Friday Miscellany

Bloody hell, I've started writing like a newspaper columnist on the Evening Standard! Sorry about that if you were subjected to my bustling prose in the initial posting.
On Wednesday I chugged up the road with my amp on a trolley to the King and Queen in Foley Street, to play at Amy's Lounge. I took photos, but they didn't come out very well (the pic is of Amy) because everyone was standing in from of the window. It was lovely to hear Amy sing her acerbic songs again, and to be introduced to her singer friend Matilda Eyre, who sometimes plays a synth but was playing an electric guitar that night. She too sang gorgeous songs.

Paul Eccentric was on next. I have missed his poetry and Donna too, and on Wednesday evening we were all riveted by his hilarious grammatical complaints letters to Tesco and anyone else who dared to write 'less' rather than 'fewer' in their ads.  Foolish Girl it was great to see you, and of course Ted. What a nice surprise. Sorry to be a bit of a Pollyanna, but in a life of extremes you've got to enjoy the good bits.
 I thought Thursday would be a day off but my inbox had filled up with codas to things that I thought I had finished, so I lumbered through all that (including learning how to remove editors comments from a Word document that had been marked up using an incomprehensible-to-me part of the program), then tried to book a few days holiday in Lisbon.
Halfway through, I got cold feet and decided to go to Whitby instead, so that's where I'm going. I have my bucket and spade and my ugly swimsuit at the ready, and I hope to be living on a diet of fish and chips and Mr Whippies for the whole week.
Today Gina and me were supposed to be filming ourselves, but we had to do a bit more editing of the work-in-progress to send to a film festival in Philadelphia, and we also had to do a bit more work on our Kickstarter trailer. Everything has to be right...
Once that was done, we started filming ourselves. Gina was going to dye my hair blue but instead we filmed a guessing game, interviewed by her daughters, that ended up with us splatting handfuls of whipped cream in each others faces. Instead of coming home with blue hair, I came home smelling of sour milk.
Poo.
Oh yes, and on the way there I watched this man fixing one of my fave features of the Holloway Road, the sempervivum cat.

Indietracks Compilation

To support The Midland Railway Trust, this Indietracks album has music from almost all of the artists who played. There is a track from my forthcoming album on there; the whole download album only costs £3.00
https://indietracks.bandcamp.com/album/indietracks-compilation-2016

Amy's Lounge, London, Tomorrow

Looking forward to playing here https://www.facebook.com/events/1156301914390259/

Sunday At Indietracks

On Sunday Mike and June came to the festival; it was great to see them both; I have missed them! They treated me to pizza and curry. The sun came out, we sat and listened to the music, and then it was time to go to the platform. These photos are out of sequence, but what the heck. That's me singing 24 Hours by The Chefs as a request for someone who bought a Chefs compilation from me; there's Mike and June at a picnic table; merchandise (what a great way to meet people: I met a French Chefs fan who must have been in nappies when we were around, or possibly even a twinkle in his parents' eyes; the xylophone player from A Smile And A Ribbon, a great Swedish indie band who I saw in 2009 and raved about, and who have sadly split up but I'm going to see her new band, The Cosines; a chap who had bought Freight Train and a Cabaret Voltaire single in a shop in Oxford years ago, all sorts of people); With June early in the day before the sun came out; a signpost to Tokyo and the toilets; the audience on the train; with Tim Rippington of The Charlie Tipper Conspiracy who have a trumpet in their line-up and who defined the festival bands and attendees as 'It's basically everybody who ever got bullied at school'. Playing on that train in the guards van has got to be just about one of the best experiences I've ever had in my life. Thank you so much to Kevin Birchall for recommending me to the festival organisers! It was bliss to be around all those old trains, and it was such a relaxed place to be. I was thrilled that lots of people got on the train to listen to my set, I really enjoyed all the bands and artists that I heard and the stewards and volunteers made the whole thing really stress-free. What a pity to have to come home. Photos: Mike, June,Tim's partner and me.

Tractor

Is there something wrong with  me? I actually salivated when I passed a tractor on a transporter on the motorway today.
I was taught how to drive a tractor by an old Danish farmer on holiday when I was 10, and went charging round a field full of stubble for ages. I have wanted one of my own ever since.

More Saturday Indietracks

A real live steam train, with real live engineers shovelling real live coal- so exciting!
Graham plays in the merch tent. He is a Dainties fan who gave me some useful advice about playing on moving train, which is what I did on Sunday.
The main stage- just look at that sky. It was gloriously sunny all day on Saturday. The cast iron bridge between the platforms.

Indietracks Photos: Day Two (My Day One)

What was the point of sitting about at home on the Saturday? I hopped in the car, sat in a traffic jam for half an hour on the M1, but soon I was on a shuttle train from Butterley station to Swanwick.
I had no idea what to expect. Steampunks? Boutique festival goers? I simply wasn't prepared for such a relaxed and unpretentious couple of days. You could talk to anyone (good, because the first day I was on my own which was why I missed The Lovely Eggs and St Etienne because I was concerned about going back to my car in the middle of a field in the dark).
The pics show Chrissy Barnacle in the merch tent- I caught some of her set in the church and she sounded great but it was really hot and packed out; birds of prey; the shuttle train; an old diesel train; Vacaciones (loved their songs); a drawing that I did in the marquee (people were drawing for a download comic); the can-crushing steamroller.

