Last night with... the ISB

Last night we drove into Elephant and Castle to visit Territorial Headquarters. It was fun.

The purpose of our trip was to prepare and practise for our gig at the Royal Albert Hall on June 9th. We're playing a short set in the middle of the Salvation Army's Gospel Arts Festival and we're hoping it's going to be really good!

Last night we played through our song 'Take Broken Me' which we're performing live with the International Staff Band - which for those of you who don't speak Salvationist means 'very-musically-able-Salvation-Army-brass-band'. Hope that clears up any misunderstanding.

Whilst we went in a little apprehensive and nervous, we came out really positive and excited as the song sounded so beautiful and full. We're really looking forward to the night now - it should be amazing!

The sales pitch: if you would like to get tickets to come to the Gospel Arts Festival then please visit the Royal Albert Hall Box Office Webpage. We'd love to have your support on the day!

Duke Special - last night

Last night we went to see Duke Special at the Shepherds Bush Empire and it was blindingly good. It was a bit of a last minute thing really so we phoned mid morning to find if there was any room left - there was! Four seats - second row back - stalls! Proper brilliant!
















The bloke in the middle at the piano is Duke Special - also worth pointing out is the bloke on the left who is Ben Castle. Even though we were second row there was no one on the front so we were really close!

I did take some video. The sound is slightly dodgy though and in no way reflective of the quality of the musicianship and show.




So there you have it. The bloke is a genius. Whole heartedly recommend you keep checking out what he's up to. Hope he goes from strength to strength!

I hate Eurovision

It's pretty obvious really. An event like the Eurovision song contest is pretty easy for anyone to hate.

Unless you are Serbian.

Then you love it.

This year was a first for me - I have never watched the Eurovision before...I've made it to my 27th year and finally I have got round to making a date of it. I started off enjoying - hopeful even. Hopeful that uber-camp SCOOCH could well 'pull it out of the bag' or even have 'slotted it home' or whatever cheap semi-inuendo bingo line they wanted to 'squeeze in'. It was not to be. Eventually our tact changed to hoping that the UK would not get any points at all! But that was not to be either...thanks to the Irish and Maltese. Shame really - we could have been the runaway failures...but now we're just also-rans.

But seriously, I know nothing about European politics but it strikes me that objective appreciation of a decent performance or tune has very little to do with where one ends up at the end of the night. Every neighbouring country giving their neighbours a pat on the back and 12 points to boot. Obviously not having any neighbours can't help us. Maybe the Maltese just like us because, like them, we're also an island? Or maybe people don't vote for us because over history we've probably attacked every one of them at least once and nicked all their best inventions and claimed them as our own. Or is it because we don't use the Euro yet and we're being punished through pop music!? Maybe we just didn't have enough goth in our entry?

But aside from my bitterness - what can we do to sort things out next year? I suggest there are three options:
1 - Start a petition to not put in an act next year - leave them to it. They only good thing about it this year was the staging and the Germans...and they got pathetic points too. And they haven't got anywhere near as chequered a past as we Brits...have they?
2 - Put in Coldplay. They're not doing anything else at the moment. Chris Martin can do some activist promo at the same time. 100 million viewers in one hit? Nailed it! Could be embarrassing if they get nil though...
3 - Send the Beckhams. They'll sort it out - and they're not doing much at the moment either. Everyone loves the Beckhams. David can sing. Victoria can pout and do keepy ups.

Perfect.

It's ours for the taking next year - you mark my words.

New Project

It's really likely that we'll be doing a new album this year. Probably going to be into the studio in September - which means I've got some writing to do...

Is there something that you would love to hear a song written about? Anything at all?

Ideas on a postcard...

Or a comment...

(Phil L - I've still got yours on the back burner)

ROOTS day 3 - Sunday

Bedtime seems to be getting later and later. Tonight we finished a busy day with a tasty, tasty midnight feast at the curry house. Pasanda, Mushroom Pilau. Always. Beautiful.

