The Chapman Zone Dave’s Blog

Actually, that’s not true. A few years ago I went camping with some friends, and a tropical storm the likes of which I have never witnessed descended upon our site, washing some of our kit away, and forcing us to bail and abandon camp. It was so bad, that I thought for a minute that we were not going to escape, as the roads leading away from the area were blocked by 6-12 inch deep torrents of floodwater cascading across it and threatening to wash away anything that dared to cross.

OK, that was the wettest camp I have ever been on. But a couple of weekends ago, my Scouts arranged a troop wide set of Patrol Camps…

Being October, you would be naive to expect it to stay dry and sunny, so we can’t feel too hard done by…

This was the PLs first attempt at organising and running an event like this, and I made a point of advising, but not making decisions for them. As such, they took out rather a lot of kit.

Myself, Gareth, Martin and Limpet were out there in case of emergency (the campsite was Harry’s Island near Burley, and does not have an on-site warden), and also to get out in the countryside for a relaxing weekend.

I’ll try to put a full review on the 1stFareham site, but sufice to say that we spent the entire weekend mooching around in the kitchen, playing cards, or talking about random stuff, or corpsing at fart noises and stories of toilet incidents. Honestly, I haven’t laughed so hard or so much for ages!

Coming home though, it had rained all day Sunday, so by the time the parents arrived everything was totally soaking, and had to go in the cars that way. Bulldogs managed to run out of room before getting the big red peg box in, so muggins here (who had no room in his car because he always takes too much kit out with him) had to push and shove this thing in, during which time it leaked a milky-white substance all over my seat. My car now hums a treat.

Like I said, the Scouts took quite a lot of kit, and by the time we had filled the hut with hanging tentage, there was still half a ton of sodden stuff waiting to be hung.

So, goodbye to Monday evening, then Tuesday evening, then Wednesday evening! Finally got the last of it away on Wednesday, which was fortunate, since Angie’s sister was holding a wedding reception there that Saturday, and they were trying to clear the hut up and make it look nice while I was filling every last inch of the place with dripping rope and canvas

OK, I am one of those people that does not get involved in trick or treating - I generally do not answer the door at all on the evenings around halloween. But, I am a Pagan, and do not want the activity to be banned, mainly because the paranoid christian lobby (who see anything remotely connected to the occult as a prelude to full-blown satanism) would proclaim it as a victory for their moral stance.

So, how do you allow the kids to enjoy the trick-or-treat thing, while at the same time allowing people the choice to not get involved, and not be bothered by those that are?

Simple. Those houses that are taking part can simply put a decoration in their window, or on their doorstep, so that trick-or-treaters can plainly see which houses they can visit, and which houses they should leave in peace. Houses that are taking part should be encouraged to only give treats to children in costume.

There. Problem solved. If the media were to pick up on this, and inform the public that this is how it will work, everyone will be aware, and there will be no more aggro.

Of course, the chavs that go round using it as an excuse to cause mischief and nuisance may not be dissuaded by this, but they will no longer have anything to hide behind.

I actually had this idea myself, but my dad told me that, according to my sister-in-law (who is both American and Wiccan), this is the way they have been doing it in the USA for years.

Which begs the question: why haven’t the media picked up on this and helped to alleviate the stressful situation?

Surely too cynical of me to say that they like the aggro nationwide, as it gives them something to write about, play on the nations fears with horror stories of fireworks through the letterbox, and thus sell more papers?

OK, so I’m going to do a bit of catch-up, and post some of the notable things that have happened since my last meaningful post (i.e. the Level 42 one).

Last thursday (19th October), I went up with Simon and the lads to the Old Blacksmith’s Studio in Hilsea, to mix the demo that the lads recorded the week before (was it a week before, or two? I can’t remember).

Simon asked me to get round to his place for 18:00, since the traffic was a b*tch, and he wanted to fight through it as little as possible, so I took a wander up, cutting through Cams Alders playing fields. Damn, its been a long time since I’ve been through there! Actually, it’s been a long time since I walked anywhere for a reason. I walk for pleasure (hiking), but when I need to go anywhere, I drive or ride my bike (or bum a lift). It was wierd just walking round to a mate’s house - made me feel like a teenager again. Wierd.

Anyway, when I got there, Kyle said that we were now meeting Simon in town, as he had got delayed in traffic more than he anticipated. So Kyle, Aaron and I took a stomp up the Gosport Road (that took me back as well - me and my best mate when I was eleven-twelve used to hang around this area) into town, where Simon was already waiting for us.

