Youth Club Workshops

I have just completed 3 workshops for the Chard Youth club and will be doing more in the new year. In addition, I am currently "living" in the studio catching up on work put off due to the hectic tour season, so my feet still arn't touching the ground.

Rocklab 2004

This years Rocklab was the biggest yet! 15 really high quality bands attended, including some who brought their own practice PA's for rehearsal. This time we hired in our main PA and practice PA's saving us a lot of work on the Friday and the Monday. Thanks to Luke from Future Media for that.

It was excellent but hectic as normal. The tutors will be choosing 3 bands for the next Music Maker project which will include recording and ongoing tuition with the Rocklab tutors.

I will keep you informed on this when I know what is happening.

Tour additions

We must have been doing something right as we have now been booked for the Franz additional Glasgow dates of the 18th and 19th of December.

Tour Complete

The Franz tour was splendid as far as I can remember, very busy and kept the 3 SSE crew members on their toes that's for sure. However all our efforts were appreciated by the band, crew, and management, which is the best one can hope for.

I was also mixing monitors for the 'Kills' on the tour which I thoroughly enjoyed. We all got on well, the music was interesting, and I hope we get to meet again soon. Other support bands included the 'Beat Ups', 'Bob Log 111', 'The Zutons' and 'The Killers'. All the gig's were splendid, went well, and of course were a bit hectic at times.

Having landed and now done serious binge sleeping I am off to Slough this weekend to a conference for Pip Recording. The next weekend (26/27/28 Nov) is the Baseline Rocklab for which John (another tutor) has been doing a lot of the meetings and stuff that I missed due to being on the road. So well done to him - luckily I sorted out the PA before I went.

Apart from that, we shall see what happens next, looks as if I am gonna be pretty busy over the winter, so will keep ya informed.

Tour Update

Sorry for the 3 week delay but I am currently touring with Franz Ferdinand across Europe. We have done Ireland and Scotland and will be heading to France after gigs in Manchester and London. So far all gigs have been sold out and an extra date has been added in Glasgow (December 18th) because of the demand. I am mixing monitors for the two support bands in addition to babysitting Tilda, Franz's monitor engineer. Knackering but all good fun.

Hopefully there will be more updates by text as the tour progresses.

On the road!

I am on tour in the UK and Europe for the next 6 weeks with Franz Ferdinand which I am really looking forward to. Having worked with them 3 or 4 times over the festival season they seem a nice bunch. My notebook will not be with me on the tour bus as it is far to knickable (hence no new images on the website until November), but I will try to send Adrian (Webmaster) some written updates via text.

Recently we have started meetings for this year’s Rocklab which will take place the last weekend of November 27th and 28th. Sadly Mike Davies has pulled out this year as he is looking into pastures new. He will be greatly missed (especially by myself and John) but we do wish him all the best. All the other tutors are the same and Geoff who was doing bass guitar tuition will take Mike’s place.

We are also making changes to the PA system and hiring it in from Luke who owns a local company called Future Media. They are supplying the practice PA’s in the school and probably the main PA for the Sunday event. Meanwhile I will also start re-recording the Rocklab bands from last year now that they have had a lot of tuition from John and the other tutors. We should see or hear loads of difference and it is helpful that they have been with me in the studio before. This years Rocklab may well give us many more bands so this winter could prove to be a very busy one. Thankfully my new monitors are in a centrally heated room, luvely.

I have finally managed to get home for a couple of days off and then I am off to the Studio to fit new monitors. These sound great with loads of bottom end which should help the mixing process. The studio has also got the central heating sorted which will be much better for the equipment and me!

Adrian (Webmaster) has obviously now got his telephone line and BT even managed to connect it to the correct house at the second attempt. Updates will be back to normal from now on.

No updates ?

Apologies for the lack of updates in August and the coming September. The former is due to Carolyn's annual festival silly season where the festival and Bacardi schedules make updates hard to get together. The latter is due to Adrian (Webmaster) moving from North Wales to Devon and managing to rent a house with no telephone line. BT permitting updates should be coming thick and fast by the end of September.

A quick Update

Back from a successful and dry T in the Park. Unfortunately David Bowie was unable to play due to illness so I hope he's back and feeling better soon. I was rather looking forward to that I must say.

