Artwork for my new album.

The art work is finished for my upcoming solo album. It's quite an uncomfortable feeling for me to bare my soul and record songs for posterity, but with no other creative musical option on my cards and some downtime. I felt it was time to take a big deep breath and just do it. I'm very pleased with the results.

For the artwork, there was no question but to work with Kenneth. He was the first person to listen to the tracks and gave me some support on continuing with my ponderous soul searching songs. He came up with the theme of baring my soul and not having anything to hide behind. We toyed with the concept of nudity and nakedness, and at one point thought of shooting me naked surrounded by all the instruments I'd played. With the fear of other people listening to my songs, the nudity was the least of my worries, but we abandoned the idea.

One summer evening when we were kicking our heels we went for a drive to the Dunaskin Industrial Heritage Centre. I don't think its open any more, but you can still get in and wander around the old buildings and all the industrial age machinery from the coal mines there. We wandered around with his dog Ruby and took influence from a bygone age.

A few days later, Kenneth sent through the draft album cover with the title "bare buff". I couldn't come to terms with nudity, nakedness and laid bare as an album title without thinking of sepia tinged shots of me staring into space like a pre raphaelite poet. Bare Buff means naked in a more archaic, joking, colloquial Scottish way, which I was much more comfortable with.

I found the artwork a little sparse initially, but it slowly grew on me. It has a darkness and the broken crane gives it a theme of interrupted productivity. There is also light at the end of the tunnel and hope on the horizon. Trying to build a future on a rusty history. I think it is as good a visual representation of the album and where my head was at when I recorded it as I can imagine.

Early morning with Tamira on English Breakfast Radio

I set my alarm clock for the first time since I left the office job today. Tamira had scored an appearance on English Breakfast Radio. The drawback was that we had to cycle out to the docks at the north of the centre just after 7 in the morning. Tamira surprised me by being wide awake!!! The truth was that she hadn;t been to bed which seems to have been the way to go... she was a lot more awake than I was.

There are real benefits to getting up this early.... the weather was lovely and the sun was just rising:

We went in and met Neville and he introduced us to the other guys. It was much more relaxed than our last radio appearance. The guys really welcomed us in and were keen for us to get involved in all aspects of the show. I think I embarassed Tamira by being a little too candid about some of the songs about her love life, but I think it made good radio. The guys were great. They played two of the tracks from Tamira's CD. There was lots of banter and they put us on the spot a few times but I think our 'eh's' and 'um's' fit in quite well the atmosphere they create. We also played one of Tamira's songs live and did our cover of Crazy Train.

By the end of the show I;d had enough coffee to feel human and we went to a cafe and had a chat with the guys. All in all a great experience. I'll probably need a siesta after my early start though.

You can stream the show from here

My Dutch TV debut

At last week's Jam a great guy came in called Alex. He was Malaysian but had spent a lot of time in Australia and he had the best of both destinations. He was a singer, guitar player and songwriter and he was over in Amsterdam as part of a TV series called Vakantieleifdes(Summer Love) The program reunites holiday romances to see if love blossoms on home turf. As part of the program they had decided to film Alex plying his trade in Amsterdam, so they chose a few of us to come back to CC Muziek Cafe on Saturday and be filmed playing with Alex.

On the Saturday I turned up, not quite knowing what to expect; it was very much off the cuff. The TV crew turned up. They were all great people and it was good fun watching how these things come together behind the scenes. We were snatching 15 minutes between the main bands to quickly run through a few songs. We'd decided to do one of Alex' songs, Another Brick in the wall and Hotel California. Luckily Ali came in, as he;s a much better guitarist than I and he can do the Eagles solos justice.

We got set up and Alex started playing his own song. I was playing along before and they were filming before I'd even worked out what key he was playing. It sounded great, but from my perspective I wasn't doing much. Ali took over and did Another Brick in the wall and Hotel California.

A few weeks later it was on the telly. Watching it online, it was edited very well and my fear that I looked a little useless was unfounded.

You can watch it here.

Jamming with Sandra and Manuel

Sandra and Manuel joined us this week in the Jam Session. It gave it a great boost. We did an excellent version of Ramble On by Led Zeppelin. I played bass and made the mistake of knowing the bass part. I don't play bass often, so my Bass playing finger stamina is pretty low. We kept it going for about 15 minutes and because I knew the bass part, I hadn't worked out the underlying chords, so I had to just keep playing through the pain.....

