Back in business.

 Well, hello there. It's been a long time.

What with all the events of last year, I'm only just getting back into it. With a vengeance, mind. Several projects on the go:

1. Joe Ferrari. Just working on a few tunes at the moment.

2. The Happening. Three-piece featuring Mike May on guitar and vocals, Joe Brown on bass, Joe Ritchie on drums. Arrangements have been made to do some recording this week.

3. Jon Northey. Currently producing Jon's album.

4. Solo material. After a few trial attempts I think I may have mastered the new recording equipment. All old tracks I have been working on have had to be scrapped in favour of all brand new material. I still have about four tunes that I want others to sing, but that will have to wait. My new stuff will be suitable for ME to sing. Yes, you read right. After years of doing instrumental material and the realisation that nobody wants to listen to music without singing on nowadays, I've decided to give it a go. You have been warned.

There are a couple of tentative things too, but that's it mainly for now. Enough to be going on with, but now that I have a lot more time on my hands..........

I m ust also mention at this point, the upside-down syndrome. You remember the Fostex saga, right? No? Well, Between 1997 and 1999 I recorded some SBC gigs using a Fostex 8-track HD recorder. I got some lovely recordings with one major flaw - when the band ramped it up a bit, the recorder tended to jump. I never did get a full 8-track recording of Loan me a Dime. Anyway, years later I joined a pub band. I took the Fostex along to make some sort of recording. I mentioned to the drummer that it usually jumped during load bits. He looked at it and said, "It's upside down." After clarification, what he meant was, although the Fostex was the right way up, the flight case was not. He pointed to the rubber feet (on the top) to prove his point. Needless to say, after rectifying this, the Fostex didn't jump again.

Why have I mentioned it now, you may ask? I have, up until recently, being concerned about recording using the X-air in an environment without w-fi. It was getting to the point of troubling me. I mentioned it to Joe Ferrari, who replied, "Just use an ethernet cable." Sometimes it's the obvious that you miss. The moral being, if you can't figure something out, try turning it upside down.