We got the studio about an hour later. The plan was to turn up for the last couple of hours of mixing - the engineer (Rich) spent the day mixing it to his own satisfaction, and then we turn up and suggest tweaks and changes till the band are happy with it, then Rich burns the CDs and off we go.

We were about half an hour late due to traffic, but we got there, and sat down to have a listen to the three tracks that would make up the demo.

Holy sh*t! It sounded well cool! I was expecting it to sound better than the one they did at the Dugout in Fareham, but the multi track approach had given them a totally new lease of life. Toms overdubs with the guitar fleshed out the backgrounds a treat, and the songs had a really impressive sound to them. Considering that they only spent eight hours recording these three songs, the results were amazing. Even the vocals, which have always been the achilles heel sounded better than they ever have. Sure, they still need some work, but it is coming along, and eventually Tom and Aaron will ‘find’ their true singing voices, and then there will be nothing left to stop them. Their playing is already very good.

I think I must have played that demo about fifty times over the following weekend, either to other people, or for my own enjoyment. So far, everyone I have played it to has been impressed.

Soooo….as soon as Aaron sends me the photo, I can get some artwork done, and then we can start making copies of the demo in earnest. Oh, and then there’s the small matter of making a music video for them as well…

I’ve gone and neglected my blog again!

I am what I like to call a total “victim of habit”. This goes slightly beyond being a “creature of habit”, as I find myself trapped in systems of daily life: get up, do this, do that, do this, do that, go to bed, get up, do this, do that…etc. These patterns are familiar to everyone, but I find that I have extraordinary dificulty in breaking a cycle to introduce a new element. I think my brain has difficulty breaking routine.

For example, the blog - there was a period of time during which I would post almost every day. Once I’d gotten over my misconception that my life was the most boring on the planet (I think I come in about fifth), I was able to post about this and that - stuff I’d done that day, stuff that bugs me, etc. The point is, although I may not have posted all the time, the blog was in my head, so I could remember to pop on now and again to use it.

Now, the past two weeks have been particularly busy for me both at work and out of work, but blogging can sometimes require only a couple of minutes, and everybody can find a couple of minutes now and again to fit something in their schedule, no matter what it is. Besides, my posting has been pathetically lacking for at least a couple of months, so I cannot use the busy excuse for that whole period.

Most of the time, I forget to blog stuff because I’ll be doing something, and then all of a sudden think, “oooh, I must put this on my blog…..I’ll do it later on”, and then by the time that later on arrives, I’m distracted by something else. It happens all the bloody time, and it’s f***ing infuriating! It’s not just the blog either - I seem unable to find any time to play my guitar, go out and take photos, communicate with my friends, clean my bike, work on numerous projects, the list goes on.

I think I’m going a bit doolally, truth be told…but I hereby resolve to make an extra effort to sort my life out….and get organised!

I’ve just this minute got back from seeing one of my favourite band of all time, Level 42. And man it was awesome. I mean that literally, I was in awe - they are as good as ever imagined they could be.

I’ve listened to them and loved them since 1984, and thought my chance had gone when they split up in 1994, but Mike Lindup and Mark King reformed the band, and they came back this year with a new album, and a tour, so I jumped at the chance to go see them in the flesh. One problem I had was that I thought I had no-one to go with, and didn’t really want to go see them by mysfelf. Fortunately, Kyle, being the stand-up dude that he is, heard them in my car a while back, and liked them, and let me drag him along. Actually, that’s a lie - he was more than happy to go.

It was f***ing brilliant. They played three songs off their new album, Retroglide, and the rest of the gig was all the old favourites: Lessons in Love, Hot Water, Something About You, To Be With You Again, The Sun Goes Down, and so on. It was great. The sound was great, the lighting was fantastic, Mark threw in a couple of his mind-numbingly fast bass solos (he really is a god on his instrument), but the best bit for me was when Mike played an extended keyboard part at the end of Leaving Me Now. I don’t mind admitting that I welled up a little bit when he did that.

Even the crowd were great. I was expecting a rather sedate affair, especially as it was an all-seater gig, and considering the average age of the audience. The second they started playing, everybody stood up, and people were dancing in the aisles, clapping along, and cheering every song. It seemed to be a really short gig (to me anyway), but it turned out that they played for a good hour and forty minutes.

