We’ve just come back from Laaaaanduun where we played a gig at Catch and recorded a session for Huw Stevens in Maida Vale.
The gig on Tuesday night went well – although it was a bit of a ordeal getting there. The GNER train was delayed due to problems with a railway bridge between York and Doncaster (in an area affectionately referred to as Yawncaster). When we finally arrived at Kings Cross the city was hector . . . it was still one of the rush hours and the cops had closed off part of KC tube station as it was too busy due to amassed Arsenal supporters on route to a fight (match?). We dithered a lot . . . decided to fork out for a cab to Shoreditch, saw the taxi queue and figured we’d take our chances with the underground instead. Somehow we lost Kev to a red-sea of footie fans and so we arrived at Old Street a man down. We were very late for our sound check. Things weren’t looking too good . . .
. . . thankfully Kev showed great resolve . . . he managed to battle his way against the current of the red-sea (red currant?) and made it to the venue in one piece. It was a good show . . . a very enthusiastic crowd who even laughed in all the right places at all the ZigBanter–. We like London crowds. So far they’ve been real good to us. The payment wasn’t too hot. The promoter operated a confusing payment structure: something along the lines of £1 per person for every person who came along to see us after 15 people and £2 after 30 people. Huh?
We earned £17.
He’s writing us a cheque.
Wu-tang.
After the show, FOUND drank and I treated my assembled London friends to some TamBanter– (lucky lucky people). We splintered off into different groups and weaved our weary way through the biggest city in Europe to find floors to sleep on.
The next day we assembled at the gigantic Maida Vale studios. It’s a very strange building, long, low, white and austere. Inside it’s like the lower decks of a cargo ship (or what I imagine that would look like). It’s a maze and Gav reckoned there was a Minator lurking around each corner but in the end all we found was a picture of a Maneater (Nelly Furtado).
We were recording in the historic Studio 4 (MV4) which had a beautiful photo of the late, great John Peel outside as it’s where the majority of the Peel Sessions were recorded. We met our engineers, the slightly intimidating Simon and his cheerful Italian assistant, Simone. We spent an extremely enjoyable day recording there and it felt a great honour to be able to do a session in such esteemed environs. We recorded onto tape through an impressive mixing desk which Simon operated with great skill and speed. In the pub later, Simone told us that Maida Vale might not be around for much longer as the BEEB are under financial pressure and may ditch the fantastic analogue studios for cheaper, digital ones. This only added to the feeling that we were privileged to record there.
We laid down four numbers from the new album (Plotkiller, Some Fracas Of A Sissy, Admission Number Two and Reshaping). They’re going to be broadcast on Huw Stevens’ show on the night of 31 October / 1 November. We had been thinking of recording Hallowe’en versions but when we arrived at Maida Vale we opted to do something for prosperity rather than novelty. But be afraid as we will be spooking things up at the Fence Club 3 on 1 November.
Alan got some footage of us recording in MV4 and we might try and make a wee YouTube clip of our hilarious group-backing-vocal sessions (think “Feed The Wurr-urr-urr-urld” or FOUND Athletic Football Club recording their charity single).
Watch this (my)space.
Tommy
