the soundtrack to the day you wish you'd had
All the latest news about musical goings-on…
…and as if yesterday’s looperlative update preview, Bob sent me another one this morning. Wow. Just wow. A whole load of fantastic audio mangling functions that are going to make it even more desirable to loopists and sonic manglers the world over.
Get ’em while they’re hot!
The onward march of the Looperlative function list go ever forward. Bob’s been doing an amazing job of fixing bugs, implementing new functions, upgrading people’s units with a lower noise floor modification…
I’ve just installed the next version of the upgrade – not available yet to mere mortals – which includes a completely mad modification that I requested ages ago, and thought was going to take a long time to come to fruition. I’m not going to say too much about it, as I’m sure Bob with announce it when he puts it up as the next upgrade, but it’s so much fun, and is destined to become part of the Looperlative’s signature sound.
I feel so lucky to be involved with the development of the unit, and so pleased that it’s been built and designed by someone as nice, honest, up-front and genuine as Bob Amstadt – he’s a great bloke, clearly a computer genius, and deserves lots of success with the Looperlative.
Talking of which, there are a few remaining from the current build, so if you want want head over to the site now and get your order it, it’ll ship pretty much immediately. It’ll be a few months before the next batch happens, so get in quick. With the dollar being worth pretty much shit at the moment, it’s as good a time as any to get in on the act. :o)
The new issue of Bass Guitar Magazine has a nice review of ‘Behind Every Word’ in it, written by Stuart Clayton. Here it is, reprinted for your pleasure –
“Behind Every Word is the fourth studio outing for acclaimed solo bassist Steve Lawson. With the intention of combing [I think that’s meant to be combining – steve] the ambient soundscapes of his previous efforts with a more structurally composed approach, Lawson had created a solo bass album that sounds… nothing like a solo bass album. The opening trafck, ‘Blue Planet’ offers up a silky smooth fretless groove which Steve punctuates with ghost notes in order to provide a rhythmic accompaniment. This line is them looped and becomes the foundation for the entire piece. Over it Steve adds piano like chordal parts, and a lilting ‘guitar’ solo. The diversity of sounds that Lawson coaxes from his bass and armory of gadgets is truly impressive here and indeed throughout the album. In fact, almost two minutes of ‘Jimmy James’ go by before anything that is recognizable as a bass guitar surfaces through the ambient, swelling sounds! Lawson has invited two guest musicians to join him on this record. Pedal steel guitar legend BJ COle guests on the track ‘Scott Peck’, his slide guitar playing being the perfect understated accompaniment to Steve’s chordal bass work. Julie McKee’s vocals add variety to the ‘One Step’, which in all honesty, at almost fifteen minutes in length is slightly over indulgent. Behind Every Word is unlike any solo bass album you will have heard before and is all the more fascinating because of it. I quickly forgot that it was a solo bass record and found myself enjoying it in the same way that I would enjoy a ‘chill-out’ album. It is in this way that Lawson has succeeded where many have failed – to make a solo bass record where the music truly comes first. Check it out – but keep your mind open.”
There you go – that’s rather nice. Clearly, I don’t think ‘One Step’ is over-indugent. I’m not even sure there is such a thing as ‘over-indulgence’, just good or bad music (and that was the shortest of the three takes that we did of the track! :o), but it’s nice to read. Thanks, Stuart!
Second last day, time to ratchet up the promo.
Miles walked – 174
Flyers handed out – 234,000, approx.
posters stuck up – 7,001
legs no longer functioning – 2 (rounded down to nearest whole number of legs).
Meeting lots of people around who had seen us play, either had come to the gig or seen us on one of the cabaret shows, which is nice – it’s always the case that if you do a one week show, you’re just picking up momentum when you leave. Next year, I’m doing three weeks, for sure.
So most of the day spent flyering. Went to meet the most lovely J for dinner, and bumped into Howard Jones’ marvellous guitarist Robin Boult on the way – Robin’s a fantastic musician and really lovely bloke, so I was delighted to get the chance to catch up and have a chat.
