"I Didn't Realise They Were So Good"

Revival of the Fittest at Victoria Hall, Settle.

Does it ever happen to you?  You know, you can be sitting minding your own business in a public place and you become aware that someone is staring at you.  You look towards them, and their eyes dart away uneasily.  After a few moments, the braver ones start staring again.  Eventually they might go further with an "Excuse me... was that you singing the other night?"

Now of course you smile and respond warmly.  They say how much they enjoyed the gig and once they leave, your wife laughs and says how much she loves being married to a 'real' rock star.

Back at University this used to happen a fair bit.  You would catch a glimpse of some students from the corner of your eye, whispering to each other.

"It's them... no can't be... yes it is."  They would point and nod at each other.

Now all this is very flattering, and as a performer it is a thrill to know that the effort that you put into rehearsal and performance is appreciated by the audience.  However I do sometimes get a little irked.

There is a certain type of person.  Not a friend as such but an acquaintance perhaps.  A person you talk to from time to time.  In the course of your various conversations it comes up that you are in a band.

"Oh really?" they say.  "That's pretty cool!"

You then talk modestly about the band and the sorts of music you play and the conversation moves on to other topics.  Some while later, that same person may happen upon you playing with the band by accident.

They sit, somewhat open mouthed at the performance.  Too ashamed to speak to you directly they will talk to your wife and utter the immortal phrase:

"I didn't realise they were so good."

Well excuse me for just a minute.  Exactly what did you expect?  Did you really think I'd be like a reject from Britain's Got Talent?  Maybe you expected me to sing like a drunk Japanese businessman at a Karaoke Bar?  Or that I'd mime to a backing track like Madonna at the Hacienda?

I've been playing in bands for over 30 years and I currently play in three:

1. Revival of the Fittest: A five piece Rock and Roll covers band.  We play a selection of songs from the 1950's up to the 2000's, based in Settle, North Yorkshire.
2. Dad & The Lad: My son and I play covers and some original material, based in Bentham, North Yorkshire.
3. Project Amen Brother (The Band formerly known as Cotton): A five piece band playing original material based in Manchester.

For each one of these we practice.  We practice together and we practice alone.  We work hard to ensure that when we play on stage we are as professional as possible.  That is, in my book at least, the absolute minimum expectation if you are being paid to perform.

Lets be clear here, I've written before about performers that don't prepare enough for performances and do a lousy job.  That annoys me with a passion because of the hard work and attention to detail that my bands have.

But people who expect you to be as bad as that are frustrating.  I can only hope that having heard us play they have their expectations reset at the very least.

Now who needs a professional band for 2023?  You've a choice of three so get in touch.

Revival of the Fittest

Dad & The Lad

Project Amen Brother

A Beginners Guide to Setting up a Guitar

 

Congratulations! Father Christmas has brought you, the beginner guitarist, the axe of your dreams! But since it was delivered mail order, straight from the factory in China, it won’t be set up properly.  But wait, with a few simple tools and a little patience you can have your axe playing like a dream.

When your guitar comes from the factory it will have been set up quickly with a cheap set of strings, and by someone being paid to do as many as possible as quickly as possible.  This means that your guitar has not received the careful attention it deserves, and as a result it can play and sound awful.  You could get a professional luthier to set up the guitar on your behalf, but its not too difficult to do the work yourself.

There are three basic adjustments to make to your guitar, these are: The Truss Rod, The Action and The Intonation.  Let’s look at how we can adjust these each in turn.

Before we start it might be worth investing in a guitar tool kit.  These are around £15 online or widely available from music shops.  These include all the tools you need to maintain your guitar, including an action gauge, hex keys, snips and string winders.

Firstly, the Truss Rod.  This is a threaded bar that runs along inside the neck.  It resists the tension that the strings exert on the neck to stop it bowing.  If poorly adjusted the neck can either bow too much, meaning the strings are too far from the fingerboard, or bow too little meaning the strings buzz as they touch the frets.  To adjust the Truss Rod, you will need to expose the adjustment nut.  On “Gibson” style guitars this is under the cover on the headstock, or “Fender” style guitars it is found at the body end of the neck.

Gibson style Truss Rod.

Depending on your guitar, you may need a hexagonal (Allen) key or a socket wrench.  Often these are supplied with a new guitar.

Place a capo on the first fret, this removes the effect of the nut on the guitars action.  Next fret the low E string at the 15^th fret.  Take your action gauge and measure the clearance, sometimes called neck relief, at the 8^th fret.  It should be 0.007”.  If you don’t have an action gauge you can use a feeler gauge or a piece of printer paper folded in half.  If the clearance is too much, the truss rod must be tightened.  Turn the nut clockwise no more than a quarter turn at a time, then remeasure.  It will take a few moments for the wood to settle so don’t rush the adjustment.  If you need to keep tightening continue a quarter of a turn at a time.  If the clearance is not enough, loosen by turning anti-clockwise, again a quarter turn at a time.

