A Touch of Festival Atmosphere at Larbreck Hall

After several years of playing inside the Great Barn at Larbreck Hall Caravan Park, our annual visit coincided with some good weather this year so we played on the green behind the farmhouse and car park.

Numbers weren't quite as high as at Glastonbury, but they spread themselves around a bit and there was certainly a great atmosphere and an enthusiastic response from the audience to every number. The Eagles' Lyin' Eyes got a first play last night too and (even if I do say so myself) sounded a bit spivish rare! We normally find that any song that sounds right from the very first playing (and at the start of the evening David hadn't even heard the backing arrangement!) then it will become a firm favourite for future gigs!

So we swapped the usual backdrop of spare caravans for a backdrop of cars and minibuses, but we had a great night and started off with the sun in our eyes, ending in the glare of our mobile spotlights as the temperature plummeted and only stopped when it got cold enough for the condensation to form on every surface and we decided there were too many electrics for that to be ignored!

RIP my mic stand too - the thread stripped and I had to use it as a straight-up instead of being able to use the boom arm. An interesting experience leaning over the guitar to sing and impossible to play the keyboards and lean far enough over to sing into the mic... A visit to the music store called for before our next gig!

A quick thanks to all the people who have bought the The Sunnyside of Creeping Bentgrass album and told us it's our best yet! We must start on the next one - though first we are planning to release a folk album as we have continually had to turn down requests for one. This will be a compilation of all the folk style songs from previous albums plus a number of new tracks. No telling when we'll have The Folk Side of Creeping Bentgrass ready at this stage but we are hoping to have it out by the end of 2010.

The Sunnyside of Creeping Bentgrass

Yay! It's here at last! Our long-awaited new album that we started as soon as we finished the last one! Two and a half years in the making! Our first album as a duo.

Called "The Sunnyside of Creeping Bentgrass" it contains 16 tracks which includes a solo track of John's - a cover of The Beatles' This Boy.

Sunnyside is the name of the club near Northampton that was the site of Billy Fury's last public performance prior to his untimely death in 1983. The front cover shows the band performing at the club for a memorial concert in March 2009 and we are proud to be returning in 2010 to play alongside some of the fabulous artists who have formed close relationships on the message boards of billyfury.com

The full track listing is given below. Some tracks can be downloaded from the band's website, or the album is available mail order from:

Creeping Bentgrass
195 Palatine Road
Blackpool
Lancashire
England

Each CD costs 5 UK pounds plus 1 UK pound postage and packing to addresses in the UK and 2 UK pounds postage and packing elsewhere. Payment must be made in sterling by personal cheque.

Track List:

The Gambler
Have You Ever Seen The Rain
Sweet Caroline
A Thousand Stars
Bunch of Thyme
Crystal Chandeliers
When You Say Nothing At All
Be My Baby
King For Tonight
Green Green Grass of Home
Living Next Door To Alice
The Night Has 1000 Eyes
Forever Autumn
Halfway To Paradise
This Boy
24 Hours From Tulsa
.

Introducing the Duo

Well it's now official that Bob will be leaving the band to concentrate on his work with The Old School Band.

David and I wish him every success in the ceilidh band which has become extremely successful and in demand for parties, making it difficult for him to perform with us on Saturday nights!

However David and I are well used to performing as a duo and that is how we are going to continue for the forseeable future. We have a few club bookings coming in and bookings for 2010 are looking as though it will be a good year again for us.

We'll be travelling about a bit too - February sees us up in the Lake District performing for a wedding reception and March sees us back in Northampton at the big Billy Fury gig of the year - Sunnyside. But we hope to see our regulars at the usual regular bookings at Myerscough, Witton Park, Garstang, Heskin Hall, Larbreck etc.

A return to Highfield Road is on the cards too, as apparently club members have been asking when we were to be booked again. Given that David had flu that night (and gave it me too, grrr...) we can't have been too bad! Also clubs in Eccleston and Ormskirk are in the calendar.

The new album will be completed as a duo - it's been a long time coming, but I've released a few tracks from it now - in the left hand column you can download The Gambler, Have You Ever Seen The Rain, Be My Baby, King For Tonight, Forever Autumn and 24 Hours From Tulsa.

The album will be a full hour of music and, of course, I'll let you know when it is available.

Special Edition Album

I've had this in mind for quite a while.

There were a couple of tracks on the very first album we produced that didn't sound quite right. They were recorded way back in 2002 and I hadn't then brought the keyboards into the band and so the tracks had no drums or keyboard sounds at all.

