of going too far in the wrong direction sometimes. Ah well.

The one thing I haven't managed yet is a piano based song. My own keyboard is unreliable - mostly on the note C, for some reason, and a borrowed keyboard developed a fault while I was trying to set it up. I'll return to the ivories (erm, well... plastics, actually) asap, though.

I'm going to get wired into repopulating my mySpace page with some of the older new songs that I've recorded in the last couple of months, so if you enjoyed the FAWM songs, feel free to head on over there in the next day or two. I'll be happy to hear what anyone thinks of them. This is all a work in progress, of course, and these and the FAWM songs are the first songs I've presented for public ridicule or otherwise in more decades than I'd care to consider. I'm a little nervous, but I'd rather hear peoples real opinions.

The reason I said that the painting hadn't suffered unduly is because as threatened, myself and small group of artists got together recently to discuss exhibiting under our own steam - finding unlikely spaces and cobbling together enough to rent them for short periods of time and hanging work there. Not an easy task, but I think we're throwing enough ingenuity at it that, dammit, it just might work, Jim...

We've also mentioned renting a space in which to actually paint, what with the high cost of studios these days. That might well be cost prohibitive, but you don't know till you ask.

Piano, man

2008-02-16T12:22:00.002Z

I was looking back over old posts, (again!) this time searching for the first reference to my return to songwriting, and the earliest I could find was March 8th, 2007. For me, this was quite a big deal, so I'm surprised I didn't make more of it. The last time I can remember writing an actual song was the mid-eighties, the results of which suggested I give the whole enterprise up. I'm glad I gave it another go. Even if no-one likes the results of the current batch (and at least a few very much do seem to like them) I'm thoroughly enjoying the process.

FAWM has been fascinating. I'm not sure I've entered into it in exactly the proper spirit, but I've written 8 new songs in 16 days, so I'm at least keeping up. I'm fairly happy with the songs too, so it's not even as though enforced speed is harming (my perception of) the quality either.

A very big deal for me is the return of midi piano. I recorded some music for the dance company many years ago using midi keyboards and sequencing, and I've done nothing with it since. With Cubase, I can do all kinds of stuff again and with the internet providing useful and previously expensive information (piano/keyboard techniques, piano chords etc) I hopefully have a broadened palette with which to work. I'm currently working on my first ever piano song, albeit enchanced entirely (?) with the use of midi sequencing.

I've also been sounding out a few individuals, including Andy the Bass, with a view to assembling a live band to perform these new songs, and possibly a few covers as well. Watch this space.

Painting hasn't been neglected either: Having completed four canvases in recent times, I'm astonished to realise that, not only did I like the paintings immediately after finishing them, but that I also still like them. Anyone that knows me well enough knows that this is practically unheard of - there are very few of my paintings that I feel connected to for more than a few hours, never mind continuously. In fact, I can't think of a single example that I haven't utterly hated at one time or another in its existence.

Don't think that I didn't notice that this was the first 'second post' in a single month for agggges. It might not even be the last one for this month either!!!

Don't Cry Daddy...

2008-02-02T00:08:00.000Z

There really is no excuse whatsoever.

I can't claim that work has ground me down and pummeled me so that I can't type this blog, because I've been off sick since the beginning of January, and I'm only now looking at going back to work on Monday again. I had/have something that the doctor called Polyarthropathy - basically, mulitple joint disease or sair joints. Great for the lifting and shifting job I'm doing! Still, having had a cursory browse around the interweb, I could have it MUCH worse than I do, so no complaints here.

It's made other areas of my life slow, but not impossible. So with the weeks and weeks of 'free' time I've had, I've managed to do a few new paintings, with ideas for more ready to roll. Also, there's a very good chance that I'll be exhibiting in Edinburgh sometime this year as part of a collective. I won't say anything about it at all, because I don't know anything yet! I've had a couple of chats with BG and, after a meeting in a few weeks I'll know more and will report back. Almost more exciting than that is the possibility of this collective hiring somewhere to use as studio space - a little like the wasp studios in Edinburgh and Glasgow. I'll finally be able to work on bigger canvases which has been a goal of mine for quite some time. I did a 5ft square painting once upon a time ago, and I got the bug.

I finally have a couple of songs almost ready for the myspace treatment. I managed to sell the Fostex 16 track recorder and, as previously reported, I've been investigating Cubase. I've now been recording on it for a wee while, getting the hang of it. I think I have it now - the basics, at any rate and it's stunning the difference it makes. I'm lucky, because I have a computer with a decent processor and a fair amount of RAM, so it can handle what I want it to do.

Some of you may be aware of NaNoWriMo - National novel writing month, which takes place every November and in which, people accept the challenge to write a 50 thousand word novel
over the course of the month. Turns out the same challenge is set for songwriters too, only this one's in February and it's called FAWM - February album writing month. The idea is that you write 14 songs over the month and, if you like, you can submit them to the scrutiny and, hopefully, constructive critisism of the other FAWMers (sigh) and the public (if you choose to allow them access to the lyrics) My first one's up already. I'm going to produce a few scratch demos for a few of them, but I want to continue recording the existing songs as well. Having recorded 6 or 7 on the now abandoned Fostex sessions, I've got three more or less finished songs in Cubase. Once I have another two or three, I'll stick them up on my mySpace music page.

I'm seriously considering bringing in a few friends who've expressed an interest in producing or remixing these tracks, just to see what a fresh pair of ears will bring to the party. I might put both versions on the site for comparison.

So, after what feels like years of procrastination, it looks like there might finally be some original songs out there. I feel like an expectant father all over again.

PS:

I've been looking over a random selection of old posts, including the first one, and I realised that I've missed the two year anniversary of this blog by just a few days. The first one was uploaded on Jan 29, 2006. How time flies.

Wasted

2007-12-25T08:54:00.000Z

Neither lengthy nor profound, this is just another in an ongoing series of annual posts where I apologise to all and any who read this, for yet again not sending out Christmas cards in time. Or at all, in fact.

I'm sorry.

So, here's to another year of excess, waste and drunkeness hopefully washed down with a little love, peace and understanding. (And, as Elvis C and Nick suggested, there's nothing funny bout that.)

Since it was brought to mind again recently, courtesy of the marvelous and all too rarely seen GG, I thought I'd celebrate the winter solstice, albeit a trifle late, with the immoral - excuse me, immortal lyrics of Mr Tom Lehrer, along with part of the introduction he intones on his wonderfully mirthful live album, An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer. It goes like this:

It's always seemed to me, after all, that Christmas, with its spirit of giving, offers us all a wonderful opportunity each year to reflect on what we all most sincerely and deeply believe in - I refer, of course, to money. And yet, none of the Christmas carols that you hear on the radio, or in the street, even attempts to capture the true spirit of Christmas as we celebrate it in the United States, that is to say the commercial spirit. So I should like to offer the following Christmas carol for next year as being perhaps a bit more appropriate.
Christmas time is here, by golly,
Disapproval would be folly.
Deck the halls with hunks of holly,
Fill the cup and don't say when.

Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens,
Mix the punch, drag out the Dickens.
Even though the prospect sickens,
Brother, here we go again.

On Christmas Day you can't get sore,
Your fellow man you must adore.
There's time to rob him all the more
The other three hundred and sixty-four.

Relations, sparing no expense'll
Send some useless old utensil,
Or a matching pen and pencil.
("Just the thing I need, how nice!")

It doesn't matter how sincere it is,
Nor how heart felt the spirit,
Sentiment will not endear it,
What's important is the price.

Hark, the Herald Tribune sings,
Advertising wondrous things.

God rest ye merry merchants,
May ye make the Yuletide pay.

Angels we have heard on high,
Tell us to go out and buy!

So, let the raucous sleigh bells jingle,
Hail our dear old friend Kris Kringle,
Driving his reindeer across the sky.
Don't stand underneath when they fly by.

So, may your God go with you and... don't forget, get hammered responsibly.

Everything I need

2007-12-14T23:17:00.000Z

Welcome to December...

This months blog is brought to you courtesy of Andy the Bass, repeatedly and fairly quizzing me as to when I might write the damned thing. So. Here we are, back at the (apparently) monthly blogging update with more of the same wittering and limp excuses for the absence of creativity. Actually, the excuses boil down to one - I'm permanently knackered and sore!

That said, lyrics have been revised and there has been forward movement on the music front. Who'd have thought that a sixteen track fully digital recording console with 2 built in multi fx units might be considered obsolete? And yet, there it is... lying unused in all its obsolescence.

Since I last blogged, I've acquired the wonder that is Cubase, together with an audio/midi interface, so that I can actually record - from the first sung note to the finished CD - entirely digitally. I know, there are audiophiles out there who'd MUCH prefer analogue for things like drums, but have you seen how much two inch tapes and recorders cost?

I also got myself a cheap little midi keyboard (with a not too shabby onboard piano sample) courtesy of Andy the Bass and his eagle-eye on ebay. It's not working at it's best - the touch responsive keys aren't - so I'm wading through a few thousand screws on the base of the thing to get to the contacts to clean them. What a faff.

To add to all of that, I have something of a steep learning curve ahead of me: The last time I used anything developed by the wonderful Mr Steinberg, it was Pro24 on an Amiga 1024 or whatever that particular abacus was called. In those days it was just a midi sequencing package, but it synched up to a Fostex A8, both of which I used to make music for the first incarnation of the dance company Electric Motion. Cubase is a WHOLE nother ball game. The things it will let me do are likely to keep me from sleep for most of the rest of my life, but I'll settle for being competent in basic procedures to start with.

The long and the short of it is, there's no new songs beyond the first six or so that I recorded. The next batch of re-writes, re-arrangements and new songs will sound completely different to the original set. Hopefully they'll sound fuller and more professional than anything I've ever done in the past. I'm so excited I could wee.

With the impending holidays, I'll have ample time to lose myself in recording land, but I won't forget to pop into painting world too. I have two full weeks of fully paid leave coming and I intend to use every damn second.

Worries, hopes and dreams

2007-11-15T07:30:00.000Z

Well, I've been a busy boy.

The single recorded song I reported on last time has been joined by a further five, and there are now somewhere around 2 albums worth of lyrics waiting for tunes and stuff. So, when will you hear the aforementioned ditties? Probably never, I'm afraid! It's not that I'm particularly unhappy with them, it's because I know they're just not quite right yet. I'm not being too nippy or perfectionist - honest - but they don't feel right, and they're not getting quite the feedback I was hoping for, from myself as much as from my trusty testers. That's not to say I want unequivocal praise, it's just that the songs are presently more open to misinterpretation than they are simply ambiguous. I don't mind being thought of as a curmudgeonly old grisler, but there is at least a little humour in my bones. I've always found happy songs the hardest to write, and that's fine, but there's no need for me to sound quite so suicidal! So. Rewrites and re-recordings aplenty ahead.

I won't be destroying these versions (as I might have in the past) so perhaps one day they might enjoy some sort of wider audience taking the piss out of them.