Once you are happy with the Truss Rod adjustment we can move onto the Action.

Action is measured at the 12th fret.

Remove the capo and measure the clearance of the strings at the 12^th fret.  The treble strings should be no lower than 3/64” whereas the bass strings should be around 5/64”.  Play a few chords and notes and check for buzzing where the strings vibrate against the frets where they shouldn’t.  Adjust the bridge height on a “Gibson” style Tune-o-Matic bridge using the thumb wheels on each side.  On “Fender” type guitars the saddles can be adjusted individually for each string using a small hex key.

Try to get the action as low as you can, without the string buzz, this will make the guitar much easier to play.

The final basic adjustment is the intonation.  This is to ensure that the fretted notes moving up the neck remain in tune, by making sure the length of each string between the bridge and nut is correct.  In fact, you should recheck the intonation regularly, and readjust every time you restring your guitar.

For this you will need an accurate electronic guitar tuner and a small screwdriver to adjust the saddles on the bridge.

Use the electronic tuner to bring the guitar to concert pitch, (E, A, D, G, B, E) and then fret a string at the 12^th fret.  If the note is sharp, the string needs to be lengthened.  If the note is flat the string must be shortened.  Adjust using the screws at the back of the bridge to move the saddles.  Clockwise to lengthen, anti-clockwise to shorten.  Adjusting will change the pitch so you will then have to retune and then recheck the note at the 12^th fret.  Repeat this for each string in turn, until the open strings and fretted notes match.

Adjustment of a Gibson Tune-o-Matic Bridge

Now you’ll find that the guitar is easier to play, better at keeping in tune and sounds great!  There are more adjustments you can make as you get more confident, such as the height of the pickups or changing the string gauge which will change how the guitar sounds and plays.  Until you are ready for that though, just keep on practising!

Breaking News... I'm Not Dead!

Ok I admit the title is just a little bit over dramatic.  Nevertheless it has been a while since my last post, so I must apologise to my loyal readers, both of you, for my lack of output.

In my defence I have been very busy on musical projects.  I've been down to Manchester to plan (drink) with my university band friends, trying to work out what we do next on our project which is codename: Amen Brother.  There will be more playing together in the New Year, a possible session in a recording studio and both James and I have written brand new songs which may or may not make the final cut.  That and of course plenty more planning.

Taking up the most time however was the preparation for a charity gig at Settle's Victoria Hall in support of the Settle Swimming Pool.

We had a fantastic night, aided by a boisterous and enthusiastic crowd and were interviewed by The Bentham News reporter (wonder who that was).  As a bonus we were also photographed by Jon Brook from Bentham Imaging for the article, that you can read on page 6 of the December edition here.

Revival of the Fittest at Victoria Hall, Settle.

So as an apology for my neglect, and as we are firmly in the season of goodwill, I thought I would post some of the other bits of writing that I've done over the last year.  Some of the articles have been published already, others not, but I'm pretty proud of my growing portfolio, I hope you enjoy them too.

I'd be grateful for any feedback you may have on any of the articles.  Please comment on the blog or send me a message.  The first post will be with you shortly.

Oh and by the way Merry Christmas!

So We Did It Then!

Pirate Studios Salford

Well after much planning and replanning with the help of many pints of ale, I found myself heading towards Manchester last Saturday morning.  A date to relive my musical past with four of my oldest friends.  We all had doubts, that much was clear.  James had only recently acquired a bass guitar.  Martyn no longer has his own drum kit.  Greg hasn't sung for years.  Yet we were all hopeful that the songs that have languished forgotten for 25 years could come back to life.  It might be like one of those dramatic resuscitations you see on A&E After Dark, where the patient splutters into life for a while but ultimately passes away.  We hoped not, but after such a long time we all felt somewhat nervous.

Arriving at the unassuming industrial estate in Salford Quays wasn't easy in itself.  The trains were on strike so everyone was on the roads.  City were playing at home and the road leading to the rehearsal studio from the motorway was closed.  This meant a lengthy detour around Media City.  Eventually after annoying my Land Rover Sat Nav by refusing multiple U-turns, I finally arrived.  

We were booked into Studio 12 and we ventured in with a mixture of trepidation and excitement.  Exploring the building we found the Studios were numbered 1-11.  After 10 minutes of frustration, we discovered by checking the fire evacuation poster, that Studio 12 was accessed from another door around the side of the building.

Finally, we were in a confined space with instruments for the first time since 1996.

Startled and blurry Band

"What shall we play?" asked Tim.

"What do you fancy?" replied James.

"I don't know, what about The Price?" said Greg.

"Ok" was the almost unanimous response.

"Which ones that?" asked Martyn, who thinks in terms of drum rolls instead of lyrics.