Earlier on the day we spent a good chunk of time with Katie Pearson (and those two other folk who hang around with her). Katie was extremely cuddly and we're sure she's gonna grow up to be a lovely and fantastic person - especially with parents as cool as hers. God bless you Pearson family!

Session was good tonight. After a mighty long time of sung worship (about an hour) we had Sandra Ryan in to remind me how far I've got to go before I live like Jesus. Wowzers. I think everyone should be supplied with a flak jacket and body shield to hide behind when people like Sandra speak. We were all transfixed but I'm sure that everyone was wondering whether she might do something crazy any second - and maybe pick them to do something very public and shameless.

Even the illustration she started with was fairly coarse. Before saying anything she picked 19 people from the congregation to stand in a line at the front and then asked them if they believed in God. And if they didn't they had the option to go back to sit down. She used these guys to talk about the 19 who were responsible for the 9/11 acts of terrorism - which Sandra pointed out that, whilst they were horrendous acts of violence, they were also incredible acts of faith. You don't see faith like that - she repeated.

Then the venue shut down and we went outside to pray during the sunset. Nice. Must...remember...challenge...

ROOTS - Day 2... which is Saturday.

What a busy day!

Morning session. Lunchtime magazine. International Development seminar with Mel. Evening Session. Gig. I feel like I've been carrying a guitar around with me all day long.

So, ROOTS is half way through already. Feels like we only got here...two days ago. This event is seriously short! What a lot of effort for 3 days worth of event. (1/2 day Friday - 1/2 day Monday)

Anyway, pretty tired now so I'm going to go to sleep like a wise person.

Hopefully this night will be quiet and peaceful with no sleep talking to write home about!

Friday 4th May - ROOTS Day 1

No incredible revelations today - certainly nothing as exciting as the castle room! Upon further research today though it turns out that this room is the poshest one in the hotel...I suppose you could call it the honeymoon suite. I think that says something pretty special about mine and Jon's relationship.

The afternoon has gone pretty smoothly. Once a few venue things were ironed out and we were soundchecked I was pretty well relaxed for the rest of the evening. Songs this evening were:

Give thanks to the Lord our God and King
Wonderful so wonderful (Beautiful One)
Lord You are good
There's no condemnation (I'm alive)
Strength will rise
Open the eyes of my heart Lord
Blessed be Your name

That's not interesting really - but it's nice to keep things recorded proper like.

This evening we celebrated Shawn's 33rd in style at Nandos. Complete with chocolate caterpillar cake it was proper good. Good chicken and good company. Had a nice chat with Suz about her trip to Zambia - sounds pretty amazing. You should chat to her about it some time. Here are a few of the animals she encountered while she was there:
















As you can see she encountered some fairly scary stuff over there. Hopefully she will leave a comment at some point to explain her experience in more detail...or summit...

And finally, here is a picture of Me, Glyn, Michael Owen, Chell and Suz on our way back to our respected sleeping venues...being taken there by the Goldmember. As you can see we are still very happy at this point. Long may it continue.

ROOTS - Thurs 3rd May...the day before

Soooo, just arrived at Southport for ROOTS 2007. Tried to get into the venue - but it was locked...so we went to the team gathering which was already in full swing. It was lovely - a few crisps, a few prayers, a few videos, nice to see a few friends too... and then our short evening had to come to a close. Hence, it was bed time...

Which meant going to the hotel that will be home for the weekend. Which only turns out to be the best darn-dest hotel in the whole of Southport! I arrived to be taken through a rigourous door opening routine (3333 - clever eh? Don't break in though...)

And then...the room...this room is...amazing!

Take a deep breath and see below...I'll walk you through it...














IT'S A MEDIEVAL ROOM! This is angle 1 - on the left you can see the four poster - with curtains. On the right is the en suite. Complete with turrets! And you can see the hatched ceiling effect! I wanna train some clematis over that bad boy!














Here's the view looking back to the door. Note tapestry on the left hand side and most importantly (although hard to grasp the beauty of in a stationary photo) the moving, fire effect wall lamp! How can this get better? It can!














This is the bathroom. This is the view from THE OUTSIDE! Yep - stained glass windows on the bathroom door. Hence Jon and I can watch each other taking a dump...in technicolour!

