Olives, turkey burgers and a black leather jacket

Present: Ad, Eg, Fea, Tom

A bunch of girl guides were hanging outside the studios this evening: something to do with a recording that Ben had let himself into.

Meanwhile, back in the darkness - one bedside table lamp attempting to feebly light up the rehearsal room - songs were worked on. Lie Detectors, Gallery of You, Sparkle and Shine. Plus a rare visit into the Ska magic that is Startin' Out.

Post Practice Pint Prattle at the Pub: Olives were bought; Eg likes Ad's jacket and wore it with the scarf - he managed to perfect the round-the-neck scarf-flick with some artistic elan; Anchovy stuffed Olives vs Garlic Stuffed ones; Tom's Turkey burgers; Fea's new room in his attic; Chris Powell & Martin Potter's slightly less than magnificent support performance all those years ago - TWP and their fans legging it; there will be eyelashes, and lots of them, in your computer keyboard; Fea threatens Ad with a South Coast while Ad awaits a Half-term Whiskey Evening invite from Eg.

Eg reluctantly gives Ad his jacket back.

Practice

Present: Ad, Eg, Fea, Tom

Eg wisely brought a music stand this evening in order for him to better place the enlarged lyrics he had been given for the newer songs.

Rattled through the album and rehearsed Depeche Mode's Just Can't Get Enough for the schools' tour in couple of months. Practiced 'Sparkle and Shine' and worked hard on 'Gallery of You' while also getting a better feel for new numbers 'Lie Detectors' and 'Sky Above My House'. Revisited 'Startin' Out' in honour of the recent Ska revival.

Tom had had a vegetarian meal earlier.

Post Practice Pint Pub Prattle: Fea's got a hole in his budget; Tom went to Brighton for a saucy weekend and watched three cracking birds on the beach [they were cracking crabs open by dropping them from great heights]; Ad got a new podcasting client; Eg went to Centre Parks with the family and slid down a zip wire the right way while cursing the other parents; Eastern European cigarettes; Eg will be getting Tom to translate the Sziget Festival gig guide before marching off on a well planned festival foray while Ad will follow the one that looks like they know what they're doing - the flat is further from the festival than first promised; Tom getting rollocked on a hospital balcony by the wife of his fellow smoker who had just had a heart attack and had promised her he had given up; photos of the old days

Present: Ad, Tom

Venue: Smash Towers

In spite of a mysterious and misinformed text message from Valley Studio Manager Ben that claimed the band had a particular room already set up with four microphones etc. Practice this week occurred in Emsworth.

Eg's had familial birthday duties to attend to and Fea was off presenting The Rayner Cup to some poor low-achieving, unsuspecting, uncooperative pupil who still doesn't know what they must have done wrong to have deserved such a playground taunt-earning gong.

Little Ash was there when Tom turned up and, after fixing a string to Ad's seemingly unplayed acoustic, played on the first ditty. And then left. Rightly so.

The rehearsal focussed on the School's tour coming up in July with Depeche Mode's 'Just Can't Get Enough' covered. The presumtpion being that the very young pupils at these schools will be too young to even remember 'It's All About You' by McFly.

The evening's music playing was curtailed by the two non-Rayners talking about old times [image below: debut gig], previous bands, the lovely Aimee Rose, the Angry Maisie Moo and how good it would be to have the loopy mail coming through Gmail's interface. Ahem.

Oh and Manchester United beat Arsenal in the Champions League Semi-Final - Ad n Tom raised a sympathetic toast to gooner, Eg: Ad with a can of lager, Tom with a cup of Lapsang Souchong. Or was it peppermint tea?

Present: Ad, Eg, Fea, Tom

New stuff, old stuff. The boys ran through the 8 track album, a neatly packaged pop effusion, with Fea picking up the bass rather well on 'Love the Way'.

Someone; Starting Out; Sparkle & Shine; Fiat 500; Sky Above My House; TV All Day; Extraordinary Day [a rather wordy number which Fea attempted after Ad's failed effort in a previous rehearsal]; Lie Detectives; Where Do You Go.

The boys tried to remember Skydiving, Rollercoaster and some other numbers they never got round to recording in the early days.

Post Practice Pint Prattle: the Sziget festival to which Ad, Eg and Tom are going thanks to Tom's parents' flat in Budapest; the album cover; Tom's band task list; Ad's podcasting possibilities; Fea's losing his deputy; Eg's got Shell's birthday coming up; Tom's Birthday will be a BBQ and rounders - and none of us can attend.

Mixing and Finalising tracks

Present: Ad, Eg, Fea, Tom

The new album is nearly complete. Decisions made on track listing, cover art, sleeve design, names to be thanked. One trumpet needs to be added to the opening track and one song ending needs to be finally chosen. Eg adds a new vocal to Hearts Pumping.

Ad brought in a load of song books he saved from being thrown out for everyone, Fea brought in his Ofsted inspection report - one of them is in tune with the context of the evening; Ben brings up the, as yet unwritten, Loopy Musical, Eg suggests commissioning Ad to write it; Eg's support act story of the gig in Portsmouth he went to - Goth guy wailing at a keyboard while a chased [as opposed to chaste one can only assume] semi-clad girl rubbed baby oil over herself; Ben's car fetish and the time he sold his convertible BMW to a dodgy bloke who needed to withdraw money from multiple cash machines before midnight and how Ben didn't want to turn the engine off cos it wouldn't start again; Ashes to Ashes, Red Riding, Humax Changed My Life, not receiving BBC channels and selling songs to Girls Aloud, Take That and anyone who might take them.

Tracklisting:
Corner Of Your Mind
Somersaults
Found By You
The Smile
Twenty-One
Secrets And Lies
Love The Way
Hearts Pumping