13th March 2008Double Album Release: ‘Days in Diamond White and Skies Burnt and Lessons Learnt’Hello all (or both of you!). Here’s hoping the website is now a more satisfying place to be. You may have noticed (?) that I’ve been slacking off on the gigs recently but for one (or two) very good reasons. I started making my first album (‘Skies Burnt and Lessons Learnt’) in February 2007. If you recall, I made quite a big deal of it at the time (I started it on the anniversary of Buddy Holly’s death) and now it’s done!
And then I thought, why release one album when you can release two? With that in Mind ‘Days in Diamond White’ is a compilation album. I’ll bet there aren’t many people who release their debut album and a compilation album on the same day. But in my defence, I had all these live tracks I wanted to release from the Red Launch. I also had to find some way to release the best tracks on-line again as ‘Red’ and ‘Gravity Is The Reason’ are no longer available on itunes for really good reasons. It’s fair to say I prefer the independent route from now on. So I guess these are the best of the two E.P.s and the live versions which came out the best.
Both are being processed at itunes at the moment and should be available by May 2008 but no doubt I’ll write another bulletin when they’re up so that the techno wizards can do the downloading thing and give me pennies! ‘Skies Burnt and Lessons Learnt’ is available now in hard copy! Some people like myself are wary of machines and banking and on-line and consequently prefer a CD one can buy with money and hold in their hand like a trinket. Well I say to those people contact me with your address and I’ll make it happen for you. Unfortunately, Days in Diamond White is only available on-line as generating extra hard copies of songs already on CD was out of my budget! However! I do intend to donate a percentage of the proceeds from Diamond to charity.
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Album to be done at Eclipse StudioI am defintitely definitely going into the studio on the 3rd Feb to make a start. This could be a lengthy process but I intend to document all progress made on the myspace in video and blog form. Its kind of like Christopher Columbus, only more technical and with less threat to life. The plan is to do the loud ones here in Newcastle and the quiet ones on London town. If all goes to plan this should be completed by April and up for download asap. Have a cigar! |
Thursday 6th DecemberAlbum Time At Last Finally got around to starting the new E.P. Still not sure of title and I don’t want to just name it after a song again. Any suggestions (clean ones) appreciated. There are a whole bunch of really talented people who have been nice enough to say they’ll help me out. I plan on posting a blog on the myspace documenting my progress albeit lack thereof but not to worry! It’ll be done by the time I hit the BBC again, which will be in March 2007! I know my limits. |
Friday April 21 2006
Vee to appear on Radio Cleveland
I spent my teen angst years in Middlesbrough and now the mothership is calling me home in the form of BBC Radio Cleveland! I am to play tunes for presenter Bob Fischer some time after 8pm, Wednesday May 17. What fun to be back on the wireless! Haven't decided exactly what to play yet but since when do I ever write a set list anyway? Tune in to BBC Radio Tees and see what takes me over at the spur of the moment. It'll be interesting to see what happens when I'm in front of a microphone in manner of a deer facing headlights. I then plan to tune into my homing pigeon instincts, go back to me mam and dad's, drink wine and fall asleep on the dog.
Wednesday March 8 2006
Shiny New Website!
Yeah, I got a shiny new website now just like all the other clever musicians.If you managed to find me considering all the addresses on the CD's are wrong, Well Done, you have my admiration. If you have found me purely by accident, you may as well hunt around the webbery now, since it's taken so long to make that evolution is hitting a new level. You may find it particulary amusing to check out all the misty photo's in the Gallery. I went through thousands before I found any that didn't exploit my chin, nose or chest. Everyone else is photogenic and I end up looking like Magenta from Rocky Horror, but less good looking and more ginger.
Next EP for Vee
Yes, we’re still headed down the blues road, paved with beards, banjos and booze. So far the next line up of songs is as follows:Carnality
Better for the Sugar
Beacon
Sugar and Cream
Manipulative Honey
Although these my change. No ideas for a title yet. Naming after a song is getting quite boring so ideas on a post card please. Clean ones.... well cleanish. Also, not sure whether to add a bonus track. Everyone is doing it and ironically, secret tracks aren’t secret anymore! Let us know if I should do one anyway though. I’m up for your thoughts on the subject.
Still thinking about doing a live EP for the songs that I continue to bump off the recordings but I have learn to play/finish them first!
Search for the South
A matter of months ago, If someone had told me that this weekend, I would be playing in the place I grew up, I would have told them to have another drink and stop talking out their arse. I could not believe that not only was I going back to Buxton, I was playing a festival there. I hadn’t returned to the Peak District in 9 years so I was curious to see if it was still there! And it is. Mountains don’t move unless willed to by a deity or David Blane.So Andy, Amy, Simon, Christine and myself are packed into the car in sleeping bags in manner of battery hens. We’re not even across the Tyne Bridge before Andy asks if we’re nearly there and I am sleeping with my mouth open.
