Post gig rehearsal

I didn't quite manage to get the Foo's 'Times like these' together in time for this practice, but brought along Bowie's 'Hang on to yourself', the Damned's 'New Rose' and 'London Calling' by The Clash, all of which we got into fair shape. We also played 'Pump It Up' by Elvis Costello, which is a keeper. And the Sex Pistols 'God Save The Queen' just for the heck of it.

Shattered when I got in, the wide awake till 3a.m, which had an impact on a competition at work...

Practices for upcoming gig

A couple of practices under our belt, with a couple of new songs (including one I wrote many years ago currently getting reworked as a Scuzzbuckets song) in preparation for a gig on the 23rd of September.

Boys Are Back In Town

Well, almost. My hike in the States for a month, Jamie's work/holiday in Brighton and the States, and Gary's trip to Spain has meant we've all had an extended break and are itching to get back gigging.

Gary's due back in a few days, so hopefully we can hit the studio again and get back to speed with some new songs (covers and originals).

But family in Australia mean Gary will only be back for a short while, so chances are we'll only squeeze in a one gig somewhere.

The evening before...

Tear myself away from a leaving do at work (and a girl called Isabelle) for a pratice before our Inn On The Green gig tomorrow. Aziz*, a friend of Si's comes along and seems to enjoy things as we belt through our set. I'm a bit worse for wear (free tab at the leaving do), but only 'Sheena Is a Punk Rocker' which was great last time sounds week. We may drop it. If we can't get a three chord Ramones song right, well...

Being drunk makes every song seem a minute long. Strange. I keep track of where we are in a song (just), but find myself surprised as each song ends, and struggle to remember whether we even played some of them. Must resist when we play tomorrow night, although I learnt a valuable lesson last time when the wait before playing meant I over indulged before hand and wasn't at my best (understatement!).

*As we make our way home in the van it turns out that not do Si and Aziz share the same birth date (to the year), but so does Jamie. Aziz works out he odds, and they're slim.

Post practice

A tiring practice tonight. Warm up with three or four songs, add The Ramones 'Sheena is a Punk Rocker', practice Motörhead's 'Dance', Arctic Monkeys 'Bet that you look good on the dancefloor', and Green Day's 'American Idiot', then work out a set for next Friday. It goes something like:

Blitzkrieg Bop
Pretty Vacant
Song 2
Dance
Bet that... Dancefloor
Live Wire
Too Drunk To Fuck
Anarchy In The U.K
Sheena is a punk Rocker
American Idiot

We tear through it in rehearsal, and it all works well. 'Live Wire' I either get of fluff up badly enough to consider dropping it. But it's a great song, be a shame to lose it. By the end of the set I look as though I've run a half marathon. Having to bring a towel to practices (and a change of shirt to gigs). Supposed to go to a housewarming, but it's gone 11pm and I just wanna crash.

Practice practice practice...

A practice tonight without the bass player (who is in Spain). I've tried that in the past, and it's been a bit crap. I tend to play off the bass a lot more than the drums, and a practice with just a drummer can be too freeform to be useful. But we play 'Bet that you look good on the dancefloor', 'American Idiot' and 'Dance', and every song sounds a lot tighter than before. The singer has obviousy learnt the lyrics, the drummer and I have the song structures down, and playing without a bass gives me a chance to focus on how the guitar sounds (you can't hide when you are on your own). Very useful, and great fun.

We have a practice on Friday which might be our last before the gig on June 1st. Hopefully we can add another couple of songs then.

Current set list

As a reminder to myself - I always forget 'Song 2' and don't get the chance to tune down the E string, which kills my fingers.

Currently performing:

• Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop
• Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant
• Kaiser Chiefs - Everyday (weak, may drop)
• Blur - Song 2
• AC/DC - Live Wire (weak, but goes down well)
• Dead Kennedys - Too Drunk Too Fuck
• Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The UK
• Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen (makes for too many Pistols numbers, so never performed)

Currently practicing:

• Motörhead - Dance (working well after changing the structure - one less guitar solo)
• Green Day - American Idiot
• Arctic Monkeys - Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor

For the near future:

• AC/DC - Riff Raff (love this)
• Supergrass - Richard III (don't know this one)
• Elvis Costello - Pump It Up (love bass on this)
• AC/DC - Can I Sit Next To You Girl
• Ramones - Sheila Is A Punk Rocker

Don't work:

• Clash - Should I Stay...

(the list layout above - meh. will play with the CSS at some point)

Post practice

I love rehearsing. If you're playing live, you can hardly smile at the end of a song and say "That was fucking awesome - let's play it again a few more times!" The crowd (I use that term loosely...) expects you to play a set. Go figure. But in rehearsal, you can do a song till you nail it, or just play one you love. And it's better than any cd/mp3. It's all down to you. Either play a safe solo and enjoy the rest of the band, or shred the hell out of it (again, I use that term loosely in my case!).

So tonight was a blast. We added "American Idiot" and "Bet you look good on the dancefloor" to our set, with an eye (ear?) to adding Motörhead's "Dance" next time around. And possibly another Ramones song.

Three weeks til our next gig. Hopefully we'll have more than a handful of songs to play.

thursday practice...

So we're suppsed to practice before the Dorset gig , which is on Friday night. But the bassist has been sorting out provisions and rushing around getting our amps and PA and mikes and mixing desk and drum kit from the last place we played (on Sunday night) and is absolutely trashed. And he's having a slight paranoia attack. This is normally the point at which he would disappear until he recovers, but we need to practice. I was hoping we could add an Arctic Monkeys track to our set, and add a song to our set we need to, as if we're a bit hyped we can quite easilt tear through out 7 song set in 15 minutes.

The drummer coaxes him out and we meet down our studio. And have to cart the equipment in from the van and set up. Our bassist does an admirable job of co-ordinating things, helped by our drummer who desrves a medal for having the patience of a saint.

Me and the singer are little more use than a condom machine in the Vatican, but what the hell, we're new to this.

We get the drum kit PA and Marshalls in place, and go through some of the songs that have been giving us grief, mainly AC/DC's "Live Wire", which I screw up the timing on the beginning chords every fuckign time, and the Kaiser Chief's "Everyday", which is lacking arrangement wise given that we're covering the keyboard and guita parts on one guitar, and the singer isn't that confident with the song.

And then we try the Artic Monkey's "Bet that you look good on the dance floor", and after I tear a nail off playing it (ouch ouch fucking ouch), we decide we won't have it tight enough to play tomorrow. Shame. We bring "God Save the Queen" back into the set, which given we're already playing two Pistols songs means we're in danger of turning into a Pistols tribute band. Here's hoping there are some Pistols fans in Dorset. It's their lucky day...

We call it quits at a reasonable hour, and pack the gear into a car and a van, and I dash off home to drop off my guitar before heading out to try and catch the band Marvin. I arrive in time, a bit worse for wear, and meet a bunch of people from work who are even more wrecked than me, and catch an superb set by the band. And their keyboard player is to die for, and it's her birthday. Their set is cut short by our crappy licensing laws, but I pick up a cd (it's ripping now).

So all in all a good night. Now I just have to wake up in time to get to the studio tomorrow before heading by train to Dorset.