In the meantime, I've met with an art agent type person, who may or may not be able to get my artworks/paintings to a very much wider (and paying) audience, so it's time to swap the plectrum for the paintbrush and palette knife (or more acurately, grow a second right hand so that I can do both at once!). I've just taken delivery of a bunch of canvases (canvii?) and, having spent a fabulous few days in the vicinity of the magic cottage, I have ample inspiration to start a series of paintings chronicling my tree-hugging sojourn.

I don't know for sure, but I have a feeling that my future is likely to be more about painting than music. Not that I'll ever give up music, and gigs are very much still on the horizon, but a dual career at my age seems entirely unlikely. I doubt I could ever personally decide between the two very easily, but commerce might be about to make the choice for me. I'm not sure how long I can do the job I'm doing for, at least at the driver/warehouse worker level I'm working at. Any kind of managerial position seems unlikely to be offered, so a door is waiting for me to wander through in search of new, hopefully more profitable pastures. Or landscapes.

Regardless, the signs are fairly clear, if unreadable in detail. The future is here.

Keep on runnin...

2007-10-28T18:19:00.000Z

Off and running, did I say? Strolling breezilly, perhaps. Maybe even hobbling a little... but I persevere. That's the Leith motto, after all.

Still working on the same song and, though I found the feel I was looking for, I haven't quite got my chops up to recording standard. Interestingly (to me at least) I've discovered that one of the joys of having a fully digital 16 track recording studio at ones' disposal, is that one can record, re-record and re-record ad nauseum (not necessarilly improving anything, you understand) until the cows come home or at least until one's fingers fall off. Without having to worry about studo costs. It's a dangerous luxury and it perfectly explains why Peter Gabriel (no comparison intended, believe me) takes ten years to finish an album.

To be fair, I've only had the chance to record a few hours a week, but still...

Over the next five days, while I anticipate my much anticipated 9 whole days off, I'll try to lay the foundations of a few more songs. I'm going to put together a few versions of each, some of which will involve other musicians. Not all of the musos I'd like to work with are available, but hopefully the two pivotal ones will not only have some time, but will actually like the songs enough to want to contribute.

I think I'm only going to stick a couple of full songs up on mySpace - the rest will just be excerpts. Either to save people having to wade through stuff they don't like, but will do so anyway - simply because they know me and don't want to upset me... or, more optimistically, to tease and encourage people to attend the first gig in decades of my own material.

Gig? Where did THAT come from?

They stone and criticise you...

2007-10-22T01:01:00.000+01:00

A brief hello from the oblivion that has been my working life:

Hello.

I've been working my arse off for the last month or so, hopefully earning a packet and a half in overtime, but probably not - it's difficult to say: you'd need the degree in accounting - which our accountant presumably has - to work out which days, nights and weekends are paid at the end of which month to begin to even come close to working out what I might be paid at the end of any given month. I'm sure that sentence made some sense.

But none of that is in any way important. I know what you want to know... that is, if there's anyone left actually reading this almost non-existent blog: "Where are the paintings?", I hear you cry, "and what about all that music you've been yammering on about??"

Well, the paintings remain in the arty ether of my subconscious, I'm afraid, but the music... ah, the music...

Today (well, technically yesterday -Sunday 21st October) became something of a red letter day for me. The last time I recorded anything like original songs, the result was an insipid, turgid couple of pieces that wouldn't be out of place on an 80's compilation of musicians that wouldn't even get into the slush pile of most record companies, a tawdry, maudlin little tract, called - worryingly - 'Introspection' and a bunch of other stuff, probably best forgotten. There was one track I still remember fondly. 'Clock Tick' was recorded at something like 3.00 am in the bedroom of my (then) marital home, while my wife, bless her, slept. It was recorded entirely live and in a single take, and featured a very 80's sounding drum machine (think "In The Air Tonight" just before the massive Hugh Padgham gated - Phil Collins played enormous drums kick in), a thin and weedy pretend Gibson Bass performance from me, coupled with an almost whispered vocal, obviously quiet, what with the sleeping wife not three metres away. Or was it yards in those days? I forget.

Anyway. The point is, it's been a while.

As previously mentioned, I've been racking up a slew of lyrics (What is the collective noun for lyrics? A bunch? A pretension? More likely in my case, a guinness...) and today/yesterday, I put the first tracks down. Not the greatest success in terms of finished product - I have two or three versions of the first song, none of which have captured quite the feel I'm looking for. But then, that's not what actually matters. What actually matters is... we're off and running!!!

So I turned myself to face me...

2007-09-24T20:38:00.000+01:00

Here's a first: I don't have very much to say.

Actually, I've been staring - wild eyed - into that section of the blogosphere known as Andy's page.

Andy's page reminds me of a million adventures undertaken in the name of the Wild Geese, hundreds of thousands of journeys begun and, remarkably, finished in the beast they called Morrison, not to mention the wee tardis they called the Nissan Urvan of Doom. He reminds me of drummers and fiddlers and I'm sure he'll remind me of several more that I've forgotten.

One bass player who almost aspires to the forgotten realm is Sean Donnelly. That's because he never really was a bass player - more a guitar player who was dragooned into service to the aim of the Geese. Sean is a singer/writer/guitarist I've known for a great many years. We've worked together, drank together and laughed together. I'd yet to hear his own voice in song. Now I have.

Thanks to the wonder that is my lovely large diaphragm condenser microphone and the blessing of me 16 track digital recorder, Mr D has recorded a couple of unaccompanied songs of his own devising, and in future weeks will record fuller versions of more of his self created material for publication on his very own mySpace page - once he gets it up and running. There will be links made available. You'd be wise to follow them.

The world continues to amble along. It teases me with songs I can't quite yet sing and paintings I haven't entirely commited to canvas or paper. The teasing is nearing it's end. I've been playing a LOT of fretless bass lately and I've almost found the voice I know I can hear in my head. As for the paintings - they're so close I can almost taste them. If you've ever tasted paint, probably as a three year old, you'll know how disturbing that can be. Nevertheless, the paintings are there - they simply need to be captured. It won't be long now...

4 Non-blogs

2007-08-12T19:05:00.000+01:00

It HAS been a while, hasn't it?

It's been an eventful month and a bit. And, as CBQ commented, a bloody long birthday. Where to start in the recap? Ah yes... remember that job that I went for and didn't get? Well, almost exactly a month later, the guy who got it quit, and it was given to me in a kind of back-handed compliment. So. I'm a full-timer now with all the responsibilities and rewards that entails. Not much has actually changed in reality. I'm still working long hours and I'm still in exactly the same amount of physical pain. Still, I appear to be losing a little weight, so that's a bonus.

Nothing major to report on the songs and paintings front, except to say that I'm getting more than a little fed up with my lack of output. On the slightly hopeful and optimistic side, I've been seeing paintings in my minds eye and - kind of like a how to paint video - I'm seeing new techniques too - well, new to me anyway - through the other minds' eye. As far as songs go, I've been writing the lyrics and continuing to waste the wonderful equipment I have at my disposal by not recording them yet. But the sounds are in my minds' ear.

All well and good, but it's about time they got out of my mind and into the world, n'est pas?

The fringe has been on the go for a while now, and I've seen very little of it. It's approaching the time when I put my secret identity into a locked cupboard for a long, long time. I've done what I set out to do and more besides, and now it feels like I'm just rehashing ad infinitum. When I sit down to write a review I just get this huge wave of 'can't be bothered' and a wall comes up, making it almost impossible to write. So, enough.

With that said, I went to see a band last night, not for review purposes, but because I've wanted to see them for years and just never got around to it for one reason or another. The fabulously named The Dry Boak are a three piece punk folk band (my description) featuring a good and long time friend of mine, Sean Donnelly on guitar and vocals. Gutted that I waited so long to see them, since they were amazing, even if they played in the Bernard Street echo chamber that is (this month at least) The Timberbush. Carpets and curtains would be a big help here, Timberbush bosses... Nevertheless, the guys played a blinder. Not a finger in an ear anywhere (or up a nose, given the punkyness) and the playing and harmonies were fabulous. Why oh why didn't I go see them all those years ago?

A lot of other things have happened in the last month or so, and I'll dredge them up in the next few blogs. Sorry to have been away so long. It won't happen again. Maybe

Bread and butter in the gutter

2007-07-03T19:38:00.000+01:00

I'm 17,166 days old today. Otherwise known as 47 years. Bloody hell! Where did all that go? Surely I can't have been in the pub THAT long?

I've made the decision that I've lived in this house too long, and that I'm going to have to move somewhere else. I'm not sure where, only that I want more trees and light around me. This place is too dark and gloomy - despite my best efforts to make it not so. Also, courtesy of ST, I have a new goose which needs a better home.

"...where shall I wander?"

Andy the Bass has asked for a list of films I wish I'd never wasted time watching. I can't remember any, and don't feel inclined to waste even more time trying to bring them back to mind. So. My top five films of all time so far? In no particular order: Chocolat; Round Midnight; Brief Encounter; Life Of Brian and, probably, Hear My Song.

Notable others would include Delicatessen, Girl With A Pearl Earring, Crossroads, Lost In Translation, Bell Book And Candle and Amelie.

No real surprises there, then. Except perhaps that there are no 'genre' films in the list.

Painting continues to elude me, but I've been working on the songs a fair bit, partly inspired by the aquisition of a Djembe and the imminent arrival of a new set of strings for the Bass. When I say 'working on', I guess what I mean is, I've brutally thrown a bunch of sub-standard crap out, rewritten the remaining few and written a couple of new ones which may or may not last the course.

... how fragile we are

2007-06-17T08:02:00.000+01:00

I discovered last night that something I'd heard a few months ago was true after all: My friend and once collegue of sorts, Susan Crowther, has died of cancer.

Sue was a dancer and choreographer. She was the first person I encountered when I snuck in through the back door of the dance fraternity of Edinburgh in the early eighties, and she was the person who convinced me to get, of all things, a telephone. She had danced with, among others, Scottish Ballet, before moving over to America for a while. She came back and began a youth dance company, which was around the time I met her. My knowledge of her life and work is sketchy at best, except for the part where I did some work for her.

I went to her looking to compose music for dance, having enjoyed writing music for a community theatre project and for a community art exhibition. I didn't get to write music for the company she was running, but instead I became their sound engineer. Some years later though she commissioned me to write a lengthy piece around which she made a dance for 3 for the Commonwealth Arts Festival of 1986, which was performed in Princes Street Gardens at the Ross Bandstand. A short while later, she made a piece on Kenn Burke, the then artistic director of SB2 - the Scottish Ballet's more adventurous wing, for which I wrote and recorded the music.

Sue was inspirational. Full of energy and drive. Because of her I met several people without whom my life would have been far smaller. I met (the then) SG in 1986 at the Commonwealth Arts Festival, with whom I got involved in a project called Raindance - intended to benefit/highlight the Yanomami people of the Amazonian rain forests. Quite some time before the composer of the line which titles this writing, if I remember correctly. That meeting has turned into a lifelong friendship, and is only one of a number of ways that Sue profoundly influenced and impacted upon my life.

She was no angel: She had too strong a personality and will to not have pissed more than a few people off in her time. Me included. I was given/took on the over-grand title of Artistic Director of the Raindance project - in which she was to be involved - a title she guffawed loudly at. She asked me what on earth made me think I could be artistic director of a dance show/company - the answer was, of course, she did - with her 'go for it' attitude. And later, with the enormous help of SG and YG, I ran my own small improvising dance company for three years. Also inspired, in part at least, by Sue.

