New Studio Talent

We have just recorded a young lass called Sarah Long from Blandford Youth Club who was referred to us by my ex-boss Andy Price. She came to me last year and did extremely well but this year (as she knew what to expect) she was even better!

She launched into 3 Country and Western songs and nailed nearly everything on the first take. Unfortunately they were all covers so we cannot feature them on the Website (Sorry folks, Royalties!).

RockLab Success

This years Rocklab was a great sucess. The whole thing was more efficient as the practice pa's were up and running before the bands arrived, and this saved a lot of hanging around for the 40 young people (10 bands) attending. ACE!

All worked hard towards the goal of a gig on the Sunday night. Some wrote new songs over the weekend, some played with musicians they had never met before Saturday, and all still pulled off a 2 song set. Amazing Hey ?!

Everybody seemed to gain a great deal from it all and hopefully some of the bands ready to record will do so in the new year. Here's to the next Rocklab in April 2006.

Well done to you all!

Rejigged Website

Just to let everyone know that Adrian (the webmaster) was rejigging his webservers between the 17th and 19th of November. Hence for a few hours you may have seen his webpage instead of mine and my e-mail was not working between 10:35 on the 17th and 12 Noon on the 19th. If you sent anything between those times please send it again.

RockLab 2005

This winters Rocklab has been booked for the 19th and 20th of November 2005. Bookings can be made at the club.

Wow - What a Summer!

As you can see from the 2 month gap between updates it has been one hell of a busy summer.

I am back home now and taking booking for the studio so any Bands that tried to call me over the summer can now get back in touch and I can make arrangements. That goes for anyone who wants to use the studio.

More news when I get my brain in gear.

Wow - what a month!

Well I am used to a busy summer but 5 big festivals in a row really gets your head spinning. Optional extras like sleep certainly take a back seat!

Live8 Scotland was great but knocked everyone for six as we had no time between gigs and went straight into T in the Park Scotland. After Aston Court Bristol, and a couple of days off, I am now heading for Global Gathering.

Life certainly is not dull.

Glastonbury

Just a quick note to say that I survived Glastonbury. I have seen plenty of rain there before but never had to run off the stage because of the lightening - nasty! Now off to do Live 8 in Scotland and I then go straight into T in the Park.

The Silly Season is Here!

I am afraid that the website is suffering from the silly season! I have just finished the DownLoad festival (without getting knocked out by a flying water bottle this time), completed T4s beach party at Weston-Super-Mare, and am now catching up on a few hours sleep. Next comes Glastonbury, Live8, and then T in the Park.

We are back!

Or more accurately Adrian is back having finally got his telephone line installed! Good old BT even made him bury the cable himself.

Fortunately Adrian moved house at a quiet time of year from my point of view so you have not missed any major news. Baseline studio is ticking along, the latest Rocklab was quiet as most people are doing exams at this time of year, and I have trundled along doing some stuff for PIP Recording. I now have my Summer itinerary from SSE for the Festivals so things will be getting manic in the next few weeks.

Update News

Just to let everyone know that Adrian (the webmaster) is moving back to North Wales after six months in Devon, and once again he has managed to rent a cottage with no telephone line! Hence this site may not be updated for a month or so depending on BT's usual efficiency.

On music related news I have just done the St Patricks day gig in Trafalgar Square where SSE was supporting the Saw Doctors, and of course many Irish bands. A good day (they even dyed the water green in the fountains!!) but it was rather cold. This coming weekend I am at Hinkley doing a conference for Pip Recording.

More news once Adrian is plugged back in.

Busy Times

Just got 2 mins to myself so a belated update for you all.

I have just recorded a great little band called Red Lodge who had won studio time with me. We did 3 tracks - one of which may be good enough for the demo page once the lyrics are sorted out. We also did an instrumental, jam rocky blues thingy which was a bit of fun and we should hear more when they are back in the studio in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile Black Hand, a band I've worked with in the past were booked in last weekend but the drummer had done something pretty terrible to his wrist. This is a bit of a disaster for a drummer so they have had to cancel - I wish him a speedy recovery and hope we can record again soon!

Am off this week to SSE to do the St Patricks Day in the centre of London so that should be good fun, was last year. Must remeber to bring my kettle this time as we froze to death before.

New skills

I have now completed the Pip conference recordings. Both went well and I had a luvverly hotel in Hinkley with ducks on a pond, carridge museum, and loads of expensive shops. All very pretty to explore and for a change I had time to do so !!

There is a workshop at Baseline next weekend with all the tutors from Rocklab. This will include a meeting to discuss which bands go onto the next Music Maker Project after April (assuming we get funding to continue) and for me to book the bands from last years Rocklab to record and submit to the Pulse radio station. All very exciting.

Meanwhile I am at SSE this week doing a course run by Sennheiser Mic's on radio mics frequences etc, new techonlogy, should be good.

Conference Recording and Somerset Workshops

So much for my "quiet" season! I am currently working for Pip Recordings covering conferences in Slough and Hinkley and will be starting workshops for Somerset County Council in Chard on Thursday Jan 20th. Recording at Baseline continues also.

New Rocklab April 16th-17th 2005

Thanks to our Youth Music funding and other contributions we are able to hold an additional RockLab over the weekend of the 16th and 17th of April 2005. All applications should be made to Vic at the Club.

Happy New Year!

A busy start as I have 6 bands to record over the next couple of months with 3 from last years Rocklab and 3 from this years chosen few. Workshops with Somerset CC will start once the clubs go back next week and hopefully I will also be doing a course at SSE in Jan. As usual everything is subject to change!

The disabled access door for the Baseline studio is now finished which means we can now get the carpet on the walls - hurrah. it's all taken so long !! Any ideas on colours please ?

Finally I have been given a digital camera for Christmas (thanks Mum) so therefore I am hoping to get more photo's for the site as this is where I am slacking !!