I've been working in the SSE warehouse all week and then prepping gear for the next gig this weekend at the NIA.

Fleadh & Glastonbury

Fleadh Festival, Finsbury Park was followed so swiftly by Glastonbury that I'm having problems remembering much about it. Bob Dylan was rather good but we were in a hotel that didn't have a bar !!

Glastonbury on the other hand was a trauma from the start, as one of our FOH guy's Adam was knocked out by a box that flew off of the bass bin riser, during high winds. He is ok but went home after spending time in casualty, which left us short for a couple of days poor Dermit!, until Huw came a day early.

Apart from the top of FOH tower blowing down, a sea of mud, & by then being somewhat behind after also putting the Football though the PA and video screens, all was finally happening by Showtime, Friday. Hurrah, and it was the only sunny day we had.

The get out was of course a nightmare trying to get boxes out of a muddy field, think we finally left 9pm Monday, thank goodness.

Rocklab Gig DELAYED

The Rocklab bands gig scheduled for this weekend (July 3-4) has been delayed until septemberish. This is due to lots of phone calls about the predicted bad weather and the stage builders not being prepared to guarantee safety of the stage. So rather than trying to move it all indoors it has been decided to go to another weekend.

This is a big shame as a lot of advertising and work has already gone into this, however it's the best thing to do for now. We did try for August 7th but no bands could make it so fingers crossed for Septemberish

Knock Out !

Just finished the Download Festival at Castle Donnington. The normal (if thats possible) main stage crew did the Snickers stage as the Metallica crew whilst another SSE crew did the main stage. We had madness and mayhem on our stage when 'Slayer' got moved to us from the main stage and were delayed. I was knocked out with a rather full bottle of water thrown from the punters while on stage trying to get the next band on. End of the 2nd show day for me. Next time I will go on with a full faced crash helmet !!

Well it's only Rock'n Roll , hey ho.

RockLab Festival Confirmed

The PA has been booked, a truck is gonna be the stage, lighting sorted and loads of advertising in the local press and radio. So it's happening unless of course it pisses it down.

Will keep you up to date on what happens next. It should be well cool as it kicks off with Johns band playing with all the tutors, followed by nearly all the bands that have been recording with us plus some local adult bands. About 14 altogether and there will be food and drink stalls etc.

All proceeds will go to charity as it will be donations only. too There are too many entrances onto the field for security.

A Possible RockLab Festival.

There should be a Festival for the Rocklab bands on the 3 July using all the bands that attended the ongoing workshops with John and recording sessions with me. We should be hiring in a PA, all the tutors should be on tap, and I know Vic has already organized the playing field behind the studio as the site. Hope it all pulls off and we haven't left it to late. Will keep you all informed on progress as it happens.

A trip to Bolton has completed my conferences for PIP Recording (a long long day but there and back OK)) and I will hopefully restart those in September/October time. Also, I have been off with SSE at the Homelands festival which marked the start of the silly season for me but I will keep in touch from wherever I am in the world over the summer. I do intend to be available for the Rocklab Festival.

RockLab Bands Recorded

We have now finished recording Aukentski (I think thats how you spell it) which completes our RockLab recording list. They did very well doing 1 cover track which everybody was pleased with.

They have been on a bit of a vertical learning curve having only been together a few months and having their singer leave added to their trauma. Nevertheless they succeeded, and I'm sure with the ongoing tutoring they will be even better next time round. We cannot have them on the website player at this stage as it was a cover version but perhaps next time.

Workshop News

The workshops with the chosen Rocklab bands have been going superbly and are continuing throughout the summer. All band members will be doing grades in their chosen instruments which will give them all a great sense of achievement. Hopefully it will also open other doors for them later in life, e.g. session musicians or the like. It has proved to be very popular and all workshops have been well attended by focused enthusiastic bands. It's been great to witness and I'm looking forward to recording them all again in the Autumn time.

The next one will be 6th June at 9.30am at the studio, with all the tutors, except me ( I will be on the road ).

Studio News

Dominic from Rocklab has been into the studio and this time it was nothing to do with the Music Maker Project. He recorded alongside his brother Dan playing a very smart 12 string. All went well with three acoustic tracks for a demo to be sent away - best of luck to him! I may have to remix 1 track at later date, like with all these things you have to live with a bit.

