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.....

Things Get Serious

It's been a great summer for the band. Sadly Lurex's commitments forced her to leave and we are missing our backing vocalist, but Belinda is filling some of the gaps and there is a full replacement on the horizon.

All our gigs went well and we are learning live work as a band.

We did Brighton Bandstand for Busking for Cancer in August. This was our first big public audience and it went extremely well. The day wasn't without disaster, our bassist Julz had to do the whole gig while her husband Dave 'Boogum', the bassist with Dolly Dagger, languished in A&E having come off his motorbike just before the gig. What a trouper she was, it couldn't have been easy.

We also had two videos of the event.

We played a private minifest at Alan Rae's Glass-Tonbury by his organic nursery in Newick, and also provided some entertainment at the Brighton Earthship Open Day.

We're developing new material and have shot the band inserts for our storytelling video of our song: Visitation.

Wynd will play the Hydrant, Brighton on October 13. This is our first proper gig and we are very excited.

For me, the band seems to be finally gelling as a unit, and we are growing in confidence weekly.

We've also been showing up in various combinations to jams and open mics and the material is going down well.

We've applied to be included in an all-women rock Fest in Wales next year and have been invited back to take part in the Summer 2011 Rocking Horse charity event in Brighton which we did in 2009.

We now have a better PA and no longer need the backing tracks but we haven't yet worked on including the FX that go with some of the songs live.

We're still not sure where our performing niche will really lie but we are meeting other musicans and networking all the time.

Wynd now has around 80 members in our Facebook Group and it's nice to have that kind of support.

There's never been a moment when I've considered quitting, taking as my motto: It's not a problem, it's a situation.

And overall, we are having fun, so looking forward to 2011 and whatever it brings.

The Beat Goes On

Synchronicity......just at the point when Al had a computer disaster and lost all our recorded material, the band started to sound like a band without the backing trax. Two finished mixes are still available on Facebook, but we'll probably redo them eventually.

He has retrieved some of it, and we'll probably keep the sound fx bits once we've figured out how to kick them in live, but we don't really need bass and drums on backing trax at all.

We now have a third summer 'gig' a private festie at Alan Rae's place in Newick in July.

We are also looking into just busking a bit around Brighton but really suitable places to play for us are definitely the outdoor gig and the benefit gig for now.

The video still needs shooting, hoping for some live videos and pix from this summer's crop of performances.

I am still working up new material, one new song finished since the last blog, just starting to put some music to a brand new lyric, but teaching Alispark and Joogum the set means we haven't been able to develop many new ones recently but that's ok, rehearsing with the 'new' members raises everyone's game.

I bought a gorgeous new 12-string which will enrich two or three of the songs enormously and I'm getting more confident on the Strat all the time.

Feel more enthusiastic about the band since the rhythm section appeared, the challenge of using backing trax live is really daunting and to be honest the two or three times we've used them, mostly last summer, was stressful, it was so tricky!

Have started also to think about trying to get some gigs on the alternative circuit which would seem to be our natural home, in a few months I plan to apply to the Mind Body Spirit guys for a spot at some of their shows.

Finally, A Rhythm Section!

AliSpark showed up a couple of months ago and has fitted in really well with us, we love her personality her percussion and drumming skills are great, she's using a djembe, a banana shaker, a shimmery tingly wind chimey thingy (what's is called again Ali?) and a Roland electronic kit. We're still using the backing trax as they have FX on them but once she has the whole set down we can strip the drum track off.

Joogum started playing a bit of bass at the electric jam, coached of course by Boogum or Mr Joogum. She got a new bass for her birthday and has been to our first rehearsal to get a feel for what we're doing. I liked her energy immediately, she is practical, down to earth and seems mad keen to learn the instrument, I feel glad she's giving us a try!

With live drums and bass the band can now get rockier and heavier which I will certainly enjoy because the tendency will be to brand us as prog rock or electric folk and that's not What She Wrote!

So, that prompts the question, what ARE we doing?

Well, we've got up at the Kendal jam which Al and Wicca run on a Wednesday and done various configurations of Wynd songs.

There was a hilarious episode at Frank's Lectern jam on AliSpark's birthday where she played Visitation for the first time on a kit drum, it, er, sounded weird, but no matter.

We now have six backing trax and two numbers which do not need backing trax so are ready to deliver about 45 minutes of music, due to the fact that a lot of the songs are pretty long, up to 8min. It's an eclectic band, we can have songs as long as we like! Two of the songs are now fully available on Facebook and the Wynd Group there grows weekly.

Better, warmer weather means that we will be able to film our first Rock Video since all the storyboarding is outside.

We have two gigs so far this summer, one at the Earthship Open Day in Stanmer Park on July 18 and one to raise money for Busking for Cancer at Brighton Bandstand on August 8, can't wait.

Lurex is muttering about various other local outdoor gigs, it seems this is Wynd's destiny, to play outside, I personally am a Leo gal so of course sun on my face, wind in my hair, perfect!

We've also acquired a much bigger PA and some more gear in general, so we will be louder, clearer, and more confident from now on.