"You know, it goes like this...."

Cue A minor add 9 chord with riff. (Technical stuff).

Away we went.  We played all the songs we planned, plus a couple we hadn't.  We changed some lyrics here and there, adjusted the tempo and feel of some of the songs.  Even the ones we felt were weak all those years ago, with a little polish began to sound much better.  It was like meeting an old friend that you haven't seen for years, and you suddenly realise you've missed them like crazy.  It was like we'd never been away.  Apart from the grey hairs, and aching limbs we could have been back in that draughty Liverpool warehouse in the 90's.

Greg & Tim

James in usual Bass Player pose

Martyn in his natural habitat

We were all amazed that we could remember the songs easily, but even more amazing was that we played together so well.  Really tight, being that great little band that we were all those years ago.  It was like we must have some kind of telepathic link, or that we had played those songs an awful lot in the past.  Whatever the explanation it was still remarkable.

So, the burning question is what next?

We all agreed we need to do it again and get the songs recorded properly.  We have at least 25 original songs in various states of completeness.  Maybe we could produce an album since 2023 will be the 30th anniversary of Tim and I forming the band in the first place.  Something I talked about in a previous post here.  James even wants us to play a festival in Manchester next September.  So why the hell not?  That and some better photos, we were concentrating on the music instead of the visuals!

First step, we need to plan, and plan in detail.  There should be much planning.  I think it's probably my round.

The Healing Consensus of a Pint of Beer.

Bentham Station

It's a grey Saturday morning and I'm in a rush.  Got to get the 8:04 train.  I'm fighting the effects of last night's wine and I could murder a bacon sandwich.  Rushing down Station Road the bakery is open, time for coffee and a sandwich?  No, it's 8:03 and there's a queue.  Better get that train and pick something up at Lancaster.

I reach the platform and I hear the train approach.  A couple of other hardy souls are up at this hour.  Hang on, the destination is only Carnforth, this train doesn't go as far as Lancaster.  I can meet my connection there and at least Carnforth has a cafe, trading on its appearance in Brief Encounter.

I climb aboard an almost deserted train except for the middle-aged woman having a very loud telephone conversation.

"No Clapham.  Yes, not that one.  Yorkshire. Y-O-R-K-S-H-I-R-E! No Carnforth.  Yes, I'm hoping for a brief encounter of my own ha-ha."

I plug in my earphones.

Twenty minutes and we arrive.  My connection to Manchester is on time, just a ten-minute wait.  I approach the cafe and find it shut.  A grumbling stomach and a mild hangover are reminders I should have gone to the bakery.

Piccadilly is busy and I walk with the throng from the though platforms to the station concourse.  A walk that makes a trip to a Weatherspoon's toilet seem short.  There by the departure boards is Tim.

"I need breakfast." 

He nods sagely at my friendly greeting.  We take a short walk to a trendy cafe, where Greg joins us.  We three devour a full English each and feel much better.

Martyn is texting, he is about to arrive at Piccadilly.  We walk back and meet him, ready for a day of making plans and beer, plenty of beer.

We find a small pub on Portland Street, The Grey Horse, just opening up.  A couple of pints in and things are going well.

Grey Horse Inn Portland Street

We want to play together again.  Doing so at a distance is ok, but could we try a proper rehearsal? Martyn doesn't own a drum kit of his own. Tim has one at home.  Should we use an electric one?  Could we record the basic tracks as a band and then do overdubs later from a distance?

The search is on for a venue and date.  We move on to the Old Monkey where there is a quieter bar upstairs.  More beer helps develop a consensus.  Then the message we've all been hoping for.

"Jobs done, on my way bitches."

As only a bass player can, James announces his unexpected attendance at the summit.

He catches up quickly.  He's all in like the rest of us.  Let's do it.  More celebratory pints are quaffed.

Too soon I have to leave.  It's a two-hour train trip home for me and there aren't that many trains to Bentham.

We've agreed the songs to play, we've booked a rehearsal studio for the start of October.  We are, after 26 years, officially, back.

L-R: James Greg, Tim, Matt, Martyn

Reunion? Well we should, shouldn't we?

With Tim & Paddy Bullen at James' Wedding

Life goes in cycles.  When you are in your twenties you get invited to lots of weddings as your friends begin to pair off.  Then you attend the christenings as they begin their families.  As those families grow and people move you lose touch until one day, you find yourself being asked for your fondest memories of them for their Eulogy.

Fortunately, we're not at the funeral stage yet, and hope not to be for a while.  Instead, sometimes a friend may marry again after a divorce as I have.  Some of my friends have done so more than once (you know who you are!), and so you get to do the wedding thing all over again.

We had our wedding disrupted by the Pandemic, so we could only have close family at the registry office ceremony.  Even my brother and family had to stand on the street with their noses against the windows, such was the restriction on numbers.