This is gonna be the best weekend EVER!

Block

I am at a total loss on what I should blog. I am experiencing blog-block. I dislike it when this happens. What I have been trying to do is store up a few ideas that I can blog about for when I have moments like these, but it would seem that the part of my brain that stores those bits of information has been blocked as well...

The other night Glyn was taking notes on what I said. That is, he typed everything I said onto a laptop, and then he read it all back to us. I think I might be his hero - I'm sure that's not normal behaviour? Oh hang on, it is Glyn... Anyway, I did wonder whether a similar principle could be adopted for moments such as these. So to demonstrate I will now type everything that comes into my mind for the next few minutes:

1. I hope Glyn has booked his hotel room for tomorrow night
2. I really must phone Will and tell him that Matt and I don't need to stay over tonight anymore
3. I hope my flowers will not have been eaten by pesky rabbits when I get back from ROOTS
4. ROOTS!? Must think about that some time soon...
5. I hope Jeff Lucas doesn't comment on my blog again
6. I really must stop saying stupid things
7. My PC is making a funny noise
8. I aught to listen to that CD I was given
   

Just read that back and it's pretty riveting stuff. Well, no idea has a chance to fail unless you try it - and I think we can safely say that this one failed.

What do you other bloggers blog about when you feel you should blog but the ideas aren't forthcoming?

NEW & IMPROVED - Self washing hair

Washing my hair in the shower the other day I was reminded of a theory I heard in my school years...

I think it went something like 'if you leave your hair unwashed for 3 months it will start to wash itself'. The theory being that then you would never again have to wash your hair. So, in year 9 I decided that, instead of trying to attract members of the opposite sex, now would be the best possible time to make myself as scanky as possible in an effort to prove the theory wrong. So I didn't wash my hair for a month, and yeah, it got fairly rank. In fact, I don't think I ever did see it through. One thing's for sure...the girls ran a mile and I think that it dawned on me to start washing my hair again.

I dunno if I was hoping I would end up looking like someone out of The Levellers or some other dread-sporting, marley-esq dude? But I never had the guts to get to the end of the exercise. And so I ask by the medium of blog, has anyone ever done it? Is anyone still a proud host of unwashed hair (and all the other living benefits that have inhabited therein)? Is there any truth in the rumour? Or is it just a playground myth that the clever, suave boys tell the geeky little gimps to keep the competition sparse?

Eden

Yesterday I woke up. Not amazing I know - but it was a bizarre start to the day given what happened afterwards. Everyday I wake up to the Chris Moyles show, and yesterday was comedy Dave's birthday. Because it was his birthday he chose the first track to be played...the track he chose? Rock and Roll Star - by Oasis. The opening song from their album Definitely Maybe.

So later on I travelled down to London with my friend Chris Spring (who I have blogged about before) because he asked JM, Levski and myself to play for him in the studio - recording a new track he's written called It Don't Offend Me. The studio is called Eden Studios and is in West London - that is where I'm sitting as I type this. This place has been responsible for tons of cool recordings but it hadn't dawned on me that this is where Oasis recorded Definitely Maybe! Now that might not be very important for many other people but for me, a true inheritor (sp?) of the 90s I loved it! Awesome! Here's a quick piccy of the studio with Chris sitting there recording some acoustic guitar...
















So, yeah...like I say...tons of cool recordings.

All cool, except for one...

One album which just so happens to be amongst my least favourite albums of all time!

(Sorry, I've slipped into a Rob Bell writing style...I'll pull it back...)

One album that in the mid 90s I tried and tried to listen to. You see I wanted to enjoy it. Some of my friends were raving about it. "Have you heard this album?" they'd say. "It's the best thing since the Las" they'd say. And I would listen, and I would squirm, and I would most definitely NOT enjoy.

The album in question? CAST - ALL CHANGE

I'm sorry, but I simply can't see what was ever good about this album. Does anyone have it? Does anyone still listen to it? If you were involved in making it, I am sorry for offending you, but I just can't see the attraction.

