Sunday 6th September and we met to rehearse and have photos taken of us by Wendy Buckley, who is a good friend and a great photographer (with a thing, perhaps go so far as to say a fetish, about shoes!!)
The rehearsal went well, we sounded pretty hot. There’s one song which only really zings about once in every 3 or 4 times we play it and I don’t really know why. You have to kind of tease the mood out of this song. Its one of those where all four of us have to be almost psychic in terms of what each other is doing and get everything spot on. It seems such a delicate song to me and, as such, seems to demand delicate interpretation.
You know, it might just be me and the way my brain thinks (too much according to more than one person) but I shuffle between thinking we are getting these songs whilst flying by the seat of our pants and/or that we are some kind of undiscovered supergroup. Put it another way, sometimes I get to the end of the song and wonder how we made it to the end with the song intact and at others I think we sound so sweet that there should be 100, 000 people standing there listening to us. We know the songs, we are the only people who can sound like us and every time we play one of them, the mood, the way we’re playing, the mistakes we make, how much we’re concentrating or emoting or putting into it ebbs and flows continually. It’s so fascinating. There’s so many times when I want to stand just to the left of myself and watch us all doing it and see what works and what needs work and what touches you deeply. You know when you feel it, especially on stage, when you know people are getting it. The two new songs we’re working on sounded amazing!
After the rehearsal was the photo shoot. So much fun, I like letting my ego run around for a while, pretend I’m famous, etc. Bit of umbrella fencing, always fun. Then to the pub, of course.
On Tuesday 8th, I opened up Pink Moon with a few songs. The place was absolutely rammed full of people. I’d like to formally thank my impromptu fan club who I met on the night. Thanks guys. One of them shouted, ‘you better not be shit’ just as I was about to sing Something About Love which was very funny. No pressure or anything, you know?! And my honorary Pandoras who came along to support me and give cards out. On average I think it takes me between 1 and 2 songs to find my feet. Something About Love was ok. Blossom was possibly the best I’ve sung it but bloody hard coz I sang the whole thing in falsetto for the first time live. It sounds better than screaming the thing out but it takes some concentration. I did Pandora for the second time and its a song that flies with just me and the guitar. Must remember to stand back from the mic during the magnets, as I didn’t at Solid Air the other week. I was really really pleased with my rendition of this. Finished with a really old song and Conrad had tweaked the levels throughout so that by that time all was sounding extremely sweet and I felt myself just about to really enjoy myself and…it was the end of the set, sigh!
And finally, my IT skills are up to their usual standard. I believe I had previously sabotaged the Coo website’s email but now I believe its working. I believe….so please email or comment or say hi!!
Cheers
G @ Coosticks HQ
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