26th March 2002

Let me begin the "wise words" this week with the above picture. On
Saturday night me and big Joe toodled off to Wembley Arena to see
Faithless. I was looking forward to seeing them since I saw them on Jools
Holland. For those of you who know Faithless' music but have never seen
them live them let me talk you through it. They have a real drummer and
percussion player, bass and guitar which is something most of these dance
acts don't have and it really makes a difference. The sound in there was
extremely loud which was a bad thing at the start with all those pingy
synth sounds with a ton of screech applied through the PA. As the gig wore
on the sound guy obviously got to grips with getting a good sound in such
a big barn and it was kicking along quite nicely. Every so often there
would be some big bottom end shit going off that you could feel right
through your bones and shook your seat, hence the caption above. Overall I
enjoyed it and it was good to see people dancing the tits off on the floor
off the hall while I was in the relative comfort of the seats. A bit of a
change from Low!! The only downside of a vsit to Wembley Arena is the
extortionate price for a plastic bottle of beer?? £3.50. At those sort of
prices it is very expensive to get a buzz going on or a hangover!
Well I bet you have been wondering how it was going down in Wales with the
mixing of "Le Grande Fromage" and the answer is top banana. We had a few
syncing problems on the first day but managed to get around them with some
digital jiggerypokery. We mixed all the rest of the tracks bar one which
had a couple of tracks missing and they all sound kick ass. I cannot pick
a favourite because I don't like any of them anymore and want to get on
and do the next one so expect a shorter time between this album and the
next. I have to tell you about my brush with nature whilst down in Wales
which should give you a bit of a laugh. Tim's studio is in one building
and the tea and coffee facilities are in a building that is 80% derelict
and is currently being inhabited by a mouse. Or at least we thought it was
one! One night about nine o' clock I popped in for a brew and there was
one running along the curtain rail, one running up the curtains, one in
the washing up bowl helping itself to the remains of a curry and one
sitting on top of a speaker cabinet. When I walked in and shone the torch
at them (the lights have long sinced fused) they barely paid any attention
to me and the mouse eating the curry just looked up from the plate as if
to say "Do you mind shining that fucking thing out of my face while I
eat!" Bold as brass these little gits! I was on mouse investigation while
Tim was twiddling knobs and I found the little hole in the side of the
building where they were coming in and out so Tim decided enough was
enough and war was declared on all mice. He took an extremely large
canister of expanding foam, loaded it with the nozzle and prepared to seal
up the "curry pass". Unfortunately the can was quite old and wasn't
playing the game and I bored quickly and left Tim to do it as he was
clearly on a mission and all thoughts of reverb and eq were put on the
back burner while he was being "Foam Man". He decides that the stubborn
can needs a bit of encouragement and places a small nail in the nozzle and
then hits it with a lump of wood. What happened next was a "You've Been
Framed" moment and despite having a video camera in the studio it is lost
forever. Tim hits the can, the can "explodes", I hear a dull thud from the
studio and Tim walks throught the door with bits of foam expanding on his
head like industrial dandruff!! I go outside and this can has gone off big
time. It has gone all up the side of the building up to the
guttering.....and beyond. Other highlights of the week in Wales were a
visit to the White Horse in Llanelli with Tim's old man Rod to watch The
Reds destroy Roma in the Chumps League. I arrived at the pub about ten but
managed to wangle a top sarnie from Michelle, the landlady, and enjoyed
her and her husband Stuart's company for a small lock in and a few pints
of the black stuff with a couple of locals. I even ended up signing a copy
of "Pleasuredome" for a young man named Karl who shared a lot of musical
memories of bands from the seventies, especially magazine who are old
favourites of mine. We finished the mixing on Friday afternoon and I
headed over to Wal's fro a night out with him and his wife's family. Wal's
Ma-in-law was an absolute belter. She must be well into her eighties but
drinks Reef and Vodka Red Bulls and was a great laugh. Me and Wal ended up
back at his house for a bottle of red and an argument with a
representative of the "youth of today" who will remain nameless but I
expect Wal was in the doghouse for being so vocal. Chat will be back to
normal this Thursday at 10.00 so I will see you there..........or here
next week.