So clearly any decent studio has it's duffers. And I'm just getting that off my chest after all these years.

Anyways, back to the waiting game. We're waiting around for a hired guitar to be delivered... as you can probably tell by the length of this blog I've got some time on my hands...

Shorty

It's late tonight and tomorrow is a busy one but I wanted to blog, just to keep momentum up really.

How has your day been so far upon reading this?

"Temple of the Sun"

Currently I am trying to make a website for work. It's proving a bit of a nightmare and is testing my memory to the limits with regard to the stuff I learnt on my uni course. I did a BSc in software engineering which I finished about 6 years ago - and it certainly feels like a long time ago now. Everything I learnt about object oriented programming and WYSIWYG user interfaces is now but a mere blip in the back of my head. So now this new conundrum is testing me.

Yesterday I spent hours trying to figure out a solution. I browsed hundreds of web sites and forums and phoned a few friends but still to no avail. However, after yesterday's weirdest thing EVER I feel that today could be the day of the naffest game EVER! Upon browsing the Sun Microsystems website (yes I really was that desperate!) I discovered that those crazy chaps had developed a platform game in which you can, and I quote: "Put your C/C++ coding skills to the test". I realised that I did in fact study C++ at uni and clicked to play the game...

The premise of 'Temple of the Sun' (i.e. Sun Microsystems) is that you're an adventurer (Indiana Jones type) who discovers this ancient 'Developers' temple. You have to collect gold coins and jump around missing arrows but the most amazing part of this game is that every so often you are posed with a C++ coding problem which you need to 'debug' before you can continue! Seriously, who thinks up this stuff!? But maybe that's not the most worrying thing - of course I didn't play for long (of course - I wasn't really totally addicted), but the first three debugging screens I came across I got the answer right first time! Whoop! Maybe being a musician isn't my calling after all?

Chell x

Quick bulletin - Chell is now a blogger. Hurray!
(See my blog roll for her blogspot link...)

The weirdest thing EVER

Recently I worked with my Mum and Dad on my shed. Essentially that means my Dad made me a new shed and I helped him as much as I could. In order to do that we had to knock down the old shed and clear the area of brambles and an old rotten dead tree. So Dad came with chainsaw in hand and we chopped down the tree.

The tree was made up of lots of smaller trunks - rather than just one big one, so there was plenty of felling to be done. It was only after we had finished the chopping that it became apparent that we were being watched by a new additon to my garden. See below for the weirdest thing EVER!




















Yes my friends, this guy was INSIDE one of the tree trunks!! This happy little fella is Bernard. He is a tree-trunk-teddy, and as you can see he is mighty pleased to be released from his trunk prison after all this years.

I do need to point out that this is not a man made artefact - he actually was inside the tree! How bizarre! If you want to see Bernard in the flesh (his bark is worse than his...) then come and visit soon before he catches the black lung and rots away. :)

A week at Butlins

We are at last back from Spring Harvest and the first word that springs to mind is 'phew'...

For those who haven't been to spring harvest it is an unusual experience. One that can quickly immerse you in the sub-culture a la Christian man and lady. Admittedly I am a Christian Man or Lady but I will pretend from this point that it wasn't me and continue to point out the speck of dust in my friends eye.

Now Spring Harvest isn't all bad but there are a couple of things which I have questions about.

Number 1: The skyline.
The skyline is a big semi-permanent butlins structure. It is the hub of the whole site and during the Spring Harvest weeks it becomes the Christian shopping and promotional mecca. Row upon row of literature, table upon table of different kinds of bibles, and fluffy toys, and bookmarks, and prayer cards, and wristbands, and bible covers, and computer based stuff not to mention everyone with their stall telling you about this charity or that and why you should help them out. I didn't know you could get so many different kinds of bibles? Obviously there's lots of versions, and for good reason too - it's good too express the nuances of translation in a variety of ways... but the formats, there are so many. Metal bound, leather bound, paper and card bound. Bibles for your pda, for your pc, for your filofax (does anyone still have one of those?). Water proof bibles, 'bible-in-a-bag'. Pretty pink ones with holograns. Serious yet classy brown and clean ones. Ones with flowers on. Some without. The list goes on. There must have been over 200 kinds of bible available from the shop. Where do you start? Do we need so many options? Or is someone out to take advantage?