She was a creator, and whatever she took or was given from this life, it was never more than a few percent of the beauty and passion she gave back.

The last time I saw her can only have been a year or two ago. I was reviewing a dance show and she was standing on the interior steps of the Playhouse Theatre, distributing show tickets to her students, continuing to encourage, inspire and enthuse. Just like always.

She is missed.

Pushing through the market square...

2007-06-10T17:07:00.000+01:00

Well, I'm not dead, but given the amount of blogging I haven't done, you wouldn't know it. I'm near as dammit dead, considering the amount of work I'm doing. Lots of 10 - 12 hour days. Some of it's back (and finger!) breaking stuff, but I'm loving the driving all over Scotland. I'm off to Loch Ness tomorrow to pick up a few things from the Rock Ness Village Hall hootenany thing they had up there this weekend. I've also rediscovered the whole Lanarkshire area to be a gorgeous and eminently paintable landscape and someday soon I hope to get down there for a few days to prepare for some serious painting. Let's just see how quickly that happens...

For those of you that don't know already, I didn't get the full time job at the lighting company. At first I was pretty upset about it, but in the long run I think it was a) perfectly fair and absolutely correct and b) very much to my benefit. Chances are, I'd have been paid less for my time and I'd have been more beholden to the company than would sit well with me. In any event, I have more or less the next two and a half months booked with them in advance, with the probability of more to come. And there are always extra days like yesterday when, driving back from the airport, I was dragooned by my boss into doing a bit of driving and loading on one of my few days off. Which was cool and pays for a few more beers.

Finally managed to record some more tracks with my co-conspiritor which, once we've cleaned them up and added a few more parts to, we might get online in the nearish future. I've also been writing more songs. What seems to happen there is that I write a song - the lyrics, anyway - then leave it for a week to a month, then I go back to it. If I still like it, it doesn't get deleted, but it might get altered. I let it stew for a few more weeks, then add/edit/modify bits of it again till I'm happy with it, then leave it a while longer. The longer a song lasts without being modified, the more chance it has of staying in the book. With this method it might take me five years to write enough for an entire album, so we might be here for a while.

I haven't painted at all for months, but as I said, I'm getting inspiration from all over Scotland, so surely it won't be long now? Please?

Innocent when you dream...

2007-05-06T15:09:00.000+01:00

So far I've been working for a straight 14 days, although this weekend is really three half days. As far as I know, I'm working until this coming Friday which will take me up to 19 days on. I haven't worked this much since I was a teenager. It can be hard going occasionally, but it beats the alternative. I look forward to the day when I can enjoy time off, though.

The job interview went well - so well, in fact, that I got through to a second interview, which has also been and gone, and seemed to go pretty well. I'll find out the result this week.

I had a great and rare lunch with Andy The Bass yesterday. Chelle and the kids were in the Borders, so for the first time in years he was on his own. As always happens when two musos get together, we talked a great deal of bollocks and had a grand old time doing it.

All my energy has been taken up with working, so I'm afraid I haven't done a damn thing creatively for some time. Including Blogging, obviously. Still, I am getting used to the work more and more, so I reckon I'll be painting and getting back to song writing and recording in the next week or so. Any previous mention of feeling less pain may have been a little premature...

I also met up with my friend Hester, who I met last year at Chisholm House in the Borders. (Well, actually - I met her, and about 15 others, when Chisholm House came to Edinburgh and I let them use my house for 'facilities'...) Both she and LK are off, quite seperately, I believe, to Turkey for a protracted visit - LK for about 3 months, and Hester for at least a year! It was lovely having a long, long blether with H, not to mention several gallons of coffee. The conversation set up several trains of philosophical thought in my head that will run for miles and miles of track over the next wee while.

Driving around Scotland, I've been to St Andrews, Dunfermline, St Andrews, Glasgow, St Andrews, Stirling, St... did I mention St Andrews before? I couldn't help noticing the sheer, utter greeness of the fields and the yellowness of the rapeseed crops. I think when I do get some time to myself, I may hire a car and go and take photos of the entire central belt and the Borders.

Also, I had a dream a few nights ago. Not remarkable in itself, except that it's the first dream I've remembered the gist of in a good six months. It was a good one, too.

Incidentally, I'm 17,108 days old today.

Back to life, back to reality...

2007-04-21T18:14:00.000+01:00

For once, my main reason for not blogging regularly hasn't been because not much has happened, but because so much has.

Most of it has been the fact that I'm working my ass off for the hire company, which I'm enjoying enormously. Every day is different, and very few days ever go entirely according to plan. I've found myself doing several quite long shifts - 15 hours is the record so far - and I've been called in at short notice on a number of occasions. I have an interview on Tuesday for a full time job with the company, so fingers crossed.

I haven't painted a thing since I started working there, but now that I'm settling in - ie: now that my muscles aren't screaming quite so much - I want to get some watercolouring done. Maybe even get back to the songwriting too.

It's hard being a cowboy in Rochdale

2007-03-31T21:09:00.000+01:00

At 5.30pm yesterday, I got a call: "Could you go to Rochdale tomorrow and pick up a table?" Ermm... hang on, I'll just go and dust off my cowboy hat.

So off I went this morning, my son (excuse me, Muh boy...) by my side for company. 'Company' turned out to be him sitting in near (but happy and contented) silence, doing sudoku puzzles and, when that got a bit monotonous, playing something or other on his mobile phone. Sigh.

We did have some conversation, but considering it was a 10 hour round trip, we could have easily withstood a little more. As it was, he missed some fabulous scenery - or he would have if I hadn't been prompting him to look up from his, I'm sure, worthwhile endeavours. Invariably he'd cast a glance over the scene for 1.3 seconds, mutter "wow", then get back to the job in hand. This, after announcing, earlier in the day, that the trip was a great idea cos he never goes anywhere.

I wonder why.

So, slightly knackered and a days wages the richer, I think it's a quiet night in for me. Ah... but there's jazz along the Shore in an hour or so... Oh damn, I parked the Alsatian.

Start spreading the News...

2007-03-27T11:33:00.000+01:00

Over the past wee while, I've been whittling away at the websites I visit regularly - getting rid of sites I don't visit anymore and deleting sites that no longer exist. I always look at the BBC news page though, and I get a daily dose of Calvin and Hobbes and Shoe cartoons. I check out Neil Gaimans site every day and I have a few music sites I look at regularly too. On top of that, there are a couple of blogs and mySpace sites I frequent, although those aren't usually updated very often. On the other hand, Mr Quartet's blog is invariably updated daily and it's almost always fascinating, or at least compelling. One thing I haven't done until now, though, is to check out some of his links. This was a mistake, because there are some beauties in there.

In particular, New York Daily Photo caught my eye. As I tell anyone who can be bothered to be polite enough to listen when I drone on and on about it, I loved New York. I was only there for a day or two, but it made a huge impression on me, and I'm dying to go back. Until then, these daily snapshots of life in the home of the weird will more than suffice as my regular fix.

I'm putting together a website for my friend Rachel, who's setting up a massage and reflexology business called Bodhi-works in Cornwall. Do pop by every so often to see how it's looking and feel free to make helpful suggestions as and when they occur to you.

I went to see Phil Nichol on Sunday night for the Evening News, and saw far more of him and his band than I bargained for. They performed the last 15 minutes or so of the show buck-naked. Thanks for that, guys. I mention this because the snapper who took the pic for the paper turned out to be a mate of Mr Quartet's and has, on occasion, taken the time to wander in and around the realms of the Wild Goose. It was soooo bizarre meeting someone who had already 'met' me via these pages.

I'm having a ball working for the hire company: every day is completely different, the people are fantastic and the exercise is, I'm told, good for me. I'd even go so far as to say I'm feeling the energy benefits already. (I'm certainly feeling my muscles ache!)

You know I work all day...

2007-03-23T21:59:00.000Z

At least two errors of fact to report: The reviews for the paper begin again on Sunday 25th March, not Monday. Actually, I had meant that I was available from Monday but that the reviews would start properly sometime next week. As it happens, one of the reviewers had to cancel and 'could I cover a show on Sunday at the Stand?' For money...? Sure!

This does mean that I'll probably be a bit tired for my 5th shift in a row at the hire company, but hey I'm a healthy boy aren't I?... Aren't I?

Which segues nicely into the second factual inaccuracy: I was looking forward to a weekend of screaming muscles and abject agony but, actually, I'm feeling not at all bad - my muscles got back into Ceilidh Band gear shifting mode much quicker than I expected them to, and - after some fairly bloody hefty shifting today - I reckon they've probably been stretched quite nicely. In fact, while this is much more arduous than the days of Wild Geese humphing, I seem to be coping well. Quite happy about that actually.

Songwriting continues apace. I've got about five lyrics that I'm pretty happy with and I just have to settle on exact arrangements for them now. They're all fairly bluesy but, hopefully with a bit of bite. I'll post them up on the mySpace music site once I've recorded them.

Baby's on the road again

2007-03-22T07:23:00.000Z

None of my paintings sold in Battersea. That's not the damning indictment it might seem to be, because apparently, out of all the work taken there, only one painter sold any. The main thing is that the gallery seem to have been as surprised as anyone and no blame is being attatched to anyone or their paintings. From my own perspective, I'm still an abstract painter and I'll find the way to make a living as such.

Making a living is very much on my mind at the moment. Dying to make a living, in fact. I started working freelance for a lighting and staging supply company here in the capital - on Monday. I woke up a whole plethora of previously dormant muscles in the process and, on Tuesday, they thanked me for it.

I have a bunch of days booked this week and then in April, the first three weeks are booked solid, give or take a day or two and will be filled with driving and humphing gear around. And then, hopefully, more dates will be added. On top of that, I'm back in action for the Evening News from next Monday, so the drinks are on me, if I can muster the energy to actually get to the pub.

If the work can keep flowing, then that'll keep me going till I can start making a living as a painter.

The A9 beckons: Andy The Bass and his family are off to Inverness, because Chelle got herself a new job there. I'm not actually sure what the job is, but I know it's something medical. Whatever it is, it's taking my favourite bass player away, which is just not fair! Seriously, though - all the best to them both, and to David and Mathew. And don't forget to pack some extra sweaters... I remember how cold it is up there.

Ain't it funny how time slips away

2007-03-21T09:43:00.000Z

It's now been two whole years, give or take an hour since my Mum died. How did that happen? A new friend of mine said recently that the second anniversary had more potency than the first - I don't know about that, but she's been on my mind since I woke up, so here I am: saying good morning to her.

It's been a journey and a half, getting from there to here. It feels like I've experienced more in the last 2 years than I have in the last 20. In every way. I do know that without the love and friendship of a certain few individuals, I wouldn't be in the shape I'm in today. I wouldn't be a painter, I wouldn't have learned the things I've learned and I would know where I was going the way I do now. So thank you to SA, ST, Mr SP, my kids, Andy The Bass, Phil and everyone who held, hugged, supported me or yelled at me whenever I needed it.

