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This is partly inspired by yesterday’s gig at the O2 Academy in Islington and partly by Svetlana Vassileva’s Facebook post about doing gigs and workshops without earplugs. I’ll try not to rant, but this is of great concern, and not only to me. Yesterday evening I went to see The Cry Baby at the O2 …

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May 17

Day 32: Modern ears and the mighty Chuck Rainey

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Listening to Aretha Franklin’s recording of “Until You Come Back To Me” today with some students. Glorious groove: so relaxed it’s tough as hell (in stark contrast to the appalling piece of smug L.A. fusion I had to deal with immediately afterwards.) I couldn’t help noticing that in the first 8 bars of verse 1 …

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May 16

Day 31: End of tourette at Dingwalls and London Rock faces.

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Last gig of the tourette tonight at Dingwalls supporting No Dice on their reformation gig. The fine art of the support act: the trick is to be as unobtrusive as possible. Accept that your soundcheck is going to be shoehorned in between the end of the main act’s and doors opening. Do it quickly and …

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May 15

Day 30: The Vile Hypocrisy of Rebekah Brooks. (And some music stuff too!)

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Today’s post was meant to be a dispatch from the tour-bus on my tourette of Sarf England, but as the tour-bus is in fact my not-particularly-thrilling-or-glamorous Mondeo Estate and I’ve been too busy driving it to type blog entries, there is another matter I need to get off my chest now that I’m back home …

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May 15

Day 29: sick bassists (get well soon, Steve and thanks Alan!) and the power of charts.

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The word “sick” now appears to have two contradictory meanings, rather like the word “bad” which was so laughably hi-jacked by Michael Jackson in the ‘Eighties: as well as meaning “infirm, unwell, suffering from disease or debilitating affliction” it is also used to express approval and indicate high quality. To describe something as “bear sick” …

Tags: artist, bassist, charts

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May 14

Day 28: Day off

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blog entries

Nothing musical today. Slightly miffed at going to West Mersea for the first sail of the season and finding my boat still on blocks in the yard… Share this:

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May 12

Day 27: Guitar-wank-a-gogo: first gig on my mini-tour of the South of England.

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Great gig today at The Hobbit Pub in Southampton with Pat Davey (bass) and Richard Baker (drums) as part of the Environmental Rock Festival. Great venue: from the outside it looks like a small rockers’ pub, but once inside it starts to resemble the dwelling of the eponymous fictional species (that’s Hobbits, folks!) Level upon …

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May 11

Day 26: a quick question: favourite first line of a song?

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I’m up to my ears in it today, so a quick question to set you thinking: what’s your favourite first line of a song? Please feel free to post answers as comments here as well as on FB! Thanks Share this:

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May 10

Day 25: recording acoustic guitar and voice simultaneously part 2.

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OK, following on from yesterday’s finger-cramping entry typed on my iPhone, I’m seated at the desktop computer with a full-size keyboard and a fresh cup of coffee…. onwards and upwards. Today I’ll describe the technical challenges of the process, but first I was asked by Paul Bessell on a Facebook thread related to this “Why …

Tags: acoustic, artist, george frakes, marcus valance

May 09

Day 24: recording voice and acoustic guitar simultaneously part 1.

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