We'll be wearing Hawaiian outfits in the afternoon at the London Ukelele Festival!!!
Link Here.
Tasteful!

This should be quite a big event - we'll be on the second stage I think between 1 and 2. The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain will be there as will 700+ other players in an attempt to break a world record! Its basically next to Liverpool Street Station.

Later on that evening we hope to be dressed as Jimmy Saville for a Top Of The Pops themed night out as well. On of those all night parties that should turn out to be a load of fun!
link here...facebook Adi Stuart (the event organiser) for cheap £3 entry tix.

See you there.

A friend of a friend dropped an email to me a few months ago asked for permission to choose a song as a backdrop to a Living Draw. This was an entirely new concept to me, but having had a look at what she'd done, I was pretty impressed, so gave the thumbs up.

Anyway the end result is now up - its a story about a piece of wood. I have to say I am pretty impressed by it - it left me feeling emotional at the end.

Lucy Peppers All Living Draws

I don't often use this as a forum to bitch, but this night had so many ludicrosities in it that I just have to get off my chest - we supply the ludicrosities for the evening, not the management!

The first bit of a fun was setting up for this gig - when we walked in the door the barman was like - no setting of anything up until 8.30 because people were eating meals. Which was great given we were due to start at 8.45!

The Bakers has essentially two parts to the seating area. However at the end of the bar with the music on there was noone sat eating - all it meant was that there was a PA plus three bands worth of equipment piled up stopping anyone getting to any tables anyway. In the end he conceded to allow the soundguy to start setting up at 8. You really think the promoters would have sorted this out with the management by now. The sound guy coped admirably in the situation, though I couldn't quite comprehend his decision to have the seven piece Pixiphones set up all their stuff (not plugging it in for a sound check), then pack it away again, which seemed to mostly be an exercise in seeing of they could all fit onto the stage, followed by an exercise in hiding my coat with wallet in pocket under a cello. This ate into our set time and I was glad noone was paying to see us. Felt like a lot of aggro to go through for what ended up as a 20 minute set, especially when you don't feel like giving the venue any money for its beer. Its not like we got paid or even a complementary beer for this.

Playing is weird as you are at the vertex of a V shaped audience area with the door directly to the left of you. This makes it difficult for the audience to watch you as they are either blocking the bar or the front door.

Audience reaction to the new stuff was favourable, once the sound was sorted out two songs in. The new one to get the biggest thumbs up was 'Facebook Makes This Bit Easy', though I need to make a follow up to this entitled 'Facebook Makes Events Management Useless'.

Even going to the toilet is weird - having reflective walls and strategically placed CCTV in the gents makes me wonder what kind of perv this manager is.

KTP did a good job - James commented on how they were a Rush covers band in that they sound like Rush and play covers! They have changed their line up with the singer having also taken over drummer duties since I'd last seen them.

Once I retrieved my coat from where it had been hidden under a cello it was a case of being fed up with the venue and heading off to Claudia/Winter Kings birthday party, which in stark comparison to the Bakers, was an abject lesson in how to have good vibes given off to good music in a good venue. There was a nice little rock'n'roll covers going on, with a really excellent cut down Winter Kings playing a set in there as well.

Well its a funny weekend - its difficult to not go to 3 parties in two days that were easy to get to, one even being in your own house.

The excuse? I felt a bit tired and upset - obviously using all my energy on the radio interview we did on Friday morning - we're an hour in, the show is downloadable from the shows website for one more week.

http://209radio.co.uk/shows/profile.php?show=brian

Part of the Friday pissed offness was due to the mobile phone insurance company refusing to pay for one to be repaired. For not claiming in two days of the event happening. Bit tricky to do on the road without your policy number and so forth. Policy cancellation, here I come. So, I spent much of Saturday playing F.E.A.R. wishing the game allowed you to shoot insurance claims agents as opposed to heavily armed military operatives.

Well its been awhile since waking up in the afternoon. That was an excellent party last night. As a result of the late (and hangover free I should state) start, a day of planned songwriting and practising hasn't happened in spite of no people in the house.

Anyway now to various website updates and the suchlike, whilst watching the excellent Jumanji. It really is a groovy film. Actually I'm just going to watch it whilst eating pizza.

Rishi

Here is my first Twitter post:
...thinks twitter may be YAATTUR (yet another annoying thing to update regularly). This opinion may change.

So, we've finally followed the Twitter vibe, though it comes classed as yet another thing to update. Its also another thing where we've had to go with the karmadildo moniker instead of our band name, which makes me feel even less enthusiastic about using it. Anyway, follow us if you haven't been put off by the immense negativity that I've been feeding you all.

http://twitter.com/karmadildo

I know people have been going on about it, but unlike the facebook status updates, and a lot of other band things that you have to do, this genuinely feels like a chore.