upside downer

Badly Drawn Buoy Soft Cello Seat Power Chick Dave Clark Fiver Wu-Tang Clank Clink Wray Wishbone Gash Midge Pure Yoko Bono Insane Clown Posset God-Betweens Splice Girls Kenya Feels Beagles Cypress Chill Chives KD Slang Superbtramp

Here's mine with a day to spare. Huzzah! It's 2023, sixty years on from the last big freeze and Britain is once again covered in snow and ice. One intrepid granny is determined not to let the inclement weather get in the way of her weekly shopping routine. Tech stuff - As well as the usual Wavepad and Audacity for recording the guitar (Epiphone) and vox (Apogee+ mic) I've dabbled with Ableton and its MIDI resources this month for the synth sounds and used MT Power drums too. All a steep learning curve but good fun.

And then there were three 🙃 bloody vocals, no wonder I usually just stick to instrumentals! Try, try, and try again...

Stay clean with Lee Perry.

Wonderstuff frontman Miles Hunt. 'nuff said.

Lack Grape. Please do not remove the G instead 😦

Tiff Little Fingers Ears For Fears Crowded Hose Robin Rower Sam Coke Johnny & The Elf Abusers

By George Erykah Bad Sheryl Cow Counting Cows Fleetwood Ma Queeze

Ray Spex Assheads Ham

Moby's Animal Rights is widely regarded as a not-so-subtle gearchange from his usual electronica into a raging, angry, hardcore punk guitar commotion. Slated on its release, I'd rather pop this on than Play.

And the rest. Just sold for... No, I didn't buy it 😁

Some old blokes. Marvellous.

He's got some real talent in his current line-up. Great gig. Those bloody lights gave me a headache, though!

The last stand of the good Captain.

👏 Bravo Doc, good stuff!

Anyone fancy it? Gig is at the Black Prince pub in Abington Square, Northampton, doors open 7-30pm. Small venue, about 150 people. Ticket is FREE (oh, go on then, you can buy me a pint!). Send me a pm if interested.

Cricket puns for Latvians? Doubt the humour will work over there in the Bailtics.

These chaps have done some damn fine instrumentals.

There's a dog barking incessantly nearby. It seems to have a glut of woofs.

Why the American avant-garde collective felt the need to stick their oar into the dispute, I'll never know.

Enigmatic new band name right there. Bagsy first dibs on it.

Here's mine with four days to spare! Probably because it only has two instruments on it. And now, some pretentious twaddle about the tune 😁 A meandering, sometimes uplifting, sometimes melancholic melody that weaves through our lone hero's introspection on another of those nights where he is lost in time and space alone with his thoughts. First outing for the electro-acoustic Irish bouzouki using a dash of delay pedal and subtle strings supplied by the Yamaha YPT-240 keyboard.

Those band names in full! Bigue Bigue Binker - the name inspired by Sigue Sigue Sputnik, basically it was me and a mate twatting about on keyboards and getting nowhere. The Pogoers - short lived 4 piece that would've had quite an unusual sound for a punk band seeing as the singer turned up one day with an accordion to go along with our three chord thrashings. Hammerheads - directionless 3 piece with angsty Morrissey-lite lyrics written by a chap who had one massive, protruding nipple. The Fly Agarics - first lot that actually gigged. Short, sharp, punky-pop combo that lasted a while until the guitarist tried to set the singer on fire. Muddy Eye - Psych stoner rock which was a lot of fun that only ended when both the drummer and guitarist naffed off to India for 'a spiritual journey'. Lionel Blaircuts - enjoyable guitar duo playing covers named after the play on words in a Harp lager advert. The Keith Floyd Project - pub covers. No one in the band called Keith, it was a 'homage' to the regularly soused TV chef. The Nylon Brothers - 3 piece with yours truly in the middle keeping the peace between the warring drummer and singer/guitarist. Named after three, madcap Australian brothers encountered by the drummer's girlfriend on a trip to Oz. Wazzymadal - covers, curious name conjured up by the singer because he used to shout it at an eccentric local shopkeeper. No one could pronounce it properly so we soon chopped it down to... Wazzy - after a particularly saggy rendition of Sabbath's 'Hand of Doom', our Hallowe'en gig at a WMC was paused whilst the singer was asked to judge the children's apple bobbing contest. Fantastic drummer left soon after to earn big bucks with quality tribute acts. 6th Sense - top-notch covers that ran for 8 years, was a bundle of fun until a lack of rehearsal made the last year a chore and is where the story ends bandwise for now. What's next, I wonder...

Same here. Saw him and his superb band the Invaders of the Heart just before the first lockdown in Nottingham. If they're anything like they were that night then we're in for a cracking evening.

My process for the monthly Composition Challenge runs as follows: Stare at picture for somewhere between five and ten days. Hear something, somewhere, get inspired (waddaya mean, "pilfer"?) Grab nearest stringed instrument and thrash out basic chord sequence into phone voice recorder. If no strings to hand, hum tune into phone voice recorder. Hum something more recognisable into phone than the out of tune farrago that was the first attempt. Think about lyrics. Pick up stringed instrument. Spend hours and hours and days and days fleshing out, re-writing, moving bits about, re-writing, moving bits back, re-re-writing, adding something else and taking out that bit that never really fitted in the first place. Find drums from Looperman or program own effort using Hydrogen open source drum machine. Or, record bashing machines at work, pots and pans, tables, chairs and tin cans and spend far too long trying to make that sound half decent. Think about lyrics. Once drums down, usually rhythm guitar next instrument, but not before spending an absolute age mucking about with pedals. Then bass with, sometimes, keyboard to follow. Hey, this one will sound great with a brief interlude of Syrian oud! Reach for Syrian oud. No, still can't play it. Put Syrian oud back on stand. Think about lyrics. Guitar solo? No problem! Shouldn't take more than...two days. Argh! Think about lyrics. Am I happy with that solo? Answer is you'll never be happy with that solo. Like Elsa, let it go. Then, either a) finally write lyrics or b) sod lyrics, add extra instrument (saz, bouzouki etc) instead. If a), 'sing' (HA!) and then fail miserably to get the vocal to sit in what I suppose must be called 'the mix', although this mixing business remains elusive thanks to my hamfisted, lo-fi approach to all of this. Post final effort into monthly Basschat Challenge with little time left until deadline for entries. Rest for a week until voting is finished then repeat process. I wouldn't have it any other way.