New Band, Meetup No. 1

So, we met up and the initial line-up was decided as follows:

Jo: Vocals
Ken (yes, ME!): Guitar
Bo: Guitar
Rich: Bass
Jonathan: Drums

There were no arguments or major discussions about who should play what. The line-up was pretty much representative of what each person wanted to do! That never happens, right? We're also all pretty much in synch about where we want to come from, initially: classic rock, AC/DC feel, loud but not too complex.

Let's run down a brief bio (as I remember it) of each member...

Jo. Rock chick. Really good look. Great personality. Seemingly fearless. Jo's been playing guitar in a punk band for the past 6 years but they've never stretched past three chords per song and they often didn't make it through a set without forgetting what they were doing. Good experience gigging. Good contacts for getting gigs. She's not leaving her other band, but their drummer has run off somewhere for a year so she's looking for a side project. She also wants to hang up her axe and stretch her lungs a bit behind the mic. Influences: Guns and that whole LA scene, hair metal and a bit of glam. Oh, and I just have to mention that Jo's main axe is a Squier "Hello Kitty" Strat. Lookie, lookie...



...pretty kitty!

Me... well, you know about me. I'm actually more than happy to go down the route of doing 3 minute songs that sound good 'n' rockin'. I got the impression that I was being pitched slightly towards lead rather then rhythm, but if the opposite turns out to be the case then so be it. As long as I'm playing guitar, I'm happy.

Bo. Bo's the youngest of the group. He's in his early twenties where the rest of us span the 30's age bracket. Very enthusiastic. Very keen to get going and get up onstage. His musical first love seems to be Jimi. Ain't nothing wrong with a bit o' Jimi. Bo's never been in a band before, but has performed in front of about 300 people, supporting a mate of his. It must have gone okay, I guess! He has a very 'can do' attitude, which is great.

Rich. The organiser and primarily a guitarist but the first to put his hand up and volunteer to play bass. He's played in 'bands' made up of friends but none of them have got to the gigging stage. Rich seemed very pragmatic and focused on what we needed to do... that's a good thing! He made sure we put together a preliminary covers list which we plan to whittle down so that we have something positive to work on when we get together 'for real'. Tentative first practice is set for 2 weeks' time with an interim meetup for a few beers. Once Jo's typed up the list and circulated, I'll post it here. Ultimately, we'll aim for originals, but to feel each other out we'll shoot for common ground initially.

Last, but not least, Jonathan. When Jonathan first told his story I was slightly hesitant about whether he was going to be the weak link. He only started playing drums at the start of 2008 because of a bet. A mate of his bet him £100 (roughly $180) that he wouldn't be able to get in a band and play at a festival. I forget the timescale for the wager, but I think it was 2 years. I may be wrong... maybe it's by the end of this year! Sound familiar? Anyway, I did the maths and realised that it meant he'd only been banging skins for 9 months. Throughout the evening, though, I became convinced that he knew what he was doing and remembered that the drummer from the metal band I'd jammed with only had a year's experience and she was great. Besides, anyone with the balls to join a band after less than a year playing is okay in my books.

So, that's the line-up. Song list to follow. Will anything come of this? Too early to tell, but it's a foot on the ladder.

Update: Provisional song list...

Wild Thing - the Troggs
Rock 'n' Roll Star - Oasis
Stay With Me - The Faces
Down Down, Deeper & Down - The Quo
Lola - The Kinks
Hungry Like the Wolf - Duran Duran
I Wanna Be Your Dog - The Stooges
Every Breath You Take - The Police

Sounding better to me already than Metallica stuff. The list is to be perused and whittled down to a handful for us to attempt to murder in a couple of weeks!

Tonight's The Kind Of Night...

...when potential band members meet for the first time!

Excited? Yes. Apprehensive? No, not really. I think if this had been six months ago that I'd have been totally unprepared for any of this. Right now I just feel like it's time to move forwards.

What do I expect of tonight? Well, as I've said before, we're talking 4 guitarists and a drummer, with one or two of the axe-grinders (not me!) putting their hands up to play the deep end. We have one vocalist/guitarist, too, which is handy. Judging by emails exchanged to date I'm picturing a a rag-tag fugitive fleet on a lonely quest for a shining planet...

NOW HOLD ON A MINUTE...

...that's Battlestar Galactica, isn't it?

Right, let's change 'fleet' to 'bunch' and planet to 'spotlight'! Much better and marginally less spaced-out. Tonight isn't a jam, it's all about meeting up and figuring out who's crazy and who's ker-azy, man! A bit like the first hour of a new series of Big Brother.

It sounds to me like there's the possibility of something there, but only time will tell. I'll let you know how it goes.

My other possibility, a solo drummer in North London is on hold. I've not been able to choose a firm date to meet up with her yet as I've been focusing on the other 'bunch'. Might be able to squeeze something in at the end of this week or maybe next.

The Death Of Metal

Well, I think that's it for my foray into metal. It simply kills my right forearm to play it right now, which is something that came out of left field. I did something completely out of character and actually blew off rehearsal on Sunday. I'm not saying I'll never revisit metal for a laugh, but it had actually started affecting my ability strum and play less agressive stuff! Not happy about that.

