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The band will play on ...

My various adventures and ups and downs while trying to put together a band in Buenos Aires. Connecting with like-minded musicians, who want to play for enjoyment rather than money or ego, isn't as easy as it might seem ...

Blog posts April 2013

Music was my first love

My childhood was spent in a world that just seemed to pulse to one beat or another.

The first piece of music I can remember hearing was Starman by David Bowie. That hook leading into each chorus - sounding like the introduction to a nightly news broadcast - did its job perfectly and just reeled me in. It was many years before I would fully appreciate the genius of Bowie, but that song was like the first kiss of my long love affair with music.
 
Some years ago I found a box full of old 7" singles which I had bought (or had been bought for me) in the early 1970s. I'd like to be able to say that "this marvelous and eclectic collection showed an appreciation of music well beyond the ch…

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Falling apart at the seams

A change of some faces might reinvigorate the rest.

As I predicted, keeping this band together in its current form was simply too much to hope for. Gonzalo (keyboards) was enthusiastic, but time and other commitments have forced him to drop out. Anna (vocals) is very unreliable and doesn't always come to practice; she's missing about 30% of the time, which is really not good enough. She is also very focused on her Blues style - Joss Stone covers - and not really interested in other suggestions. Andres (guitar) is Anna's boyfriend/toyboy and so if she goes I guess he will too; his style is a little too Rock, anyway. That leaves just myself and Tomas on bass.
 
These musical differences and …

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Don't look back in anger

Some of the fun and games I had down the years, making music back in the UK.

DNS

The first bands I played in were mostly back in the 1980s, which makes this week an appropriate time to review what happened back then. Margaret Thatcher - that icon of the '80s - finally dropped dead this Monday, followed by a spontaneous out-pouring of celebration across Britain ... well, at least across the North. To go into too much detail about her and her legacy would take more time than I have this evening and anyway, it isn't really what the reader came for. I will say one thing, however: under the squeeze of Maggie's heel, there was a huge flowering of sub-cultures right across the a…

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Leader of the Pack

If any clarity of vision or direction is to be maintained, somebody has to be the boss.

After much consideration I've come to the conclusion that bands work best as dictatorships rather than democracies. One of the main problems with my previous band was my decision to try to form a 'band of equals'. Almost inevitably this opened the door to a strong personality who could manipulate the band to his own ends. This isn't going to happen this time.


Already I can see 'drift' within this new band. There's a lack of firm decisions regarding choice of songs ... or even real discussion of the subject. I'm determined that the project won't go off in some undesirable direction so I think I need to tak…

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Take a Number

How to keep a track of which band is which; past and present.

Today held in store two interesting events. The first, was a meeting with a woman who I saw singing jazz in a bar last week. I had high hopes for this to be the starting point of an additional project; something to run in parallel to the band. All things considered, I think not. Second was the regular band practice, to which only three of us came; perhaps not a good sign.
 
These events have made me think that I should have a way of identifying the band, or pieces of a band, as the project moves forward. Obviously there will eventually be a name for the group, but figuring that out is a long way in the future and only really bec…

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5 blog posts