Day 2 - Mixing Fonz

I'm back in the control room. The control room is a big comfy seat in front of my speakers with the laptop on my knees. I've got 4 tracks to mix for Fonz and then 6 to master. I was a little apprehensive as I've never done this for any type of music other than rock and pop, but luckily everything still works out the same and they are sounding great. The electronic element means I can get away with a little bit more production in the vocals without it sounding too polished.

I think the result is really good. It is still rough and human like my other stuff but it's applied to a genre where things are often a little smooth.

Sandra's back!

The sun has returned to Amsterdam and Sandra has come with it! She's on good form, having learned some great songs to play with her wonderful guitar playing boyfriend Manuel. Look out for the three of us doing a great version of Ramble on by Led Zeppelin in pub near you(If you are in Amsterdam that is)

Day 1 - Recording Fonz

It feels great turning the living room into a recording studio again. I have great memories of recording Sandra and then Tamira in a similar setting.

First up is the guitar:

He's using a virtual amp and effects, so we don't need to worry about microphones and isolation. This means we can monitor the whole thing on a wedge monitor as he's playing and get a bit more feeling about the playing. Headphones can be annoyingly restrictive.

Alfons is a pretty good guitarist, so it;s a pleasure to watch him exchange 80's metal riffs with more modern hip hop beats. We decided to record various guitar elements for all the songs and then build a guitar part from what we like later:

It's going well, and we're flying through the tracks. Once the guitar is recorded, we move onto vocals. This is always a tougher affair. Most of the tracks have a rapping section, which are quite challenging at the best of times. Eventually once we find our groove, we're getting full takes without mistakes.

Before we know it, it's 8 O'clock and we've been working hard for 7 hours solid. The rough takes are sounding good and we think it's best to call it a night. I can't wait to get the tracks mixed and see how good I can make it sound. The type of music(Hip hop/Rap/crossover) is a far stretch from what I'm used to working with so it;s a real challenge.

New recording project - Fonz Fonzarelly

Starting as I mean to go on, I went to Melody Line today for a meeting with Alfons. I know him through Tamira, and he's been to a few of the Jam Sessions. He's a multitalented guitarist/singer/rapper. He's keen to pull together various music endevours into a mix tape that he can promote both virtually and physically to bring his music to wider audiences and hopefully move up to the next level.

He has some backing tracks, but needs my help to play guitar, rap and sing over them and mix and masters the results, so we agree to meet at Wagging Tail Studios(My living room) the next day to see what we can get recorded.

Pastures new

I'm now officially redundant. It's been a tough year so far, mostly spent sitting in an office where everyone knows that there is a big changing coming up. I decided that the sooner I got on with life the better. This equated to stopping working on the 1st of April. My plans??? I don;t really have any. I'm going to finally get rid of time as an excuse for not doing music. When I get bored or the money runs out I'll think of the next stage. This will be the longest period of my life without working since I was about 16.

Couch Jam

Our neigh ours dog is on holiday. I didn't have to babysit this Friday, so I was able to go to the excellent Talia CouchJam. It was the usual wonderfully relaxed affair, with great food and great music. The highlight for me was a medley of impromptu Pearl Jam songs. I was amazed that so many people there knew all the words.

My Dutch Radio Debut

I really made the most of my day off work this week. Tamira has been asked to appear on the radio - Amsterdam FM. She asked me to come along for a little moral support and to add a second guitar to some of her songs.

We were appearing on the 'literature hour'. This meant that several authors had come along to be interviewed about their music and Tamira and I would play songs in between. We started with Randy - one of Tamira's own songs. They asked Tamira about her album etc.

Between songs we had to quietly sit and listen to the interviews. Tamira was pretty worse for wear from the night before, so I think her lasting memory of the evening will be an hour spent stifling coughs. We also played Crazy Train which we'd been practicing.

I think it went pretty well. The hosts were pretty happy.

Crazy Train(Ozzy Osbourne) - Tamira Herrebrugh & Neil McKenzie

Video from yesterday's practice. I managed to work out how to use iMovie to replace the audio in the video with a mixed recording of the audio and then sync them both together.

Thursday Jam with a sore throat

I have almost no voice at the moment, so I did absolutely no singing at the Jam Session. I felt I had to make up for it by making sure that I put in plenty stage-time as a drummer, a Bassist and a guitarist for the night.