Dinner with J was equally delightful. She and Rev. G are two of my favouritest peoples, and part of what makes coming up to Scotland such fun. Everyone’s favourite sweary priest was off running a kids camp, no doubt teaching small children the art of ecclesiastical swearing, and TSP was back in London. So J and I headed to Henderson’s for much needed veggie marvellousness and chat.
From there, I hobbled on my by-now-completely-rubbish legs up to the famousSpiegeltent (famous?? Is that an official designation? Could I just start randomly referring to myself as ‘the famous steve lawson’? hmmm) to see Mich En Scene – a Belgian duo of accordianist/pianist Frederik Caelen, and singer Micheline Van Hautem. The show was the songs of Edith Piaf, Sarah Vaughn, Peggy Lee, Bjork, a few others and some originals, and was chock full of theatrical energy, humour and a strong sexual intrigue (which seems to be the defining characteristic of most cabaret, no? What made this ‘cabaret’ and not just ‘a gig?’ – methinks that sexy theatricality is the key…) – most of cabaret stuff I’ve seen here, and before, really didn’t do it for me. It seems like cabaret is where musicians go who can’t play well enough and comedians go who can’t tell good enough jokes to just do stand up. There are exceptions (The Midnight Carousel compere Dusty Limits has a big voice and did a gorgeous arrangement of Love For Sale, though the piano part was more conventional cabaret than it would have been in an ‘art’ gig.) But Mich En Scene were amazing. Definitely highly recommended.
it’s great, I haven’t seen a less than fab show this year – from Stephen Daltry before our run even started (who just got a fabulous review in Three Weeks, that really described his show to a t – go and see it!) through to Mich and Freddie, via Sue Perkins, The Allotment and Amy Lame. All great stuff.
If you’re around tonight, it’s big finale time – come to the show, bring your friends, and we’ll party like it’s 1985. :o)
Thursday began in fine style – we were booked to play at ‘Mervyn Stutter’s Pick Of the Fringe’ – a fantastic show that highlights the best of what’s on across the city. Julie had emailed them, and their lovely booking lady Trudy had come to the show on Tuesday and booked us.
That went superbly well – great reception from the audience, lots of promises that people would come along. Yay!
After that, it was flyering time. Lots of it. I think I gave out more flyers than on any day since Saturday. A busy time, for sure.
In the morning, I’d dropped into a junk shop on Dalry Road, where I’d seen a Mama Cass album for £2 in the window, and given that Amy Lame’s show that TSP and I saw last weekend was called ‘Amy Lame’s Mama Cass Family Singers’, I bought it and dropped it off to Amy after her show, who was delighted.
My dodgy knee was feeling pretty bad by about 7 o’clock so I went and bought a ticket for Sue Perkins stand up show – I’m a HUGE fan of Sue, whether solo or in the double act with Mel; their Saturday morning show on Radio London rivals Danny Baker for the greatest radio I’ve ever heard. She’s clearly supremely intelligent and a great observer of the world, and the show was indeed both very funny and acutely observed. She finished on a really poignant note about her grandmother – great way to end a comedy show. Definitely worth going to see.
I nearly missed the gig, as I thought she was on at the Pleasance Dome but was on at the Pleasance Courtyard – not an easy journey to make in 6 minutes on a buggered knee. Ow.
After that, it was back to flyering for a while, then down to the venue for soundcheck and gig.
Another lovely night – similar numbers to last night, so pretty good, but really need a couple of big nights tonight and tomorrow to make some sensible money on this trip.
The Lot is SUCH a great venue – for those of you in and around Edinburgh, you really ought to get on their mailing list, as they book some really top class jazz stuff (I’ve mentioned before that Theo has played there with his quartet) – it’s really lovely, and the food in the restaurant downstairs is top notch. I’m really hoping to come back to the same place next year. Great space, great people, and it’s run as a charity funding venture. What could be better?
