Preparing the Feast

Well the weekend had a shape to it and a cunning plan attached but all became slightly derailed on Saturday.

Simone arrived on Friday afternoon and the night was allocated to a family gathering as my sister, Laura and the kids were up from York. We all tied up with my parents for a meal in North Berwick and a grand time was had by all.

Simone and I were supposed to be at a wedding on the West coast at 3pm next day and as expected we got up late but still had time to get down the road.

I’d been hearing progress reports from Foss from Calum’s studio and the piano parts were all laid down. My big conc

ern now was the DVD which had to be at the production plant this week. As if on cue Dave Barras showed up with the completed edits while we were in dressing gowns in the kitchen about to make our move. The project took precedence and I knew from previous history that to take the DVD for granted can lead to a feast of consequences and this was too important to leave to the side. With a 3hr journey, a wedding, a night in a B and B and a 3 hour drive back next day the weekend would be kiboshed and I would be left with a last minute review which if it needed tuning could throw schedules awry.

I was glad I made the right decision and that night the notes were e mailed to Dave as I had a few technical problems with the authoring and some other issues, one of which had me rooting through archives for the St Mary’s recording from last year to replace a piece of soundtrack on the movie.

The “Making of ..” is a hefty piece of work. An hour and twenty minutes of interviews and footage from the studio of the songs coming together over the months as well as in depth interviews with all concerned as to the writing and recording process. Add to that live recordings of “Perfume River”, “Blind to the Beautiful”, “All Loved Up”, “Crucifix Corner”, “The Gathering” and “Thistle Alley” from the UK tour and it runs in at over 2 hours!

Dave has done an incredible job threading it all together and it is a labour of love. I have to admit that I enjoyed watching it despite knowing the plot and the ending intimately ! It bounces around the various characters involved and constantly entertains. Simone loved it having seen it for the first time.

There was a great sense of satisfaction watching the footage from the early days back in the Summer of 2012 and seeing it develop over the months to the present situation where I now have an album a week or so away from completion. The film really hangs together well and is a great documentary of events that keeps you entertained throughout and avoids wandering into boring details and getting bogged d

own. Dave has kept it alive throughout and even after a couple of screenings over the weekend it still stayed fresh. As Dave said to me when I first saw the edits on Thursday it was easier for him to build it as he is a genuine fan of the music and he felt that after hearing what we have done in the studio and what Mark Wilkinson has done with the artwork he didn’t want to be the weakest link! The DVD certainly holds it’s own within the overall project and he can be very proud of what he has created.

The fixes are happening as I type this and the DVD will be off to the plant tomorrow. Another element falls into place on schedule.

I found it really interesting to hear the versions of the songs we played on the UK tour in May. They are so far removed from the studio recordings and really do sound like demos being played in rehearsals. I think fans will find it fascinating to hear the growth and the development over the space of just a few months and it is obvious how much we all benefited from playing the songs live on stages before taking them into the studio. The growth in confidence in the band and the fluency of performance between then and now is huge!

Apart from missing the wedding and a depressing start to Hibernian’s season with a 0-1 defeat at home to Motherwell it turned out to be a positive weekend.

The rain is now falling outside and the clouds of cabbage white butterflies are dispersed for now. As far as nature watch is concerned it’s been an horrific season for pests. Carrot fly for the first time ever, peas riddled with maggots from moths, caterpillars decimating the cabbages that aren’t under nets, wasps running riot in the fruit cage and what’s left of the strawberry beds and the slugs rampaging in the warm wet earth after the nematodes wore off. It’s a constant battle! The winter brassicas arrived on Saturday signaling the end of summer and the last sowings go in the ground this week.

The smell of fresh bread and coffee from the kitchen raises the smiles as I slightly relax in the eye of the storm and fend calls as the next mountain looms into view.

Album mixes due in 11 days and less than a month until ” A Feast of Consequences” arrives here at the studio! I better put on my next hat!