'It's like goldy or silvery but made out of iron...'

Since my last posting much has happened although it may not seem like it from what's written here. But it has happened.

In the meantime- an excellent rehearsal over at Andy C.'s yesterday with Dave, Andy and myself tightening up material for the first half of Big Tel's big gig at the Beck Theatre in Hayes next month. Big Tel and East joined us halfway through- Terry added some self-effacing saxophone and East some caustic comments (all too accurate in some cases!) regarding my attempts at playing a Queen song. Andy's added a few things to his studio set-up since our last visit including an extraordinary device called a FUNKLOGIC AP-302 ALGORHYTHMIC PROCECUTOR. It allows you to adjust PUNCH from 'Fruity' to 'Coma', IMAGINATION from 'Hmm' to 'Ah-hah!' and FUNKERATOR from 'The Bradys' to 'Thumb poppin' good', and, you've guessed it, does absolutely nothing at all. It's in his effects rack- he recalled with some glee a time where he used it to 'adjust' someones vocal sound ('that's much better mate, why didn't you use that on my voice in the first place?') though it's actually there to leave a bit of space for air to circulate to cool the other items; no doubt Andy advertises that his studio has one and charges extra accordingly. Well- if he doesn't, he should!

The shop's been busy- 2 week's of work experience for young Jennifer has probably been enough to put her off for life, not least when 54 (count 'em!) guitars arrived from Fender all in one go. As luck would have it Esso and Arturo from The Lurkers were in the shop when it arrived (Art bought a bass in for repair on his way to a 999 rehearsal in Acton) and were able to lend a hand loading it all in otherwise we'd probably still be there. Art's just finished writing a book and Esso's got his first one 'God's Lonely Men' coming out in the summer (he's started a blog from his website if you want to catch up on his current adventures). See- you wait for ages for a book on The Lurkers and two of them come along at once...

Tonight myself and the long-suffering Shirley are off to The Dominion Theatre (like I don't spend enough time there these days) to see the 5th anniversary performance of 'We Will Rock You'. Well, I've been working there since around the start of the year so I guess it's about time I saw it? And Brian May and Roger Taylor are playing- Stu's up there for a rehearsal/soundcheck as I type this- which should make for an interesting if rather ironic evening, given the fact that neither of us actually like Queen. Oh well- I guess you can't have everything eh?

http://www.petehaynes.co.uk

http://www.thelurkers.co.uk