Thursday 18 February 2010

A Couple of days in the studio/Chesham & Rotherham

We had an interesting mid week stint in Canterbury. Skillnet very kindly lent us the use of their recording studio for a couple of days and we banged out a version of our World Cup song, 'Give us the World'

Two days isn't much time but we pulled it off ok, recording the music on Wednesday and the lead and harmony vocals next day. Now all we need is a decent mix we can all agree on and it'll be ready for release. So that's that then.
It'll be interesting to see what our Engineer Clive comes up with . He is obviously leaning toward a radio friendly mix with vocals well up and everything sounding a bit dry for our taste and we're torn really between wanting the song to sound current and wanting it to have the obligatory Queenlike hugeness of the eighties which everyone remembers so well.

Time will tell but I suspect Queen hugeness will prevail in the end . It's nice to be doing something we've written ourselves for a change but it's very obviously in the style of Queen and that is the aim of the whole thing so not have the production reflect that would be a bit pointless.

Anyway, that task finished, it was off to the Elgiva theatre Chesham on Friday and a sellout at Rotherham Civic Theatre on Saturday. Two cracking nights crowned for me, by the inclusion of Love of my Life at Rotherham. It's such a simple song but so exposed and I'm always terrified of either forgetting the words or the audience not joining in but we really nailed it on Saturday and Rotherham sang it beautifully. Chris was happy too because he got to sit on his Queen monogrammed stool. Honestly there are no excesses to which this man will not go for the sake of authenticity!
Brighton Rock next. Full album version, which will be a challenge but the boys are all well up for it.

So it's off to Christchurch, Margate and Weston Supermare this weekend and we'll be introducing Chris to the One Vision musical on Saturday at Margate Theatre Royal. I understand they've worked 'Give us the World' into the show so it'll be nice to have a crack at performing it live.

Rock on all. Speak soon

Rob

Monday 15 February 2010

Still on tour!

Hi Folks

We've had a busy old time of it since the last post. Six theatres and a couple of days recording so here's where we've been and what we've done...

We kicked off February on the 4th at the Wyvern Theatre Swindon. Great night. They've all been great nights so far and we're really settling into our stride now. At the Beck theatre in Hayes next night we had a smaller than average audience (no-one over four foot :o) ) but they made up for lack of numbers with bags of enthusiasm. Felixstowe was a very chilly place to be on Saturday but we were warmed considerably by the lovely audience at the Spa Pavillion. We've had a lot of comments from emails to the site and also at the meet and greets after the shows about the less well known stuff. Almost all of the comments have been positive about the inclusion of 39 and Death On Two Legs so it seems our judgement has been vindicated on that score. Worthing Assembly Hall rounded off the weekend. What a huge stage! We filled it though and John-Marc had a field day with a projector screen roughly the size of Belgium.
Tracy (the Mrs) popped along to see the show and kindly manned the merchandise stall as well, Ta love!)
Merchandise is going very well. the programs are selling like hotcakes and Chris even came up with some plectrums with images of the band on, snazzy eh? Mind you he sulked a bit because everyone wants one with Freddie on it! Tee hee hee...

So that was that weekend. It confirmed what we'd already hoped, that we're settling in well. Ticket sales are good. Audiences are really into what we're doing. Everything on track.

On the minus side, the laptop has not materialised so sadly that was stolen, cheers for that, whoever scumbag was responsible for that. Still, into everyone's life a little rain must fall...

One other thing, we've run out of ammo! No pyros left! Don't worry folks, more ordered and on the way.

More news to follow...

Monday 1 February 2010

On Tour!

Hi all

What a great weekend we just had! Four shows, starting off at Cheltenham town hall on Thursday. The crowd were great and forgave me for inadvertently calling them Chelmsford at the end of the night, whoops...
Hullbridge Sports club on Friday was a sell out but sadly marred by us losing a rather vital laptop with all our lighting software on it. Probably nicked or hopefully just mislaid but we'd rather like it back so fingers crossed there.
Camberley Theatre on Saturday was a sell out and a truly magical night. We tried out Death on Two Legs again and it went well but we felt it possibly darkened the beginning of the set with Play the Game absent. Food for thought there.
Plenty of food for thought from Jacqui's email (see reviews page on the site)
No fewer than five suggestions for improvements to the set!
Some good points though. I normally do angle the Piano in a bit to face the audience but didn't on Saturday. Shall definitely do so from now on! Freddie was always side on actually bit I know it's an issue. Brian to play God Save the Queen (ah la Buck Place) in his solo. I'm sure he'll be delighted to (the tart) I'll pass that suggestion along.
Show must go on does sometimes come into the set so perhaps next time you see us...
As to numbers well we do try not to have too much obscure stuff in but I reckon the balance is about right. 39 wouldn't really work in a medley and is a nice change of tone. Visually good too with Roger at the front.
Thanks Jacqui for your comments . See you next time we're in Camberley!
Sunday was a great night at Kings' Lynn Corn Exchange although we had a pretty close call getting set up. Just in time! phew... hate it when that happens but the sound was great. Cheers to the boys from Stagecore for their sterling work. An honourable mention as well to John, our new projector man who also did the sound for us at Camberley. Those back projections really add something and plenty of room for expansion there.
At King's Lynn we tried Death on Two Legs after Flash/Play the Game and BINGO IT ROCKS! it sits just fine there so that's good. One of my personal favourites that one.
The voice held up ok over four consecutive nights which is encouraging although I may have to watch it a bit. I don't want to start dropping keys and all that but one has to be sensible. Four more coming up in three days...

Cheers folks. Speak soon.