That Was The Week That Was

I’m poleaxed !

So on Sunday last (22nd) I played a 30 minute set at the end of the night in the Bleeding Horse (The Apollo Sessions). I wasn’t meant to close the gig – it just worked out that way. Unfortunately the act but one before me managed to almost clear the venue with their noise. The folk who remained were really respectful and a great audience. Got some lovely compliments. I tried a new song (Bed For Sale) and a cover version (Shipbuilding).

I hadn’t expected to be on so late and had had a skinful by the time I got onstage. I have no idea if it affected my performance. Well. Actually. I’ll bet it did. I was certainly more daring.

The week was taken up with work (office type work). A re-organization and general business stuff kept me busy. I don’t usually do long days in the office but this week I ended up doing a couple. This got in the way of getting any writing or recording done. I picked up the guitar on Friday evening and did some more work on Bed For Sale because the lyrics aren’t quite there yet (there’s not enough death in the 3rd verse) and it needs a bridge/middle8.

Saturday I spent the day spring cleaning. eBay is about to get hit with a bunch of stuff that I hope people will buy. Went to see Ireland vs Bulgaria on Saturday evening. Brutal match. When we conceded the own-goal I decided enough was enough and left Croke Park. There was a warm house, warm family and warm glass of red wine waiting for me.

Stayed up far too late Saturday night. Watched a movie and then a bunch of music videos. With the clocks going forward it didn’t work out well. 6:00am getting to sleep is not what I should be doing ‘at my age’.

Today (Sunday) was more productive than it should have been given my slight hangover and general shattered state. I did some more work on ‘Bed For Sale’ and practiced a couple of songs in anticipation of tomorrow night’s open-mic. Feel suitably creative I grabbed my guitar and headed into the studio. Over a 2-3 hour session I managed to get 2 acoustic recordings completed. I might be able to use them for my Acoustic EP. This time around I recorded the guitar part first and then overdubbed the vocal. I was listening to a recently released Beatles bootleg (Revolution…Take Your Knickers Off) and spotted that Lennon had used this technique for ‘Julia’ on the White Album. I also spotted a lot of flubs and mistakes that were obviously fixed by those clever Abbey Road engineers and their razor blades.

Good enough for Lennon… more than good enough for me.

A very chilled evening. After dinner listening to BBC 6Music and thinking about the week ahead and what it might bring.

Monday evening I’ve got to finish a conference call at 7:00pm and then get myself home and/or into town to play in Peadar Kearney’s. The good people at Music Medium Live have moved to this venue. I expect that like most open mics it might be a bit chaotic.

The rest of the week looks like it’ll be taken up with conference calls and meetings, attempted gym visits and yearning for recording.