Chip and I head off on Sunday with my friend David Ford for what will be a 2 week jaunt around England and Scotland!

So, there’s this line in Brixton Leaves that has been causing me some concern. The line is in a section in which I try and convey my frustration and anger at the bigotry and narrow mindedness of my home city. It reads "home – a distant drumlin, with it’s ‘no retreat' and 'our time has come’ well fuck those fifes and damn those drums.” I am unsure if I should include the ‘fuck.’ It’s not that I don’t swear at times it’s more I don’t want it to exclude some people from getting the heart of the song. I guess I am also thinking of my family and my kids who will no doubt hear it. I have tried lots of other options and there just doesn’t seem to be a line that delivers the same intensity which that word conveys.

So, I am thinking to leave it in. For those who have a problem with that I am happy to talk further.

It’s the second last day of recording and we are back in Brixton. There are glorious strings being recorded in the live room next to me and I feel like I am at the recording of a film soundtrack or something. Dave stayed up all night scoring the parts which I am much impressed with! Dave and I have been staying at the house of a friend of his from Eastbourne called Charlie Sutcliffe. He’s the guy who did the drawings for the comic which was included in the 78rpm version of ‘Freewheel.’ His flat is a treasure trove of old wooden nic-nacs he has found in junk shops or semi-functional sculptures he has created himself. Also hidden behind coat-hangers and babushka dolls are some of his amazing paintings he is gradually putting together for an exhibition.

We have had a couple of cool evenings there talking with him and his girlfriend Erika who plays keyboards for an Independiente band – White Rose Movement. Also on a day off yesterday, I went into town and watched A Cock and Bull Story which was strange but enjoyable. Strange in that it ended and it felt like it hadn’t really started. In fact I had been there for about an hour and a half. There are some really funny moments in it usually featuring Rob Brydon but I think I will need to read the novel to appreciate the skill that was involved in portraying the heart of the novel through the dialogue and relationships between the actors.

On a day off after spending 3 days in Cullybacky, Northern Ireland recording the next leg of the album. The studio is set in the country across the garden from the owner's house. Chickens are running around on the grass and we feel like we are a million miles from anywhere. The past few days have seen a steady stream of great players coming through the studio - Rea Curran on trumpet and vocals, Kevin Murphy on cello, Chris Day on trombone and Denis on tuba! Gordie Ashbridge has been hanging out too taking some photos which we will try and put up on the blog soon. We have also had visits from John Willis, steve the badger and the mighty Serge Archibald III is crashing over for a few days too! The songs feel like they are beginning to come together which is always reassuring. The overall sound is sitting somewhere between songs from the Godfather musical and an evening with Woody Allen's dixieland band! Mmmmm..... interesting! But in a good way of course! Something keeping us going is knowing that the desk we are recording on (an SSL for those who care) was the desk used for recording the first Band Aid single!

Tim Millen is hopefully joining us for a couple of days to add some accordion and some other keys ideas. There are a load of really great Keyboard instruments including a Mini-Moog, a Wurlitzer, a Fender Rhodes, a Yamaha baby grand, a Hammond organ.... can't wait to get started on some of those! Well, I am off to enjoy my day off.... talk soon....

Oh, Adventures in Gramophone got nominated for the Choice Music Award in Dublin. You can read about the award and even vote, see below!



Duke Special has been nominated for the Choice Music Prize: http://www.todayfm.com/Article.asp?id=162655

It's a new Irish award based on the Mercury Music Prize.
http://www.choicemusicprize.com/

We have reached day 4 here in Brixton but it actually feels a lot longer. The outside world seems to disappear for the most part and an endless stream of cups of tea and chocolate make the world we are inhabiting all the more wide awake! Who's here? Well at the moment Paul (producer and front man of the Amazing Pilots) and Dave (Co-producer) are recording big bass drum with Chip Bailey in the room next door. I am writing this on the computer which for now is placed on top of a table football game in the kitchen (ever kitchen should have one!). Dean who works at the studio which, incidentally is the Dairy in Brixton, is surfing various my space suits on aonther computer and I suspect, about to feed us more tea!

We have started 15 songs, most of which will be on the album we are recording. Phil Wilkinson left earlier today having played drums on the tracks and Tim Harries departed the day before having played some fine upright bass. We have covered a lot of ground in a short time so I am feeling really excited about twhat we are going to produce!

Callers at the studio have included Rachel and Gabby, the fairer halves of Paul and Phil, Chairman Nelson, the Hales brothers and various Dairy staff. It feels particulalry right that we should be recording Brixton leaves here, although I really wish I had written a song about Barbados. So the track listing to date:

Brixton Leaves
Salvation Tambourine
Scarlett
No cover up
Ballad of a broken man
Slip of a girl
Freewheel
Beat me like a drum
Feet in the sky
Everybody wants a little something
Portrait
Something might happen
Glimmer girl
This could be my last day
Last night I nearly died

as you realise there are a number of older songs here that have been on a previous recording. We hope that we can get a better version of these to include on this album. It feels like this one might be heard by a few more people so we felt it was important to have these songs heard. I hope you don't mind.......

I am also hoping to record lots of little songs and stuff to have available to you soon and also a couple of songs which we haven't started yet, like Soft Spot. Well, my tea is poured and awaiting my attention. Day off tomorrow and then back at it on Monday. Talk soon....