I think that a friend of mine put it very well when she mentioned that she didn't know she needed so many resources to be a Christian. I expect the apostles thought that when they visited the bookshop too... although I suppose they wouldn't have had 'New Testament and Psalms' editions - and there wouldn't have been any need for red letters just yet...

Number 2: The Hosting Chalet
Possibly the scariest place on the site and one that I didn't discover until the last night. A group of the guys from our venue decided to visit the hosting chalet at 1am after being encouraged out of the pub at closing time. Our group was large in number and with not-so-little dutch courage (not mine though incase you were wondering) we descended on the chalet where the shmoozing happens.

And that is all that happens there.

I quickly discovered that I am not good at shmoozing.

All these leaders trying to promo their charity / project / latest bible range and champion it to other top cats as they worked the room. Obviously the content of the night was not to be repeated - I don't want to face another 'lucasarts' comment on my blog - but I was fairly surprised by the blatancy of the purpose of this venue.

One story I heard about happening during the week was when one top Christian celeb (appearing at a Butlins near you soon!) chatted away for a good 10 minutes with a friend of mine thinking that my friend was in a more influential position than he actually was. When my friend informed him of his current career choices the celeb made his excuses and within 15 seconds had turned and walked. Incredible. Now I wouldn't say that's a way to care for anyone.

Not even a family member.

In closing? Well, at last Sunday came and it brought with it some relief. Home was calling. Tiredness had taken over and the team lounge was no longer an exciting place to be. So that's that for another year. As for iScape? Well the venue was brilliant. The team were legends. The delegates were lovely. The music was loud. Martin the sound guy was fantastically inappropriate and funny. God was there for us to meet. All in all pretty good. But I'm glad to be home.

The questions...the peskies

When we go to spring harvest the person in charge of organising the after hours programme will book us into each venue's evening session to promote our gig and try to get a few more of them along.

Suffice to say we don't like these little occasions.

It could never be said that myself, nor Paul nor Jon are walking self-promotion machines. We're all pretty cheeky but nonetheless a little on the shy side...

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to blog some of the questions we were asked in an effort to get back some suggestions for better/funnier/slicker answers so that we might do a better job next time! Here are some of the slightly naff questions we had:

1) If you were a superhero which one would you be? (Admittedly this was in the kids venue so we'll let them off)
2) What did you have for breakfast? (How do you make that funny!?)
3) What influences your lyrics? (I know that's a little personal but I have no idea how to answer it with 'panache')
4) What one tip would you give to anyone trying to 'make it' like you have? (Ha!)

Simon and Yvette

Why do some people get more than their share of pain?

Please pray for our friends Simon and Yvette - they are going through the hardest year of their lives.

We love you both loads and loads. x

ElectraTrek

Here is a picture of me, Jon and Paul tryng out a brand new travel gadget - we're assured it will make a positive difference to our travel time.

You can clearly see that Jon (left) is wondering where he plugs his mac in and Paul (right) is simply not impressed. As for me, I'm happy striking a pose and holding in a turtlehead. "It's life Jon, but not as we know it"


























The last few days have panned out thusly:
Liverpool Friday to Sunday
Home -> Minehead Monday
Minehead -> Home Today

Life is busy again - very busy. I'm already a bit fed up of motorway service areas.

Gig last night at Spring Harvest Week 1 - down in Minehead was good. About 300 turned up - so we turned up as well! (It was pretty loud)

The weekend was spent up in Liverpool doing a weekend of training and having a good time with the chaps and ladies up there.

Off to Skegness tomorrow for a gig tom night and the next night too. Then a weekend off - which is good. It'll be nice to be home for easter.

Guy Love

I think it is helpful to stick in this video post to help clarify what I was talking about in my reply comment (see previous post)

PS This is my 100th blog post - my blog is a centenarian! Whoop!