My second technorati article - Google Adsense

I was a little frustrated at losing my Google Adsense account for these blogs. After a litle investigation, I discovered that it's not so easy to make money from Google Ads. I wrote a short article about it for Technorati:

http://technorati.com/business/advertising/article/does-anyone-actually-make-money-from/

I'm hoping to put together a bigger article about how to make a little money on the side for music activities from blogs and advertising on your site, but it would appear that it's not as simple as I first thought.

Neil McKenzie - Solo - Cafe Del Mondo, 26.02.2011

Last night was a special occasion. It was my first ever solo gig. I've had lots of opportunities to prove to myself that I can do it, but this was the first time that it was only my name on the bill and I had no one to hide behind.

I swithered as to whether to take the gig or not, but I knew I had enough material, so I went for it in an attempt to take new steps and grow a little.

Cafe Del Mondo is a great little bar on the Nieuwmarkt in Amsterdam which itself is full of terraced bars. By day these are full of coffee-ing tourists having a well earned rest on one of the most picturesque squares in Amsterdam. By night the place opens up to a nightlife that is a little more respectable or older than that on Leidseplein or Rembrandtplein. The Proximity to the red light district means there is also a steady traffic of tourists wandering around.

I'd been in the bar before for coffee on a saturday to recharge the batteries during a morning market session, but I'd never been in at night. The bar is quite small as a music venue, but let's call it "intimate". This is good news - I'm not expecting a big crowd.

Karolina and I introduce ourselves to the owner and set up a makeshift stage on the mezzanine level at the back. It creates a lovely homely atmosphere:

I play my first set(see below). The audience are unresponsive but seem pretty happy, The odd person sings along and people slowly trickle in which at least tells me that I'm not scaring punters off. A few times, big groups of English tourists in track suits pass the door and I pray that they don't come in. Luckily they don't.

Before I know it the first set is over, which lets me know that everythings gone fine, the owner is happy and all the equipment works. I am able to relax over a beer and talk to karolina about how it went. By now it's about 10:30 and the night is in full swing for most people. Everyone has had a few more drinks. The rain has started which means we're unlikly to get many new audience members but it also makes the ones we do have less likely to leave.

I kick off the second set, and the crowd are clearly far more responsive. The singing is geting louder and I think they are enjoying the laid back but well known songs that I'm playing. Before I know it the set is over and it's time to go home... All in all - another mountain climbed!!

Here's what I played:

Open Mike @ Mollys - February 2011

With the hectic uncertainty of the Jam Sessions, it's nice to come home to Mollys and know what's happening. It also feel like ages since I played with Fraser, cos there's been so much musical stuff in the past month.

Fraser's knackered cos he's working 2 jobs this week. I'm not much better due to the stress of work. We start with a pint of guinness and a fish and chips and that puts us right.

Having prepped a few tracks on Sunday - we wanted to knock them out early, but the voices also need to warm up first, so we did Ziggy Stardust and Dancing in the moonlight to break our voices and then did our two prepared numbers:





I think they went down pretty well. 'In the air tonight' is possibly a little dour. There was no danger of that tonight. An inebriated vision-in-red decided to join in for our last choruses providing some comic relief to the emotional climax to the song.

After this Tamira and Lisa came up and we did No woman no cry, I alone, You can leave your hat on and stuck in the middle with you. I hate no woman no cry - it's one of those songs that is so overplayed that I have never learned it - so any time anyone suggests it we end up staggering through it unconvincingly. Hopefully no one noticed.

After all the regulars, Ali who is a regular at our Thursday Tunes Jam plays some alternative tuning wonders for us. Included in the 4 songs were Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits and So Lonely by The Police. He was excellent - especially The Police cover which people really liked.(Translation - If Neil can sing this one he's going to steal it)

After this Fraser and I returned to the stage to do Boys are back in Town, Fat Bottomed Girls and Man in the Mirror. Fraser gave in to his tiredness and headed home leaving me to hold fort. He was swiftly followed by Tamira(not like that) who headed over to The waterhole

This left me on my todd - so to speak. A Mystere helped me out by performing three of his own songs(Need, Free and Fog). They were wonderful as always. At the open mike when people do their own songs, there's always a difficulty in keeping the audience attentive, but they seemed to enjoy them.