This last weekend we were invited to a 'second wedding,' and at last we had the opportunity to catch up with old friends that I'd not seen for at least 25 years.

Now this particular friend, James, was the Bass Player in the band I was part of at university.  James was a star in those days.  He was a friend of a couple of the other band members, all from Shaw near Oldham.  Whilst the other pair were students with me in Liverpool, James worked in Oldham.  He would drive over to Liverpool every weekend and spend it with us, rehearsing and gigging.  It was a serious level of commitment that was not appreciated enough at the time, even though we spent an appropriate amount of time and money in the pub.  Now James has three teenage lads, a new baby and now at last a lovely wife.

Also in attendance was Tim, who thirty years ago convinced me to spend my student grant on a Bass Guitar and amplifier to start the band with him.  Every time Tim and I get together the conversation eventually comes round to one topic: The Band.

With Tim at James' Wedding

We talk about the songs, the gigs and how we miss playing together.  We always come to some agreement that we should do something and then in the cold light of the morning we do precisely nothing about it.  Indeed, we have the same conversations between all of us.  Greg the singer, Martyn the drummer and of course James as well.  With the encouragement of a few pints, we can be on the verge of a full-blown reunion tour, but alas the enthusiasm fades as our realisation that the time required and the distance between us make the long slog of the rehearsal needed, an impossible task.

However, this time it might be different.

The band which we ended up calling Cotton, was formed in the autumn of 1992.  This was my first term at Liverpool University, with Tim on Guitar, me on Bass and a Drummer named Steve Kenny.  We rehearsed in the gym at the Greenbank Halls where we lived, at the foot of Penny Lane.  

After a few months we added a singer Greg Jefford, started rehearsing at the more professional Crash Studios in Liverpool City Centre and we even played a gig at the Aigburth Orange Lodge.  After a few months Jefford decided, (or Tim and I did), that he wasn't rock and roll material and so we replaced him with Greg Hambley, a friend of Tim's from Shaw.  Greg took this so seriously he transferred from Salford University to Liverpool so he could be a rock and roll legend 24/7.

Whilst Greg can play guitar, he wanted to concentrate on singing and so James joined us on Bass, and I moved to playing Rhythm Guitar.  The line-up was complete, we were ready for Britpop.

Over the next couple of years, we played in venues around Merseyside and Greater Manchester.  We went to the now long-gone Hard City Records recording studio in Liverpool and recorded a number of original songs.  We could count Janis Long and Clint Boon as fans, and even Terry Christian said we were 'shit', which is about the best endorsement you can get.

Playing Derby & Rathbone Hall JCR

Then Steve Kenny said he'd had enough and left.  Enter the "Octopus in a Blender" that is Martyn Keenan.  Martyn is a great drummer, and his skill pushed the rest of us to a higher level.  Things were going well musically but as happens in all relationship's cracks began to appear.

We were changing personally.  Tim, Greg, James and I had met the girls we would later marry, though for both me and James we would later divorce (not each other obviously!)  Tim had left Liverpool and was working in Manchester.  In the end we just fell apart and that was that.

However, in 1996 just before we broke up, we went into the recording studio and recorded four songs.  These have sat on an old 32-track master tape since then, unheard and collecting dust on Tim's shelf.  After watching the recent Beatles Get Back documentary, he suggested we do something with the old tape.  A little research found a company that could digitise the tape so we could recover the songs.  Initially we thought there were all 12 songs we had recorded on the tape.  We were very disappointed to find there were only the four, but once we heard them, we were blown away.  We all very quickly came to the conclusion, these songs were good, very good.  We should have stuck at it.

What could we do with the other songs?  Tim suggested we try collaborating at distance, recording our parts and emailing them to him to bring together.  James bought his first Bass guitar in 25 years, and Greg bought a microphone.  We started to work on the earlier songs which we don't have the master tapes for, those having been destroyed years ago.  It's a work in progress, but for the first time this century we're making music together.

But there's more as Jimmy Cricket used to say.  My son Tom, the Noel Gallagher impersonator, discovered the 12 songs, and some others that we had written but not recorded properly.  He was quite taken, describing our 'album' as better than Definitely Maybe, which I think is stretching it slightly.  Anyway, he and I performed two Cotton songs at our recent Dad & The Lad gig to a great reception, as I posted about earlier.

Dad & The Lad Play at The Coach House Inn, Bentham

Back at the wedding and quite well lubricated Tim took this news well.  So well in fact that the following morning whilst nursing his hangover through Manchester Airport he messaged our WhatsApp group.

"We're getting the band back together."

Maybe this time.  Maybe.