I feel very much blessed.

Mrs Helen Lennon

G'night Mum

Carless and slightly thrakked

2007-03-08T09:53:00.000Z

The last month or so has been filled with much artyness. As previously mentioned, the gallery wanted six pieces from me to take to London, and now they have them. I finished the paintings - which was surprisingly exhausting but very satisfying. They're up on the website which I'll soon be redesigning yet again - this time focusing on this new work I'm doing as an abstract painter.

The existing site will still be there, but it'll be accessible via a 'secret' link - oldsite.htm or index2.htm... something like that. I know I have to concentrate on a single style for commercial work, but I quite like having the older and different stuff up there.

It also means that I can continue to put up audio tracks. Speaking of which, there are now a couple of 'new' guitar loops online - this is the last of them, so that's the full set up there. I've been writing songs in between paintings and, now that the brushes are put down for a while, I'll pick up the guitar and start recording them any day now. Like as not, I'll probably stick those on the mySpace site too.

I'm now starting to find random friends from around the world, as well as a few more local ones via the magic of mySpace. Mr Q, Hannah, ST and Kat have all joined in but I was kinda surprised to also be befriended by a few folks I don't actually know. I guess that's kind of the point of mySpace though.

I missed out on yet another reunion earlier this month. I'm crap at getting along to these and I really have to change that. I also missed out on a performance by Mr Q, which I'm very irritated by cos I wanted to go and see him do his stuff. Do another one please, Mr Q. I need a diary. Or a PA or something.

My wee Peugeot has finally sold, sadly and for a pittance, but something is always better than nothing. Unless you're a nihilist, of course.

Incidentally, this blog is now apparently worth $2,258.16 or £1,167.97. The question I want answered is - to whom?

Pussy Control

2007-02-17T09:36:00.000Z

Once again, ages pass between posts, and I have no excuse but for the fact that I wouldn't want to bore you all (however many you are) with the minutiae of my daily life, so I prefer to blog when there's something to blog about. You'll thank me later.

The commissioned painting, entitled Autumn, is done and sold, and is also up on the website. It's new owners have also graciously offered to loan it back for any exhibitions it might be useful or appropriate for, provided of course, that it doesn't get inadvertently sold.

Sadly, I missed a get together with the guys earlier this week, but it was, at least, in a very good cause. Hendrix the cat, that I once owned - or to put it more properly, who owned me - was in need of a trip to the vets for a check up. It turned out that, among other things, she was feeling a bit on the stressed side living with 2 bouncy children, arguing siblings and another (albeit happy and friendly) cat, so she came to live with me again.

Hendrix - Mistress of all she surveys

Also sadly, I'll miss the almost impromptu birthday drinks-do for SA this evening. It would have been lovely to be there, I'm sure, and I will be there if only in spirit, but I had made arrangements to go over to Strathmiglo for GG's 40th months ago. I have a good idea that SA's booze-up will go well regardless, though.

Now, back to painting...

Everywhere you go...

2007-02-05T23:18:00.000Z

Life doesn't imitate art quite so much as it seems to follow the weather. Edinburgh's weather in particular. You know the one - sunny, raining, snow, cold, warm, scorching - all within the space of an hour. It's like a bad episode of Star Trek.

It just seems like since my second to last post, I've gone through the entire gamut of moods, circumstance and attitudes. The good news is that, for the most part, they've been positive and they've all been entirely instructive. Certainly, none of them have had anything but positive outcomes.

I took a couple of pieces (Blue Landscape and Light Landscape) to a gallery, for example, to test the waters. The response I got was fabulous - enthusiastic, informative and very encouraging. The immediate net result is that I've been invited to take part in an art fair in Battersea, showing 4 - 6 paintings.

News from the website: having finally taken a decent photo of it, a another old acrylic - Furnace - has been added to the abstract gallery. There are also a bunch of new tunes on the Electric Motion page.

Something I learned at the gallery though, was that my website is way too diverse. There are so many different styles on display on it, that it's hard to tell what I do exactly. In a way, it's an illustrators website, rather than a painter's. So I guess that means that at some point in the near future I'll be focusing on paintings in my own voice, rather than illustrations in a variety of styles. Which is progress.

There's a real crackle of energy in the air and I, for one, am loving this weather.

Shock the monkey to life...

2007-02-04T11:54:00.000Z

Yet another lengthy period without posts while work was being done, play was being enjoyed and angst was being endured. So... life, then.

The website has been updated, partly to add a few new bits and pieces, but mostly to get it more into shape for me to do some actual business. Now that this has been done, I can visit or send out cards and emails to galleries and see about getting a few pieces into shops. Hopefully the visitor rate to the site will increase as well. I now need to investigate online directories and perhaps a bit of web-optimisation needs doing while I'm at it.

But of course, the site would be pointless if there wasn't a steady stream of new work going up there to keep people interested. Right now, I'm painting two new canvases - the new versions of Trees And Light and Memory that I mentioned before. Once they're done, I have a new canvas I want to complete and several watercolours, all of which should be going up during the next week.

I also put up a higher resolution version of the drawing of my kids and corrected an embarrasing mistake: Monkey Jacket, as it was previously called, is now more properly named Orangutan. Silly boy.

Sometime in the next few days I'm going to add another couple of guitar loops to the newly redesigned music pages, in the hope that the likes of Mr Quartet or Andy The Bass might give them a good slagging, or more preferably a jollier remark or two. Regardless, it's about time that some new music went up there, doncha think?

As if all of this whacky website stuff wasn't enough, I finally decided to try to make use of the mySpace site I set up in October last year, as previously mentioned. I'm not convinced that mySpace is of any use as a promotional tool, but a lot of people seem to have them. Turns out that, despite my so called affinity for technology and the internet, I had no idea how to get music on mySpace and I set up the wrong kind of space. So now I have two of them. I'm putting up bits and pieces of artwork on one of them, and music on the other. Links are also up on the right hand side, of course. Feel free to browse, ignore or even add yourself if you have a mySpace of your own. Can't promise I'll know what to do if you do, though...

Back through the years, I go wandering again...

2007-01-25T23:19:00.000Z

What a week.

I had a meeting today with a business adviser who reckons I'm in great shape to set up in business, selling paintings. I have a business plan to do and there are a whole bunch of seminars I can take to help me get clued up and get me firing on all cylinders. I've tried starting a business before, but this time I have far more confidence and a lot more in the way of resources. I have people willing and able to help me - at least through the teething stages, and probably beyond. In any case, the business side of this particular venture is more to do with keeping records and suchlike, than understanding finance or corporate and employment law. Marketing is more or less covered intitially, and I have a bunch of ideas to consider and put into practice, not to mention the help of some very clever people.

On top of which, I got my first official commission (though not my first sale - far from it) for two new paintings. One of which is a variation on Trees and Light, the other an acrylic version of Memory. Another two or three commissions are hovering, not quite ordered yet, but they'll arrive. In the meantime I have a number of paintings ready to do, and several experiments I want to conduct.

Andrew Hennessey, co-founder (along with yours truly) of the Wild Geese Ceilidh Band - from which this blog takes it's name - got in touch recently. He's forming another band with the same name and wondered if I still had any historical information on the original band. Several years ago, I began writing the beginnings of a history of the band, which I published on the website I had going at the time. The domain is long gone and any copies I ever had of that history were lost in various computer meltdowns over the years. Drew then told me of an amazing site called archive.org colloquially known as 'the wayback machine', wherein the entire internet is stored. Seriously. The whole thing. You can't see picture files, only the code and text remains, but it's all there. So I found my history, copied it into a word file, and plan to edit it and add to it, retelling the entire sordid story of the Wild Geese. I'll need Andy The Bass to fill in dates, some details and possibly supply a few photos from his enormous collection, but I reckon I can put that together in a few months.

Incidentally, the clue to the excitement I've been on about is very much on the website, and there are other clues within this very blog. To be fair, the whole thing may only be exciting to me, but I suspect a few people will be surprised/delighted/shocked/appalled. At the very least.

Art for art's sake...

2007-01-20T22:00:00.000Z

The new, improved, family-sized website grows by the day. There are now three (alright then, two and a half) art index pages, and thirty individual paintings/drawings/sketches up there. With more to come. It's getting very close to the time when I should start sectioning them off into... erm... sections.

On top of that, I've been reminded by ST that the site is intended to attract business and to help get me commissions - it's not the most business-like website in the world though, is it? I'm not about to start making it all corporate (Not what ST was suggesting) but there ought to be at least a page where more technical ordering information can be found. Rates will be very dependent on the nature of each order, so I may have to leave that off, but perhaps I should think about adding something more businessy.

That said, there are likely commissions en route from two seperate sources, so that's okay. In fact, it's more than okay. I've been so busy scanning older artwork (and decorating and brassing and varnishing) that I'm really getting the need and the urge to paint new work again. Everybody wins.

Incidentally, not that it'll help much, but there's a clue as to what the teaser in the last post meant somewhere on the website.

No matter how I take it apart...

2007-01-18T01:05:00.000Z

I just finished updating the website.

In fact, it's also had a bit of a redesign, too - or at least a light facelift. But the main thing is - there's real content there now. I wouldn't go so far as to say it's all essential viewing or listening, but if you're interested, there are paintings, drawings, commentary and music files (nothing brand new, they're older things I recorded over the last 5 - 10 years), but the most important thing is, it's going to be updated frequently. The paintings will expand as I paint/scan/photograph more artwork, and the older music files will rotate as soon as I convert more wavs to MP3's. New music files will go up as and when they're ready. Feel free to 'ave a squizz, and feel even more free to comment here or by email from the site.

In unrelated news, remember when I said the doors were done? I lied. I varnished them, touched up the paintwork surrounding them and now I'm cleaning and polishing the brass furniture that goes on them. Why? Well, mostly because it's fun and also because I'm getting the DIY bug. Which isn't to say I'm coming round to your gaff to do your stuff - it's just nice to know that there's something I can do that I didn't previously know I could.

There's also a little excitement in the offing which I'm not prepared to talk about just at the moment. To anyone. Suffice it to say that if it does go pear-shaped (what is wrong with pears and their shape anyway?) no-one will get to know about it. But I don't think it will.

I'm sure there was other stuff I was going to mention, but it's late and my brain stopped working fourteen css definitions ago.

I do remember one thing...

2007-01-02T19:24:00.000Z

With the damp squib that was hogmanay out of the way, I've been focusing fairly hard on the recording. And cat sitting.

I initially got about six songs fully recorded with everything but drums, what with me not having a kit set up in the scullery or anything. I haven't decided if I'll go into a rehearsal studio and add drums later, but I'm thinking about it. In any case, I was kinda almost but-not-really happy with the quality of what I'd recorded, so I decided to re-record a few of them, and I'm glad I did. For one thing, I finally learned precisely how to play a song that I've been more or less bodging for the last thirty years. Not exactly a quick study, as our colonial cousins might say. I'm not going to say that the new versions are perfect, or even good enough, but at this moment I'm happier with them than I was.

All being well, there'll be more new songs laid down before the weekend, at which point the vocals will be added. I reckon in about a fortnight or so, I might even be sticking a few tunes up online on my website.

