Blog

WB managed to get a whole day in the studio last week! Oh, the luxury. When we first went into the studio, in the far distant days of June, we took all day to do the four songs we wanted recorded, this time we had solid rhythm tracks for all four songs done in three hours. This was including a disagreement about a pause at the end of the first track 'If Can Do' which Simon referred to as the 'Pause War' . In the end we compromised with a shorter pause which actually works really well, no one got their way but we all showed what jolly fab teamplayers we all are. Or were we all avoiding conflict? Not sure, don't care, it works!  So once the rhythm tracks were done Andy and I stayed and did more guitar, piano and vocal stuff. So that's 12 songs down now and four more to go soon. Looking towards November for a launch date now.

So the weekend, it was the annual Southsea Folk and Roots Festival, reduced this year from a whole bank holiday weekend to a day plus fringe events. The first event was the Festival Jam at the Auckland Arms hosted by our own Andy Broad. What a great night it was, there were some wonderful noises and boy were they loud! I played piano for a few, very scary for me as you know I am still learning the art of soloing. The Westside Blues Band opened the evening, Alan Holloway, Helen MacDougall, King Rollo and Steve Roux were just some of the wonderful sorts there making pleasing soundwaves. I managed to squawk out a couple of numbers at the end of the evening and really enjoyed singing the Bessie Smith number 'Empty Bed blues' in the extraordinarily crowded pub!

BUT, that is not all! Sunday evening I was dutifully seated for the evening performance (having sadly missed the day gigs which by all accounts were brillinat and which Andy was playing at) from PJ Wright  http://www.hedgeofsound.com/ supporting the most incredible woman Julie Felix http://www.knibbworld.com/juliefelix/ She was wonderful to watch, such an inspiration with a career spanning 5 decades and still performing with such enthusiasm and energy not to mention skill and talent! So utterly brilliant, I was bowled over!