Judge for yourself by visiting our old and creaky Facebook page here

There are even some videos on YouTube although sadly James is missing here and here

Also, some of the original songs can be found here

The Birth of Dad & The Lad

 

It was a quiet holiday.  The odd day trip, the odd meal out.  A celebration of our Wedding Anniversary and an 18th Birthday.  Plenty of rest in the summer sunshine, reading Bill Bryson and enjoying a very relaxing time.  Then eldest son gets a message.

"It's the Beer Festival next Saturday can your dad's band play either 3-5 or 5-7, let me know they need to get the programmes printed."

Aside from the short notice, the super cool bass player is away at a music festival in Oxfordshire so we're not available, and yet...

Perhaps it was the Pinot Grigio that was interfering with my thought processes, because I heard myself say:

"Tell him your brother and I will do 3-5, something acoustic, probably Oasis and Beatles songs."

"Great you're on!" was the reply.

I slept on it and realised in the morning we weren't in that episode of Dallas where it was all a dream.  We had a week to sort out a couple of hours of songs that my youngest and I could perform with me singing and playing acoustic rhythm and him playing lead guitar.

Now as I've posted before our Thomas isn't a huge fan of the three-chord rock and roll standard.  He is very into Oasis and plays Noel Gallagher's guitar parts as well as anyone.  Now that's great except I resemble Liam Gallagher in no discernible way except age (actually I'm just over a year younger), and there's no way I'm wearing a Parker, especially not in mid-August.  

Whilst I like Oasis and have a fondness for Wonderwall, having to learn 25 songs in such a short period of time was going to be nigh on impossible.  I convinced him we should include some Beatles songs as well, especially since the audience weren't going to sit through more than a dozen Oasis songs without getting twitchy.

Reluctantly he agreed and so we set off to the beach with the dog to write a set list.

In the time it takes a Border Collie to resemble a drowned rat we had a long list of 30 songs to work with.  Some we both knew well: Don't Look Back in Anger, Supersonic and Some Might Say.  Others would be a stretch for him: A Hard Day's Night, She Loves You, Eleanor Rigby, and some would be a voyage into the unknown:  The Masterplan and Stand by Me (better known as the Halifax advert).

We began to rehearse in earnest.  Some songs we ditched like Helter Skelter because they just wouldn't work, and some like Songbird we persevered with.  However, we found ourselves a couple of songs short of the 25 we needed.  Tom suggested something a bit radical.

When Oasis and Blur were battling for number ones at the height of Britpop in the mid 1990's.  I was part of a band at university.  We were on reflection pretty good, and we had ambition, but as our time studying came to an end the band fizzled out.  During our time we had written and recorded some original songs.  Tom discovered these and taught himself to play them.  He suggested we should perform a couple now.  No one in the audience would know how they were actually supposed to sound so it wouldn't matter if we made mistakes.  Brilliant!  We chose two:  False Paradise and Smalltown.

Saturday dawned as a hot summer's day.  We set up outside the pub to a packed beer garden and began:

"I need to be myself, I can be no one else..."

We were away.  Tom was brilliant, he's a very talented guitarist and was absolutely faultless, even when I cut him off in the middle of the Live Forever solo.  We played for two hours, and I got sunburned.  There really was rapturous applause, if you doubt me watch the videos on our Facebook page @DadLadMusic.

One song in particular got a very positive reaction.  Not Oasis, not The Beatles, not even the 12-bar rock and roller about driving on the A65 I've previously posted about.  No, we got a standing ovation for Smalltown, a song that hasn't been played live anywhere for at least 25 years.  Time for a reunion for the uni band?  Could be.

In the meantime, Dad and the Lad are born, now go and follow us on Facebook!

Reflections on Glastonbury

 

For most music types the annual Glastonbury festival is a chance to enjoy some high quality live music from the comfort of your armchair.  The return of the festival after Covid was I think, from the safety of my sofa a huge success.  There were some great artists playing and the extensive BBC coverage meant that the music could be enjoyed both live and later via iPlayer.

I have seen some criticisms on social media and in the press, but from what I heard and saw I thought everything was excellent and I'm going to bore you with why.

Firstly I should declare as if you hadn't already figured it out that I am a guitar based rock and roll fan.  I was a teen in the 1980's and 1990's and not only do I love the music from those eras, I love classic rock and roll.  The line up of artists that interested me the most were, Crowded House, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, The Pet Shop Boys, Skunk Anansie, Jarvis Cocker and of course the best of all Sir Paul McCartney.

So first Crowded House.  Absolutely brilliant.  Great songs played with love and passion, and Neil Finn's grandson leading the singing on the last song fabulous.  The band had a great rapport with the audience and clearly loved what they were doing.

Noel Gallagher.  My son loves Oasis, he has all the albums, knows all the songs, can play all the lead guitar parts and is in danger of becoming the sort of bore at parties that I am about The Beatles.  I felt that Noel is still trying to step away from Oasis, whereas brother Liam has embraced his back catalogue, Noel is trying to still forge his own path and so some of the Oasis songs lacked a little passion.  That said they were done fantastically and the ultimate judge said he loved it.

