After 7 rehearsals, we performed our set to support Carol Ann Duffy and John Sampson at Nantwich Words & Music fest. The tech team were brilliant, all of the staff on hand and volunteers really friendly and made us feel welcome. It was an honour to perform with Carol Ann and a pleasure to meet John Sampson, one of the nicest people you could meet, and a skilled veteran of hundreds of musical performances across the globe.
One of the founding members of Ink Pantry travelled to see Deb and I perform, which was touching, and a couple of friends were there. We didn't have long, our instructions were simply that we had 15 minutes to perform and must be off quickly at the end. In the end we managed to remove all of our equipment; two synths and stands, chairs and tables, two mic stands, tubular bell, many props, in under 15 minutes. For me, being efficient and correct in these technical aspects are most important and my biggest concern. We were blessed to have such a good team that it wasn't a worry. The sound quality was great, the look as good as we could make it.
The crowd was 50 to 100, so this supporting performance was technically our largest, above our opening for Knutsford Music Festival.
After the show we packed things away, had an evening meal and generally recovered. We listened to John Sampson's CD, somewhat enthralled by the odd wind instruments (I was struck how the Kazoo-like timbre of the crumhorn sounded like our Stylophone). The best track was his sole composition on the album, but the album itself was produced and performed to a really high degree by a large ensemble of expert performers, at complete odds to the cheap graphics of the CD.
Over the weekend, I had an idea of how to fix my EQ system, again based on a rank of single high pass filters rather than the effort of high and low. I'll give this at try at some point. The hours and days have been flying with too little production, and the work on the Christmas song is slow and built in many layers. My addition of Wizzard (or Abba's Waterloo) style brass 'honks' a the start of each bar has added an instant Christmas feeling to it.
I have managed to write one song in draft called Hope and Longing, here's a snippet.
Nothing lasts forever but hope, and longing.
Memories will melt away.
Love is but a butterfly
on fire to light the way.
Tears of joy and sadness come and go.
Youth is fire as fleeting as the dawn
Singing as a bird-song in the morn.
Every day is precious
Don't wish one hour away
Nothing lasts forever but hope
and longing for a better day.
My voice is getting a tiny amount stronger each day and perhaps in a decade or two I'll be happy with it. My PRS report showed that my most popular track was Cycles IV, perhaps a good sign for the remaster. I'll make some new videos for that release next year. Now I have a day to file and compile. A busy few weeks has begun.
