"That's not the blues"

There's really only one thing better than a plan coming together, and that's when there isn't really a plan but it still turns into something rather lovely. That was very much the case on Saturday; the recording of Matt Corrall's harmonica-led album. To say we had very little idea of what we were actually going to record was understatement, the rehearsal on Wednesday night (which only featured half the band) was good fun - but let's face it, it was just a jam with very little structure. Having lost a bassist during the week, we called around and, at stupidly short notice (Friday afternoon) were lucky enough to secure the services of Mr. Marcus Hood. But there was still no set agenda - apart from to record a whole album, live, in the space of 8 hours, that showcases the impeccable harmonica playing of the boy Corrall. Naturally, our plans leant towards simple 12 bar blues, because you don't need to rehearse that at all. But Saturday sooned turned into something all the more brilliant, if I may be so arrogant to suggest such a thing without listening to the final mixes. My old chum Marto Randle was our engineer for the day, Matt had a case full of harmonicas, Kerry (Dear Old Blighty) was in genius mode, Claudia McKenzie from The Winter Kings guested on bass for 2 hours, Marcus was generally very chatty, I drank lots of caffeine, and all in all great things were created. Maybe it was because Matt, Marcus and myself had appalling hangovers (well, me and Matt did, Marcus really should of done if he didn't) following our "couple of beers" on Friday night to discuss the project. Or maybe, just maybe, it's because you can lock 6 above average musicians in a small room in Huntingdon for 8 hours and it's either a case of creating mass tune-age, or sitting in silence. Whatever it was, we're very proud of the project - 12 songs nailed, fusing very different genres, from psychedelic rock to good old fashioned piano-led New Orleans jazz. Claudia, a blues bassist by trade, was very quick to say "that's not the blues" on a couple of occasions, but none of us had a problem with that. What we've created will never rip the charts apart, but would certainly serve as a fascinating instrumental soundtrack to an eerie movie, and it's a credit to Matt's playing that I was never bored with the noises he was creating, despite being limited to about 20 mouth organs. That twinkly keyboard song Kerry had up his sleeve that we recorded right at the end was nothing short of beautiful, if you're a Guillemots fan...

Otherwise, a nice enough weekend. Last night Rob Toulson's party in Cambridge was a joy to attend, particularly the bongo and didgeridoo jam with Bill 'The Legend' Campbell. Today saw 'Bruno' in the cinema; the more I think about it the more I like it, at the time though I was too distracted by cringing, in a being entertained way.

I actually have a day off work tomorrow, I just fancied some sleep as I don't seem to get much these days. If the sleep thing doesn't work, I'm gonna write a masterpiece instead, we'll see. I think I'm acting arrogant over the last few days and I'm not sure why, probably because I'm excited about things generally. If I tell people my arrogance is merely because I'm insecure, that makes it okay, yeah?