After our show, Julie and I were back doing the Midnight Carousel in C Central, compered by Dusty Limits – again, we went down a storm, got an encore, and gave out lots of flyers to many promises that people will come along… Edinburgh promises – not worth the flyers they’re printed on, but we can but hope. :o)
So Today is a usual Edinburgh day – shitloads of flyering and postering during the day, dinner with the lovely J (lovely G is away, sadly, and TSP back in London, so it’s just lovely J and I meeting for clandestine munchies in Henderson’s). Then going to see a beautiful show in The Speigeltent – a Belgian voice and accordian duo, that I’ve completely forgotten the name of, but who are just fabulous, and played at Mervyn Stutter too. Then the show.
Two night’s left – come and see us!
Right, that was a much better audience size. Back on track now.
After a day spent flyering, postering and eating interesting food in funky cafes, a fine gig. Not only that, but we got an encore. Much fun.
We changed tack today – decided to offer some 2 for 1 offers to entice in a bigger crowd. Lots of very eager sounding people on the royal mile, and out and about. Also lots of people recognising me from all over the place – MySpace, Bass Day UK, The Radio (they didn’t recognise me by seeing me from the radio – that would just be silly – but when they saw my name, then said ‘aha! I heard you on Late Junction last week’). All over the place.
Likewise, a straw poll of those at the gig showed they came from all different paths – flyers, posters, friends’ recommendations, me sneakily recommending the gig to people who’ve come into the venue for information about something completely different, people reading the Fringe programme…
Both of which show that you can’t do either/or with promotion of any kind. We’re all looking for the short cut, the one thing that will expand our audience, give us fame fortune and a full house every night. But it doesn’t exist. It’s all cumulative. People who’ve seen your name in the programme might only think to come to the show if they then get given a flyer. People who’ve heard you on the radio might only visit your website after they see you at the fringe. People who’ve checked out your myspace page might be more inclined to buy a CD once they’ve seen you in person.
Talking of seeing people in person, I bumped into my old boss today – Howard Jones. You may or may not know that I toured playing bass for Howard in 1999. It was a fantastic experience, playing really great songs with a really lovely band. He was a real treat to work with. I haven’t seen him in years, but he’s up here doing a show, that sadly clashes with mine so I won’t get to see it, but he’s great live, and I’d have loved to have got along. Still, ’twas a delight to catch up with him, and I’ll have to get to one of the gigs on his Autumn tour.
Tomorrow’s a busy day – we’re doing Mervyn Stutter’s Pick Of The Fringe at lunch time, then our gig at night, and then The Midnight Carousel again at 1am… In between, much flyering, postering cajoling and coercing of lovely people to come and check out the show.
Well, there really is no predicting Edinburgh audiences… after my biggest ever opening night at the fest, we had the smallest audience I’ve ever had at the Fringe last night. How bizarre! In the event, we played very well, entertained our tiny group of music lovers, and got booked for another show as a result (result!), but it was baffling after the interest that’s been shown up til now… it feels like a pretty easy show to sell, and I’ve been out flyering and postering LOADS. I don’t think the posters are quite as effective as mine were last year – the high contrast pic of me holding a bass on a white background told everyone within 20 feet of it that it was a music show. This year’s photo is gorgeous, and definitely gives off the late night mellow jazzy vibe, but only when you look at it, it doesn’t jump out and grab you in the same way.
Still, it’s a great gig, everyone who’s seen it loves it, and we’ve got some tickets sold already for the next few nights. So fingers crossed, it’ll be up from here… :o)
My right knee is causing me all kinds of grief – I think I’ve strained a tendon or something, with all the driving and walking up and down hills and stairs here in this fair city, so I’ve got it bandaged up, and am trying to take regular breaks from all the walking…
We didn’t have a gig at the Lot last night, but we did do a cabaret slot, in The Midnight Carousel. Compered by Dusty Limits, the show features a whole load of acts doing 10 minutes of their show. My particular favourite was Ray Jessel – an old time broadway composer, who comes across as a mixture of Randy Newman and Jackie Mason. Great stuff.
Julie and I did three songs, which went down rather well, including a bit of a sing-along, which is nice. :o)