Interview Tonight On Dave Hammond's Smelly Flowerpot, Cambridge Community Radio

https://www.facebook.com/events/1037223273051243/

Thatch and Chat

Yesterday was a busy day; I spent a few hours round at Gina's, while we constructed the Kickstarter site. There is still more to do and we are finishing it on Tuesday ready to go to them for approval- so it may go live at the end of next week, fingers crossed.
Afterwards I went home for a 10-minute power nap (who can do anything in this muggy weather?) and then I drove up to Cambridge Community Radio for an interview with the charming Dave Hammond, whose show Dave Hammond's Smelly Flowerpot will be broadcast on Monday- details to follow here http://cambridge105.fm/shows/flowerpot/
We talked about The Chefs, Helen and the Horns, punk, Stories from the She-Punks (of course) and he played The Raincoats, The Slits, The Mo-Dettes, and The Adverts. Because The Dolly Mixture started up in Cambridge, we talked a lot about them. I played some songs live, including making a humungous mistake in one of them, which I had to segue into a completely different song as I forgot the words. It was boiling in there- they had all their servers on at full tilt in order to broadcast live from the Cambridge Folk Festival. It was a really enjoyable evening.
There is a wonderful thatched cottage on the main road into Cambridge from the A1; it lives next to a rather drab row of shops but it struts its stuff with great panache. I stopped to take a photo on the way home; irresistible.
This afternoon, I finished pre-mastering the new album with Jono. It's sounding good, but its time for an ears rest now, till the end of August. I'm off to Indietracks tomorrow, playing there on Sunday afternoon!

Strange Times

Strange times in the big wide world, and strange times in the tiny personal one too. I got a lot done in the studio yesterday, but also had a very tearful moment at the end of one of the songs I was recording and had to take a sadness break.
When I got home I was so exhausted I slept for twelve hours; I'd been planning on doing a lot of academic writing this morning but ended up going for a long walk to wake myself up, which culminated in possibly the worst curry and chips that has ever graced a plate.
Or rather, disgraced a plate.
Afterwards, I did manage to finish the piece of writing (but had to miss out a fave price of research, which just didn't seem to fit in anywhere), and also do a bit of rehearsing for the Indietracks festival this weekend, where I'm due to do an unplugged set which means getting to grips with the difficult guitar that fights back when I try to play it. Trains and music- what could be better?
Gradually, I'm realising that I have to start to build up my own musical world again.
On another musical note, I was mortified to be too late to get tickets for The Zombies at The Water Rats. How come I didn't know about it?

Writing About Gender In Recording

I have just spent two hours working on an academic article about gender in recording studios. As usual, I've gone over the beginning time and time again, but now have to move on from that into the middle part and most importantly, the end. Deadline, this weekend!

It is so very difficult to try to maintain any sort of objectivity when you're writing something like this. It needs to be readable by everyone, and I'm only human. As I write, angry steam comes out of my ears (luckily, not any other orifice) and neutral words must flow onto the page. It's important that a person who has been inside the music industry writes an article like this, but it's difficult to be scientific when all sorts of what-ifs, and memories of being frustrated by the lack of say in what I've recorded, come knocking at the door.

Despite the obvious empowerment of artists like Grimes, there's still a trail of people (actually, both male and female) who walk into a studio with their own vision and walk out having been buried under someone else's. That's the story of so many musicians' lives.

Two hours is a long time to be staring at a computer. I need to stop and have some headspace; I'll start again early tomorrow morning.

All that being said, I'm looking forward to going into the studio this afternoon to re-record some vocals and a guitar part that could be better. I feel so comfortable in recording studios: there is a feeling of continuity in there. Life has been fractured so many times, but somehow writing songs and recording them has provided a reassuring thread that seems to make sense of it all. 

See you later, crocodiles.

I Haven't Posted Something Boring

You're so lucky- I almost posted something incredibly boring just then, but didn't.
Here is something interesting for you: the new issue of Making Waves Zine will be available from the 1st of August.
I wrote an obituary for the lovely Vi Subversa for them. Keep an eye on this link to see when it's ready to download:
http://mwzine.tumblr.com

O Students....

O studnets, when you submit your work to be marked, please put your student numbers on it. It takes me twice as long to do if I have to mark it, and then go searching for your numbers so I can input the marks into the data system. You may be sunbathing, but I am not.

Indietracks Next Weekend

Next weekend I'm heading up to glorious Derbyshire to play at Indietracks. I have a new track on their compilation album, available here:
http://indietracks.bandcamp.com

The Smartees at The Vault in Brighton

I pinched this from DJ Gremlin just now. I had completely forgotten that The Smartees had played in the Vault. He reckons this was 1978 and already we had stopped looking punky; by later on that year we'd split up. I remember wondering what to do with myself, then Carl came round and asked me to be in a band with him. I was shocked that anyone thought I was good enough on bass to want to be in a band with. He had already set one of my poems to music- Food. That's commitment!
Left to right: me and my Jedsen bass that I spent my BSA Bantam money on, Steve and his matching Jedsen guitar (both cream with white scratch plate), Carl with his red plastic guitar, and Tracy.
Joby (vocals) and Ricky (drums) are both missing. We always used to have loads of people come on stage and sing the songs with us.