Astoria....were loosing our heritage....

Standing out on Tottenham Court Road on the afternoon of the final Astoria show on Wednesday I had an experience Ive enjoyed many times over the years, but sadly won't be experiencing again. The west end has lost something very historical that no number of regeneration schemes and crossrail stations can replace. The heart of our London will in future resemble cabott square at canary wharf. Homoginized and soulless. A building is more than the bricks mortar and design, it's the memories connected to it, it's emotional attachment to people and their appreciation of it, just look at Lennons house at Menlove Avanue in Liverpool, bought by the national trust and preserved for future generations in all it's semi detached pebble dashed glory.

Standing in front of the Astoria it's shocking how many disastatous buildings were erected behind centrepoint, how much space there is to build and dig and how unnecessary it is to loose the old lady of rock and the beautiful buildings that curve round onto Oxford street with it. Like the skylon and the Euston arch, we'll regret losing this little corner of London.

The Astoria's a valadictory building, a place you play when you think you've first connected with people, a right of passage to go to your first gigs there and dream of one day headlining there, to spill out into the west end late at night and dissapear down alleys to find your favourite caf or late night bar, a hotch potch of people and cultures all colliding and a feeling of great joy bring able to have such a fantastic venue in the heart of one of the greatest musical cities in the world, the experience in future will be all the more suburban. The future? Were heading headlong into a world of music where it'll be a beautifully sanitized tube journey on the Jubillee line, a wander accross the spotless piazza, herded through the cavernous experience of nando's and pizza express into a spanking new arena where we watch music made on the same computers that work the CCTV that watches our every step all the way from Waterloo and back again. Progress? RIP Patrick Mcgoohan... you were way ahead of your time.....

Rehersals.....

It's late and som and I have just finished rehearsing for the Astoria final show, we jammed crazy by gnarles barcley, umbrella by geraldine, wide open space (yawn) and disappoint u, then we abandoned it and had a philosophical discussion about bands splitting up and the dark side of fame and listened to audio clips of Lennon slagging off mcartney (were both big beatle fans...) and discussed the future of the music industry, sorry this post isn't witty, it's late and I'm just showing som my iPhone blogging software....by the way catherine AD who I've been doing some writing with at the southbank had her first radio 1 play the other day, I expect big things of her, check her out, ages worrking with bernhard butler at the mo, looking forward to hearing it.....x

A new years message......

Hi everyone, hope you all had a good christmas and wishing you all a great new year for the year ahead, don't get too drunk on new years eve. I have been busy in the studio writing and recording some tracks for my own project right up to christmas but I've headed home to Chester for the festive period to do the rounds of family and friends.

Also I've been doing some co-writing with some excellent new artists that you'll hear a lot more of in the year ahead, I hope. I did mention on the forum around the time of the Six blog that I'd hoped to send a free mp3 download of one of the tracks Ive been working on before the end of the year and I'm still going to do that, it'll just be after the new year instead for various logistical reasons out of my control, so I hope a few weeks delay is ok and please accept my sincerest apologies if you've been waiting. Don't berate me just yet, it could be worse, you could be a guns and roses fan LOL!!

Seriously though, thanks so much for your patience in waiting for some new music, I really hope it doesn't disappoint you.

Paul
x

Italian Dictators.......

Every great band needs a dictator to work properly, so I thought I'd go to the British museum and check out the Hadrian exhibition. Not rocky's wife, your getting the Italian connections mixed up. Emperor Hadrian. Firstly I wanted to check out the roof which I haven't seen b4, secondly to test my new mobile blogging software (if your Reading this it works) and thirdly to get a few tips from the dead emperor. This got me to thinking, ive only written 1 song about dictators and that was another Italian, musilini. In my six blog I put a link to nonotnowjims cover of said track on youtube, and as a joke said it was actual footage of me writing it on the outskirts of Rome in 1944. I got a message on facebook the other day from someone very concerned about a grave error I made in the six blog. Namely that I'd made a mistake and that surely I'd written the song on the outskirts of Rome in 1994, as I wasn't alive in 1944. Note to self; irony and rock n roll just don't mix......

Mobile blog test!

I'm testing this mobile blog software on my iPhone to see if it works. Whilst doing it I've got my laptop next to me and a mac pro in the studio, I'll go somewhere more remote and test it tomorrow......shit, standard leige have just scored...........

tattoo..

someone messaged me with this pic of their tattoo, not much compromise here, awesome!

recording......

Mike arrived today and we did some editing on the drum track that I recorded a while back. Got the drums sounding cool, pretty dry sounding, not really any effects going at the moment and ill try and keep em as they are, prob a bit of eq and compression here or there, the ride cymbol sounded a bit to 'nice' so tomorrow we'll look and making that a bit more nasty. It always amazes me that recording takes longer than you'd imagine. Then we moved onto bass, but only had time to get a sound up, so Im gonna record bass tomorrow. I added some distortion under the clean bass sound but ill have a listen back tomorrow. Ive got my 70's rickenbacker 4001 out which Ive had for ages and Im gonna try it thru a few amps tomorrow, an ampeg svt2 and a selmer head from the 60's. Everton lost to Blackburn away..........bollox