Blog: First Class

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I headed on up to LEICESTER last night, and i travelled FIRST CLASS. Apparently it's all because of Network Rail being - GIRD yourself for a shock - utterly incompentent and unable to provide timetables of WORKS, so there's no cheap tickets available to pre-book on any trains, THUS the cheapest i could get was an Apex First Class ticket. I don't understand it either, but i was quite excited at the prospect, having only travelled in this way once many years ago. It was, i must say, Quite Good - you got free tea and coffee, like you always do on Midland Mainline, but in a PROPER CUP, and also free orange juice, biscuits, and WINE! FREE BOOZE! The seats were also much nicer, but i have to confess i found it all a little uncomfortable, as I was never sure whether that was IT, or whether someone'd be coming along to offer me more THINGS. I think this is the big CLASS DIFFERENCE - POSH people never worry about this, they always think there's going to be more THINGS coming to them as soon as they want them, as they EXPECT other people to SERVE them, whereas people like me DON'T. HENCE i get nervous in the sort of Restaurant where they take the wine AWAY and pour for you (i hate it when they do that) and tend to PANIC when i can't see anyone to ask for the BILL from. ALSO HENCE Posh people seem to spend most of their life being IRATE in shops because the person behind the counter DOESN'T think that they the consumer are the be all and end all of EXISTENCE.

ANYWAY, we reached Leicester, I had some CHIPS, and then popped to the Rainbow & Dove to wait for Tom to arrive. This was a pub i used to drink in YEARS ago when i was a student. It was a Proper Real Ale Pub, and also a proper Old People's Pub of the sort you don't seem to get anymore, where you have to WORK to be said hello to, and YOUNG PEOPLE are never even SPOKEN to... or maybe it's just that I'm one of the old people now who get wound up by the bunch of students in the corner talking to loudly. WHATEVER it was a pub i loved, and I was looking forward to a PINT. Imagine my horror when i discovered the whole place had been GUTTED, and not only had they removed the comfy old BOOTHS and smelly tables, but also the BEER PUMPS! There was no proper BEER at ALL! Even on the TAPS!

Staggered, i wondered down the road to the Ale Waggon, where The Regulars were openly mocking the opinions of The Landlord, and all was WELL. Tom arrived, we DISCUSSED items, and headed to the studio, bumping into Emma on the way, and discovering Mr Reverb ENSCONCED when we got there. Have I said WHY we were doing this? It was all to finish off the demoes we started a couple of months ago - we were supposed to have been in last month, but it got cancelled at the last minute due to the people who BOOK stuff at the studio not being able to do so properly. Last night was nearly cancelled for the same reason, as Kev was TEACHING, but he GALLANTLY came in afterwards, so that it was already 9pm by the time we started.

The lovely thing about doing recordings is that I get to hear what Tom and Emma are doing. Generally i try to concentrate on my OWN bits, especially the singing as otherwise i get all distracted, and i always hear The Rhythm Section because it's hard not to, but it's always a SURPRISE to find out what the other two have been up to. I was surprised and EXCITED this time, because what they had been up to was DEAD GOOD.

This whole "Learning The Songs" plan is not as INSANELY LUDICROUS as it may first have seemed, as both Tom and Emma had LOTS of BITS, and did pretty much the LOT in one take. My special favourite BITS are Emma's HARMONY singing throughout "Breaks In The Journey", when she sings "It makes life EASY" in "Quality Of Life Enhancement Device" (as i'd never realised she was doing it), Tom's DESCENDING in the third verse of "The Gay Train" and his Psychadelic COUNTRY PLAYING in "Lesson Of The Smiths". Actually, it was all dead good - we recorded extra bits for them both on the above plus "Never Going Back To Aldi's" and "The Fight For History", then Kev LIGHT SPEED mixed them, plus the BARE BONES of "Zipcodes" and "Girlfriend Alarmed" which we'd also done before. It was half past midnight by the time we finished, but I believe it was worth it, as it's all sounding PRETTY DARN GOOD to me today.

So there we go - 8 songs DEMOED, it's like being in a proper band!

posted 9/3/2005 by MJ Hibbett

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