Broken Records

Tomorrow Never Comes

If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you will be aware that when I say “part 2 coming tomorrow”, I tend to mean that in a more informal, loose sense, ie. not today, but one of the days after today. In fact if you are a regular reader of this blog then you’re probably a bit strange as it appears so sporadically that you must be re-reading old posts. Shame on you. And shame on me for being a bit “Robert Green” (not more on the ball…)

Annnnyyyyyways, where I last left off was us making our way back from Utrecht, which was arguably the worst journey I have ever taken, anywhere. As I mentioned in the previous post we had no air conditioning in the van and no windows, and given the ferocious heat of one of the best days of summer weather on the continent this year so far, not to mention the perilous condition of most of us who had skipped breakfast in favour of coffee and a cry, it was a miracle that nobody just keeled over and died en route. As Jim put it, “I…I can’t tell if I’m falling asleep or slipping in and out of consciousness”. Both of which amount to roughly the same thing at this stage of the game.
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Inter-National Funtimes

Last week we took the long drive to the Netherlands (not as bad as it sounds as we did take a night in London on the way…) to play the first of three nights supporting The National, at the Paradiso in Amsterdam. This was something of an “off-again-on-again” gig as nobody had predicted the Dutch win over Brazil in the World Cup, a victory which resulted in their semi-final being schedulled to kick off right in the middle of The National’s set. After some jiggery-pokery with the timings the gig was rescheduled to play before the kick off, meaning that we got on at six as doors opened, but also meaning we got off at half six, got to pack up and watch not only The National but the whole match as well, so silver linings a-plenty…

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New Recordings

It has been a bit quiet on here of late, as we have been either locked away in the studio in Glasgow or frantically trying to work out how to play the new tracks live (we’re now calling Dave “Davey Four-Hands Rick Wakeman Smith”…). We took delivery of a bunch of fully ready-to-go mastered tracks the other day which was very exciting. Despite the fact that they bring back painful memories of six hours playing the same beat over and over again (apparently they say drummers are fitter than footballers, it must be true as it was on the BBC website, but for those of you that know me I am what may be called the exception to prove the rule), they have been on repeat on the stereo for the last day, if only just to remember the various changes. Don’t tell the guys I said that…

We were recording with Tony Doogan in his studio in Glasgow which involved commuting, something you never thought would be a part of being in a band, and of course eating innumerable takeaways, Thai curries and Tesco microwave meals, washed down with endless cups of strong Columbian black (that’s coffee by the way. Rock and roll…).
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Diary – First Day in Austin

Tuesday saw us with our first day proper in Austin. We got up sharpish
in the morning (having been up for about 24 hours the previous day
everyone slept pretty soundly…), and those of us staying with our host
Sue were particularly chipper due to the liberal use of her espresso
maker. We headed in to the convention centre in the middle of town to
get our wristbands, with only minor confusion as to whether we were
Broken records or the representatives from “Broken Wreckords”, whoever
they may be. This left us with a whole day free, so Sue took us to “Juan
in a Million” for breakfast, insisting that we hit the “Don Juan
Breakfast Tacos” which left everyone a bit subdued afterwards by their
sheer scale…

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SXSW Diary – Part 1

As one of these Luddites who doesn’t have an iPhone or any sort of
international roaming wifi machine, all the SxSW blogs have been stored
in my head and will spew forth in the next few days. I will begin at the
most natural place to start, the beginning…

I woke on Sunday
morning with a hint of a hangover from the previous day’s Six Nations
draw with England, with no idea why my alarm was barking at me, until
the penny dropped and I leapt out of bed. Of course, we were heading
towards SxSW today. The seven o’clock start wasn’t hugely appreciated
but the drive to London was aided by Gill’s “nostalgia beats” on the
stereo. We were staying at the flat at the 4ad offices in Wandsworth so
met Roger in the neighbouring pub for a beer and a crack at the pub
quiz, while Rog dished out some useful advice on how to stay alive in
Austin – “Don’t smoke roll ups, they’ll think you’re smoking pot and
they will shoot you; don’t drink in the street, they will shoot you;
don’t smoke indoors, they will shoot you,” etc.

