Delta ladies poster for the L'Pot Ethique
A little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come apon you like a robber.
When I feel very depressed, or maybe a better way of saying: when I am very depressed, I can handle very little stress. I am irritable. Very small things can make me snap completely, and this is very hard to handle for the people around me.
I passed by the field of a sluggard by the vinyard of a man with no sense and low it was all overgrown with thornes and the ground was covered with nettles and its stone wall was broken down then I saw and considered it I looked and received instruction
A little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come apon you like a robber.
Some people
Some people just drive you mad…
April news round-up
OK, well I am still here just about, though feeling a little fragile at the moment.I have been giging a quite bit, between 2 and 3 gigs a week with Elephant Shelf & the Deltas so that’s kept me suitably distracted. I still don’t have much of a long term plan, but it seems to me that much of what used to constitute my life has blown away on the wind somewhere.
An average day for me when not gigging consists of about 3 hours of piano practice and maybe working on writing new material and working on ideas for demos. Also updating web stuff, and trying to keep my rusting programming skills intact, so that if any freelance stuff comes in I am actually ready to roll. I do miss the routine of going to an office and the certainty’s that it provides. Mood-wise I have been quite low on a couple of days, and that has made the day to day mundane stuff difficult to get through. I have lost a lot of confidence and really do feel that would be quiet a good idea to retire to bed and stay there most days.
Depression and Aggression
I have just googled this and its very relevant to the way that I feel a lot of the time.
http://johnbokma.com/mind/depression-aggression.html
Well worth a read.
What ever
Am I bothered.
Tales of mystery and imagination.
The internet is a strange animal that constantly changes the colour of its coat and its behavior.
By turns informative, frightening and often ludicrous. Internet forums are a subset of this but usually the same rules apply.
People make unsubstantiated claims and yet often without realizing that they have already presented evidence to the contrary, Youtube is a great leveler in this respect amazing what folk will post on there. Video evidence for all to see. Makes you wonder if people think your daft… You can’t fool all of the people all of the time…
There are a few folks who play the internet game well often pushing their profile quite a bit, still that’s entertainment!
Blessed are the Cheese Makers
Some of you maybe aware that I am in the web business as well as the music one. I built my first website in 1998, it was rubbish but you have to start somewhere I guess, I got in to commercial IT for quiet a while and then began freelancing.
I currently host about 35 web domains. What is interesting to note is the parallel between web design and development and music. Everybody can buy a computer and get a free web site and put music on the internet. they can do this very cheaply and along with perhaps millions of other songwriters, and they can also try to sell their own product.
The problem with this is everybody wants it for free
- Everybody knows how to click a mouse => This makes them an expert on the web, E commerce and social networking…..
- Everybody has a friend who is a brilliant singer songwriter=> if you you can only join their fanclub, or vote for them or support the gig they are doing with ten other bands at the Dog & flea pit, its only a fiver to get in and the bands only payed £10 to play there in the first place.
- Everybody has a friend who builds websites, => so you don’t need web developers or designers and there is always the free webs too, all of those beautiful  templates.
One million ways to syndicate pictures of your cat on the internet. Imagine that, maybe we have dumbed down just a little too far?
Diana Stone Glass Cage buy it here
Yep finally an old fashioned CD on sale on line. It’s a compilation.
http://www.cafepress.co.uk/glasscage1
February roundup
I have been very busy for the past couple of weeks, so I have not bothered to update anything on the blog, so I think now is the time.
I have just finished doing the live sessions for the Glen Patrik Elephant Shelf albums. We had 4 very intense days recording tracks. Some are complete songs and just require mixing, and a couple of over dubs whilst others are essentially rhythm tracks. Glen is providing a couple of lead vocals on tunes too.  In the 2 weeks that Glen has been with us we also managed do play two gigs with him so it was pretty hectic. During this time and on the way to our first gig with Glenn the clutch cable snapped on my car but I did manage to make it with assistance from Vicky & Glenn and some burly police types who helped get the car to a safe place a sit had broken down on the approach to traffic lights facing up hill at very busy junction not far from the north circular road in north London. it was also of course raining to add spice the event. When we got to the gig  at the the Blues Room in St Albans the gods of feedback had taken up residence, but fortunately Glenn had a cunning plan and saved the day by notching out the midrange on the system.  Due to a series of annoying incidents I was not I think on my best form and I don’t think the band were either, but the audience enjoyed it,  Glenn is a very charismatic performer and had soon charmed a fair number of the crowd.
Next day I got the AA out to tow me to the garage.  Saturday we had another gig at the Mermaid in St Albans and Glenn also played on with us, for the whole set and it was even better received than the previous gig. Monday was our first proper recording day and got off to a good start.  Tuesday  marked Robbie’s first serious recording session with double bass which really added something to the sound. Wednesday and Thursday were also pretty solidly dealt with. Some of the recording sessions were videoed too. On Thursday Evening we went to the Blues Room again and Glen sat in with Eric Ranzoni a very entertaining Blues & New Orleans style pianist.  It was a fun evening but due to the rain there were not many people in attendance. Eric will be doing a residency there with Terry & Robbie from Elephant Shelf as a Thursday night regular.
Friday I was checking the tracks we had recorded and making copy’s to go on to the PC. On Saturday we played a Delta ladies gig at Oliver’s Jazz Bar in Greenwich which despite the ever present rain was quite well attended. We had Robbie along on double bass again to beef up the sound too.