I've been following the online adventures of Mr Quartet with interest, in particular, the vast expanse that is/has become his CD collection. I'm lucky if I have a fraction of a percentage of the discs he has, and I could only count one or two albums that I have that feature in any of his charts. I wonder what his thoughts are on Mr T. Waits, esq. I got his triple CD thingy Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards (GREAT title) early in November, and I'm still coming to terms with it. It's a gargantuan epic, hard to swallow in one bite, but it's definitely a grower and soon-to-be vintage Tom. I suspect it's not the album to make converts out of people, though.

I doubt Mr Quartet would have any trouble, but - is everyone getting all of the song references I'm purloining for post titles? True, some of them are actual song titles, and several had nothing to do with songs, but there have been at least a few for which I was expecting perhaps slightly quizzical looks, but no. Nada. Let me know, why doncha?

Did I mention I love cats?

Force strong winds

2006-12-31T21:51:00.000Z

You don't have to be a Neil Young fan to get the title of this unexpected extra post, but it'd help.

Well, blow me down... literally. What a funny (weird) end to the year. At the last minute, Edinburgh's hogmanay got cancelled. It seems the city hadn't paid the weather bill, so we got all the dregs from 2003, instead of the hoped for balmy night.

On top of that, the Assembly Rooms weren't accepting media passes, so I couldn't get in there to report on their sordid goings on, so I got an unexpected night off. Good, because I now don't have to get drenched and weather-beaten, bad, because I could have done with the wages. Now, at least, I don't have the prospect of getting to bed at 4 in the morning, sodden, and with an odd g-force look on my face. I'm sitting here drying off, enjoying a decaff (can you imagine?) contemplating getting slighty more wet, by going for a glass of ale at my local hostility. Only the one, though. I'm cat sitting at the moment. Well, all right - maybe two. It is New Year, after all.

And what a New Year! ST's flight got delayed, SA's car (well, her mums... her own one is wee and the wind-proofing wore off a long time ago, like mine) developed a slow puncture, impeding her plans to party like it's 2006, and Procrasto-Boy lost his wallet... The good news being that ST got there in the end, SA sorted the tyre and reached her destination and PB's wallet was handed in, cashius intactus. But talk about a litany of near misses...

So there we are. That was the year that was. Now, where did I put my 2007 diary...?

I could see the city lights...

2006-12-31T15:10:00.000Z

Hogmanay.

Traditionally it's supposed to be a time to celebrate the years' successes and to put sorrows behind you. In fact, I think it's more of an emotional rollercoaster than that, because all your joys and sorrows just seems to be magnified beyond all reasonable proportion, and it takes at least two weeks to get them back in their proper respective boxes. That doesn't mean, however, that it has to be that way.

Also traditionally, we're supposed to make resolutions. Considering that there seems to be an equal or greater tradition of breaking those resolutions almost as soon as they're made, I think I'll pass. What I will do, however, is make plans. Most of them include the word 'more' - more musicking, more artwork, more pizza, more time for friends, but some will include the word less. Less doubts, less self-obsession (what am I doing with a blog then, eh?) less procrastination, less intensity and above all, less negativity. In other words, next year I want to be the best that I can be. And the New Year starts here.

All that said, I have been busy. Painting has been slightly on hold since I got the 16 track back, and since working with it again, I've been realising something. Obvious once I saw it, but it's eluded me for years. There's a world of difference between performance standard and recording standard. Whenever I've been recording before, for the most part I've always known that the recordings were never going to be heard by more than a few people besides me, whatever the stated aim might have been. As a result, I haven't necessarily paid as much attention to precise playing as I ought to have done. Now that I know that someone else is going to be putting their name to these recordings, it has become clear that, while I play fine in performance, I'm not really up to recording standard. Because of that, it's taking me at least three times as long to get a part recorded to a sufficient standard. This isn't me being picky or too much of a perfectionist... this is basic 'not flubbing notes' stuff.

In time, I'll get it fixed so that it shouldn't take more than a few passes to get the right result, but for now it feels like I've gone back to school again. I'm also noticing that, because I have to focus so hard on accuracy, the feel is slightly missing... hopefully, that will be fixed once the accuracy issue is dealt with.

In a conversation earlier, I described this as a mixed year, with the emphasis on the negative side, but actually, that's not really true. This has been a year of hard lessons. Hopefully, for once, I'll have been paying attention and might actually have learned something this time.

I can't say I'm desperately looking forward to this evenings' celebrations. I'll be in Princes Street Gardens covering three events with a third of the number of words I normally get with which to cover a single show, both a blessing and a curse. On top of that, I'll be doing it in gale force winds with horizontal rain, if the forecast is anything to go by. It might not be so bad, but I'd rather see bands I know well. It's the Dykeenies, The Fratellis and a ceilidh for me. Sober. Rapidly returning to Bah Humbug mode, I have to say.

Still on that note, it is time to work towards a positive new year, not just a happy one. With that in mind, I wish you and yours all that you might wish for yourselves, and more besides in the coming months.

Still dont know what I was waiting for...

2006-12-28T11:10:00.000Z

As the new year approaches, lurching ever closer, it seems that new blogger is upon us/me already. I converted the blog to the new blogging engine yesterday and, as far as I'm concerned, it has naff all impact on me. Well, it loads and publishes a bit faster, but most of the new bells and whistles don't desperately interest me. One of the new features appears to be the ability to blog from your mobile! I don't know, I haven't checked it out comprehensively - but that thought somewhat frightens me. Is there nowhere to go that technology won't follow, biting at our arses? Thank the lord for off switches.

It did raise a semi-thought in my head though... once everyone in the country has a blog and pretty much communicates with everyone else using it, then instead of new labour, we could have the new blogger political party. Instead of voting conventionally, everyone has to vote on everything - from the smallest, tiddliest questions to the most enormous issues - in a referrendum via their blog, or face getting their internet feed cut off... fascist democracy!! I'm sure Andy the bass will have something to say about that.

Mr Quartet asked when a CD might emanate from the goose-cave. Well, I'm not sure if it'll be a CD as such, but with the digital 16 track now up and running again, more music has begun to be recorded. Gawd, I've missed recording! I'm working on a project, which some of you may be aware of and which has me giddy with seat-wetting excitement, doing a bunch of covers. It's very much an ongoing thing and, given that they're covers, putting out CD's might (rightly) incur the wrath of the PRS, so that won't be happening anytime soon.

Some time in the new year, however, Louisa and myself will be writing, recording and performing new tunes in a duet format. This project comes on the back of an earlier post where I mentioned my three favourite ever gigs, and it's a continuation of the evening where the band, minus Lou, played ceilidh tunes at half speed. The plan at the moment is to write tunes with a celtic feel, but with nods to other genres - bulgarian, romanian, turkish stuff, together with a little jazz and Crimson style stuff. It could easily be a sticky, gooey mess, but it could also fly.

I also have a half project bubbling in the back of my head involving guitar loops. I did an albums' worth of pieces a few years back, and I still have a hankering to do something with the format.

I did a couple of pieces of artwork over the last couple of weeks, both of which I forgot to get photos of. Doh! ST asked for a very specific abstract/pattern piece not dissimilar to the square abstract I put up in a previous post, and, having lived with it for a few days, she seems entirely pleased.

SA on the other hand knew nothing about hers until Christmas day. It's a drawing in pencil, with body colour (AKA gouache) of the Magic Cottage, based on a photo I took ages ago. She wasn't expecting it (and had in fact, expressly forbidden me to do a painting for her, since I should be selling these beasts, but I got round that, cos it's too specific to her to be sold, and anyway, it's not a painting!) and suffice it to say that she was rather chuffed.

Now, back to the 16 track...

Imagine...

2006-12-25T01:45:00.000Z

So, this is Christmas
and what have you done?
Another year over, and a new one just begun...

A very merry Christmas,
and a happy new year
let's hope it's a good one without any fear.

(Yes, I know those aren't the words for Imagine. That's because Imagine is the title of the post, not the name of the song from whence the words came)

... There's no need to be afraid

2006-12-22T21:14:00.000Z

Ah... Christmas.

It's been ten days (more or less) since I last posted. Seems like ages and ages, but I suppose that's what happens when there's stuff going on. Time... it's a funny old fing, innit? It's destructive capacity and it's curative ability seem to be limitless...

Right. That 's more than enough philosophical nonsense!

Since my 'day job' hasn't had any work for me, I've been trying to paint more, with limited success, but I have knocked a few beezers out. Well, I like them anyway. Pictures to follow perhaps, but not till after the holiday season. My other job sent me to see a couple of exhibitions with the reviews to be published on the 26th and 27th. The first was bizarre and horrific - being Goya's etchings of the origins of bullfighting and the events of the Peninsular war in the 18th century. Plus a few other pieces he did on no central subject, but with the general theme of weirdness running through them. All in all, there was enough gore and gruesomeness to last me a lifetime.

Fortunately, the second exhibition was completely different. It was more of a 'greatest hits' by predominantly Scottish artists at the Leith Gallery on the shore. Much more in keeping with my current frame of mind, no one was being gored or strung up on trees and such. I'm sure there are plenty of people who are fascinated by that stuff, but I'm not one of them, I'm afraid. Unfortunately, as a reviewer, I have to be objective. I'd have loved to have said everything I thought about Goya's etchings instead of just the fact that, yes, they were groundbreaking both for content and technique and yes it was a well designed exhibition, but objectivity rules. C'est la vie.

I was reading through all the blogs and Myspace sites that I visit regularly, and one of the interesting things I spotted was that fabby singer/songwriter, Hannah, once of the Star Bar Open Mic nights, now resident of London has gone and linked to me on her blog... I've been reading hers since I knew she had one and have, like her, been meaning to stick up a link, so it's there now - top right.

Once again, the mighty Dan Thomson came to the rescue recently. My car, having had to have a tyre replaced at the weekend, then needed a new battery, which within the space of a few hours he managed to get and fit for much cheapness, despite the fact that this is a busy time of year. Yay for Dan, he's highly recommended so get in touch if you want his details. The net result, however, was that these costs bit dearly into my Christmas budget, so anyone who was getting a present from me is now getting lumps of coal.

It is Christmas and, as usual, I'm crap at sending cards. I do actually have cards for people, I just haven't sent them yet. So I'll get them sent and you'll all get them for Valentines Day, I'm sure. (I'm certain that Andy the Bass has this blog on RSS, cos I had only just posted this, when he sent a comment in, apologising for not getting his cards off. Like... he's got a new baby - who expects a bleedin card??)

In keeping with recent tradition, I'm sure I won't be posting very much over the festive season, but you never know. In any case, I want to thank everyone who's been reading this blog faithfully so far this year (no names, I'd only blub) and I hope you all get what you want from Santa, and have a really good Christmas.

So hard to find my way...

2006-12-13T02:39:00.000Z

Another image through trees.

Brown Fire, although not the first thing that everyone's thought when they've seen it. Ah, the power of abstract paintings.

I've not been posting much recently. Partly, this has been because I've been busy either reviewing, stripping doors or, as evidenced above, painting. There's another two on the drawing board and several in my head waiting for my fingers to grasp the watercolour brushes. Another reason is because I simply haven't felt like blogging very much recently.