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The Road To SXSW

Despite appearances, the last few weeks have actually been surprisingly busy for us…like a swan, we have remained calm on the surface but there has been a lot of paddling going on out of sight. The demos are starting to take shape, which is very exciting, even with shonky Casio-style drums on them and the general “living room” recording vibe. The monumental pain in the arse which is visa applications for South by Southwest seems to be reaching it’s conclusion, only another few hundred forms to fill in and we’ll be there…it seems they just brought out a new form which involves detailing everything you have ever done in your life, ever, with witnesses. Which is all well and good if you are blessed with the power of a sharp memory, a category into which I do not fall, unfortunately.

In the words of the perma-realist Kas, “I’ll believe it when I’m on the plane.” Which is also looking more likely as we now have flights booked. Wayhey! I’ll be updating our progress on here as we go along, and on the forum at www.brokenrecordsband.com (which more people need to get on, hint hint!) Just got interviews at the consulate in London booked for next Tuesday.

We are also looking forward to getting back into the studio when we return to record some new tracks, which we will hopefully be doing in Glasgow – watch this space!

Festival Diary – Part 3

There are probably few feelings worse in life than standing in a confined, stinking plastic box, attempting to answer the call of nature whilst simultaneously trying to avoid dysentry, when the sound of an MC saying “Ladies and gentleman, please welcome to the stage…Broken Records!” floats from the stage, some hundred yards away, to your ears. You are then faced with a dilemma – to arrest mid-act and risk having to carry a pair of piss-stained jeans to Germany and back, or to take the extra minute to finish up, which will necessitate a sprint to the stage doing up your trousers, to the amusement of the backstage crew, as Ian and Rory play the loop at the start of Nearly Home over and over again on an otherwise empty stage. I opt for the latter.
As it has been several weeks since my last confession, and I have jumped ahead of myself somewhat, I will go back to the beginning with our trip up to Belladrum the preceding Friday. We were on the main stage this year which has a really nice setting, and there was a good crowd out for a Friday late afternoon too. The rain held off until we were just about finished packing the van after our set, so we ran to the catering tent for a bit of dinner, and indeed Davey “Two Meals” Smith managed to have, aptly, two meals. I went for one meal and two cakes as I have some sense of decency (and two cakes goes very well with two coffees), then we headed homewards for a Saturday of doing laundry and sleeping.

Festival Survival Tip #6 – You get more “bang for your buck” if you get down with the lentil brigade.

Sunday saw us heading south to The Big Chill, in glorious sunshine. We unloaded the van a few miles from the stage (that may be a slight exaggeration) and myself and Kas sat with the gear to wait for a trailer. Some hours later (that may be a slight exaggeration), a trailer arrived and we drove round to the stage, past the enormous abandoned tower of Vitamin Water(TM), and having only injured one or two suicidal pedestrians on the way. Once everything was in order I went off for a vegan burger (see Tip #6 above) and caught up with some friends while working on my “Scotsman’s Tan” (deep red). This brings us neatly round to the opening paragraph, when a few of us got caught out by an enthuasiastic clock, but having arrived sheepishly on stage we went on to play an enjoyable set. It took quite a while afterwards to get all the kit back to the appropriate loading point so we hung around backstage looking forlorn until they gave us some more free beer, then set off for the delights of the Travelodge (I think – I really need to start keeping a diary. Maybe we slept in the van. Who knows? Who even cares?).

Festival Diary – Part 2

The last couple of weeks has seen us playing at Latitude Festival and Truck, playing two different ends of the spectrum in terms of stages, the first being the main stage at Latitude which was quite an experience. One of the few times where we have felt there was almost too much space on the stage! We arrived there later than we expected on Friday due to the storm that seemed to follow us all the way down the M1, but an advance party had set off the day before and when we got there at around nine in the evening they had already set up all the tents which saved a load of hassle, thanks guys!

We had a good night, pottering about the site watching a few bands (Bat For Lashes and the Pet Shop Boys…), then headed to the small stage in the woods where the DJ’s were playing, and where I spent my time last year up a tree (I was a little more restrained on this occasion as I figured falling out a tree and breaking my arm would be a bit of a bummer as we were playing the next day). We then found a nice group camped near to us on the way home who invited us to sit by their fire, drink wine and talk nonsense into the wee small hours.