My son and I argue about which of the Gallagher brothers is the better singer.  I'm firmly voting for Liam, but without Noel's song writing and musicianship Oasis would not have been.  I was there in the nineties and I still love them now.  Maybe there will be a reunion one day, maybe.

The Pet Shop Boys did an excellent set of their greatest hits despite Chris Lowe appearing to be missing at the start, and Neil Tennant wearing what appeared to be an enormous tuning fork.

We also enjoyed bits of Primal Scream and Supergrass but ultimately there was one act that I was waiting for and it wasn't Diana Ross.

Sir Paul McCartney.

Paul is my musical hero.  I have a Hofner violin bass.  The first song I ever learnt to play was Let It Be.  If you ask me I can probably play you anything he's ever written including those strange Wings songs that were never officially released like Waterspout.  So to be fair I'm not entirely impartial when it comes to reviewing his performances.

In my opinion he showed exactly why he is the greatest pop star of all time.  He played all the right songs and the audience were absolutely in the palm of his hand.  There has been some criticism of his voice or the choice of songs but lets have some perspective here.

The guy has written hundreds of songs and thrown away some that are better than what many songwriters can manage at their very best.  With such an extensive back catalogue to include everything would take days.  

He's been entertaining crowds since the Beatles went to Hamburg in 1960.  Sixty-two years later he's still selling out massive arenas.  Yes his voice isn't that of a twenty year old, but he's just celebrated his eightieth birthday!  I'd challenge any musician to do a near 3 hour set without flagging.  I know once I've played for anything like 2 hours I've no voice left, he looked like he could have carried on for another hour at least.  Mind you he doesn't have to pack up his own gear like we do.

Paul is a national treasure and someone that should be cherished.  I doubt any of the younger contingent will be headlining the Pyramid Stage when they are octogenarians.

If you haven't seen his set I'd encourage you to get onto BBC iPlayer and enjoy it, along with lots of other artists performances.

Glastonbury without the mud and blocked toilets is a great experience, I recommend it.

The Jubilee Tour

I have to say, with everything that's going on in the world, it is really nice to talk about something positive.  This past weekend has been a lot of fun, getting the band on the road and playing to happy audiences.

On Friday evening we were delighted to be a part of the Jubilee celebrations in Rathmell village.  A crowd of over two hundred enjoyed a wonderful BBQ and bar.  We played fifty-three songs in a two and a half hour non-stop set, which left us shivering in the cool evening breeze by the end!

After the usual hour or so packing up, helped in no small part by my lovely wife, we were ready to depart for home when Bass Player Alan marched up to my car window looking somewhat glum.

"My battery's flat," he said with his customary gruffness.  So we spent a fun few minutes searching under his bonnet by the light of an iPhone to locate the terminals to attach the jump leads.  Fortunately his van came back to life with the assistance of my Land Rover and we headed home.

A few minutes later, whilst crossing the Moorland just before our home in Bentham, we encountered four young girls standing in the road, flagging us down.  In the hedge beside the road was their Volkswagen Polo with hazards blinking.

"There was a car on my side of the road so I had to swerve," said the young driver sheepishly.

"Hang on, I've got a tow rope in the back."  We pulled them back to the road and told them to be careful.  After all the excitement we made it home unscathed at 12:30am.  Fortunately one of the local pubs has a late licence.  Even better our son was having a drink there after work, so he made sure that there were two pints waiting for us when we arrived.

Roll on to Sunday afternoon when we reconvened to play at The Coach House in Bentham.  An afternoon that was supposed to be outside in the baking June sunshine, ended up inside after the heavens opened and remained so for the whole day.

Having chatted with Landlord Karl the night before over a drink, we discussed the set list.  I am going to confess here, as I did to him on Saturday night, I can't stand Neil Diamond's 'Sweet Caroline.'  I do get grumpy when people ask us to play it.  So imagine my delight when I woke on Sunday morning to read the Coach House's Facebook post advertising the gig.  

"Come and hear all your favourites," it read. "Particularly American Pie and Sweet Caroline."

Australian publican humour aside, we played for a happy mix of tourists and locals who enjoyed our three sets between 4pm and 7pm.  A particular mention for Keith the guitarist, who's star turn is impersonating Hank Marvin on Apache.  He was absolutely flawless and went down a storm.  

I made sure to sing American Pie for Karl just before the end, just to make sure he wasn't disappointed.

The whole show rolls on to Wigglesworth next Sunday afternoon for the Capplestone Estate Open Farm.  Bring it on!

Time For a Rant; Well Sort Of...

