Just got back from the studio and I can’t feel my toes. Brrrr! It feels like London is about to freeze over in time to see in a beautiful, crisp white New Year’s Day and I’m getting excited. Not least because the new tracks are sounding ace, even with all the unruly guitars, guide vocals and over-zealous end-of-session hand clapping going on. The boys are sounding scarily good at the moment – not unlike the ‘Stones circa Sticky Fingers. Wicked!
Christmas was the usual indulgent affair involving eating too much, drinking too much and sitting through a triple bill of Casablanca, Pirates of the Caribbean and Dr Zhivago. And comrades, it’s so cold that I too am rocking the (fake) fur hat and leather knee high boots look just like Julie Christie. All I need now is the incongruous sun tan and a moustachioed hunk hanging off my arm and I’m sorted.
I can’t believe it was over a year ago that we were in Japan. This year has flown by so frighteningly quick, we must have been having fun or something…
Here are some of my Lucky Soul highlights of ‘08:
Lying on the beach in Russia listening to Rusty and Paul’s rendition of Peaches booming over the PA
Toasting Obama loudly at 3am, ridiculous cocktail in hand, in pre-election New York
Swimming over to the rocks and back again, with Andrew in the Black Sea
Going out for late night tapas in Vigo with twelve indie boys (he he!)
Surviving our internal Russian flight in row thirteen on Friday 13th, having fantasised about Nat’s solo album, ‘Soul Survivor’ had we gone down
That magical night in Joe’s Pub, New York
Post-gig sunbathing in Barcelona
And of course, Lemur spotting in Red Square… (don’t ask!)
It’s nearly time to get the Champagne out of the fridge and go and face the cold London air again. Happy new year my lovelies. I promise you only exciting things to come in ’09. It’s onwards and upwards for the ‘Soul and we really can’t wait for you to hear the new stuff. You won’t be disappointed.
I’ll be raising a glass to absent friends tonight. I miss you.
I’m going to start this off with a big News of the World style headline:
Lucky Soul Recording New Tracks Shock!
Yes, that’s right, whilst everybody else in the world is winding down for the Christmas period, the ‘Soul were hard at work in the studio recording brand new tracks for the new album/singles for ‘09
We’ve all be getting a bit restless with the lack of activity on the new music front, but it’s all been to do with the business side of things rather than the music which is always frustrating. However, we’d managed to sort out a few precious hours where we were all in the same place at the same time and there just happened to be a nice recording studio free too.
For those of you who are particularly observant or are real fanatic Soul’diers you’ll notice from the photos that we were back in Britannia Row Studios which was the place where we recorded our first two singles (Brittle Heart/Give Me Love and Lips Are Unhappy/Baby I’m Broke, yes that the kind of stuff we put on the b-side!). Not only that, but we’re back with one our favourite producer/engineer chaps, Dead Pan Kris or DPK to his friends. So far so 2005!
We started of the day nice and early (well early for musicians, especially those who may or may not have been out on the sauce the night before for people’s birthdays) and got to Brit Row just as DPK was putting on the kettle. Impeccable timing. As Mr. Atkins and DPK set about putting ludicrously expensive microphones on the drum kit and Andrew and I played with guitar amps, Ali put aside her vegetarian principles and managed to find us some bacon sandwiches.
Meanwhile Rusty was sitting in the control booth attempting to channel the spirit of Duck Dunn (click here for details on Duck, and if you don’t know who is he is, you’ll certainly now the tracks he played on). He had also set up his rather tasty vintage Fender Tremolux amp in the corner for the low end duties.
Having set everything up we started on the really hard work. First song up on the block was “Up In Flames”. We had a few runs of the track, tweaked a few amps, mics, drums and then decided that we finally up for a take. It was then that the gods of rock ‘n’ roll look down on us and again decided to dish out some bad luck. Rusty was busy playing away and then suddenly noticed a strange smell…something cooking…no…burning…is that smoke?…oh…shit.