Christmas is coming, the goose is actually losing a little weight, I feel. This goose anyway. At least if I'm not losing any, I'm at least toning up. Which is no bad thing. As to the probable cause of this trim, not-quite-svelte me, I should be finished with the stripping of the doors tomorrow (actually today, but who's clock-watching) and then I have more painting to do. I very much doubt that my current 'employer' will have any work for me for next week either - being so close to christmas, having had none for me for the last two. Joy to the world, indeed. I'll find out on Thursday.

Some time in the next few days I'll post a pic of one of the other paintings I'm working on, then after that there ought to be a gentle flow of watercolours. I'm looking forward to returning to the medium - it's been too long.

Strip, sliding away

2006-11-29T18:55:00.000Z

I've been stripping, scumbling and playing with a big muff...

Right. In order:

ST has some (a lot of) nasty paint, pretending to be varnish on her internal doors. Some of it seems to have been painted on lightly, while other bits seem to have been applied by some strange process involving superglue and a pact with some devil or other. What ought to be a simple matter of nitromorsing, followed by a little brisk wire-wooling has turned into a multi-layer nitromors coating, industrial grade orbital sanding, scrubbing, chiseling, sand-blasting enterprise. Who'd have thought paint could be so resiliant? Or so dusty! Apparently, no surprise to any real decorators out there, it's spead dust all over the house. Damnation.

Paint, is of course, the object of the second word above. Scumbling, dry-brushing, scraping, palette-knifing... all means of getting paint on - this time to a canvas. I've been working on a couple of paintings, one of which I started weeks ago and have been in limbo with since then. I've finally seen what I want to do with it, so I'm doing it. (And, as of this quick update, I've done it!) The other one is an abstract which has been floating about in my head for about six months, which finally I'm in the process of nailing. (Or in fact, doing something completely other, which I'm just as pleased with) I'm itching to get down to watercolour, ever since I managed to find a copy of an out of print book by one of my favourite watercolourists, G. John Blockley. Irritatingly, there's almost nothing of his work represented on the internet as far as I can find. There are a few acrylics he did late in his life out there, but otherwise it's all ads for yet more out of print books.

As I type this, I have a DVD playing, featuring the talents of one John Martyn esq. By happy coincidence the song he's playing is the legendary Big Muff. A fantastic song featuring an ancient echoplex delay unit... practically an antique these days. It also features an effects pedal called, unsurprisingly, a big muff. I got the DVD ages ago and just haven't been able to find the time to stick it on. I'm mostly just listening as I paint, but it's nice to watch how the master (and songwriter) sings and, more importantly, plays May You Never. Eric Clapton, my arse.

The man with the singlemost eclectic, comprehensive and just plain impressive musical taste and CD collection I've ever known, Dave Reilly, left a delightful comment to my last post. Bless 'im, I'm quite sure he could play the whole Lamb Lies Down album, never mind just Carpet Crawlers. And I'm not talking about on his CD player. It is weird and funny thinking about them old days though, I have to say. Supper's Ready on an acoustic guitar, indeed. What a pretentious twat I was capable of being...

And the three gigs I admire most...

2006-11-27T19:30:00.000Z

So much for me blogging more regularly...

I've been thinking about gigs. I plan to return to active duty in the not too distant future in one form or another, and I began thinking about the best gigs I ever played. That's to say, not the best performances from the point of view of the audience necessarily, but gigs that I felt were more musical. Where I and/or the band seemed to connect to something other. Perhaps that sounds a bit wanky, but I know what I mean. As far as I can recall, these are chronologically correct, and I'll mention them oldest first.

Many, many years ago, around 1982 I think, I was first on a triple bill of local bands most of which featured various mates, including if I recall correctly, Mr Dave Reilly. The gig was held at what is now (and may have been then) the Bedlam Theatre. I was singing my own material back then and I began with an odd little unaccompanied song called Borderline Cases which segued into an accompanied number called Songs And Tunes. I believe that was the first time I'd sung either song in public and it was certainly the first time I'd sung Borderline Cases acapella. It's not so much my performance I remember, as the silence of the audience. They didn't seem to have expected that and so they seemed to be paying more attention than I'd expected. I recall floating off stage after the set.

The second gig was not long after the Wild Geese returned from India. In fact I have a feeling it was the very day we got back! Andy The Bass can confirm, perhaps. We were due to play at the Gleneagles hotel, but I don't think we knew what the event was. It was an agency gig and details were spotty at best. Lou had been ill en route home, so we contacted a dep fiddler that Andy knew and headed off to Scotlands' mid-west. It turned out that we were to be what Brian Eno might have called Music For Stupidly Expensive Dining. So, no fast, crazy Wild Geese repertoire and no nasty rock and roll. We were - Andy and me - fans of Denis Cahill and Martin Hayes and so we got Cammy, the dep, to slow all the tunes to half speed and play them with a lilt. It felt like we were playing the tunes for the first time, yet better than we'd ever done them before. The 'audience' were mostly concerned with the contents of their vol au vents and whether the salmon was fresh or not, but personally - a very big door opened for me, which Ceilidh music has so far not opened again.

The third and final gig was an odd little thing which I organised, partly because I was missing live performance a year or so after the Wild Geese disintegrated. I gathered a group of people - Andy The Bass, Bill The Sax, Dave The Digeridoo and Tanya The Bassoon - and we played a variety of songs in a seriously weird and warped way. The one which people said brought the house down was Cat Stevens' Wild World, sung by me, accompanied only by Tanya The Bassoon. I have NO idea what prompted the arrangement, but it worked a treat. I also got to sing, for the very first time in public, Todd Rundgren's The Wheel and The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway by Genesis... the songs from which my kids got their names.

Got the whole thing down by numbers...

2006-11-21T07:48:00.000Z

This, not so much a post, as an interim update.

I've given in finally and installed a free hit counter on the blog. Way back (when I were 'lad) when I first began dabbling with building websites, a hit counter was just a little box and a line or three of javaScript which literally simply counted the number of people who arrived on the site and added a new number to the total showing in the little box. (remember the box?)

Annnnyway, the one I have now does a fair bit more. It'll tell me how many people visit the blog, what time of day people look at the blog, what page they land on, what their isp is, what their referring page is (where they've come from, in other words) and what they had for lunch that day. (I made that last one up)

All I wanted was a rough idea of how many people visited the blog.

It all seems a little bit 'big brother' to me, but I get that the kind of information hit counters collect can be used to optimise a site, based on how people use a site. I only wanted the blog so I can witter publicly, so I'm unlikely to use the information to change it. The one thing it's shown me so far, though, is that more people read it than I thought, so I feel I ought to add to it more often than I have been. Which is why I wrote this entry.

I'm happy to see that Mudgly Mudgeford has accepted the challenge to be 'tagged'. His most recent blog entry is his response. He also asked me in an email how to sort out the commenting feature on his blog - and while I publicly apologise for not responding to his email - I will soon, honest - I'm not sure I can help. Internet 'technology' (Can a thing be a technology if it isn't shiny, has wires and buttons and makes beeping noises?) moves ahead very quickly, and I'm not necessarily good at running. I get out of breath easily.

Regardless, I was intrigued to see what Sir Mudgeford put in his tag, or rather, what he omitted. And as he says, it's now up to the serial procrastinator to keep the kettle boiling.

Time takes a cigarette...

2006-11-16T11:20:00.000Z

In direct response to Andy the Bass' comment, I thought I'd post another pic... This CAN'T be the same person, can it?

This is what happens when you smoke cigarettes. This poor chap is only 14 years old and already he looks like a 46 year old man.

Stranger on the shore

2006-11-14T23:18:00.000Z

The time was 1992, the location was Water's Close on the Shore in Leith, directly above Martin Wisharts restaurant, and next door to what was the Leith Oyster bar and is now The Waterline bar, but who is this handsome stranger and what has he to do with this blog?

It couldn't be our intrepid blogger as a
young man could it? Surely not...!

Papa’s got a brand new tag

2006-11-10T14:34:00.000Z

(Apparently, this post wasn't showing up correctly in IE. I use Firefox myself, so it looked fine to me. Apologies. I fixed the code (I hope!) and have learned NEVER to pre-write a blog entry in Word again. It always did have code that confused the hell out of browsers, which I foolishly though they would have fixed by now.)

This is my 50th post...

It would seem I’ve been ‘tagged’. Unfortunately, like Hannah, I only know three other bloggers who might do it – namely Justin, Neil and Dave, and I’m not entirely convinced that they won’t just look funny at me through cyber-space, muttering “Tag? What’s he on about? Tag…” Still, Hannah did tag me and she DID find my capo for me, after all, so here goes with my bit…

For a filthy smoker, I’m in irritatingly good health. Aside from the odd cold, a wee bit of (what feels like) arthritic twinging in a few joints, together with fairly regular back pain and the inability (not to mention complete lack of desire) to run for more than a few yards, I feel fine. I had most of my illnesses and what have you when I was a baby. I spent most of my first two or three years in and out of hospital. The only other things I ever had were ingrown toe-nails, a bout of pneumonia and a few scratches and scrapes received during uncharacteristically energetic play as a boy.

I once locked myself out of a hotel room in the dead of night, half to three quarters asleep and... buck nekkid.

I play drums. Not often and not all that well – proof of which is the fact that I don’t drum for anyone, but I have been behind a kit on many occasions and feel just at home there as behind a guitar and microphone. Hell, I can even drum in two time-signatures at once. Can’t paradiddle to save my life, though…

Speaking of music, I began playing guitar at the age of 12, although I had picked up and assaulted my big brother’s spanish/classical guitar at around the age of 10. I was taught the basic open chords by our school chaplain, John Creanor, in a class with over 40 other kids. Two or three years later, an English teacher named Tony Boyd (who subsequently went on to become a travelling clown in America, as a more fulfilling career choice) taught me Davy Graham’s ubiquitous guitar player’s tune, Anji. It’s the acoustic player’s equivolent of Stairway To Heaven. It all went downhill from there, pretty much.

On one occasion while visiting the island of Barra with the school folk group, it was decided that one of our number – Danny Ianarelli, a black belt in karate – would do a wee self-defence demonstration. For some reason that year, I was depping on drums. I say drums… it was a snare, hi-hat and bass drum, and at the time I could barely play all three at the same time. Still… as part of the self-defence demonstration, I was supposed to ‘attack’ Danny with a drumstick. Standing in amongst the audience getting ready, I realised that I had forgotten the drumstick, so I decided to 'improvise' - I pretended to hold the drumstick. Danny only saw the absence of the drumstick at the last moment and couldn’t ‘adjust’ in time – NOT his fault at all. I was rushed to South Uist hospital by boat, in abject agony, with a suspected broken wrist, only to discover it was just spained – and not even badly! To this day, I have yet to knowingly break a single bone in my body. (Tempting fate or what?)

I have occasionally been known to be grumpy, hard as that may be to believe.

As a painter, I’ve exhibited in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Glasgow’s Gallery For An Art Lover (big Rennie MacKintosh place) and have sold or given away paintings which have wound up in Australia, America and gawd knows where else. I almost consider myself to be a painter, though I’ve finally come round to agreeing with people when they call me an artist. I’ve only ever done one oil painting, and that was of Miles Davis, the jazz trumpeter.

