Millions And Millions Of Cat's Eyes

I’ve been to the doctor and he says that it is pretty bad when you start anthropomorphising motorways and roads. For instance I regard the M90 as a cuddly wee thing that I’m always glad to see, like a fat, curly haired grandchild. Whereas I regard the M77 more like a red headed step child. Now this is bad. But I have been doing a lot of driving in the name of the Ska and you start forming relationships with certain parts of the landscape, including roads. For instance, I always love the sight of the Forth Bridges, because it means I’m nearly back from wherever the hell I’ve been. I’m a bit suspicious of the A68. And fond of the A1.

Recently we’ve been out and about with the Big Hand chaps first stop being Glasgow. Big Hand are probably the hardest working band this side of Istanbul. Some of the guys had been crashing at my place for the week. They arrived first thing in the morning on the Tuesday after driving up overnight from a gig in Ipswich and were heading off that night to a gig in Inverness. That’s a lot of driving for two gigs on a weeknight. I discovered that Ingi used to work for/with Alan Moore, which impressed the hell out of me because I’m a big fan and I’m a bit shallow. I sometimes sport a small pin badge with the likeness of Alan Moore, but always counter-balanced with a picture of the bleached skull of Jeffrey Archer. My lapel space is a bit like my Top 8 friends you see.

Welcome return to the Weedge for us and a good turnout for a wet Thursday night in Sleazies again. Edinburgh was a lot busier and a bit more mental even though it probably would have been busier if the Teviot Union had been a bit clearer about the I.D situation, as I understand it that plenty people were turned away because of no I.D. No matter a couple of hundred people was a good shout. Aberdeen was the usual mental shenanigans; ninety odd minutes of pure, sweaty nonsense. Check out Reggae Dod’s photo gallery, at http://www.freewebs.com/upsetter/, especially the pics of the party afterwards (which I missed because I had to come back that night; this is becoming a bad habit). We videoed all three gigs which should see the light of day at some point, but you know how these things are. We’ve have only recently been looking at the raw footage of the 2004 Shetland Rocks footage and have only now started to edit it into something. That was the gig that we didn’t actually get to play at because the island was fogged in and so the planes couldn’t land. Which meant our drummer at that point, Mark Bray, couldn’t make it up, as well as Murray and Mike, so we couldn’t play. Well, we could have played without Murray and Mike (as we have done several times) but not with a stand in drummer. Very disappointing. As a consolation, we invaded the stage when the Amphetameanies were on, after an impromptu rehearsal, and basked in some of their reflected glory. Its all in the video which should be finished and posted by our Andy P soon. So having said that, we should be seeing the finished footage of our little tour sometime in 2009.

Just purchased a Line 6 Pod Pro XT. This little device is what we will be using to record the guitars for the album. I just love this thing.  I can jump between classic amplifiers and cabinets, and also mic positions and classic effects without all the hassle of dragging amps into the studio: all at the touch of a dial. This little gizmo is going to save us weeks in studio time. We are going to try and get some more recording done before Christmas but its not looking likely. Everyone’s working, including Gav so finding the time is nigh on impossible. Therefore we are behind on our timetable of having all the tracking completed by Christmas. I estimate another four weeks once we actually start back, before mixing can be attempted. Next gig is Glasgow followed by Inverness. Ooh, I wonder what will happen?