3rd July 2001

Well we have had a busy one this week. Went down to Wales and met up
with Timbo who installed me down in his pad in Llanelli. I could
have stayed with him and explained to him that I wasn't being
anti-social but if he lived in my house then he would appreciate the
value of four hours slouching in front of the telly with a bottle of
red and a chinese (meal,that is!). Went down to Sonic the next day
and checked out that our digital transfers were all stoked up and
then had a rehearsal for the gig. We tried a few new tunes and
decided to fly by the seat of the pants on one of those. I got up at
a very leisurely hour the next day and went over the road to the
White Lion for a pub lunch before meeting up with the rest of the
chaps for the journey to Southampton. We arrived at the gig to find
a "moist" Mr Mitt and his co-pilot Spot. They had stopped at a
couple of watering holes on the way to the gig from Cornwall. Lucky
them......! Met up with all the Frankie posse whose appearence is
always welcome. Judging by the e-mails I have had and the notes in
guestbook I think we now have a collective noun for this enlarging
posse and they have christened themselves "Nasherites". I don't know
if that has quite the right ring to it so I thought you may want to
try "Babylon Sisters & Brothers" after Babylon Pink with a little
nod to Steely Dan. The choice is yours..........just a suggestion. I
guess I will get to know you all via correspondence and future gigs
and I apologise in advance for not remembering all your names next
time I see you. It is difficult to put faces to e-mail address' and
URL's so I have a small excuse. My big excuse is that my brain is
full at the moment and in need of a data dump. The guy who put the
gig on in Southampton has said their is a free spot at The Gosport
festival on the 11th August and I hope to confirm a gig in the next
few days and it will appear at the top of this page when it is
confirmed. Apparently we will be sharing the bill with Rolf Harris,
Atomic Kitten and James Brown (on the gud fut). We got back to Wales
just as it was getting light and managed to get a few hours kip.
Saturday morning me and Timbo went back in the studio to mix a
couple of new tracks. I won't bore you with the details but we mixed
"Onjerry", "Face The Music", "Mad" and "Solution". Timbo kicks large
sonic botty.........nuff said. On Sunday morning we arrived at the
studio and I decided to go and have a look at Kidwelly Castle which
was a ten minute walk away. I had been to Kidwelly on a few
occassions and had never been to see it and this Sunday was an
opportune moment. The castle was................a castle. I was
walking back to the studio and decided to pop into this cafe for a
brew. This cafe was like a converted car showroom and it had windows
all round the front and it was empty as it was 11.30. I ordered a
tea and took a seat a a window table. I had sat there a minute when
the girl asked if i could sit somewhere else because a family always
sits at the table I was at. Weird?? It was like that sketch on The
Fast Show: "Someone's sitting there mate."
Tuesday morning was an early start as I was going with my son's
class on a school trip to the National Portrait Gallery. We went to
look at some old portraits of Elizabeth I and Henry VIII becuase the
kids were doing The Tudors in school. The gallery is right on
Trafalgar Square and there was tons of traffic and it was way too
hot and humid. It was definitely a stark contrast to the clear air
of Kidwelly and South Wales. Got back home and watched a bit of
tennis on the sofa and had a continual battle to stop myself from
nodding off. Which reminds me.....goodnight.
25th June.
Wimbledon has arrived so that can only mean one thing: the sun is
cracking the flags and it is way too hot. I got up double early this
morning and I have never been so relieved to get into Sainsburys and
walk up and down the fridge aisle..........and that was at 9.30AM.
Too hot for me especially with the nice air quality we have in "The
Smoke". I know it could be worse but I still have the right to
moan!!!!
Managed to nail a couple of vocals last week with the help of Wal. I
had a real difficult time trying to get the best take on "On Jerry"
and it was one of those you had to get in one go and it was beyond
me. The only thing to do in these situations is have a few beers,
get in character and go for one. I am not wishing to make excuses
for my shabby performance in the vocal department but I think I may
have been suffering from a mild dose of hayfever because I was all
dried up and felt like a had a big bubble of snot across my throat
(sorry if anyone is eating while they are reading this). I am off to
see Afro Celt Mart to get his help transferring the stuff from ADAT
to CD so I don't have to carry my tape machines to Wales. After the
gig next friday we will be off back to Wales to mix four tracks fro
"Le Grande Fromage".
I won't be in the chat room this Thursday because I will be having a
fat curry with the chaps but i am going to write the bedtime story
before I go and Ket will paste it into the channel for you on
Thursday night. this is one of a number of experiments we will
betrying with mIRC over the next few weeks. One idea is to send you
some snippets of the tracks or low quality mp3's that you can
download while we are chatting so that is something to look forward
to while I am away. I will see you in Southampton!