I was married for 11 years and have two children both of whom I love more and more every day, two grandchildren who are growing up far, far too fast, and all of whom make me deeply proud

...tag, boys - you're it...

I see my light come shining...

2006-11-04T07:32:00.000Z

In a spectacular conclusion to a sleepless and work-filled week, I went to Pitlochry last night in the company of ST and my daughter to visit The Enchanted Forest. Honest to goodness, as if the wonderment of nature wasn't enough... The lighting was provided by the folks at ST's old place of employment and designed by James Mitchelmore, also from ST's old work and, apart from a few cheesy ghost/halloween effects especially for the younger night time ramblers, it was gorgeous. We wandered around, being blown away by what you can do with a few bits of wood, a few thousand watts and a bunch of coloured see-through plastic. Enchanted indeed...

My poxy wee phone cam really doesn't do this any justice...

The theme was reflections... it looked like another
world was in Faskally loch

Flames coming out of the water... honest...

I had never even heard of the Enchanted Forest before this, so it was a real treat. I think an annual tradition may have just been born.

I've also just noticed that my blog has finally gone up in 'value'. Apparently it's now worth $1,693.62 or £891...

Whipcrackaway, whipcrackaway, whipcrackaway...

2006-11-02T18:58:00.000Z

This seems to be the season of non-blogging. Neil has been decidedly uncurmudgeonly and J hasn't been procrastinating online as much as usual of late. Only Dave has maintained a daily account, because I've certainly been fairly lax about blogging. Time for the whip, I say....

This has been/is my first week back in the land of work and I must say, so far it's not as painful as I thought it would be. I can still feel the creative juices swirling about inside me (apologies for the unsavoury visual imagery) so I'm not worried about turning into a mindless drone-like automaton.

Speaking of which, I'm off to see Coppelia up at the Playhouse for the paper in a few minutes. I don't know this ballet, but I understand it's a comedy about life-like dolls. I'm sure I must know a song about that...

22.34

A few conversations I've had recently have merged and coalesced in my brain (possibly mixed together by the creative juices sloshing around in there too... bleurghy) Witless rambling follows: We all have an image of ourselves - what we're like, whether we're geeky or cool, competent or ham-fisted - and I suppose that image varies from situation to situation. Memories seem to affect self-image - whenever I've been thinking back to childhood, for instance, I see myself as something of a dork.

When I was watching the ballet tonight, there were a number of children in the audience and a section of the ballet featured a 'magician', kind of a mix of the Toymaker and the Childcatcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, who made life sized dolls, one of which he tried to bring to life. All of this child-oriented thinking took me back to my own dorky, awkward childhood and I suddenly had an image of this wee boy being given the job of going into theatres, effectively 'judging' the work of professional musicians and dancers, writing about it and having some of the readership of a fairly major newspaper (probably around 3 or 4 people in reality) interested in my (dorky) opinion.

Astounding.

Rabbit, Rabbit…

2006-10-31T11:15:00.000Z

Good taste has clearly gone by the wayside as the Gilmours (possibly) settle on a name for the littlest clan member. Not (as was clearly the forerunner on the list of options) Eberhard, but Matthew Robert. To be fair, one of my choices is in there and they didn't go for either Samuel or Charles. (Students of ancient music... work it out.)

So here, with permission, is a little pic. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you... Matthew Robert Gilmour. And his minder.

Matthew Robert and David Gilmour

While we're on the subject of little 'uns... Happy birthday to my darling and far too intelligent to be related to me Grand-daughter, Abbie.

Abbie at her 5th birthday party, perfecting her "pleeeease..." expression.

How did those six years slip away so FAST??

I downloaded a free drum machine programme today. God help the world...

Hello, good evening and welcome...

2006-10-29T16:46:00.000Z

... to young Master Gilmour number two. Little David has a brother, Andy the Bass has another son and the lovely 'Chele at last has her own body back. Well, more or less, depending on the feeding arrangements.

At 7.55pm on Saturday 28th October, 2006, Eberhard Gilmour (My naming, until he's been given his own...) arrived in the world, making a gibbering, happy wreck of his father, prompting hundreds of congratulatory texts and emails to hail upon him from all over the world.

Woo, and furthermore... hoo!

I spent most of yesterday building phase two of the ST decking project, that is, the steps up to the door...

The steps, albeit under cover of darkness...

I'm reasonably pleased with it, as is (more to the point) ST herself. In some ways it was more fulfilling than phase one, because it was mostly made with recycled/found materials, with the exception of the steps themselves. I'm enjoying this project for a number of reasons, but partly because it's encouraging my ingenuity - something I wasn't previously aware of possessing.

Tonight, as previously mentioned, is the brief (for the moment) return of the Wild Goose to the performance stage. I'm just at the point of selecting a pool of songs from which to choose the two or three I'll sing. And looking forward to it immensely.

23.47

Well, that was a lot of fun and really very sad at the same time. Hannah sang her wee heart out to an audience of friends, including loads of people who've done the Star open-mic night for her in the past. It was great to see Peter Michael Rowan singing again, and to finally meet Ben - Hannah's husband to be. He took a pic of me with his lady, and when he sends it along, I'll stick it up on the blog. In the meantime, a shot of Hannah's last night at the Star bar...

I have no idea what she was singing, but
everyone (including me) clapped a LOT.

For my part, I sang In Your Eyes, Brown Eyed Girl, Solsbury Hil and, especially for Hannah and Ben, May You Never. A percussionist (forgot to get his name, dammit) leapt up when I was doing the last two and played along, seriously improving the quality of what I was doing. I know it's not good to critique oneself, but what with the forgotten lyrics and some spectacularly squint singing, I'd have to say it wasn't my best ever performance, but it came from the heart. ST was there, enjoying it and not letting me be too self-critical, so we'll perhaps leave it at that.

The percussionist played on some kind of beat box, which looked like a miniature tea chest, but had MUCH more musicality than PG tips packaging. I think it's some kind of pro thing, and I've seen at least one other drummer using one before, but I have no idea what it's called. Sounds brilliant, though, and he was a great percussionist.

Very sad to see Hannah go, but lovely to be able to contribute something to the leaving party.

Wild Goose (Slight Return)

2006-10-27T18:25:00.001+01:00

I'm deeply concerned that I may be turning into a 15 year old girl. Innit. On Wednesday I went along to review Lily Allen, whose gig at the Corn Exchange was downgraded to Studio 24. I reckon that was a shame, because she's got some catchy little pop songs and a big, grumpy bag of attitude that ought to put her in the forefront of her chosen profession in the next few years. It's nice to see that rock 'n' roll sneering still has a place in music. Forget her old man, I reckon she'll be up there in the next few years. By the time I've reached the age of 18, perhaps.

Today I finally made my way back into the world of the working person. Well, sort of. I've returned to a company for whom I've worked on a number of occasions. (No names - I don't fancy being sacked for bringing the company into disrepute like other bloggers - but if I ever call you, I'm sorry - though I'm not actually selling anything... don't worry.) I went through an assessment day today, which I passed - though I'd have been in disgrace if I hadn't, given the amount of time I've worked there in the past. My first shift starts on Tuesday, and my first full day is Wednesday. It'll be nice to have a regular income for a change.

None of that means that I'm giving up either the paper or painting, music or writing... just that I'll be able to eat and pay bills while I do those things. In fact, I'll be able to do those things more easily because I'll be earning a living from doing casual, part-time work which, while it's not guaranteed, will at least be fairly regular.

In fact, this Sunday I'll be returning to music (albeit briefly, and not in 'full-on' format) to say a fond farewell to Hannah O'Reilly, who's getting married and moving to London. Hannah was/is running the open-mic that I (sort of) started at the Star bar in Northumberland Street and Sunday is her last performance there, so I'll be joining a whole bunch of other musicians to play her out, hopefully in style. It'd be nice to see you there if you can make it.

Sunday all over the world

2006-10-22T13:27:00.000+01:00

I used to think I didn't have weekends. My first job, after school, was working as a waiter, usually five or six days out of seven. That meant that my weekend was what ever days off I had, whatever actual day or days those fell on. I've spent so many years either unemployed or doing 'alternative' work, that I don't really think of Saturday or Sunday as being distinct in any practical way, but actually, they are.

The first way is that (most of) the 'official' world stops. Banks and offices close, post stops on a sunday... there's a definite pause between weeks. It occurs to me that the internet does away with that pause - emails travel all the time, commerce continues and you can fill out any form - job application, tax return... whatever - online 24/7. I'm not sure that that's a good thing. It's nice to pause, whether at a conventional weekend or or your own days off. Which brings me to the second way. Sundays feel different. Regardless of anyone's religious proclivities, it seems to me that there's an acceptance for Sunday to be a day of rest, if only because 'everyone else is doing it'. You'd have to be on a desert island not to feel the effects of everyone else having a break on a Sunday. I think I've been trying all these years to live on some kind of internal desert island. Unsuccesfully.

I like Sundays, and sod the long, dark teatime of the soul.

Friday was ST's last day in her job, and it was marked by some majorly generous gifts - a beautiful necklace, a serious and gorgeous bouquet of flowers and a box of what look like professional chocolates. It was also marked by a get-together for drinkies in the Walkabout bar at the Omni centre at the top of Leith Walk. It was a MUCH more sedate affair than a previous 'leaving do' that ST attended. Pairs of shoes all over Edinburgh breathed a sigh of relief.

It was also heaving down with rain, which threated to cancel the following days' assault on the decking. However, by the following morning, the rain had stopped and the sun shone. Five brave souls - well, four brave souls and me - convened at ST's armed with hammers, nails, an electric saw, a dismantled wooden seat and not much idea of whether it was all gong to work or not. The plan, if you remember, was to lift up and turn the decking over, then add two more spines. We decided, having turned the bugger over, to add struts instead.

Alex, Craig and Charlie doing joinery things. Only one of these men has professional builders' crack, and it's not who it ought to be.

The 'snow' on the left of the picture is, in fact, lime. This is intended to prevent the grass growing under and through the decking, but may result in one or more of the four/five brave souls mutating into Vogons, or some other such creature. I'll keep you posted.

Later that night, I went to the 40th birthday party of a dear friend, BG. She may have joined the club, but she doesn't look it yet. Actually I have the feeling that, since older people are appearing younger than their predecessors used to a few decades ago, I may be among the last generation of older people who actually look their age. Read that again and it should make more sense.

I'm not usually comfortable in groups of people, especially people I don't know, but it was a lovely, gentle wee party and I felt very welcome.

Now, back to painting until tonight, when I have the blessed joy of witnessing 'Vampire Rock' on behalf of the paper.

Links without frontiers

2006-10-18T09:45:00.000+01:00

While perambulating around the net this morning, as is my wont, I came across a couple of things I thought I'd linked to, but realised I hadn't. What I mean is... here are a couple of links.

Peter Gabriel ran a competition recently to get ordinary people (by which I mean ordinary people with computers who know how to do things like this...) to remix his track Shock The Monkey, from his fourth album. There were loads of entries, and the winners can be found here. One or two are silly, most are pretty damn good and all of them sound fairly professional to me.