After that we had a Mollys Debut from german guy who sang songs in a German Dialect(Platt??) which is similar to Dutch. He was very good - very entertaining. Unfortunately other than his name(Stefan) I don't have any other details.

As our second Debut of the night, Francisco came next. We had spoken online. Unfortunately there were some language barriers in the way and at first I thought he was a guitarist. Once I'd worked out he was a Bass player, we did a few songs to end and then called it a night.

Gig this Saturday - Café Del Mondo, Amsterdam - Neil solo

Last minute booking for this Saturday in Café Del Mondo

It's a bar round the corner from my house, so I was keen to take the gig and add another local to my portfolio(can drinking establishments be collected in a portfolio???). Sandra is still in Sweden, Tamira is off seeing Zack Wylde, Fraser is working, so I have no one to hide behind. I'm going to knock out 2 sets of covers that I've been singing every week at the Jam Sessions.

Poster as always by Kenneth Clarke.

Sunday night practice

Yesterday a very tired Fraser came round early and we ran through a few songs for the open mike before he had a kip on the couch. We are toying with Movin on up by primal scream, which Eoghan had shown me could work well last Thursday. We also mined Phil Collins catalogue for the first time. This has resulted in us trying to work out if 'in the air tonight' is too dour for the open mike.

In the evening, once Fraser had sobered woken up, Tamira came round and we ran through a few more ideas. We tried an acoustic version of 'you can leave your hat on', but we're not sure if the bass and minimal guitar fills the spaces in the verses well enough. I continued to try to get everyone to enjoy Sympathy for the Devil and we we also worked on 'I alone' by Anouk/Live.

Last month was very good, so hopefully we can keep up the standard.

A percussivley policed jam

We had a few firsts at our jam session this week. We had our first Didgeridoo and the police came for a a listen. Not Sting and Stewart Copeland (although if you're listening boys, you're welcome to pop in), but the boys in blue, the fuzz or the Rozzers.

Other than the police following up a noise complaint, it was a damn good night. we had a lot of new faces. Multi-instrumentalists Nate and Francisco were there from the onset and we had some cool chilled out jams with the Didgeridoo and some percussion.

Once a few more people had arrived, despite having had a dodgy throat all week, I kicked the singing off with a few of our standards:

Luckily Eoghan arrived again to taise the bar and teach a few new songs. we did a pretty good jam on 'Movin' on up' by Primal Scream:



Now that I know it, I think I'm going to steal Eoghan's idea and Fraser and I will try it at the next open mike.

Ali also showed up around this point. He's a wonderful lead guitarist, but what I didn;t know is that he prefers acoustic. Ali and Eoghan then did a version of romeo and Juliet with David:

Ali then did some great folk in DADGAD tuning:

Christoph the drummer also made his first appearace at this Jam session. We had many a good Jam at the Mine with Christoph and it was great to see him again. He was there with another new face; Pascal. Sensing some serious talent I paired them with Lorenzo and Robert and we heard some of the best music that the Jam has produced so far; assisted throughout by Nate and Francisco on percussion . Well done boys!

A usual, the CC Muziek Café lounge was pretty full too:

After this the police arrived, so Tamira's set was particularly quiet. The regulars then kept the Jam going until I unplugged things at 1:30am so that I could go home to bed before work.

Article published on spotify

I had an article published on Technorati. It's a short piece about the returns from spotify for amatuer musicians when using CDbaby. The title should read "Spotify for the amatuer musician" but somewhere along the way an "is" got added. So it looks positive in nature, whereas I intended it to be unbiased. Please comment, share and retweet and let me know what you think. If I get some response, I'll do this kind of thing more often.

http://technorati.com/entertainment/music/article/spotify-is-for-the-amatuer-musician/

Review of the CC Muziek Café Jam Sessions in the Amsterdam Stun

Andy at the Amsterdam Stun has given us a great write up and photos in this month's edition. It's available here.

Tamira and Co - 12.02.2011 - Sink or swim, Westpoort

Tamira and her band had a gig to prepare for, but at the last minute they were guitar-less, so I foolishly agreed to learn their songs on top of my already stressful workload.

The gig was at Sink or Swim which is a studio rented by one of Lorenzo's mates. It's out past Sloterdijk Station, so it was quite an adventure to get there. Lorenzo, Deen, Tamira and I cycled out there in about 20 minutes...

