Keeping busy 2

I've been busy making videos of some of my old songs. You can find them on my You Tube channel. 

Mark Bryan, the drummer from Conspiracy, a band that we set up together back in 1977 recently found a couple of audio clips of our band. 

They were recorded on a ghetto blaster back in 1981. 

 I made up this video using some of the photos of the version of the group that were playing that night.

Keeping busy during lockdown 1

Just over a year ago I decided to put myself into quarantine in order to avoid getting the cough that has plagued me every winter for the last fifteen years. 

The winter of 2018/2019 was particularly bad. I coughed non-stop for six months and I didn't want it to happen again. 

I've been wanting to do a one-man show for the last few years but each year th cough put paid to it. This year was going to be different. I booked the 40 seat Bonkers Playhouse in Kettering and started advertising. Proceeds were to go towards the local hospice. 

All was going well. The show timed at just shy of two hours plus interval. Then the lockdown began- three days before the show was to take place. 

So what did I do when the regular pubs, open mikes and other musical events all closed? T

hat's what this blog is going to be all about.

RIP the DCB

Alas all good things must come to an end and so it was with the DCB.  Chris was the first to leave. His style of playing the cajon played havoc with his hands and he left us in 2013 to concentrate on his other band, an excellent three piece called Scoria Sky.

We found a worthy replacement in Rai Clews. He was the go-to cajon player for my recording projects for the next four or five years.

 

 

As 2013 turned into 2014 the gigs began to dry up. Many of our pub gigs stopped having bands and Dave Walker's other music commitments meant that he wasn't always available. In the end we decided to call it a day. It was great fun while lasted.

Which just left Vince and me. We carried on working as a duo and then formed a new band to play our versions of Scottish and other celtic songs and tunes. We enlisted a lovely singer called Fiona and ace cajon player Rai to form The Tartan Painters.

 

 

Hard Times

This album was almost completed on time!

We decided to spend the months of July and August recording the album, with the intention of  getting it manufactured when we went on our summer break at the end of August.

Chris and I set down the basic rhythms tracks for each song, which I then built up into the full recording by layering guitars, mandolins, voices and fretless bass. I'm pleased with how smoothly the project went, but when I listened to the first master I realised that I'd missed a couple of instruments off. Nothing that the untrained ear wouldn't notice, but we noticed and that had to be changed. So we missed our first deadline.

We finally sent the master copy and artwork off in mid-November and copies are now winging their way to radio stations and magazines across the UK. This is my first release in "digipack" format and I think it looks great (and sounds great too!) It will be available on iTunes etc just before Christmas.

Here's the back cover

Other People's Greatest Hits

And why not?

The Eagles' first UK album was their greatest hits album. So I thought- why don't we call our first album our greatest hits?  One problem- we don't have any hits, great or not so great, so I thought- why not release an album of other people's greatest hits?

Genius.

Here's the front cover image

And here's the back cover with the track listing

Band update

It's been a while since my last post on here so I thought I'd update on what's been happening (or not happening)

We finally released the album and it sounds great. 13 tracks of DCB skiffle bliss (or whatever you want to call it) However it has not been easy getting gigs for the band in the last year. Most bookings tend to be at the weekend and our bass player's main band takes precedent for his services, so trying to find a date when everyone is available has been problematic. We've decided to limit the Dave Clemo Band's appearances for the forseeable future.
The band (now known as the DCB) will play a few shows in our hometown during 2014, mostly on Friday nights, leaving Saturday nights free for our other projects, more of which later.
Earlier this year I recorded ten tracks for Vince's solo album and we played a number of shows getting the material ready to record. The album will be called "Tartan Paint" and features Vince singing and playing mostly traditional Scottish folk tunes, plus one self penned track. We played some shows in Corby, which has a large expat population and we go down really well there, so we'll be playing a few shows as The Tartan Painters during 2014.
Dave Walker is continuing to play in a number of bands and is also busy recording tracks. I'm looking forward to hearing them.
Back in May I had a phone call asking if I could play the Whitby Gospel Music Convention and very short notice, so I went up and played a set of songs that they hadn't heard before and that has given me some ideas for a second Gospel Album that may be recorded next year.
I also had an invite (out of the blue) to play a gospel music festival in Norway and Chris and I went over in November and played three shows in all. Our music was well received and who knows, we may get another invite in the future.
Then earlier this year I gave some of our CDs to a friend to review, and his positive comments encouraged me to embark on my third studio recording in as many years. I've just released an album of original songs and will be spending most of my time and energy promoting it during 2014.

So while the DCB is taking a back seat, we will still be busy on our own projects and will be getting together from time to time to entertain you all with our 21st Century Skiffle

Two weeks to go

We finished recording the tracks for our album "Other People's Greatest Hits" back in June. Since then I've been editing and mixing the thirteen tracks and refining the sleeve design, etc. We set a number of deadlines along the way, and it has always seemed that we were two weeks away from completing the project. Well, it's now mid November and I can say with confidence that we are about two weeks away from completion. Still two weeks away....? Every time I achieved a mix that I was satisfied with we took it and played it on various players around and about and there was something wrong. Too bassy, not bassy enough, too muddy, too toppy.... Eventually we decided that the only way forward was to look at the studio itself and we have stripped it out and rebuilt it with the control desk at the other end of the studio. We're looked at every aspect of the layout and I can at last say that the mixes are much better. So much so, that I think we're about two weeks away from completion! Seriously, the tracks sound really good.