Days in the life of a songwriter 26

Went to see a photography exhibition by Venetia Dearden. It was down in Brixton and we had to stumble along Coldharbour lane to get to it. The gallery is called Coldharbour London and is a great space, I think it used to be a print factory. At first I wasn’t sure about the angle the artist was coming from until I realised that the art was commissioned by a fashion house. Then it all made sense. Well almost.

I think I have mentioned that I have done some work to bring our track Dear Caffeine back to life. It has piano and violins in there now. Nick came round on Thursday night to check out the piano parts and we were joined by Rachel on violin who I met when she was busking near the Tate Modern. It worked really well and as we’ll have Tom join us on violin for the gig at the 12 Bar Club, I spent a few hours double checking the violin parts (one and two) and saving them as PDF documents so I could email them to Tom last night. I work in Logic and I might do a ‘How to’ blog post soon.

Sunday morning started in great fashion as we had two tracks played on Amazing Radio. In case you’d like to check out the show, it was the Amazing Chill on 20.11.11. Charlie Ashcroft played ‘Boy Doesn’t Meet Girl’ and then ‘Rocket Boys’ in hour two. He was filling in for Matt Jamison. They broadcast nationally on DAB and are on the olde net(te)… Then we were off to the Ideal Home Show as my partner’s company were one of the sponsors. She had to do an interview (on camera) for them, so it turned out to be a media heavy day. Sunday night mate Olaf and I went to the Bowery in New Oxford Street to check out Jordan Reyne’s gig there, supporting Marina Celeste of Novelle Vague fame. There’s a link to Jordan’s blog on the right. Jordan does celtic folk with an industrial edge. She uses machine noises and also samples her own guitar as well as voice. Visually, imaginge Pippi Longstocking living on a seafarer’s graveyard . Marina Celeste had a lot of female admirers and two very good musicians with her. Das Fluff, who were also supporting, were a mix between Sisters of Mercy, Devo and Nina Hagen.

Okay, Monday I rehearsed with drummer boy Ben, down at the Imperial College before I went to Camden for Justin Wayne’s (link on the right) musician’s clinic at the Hawley Arms. I had submitted a track to be played (amongst other demos) and got to meet a couple of interesting people. One management person and Alex Kerr-Wilson who organises smallish industry showcase gigs in London. I though it was time well spent. Also met mate Atul there and had a couple of pints as a bonus. The Dead Saints had travelled from Manchester and provided some merry laddishness that was good fun. Oh yes, the 12 Bar Club gig is next week on the 1st….. laters.

Days in the life of a songwriter 21

Right, tiny bit of entertainment before we get started. I’m not a huge fan of Carlsberg and the whole ‘probably’ thing but if you like good adverts and the odd guerilla approach then be good to yourself and check out this offering.

Did a little Pub Tour with a group of 29 peeps in Angel last week. We had exactly 2 hours 30 min to do three pubs in and we just about did it. The best moment was when I walked into the first one and said, “15 pints of Guiness please, 8 pints of ale, 3 pints of Cider……..”. The barman said, “you know, we joke about people coming in and saying what you just said!” and I said, “it must be your lucky day mate!” …..

Anyway, on Saturday afternoon I went along to Atul’s music/rock band meetup at the Comedy pub in Oxenden Street between Piccadilly and Leicester Square. Met a couple of fellow musicians, a guy who runs a rehearsal studio in Tottenham and had a couple of drinks. My mates Rick and Cris came along as well and it was a pleasant Saturday afternoon. There is the prospect of possibly promoting a gig together in the future.

Sunday night was Bollywood night (Star Parivaar) at the Wembley Arena and we went as well. We needed to help someone pick up an award and were rewarded with some great Bollywood dance performances as well as some great music by the great Ustad Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, here’s a little taster. I was less impressed by some of the guests’ unwillingness to stick to their ticket numbers. Well, our seats were occupied by some gentlemen who clearly thought that they were beyond reproach. Two stewards failed to make an impact and we found ourselves different seats, but for some reason a small Indian looking woman steward sorted them out in the interval. She wouldn’t take no for an answer. Bless her. We stuck to our new seats as we had already made much better friends there.

Monday night we had a little session with drummer Lloyd Musto, as we can’t always expect Jari to fly over from Finland for a gig. After that I went to Justin Wayne’s musician’s clinic in Camden at the Hawley Arms where I managed to catch the second half. Lawyer Leonard Lowy talked about management and when to get a lawyer and Atul and I were impressed by the ‘industry’ advice one could glean there. I shall be there next time and I’ll be on time. They listened to some demos that people had brought along. Their usual panel of experts is about 4-5. Good stuff.