Recording: Phoebe joins her Dad

Present: Ad, Eg, Fea, Gi, Tom and special guest, Phoebe, Eg's daughter.

Recording can be really boring when you're a 13 year old Loopy groupie as the beautiful Phoebe Rayner was to discover this evening. It was either that or an evening being babysat by the grandfather. And we can all see the appeal of choosing the recording studio with Dad over that. So thank the lord for Nintendo DS, the teen pacifier.

And who could blame poor Phoebe as the only other entertainment on offer was watching Uncle Ad and Uncle Fea go into one recording booth while Uncle Gi was in his own with the drums. Eg was providing the guide vocals via microphone from within the control room where Phoebe and Uncle Tom twiddled fingers.

The priority was to come away from this session with the drums recorded, but Ad and Fea weren't exactly making the job easy for Gi. Neither of them seemed to be at the top of their game with Ad forgetting how the songs were structured and Fea playing, well, really badly.

Fea had to be forcibly removed from the studio and Tom had to be asked to not try out his backing vocals during the recording. His presence eventually being employed to silently conduct Ad through 'Secrets & Lies'.

Eventually managed to come away with drum and dodgy bass for 'Wild End', '21', 'Secrets & Lies' and 'Hearts Pumping'.

Eg tried to use his learned Management Tools to diffuse the potential stress of the situation by requesting we record a simple, and inevitably slick, version of the old Loopy classic, 'Someone'.

Which we did.

But it didn't.

Interesting to see how a bored teenager and a tired and frustrated drummer show remarkably parallel behavioural deterioration patterns.

Open track surgery had to be performed by Dr Ben in a few places. [Cheap] beer provided by Ad.

Job done.

"I want to go home"

Practice: Pre-Recording

Present: Ad, Fea, Tom

Gi not present due to an interview the next day, Eg not present due to him needing to wear a tie in another foreign country.

Songs were practised with a view to recording them next week. 2 new songs jammed into a better shape. Work done on Secrets and Lies, Gallery of You, 21, Wild End, Sparkle, Take On Me, Hearts Pumping.

Post-Practice Pint Topics of Conversation: Job Interviews, Fea's new word that he almost doesn't know how to pronounce - it means being a headmaster when you're not a headmaster. The releasing of small mini-albums being better than traditional ones. Tom on Jonathan Ross's Radio Show on Saturday. Lots of website hits. He urges the others to do the same.

Full Practice

Present: Ad, Eg, Fea, Gi, Tom

Fea turned up in his £10 suit that he wears for work and Tom had to read out the 'Thank You' note from the Bride of the wedding from the previous gig to each of us as we turned up.

Hearts Pumping, Secrets and Lies, Gallery of You, Take On Me, 21, Wild End.

Fea learns the correct way to pronounce 'Flautist',

Post-Practice Pint: Much self-congratulatory back-slapping over the last gig's conditions with which the band marvellously coped. Gigs from the past; St Cross College, The Jericho Tavern. How many tracks make an Album as opposed to an E.P. Eg thinks 7. This Year's Band Christmas Do. The blog being A Good Thing. The Sziget Hungarian Festival next year where Tom will try and get us a slot. New covers to do. WOrking 9 till 5 and Morning Train being particularly good ones.

The Jeremy Irons Gig

Venue: Barn, in the middle of nowhere somewhere perhaps around Winchester.

Well, it was when Tom confessed that it wasn't actually Jeremy Irons's Niece that was to marry, it was his Step-Niece, if there is such a thing. So, no, Jeremy was not there. Everyone booed Tom.

The Sound's the Limit

Now in the past, the band has played venues with sound limiters. Where once the noise levels have reached a certain point the power for the band cuts out. Usually, these sound limiters come in the form of a small 'traffic light' box in the roof or on the wall. Once it hits red, you know you have a few seconds before the power will be cut off. Well, at this venue the power cut off without warning. All of the time. The limiter was set to 60dB. Even the bride apologised to the band.

The rest of the evening was spent with the amps sometimes being off, sometimes being on but the Loopy show carried on regardless. Gi's drumming could be heard throughout and the crowd were drunk enough to just sing along and not really notice that our amps had stopped working every now and then.

Girls who suddenly think it's a Karaoke

And talking of drunk crowds. Ad had to suffer, yet again, a determined stage 'presence' grabbing at his microphone. This time Eg had his hands full too with another one. But she wasn't as drunk. And neither was she an oddly shaped Irish girl [or was it the way she was standing/just about the fall over backwards]. Her hips deadened the bass strings, and her saliva splattered over the cheek, but, like real pros, the band carried on.

Gi wasn't too chuffed with the sandwiches and lack of Champagne making it stealthily into his bass drum.

The Catering Staff. The Sandwiches. Big Red. The Girl with her iPod. Mike Davis and his new Girlfriend. Fea and Eg borrowing Ad's jackets. A ukulele session out of the boot of Ad's car while awaiting the start of the show. Man falling over. The full moon. Fea's chocolate chewing gum. Cokes for the way home.

Set
included

Mustang Sally
Best Friend's Girl
Happy Days
All About You
Tainted Love
Meet Me In The Corner
Too Late
Saw Her Stand there
Shakin All Over
So Lonely
I'm a Believer

Practice for the 'Jeremy Irons Gig'

Present: All

And the winner of the "Who Can Keep Their Woolfire Festival Artists' Wristband On The Longest" competition is won by Ad.

The practice was dedicated to preparing for the Jeremy Irons Gig.  Plenty of the usual covers and Loopy's very own pop classics.

Ad splits his nail.

Post Practice Pint Topics of Conversation: What TV/Home Phone/Broadband package Gi should sign up for.  Humax [the joys of] and Eg's inability to download and install the latest software for his.  Why the Live Popcast idea just wouldn't work.  The forthcoming album was also mentioned at some point.