When we got there it was all very "anti-kraak". We went through a garage door and left our bikes in a warehouse and then climbed through a little door to get to ante-room off a small stage. When you play in the same venue weekly, it's great to have the feeling of working out how you are going to sound in a new venue. The opening band were already soundchecking, so we weaved through them to get to a kind of lounge area.

The gig was a cross between a show and a hosue party. Very loungey and relaxed. There was a small bar selling cheap beer and we all kind of mingled and prepared for our gig until it was time for us to go on.

I don't know much about the first band. Good effort - great drummer and bassist supported by two girls singing and one girl on keyboard. I missed the guitar, but it also meant that I felt quite good about not being outclassed and the little audience that was collecting would be chuffed to here some Kerchunk-a-wang...

We went on and played through our set. Amazingly it went by without any noticeable hitch, which for me was surprising considering I had never played all the songs in one go correctly before.

We came off stage just about 10 minutes before the last tram left, so I didn't get to ride the post-gig euphoria very much. I don't have any photos, but Lisa's friend Sebastian took some, so hopefully I'll get a hold of them later.

Friday afternoon practice in Melody line.

Tamira's band is without a guitarist and they have a gig on Saturday, so against my better judgement I agreed to learn a setlist of 13 songs in a matter of days. Today was our first/last proper practice before the gig. The set was as follows:

You can leave your hat on (Joe Cocker et. al.)
Somebody to love(Jefferson Airplane)
Don't speak(No Doubt)
Celebrity Skin(Hole)
Zombie(The Cranberries)
Sex on Fire(Kings of leon)
I alone(Live)
Breed(Nirvana)
Stuck in the Middle with you(Stealer's Wheel)
the Dark(Anouk)
Pretty Fly for a white Guy(The Offspring)
Tubthumping(Chumbawumba)
Song 2(Blur)
Radar Love(Golden earing)

Not a bad set. I'm still struggling with a few of them - but Lorenzo is a very good supporitng Bass Player and he's doing a great job of filling in the blanks.

Led Zep and press interviews....

We had another great night last night. The previous week had given me a little confidence in the fact that I could sit back and enjoy the night a little. When I arrived, Robert and Fergus were already playing away. I quickly got everything set up and joined in. We now have a big enough group of musicians that there are several regular faces who are showing up – Bram, Ali, Wally, Roberto etc.

It was a very “Jammy” night, I don’t think I sang until about 23:00 and I was even playing the drums for quite a while.

After last Friday’s couch Jam – and a few new friends came along. Thanks to David and Elisa.

The band I'm playing in all came along(sans Tamira) and we ran through a few of the songs that I still need to work on before Saturday:

Lisa looks particularly annoyed, but no one is really sure why.

We also had a returning drummer in the form of Wally, who kicked off a medley of Led Zeppelin songs:

We managed to make it all the way through Stairway to heaven with nearly the right words. Whole Lotta Love with no words, and Thank You with a lyric sheet. It was great fun too loud, and very entertaining.

While all this was going on, Matthew was interviewing various Jam Session hosts and regulars for a promo video for the bar. Watch this space - embarassing-interview-youtube-moment on the horizon.

As with last week the night closed magnificently with a Set by Giovanni and James which featured lots of guest stars:

Roll on next weekkkkkkkkkkk.............

youtube infamy awaits.

I was clearing out some hard drives at work when I found these:





I'm not a big youtuber, but I thought I'd stick them up. They are far from perfect, but I wouldn;t have any up at the moment if I waited for perfect. If anyone really enjoys them I can do more video and see if I can get the output fomr the desk into the camera for super good(then compressed) sound.

new band

Practicing with Tamira´s band for a gig on Saturday. Lots of songs to learn...

Talia Couch Jam

Last night I dropped in a new event in Amsterdam. The CouchJam at Talia. Talia is a great little Deli, come catering business, come living room, come small venue. I heard about it through Bernie who played in the mine a few times and was a regular at the Jam Sessions. The plan was to have a chilled unamplified Jam Session on couches - sounds like a good way to start the weekend.

I walked in a little apprehensivly, unsure if I was the only outsider attending. It was chilled right enough. Bernie was sitting on one couch and there was a guitarist(Tim) on the other sitting beside a guy(Mauricio) playing a snare and a set of hi-hats.

