Wednesday 7 October 2009

Practice

Present: Ad, Eg, Tom

Venue: Valley Studios

Worked on the new songs and deliberated over the logistics of rehearsing with new part-time drummer, Dom. And the gig at the end of the month.

Eg produces USB stick with band photos and footage from the A34 Schools tour. Ad wrestles it off him.

The CDs of the album will be physically available later this month. Actual release is to be scheduled with iTunes availability.

Post-Practice Pub Prattle: Painful foot massages; flying long haul in economy seats; looking for new jobs; the 1970s father on average spent 20 minutes a week with their children compared with 2 hours today; mobile phones for children; the disastrous Dingwalls gig; the website; Gi's son's new band - The Dead Jerichos.

Wednesday 30 September 2009

Practice

Present: Ad, Fea, Tom

Venue: Valley Studios

A three person rehearsal developing and practising the new songs for the next album. Ad's Italian Job story is long and boring while Tom continues as Ben's tobacco mule.

Post Practice Pint Prattle: The Friday gig; the house viewing hobby of Fea; Tom's searching for a new house...

Wednesday 2 September 2009

A Miniature Version of the Album Cover for Corrections

Present: Ad, Eg, Fea, Tom

Venue: Valley Studios, Winchester

Ad arrived early and added a backing track to 'Love the Way' before getting Ben to master it. All in preparation for the album master disc to be sent off for pressing.

Tom brings a miniature of the mocked up album cover. The rest of the boys think it's because he wants to make it really difficult for them to spot any mistakes.

That done, red ink all over the shop, the loopy boys went through some new songs with an eye on the next recordings. 'The Sky Above My House', 'Sparkle and Shine', 'You Are The One', 'Lie Detectives','Gallery of You', 'Wild End', 'Whatever Happened to Sunday'...

The landlord of the Willow Tree welcomes us with a "Where have you boys been all summer?"

Post-Practice Pint Prattle: Fea reckons that Angelina Jolie is quite an attractive woman, Ad points out that she looks a bit like her Dad; there's a potential gig in Octobe; Fea repeats a story we've all heard before; planning the Loopy Christmas do; band money; Ad's Italian Job; Duty free tobacco

Friday 10 July 2009

Schools Tour

Present: Ad, Eg, Fea, Tom

Venues: Stanmore Primary School, Winchester; Winchcombe Primary School, Newbury; Hagbourne Primary School, Hagbourne; Rehearsal Studios, Newbury

An early start for a gig saw the band turn up at Stanmore School for 0900hrs. The boys made their way straight to the assembly hall while teachers made cups of tea and coffee as a welcome. There they hung around for the children to file in before being introduced to the school. The rapturous and enthusiastic applause was a bit of a surprise, but set the boys up for the rest of the day. Though it was very worrying to hear, and quite difficult to play through, some very out-of-time clapping by a few hundred children.

Oh, and by the way kids, no. It's not a violin, it's a ukulele.



For the next venue [Felix's school] Dominic joined up with the show to play drums. The band set up with plenty of space and when the children came in and settled Fea turned the whole show into a lesson of music and of co-operation. Nice. As an example of how awful not cooperating can be, he [seemingly off the cuff] asked each band member at a time to play a song that was different from what any of the others were playing. The cacophony got the point across before the set was embarked upon.

The children were so excited they were becoming 'unsettled' and the teachers who were sitting next to their classes, down the sides of the hall, were often making incursions into the crowd to get variously excited kids to sit down properly and behave.

The applause and cheering after each song was loud, appreciative and uplifting. It was as if Loopy were a proper pop band doing a proper gig to proper fans. Not that any of the band members would have admitted this, of course.



And onto Hagbourne. Eg's wife Shelley's school. Again, a similar reaction to each and every song. There was one kid who sat in the middle of the crowd with an amazing hair do. Like a white man's afro. One little boy came up to Tom afterwards and started talking 'Guitars'. One girl came up to Ad and looked up at him to ask if he was Scottish.

Not all the children in the front rows enjoyed the experience all of the time [front left].



The day ended with a rehearsal at Uprising Studios, Newbury - in preparation for the Gig at the Bear. Every one tired, exhausted and realising they couldn't possibly be a proper band doing proper tours.





Wednesday 8 July 2009

Final Practice before the Schools Tour

Present: Ad, Eg, Fea, Tom and Dom

Venue: Uprising Studios, Boundary Road, Newbury

Ran through the songs to be performed at the three schools this coming Friday. All written on the lovely, fresh-smelling whiteboard. Using the pens with the unloseable caps.

Dom bought the boys a can of pop each during the break, seeing as they had behaved themselves so well.

Eg went home to write reports. Dom left at the same time. Ad, Fea and Tom went to a local pub for their post-Practice pint. They talked about the album cover; the arrangements for Friday's giglettes; Loopy-influenced nostalgia for the WAGs and Ad using North Moreton's The Bear as a kind of launch party venue. Tasteless.