Well, I have just fulfilled another dream of mine (which I’ve had for over twenty years). There are only two more bands on my ‘must-see’ list (that are still going anyway), and they are Rush and Muse. I doubt I will afford to get Muse tickets this year, so I will have to wait a while to see them.

But hey, balls to that, I have just seen Level 42. Anyone who doesn’t like them - you’re missing out. I defy anyone not to have enjoyed that gig.

Well, anyone with any taste in music, anyway…

I’m still buzzing……I think I’m going to have to sit up all night and listen to their back catalogue.

A few months ago (can’t remember exactly when), the Pancake Eating Freaks recorded a demo at the Dugout in Fort Fareham. It was a ‘live’ demo, in other words, they played all together, and the recording was done on a single track. At the time, it seemed like a good quality recording, and the boys were happy enough with it. As time went on, it became apparent that a ‘proper’ demo was needed, and the dugout one was simply not good enough to send out to labels, venues, etc. The next logical step was a multi-track recording.

The boys had a made a few quid from their ticket sales from the Wedgewood gigs, and Simon (Kyle and Aaron’s dad) made up the difference, and they booked a session at the Old Blacksmiths Recording and Rehearsal Rooms in Portsmouth.

We went up there this Sunday. Simon picked me up at 11:30, for a 12:00 start. A booked session lasts for eight hours, and the first hour or so was spent unloading the van, setting up and getting levels right. The boys wanted to do three tracks (enough for a demo), and we all figured we would have plenty of time.

The procedure was pretty straightforward - record drums and bass along to a click track (with Tom playing along on guitar but not being recorded), go back over the drum tracks and fix any duff bits (ie replay them with a little before and after so the recording engineer can stitch them together seamlessly), then do the same for the bass. That all went pretty smoothly - Kyle nailed his drum parts on the first go, needing only a couple of fixes, and Aaron didn’t take much longer with his bits.

Tom was up next to do the guitar parts. This took a fair bit longer, as there were going to be extra guitar parts for this recording. As they are a three-piece, and only ever having played live, Tom either plays rhythm, or lead, obviously not both together. Often, when he is playing a picked riff in a song, it can sound a little thin with just the bass backing it up. This multi-track recording allowed him the option of laying down a rhythm part to back up the picked riff, ‘fattening’ the overall sound. It really did make a massive difference, and the tracks were sounding pretty damn impressive by the time we finished. My Yamaha acoustic guitar even gets a cameo on the demo, as Tom used it for the verses of ‘Taking Over Me’.

Once the guitar parts were out of the way, it was time for the vocals. They had about an hour to record the three tracks, after the mikes and stuff had been set up. I was expecting this part to be where it all came crashing down, if I am to be honest, as their vocals are widely regarded as the weak point in their performance. I think this is mainly down to the fact that they play in a rehearsal room with an absolute crap PA setup, and can never hear their vocals when rehearsing. This leads to them having to scream it out at the top of their voices to even attempt to hear themselves. Anyway, after a couple of takes on the first song, they settled into it, and I was surprised at the result. They were also helped by the fact that, for the first time ever, they were able to sing the songs without the distraction of having to play their instruments at the same time. They still need to work on their vocals (lessons would be a godsend about now), but remembering what they used to sound like, they have come on in leaps and bounds this last year.

Overall, I enjoyed the day. Simon and I didn’t really do much except smoke and take the p*ss out of the boys when they made cock-ups, but I like to think we helped with the occasional nugget of good advice.

Like I said, the playback was sounding pretty damn good by the end of the day (we finished laying tracks at almost dead on 20:00), and that was just the rough recordings - we still have to go back and do the mix. Hopefully then, we can make it sound awesome…

I know how bloggeeks like to have their little weekly or monthly projects, so I decided to start my own, to see if it will catch on.

I have decided to call it ‘Thursday Thrappery’, mainly because ‘w*nkerishness’ didn’t scan very well. It basically involves a random piece of abuse thrown at another blogger. I suspect it might be better to limit to those bloggers to whom I am acqainted with for now (which limits me to three people), until it catches on, and then anything goes!

The abuse can take the form of a posting on your own blog with a link to the offending (should that be ‘offended’) person’s blog, or as a comment on theirs. I have gone for the latter in my first attempt, but I’m not going to tell you where or what (that’s another rule).

And you have to be a blogger to take part. Otherwise you’re just being rude.

Oh, and if anyone can think of a better word that begins with ‘th’, please let me know.

5 posts in the whole of September! Woeful!

No wonder people moan at me!

I hereby vow to do better this month…