Rusty managed to get to his beloved vintage fender before it actually went “up in flames” but it was severely smoking before he managed to turn it off. Apparently the output transformer had a hissy fit and decided to let go in a spectacular fashion. Seriously uncool, but the irony was not lost on us, and we pushed on regardless.
We moved on at a cracking pass only stopping for a quick slurp of coffee or a minor review of the track. In a short 7 hour period we managed to get down the bones of:
Up in Flames That’s When Trouble Begins Woah Billy Upon Hilly Fields White Russian Doll.
Rusty then took his leave of us and rushed back to the coast so that he could get to his other gig before they started without him (he managed it with 7 minutes to spare!) and we decided to crack on.
Mr. Atkins, DPK and Andrew had a quick ‘thought shower’ (brain storms are no longer allowed because they’re too dangerous) and decided that it might be cool to go through W.R.D and Woah Billy again but with a slightly trashier, more rock ‘n’ roll sound.
So microphones were dutifully moved and Mr A. channelled the spirits of Bonham, Grohl and Animal and created pure, distilled rock and it sounded amazing. Heavy, but at the same time quintessentially Lucky Soul. amazing.
Then it was time to start on the guitars for Woah Billy so I finally managed to turn everything up. Not quite to 11, but enough to shake things up again. Eventually the guitars sounded a bit Marc Bolan, who I think is a particularly underrated guitarist, adding just the right amount of “Glam Stomp”(tm) to proceedings.
Then it was back over to the Man Mountain, Mr. Atkins to explore the space, relieve Andrew’s fever and lay down some cowbell action.
By now we were getting near the end of the day, but had just enough time to all stand around a microphone Band Aid style and do some hand claps.
We loaded our Rusty Steed Alan with all the gear and headed off into the night. Lots more to do on all the tracks, but they’re coming together and sound awesome. They’ll be lots to look forwarded to in ‘09 if you’re a true Lucky Soul’dier.
Well Souldiers, its now been almost 1 year to the day since I answered an ad for a bass player and they were desperate enough to employ me so I thought it was about time I said hello and broke my John Deacon style silence..
So, what can I tell you about my first impressions of ‘the Soul’? Well, firstly, I remember that the ad said something along the lines of ‘only 4 string players need apply’. Secondly, I remember that the drummer was different and very good (the now famous Mr Atkins aka Man Mountain) and that everyone was incredibly polite. Andrew was clearly in charge, Malc was buried behind alot of gear, Ivor did indeed have a large pedal board and Ali was late but absolutely engaging when she did appear. Its fair to say that not much has changed! Well, I played my 3 songs and went home not really knowing how everything had gone but the next day I got the call to say I’d got the gig and the rest they say is history. Japan was the first stop on the road to glory and its been quite a ride since then. So, by way of bringing things up to date, I thought I’d write a list (I like lists). This one will be the top 5 moments of the last year with the Soul and it goes something like this..
1) Discovering that the drinking policy in Japan is based around ‘pay by the hour’ and not ‘pay by the glass’. This is clearly a perfect idea in a culture that is firmly rooted in discipline and self preservation. However, in the hands of a British band it is potentially fatal..
2) Being in a band that can recite the whole of the movie ‘Spinal Tap’
3) Having bass amps provided for me..you know the ones that are bigger than a house and are certainly bigger than Ali..
4) Being actively encouraged to sport the most ridiculous facial hair possible.. There does come a time when a man needs to commit to a look and this is my time.
5) Playing in New York and having Whole Lotta Love come on the taxi radio as we crossed into Manhattan. This was followed by Rick Astley’s ‘Never gonna give you up’ proving that God does indeed work in mysterious ways.
I could go on but there are either too many moments linked to drinking (and I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong impression that we are anything but a clean living band) or they have to be filed under the ‘You had to be there’ category. Either way, I hope that you were there this year or that you can be there next year so we can get to know each-other a bit better. You never know, if you bring a rope I might even show you my new found skipping skills!
