2 May 2012
Listening to Calum’s mixes of the acoustic weekend studio sessions and sounding great!
16 songs overall. State of Mind,Brother 52,Jumpsuit City,Punch and Judy, Family Business, Jigsaw, Just Good Friends, Torch Song, Slainthe Mhath,Vigil, Gentleman’s Excuse me, Incubus, Zoe 25, Raw Meat, Fugazi, The Company.
Interview/introductions/comments on the sessions and the songs were filmed this afternoon with Andy and Jeff from AVP. First time the new kitchen played host to cameras! Now have to ok all mixes and send them down to the boys to link with the footage they have mostly assembled.A great feeling to have at least one element close to completion.Permission came through for me to use the Plenary speech and the interview from the Glasgow English teachers conference so another recording to use on the DVD box set.Looking at the Derby gig tonight and hopefully can find enough from that filming session to add to another DVD.
The final DVD will be a mix from various sources throughout the tour but I am still waiting on some companies delivering material and have to determine what is usable.
That will hopefully comprise a limited edition box set that covers the tour from various angles and still keep the price down to an affordable level.
I plan to release the “Spittalrig Studio Sessions” as a stand alone DVD as an alternative.
News from Poland is positive and the “State of Mind” clip I got the other day was seriously impressive. The same style of “Magic” editing from different Polish shows across the tour within the same song is time consuming but really effective and the AVP guys were very impressed with what they saw last night when we got back from the Tyneside and a curry at the Eastern Eye.
In their words the documentary so far is “totally engaging and just pulls you in”.
My only problem is that I have another visit to Poland to engage and it’s an awkward one.
It means flying from Dusseldorf to Poznan the day after the June 2nd show with Frank and Mickey Simmonds, 2 days going through subtitles with Marek before another 3 days in the studio in Zielony Gora and leaving Friday to fly to Edinburgh and then fly straight out to Copenhagen for the Swedish festival on the Saturday with the full electric outfit!
Another week away from here that I don’t need but which has to be done if I am going to see this film/ documentary finished before the Summer!
The audio side of the Fishheads project has stalled just now in favour of getting the DVD’s together and finished.
Mark Wilkinson asked me about the progress on the “Feast of Consequences” writing and all I could manage was a sigh.
I have to clear my decks of all this material before I even think about the new album. It’s a bit like asking a football manager at half time during an important match what his tactics are going to be for the next equally important game!
With the electric rehearsals starting in just over a week and then the gigs taking me up to the end of May,the German acoustic show, the Polish studio edits, the Swedish festival all quickly following before the Malta trip which I leave for 2 days later and don’t get back from until the 19th June it is so full on and I don’t expect to have the material together until the end of June!!
This is looking at a release in July if I get lucky!!!!
After that it is absolute 100 % total focus on writing the new material and I can’t allow anything to get in the way as it’s imperative to have the album ready for recording end of October after the convention.
I am now putting together the plans for that convention and am in contact with various people re the components that will make up the weekend. So far so good! 🙂
The elements of the Fishheads project and the convention are hugely important to the end of the year as they will fund the album writing and recording so both have to deliver on all levels.
It’s imperative that they get the attention and energies they require to be successful in their own right.
And in amongst all that lot there’s all the other calls on time and energy.Not helped today by a no show electrician from yesterday and a mains fuse repeatedly tripping this morning.
I managed 2 hours of path clearing and replacement of a container broken by frost from a year ago and am trying to devote a couple of hours a day to managing the side of the garden that Mac doesn’t have time for as planting out is full on just now.
Chairs being repaired, organising a lounge for Tara in Istanbul airport (press 1 for “English” on auto phone system which then continues in Turkish!) finally sorted,ever continuing MCPS/Publishing/legal issues,booking air tickets and cancelling credit card after e mail from a spam source in Russia that ripped me off last June on a PC security download re phished and contained my CC details address etc in the content. I’d reported it last year at the time but there was no other comeback until now.
Chasing a missing kitchen processor (that was in the greenhouse), ordering more soil for raised beds,changing bed linen and laundry, interviews for the May gigs…………it’s more of the same here on the magic roundabout which is all well and dandy as long as you stay in the centre and concentrate on where you are and not what’s beyond the rim.
Send in the clones!!