We will also be getting new monitors for the studio. The JBL Controls have been there since the studio was opened and are tired. Consequently they are bass light during mixing, so new ones here we come. I've done some research into what would be good, and once I've decided I'll let you know.

Also, due to a few bands either not turning up or canceling last minute there will now be a late cancellation fee of £20. This will be applied if the studio is cancelled 7 working days or less - So please take note. It is a busy studio with a waiting list so people messing about this way means someone else could have had that time.

Spring Changes

The SCC workshops have now wound up for my summer on the road but they will hopefully continue again in the Autumn (funding permitting). They where very successful and popular so it should happen.

Studio bookings continue to roll in so will endeavor to finish them all before going on the road, there's always the mad panic booking from clients who don't want to wait till Oct, who book in now.

On going teaching sessions with Jon (Rocklab Tutor) and all other tutors, with the Rocklab bands. All musicians will now be doing grades in their chosen instrument. I am also doing tutoring in studio techniques, with a select group of musicians that wish to pursue engineering.

Pip recording ongoing till May, then will also stop until Oct.

All go in March!

The Dance Competition went down very well as always with something like 70 applicants competing. It's always a very long 20hr day for me and John ( one of the Rocklab tutors ), but appears to be appreciated by all the organizers.

I have now also started workshops at Crewekerne, with the Somerset County Council PA, we shall see if they have the same success that I had at Chard.

At the studio we are having central heating put in and the finishing touch's to the carpet walling, so once that's done it really will be fab in there. I've got an influx of Pop Idol applicants wanting to record at the moment so that starts next weekend.

However this weekend I'm in Slough doing a recording for Pip, nice Merriot Hotel !! as long as my bar bill doesn't come to too much all will be cool.

Site Upgrade

Hi, due to the success of my web-site last year it is time to overhaul and add all my new work, pictures, music etc.

Thanks to all that wrote to me last year and welcome back to the new version. A big hello to anybody new to the site.

All of last year’s pages and histories are here plus new articles of work, regular updates of music that I have engineered, and all the madness and mayhem of the summer season’s engineering. There’s lots to see, I hope you will enjoy.

Please feel free to write to me with any ideas or input

Studio Update

Have just finished an ace Ska Band called School Boy Error that have been gigging across the South Coast of the uk and getting quite a following !! We did 3 tracks which went very well, took a lot of thought and effort but we got there and the results are splendid, they will be on the player soon. Thanks to SSE for lending me 2 RE20's to do it, otherwise we would have been stuffed !!

Meanwhile bookings at the studio continue to roll in, soon more of Cypher and possibly Amberseptre, plus whoever else.

PA Success

The workshops I have been doing with 2 young men at Chard have gone particularly well, to the point where last weekend they set up their own PA, lights and mixed for an evening. 150 came so it was a great success, all proceeds went towards the club.

I was chuffed to bits with them they'd worked hard and learnt quickly, the evening went so well for them and nothing blew up !!, But my goodness weren't they nervous and really wanted me there.

Dance Competition 2004

This is another big event which I do FOH for. If you want further details about taking part click here.

A busy New Year !

Now the new year is here I have started to record all the bands I had chosen from Rocklab. We started with BlackHand in the 1st week of Jan, then we did Spoonfed; we have just done 4 Days Notice, and we have School Boy Error coming up this week (23/24/25) Jan. So far it's all going very well, and the bands have enjoyed the experience and have learnt a great deal.

The plan once we have recorded all bands will be to offer further tuition with the Rocklab tutors, e.g. Guitar workshops with all guitarists, vocal workshops with singers etc. Then come Oct/ Nov we will record them all again and should see any progression in their skills. We will also be assisting with other ongoing band issues, like getting more gigs, promotion of the band, etc all the things you can't look up anywhere! This is giving me a good opportunity to get to know my new snazzy lush desk and we have been bonding over the last 3 weeks. All desks have quirks and I'm finding out about this ones'.

Meanwhile the workshops for Somerset County Youth Service proved so popular in Oct/Nov that I've been asked to run some more in Feb. They will be around most of the youth clubs in somerset. Back by demand ! very nice.

So can't fit a great deal more in, but will go on holiday to France, Hurrah!