So, I have two possibilities in the offing right now. One was from 'Join My Band' and the other was from Gumtree. I was subscribed to Gumtree a long time before I even thought about starting The Project, but had unsubscribed. Someone in my office has been looking for a new flat and reminded me that it's a decent resource. I'd pretty much written off 'Join My Band' as it seemed like most of the membership were in their teens.

I can't honestly tell whether either prospect is a great one, but y'know, if you don't test the water, how're you gonna find out, eh? One's just me and a drummer (so far) and the other one is me, three other guitarists and a drummer. Hey, maybe a four guitar lead is the way forward for Nu Southern Rock? A couple of the other guitarists have stepped up and said they'd be willing to have a go on bass (if someone has one!).

Meetup/jams in the next couple of weeks. I'll let you know how they go!

And news just in. It seems that an album entitled "The Roots Of The Allman Brothers" is due to be released in a week or so. Don't know where this came from! Details are sketchy but it appears to be a compilation of recordings which were considered to influence the Allmans back when they were getting started. Lots of blues stuff, obviously. Preliminary track listing goes something like this:

1) Key To The Highway - Big Bill Broonzy
2) Lost Lover Blues - Blind Boy Fuller
3) Statesboro Blues - Blind Willie McTell
4) Call It Stormy Monday - T-Bone Walker
5) Sweet Little Angel - B.B. King
6) Smokestack Lightnin' - Howlin' Wolf
7) Trouble No More - Muddy Waters
8) Can't Stop Lovin' - Elmore James
9) It Takes Time - Otis Rush
10) Deep Feeling - Chuck Berry
11) Need Your Love So Bad - Little Willie John
12) It's Too Late - Chuck Willis
13) I'm Gonna Move To The Outskirts Of Town - Louis Jordan
14) Did You Ever Love A Women - B.B. King
15) Wild About You Baby - Elmore James
16) Mona - Bo Diddley
17) Hoochie Coochie Man - Muddy Waters
18) 0range Blossom Special - Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys
19) San Antonio Rose - Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
20) Nobody Knows You - Bessie Smith
21) Tears - Django Reinhardt
22) Come On In My Kitchen (Take 2) - Robert Johnson
23) T.B. Blues - Jimmie Rodgers
24) Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground - Blind Willie Johnson

Fascinating snapshot of the band's influences or shameless marketing of forgotten back catalogue tunes? You decide.

Cold, Cold Heart

Yes, I've been in something of a slump for a bit. Looking at the clock, I only have 138 days left on the project, which puts me...

...well...

...behind.

For those without calculators, that's just under 20 weeks. Sounds like a long time, but it really isn't.

So, as I've hinted before I've become a little jaded with the whole 'find band members' circus. Maybe it's the summer and people are on hols. Maybe it's that when I chat to people I somehow don't put my best foot forward and they never call back. Maybe it's just that the majority of musos are a bit flaky. Who can say? Wot-ev-ver.

It's not helped that I've not been playing guitar as much as I'd like to recently, partly because I managed to screw my right arm up... tennis elbow? Parson's nose... who knows? Anyway, my strumming arm is giving me gyp and playing guitar only seems to aggravate it. I'm trying to rest it as much as I can, but since I'm right-handed I naturally tend to use it without thinking. It's getting better, though. Slowly.

Bloody hell, this is exciting stuff, isn't it? Next I'll be telling you about my folks' current dental problems.

Okay, here's the thing. ALTHOUGH I'm feeling jaded, I still have that little kid inside me that gets excited whenever someone mentions Christmas. I was looking at the daily email shot from "Join My Band" and there was something from a drummer wanting to find bandmates. Checked out the influences. Pretty cool. Definitely something I could get behind. Got me excited again. Based not too far away. Emailed a response and got a positive vibe back. Sent my phone number. Wait and see, I guess...

Now, part of me realises that this is the same routine as every other time I've tried to make something happen, but hey, maybe this time Santa will come down the chimney.

Eh? Wot? Don't ask me. I'm not certain that the wizard is in today.

Oh, and I'd considered posting an iPod DJ instead of this tripe, but my iPod is being really obnoxious at the moment and is refusing to play anything decent! I mean, I'm not going to admit to having Tony Bennett on there, am I? Oh crap, I think I just did...

IN OTHER NEWS... I got a couple of cheap CDs off the internet: "The Best of Free" (by Free, obviously) and "Who's Next" (by... c'mon... think about it). My thought was that I could use these albums to reconnect with, like, the 70s, man. I'm still waiting for Duffy's "Rockferry" to land on our doormat. It's late. Hopefully the Free stuff will be riff-a-licious. I'm not really familiar with their stuff.

I also have a copy of the movie "Crossroads" winging its way over from the US. The one with Ralph Macchio, not the Britney flick. Okay, so that's still worthy of a piss-take, but y'know, I remember watching the film and enjoying it when I was (alot) younger. It cost me all of, like, £3 or something.

Hey, look, feel free to judge. I don't care.