...too busy to blog

....it's been a few days ....there's been so much going on ...so here it is

* the weekend of disaster *
...it started friday. we were off to craster with the miller's. they were finishing work early and going up to get the caravan pitched and the awning up.... so imagine our surprise when at 5.30 they phoned to tell us they were a good hour from being ready to leave ...they like been late the miller's! (well to be fair to chris, lynne likes to be late ;-)). concern was expressed that by the time we got there it would be dark and we need to erect the awning so we could erect the awning annexe which was where me 'n' christine were sleeping. "we'll just shine the car lights on the side of the caravan", i said, "let's go for it! i love an adventure", i said! can you see where this is going? well, you'd be wrong becaause by 10 we had the caravan pitched and the awning up and were drinking red wine... all was well.... well,,, except we'd forgotten the guide ropes! (or is it guy ropes - well the internet says.... "Guy ropes = Used to stabilise tall structures like radio transmitters or ship masts. Guide ropes = Used to guide a load bearing rope" ....still none the wiser) ...anyway they were forgotten.

we climbed into bed and were awoken a couple of times by the beautiful sound of heavy rain on canvas. yes, honestly, i do like this. luke woke up and came out of the caravan and into the tent annexe at about 7 and we had a nice cuddle and chat in bed......... and then.... the most almighty crash.... i slowly unzipped the inner chamber of the tent to be greeted by a scene of chaos ....water pooling on the roof of the awning and a lack of guide/guy ropes (we think) had led to and incredible collapse of the whole structure.... and i kid you not, every metal pole was bent and disfigured beyond saving ...quite distressing! the irony was that we only put the thing up in the dark and late because we thought the small beds in the caravan would be bit uncomfortable for me and christine. left with no option but to sleep in them on saturday night we discovered they were absolutely fine!!!

....disaster two ...we waved chris off on the bus back to newcastle to go to the football match (after arriving for the train to find they were all cancelled due to track works). what a debacle it was! chris nearly ended up on the bus to edinburgh through poor info and the 40 seater bus failed miserably to accomodate the 60 passengers. well done rail company. anyway, off he went only to phone us an hour later to tell us he had the caravan keys in his pocket!!! oh how we laughed!!..... or couple of hours in seahouses was extended to 6 hours!! but to be fair we had a great time; fish and chips, slot machines, crazy golf, tacky shops.

once we'd got chris off the bus we headed back and in the dark and cold we barbecued ...and it was beautiful.... the majesty of the stars was simply breath taking and incredible. the next day asaw a walk to the beautiful village of craster and then home.


....and then came sunday and rehearsing ...and them came monday and recording ...2wiseguys in the studio with pete at the helm. pete arrived with thousands of pounds (i kid you not) of microphones and his firewire 8 channel soundcard. all plugged up into the mac running ableton live and we were ready to record..... at one point rouleau was perched on a chair on top of two overturned speakers to get the right mic'ing on his cajon! great fun. 8 mics pointing at one guitar and a perscussion set up! but what a sound! the final product us going to sound immense. myself and karl executed the music very very well. the songs are very new and playing them without the vocals was challenging but we are professional as ever! we ate veagn food and drank red wine and then got onto the vocal. we worried more about capturing performance rather than perfection and we did very well (3 mics pointing at me to capture the up close vocal and the room dynamic). ableton and pete's skill came into it's own with a few drop ins and edits and we had a finished raw take of three songs, "smile", "swimming/drowning", and "sorry to tell you". we retired to bed at 1.30 on tuesday morning after a special treat of some awesome tracks from the yet to be released vessles album.... very tasty, very very tasty! pete is now off to mix a final product and we'll be coming to a bar near you soon!

....more recording shenanigans on sunday! tremendous!