Enjoying the Indian Summer but also thinking towards Winter's recording plans.
Wynd ... plans? yeah, we are quite big on Organic.
BUT, I did say 2011 would be the Year of the Gig and it has been. We're gradually building up a roster of suitable gigs, but it's also becoming clear that most of our activities to build some interest in Wynd in 2012 will be Festie-based. We've already been invited to do Glasstonwick, after Attila The Stockbroker saw us at The Welly back in August and liked the band.
Either as a whole band, unplugged or just Al and I, we've done 10 gigs since the beginning of May, and Wicca's been messing with Teenage Grandad a little too, which is a nice synergy for Wynd. Aldo and Wicca did a duo supporting Bad Medicine, the Bon Jovi trib., at Newhaven's Ark, and also ran a jam for Mary at The Neptune, Hove, we've another proper duo gig on December 18 doing a mix of Wynd and other material, and a full gig for Wynd is promised for the new Year.
Lyn has fitted in so well, in every way, really feels like the band is settled and we should have a chance to develop more new material this year.
We simply MUST get down to recording, we've only two tracks done 'properly' right now and we'd really like to put out some more audio, plus another video - probably green screening this time.
Off to the Rose Hill Tavern, even as I write, tonight, so we'll see how we go down there, that will be, with the two more planned, including one in Worthing in October, 12 gigs altogether this year. We just need to quadruple that and we'll be out there every weekend.
Meanwhile there will be some open mic visits for various configurations of the band so a busy 'live' year ahead!
Friday 30 September 2011
Thursday 4 August 2011
Tempus .... Fugit! Year of the Paid Gig!!
It's August and I'm totally shocked to see that I haven't blogged anything about Wynd since January. Why? Well, time gets sucked up by Facebook, Twitter, rehearsals, gigs, cooking, travelling, writing more songs, getting a new five string violin, losing Belinda who has gone back to the USA probably for good, inducting Lynn, her fantastic replacement, inviting Al into the band on a permanent basis......breathe!
WYND is having a pretty good 2011. We've developed a bunch of new material, we are a five piece again but the wonderful Lynn is providing the third part of the harmonies I have so longed for, Aldo, the second part of course.
We've done a few gigs and we are now getting paid to play more often. Rosie couldn't commit in the end, I understand why, but she's there in the background rooting for us.
Joogum's bass playing has improved at an astonishing rate, Ali finally extracted her acoustic kit and is now using it at gigs, and because we now have Axeman Alster helping out I finally get to play a little violin, with Lynn, in my own band, so far on one number but the sky's the limit. Am very pleased with the five string, it gives me viola range, very dramatic!
We had a brilliant gig at Lindfield Arts Festival, two great gigs at the World's End, one at the Hove Park Tavern, and at the private festie, Glass-Tonbury Two and at the time of writing we are set to play Brighton Bandstand again, the Wellington Shoreham, The Brunswick, Hove and four or five other gigs dates yet to be advised.
Our struggle is to find the right circuit. Because most of the material is original, it would be almost impossible to crack the pub circuit unless we stick to the folkrock genre, or do a majority of covers in the set. But, we're not a rock covers band, we're not a folk band, we're not an Indie band. In some ways that's all good, but it does make it really hard to place us in terms of performance.
Alster, Joogum Boogum and I are off to Glastonbury town at the end of August to try to arrange a mini tour as we think we'd go down well in that demographic.
Back in March, Alster's rock covers band Raw Deal did a mini tour of Liverpool and we'd like to crack that city so that's also on the cards.
We won't be doing the HPT again, we had a great gig, got a fantastic response from those who showed up to see us, but the 'regulars' weren't interested and it did underline to us that we don't really belong on the pub circuit with one or two exceptions.
Winter will be the time to record another video, this time it's a studio project, with two tracks which we have yet to decide, after our Visitation video we realised all the drawbacks and hassle of location stuff wasn't really for us yet, so we're going to greenscreen it instead, should be a laugh.
WYND is having a pretty good 2011. We've developed a bunch of new material, we are a five piece again but the wonderful Lynn is providing the third part of the harmonies I have so longed for, Aldo, the second part of course.
We've done a few gigs and we are now getting paid to play more often. Rosie couldn't commit in the end, I understand why, but she's there in the background rooting for us.
Joogum's bass playing has improved at an astonishing rate, Ali finally extracted her acoustic kit and is now using it at gigs, and because we now have Axeman Alster helping out I finally get to play a little violin, with Lynn, in my own band, so far on one number but the sky's the limit. Am very pleased with the five string, it gives me viola range, very dramatic!
We had a brilliant gig at Lindfield Arts Festival, two great gigs at the World's End, one at the Hove Park Tavern, and at the private festie, Glass-Tonbury Two and at the time of writing we are set to play Brighton Bandstand again, the Wellington Shoreham, The Brunswick, Hove and four or five other gigs dates yet to be advised.
Our struggle is to find the right circuit. Because most of the material is original, it would be almost impossible to crack the pub circuit unless we stick to the folkrock genre, or do a majority of covers in the set. But, we're not a rock covers band, we're not a folk band, we're not an Indie band. In some ways that's all good, but it does make it really hard to place us in terms of performance.
Alster, Joogum Boogum and I are off to Glastonbury town at the end of August to try to arrange a mini tour as we think we'd go down well in that demographic.
Back in March, Alster's rock covers band Raw Deal did a mini tour of Liverpool and we'd like to crack that city so that's also on the cards.
