Recording with Flaming June

Good weekend that. On Friday evening went to a charity event in aid of the Teenage Cancer Trust that was organised by some work friends - top evening all round with excellent tunes from The Judge Reinholds, The Travis Waltons, Esquilito Foundation and Richard Eccelestone - all of them top notch. Saturday evening went to catch Helen Arney do her brilliant thing at the Cambridge Science Festival for her scientific comedy event, 'Festival Of The Spoken Word' which was rather excellent.

Today though I finally got to be creative for the first time in about 4 days, back in the studio - this time with Flaming June. A great session, back at Half Ton (where I have previously recorded with Losers, Our Painted Nature, Eureka Stockade, Alighting, Ethan Ash and Under The Streetlamp...as you can tell, I like that place very much) with the ever fantastic Rob Toulson. Never seen such a complex mic set-up on a pair of congas before, but that's the kind of professionalism we're dealing with here. I had to leave at 5pm with things in full flow - all percussion takes for the 4 tracks nailed fairly early on, with Louise, Clare and Steve all starting to add their magic to it. Not sure where we are with it now, but can't wait to hear it - in particular 'The Boy I Knew Before I Met You' which was sounding particularly good. Hopefully we'll get the release out there soon, Mr. Toulson seems to have done a fine job in capturing our live vibe whilst making it sound polished at the same time.

Had to dash as I was asked to be a judge at the first ever Inter-University Drama Festival. My fellow judges were acclaimed playwright Fraser Grace, Tim - who is the chairman of BAFTA, and David who is the Arts Editor for The Independent newspaper. Predictably, I felt a little uncomfortable at first in such esteemed company, scruffy old me with bad posture and a shaving rash. But as the evening progressed I enjoyed it thoroughly - I've never been made to feel so welcome anywhere before as I did tonight, capped off by being given an expensive bottle of red as a thank you, such lovely people. I'll even go as far as to say I felt comfortable (apart from the bit when I had to go on stage in front of a packed ADC theatre audience to explain my thoughts on how the Cambridge entry was written - my heart was going a bit fast then...), and as the evening progressed I even started to feel that maybe it was right I was on that panel - maybe doing all these things that I do does make me somebody who has an opinion that matters. Not that it's about me of course - it was about the plays, with superb entries from Cambridge, Bristol and Oxford Universities, it clearly meant a lot to everyone involved. Bristol won by the way.