Album Moves Another Step Closer

Bob came round last night to Burke Studios, to record bass onto a number of the album tracks.

It was a good night and we managed to finish Picture of You, My Life, Dirty Old Town, You're My Best Friend, The Rose, and Constantly.

He brought the old mahogany red mandolin with him to add some mandolin sounds to Dirty Old Town and I commented I hadn't seen that particular instrument for a while.

Apparently he was going to have it re-fretted but the workshop have instead taken a sliver off the frets with a file and Bob has also been sanding down the bridge to get a better action (the distance between the strings and the fretboard). It sounded absolutely terrific and you should be able to hear the results within a few weeks. In fact I'll try to get a bit of that track out in the next few days on the web site as a sample.

There's another 6 tracks to put bass on, so another session is booked for Thursday night. I know there's a lot of interest out there and folks waiting for this, which will be our first album since 2004.

I think we can honestly say we've stepped the sound up a notch or two!

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-lee!

A bit of a rushed rehearsal last night as we set out with the best intentions but then all got held up a little!

We finally congregated at John's house and set up to run through a few of the newer songs we have added to the set. "Sha-la-la-la-lee", originally by the Small Faces needed some rearrangement of words - verses and middle 8s may not necessarily be as originally intended but it does now sound quite splendid!

Bob recorded three bass tracks for the album's "Last Night Was Made For Love" and now John has to pick the best one and cut and paste any weak notes or fret noise from the other two then that will be the first track totally finished.

David was struggling a little bit and sounding rather throaty. We had recorded a second main vocal for Westlife's "The Rose" but you could hear his throat a little so that's been scrapped until he gets back to full health! With three old gimmers like us, that can take a while! This throat bug has been passing between John and David for months!

Mr Bassman

This afternoon Bob came round to run through some of our newer stuff as a rehearsal and also to put a bass track on a couple of the album tracks.

We all find it difficult to earmark time to get together other than at weekends and at the moment even weekends are a bit busy!

Bob also introduced us to a couple of new jig instrumentals as we've been playing "Bluebell Polka" for our instrumental spot for the last few years and it's time for a change.