The next morning we arose around half ten and made our way over to the stage for about midday (again an advance party had already gone that way looking for showers and clean toilets, well they had been there a day longer than most of us). We unloaded all the bits and bobs, got our risers set up, of which we had three, one for Dave and one for Arne as well as the usual drum riser, then headed to the dressing room to drink coffee, read papers and generally timewaste until stage time. Once we had done our line check we were told to stay on the stage and just get started as they were trying to run the stage a little ahead of time, so we didn’t have our usual minute or two to get proper nervous/worked up which was a bit weird. It took a few songs to get the sound sorted on stage as it was just kind of “floating away”, but everything came together alright and the crowd grew steadily throughout (I think – to be honest I wasn’t looking out front much, despite being in the rare position of actaully being able to see everyone). And it didn’t rain!

Afterwards we packed up and headed round for tea, which, having only had liquids for breakfast, went down a treat. Although they didn’t have the World’s Best Chocolate Cake they had last year (the award for Best Cake 2009 loks to be going to Oxegen so far, but it could still be beaten…), they at least partially made up for it with a tooth-dissolving treacle tart. The advance party from Thursday were also staying for Thom Yorke and Nick Cave on the Sunday, but the rest of us who have less of a love of life under canvas made our way back home that evening.

We had a bit of a week off last week, before meeting up at nine on Saturday to drive down to Truck festival in Oxfordshire. This time we had good weather for the drive and we were there on time despite the van sporadically and mysteriously limiting itself to 45 miles an hour for long periods. The festival is on a farm and it it a nice compact site, plenty of local traders on so on, and normal food and beer prices which is always good. We got parked up near the stage and went to see a few bands, caught some of We Were Promised Jetpacks in the Barn Stage (located, unsurprisingly, in a barn) which had signs around the walls saying “Warning – These walls are made of asbestos, Do Not Touch”, which was an interesting location for a loud, vibration-heavy rock concert. The sun stayed with us until stage time, this time we were playing on the Market Stage, a small “big top” style tent with an easily-undulating stage which gave the impression of playing on a boat when everyone started stomping away during Nearly Home (we even managed to bounce the trumpet clean out of Dave’s mouth). It was a good set, pretty fast and energetic, good crowd, and had a bit of a “held together with sellotape” vibe. Afterwards we headed over The Field Of Money (I hadn’t managed to walk past here once all day without finding cash lying around) to the Didcot Rotary Club Food Tent, where acquired a burger and some coffee before making the long drive back to Edinburgh, arriving at around 05:30 on Sunday morning. Just in time to fall asleep until mid-afternoon…

We don’t have anything on this weekend so it’s back to practicising until we head off to Belladrum the week after that. I don’t really know what to do with myself to be honest. I need to take up some kind of (free) hobby, suggestions welcome. Anyways hope you all had good weekends, remember Monday is just another day and it will be over soon.

Festival Diary – Part 3

There are probably few feelings worse in life than standing in a confined, stinking plastic box, attempting to answer the call of nature whilst simultaneously trying to avoid dysentry, when the sound of an MC saying “Ladies and gentleman, please welcome to the stage…Broken Records!” floats from the stage, some hundred yards away, to your ears. You are then faced with a dilemma – to arrest mid-act and risk having to carry a pair of piss-stained jeans to Germany and back, or to take the extra minute to finish up, which will necessitate a sprint to the stage doing up your trousers, to the amusement of the backstage crew, as Ian and Rory play the loop at the start of Nearly Home over and over again on an otherwise empty stage. I opt for the latter.

Read the rest of this entry »

Festival Diary – Part 2

The last couple of weeks has seen us playing at Latitude Festival and Truck, playing two different ends of the spectrum in terms of stages, the first being the main stage at Latitude which was quite an experience. One of the few times where we have felt there was almost too much space on the stage! We arrived there later than we expected on Friday due to the storm that seemed to follow us all the way down the M1, but an advance party had set off the day before and when we got there at around nine in the evening they had already set up all the tents which saved a load of hassle, thanks guys! 

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