wateroftyne

Pinched off Twitter...

Just pinched this off Instagram...

...and I've just played Streets of London with Ralph McTell. Just him, me, and a choir. It was gorgeous.

Here’s a murky shot of playing Video Killed The Radio Star with Trevor Bloody Horn :-D

Second show is ongoing.. I'll tell you later :-D

First show's just finished, and it was bloody great. Evening show starts at 7:30. More details later... or possbily tomorrow. :-)

Aye, Liam's been doing great. He's been with us all week. I just learn it, just like I do any tune. And then it's invariably tweaked during rehearsals. I don't write anything down, other than a setlist and what bass for which tune, 'cos there's zero time for faffing between.

Cheers! Here's a few more I took later yesterday. A shot from my stage position Some flightcase porn (this is only a tiny part of it!) The backstage village (basically, the producer needs all the cast members to be in this area at all times. It has to run like clockwork) One of the millions of camera shooting it. There's cameras everywhere, and GoPros all over the stage Alan Clark, a fantastic keyboard genius who I'm sharing a riser with. In April he's being inducted into the R'n'R hall of fame with the rest of Dire Straits. An today is showday!

I can't think I've ever had a problem with a tuning peg..?

I'm part-way through a big long epic of a day today - more of the stars have arrived, so we're working though the tunes with them at various allotted time-slots. It's a huge production and logistical operation, with a massive crew - the band are just one cog in the wheel. Every song has to be rehearsed for lighting, camera positions, VT cues, walk-on choreography... if one part isn't right, we do it again! Like I say, I can't give anything away, but I've had a couple of OMG moments today... and I get to do it again - for real - tomorrow. Get in :-) Here's some arty shots I took during stolen moments...

Ibanez Promethean.

Well, it's got the nod over the R-400 for this weekend...

Just back from the first soundcheck... so far, so good. Tomorrow's going to be a long shift: 9:30am to 9-30pm... ish.,

You need time for your ears to adjust. It's like drinking tea without sugar for the first tiime. At first, it's like.. 'WTF? I need sugar' After a while, it's... 'mmm... tea is lovely. Sugar just spoiled the taste.'

Yep, pretty much. We don’t want to freak the singers out by changing things too much.. not that they’d need to be changed, anyway.

Thanks, and here's hoping! The trickiest part of this is that we're rehearsing the tunes generally without the vocalists being present. We just need to be as tight as we can and move with them where possible... especially as it's all being filmed & recorded. Thankfully our MD is as sharp as a tack - I've got massive respect for the job he's done. Another thing which may - or may not - surprise people is that this isn't a reading gig. The brass guys have been given parts by their leader, but that's it. No-one has dots.

Update... here's some pics from yesterday. It was a good day - you could tell we were all starting to relax a bit more. All the tunes were recorded so the lampies can work out the cues and visuals. Today felt a bit different - it was a shorter day, but a bit more intense as we (and mainly the MD) started the very necessary process of nitpicking. We've got tomorrow daytime off - the gear is being taken to the Arena for the setup. We'll get time to do some checks tomorrow night, and hopefully run through some songs with vocalists we haven't hooked up with yet. More of the same on Saturday.. a couple of the main stars won't be around 'till Sunday - the day of the gig. So lots of waiting around and last-minute run-throughs.

Ahh... I knew I was going to do something today. Today was pretty intense, so I didn't really have much time to think. I used the R-400 all day, as it's what was left plugged in last night. They're both going with me this weekend, so I'll have a bit mess around with it at the soundcheck tomorrow night.

Wow... they've taken everything that was good about the tune, thrown it in the bin, and replaced it with blandness. That's quite a feat, that.

One man's bladed weapon, another man's...

Yeah... I guess it would be! I just a mute-y cable, so I don't think about it. ...until the mute mechanism fails. ha ha. TBH, I'm going to dial the output back tomorrow, and it the input harder.

Oof... too early to say. I know I'd be happy with either.

^^^ actually, the gain settings on the above photo tells a story. Both were set to pretty much the same volume - the output on the WB-100 is maxxed (as Leszek suggested) but as you can see, the input is barely ticking over.

So yes, anyway - this was today... The songs are coming together, so I had a bit of time to do some A/B-ing. Basically, as they have the same pre, the characteristics are the same - the richness & clarity. But the WB-100 is bigger and 'bloomier', whereas the R-400 is more focussed. So no surprises there, then...

Once I'm done with it, and assuming Mrs. WoT doesn't give in, we'll work on a road trip for it :-)