Hey, how are you? How has your day been? I've been out today and visited family, which made a lovely change. While there, I went through some of my stuff that's there and brought some back. While Louise is out at work one of these next couple of days, I'm going to go through a couple of TAPES of recordings that I found. It's funny, but it was like reliving moments when I was going through a couple of boxes of my stuff there, and actually they were boxes that I'd not gone through for many years. I found a couple of tapes of Cornerstone, and there are a load of tapes of Shadowplay I suppose. Not sure where all those are, because the boxes are all mixed up all over the place. This is why I thought I had my entire DVD collection here at home, but then found some earlier at my aunt's. I've brought some back with me - a few classic albums DVD's, because I am one of those people who is fascinated in how music is made.
It's really weird going through stuff like that because it's like something suddenly comes back to you. One of the other tapes I've brought back home is of the gig that was done at the Paradise Club with the line-up of Jim, Paul, Stephen, James, Eric, and Phil. In some ways I'm sort of interested to listen to these recordings, but I know that the recordings with me playing in 1993 will be cringe-worthy. I say that now because I realised as soon as I looked at the dates on the tapes that things weren't exactly as I had at first thought.
It appears that rehearsals were still going on into September 1993 with the line-up as shown (although I think that Eric may have stopped being part of it by then). I don't know what it is with this "selective memory" of mine, but my memory of dates aren't exactly perfect. Why is that?
I did want to find a CD full of Shadowplay, Jewel, and select Cornerstone recordings as well, but to be honest I just couldn't get to any other boxes because there's too much stuff in there! I'm hoping that my brother Richard will help me with this because he apparently has my mini-disc collection, and that has a couple of mini-discs with music from that time frame on. There was some great material from that time, and there are a lot of memories that need bringing back.
Oh, one thing I did find that I want to check out has absolutely surprised me, and I hope that it's still working because it is such an incredible find. I hope that Paul's reading this... I found the tape we used on the 4-track at Ray Peskett's to record Butterfly :-) It's recorded at a quarter speed, so can't tell much on a conventional tape player, but if it's there then the original three tracks of Paul's rhythm guitar on one, my bass on one, and the third track of Paul's guitar solo and James's lead vocal should be on there. That is amazing to me. If so, then I'd actually be interested in getting each individual track separated into four different wav files to save for posterity. I know that sounds weird, but it would be awesome to do. Actually in all honesty, Paul reminded me the other day of how stoned we were when we recorded it, and that's why it was recorded in that manner. I've remembered since that there was also the fact that originally we were just going to use a single mic on the drums like they did in the early period of multi-tracking and just record it on the four-track. I always had a love for The Beatles, and essentially I was thinking then that if they could come up with music that sounded so good on basic four-track, then why not try and see what we could come up with! What can I say, I was a different person back then, lol.
I also realised looking at things there that dates were wrong with other things as well. A New World Order (which is being issued on iTunes soon as the previously mentioned Special Edition) was actually originally released in 2004 rather than the 2002 that I originally thought. Also, Colours was from 2006 and not 2005 according to the year on the disc itself. Just little things maybe to some, but it's frightening to me that I would get these details wrong.
Anyway, I had a lovely time with Lynn, we chatted for absolutely ages, and it was nice to catch up with her. It was also great to see Liam. I loved seeing Rachel and Damia when they can around to visit later. We chatted about all sorts of things, which I suppose is how everyone's conversations are like. I suppose it's like that because of going so long without seeing each other. We talked about family, about the past, about music, about work, and funnily enough about the blog as well as other things. The blog is making me think a lot lately, because I'm beginning to wonder whether some things ought to be talked about, or whether I should leave certain things alone.
I stopped off at Mansfield on the way there to make sure that recording on Friday was a definite at The Old Library studio, which it is (yay). I'm not sure what I'm going to do to be honest. There are so many options available. I could work on finishing all the vocals on the songs that need finishing, but in some ways I'm sort of into the idea of starting something new because I like the buzz of working on a new song. It's such a tough choice for me to make. In some ways, I get bored working for too long on something, but I know that it needs to be done.
There's also the fact that I'm with an engineer I've not worked with before, and I'm not sure whether to use their expertise in getting something finished or starting something new. That's a tough one. I have ideas all of the time, and I'll take some instruments with me just in case. Tempted to take acoustic guitar, mandolin, and the organ (maybe with maybe some bits in a bag as well), and if I need to go electric, they have some great instruments there, although they do have something on which may mean that their instruments will be unavailable. Small car, very little room, and travelling to and from Mansfield. Hmm?
I like the idea of absolutely going for it with a rock riff or something like that, but I never know where inspiration will take me. That's if I do something completely new of course. I have a list of ideas on the laptop, which I'll be taking with me of course. I'm hopeful at getting some photo's and maybe video footage as well. I'm so addicted to photography and all that. Of course I'll put some stuff up on Facebook and Twitter if any video footage or photo's are taken.
This has taken a few hours to do today again because I keep getting side-tracked by other things, and chatting with people and all sorts. I think I'd best leave it there, because there are things to do tomorrow. So, another short (ish) blog then.
Ah well, I'm sure normal service will be resumed soon when I'll be doing the usual gabbing on and on. Here's to a lovely day for you all tomorrow. Take care.
Thank you for reading, I hope it wasn't too boring.
Marv - 23nd February 2011 (40 years, 2 months, and 28 days old)
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