I wouldn't often just sit down and join in - but for some reason it felt right. There were various people mingling, eating great food and joining in with some random shakers and tambourines:

The evening passed in a blur. I had brought my Open Mike song book and some people sang a few songs from there. This worked pretty well. I also tried in vain to keep up with some Gypsey Jazz Jam's, but eventually I had to just tap out the rhythm on my guitar. Before I knew it - a few hours had passed and it was time to stop.

After everyone had been out the front of the place a for a photo - Nicola(One of Talia's owners) called us through to the back room and fed all the musicians a Tiramisu:

Perfect end to a perfect night.

Sandra's album finally on Spotify

Several monthas after Tamira's album appeared - Sandra's is now up there.

http://open.spotify.com/album/437CaUfrAzZSHx4jiN8YtD

Branching out.....

I wrote a small piece about the Amsterdam music scene in the winter for an Amsterdam Travel blog.

Practice with Fraser

Last night I cooked a pretty decent Lasagne and Fraser and I sat down to try to dicuss getting some focus on writing some music. It;s something which continues to to escape us. Our other commitments both musical and non-musical usually get in the way. Rather than just knocking together some chord structures and lyrics, we are trying to move away from guitar strumming and have some music that exists without the guitar. I'm so used to holding up a singer at an open mike with guitar chords, and it's become mundane.

To cut a long story short - we've come up with yet another reason why we can't just sit down and write. In order to limit the ambition a little in order to get something done, we're going to try to at least meet a little more often instead of just meeting when we have a gig to prepare for.

Tamira's gig.

Yesterday was a pretty fun filled day. I was going to mix the recordings from the last open mike, but somehow I managed to delete all the files. It was one of those...

"Oh shit..... pooof gone...ah well... what am I going to do now?"

Tamira told me she was stressing a little about pulling her band together. No one is doing what they were told and she was worrying about that night's gig. She asked me if I would come along to her practice and give her some support. Karolina was on the way out the door to the gym, so I suggested she swap it for a bike run to Duivendrecht and back instead.

Before we left for MelodyLine - we had to finish Kenneth's birthday present. I'm racked with guilt. It just didn't make any sense to head over to Scotland for the big man's 30th, so we decided to film a sketch/birthday message for him. It was a roaring success - so maybe we're do that more often.

Anyway... it was a lovely cycle - Blue skies - but baltic cold. No matter how fast you cycled, your legs never warmed up.

When we arrived the band were already there making lots of noise. The only people I hadn't met before was the twin guitar team of Jelmer and Darren. Tamira was feeling the pressure of trying to get everyone to focus on their set-list and learn the songs. Part of me was really glad[Sorry Tamira :-)]. Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one that gets stressed about getting people motivated.

After a few songs I could see what her fears were. While there were plenty songs that went well, it was a big undertaking to bring together 7 people to learn 30-40 songs in a matter of weeks. Different people had different abilities more importantly different levels of effort were being put in. The main issue I could see was that Lisa and Tamira were getting frustrated with having to manage recognition of mistakes and how the group as a whole go about having to find a solution. I spent a lot of the time wondering what my bands sounded like when I was 16-17 and just starting out. We laughed and joked a lot, but we had much less patience for mistakes. We had probably got over the fear of admitting and recognising mistakes from playing in the more formal setting of a brass band.

Anyway - they were doing very well, and given time, I think it would really start to gel - but Tamira was quite rightly stressed about making it gel for the imminent gig that night. I tried to keep pretty quiet so that I wasn't interfering while at the same time letting Tamira know that I was there if they needed some advice.

We headed back and left them to it. We were babysitting Appie at night, so Karolina was going to stay behind while I headed to the gig.

I left for another cold cycle across Amsterdam at about 9:30. It was strange being in the bar and not playing or not having any stress or responsibility to set things up. I got a little worried when I realised I was about the 3rd audience member there, but it very quickly filled up and turned into one of the busiest nights that the Cafe has had.

Rene was on fine form and relishing being the superbusy barman. He was running around like a mad man all night but very successfully playing host to I guess around 60 drinkers at one time. I was avoiding the solo drinker mantel and spent most of the night trying to coax some photos out of my Camera. I think things are starting to go well.

For the band there were a few ropey moments in the first set - mainly caused by nerves and lack of preparation. From the first break onwards, they just got better and better. The audience really embraced them and as the drink flows the night really gelled. I was very impressed and proud of Tamira.