Anyone with any live music experience will laugh their asses off at the next link, but I'm pretty sure non-musos will find it funny too. Apparently, Iggy Pop's crew decided that the quality of venue provision was getting a bit haphazard, so they wrote this extensive 'rider' to better prepare said venues and their staff. It's very long, there are 18 pages of it, but it's worth it, since they're all funny to one degree or another.

Reckless and slightly knacked

2006-10-17T12:02:00.000+01:00

I spent much of the last two days building the decking for ST. The first phase of it anyway. So, here's what it looks like...

Decking: Phase One

...now all I have to do is build the rest of it...!

Actually, that's not all quite accurate. Alex and my son gave me a LOT of help with it, without which I'd probably still be at it towards the end of the week, and there's still a few adjustments to make to it. I only put one central spine down the unit, along with five 'ribs' - or horizontal spines - hey, I'm not a carpenter... I don't know what they're called! This weekend, the decking is being pulled out of the ground (four 'wooden stakes' are keeping it in place), turned over and two additional spines are being retro-fitted to make the surface more solid, before putting it back in place. I thought there would be enough rigidity to the thing, but there isn't really. I'll know better next time.

The remaining phases include a walkway going round two sides of the building and a little step section, all of which will be MUCH smaller jobs. My body thanks me for this, cos it's not sure if it, or it's muscles - such as they are - could cope with another unit like that any time soon. Yet more forms of pain I had hoped I would never become 'friends' with. Ah well... all in a good cause.

I had something of a painting frenzy last week, but nothing really productive came of it. I basically spent the entire time painting, painting over and re-painting an abstract I've had in my head for some time. I haven't been able to capture it, but I think this afternoon's frenzy should nail it. I also plan to get more work done on the landscape I've had on the board for a while. And I need to find a job.

I'm also feeling the need for some tree hugging. If I can't get to the Magic Cottage or Chisholme anytime soon, I may need to take a wander around Colinton Dell or somewhere similar. I can smell change in the air again... and my nose is right more often than not.

On the subject of change, I still haven't heard from Andy The Bass, so I'm assuming that sprog #2 still hasn't arrived, but who knows. He emailed me (and everyone else he knows) for suggestions for names. I'd like to think that at least a few of my suggestions will be considered slightly seriously at least... Well, maybe one or two of them.

Oh, and Babs finally shut up on Saturday afternoon, and hasn't been heard from since.

21.45

I've been thinking a bit. Some people say I think too much... and I do. But sometimes it yields semi-interesting thoughts. Well, I think so anyway. (!)

There's a very famous comic (famous among geeks like me, anyway) an edition of Spiderman. There was a line in it which was quoted in the first Spiderman film and by die hard Spidey fans for years before the film was ever made. The line, said by Parker's Uncle Ben, was "With great power comes great responsibility"... it became an unofficial mantra for comic book characters for years after

It just occured to me - "with great responsibility comes great power" is also true, and much more relevant in the real world.

That's all I have to say about that.

The Wilson picket line

2006-10-13T08:38:00.000+01:00

While browsing this morning, I chanced upon this little quote in Miss Snarks' lovely blog:

The (publishing) business is a cruel and shallow money trench. A long plastic hallway where pimps and thieves run free and good men die like dogs. There is also a negative side.

--Hunter S Thompson

Now, I'm not one to point fingers, and I realise that Thompson is referring more specifically to the prose publishing business, but...

In addition to the other paintings I'm ostensibly working on, I have a notion to produce a series of portraits entitled Up Close And Personal. I have no idea whether these will ever see the light of day - outwith being shown on this blog, that is - but I want to do them anyway. I already have photos of two victims, excuse me, subjects, and I'm looking for others. I have a feeling that the subject matter for this series is more likely to be male than female, given the unflattering nature of the idea, but who knows. Anyone interested in being visually abused, feel free to get in touch.

22.30pm

Those who know me fairly well will find the following statement hilarious - I like things to be tidy. Yes, yes, alright... I don't mean things like my kitchen or my living room. I don't even mean my clothes ironing basket, mainly because I don't possess such a bizarre oddity - or the ability to iron clothes convincingly, for that matter. But every now and then I like to tidy things when it's not just an art-tidy. (The process by which anyone with any creative bent whatsoever will even go to the extremes of washing dishes in order to put off actually approaching a canvas/sheet of manuscript/computer for just one more minute...)

Anyway...

The point was, I like a reasonably tidy webpage, and I don't fancy having to scroll down for miles to find a variety of interesting or noteworthy links, so on the whole, I don't put up many. Unless I find or am pointed in the direction of ones that I like. I don't know why I haven't put Neil's up before now, because he is a very funny man and many of his 'mudgly' observations fit right in with my own - his are just funnier. In a similar vein, Dave Reilly's blog is a fascinating portrait of a musician and painter and fellow Crim-lover and I've been enjoying his blog for the last few days (since I saw him at the Anderson/Wakeman gig.)

Also, I swear I am going to find out who's been playing a Barbara Streisand CD solidly for the last three days for at least 18 hours a day at full volume, and stick some toast and jam in their player before I take an axe to it.

All our yesterdays

2006-10-09T14:20:00.000+01:00

It feels like I’ve been going at a mile a minute since Friday, but of course I haven’t… this is me we’re talking about here. Having said that, it has been reasonably hectic, by my tortoisy standards.

It turned out to be a weekend for the past to catch up with me.

The interview at the castle was fascinating, to me at least. The guy, Captain, now Professor, John Forfar was a medic in the army and was one of the first of the commandos. The story was published today, and it mentions the fact that he was a consultant pediatrician at Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital. What it doesn’t say is that when I was born, up to the age of about four, I was in and out of hospital receiving all kinds of treatments, and that there’s a fair chance that, on at least one occasion, the guy probably saved my life. That blew my mind, I have to say. I guess it’s a fairly normal, if random coincidence, but it cheered the pair of us up when I mentioned it to him.

I went back to the Evening News office to write the story up and didn’t get out til 7.30 – the precise time I was supposed to meet a bunch of guys for a mini school reunion in a city centre pub. By the time I got home to pick up my car and ran a couple of errands, I was two hours and several beers late.

See what too much beer does to you?

Ralph, (Ex-teacher) Geroge R, Me, Paul, George & Jim (Pic courtesy PR)

Nevertheless, it was great to see Ralph and Jimmy again after so many years. George and Paul and I meet up fairly often by comparison, but not nearly enough, so it was good to catch up with them too. We’ve agreed to do something like that more often, all being well.

As the observant among you may well note, I've added a pic of the meet. While we were at the pub we ran into ex geography teacher George Robertson who had the gall to look the same age (or younger) than the rest of us. He's obviously not trying hard enough. See me after class, Robertson...

Much of Saturday was spent in Carnoustie with a bunch of friends, many of whom I met during the ‘Dundee – City of Recovery’ years. Several of them have had children and the occasion this time was the 3^rd birthday party of little CB. I drank far too much coffee and must have eaten more than my fair share of cake (well, it is me after all) and had a lovely time. It was my first time in this particular Bennie house and I must say it’s a nice wee place, if you can call anywhere with four bedrooms ‘wee’. I was introduced to yet more foresty goodness by Jo and I snaffled a few pics like this one...

Fallen Tree - an object lesson in the consequences of curry over-indulgence

...on my mobile. It was Carnoustie – I didn’t think to take the proper camera and tripod. Sue me.

Most people will want to skip this paragraph, cos it’s about Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman. More often than not, I have to request a gig that I really want to see, because The Boss is more about theatre reviews for the paper. Regardless, off I was dispatched (whisking PR in tow) to see the aforementioned duo perform at the Playhouse – still my favourite venue in Edinburgh for rawk music. I loved the gig, but toned down the review because I try to write in a considered, professional manner (ahem). The fan boy in me would have given them 5 stars just because they did Awaken, South Side Of The Sky and Turn Of The Century. It was the wrong venue for the way they played the gig though, I grudgingly admit. Doing the Queen’s Hall for two nights would have been better and, I suspect, more economically sensible. But what do I know? Wakeman is a funny, funny man, as this (auto)biography will attest. It’s written in the third person, but if you’re familiar with the way he speaks (together with the accidental first person reference in 1959) you’ll know it’s himself writing it. It was the first show of the tour and the boys weren’t exactly on full form, with all cylinders firing, which partially explains their meagre three stars, but it’s not the number of fluffers you play, it’s how you get out of them that counts. And anyway – these guys have paid their dues many, many times over. It’s not like they’ve got a damn thing left to prove. And yet they still do.

PR and I also bumped into DR, a man of similar musical tastes to ourselves, and it was really nice shooting the breeze with him for the first time in ages. He also emailed me on Sunday with, among other things his web address, so I can happily point you in it’s direction. He’s got a site I’m quite jealous of, bursting with music and stuff and an eminently readable blog too.

After an appropriately leisurly start, Sunday was spent as my alter ego, DIY-man. I had originally intended to put ST’s patio together, before I realised that I had to coat it with protective brown urine. (or whatever it is) So - a little painting this week after all.

It may or may not be a little known fact, but it seems that there is a little justice in the world after all. Turns out that you (ie: any individual) can send the Sheriff Officers round to, oh I don’t know – say… the council, with a demand for payment if you feel you’ve been badly done by. It’s just like those Council Tax demands that they send out to impoverished musicians and other layabouts for non-payment of their ‘digging-up-the-road’ fund. ST had a genuine gripe against them and took them to court – and they ‘settled’ out of court! Woohoo!!

A breed apart

2006-10-06T10:38:00.000+01:00

Probably the best thing about doing this blog has been the feedback that's been coming in. Regular commentators are people I speak to fairly regularly anyway, but there's something about this kind of contact that's different and I like it.

Andy The Bass, for example, has been offline with the ubiquitous 'Technical Difficulties' sign hanging over his monitor and modem. Well, no more. He's back online, commenting away and is very welcome back.

I'm also being fed links to other sites by peoples. For example, SA heard about this guy, and in particular this song and I agree with her - He's funny and the song is good. So it gets a link on the blog. If you're au fait with such things, there's a podcast you can subscribe to - I haven't gotten round to it yet, but if the song's anything to go by...

Having been a little unwell over the last few days, not only has the blog remained unwritten, the paintings I've been working on have taken a back seat. Well, I'm feeling much better so I'm getting back to the artboard. No, I'm not going to tell you what was wrong with me on the blog.

(Actually, scratch that - I've just had a call from the paper. I have to go up to Edinburgh Castle and interview a (retired, I think) commando. It's going to be one of those days, I can tell.)

And finally, Cyril...

As I type I have News 24 on in the background. There's a new tattie on the block, which doesn't boil well, but steams in half the time and tastes better than any previous tattie. Mashed, it tastes all buttery, but without the actual butter. Not sure I like that thought, but I'll give 'em a try. Got to keep my trim, sleek figure somehow. Also, aparently, there's a new breed of guide dog out there. Well, I say 'new' - it's actually a cross-breed. A mix of Poodle and Labrador called - dear god - a Labradoodle. The human race is doomed.