Assembly Sessions Mixing and The Tommy Cash at Fulsomski Prison Gig that never was

Present: Ad, Fea, Tom

While Eg is nomadically roaming India marketing his merchandise to the membership of the Mumbai Magnet Massive it's time to mix and master the Assembly Sessions.

[Hmm?]

Problems encountered included things like;

• Ad, having tried to compensate for his backing vocals' volume by moving away from his microphone, has left Ben trying to compress them without picking up the rest of the noises in the room - something like that anyway;
  
• a very squeaky piano pedal halfway through the tracks;
  
• a terrible & rushed rendition of 'The Smile'.

Remarkably, Ben managed to remove the popping distortion of Fea's over-enthusiastic intimacy with his microphone during 'Hearts Pumping'.

Still, the intention continues to be one that foists this output upon the band's unsuspecting fan base. Whoever she really is. Or he.

Ben rightly points out that these 'Assembly Sessions' should be released after the album is ready/released/available/'out there'. Otherwise people will associate the songs with these versions rather than the actual superdooper studio versions. The boys reluctantly concede this point.

Ben's always right.

Git.

While Ben mixed and mastered, the three Loopy attendees scuttled off to the back room to rehearse for the Schools Tour on Friday 10th July. They think they've licked that tricky middle eight in 'Just Can't Get Enough'. Well, Tom thinks he's licked it at any rate.

'Sky Above My House', 'Sparkle You', 'Kingmaker' were also worked on. Interrupted by red wine and Tom's recollection of the time he was invited to play for a Polish Prison Warden at his prison in Gdansk. The Tommy Cash at Fulsomski Prison Gig. Perhaps.

Ben and the boys also tried to work out why there was a consistent 'dropout' at 4m 21secs on the 'Hearts Pumping' recording when it doesn't appear in the original Multitrack Session. To be continued, no doubt.

Some 'Karaoke' versions of the tracks were mixed for popcast bedding music purposes.

Other Practice Prattle: Loopy Number Plates; Deputy Head interviews; £36.30 a week for two people to live on; M&S bean salad that everyone could enjoy a little while after Tom had eaten it; Coach Trip on Channel4; putting on gigs with kids; pregnant ladies and their heightened sense of smell; ukulele'ing a campire sing-a-long.

[pictured - Coach Trip Tour Guide Brendan: Felix in 10 years]

The Assembly Sessions

Present: Ad, Eg, Fea, Tom

You're ten. At school. It's morning. Before lessons.

You 'single-file' into the Assembly Hall for the usual morning's mediocre musical moments with a resentful teacher on the piano. The head teacher spends the next 20 minutes trying to whip up a bit of enthusiasm for yet another feebly voiced rendition of 'All Creatures Great and Small'.

Well, as a treat, as a taster of the forthcoming album "Doing Somersaults", and as a gesture towards the forthcoming 'schools tour', Loopy spent this evening recording their own 'Assembly Sessions' while Ben was in the control room mastering the real thing.

These recordings will be freely available to visitors of the Loopy website.

Tom added some trumpet sounds to 'Corner of Your Mind' and a minor adjustment was made to 'Hearts Pumping'. Eg and Fea popped out to get some beer but were too late and returned with a bottle of Ribena and some tic-tacs. Ad and Tom recorded a small interview with Ben which will be available in the next Loopy Popcast.

Newbury

Present: Ad, Eg, Tom

Guest Drummer: Dom

Venue: Uprising Studios, Newbury, Berkshire

Scheduling issues meant that a room wasn't ready for us so the first half hour was spent going through the structure of songs with Dom practising on a coffee table in the foyer.



Eventually made it into a very clean rehearsal room.

Don't tell Ben at Valley Studios but this studio knows how to kit out a rehearsal room. Guitar brackets on the walls, neatly arranged guitar amps, whiteboards with pens that have attached pen tops, and, in a move to quite literally dispel the image of studios being full of smelly boys with guitars, the offer of a burst of air freshener to banish any lingering presence of the band practicing before us.

Oh yes, and lights that work.

Truly giddy making.

Dom stands in as drummer to cover the upcoming schools' tour and manages to make his first rehearsal since, well, the last time he played with the Loopy boys in Southampton some years ago.

Depeche Mode's 'Just Can't Get Enough' was worked on whilst the lads also ran through 'Evel Knievel', 'Too Late', 'Corner Of My Mind' and 'Somersaults'. Dom has to leave early but as he gets up to go he is easily enticed back on to the drummer's stool by a rendition of Teenage Kicks.

Dom finally leaves with a couple of rounders' bats handed to him through his car window in the car park outside. No euphemism there: he actually leaves with a couple of rounders' bats. They were Tom's. He needed to borrow them.

Found a pub called the Hog's Head in the centre of Newbury to prattle in, post-Practice. By the canal. Topics of Conversation: Microsoft Bar Codes for the album cover; the forthcoming popcast; using one's children to experiment with nominal determinism; overhauling the loopy website.

Twits

If, for some reason, you are twangling yourself up in the twebsite that is twitter then feel less like a lonely twool and add us to your posse of tweeple.

http://twitter.com/LoopyTheBand

Who knows where it might twake us?

Twoodbye.

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.