I left half way through the third set. I knew that if I stayed to the end I'd have to wait until everyone cleared up before I could leave.

I passed home via Coco's to see if Fraser was around - but it was far too packed for me to even attempt to head in...

A rare late night saturday for me - and no late night takeaway!!!

Thursday Tunes Jam - 27th Jan.

A great Jam last night. I'm finally managing to focus on the musicians and accepting that I don't have much control over how many people turn up to watch us. When I arrived, Fergus was there to play bass and I was pleased that Eoghan had come down to see what we were doing. Fico was also there - and he always has fun while he's playing, so it made for a good start.

We had a lot of fun running through various songs and and exchanging ideas. It was a very song oriented start to the Jam. Normally I throw out a few songs to warm people up before we try to bring together some jams, but we plays a number of songs led by either me or Eoghan. It was great to have Eoghan along to take the lead a little and also to sing some great harmonies for the stuff I was doing. The stuff I remember is Sympathy for the Devil, Talkin' bout a revolution, Man on the Moon, Whiskey in the Jar and Dancing in the moonlight.

We also had a new face at the Jam - Cecile - who started very well by getting us to Jam a version Glory Box by Portishead and then slotted in really well on vocals and guitar.

After that, Danielle arrived and I felt there were enough people who could play guitars and sing, so for the first time so far in our Jam Sessions - I took to the drums. It's been a while, and I get pretty self-concious about whether my bass drum is in time, but I'm pretty sure I coped okay and no-one noticed that I've not played in months and my brain disagrees with my arms about my drumming ability.

After this, I sat back with Karolina and let everyone do their thing. We had almost no audience, but around 20 musicians. Robert came along and Karolina even played(Zombie). The night closed with me playing Bass, Robert playing guitar, Bram playing keyboards and Den playing drums.

I had a great night. I think I'll branch out to Bass and Drums more often.

Cosy January Open Mike.

Last night we had a great Open Mike night. It was that great mix of having practiced, having an audience and having enough friends there to make it good fun.

When we started the bar was actually empty. We’d hit the spot between after work stragglers and late night drinkers. We decided that we’d start rather than hang around. We started with Goodnight Girl by Wet Wet Wet and by the grace of Marti Pellow the bar had an extra 20 people in it when we finished.

It was Burns Night and we had planned to give some Burns songs a go, but the preparation hadn’t amounted to any more than printing out the chords. We thought we might have got away with it when the bar was empty, but once we spied some strangers in the bar, we lost the bottle and plumped for a good crowd pleaser – Fat Bottomed girls.

We now felt we had sufficiently impressed to try the first of our new additions for the night – the boys are back in town. I think we did it justice. There were a few little stumbles in the vocals, but otherwise I think it was pretty good fun.

Onto the guests…. Andre was up first. He did some great original versions of While my guitar gently weeps, Moon river and one of his own about an island where it’s always raining.(The UK???)

After that we had Grandpa Death at our open mike for the first time. He must have been keen, cos he bought a new guitar for it. He added to the Scottishness or even the Ayrshireness of the event and gave us some amazing original bluesy tunes.

Gareth then showed us how it was done and knocked out some great cover choices – including Purple Rain and Take your Mama by the Scissor Sisters and Driftwood by Scottish band Travis. :

By this point it was clear that we had enough talent to sustain the night and there were lots of smiling faces and happy musicians, so my job was done. Fraser and I even managed to sit down for a pink of the black stuff:

The photo makes me look a little satanic, but I was really enjoying the night and even relaxing a bit.

Tamira, Lorenzo and Lisa had come along ahead of their Debut gig on Saturday at CC Muziek Café. The play some Tubthumping, some Natalie Imbruglia, and some Stealer’s Wheel(more Scottish music). Things are coming together and I think their gig should be pretty good if anyone needs anywhere to go this Saturday.

We then had a folk group, but I’m afraid I don’t know their names. They’ve been down before and they are a great bunch. Me and Fraser even got up for a jam for their last song:

We had now got to the stage where there had been enough drinkers to make the bar happy and enough musicians to remove our fear that we were going to run out of material. We could now sit back, relax and knock out a few tunes. The tunes included “Guess that’s why they call it the Blues”, Man in the mirror, the boys are back in town(again), and then I broke a string on Lola. So we finished with a 5 string medley of Pokerface, Kids and Zombie.

Here’s some of the songs that were played: