Most of Our People, Eventually

After a long hiatus in the schedule, Andy B, Neil & Chris finally got together on Monday evening to strum a few chords. Andy F was conspicuous by his absence and one gets the impression that we may now be 3 blokes with slightly fewer guitars. All that I can say is that David Knopfler walked away from Dire Straits just before they made it big and is still moaning about not being paid!

We are, of course, light years away from the Sultans of Swing but it doesn't do any harm to dream.

The chosen song of the night was "Do You Know What I Mean?" Andy having come across an acoustic version by Noel G on YouTube.
The hardest part was trying not to fall in to Wonder Wall as, like so many Oasis numbers, the basic chord pattern is pretty much the same. Two hours fled by and I think fun was had by all, although Neil did struggle with his dog allergy as Poppy the springer spaniel tried to sit on his lap.
On Tuesday night a group of us met in the Queen's Head in preparation for a forthcoming "survival" weekend in the Brecon Beacons (Sponsorship is to help fund next year's festival which will include more live music than ever, so all donations gratefully received!).
It's amazing how one can be emboldened by alcohol and after a couple of beers, Andy & Chris picked up the house guitars and played in public for the first time. In truth we knew everybody there and they were very patient with us- some even recognised a couple of the tunes. We blamed any bum notes on the pub instrumentss, but you know what they say about poor workmen and their tools.
Anyway it was a bit of fun (for us two at least) and nobody threw anything.

Vocals

I asked my music guru at work about the vocal thing, he says it's not possible to do from a CD.

So it looks as though we need a singer !!! I'll try the net for just vocal tracks first.

Who do we know with a good voice ?

Who's foolish ?

Saturday 8th August 2009.

Gang of three this time, Andy F was not available, so the "trio" decided upon two Who songs previously not played at any of our sessions.

Two classic songs from "Who's Next" : "Behind blue eyes" and the timeless classic (probably the best rock song ever written) "Won't get fooled again".

We did very well this time and it was good to get together again. Now I know some people will say that WGFA is not an acoustic song, in many ways I would agree but it was fun and we did sound OK (probably drowned out by the CD we were playing along to).Great fun, we really should make it more regular, the improvements are showing through now.

Andy B brought along his recently set up Ibanez, sounded very good, a welcome addition to the collection, here's Chris having a strum with it.

4 Blokes & Several Redundant Guitars

We seem to have lost our way over the past few weeks what with holidays and other commitments. If we ever get as far as forming a band perhaps we should be called the (Lack of) Commitments!
I think we may struggle this Saturday (I could do early afternoon) and I know I can't manage 15th or 22nd. I wonder if we should try to get together one evening for an hour or so. Thursdays are no good for me but apart from that I can be flexible. What do you think?
Meanwhile, I found this version of Behind Blue Eyes which is pretty straightforward ( Bm's a bit of a bugger).

http://www.chordie.com/chord.pere/getsome.org/guitar/olga/chordpro/w/The.Who/BehindBlueEyes.2.chopra
There's a good mix of plucking and strumming so it can sound like real guitar playing without too much effort.

I'm not sure if you picked up that Folk n Ska Souls are playing as part of a benefit for leukaemia in Millennium Park, Flitwick on 15th August. I'm hoping to do the related bike ride but should be back in time for the music if anybody else fancies it.

Dreamin again !!

It's been a trying day so I came home and started dreaming again !

I really like this guitar, one day I may be wealthy enough to own one, lol.

Who likes it ?

Looking forward to the next session on August 1st, anyone gonna suggest a playlist ? might be good to practice a bit beforehand. Who's gonna sing ?

Might have a strum on the Avalon tonight.

Next session

OK, are we all on for August 1st ?

Why do we need cab money ????!!!

Musos at the Engine

Last night we went to the Engine & Tender to see what their monthly accoustic guitar session was all about. Guitars were left safely at home to avoid any danger of being asked to make a public performance.


Rock 'n' Roll it was not! There were five of them varying from competent to very good. They were all very serious, playing mainly folk music and sipping diet coke . To be fair, they did play a few requests which included a very passable version of Mr Jones.
Scouse managed to offend them in trying to pay a complement- "Now we've listened to you we know you are good- we used to think you were a bunch of weirdos when you sat in the corner"


It emphasised the advantage of being able to a) sing; b) play barre chords and c) identify a key & pick out the relevant chords.

We've a way to go yet but I think were ahead of them on the fun stakes.

Don't think I'll be going to the equivalent session at the White Hart tonight.

Where are you ?

Went to pub for apres jam, no one there !!! What's going on ?

Take a look at the two youtube videos of Alison Krauss (see the side bar called take a look at these sites), beautiful playing, such a wonderful voice.

Wonder if one of us can learn to sing ???

Mr Jones take one

Not a bad effort but we all agreed we didn't set the world on fire.

Also had a go at lying in the arms of Mary, King of the road and Bad moon rising.

More next time, maybe Andy and Chris will post something as well !!!! ????

Mr Jones comes to town

Today it's Chris, Andy B and Neil.

We're having a go at Counting Crows Mr Jones, watch this space for an update.

BTW I still want one of these !!!! although this one looks v pretty I would prefer a red one.

Hey, it's ok to dream.

Sorry it's late

We all met last Saturday at Andy's place. Sorry I'm late with this, been preoccupied.

Well we had another go at Entertainment and Heavens door.

Then off to see Folk n Ska Souls at Esquires in Bedford, brilliant night out, ended up in gay bar afterwards ha ha.

Above : Chris playing very well this time, me and (left) two Andys discussing technical stuff ???.

Maybe next time we can do a proper video.

Got problems with the layout just as I did with the China blog, will try to make it a bit easier to read.

Been a long time !!

Hopefully we can have another session soon.

We need a singer, Andy's gonna sort it !


If he can get out of the chair.

Perfect timing !

A small sample, it all went wrong ha ha.


Wait for the phone to ring !!

4 minus 1

Just to get things started, Andy, Chris and Neil have a session on Saturday 30th May, the other Andy couldn't make it.

So we TRIED to play The time of your life (Green Day) and

That's entertainment (The Jam).

Here's some pics, I didn't think we were very good this time !