Recently I've got myself a bit worked up, which for me is most unusual.  What's even more unusual is that I have been critical of a couple of live performances and more particularly the performers themselves which is something I almost never do.  Generally all performers deserve the benefit of the doubt.  It's damn hard to get up on stage and perform in any discipline.  So why did I get so annoyed?  In the words of the late Max Bygraves "Let me tell you a story."

On a recent Sunday afternoon my wife and I decided to go to one of our local hostelries to meet some friends and watch a band.  Advertised to start from 4pm we arrived in good time.  The band did not.  At 4:30 two guys wandered in and began to set up.  It turned out that the band were in fact a guitarist and singer.  Not usually a problem but they had a third electronic member of the group.  A drum machine which had not been programmed, it was just a start/stop triggered by a pedal.  They played to their backing track for an hour and then packed up and went home.  They weren't terrible.  The singer was good and the guitarist could play.  Some of the other patrons even sang along to Sweet Caroline at the finale, but I felt angry that I had been a bit short changed somehow.  

Now I'll admit I'm not a big fan of artists using backing tracks.  It's all a bit too close to Karaoke for me, but that wasn't what was annoying me.  Having had a few soothing ales, a telling off from my wife and exchanged some ranty WhatsApp messages to some musical friends I calmed down, but the experience was still niggling me.  Why was I so upset?

A week or so later we decided to watch a 'singing comedian' at another local pub.  We took the time to research the guy on social media.  He seemed to come highly recommended, boasting of performances in Europe and the US, as well as apparently writing material for the BBC.  Hopes were high, but unfortunately they fell rapidly.  

Comedy is subjective and what I find funny might well baffle the next man.  Sadly this guy's routine baffled everyone.  It wasn't just that he wasn't funny.  His delivery was poor, rushed and at times incoherent.  His songs might have been careful and amusing observations of life, but were ruined by the fact he couldn't play guitar or indeed sing.  It was a slow motion car crash.  He was expected to entertain for 90 minutes but bailed out after 25.  The landlord unimpressed refused to pay him his expected fee.

I suddenly realised what it was that had been bugging me.

Whenever I have been on stage the one thing that I have always done before hand is rehearse like mad.  Not just rehearse a bit but an awful lot.  This is probably something I picked up from my Dad and his parents who were actors.  Thinking back to my first gig at school, we played just two songs, six minutes of performance, but we spent months rehearsing.

At University the band I was in rehearsed religiously every Sunday for four hours.  The same songs, at the same old warehouse studio in Liverpool, over and over again to make sure we got them right.  As we pretty much lived together we would play and sing at home too.  We spent hours honing and refining so the songs became second nature.

Even now with my band we rehearse every week, and we all practice at home.

What annoyed me was the way these artists seemed to be taking some kind of short cut.  Not programming the backing track properly for example seems to me to be just lazy and it detracted from their otherwise good performance.  

The comedian didn't seem to have rehearsed his material or delivery at all.  It takes a lot of guts to get booked into venues and expect to get paid for a poor performance.  To fail to prepare is to prepare to fail as they say.  

I guess what it boils down to is a hint of jealousy.  I wouldn't dream of performing anything unless I was really confident it would be of a good standard.  Well at least in my mind anyway, others may disagree.  The fact that these guys were getting away with so much less preparation was very frustrating.

That amount of courage, in some perverse way has to be admired.  Now if anyone wants me I'll be practicing the solo to All My Loving.  Again.

How Much? That's Far Too Expensive

 

Often, people with limited experience of booking a live music act will recoil in horror when musicians ask for a reasonable fee for their services.  Now fees can vary depending on the area of the country, the type of band, length of set or indeed the type of venue involved.

Top professional musicians will charge venues a five-figure sum, and expect a portion of ticket sales.  To hire musicians at a more modest level, fees are much more affordable.  For example, a Wedding band, playing for 3-4 hours might expect to charge in the region of £1000 or more.  A solo artist playing a short 30-minute set in an afternoon in a pub would be around £100 mark.  

So, it is surprising then, when a four-piece rock and roll covers band, asked to play for 2 hours at say a party in a village hall, get told that's far too expensive when they ask for £250.  Actually, it's a massive bargain.  Let me explain why.

In our example there are 4 members of the band and they will split their fee between them, so £62.50 each.  Sounds generous doesn't it?  However, they won't just be at the venue for 2 hours though, they will spend at least couple of hours setting up, and at least an hour packing up afterwards.  So, from an initial generous rate of £31.25 per hour its now down to £10.42, not quite so generous.

But wait there's more.  They will have travelled, and taken time to load and unload their cars at home. If we say it takes an hour in total we're now at an hourly rate of £7.81 per musician.  

If you also consider the band will practice for say 3 hours a week, fitting that around their work and family commitments, that £250 works out at £6.94 per hour per band member.

Added to this there is the cost of the equipment that they use.  A decent PA may be in the region of £500 to £1000.  Decent instruments and amplifiers cost £300 plus each.  They may also bring stage lights as many venues don't provide a dedicated stage area.