Well we've definitely been together for more than a year and feeling smug that while people have come and gone, the core of the band has stayed together. Karen had to withdraw, it's just not viable for her to be in the band but that's ok.

More importantly, we haven't had any problem conflicts.

That's not to say we haven't had disagreements or concerns but so far things have seemed to be resolved pretty easily.

We've set aside a provisional date for our first self promo gig at The Sanctuary, Hove, end of March, more on this nearer the time.

We're trying out a woman drummer, Alison, who we've known about for a while but couldn't contact, she showed up at a jam at The Lectern, Brighton last Sunday so I spoke to her, since then she showed up at the acoustic jam that Scott is running with Al at the Kendal on Wednesdays and played with us, which went well and was fun.

The Portland as a music venue is dead and gone now, sadly, but in a way it's opened things up, it's been replaced by four other jams, the two mentioned above, a new acoustic jam in Shoreham, also on Wednesdays and an intermittent electric jam for Tuesdays and Thursdays which has been happening at the Hove Park Tavern.

This means lots of chances for Wyndgirls to get out and strut our stuff but we can't use the backing trax at most jams so so far we haven't given a Full On Performance!

Meanwhile the recording moves forwards slowly, we now have several finished trax and have just loaded Visitation on to MySpace: www.myspace.com/wyndmusic profile page.

Next task is to try again to find a bass player, especially as we may now have a drummer, but we can still use the backing trax in the meantime.

Where is Wynd going for 2010?

Follow the blog and see because we sure as hell don't know. What we do know is that if we put the same amount of work in this year we should double the outcome.

2009 was the year we came together and formed something to work with.

2010 will be the Year of the Gig hopefully.

WTS!

Long and Wynding etc!

All change again, Sandi had to quit as she's overextended with work and family, we were disappointed but understood and she's going to come to our gigs.

The recording project moves on slowly, we've pretty much finished Butterfly Pillow and made inroads into Holding Back.

Continuing to make connections with new musicians.

We played at Mary's last night as she gave up the running of the Portland, this was sad and the jam sessions have disintegrated, but are either happening elsewhere or starting in a different form down in Portland Road again.

I moved in with Al so we have wall to wall oppportunities to make music in between gourmet cooking and DIY.

I've also been asked to try out with Scott's band, Thunderfrog. Scott is Fiddley's husband so that's convenient.

But Wynd is still my priority and we are now hoping to do our first full blown gig in Brighton in early February which means using all the backing trax and staging, but we're also hoping for a few support acts.

I'm sort of getting used to the idea that we three are always going to be the core of the band and that backing trax are the answer, I guess a rhythm section might not appear until we are ready, in the Buddhist sense so I have relaxed.

Written four or five more songs or bits of songs recently.

This week Fiddley and I are off to Surrey to collect her new electric five-string violin, which will mean she won't have to pick up a viola.

I've also started playing twelve-string guitar, Al has promised I can play his Rickenbacker if I'm a good girl, but I don't wanna be a good girl all the time so I shall just capture it anyway, after all he's commandeered my Strat and my beautiful Crafter Rose Anniversario acoustic.

I'm learning more lead and power chords too.

We tried out the accordionist - or did she try us? on a fairly chaotic afternoon a few weeks ago but that doesn't look like it's happening so Al dusted off his keyboard and midi'd up an accordion for the backing track and the recording of Butterfly Pillow.

We had a long discussion about whether to just combine with the guys but so far we've held off.

Kids parties, one or two drunken nights and lots of girly emails are continuing to bond us up and now all of us are seeing serious possibilities.

Fiddley and I are hoping to do some Xmas busking meanwhile and we'll continue to show up at the jams doing our stuff, and any stuff we fancy.

Well, the band is still together after almost a year and we haven't had one fight!

On Halloween, the four witches took to the stage at the Portland Rock Bar and did two numbers, breaking the hex for Lurex which was: can I get up in front of a load of judgmental blokes and survive?

She more than survived, not sure I did as I'm now having to play guitar all the time.

Plus Al is revising my guitar playing which is exhilarating AND frustrating at the same time of course.

I wrote some more songs and started putting new chords to some of the older ones, meanwhile we have full recordings of Visitation, Frida, Little Too Rock and Roll and almost Butterfly Pillow.

Still storyboarding the video but at least we've shot some scenics now.

Next move will be to put on our own gig at a suitable venue in Brighton somewhere.

Fiddley came back from the US well rested and is now talking about getting an electric cello so we're going violin-shopping this week which will be big fun.

Meanwhile Sandi is getting more and more confident with the percussion, she is a real asset to the band as she has great stage presence, and is very brave indeed!

Still not ready to put anything on MySpace or ITunes but I think Wynd deserves slow development, it's not like we're on the X Factor.

My songwriting has changed and evolved so much this year, I realised that I've written 59 songs altogether, most of them in the last 12 months.

Before that, I think I wrote ten my whole life.

I'm hoping the others will begin to come up with ideas, but, let's get the existing show on the road first, because gigging is where it's at for any band so we just have to get out there.

Oh, and the judgmental men? Well, whatever guys. We were the only womens' band there and the only original band so, everything else is chopped liver.....