Tues 28th April 2009
It feels like it was about 1645 since I last wrote a blog… So I thought it was about time I put finger to keyboard and updated all of those that are interested in what’s been happening in the crazy, music-filled world of… ME :o)
WARNING: ‘EGO ALERT!’
First of all…
1) RIVERSEA: As some of you may be aware RIVERSEA were due to make their live ‘full band’ debut this last weekend just gone supporting MANNING (Sat 25th) and THE REASONING (Sun 26th). As it turned out I did the gigs on my own like a big fat ‘Billie No-mates’ (more on those nights to follow)…
One of the reasons we couldn’t do those dates as a full band is we are no longer a full band :o(
I’m sad to report that the man with the most impressive memory since ‘George the Forgetful Goldfish’ won 1st prize in the ‘Forget your own name’ competition (i.e. Our very own Mr Paul ‘Q’ Cusick) has had to bow out of the band due to forgetting that he actually joined us in the first place! :o)
No, I jest…
As some of you may also know Q has been working really hard on his debut solo album ‘FOCAL POINT’ since last year (he’s currently putting finishing touches to it right now in Fairview Studios in Hull… and rather excellent it’s sounding too!) and this has taken up a lot of his time. After it’s all finished and out in the Big Bad World I think he just wants some ‘time out’ from music and recording so he can actually spend some time with his lovely family (his kids haven’t really seen him out of his home studio since Christmas 2007!).
So I think Paul felt that he just didn’t want to get straight into recording the RIVERSEA album (currently ‘in-production’) and wouldn’t be able to give it the time it needs and deserves (he’s knackered, poor love).
So he decided to bow out now rather than feel Brendan and me breathing down his neck to get his guitar parts recorded (although, I have heard, he sometimes has enjoyed Brendan ‘breathing down his neck’) :o)
I’m gonna miss Q. He’s a great bloke and an amazingly imaginative guitarist. When you get him ‘in the zone’ he’s one of the best I’ve ever heard. He’s also incredible funny, generous and, it must be said, possesses the worst memory for songs/chords that I have ever known in my entire ‘professional’ life. It has been a cause of constant amusement/bemusement in all my time of working with him. And that’s been quite a while now…
I first met Q in 2002 when he auditioned for the guitarist position in GABRIEL (replacing the departing Colin Elsworth). He came up to me at the end of a GABRIEL gig in THE CROSS KEYS in York, pointed straight at Col and said ‘Can I have his job, then?’ He auditioned and he was great and the rest…as they say… is history…
We’ve worked together now for those 7 years and have written quite a lot of tunes together and recorded stacks of stuff during that time (the vast majority of our work has never really been heard outside the studio’s four walls). Q has always been there as GABRIEL sort of transformed into RIVERSEA and it’s sad that his involvement is coming to an end. It’s the end of an era… but it will never be the end of our friendship.
I have some great memories of Q (although I’m not sure he does!) and I know I’ll have lots more to come. His pre-sales on FOCAL POINT are brilliant and the work he’s done already on putting together Q ROCK RECORDS (his own record label!) has been inspiring to see. As RIVERSEA’s debut will be on Q ROCK RECORDS (that is if he doesn’t ‘let us go’ now!) he’s now, effectively, our boss! He’ll be breathing down our necks soon! I’m sure he’ll love it… ;o)
But for all the guitar work, the laughter, the banter, the sarcasm, the songs, the sights (and the smells) and, most of all, for the friendship… Thank you, Q… You’re a Legend and a star…
2) Q’S REPLACEMENT: Right… Now Baldie’s gone who we gonna get in? Watch this ‘breathing’ space… :o)
3) ACOUSTIC SUPPORT SLOTS: This weekend just gone I actually felt like a songwriter. As I mentioned earlier I played two great support slots and I played to crowds that actually LISTEN! Yeah, that’s right… LISTEN! Can you believe it?! I’m used to playing pubs/clubs where crowd ‘noise’ levels can sometimes be louder than the average MOTORHEAD concert…
So playing for a crowd that loves music, and ORIGINAL music too, is a real privilege for me. It really is. I don’t do it enough. I do too many ‘covers’ gigs. Mainly because I see them as my ‘day job’… It’s my ‘bread and butter’ so to speak. And yet, the ironic thing is, I took more money in CD sales this weekend than I normally would get paid at ‘covers’ gigs!
So thank you so much to all the people who bought my CDs this weekend. If you’re reading this it’s really good to have you on board and thanks for inspiring me and making me feel like songwriter again.
As always, though, on a personal note, I didn’t actually feel like I played and sang that well. My voice was only firing on 80% both nights (my ‘Christmas cough’ has stuck around for 4 months!) and, on Sunday, I played the entire set thinking my guitar was suddenly going to cut off as the ‘warning’ light on my pick up battery was on a deep, sinister RED from the 2nd song onwards!
But I did enjoy myself enormously and the crowds on both nights were just amazing… Very warm and welcoming. I loved it :o)
Thank you to Guy and all in MANNING and thank you Matt and all of the guys (and Gal) in THE REASONING (who were just ‘on fire’ on Sunday night… Bloody brilliant!)
Could the next support slots be with the ‘full’ RIVERSEA line up? We’ll have to wait and see…
4) DOCTOR WHO: ‘Planet of the Dead’ was a bit rubbish, really. 5 ½ out of 10
5) MANDALABAND: I’m still hoping to go over to Spain sometime this summer to do some more vocal work for David Rohl for his MANDALABAND project.
David came over here in January and we recorded some vocals at my studio (The BARN), which are going to be on the CD, which is to be released this year as the ‘B.C.’ album. I’m going over to David’s studio in Spain (I know… it’s hard work but some of us have to do it!) and lay down some tracks for the ‘A.D’. Album. When we do actually go over all depends on various resasons that I wont go into here. But both Tamsin and I are determined to get over there sooner rather than later…
6) RECENT FILMS: TWILIGHT was Rubbish… WATCHMEN brilliant… THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL disappointing… INKHEART entertaining… and I’m looking forward to STAR TREK… :o)
7) I’M FAT AND I KNOW IT! It whilst watching back some footage that Tam took of the Bilston gig that I realised that I have actually ‘eaten all the pies’ and my body mass now resembles a bag of very large potatoes :o(
Paul McKenna has been informed and a course on self-hypnosis is on my horizon. ‘Eat when you’re hungry and stop when you’re full’. Say it with me now…
Give me 3 months and be thinner than Q’s memory flaps…
8) RIVERSEA’s DEBUT ALBUM: Is on its way… Slowly but surely… Honest….
OK, that’s it for now. I’ve rattled on… I didn’t mean to but I did. Thanks for sticking with me.
May the Force always be with us and may we all live happily ever after.
Marc