Internal Process...

Mmmm..

In a shocking (boring) display of honesty, here's the email I sent to every single person involved with the 'Lighting and Electrical' album today..

I should point out that all of the people involved with 'Lighting and Electrical' have thus far received £0. ...and this includes the band.

You should also bear in mind that I'm a stubborn, tyrannical twat.....(c) C. Hamilton, 2006

Outside of the band there are people who have done some fantastic work for us and so far we have paid them nothing. They have done what they have done out of the goodness of their hearts and out of friendship, loyalty and (blind) belief that we can deliver the goods.

God bless 'em.

It therefore makes me feel a little sheepish that we continue to talk-the-internet-talk without actually delivering the goods. BUT...at the same time the whole idea of this 'blog' in the first place was to document the difficulties of an indepedent band making an album available.

*YAWN*

(Are you chewing?!!!)

(Yes! You!)

Anyway...

Here is the email.

*******************************

Hello boys and girls,

Right.

This is a 'Speak now or forever hold your peace' email thread. The album needs to go off to mastering in it's 'final' format. This means that we need an argreement on mixes and tracklisting. If you leave me hanging on opinions I will make my own choices and move forward anyway. I love you all very much, but I'm B.O.R.E.D. with not having this thing ready.

(Please don't think I'm being an arsehole, I'm just trying to get a (very) long-winded job done!)

So...

TWO THINGS:

1: Final Mixes

Having listening intently with Anna, Beth, Cam, Executuve Producer Robson and some trusted outside sources....here is the final analysis:

(Anna, Cam - The things we talked about....e.g. vocal levels, drums...have been addressed by Beth, except where mentioned below)

1) 'Peoples Express' is not going to make the cut. It is the runt of the litter. Anna doesn't rate it, Beth can't do any more with it and frankly it'll let the rest of the ablum down. It's gone.

2) 'Old Souls' sounds weird for some reason.

(Anna - we'll talk about this. BETH - email Anna and tell her why, please...)

3) Beth - I still think you could give the drums some more balls on 'Fork in the Road' . I know it's tricky, but you made it happen on 'Dragonfly' and I think that if you look at those two tunes together you'd make it work twice. It sounds compressed to buggery currently.

2: TRACKLISTING:

This is where the fight starts....

Given that 'Peoples Express' is gone, please give me your suggested tracklisting.

For example, my good friend Dubber suggested that we start the album with:

1) Old Souls
2) Dragonfly
3) Sharpening a Blade

..and then said that no other tune mattered until Track 6)

He also said that we should ditch 'Frequency of The Word Turtle' and have a 'perfect' 10-track album.

What are yor foughts?

Peace love etc
Craigx

*******************************************************

We've been making this record for fucking ages.

The reason we've been making this record for fucking ages is that I'm not very good at being a tyrannical twat.

I have plans for the next record, though...

xxxxx

Friends of the Stars in Podcast volte-face shocker...

Some months back I posted that we weren't interested in making a Friends of the Stars podcast. I was totally disdainful of podcasts in that post. In fact, I took the piss a bit.

Hmm.

There's no easy way to say this without looking and sounding like a total hypocrite, so I'll just come right out and say it.

Here goes..

*cough*

We're making some podcasts.

There. I said it.

The plan, such as it is, will mean that this afternoon I will meet Executive Prodcuer Robson and Campbell down the pub. We'll have a few beers then I'll bring them back here, stick 'em in front of a microphone and watch them go.

Oh christ.

..and here's Tom with the Weather.

Okay, calm down.

I don't have first hand, exclusive knowledge of why Britney Spears is getting divorced from chancing dancer K-Fed.

I don't have fly-on-the-wall footage of war-wongering twat Donald Rumsfeld resigning

Furthermore, I don't know the reason why reality TV no-mark Jade Goody decided to punch a pensioner in a cinema.

Jesus, I don't even know why a bored squaddie decided to stick a lit firework in his poo-hole with disasterous consequences.....

But...

..but

However...

I did see a local TV weatherperson today!

Yep, that's right folks...In a shocking development this dude walked right past me in a corridor at approximately 3pm.

The weird thing is this:

It's not the first time that Friends of the Stars have rubbed shoulders with the Meteorological.

oh no....

A few years back we did an outdoor gig as part of Birmingham's Artsfest at the then newly opened BullRing shopping centre.

Before we regaled the assembled happy shoppers and festival-goers with our own brand of commercially inviable folk music we were introduced onto the stage by this lady

....

In summary then, the forecast for the coming month is: The album might get finished.

Back to you in the studio...

x

PS: The first person to correctly identify the musical reference in the title of this post will win something nice. Email info@friendsofthestars.co.uk with your answer. No googlin', y'hear!

Cold........

During the last 48 hours it's gone cold here in Birmingham.

REALLY COLD.

We British love it, though.....it gives us something to talk about.

Several times today people have said to me things like, 'Blimey. It's cold, innit'...and I, of course, have responded automatically with, 'Phh!..You're not wrong there!'

The lady who reads the weather on the telly said that it's going to get colder still over the next few days.

Did you watch the weatherlady on the telly, too?

She said it's going to get colder.