By the standards we reached even on the other tracks of that first album they were a bit raw and so David and I had a crack at re-recording them last night and will use them to produce a Special Edition of the first album Keeping On... which will be the one on offer from now onwards.

The tracks were the two Creedence Clearwater Revival tracks and you can download for a listen below.

Bad Moon Rising

Proud Mary

Right On The Line

It's been a long time coming!

Our new album, Right On The Line is finally ready, the covers are back from the printers and I've started production.

The album has 16 tracks and as a nod to our friends at the Billy Fury website, it has two of Billy's tracks: Last Night Was Made For Love and Somebody Else's Girl.

You can have a free listen to Last Night Was Made For Love. Call it our thanks for being so patient, we hope you enjoy the album.

New Album Release Close

I've been doing some work on the album over the last couple of weeks and last night David and Jeannie came round so whilst the ladies went off to a craft fair, David and I put some vocals down and we now have all 16 songs for the album.

We now need to get Bob over to put bass on several tracks and then think of a name and get some design work done for the album cover, take photos and - hey hey!

I know there have been people asking about this for ages (years...!) and we're finally getting there.

I think we are going to start immediately on the next one too, to try to ensure we can have one to come out a year after this!

A lot of people ask where we record, as the quality of the recording surprises some people. But it's all done in my front room on the computer, as seen here.

Accoustic Track

The closest on stage we get to being an accoustic band is when I'm playing the keyboard live and Bob is playing either accoustic guitar or mandolin. Even then they are plugged into the PA instead of being microphoned - that's a lot of hassle and usually gives us feedback problems.

But on our albums there's normally at least one track where instruments are recorded the good old way.

This afternoon I've laid down no less than 5 accoustic guitar tracks for the Beatles song "I've Just Seen a Face". We do it live but I'd be playing the Strat and Bob his bass. So - something a little bit different on the way!

I've been incredibly busy at work - the album is taking a long time! But it will be a good one folks, or if not then it won't be through lack of effort!

Bye Bye Cassettes!

Ah, what memories these conjure up for a generation of people who wooed their partners with a well chosen selection of songs on a personal cassette!

The news has just announced that cassettes are no longer to be made. This is probably good news for the countryside, as one thing about cassettes I don't miss is the miles and miles of cassette tape wrapped around hedgerows and flapping in the breeze!

The band's music has been recorded and mixed on computer but in the 1990s I bought two identical hi-fi cassette decks so that I could record on one, play it back and record on the other, building up tracks (and background noise). Many units had two decks anyway but normally you could only record on one and it invariably ran at a slightly different speed than the other!

No such problems for me as I put the album together. Yes, I know it's taking a while but I'm still doing bits every now and then, honest!

It struck me the other week that the Yamaha keyboard is 9 years old and I won't be able to replace it easily if (when?) it dies. So I've been recording onto the PC all the backing tracks I've recorded on the keyboard so that hopefully I could think of a way of coverting them to a more modern keyboard if needs be. At the very least we could use them on mini-disk or CD for a gig or two. But that's not necessary yet!

You can see us next weekend at Witton Park, Blackburn - Sunday 13 May in the courtyard from 11:30am to 4:00pm. Come and say hello!

Album Work Continues

It's been a busy Sunday, as I've been preparing a few more tracks for the album. Fran has been at work so I had a clear run at being able to play the same thing over and over without getting on her nerves!

I start off with keyboard tracks - backing, drums and basic chord backing. Then any other keyboard tracks that may be required. That can include strings, brass, synthesizer, choirs or almost any other instrument.

Then I add guitar parts. Normally I add strummed guitars one to either side of the stereo image at the extreme edge, neither guitar audible through the opposite speaker. That creates quite a full sound. Then I might add other guitars closer to the centre with any lead or solo parts coming centre stage. I play both electric (Fender Stratocasters) or accoustic. If playing the accoustic I mic that up and have to turn off the fan on the central heating to ensure no background noise!

At this stage the track is ready for David to add his vocals after which I'll add any harmony parts. Finally Bob will add the bass and possibly extra accoustic guitar or mandolin parts.

Today "You're My Best Friend" has had an electric guitar part added and is now ready for Bob, whilst "Picture of You", "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" and "My Life" have been started from scratch and are ready for vocals to be added.

I was at a party last night and several people came up to say they had heard and enjoyed the band. Thanks for all the kind comments - we hope to firm up some more dates for public gigs soon - keep an eye on our home page.