We won't be doing the HPT again, we had a great gig, got a fantastic response from those who showed up to see us, but the 'regulars' weren't interested and it did underline to us that we don't really belong on the pub circuit with one or two exceptions.
Winter will be the time to record another video, this time it's a studio project, with two tracks which we have yet to decide, after our Visitation video we realised all the drawbacks and hassle of location stuff wasn't really for us yet, so we're going to greenscreen it instead, should be a laugh.
Monday 10 January 2011
Winter Plans
Lots has happened since October.
We've been at the jams in various configurations, although I've done more with Mr Bohanna's hard rock band Thunderfrog.
Writing and developing new songs all the time, in October Belinda and I stood in for the 'lost in France' keyboard player from the original Mockin' Birds fronted by Rosie Barnard. We played the Punk Brighton Festival at the Prince Albert, Brighton, it was a scream. Two violins, brilliant!
Of course I'm always on the trawl for likely backing vocalists, so Rosie was invited in. The bonus is that she's also a drummer so will provide some enhancing percussion.
Rosie has been down with a bad, bad flu since Xmas, so she won't be joining us at our next two gigs, Jan 22nd at the newly refurbed Hobgoblin and Feb 4 supporting Teenage Grandad, the loudest, edgiest 'older' band we know, at the World's End in London Road.
The Hob gig is due to Jason Alexander's revival of Brighton Pulse so there are opportunities for further gigs. Jase is looking at the Dome, Komedia and venues in London and Liverpool so, World Domination awaits. We have co opted Al into the band as Honorary Woman (he has the T shirt. For real!) to play a bit of electric guitar and provide some backing vocals.
Meanwhile, we released the first cut of our video: Visitation, see vid tab on Wynd Music group, Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=115090300082 we had a laugh doing it, the next step is to redo including some storyboarding to match the song, and then another video. It was hell doing location, Al will green screen the next one! BTW we hit our 100th member on Wynd's Facebook Group on December 16, yay! 1,000 by Xmas 2011 please!
I've just asked for another gig at Brighton Bandstand, this time I will probably bring a support act and make a big show of it.
Belinda Fiddleycat and I have been asked to do more violin duets, people really liked the Pachebel Kanon and traditional tunes B and I did to kick off the Bandstand gig.
There are plans to get the girls to Al's house in France and maybe busk either in Chateauroux or another biggist town close by, that means generator or maybe Joogum can acquire a battery busking amp.
Our latest songs are called Eclipse, Barrio Blahniks, Red Suede Boots and Daddy. Al's written some great country rock so I'm hoping we can apply my When The Boss Went Country, a satire on Springsteen. We're also working up some covers, Tweeter and the Monkey Man, Travelling Wilburys, The Boxer, Simon and Garfunkel, and Refugee Tom Petty.
We all had a big meeting on Saturday and decided to establish a common mission apart from Joogum who wants to be Rich and Famous. We realised we did not want to give up our Lives and would be happy doing lots of gigs and selling some stuff on ITunes, that's the plan for this year anyway.
Let's see.....
We've been at the jams in various configurations, although I've done more with Mr Bohanna's hard rock band Thunderfrog.
Writing and developing new songs all the time, in October Belinda and I stood in for the 'lost in France' keyboard player from the original Mockin' Birds fronted by Rosie Barnard. We played the Punk Brighton Festival at the Prince Albert, Brighton, it was a scream. Two violins, brilliant!
Of course I'm always on the trawl for likely backing vocalists, so Rosie was invited in. The bonus is that she's also a drummer so will provide some enhancing percussion.
Rosie has been down with a bad, bad flu since Xmas, so she won't be joining us at our next two gigs, Jan 22nd at the newly refurbed Hobgoblin and Feb 4 supporting Teenage Grandad, the loudest, edgiest 'older' band we know, at the World's End in London Road.
The Hob gig is due to Jason Alexander's revival of Brighton Pulse so there are opportunities for further gigs. Jase is looking at the Dome, Komedia and venues in London and Liverpool so, World Domination awaits. We have co opted Al into the band as Honorary Woman (he has the T shirt. For real!) to play a bit of electric guitar and provide some backing vocals.
Meanwhile, we released the first cut of our video: Visitation, see vid tab on Wynd Music group, Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=115090300082 we had a laugh doing it, the next step is to redo including some storyboarding to match the song, and then another video. It was hell doing location, Al will green screen the next one! BTW we hit our 100th member on Wynd's Facebook Group on December 16, yay! 1,000 by Xmas 2011 please!
I've just asked for another gig at Brighton Bandstand, this time I will probably bring a support act and make a big show of it.
Belinda Fiddleycat and I have been asked to do more violin duets, people really liked the Pachebel Kanon and traditional tunes B and I did to kick off the Bandstand gig.
There are plans to get the girls to Al's house in France and maybe busk either in Chateauroux or another biggist town close by, that means generator or maybe Joogum can acquire a battery busking amp.
Our latest songs are called Eclipse, Barrio Blahniks, Red Suede Boots and Daddy. Al's written some great country rock so I'm hoping we can apply my When The Boss Went Country, a satire on Springsteen. We're also working up some covers, Tweeter and the Monkey Man, Travelling Wilburys, The Boxer, Simon and Garfunkel, and Refugee Tom Petty.
We all had a big meeting on Saturday and decided to establish a common mission apart from Joogum who wants to be Rich and Famous. We realised we did not want to give up our Lives and would be happy doing lots of gigs and selling some stuff on ITunes, that's the plan for this year anyway.
Let's see.....
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