We’re approaching a service station in Darlington when ’The Quest for the South’ is initiated by Andy. What could this mythical place be? We speculate and the various episodes are recorded on video. As Northerners we know little of the South. Only that it is a rich place and populated by a race unknown to us.
It is at the service station where we notice a man covered in dirt wearing no shoes still drunk and asking for a taxi firm number. He has apparently woken in a ditch with no clue where he is and leaves a trail of dirt as he exits Costa. Toto, I don’t think we’re in Newcastle anymore and this certainly isn’t the South. Onwards!
I open my eyes an hour later and the Peaks are outside. It’s a little overwhelming and I spend the rest of the journey repeating over and over ‘...... is still there’. Andy asks where I expected everything to go? I ignore him, its very moving.
We stop at Glossop and I attempt to revert to the Derbyshire accent so that people will understand me again. It seemed a good idea when we were banging down a pub door asking if they had a loo at 11am. We are passed by a group of ramblers who take a photo of us. Ramblers are everywhere in Buxton. There is nothing else to do.
Sure enough we are soon in Buxton and Solomon’s Temple comes into view. Once again I say ’It’s still there’. They mock me. They’re cretins.
We drop off everything at Amy’s gaff and begin to walk to Poole’s Cavern so named after a medieval fraudster who ended his days in a cave having had a good time terrorising Victorians. It is here that Simon discovers the secret of goth and we all get to feel what a stalagmite feels like...slimy.
Me and Andy purchase whiskey and begin the long walk up the hill to Solomon’s Temple. I expected it to be nostalgic, weird and emotional but its really intense. Simon climbs it and recites Saruman’s speech from ’The Two Towers’ while I ball my eyes out and say ’It’s still there’. The view from there is amazing and it is just like being in a time warp. Christine makes me sing ’Solomon’s Temple’ in the temple itself. I am embarrassed because there are natives with their dogs and a man trying to make a cigarette watching. But the whiskey helps.
We run back down the hill tipsy and I take photos of just about everything I pass until its time to prepare ourselves for getting the show on. Longnor has perhaps 6 buildings in it and two of them are pubs. One of them is ‘The Crewe and Harpur’ setting for Vee and Mackin blues magic. Its warm inside but I’m nervous. Simon and Christine have convinced me to sing Solomon’s Temple but these people actually know the place and they might throw ash trays if they think I’m insulting their landmark.
I don’t drink a drop until show time. Its at this point that Andy tells me he’s gonna shove a beer coaster under the bridge of his guitar so the action will be high enough for slide. I’m not convinced. I look on sceptically (see photos) Andy breaks a string. We ’borrow’ one from another act and then don’t play slide. The irony.
It is so packed in the pub at this point that me and Andy are tuning up in the loos pressing ourselves against the walls every time someone goes for a wee. Eventually we go on and they are a hard audience to crack. Don’t get me wrong. No one wants us dead and everyone’s happy enough but they’re harder to hold than I thought. I wasn’t expecting them to like Solomon’s Temple but the reception I got was better than I could have asked for. We had them by ’Red’ and everyone had a blast. I tried to tell them I was local. I don’t think they believed me.
We were all full of adrenalin and no one was ready for bed so we went to ’mood’ (’doom’) in Buxton centre. This is about as wild as Buxton gets. Its full of people our age but everyone is rather quiet, some wearing waterproofs (been rambling) and some with quiff hairstyles. I think the highlight was when one girl tried to give the guy opposite us a lap dance. We cry laughing, Simon is asleep and then me and Andy are told off for wearing hats in case the CCTV cameras don’t see our faces. Why does this place need CCTV? For the muggers and murderers who live in the Peak District? We’re in League of Gentlemen country now, no danger of debauchery here.
So we create debauchery. We sing Geordie songs and drink more until bouncers come along with truncheons (why?) and tell us its kicking out time. Everyone leaves within a matter of seconds. Clearly these guys mean it. But we are totally goth.
We return to Amy’s gaff drink more and play guitar until we all fall asleep on sofas. I go to bed at 5:30 and I am awoken at 10 by Amy who has brought me tea and is hungry. She tells me to look outside.
It has snowed. Not Newcastle snow. Buxton snow. Buxton snow doesn’t mess about. In a matter of hours it has laid about half a foot. We attempt to get the car moving. Well they do. Andy, Simon and Amy grab a bumper trying to swivel car in manner of magic roundabout while I look on in my sleeping bag reminding them that I want pancakes. Perhaps we will have to live here.
We make it into Buxton town centre for fry ups and observe the snow. Me and Andy talk world domination. We’ve had a mint time and we want to do it all again somewhere else. Possibly York.
In between travelling through Chesterfield and stopping at Andy’s Mam and Dad’s to get fed and bring them up to speed on our take over the world plans, it takes us 7 hours to get home. We’re all happy. I’ve sold C.Ds, Andy has had the compliment of his life, Christine hasn’t broken the car and Simon has discovered the secret of goth. We are totally knackered, totally happy and totally goth.