Pre-Gig Practice

Present: Ad, Fea, Gi, Tom

A quiet time in the Valley. We were the only band playing tonight, even the Taxi firm opposite seemed a little quiet this evening. All the better for the band to use this time to prepare for the end of the month gig at Woolfire Festival. Oh yeah, and the wedding in September that we're supposed to be doing. Jeremy Irons' neice's wedding.

Of course he'll be there.

Tom had a list of songs for us to practice. Always tricky without the cues from the lead singer but Ad and Fea did a good enough job of sorts to get through the evening. Interesting to hear the 'off the top of the head' words used when the actual lyrics aren't remembered.

We went through the songs again in batches of three.

Post Practice Pint Topics of Conversation: Radio 4. Smoking in front of parents. Poor memory. Short-sightness plus long-sightedness equals good-sightedness. Trevor MacDonald's infamous blooper and that it wasn't about Josie Lawrence's attempted murder. Because Josie Lawrence is a comedienne. Poor memory. Dungeoness. Deal. The Evolution of the B-Side. Gi's theory on the shape of table that makes the best buffet's at gigs - not ones that are stuffed in the corner [clogs up the flow of food-gatherers] but the inverse of that. Tom tries to describe a chevron shaped situation. And poor memory.

Recording Somersaults and Love the Way

Present: Ad, Eg, Tom

Guest Musicians: Ed, Ben

Ed graced the boys with his presence and produced some rather superb Sax work on 'Somersaults' with Tom conducting.

Meanwhile Ad and Eg fiddled with 'Love the Way' in a practice room.

Recorded 'Love the Way' with Ben on bass, Ad on ukulele and on Ed's banjo ukulele. Tom plonked about on what Ben had been informed by its maker as a 'belaphone'? We thought is was a marimba or glockenspiel.

A wooden xylophone at any rate.

Tom wanted more tracks again.

Recording went on till way past midnight as more and more tracks were used up on impulsive instrumental and vocal harmony inspirations. Reassuringly, this will keep the band busy for months to come during which they shall be stripping out everything they whimsically crammed in.

Latest Betting

Tom to try a new slightly different harmony [5-1]

Eg to re-record flat vocals [6-2]

Gi to want to beatbox the bridge [1,000-1]

Fea to ignore the need for input by talking about his boiler/job [evens]

Ad to be the one to write the blog post [betting suspended]

Practice

Present: Ad, Fea, Tom

First time practice after Ad's back operation and Fea's school inspection.  Both events refusing to inspire the mining of any decent seams of conversation. 

A-Ha's 'Take on Me' successfully given an outing, while two new potential songs were jammed into existence.

Post Practice Pint Topics of Conversation: 

Speed limits, school inspection, mobile phones [Tom's new whizzy courtesy phone Vs Fea's faithful original he bought in 1974 - which he still doesn't know how to use].

The Horrible Harmonies Episode

A new Loopy Popcast has been released and is available here.

It includes the Edgar Interview and some exclusive recordings; a ukulele special and a Rihanna cover among them.

You'll also hear the latest Loopy News and Loopy Before Loopy.

Gig: Philly's Phortieth, Winchester Rugby Club

Venue: Winchester Rugby Club, Nun's Road, Winchester

Present: All

Directions, directions, directions. Down the back of a side street after a private road, behind some mobile units, next to a cricket pitch that you can't see.

We give thanks for mobile phones.

No problems for Eg though. Honest.

Bex nearly has to choose which band member she'd rather be with than her own beloved Tom. She asked to see our wallets. Tom would have won that little contest anyway.

With a healthy supply of cheese, pasta, sausage rolls, bread and lentils, a rating of 8 Gi's were happily awarded to the Buffet by the most senior of Rayner brothers while the barmaid was possibly awarded 9 Fea's. The pre-performance pint topics of conversation included the fact that Tom can't remember how much we're getting for the gig; the number of GCE's and CSE's we achieved with Ad casually mentioning he took his Maths a year early; whether to push for Tom and Bex to get married; not practising on a Tuesday.

And then on to what was quite probably the most fluid set Loopy have ever had the opportunity to chop and change. Well, the preliminary observations of the arriving audience seemed to shake Eg's confidence in his carefully constructed set list.

The second set was preceded by a rousing speech from Blair, Philly's partner, thanking everyone and requesting much dancing from the crowd. We kick it off with Philly's "special request" 'Saw Her Standing There'.

The last two songs prove a muscle spasm too far for Ad's back as he plays out the set rammed up against a storage cupboard door.

Eg, Gi and Tom are recognised for packing up.


Set
Is She Really Going Out With Him?
It's All About You
So Lonely
.
.
Some Summer's Day
Somersaults
Ordinary Life
Too Late
.
.
Wonderwall
.
.
Town Called Malice
I'm A Believer