Bear in mind also that the UK minimum wage is £9.50 per hour.  The band should be charging you £342 just to earn the minimum wage, and that's without considering the expense of travel and equipment.

So next time you want some live music, and let’s be clear you absolutely should book a live act, remember the band you hire aren't doing it for the money.  They certainly won't be getting rich whatever they charge you.

Why Can't We Write Our Own?

 

So many rock and roll songs are written about journeys across America.  This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, after all the music and the pioneering artists were all from the United States.  Being in a band in North Yorkshire is quite a long way from Memphis Tennessee, so there has always been a temptation to write a rock and roll song that captures the essence of America with a feel a little closer to home.

The trouble with this is that America is such a huge country compared to the UK.  The USA is forty times the size of little old England.  In the UK you are never more than 70 miles from the coast.  In the US the most central point is Belle Fourche in South Dakota.  This town of approximately 5000 people is over 1000 miles to the nearest coast.  That distance alone gives the songwriter plenty of acreage to reference on any particular journey. 

Take Route 66 for example perhaps the most famous of 'road' songs.  Chicago to Los Angeles is a journey of 2000 miles with big cities on the way.  Plenty of possible places to get your kicks on Route 66.

By contrast Helen Wheels by Wings, arguably the best known UK road song is about a drive from Glasgow to London via the M6, just over 400 miles.  Not a journey with the same number of highlights.  Places such as Kendal, Liverpool and Birmingham charming as they are don't stir the emotions in the same way as St. Louis or San Bernadino. 

When our drummer asked why couldn't we have our own Yorkshire rock and roll song, I had to go away and think very carefully about how we could.  I mean North Yorkshire has some spectacular driving roads, but it isn't exactly Oklahoma City.

So with a faithful 12-bar blues pattern in A, I went away and wrote Settle Rocks, about a journey along the A65 from Skipton to Settle.

This is a frequent journey that folk around here make.  Skipton is the nearest main town to Settle, so most will travel along the winding single carriageway road, often choked with farm or holiday traffic to get their weekly shop done.

References include the dodgy weather, it is Yorkshire after all, The Leeds Liverpool Canal, Tractors, Caravans, The Flying Scotsman on the Settle - Carlisle Railway and the famous Dales Three Peaks: Ingleborough, Whernside and Pen-Y-Ghent.

Ok so it might not be as romantic as driving an open topped Ford Mustang through the wide open spaces of Arizona or New Mexico, but its our own bit of Yorkshire rock and roll.

Look It's Just a 12-bar in A

"Now son if you're going to be in a rock and roll covers band, you need to be able to understand the mechanics of a 12-bar blues."

If you learnt to play guitar in the dim and distant past as I did,  your usual first port of call was playing an open A string and, on the D string an E at the second fret alternating with an F# at the 4th fret.  The hours of dum-de-dum achieved made you feel like Robert Johnson.  Progress was achieved when you discovered that moving your fretted notes down to the G and playing an open D gave you what is referred to as the IV chord.  Bliss was then ensured by moving your fretted notes to the A string and playing the open E to achieve the V Chord.  In other words, the A, D and E of the 12-bar blues in A.

This of course opens all kinds of doors.  You can be a Delta Blues Man, or start tackling most of the 1950's rock and roll of Elvis, Buddy Holly and Bill Hailey et al.

Of course as your playing improves you begin to tackle more complicated songs and maybe even write your own.

So after playing in a few bands over the years, I am now firmly back in the clutches of the 12-bar rock and roll song, usually in the key of A.

My band Revival of the Fittest is often described as a boyband.  However at 48 years old I am the youngest by almost 20 years.  This means that even a gentle Shadows walk causes much consternation and the need to apply Voltarol.  

The main issue is our repertoire is generally governed by what the other lads have heard of, and whilst I'm not necessarily on the cutting edge of musical taste, anything in this century is a foreign land for me, getting the lads to tackle say Oasis or Sleeper is a tricky business.  Thus we are often falling back on the rock and roll songs of the 50's and early 60's.

So when my youngest son began to take an interest in playing guitar I suggested he come to rehearsals and join in.  Now my lad is already far better than me, he has the advantage of better quality affordable guitars and the accessibility of YouTube instructional videos.  He is playing the solo from Sultans of Swing and studying Hendrix intently.  By contrast when I started out I was listening to my parents vinyl and trying to work out the chords to Buddy Holly.  Having to keep moving the needle back and forwards was an absolute pain in the proverbial, but as we would read in the NME its how Eric Clapton and The Beatles did it, so it had to be good enough for us.

Imagine then his frustration that almost every song we play is a 12-bar.  Where's Oasis?  Where's Hendrix?  What about CCR?

Cue Dad with a sigh: "Look it's just in 12-bar in A."