House Work

OK so it’s not exactly work…we’re making a video in Alison Surtees Salford mews house for the forthcoming single, cramming ourselves into toilets with guitars and mic stands and castanets , lounging on the children’s bunk beds, exploiting their soft toys and furnishings and all in the name of art. We are also having a laugh, eating chips and curry sauce and kind of vibing on the fat fun factor. Ben’s dog Dingo is pretty much the star turn. We love the fish eye lens and the sneaky security cam vibe; and the rushes look cool. Hmmm…rushes, sounds like I know what I’m talking about when all I really know is the jargon [story of my life]. Matt and Cynthia are on cameras and Alison directs us with a business like efficiency in a relaxed and explorative way. We input ideas and rationalise their feasibility. It feels good. I’m trying not to pout too hard but somehow these things seem to come all too naturally. Hopefully my lips are sinking in all the right places still it’s hard to tell with the compression apparently. There I go again sounding like I know what I’m on about. The video should be ready in a week or so when we’ll be fast forwarding it to VH1 and the likes. Perhaps you might even get to see it. I’ve only done a few videos [unlike Andy and Mike who’ve done several] and Ben has done even less than me but we’re all agreed that this was a very pleasant and creative day of work and we’re confident this will be reflected in the finished edit. What I mean is that it’s upbeat and doesn’t take itself too seriously [which makes a nice change from the seething intensity that occasionally becomes me]. This probably means something deep though I don’t have the wherewithal to analyse exactly what. Anyway many thanks Alison for the smooth operations and for organising the day. Meanwhile we’ve been getting some decent airplay for the single, Mark Radcliff, Janis Long and Tom Robinson have all been playing it; other DJ luminaries are promising to do likewise. We heard the single on the Janis Long show as we travelled back to Manchester at around 2.30am on Thursday morning. It kind of made the journey for us. It’s always a thrill to hear your song on the radio, no matter how many times it’s happened before. A few hours previous and we were gigging in Wellington, Telford in an out of the way pub venue called the Haygate where despite having some truly mind numbing sound problems we seemed to win the day and really enjoyed meeting people afterwards several of whom were kind enough to buy albums and loiter in a nice way. We’ve not signed so many things in a while, posters, arms, legs and jeans as well as records. Next day I was at my NHS job feeling all wasted, sleep deprived, and brain dead. Luckily Jenny was thinking for two so I didn’t have to. Thanks Jenny. Is anyone else sick of the election? I know it’s crucial to vote and vote I will as I always have but really some of them are such arses. Still you knew that already so I won’t go off on one. I should be sending out some group reminders and updates re the release shortly together with new tour dates, until then…VPx