Brassed On

Bob and Steve are the brass guys and it’s simply brilliant to have them on board. I kid you not. The parts all scored up and ready to go, notated and punctuated with pauses and tempo shifts and descending sharpened 7ths by our very own Craig Gannon who directs the session with ease. Craig has done all the arrangements for brass and strings on the new record and immediately establishes a rapport with Tony Christie’s right hand men. I sit back and enjoy, make the right noises, and the right noises get made. At the end of the night we have the brass parts for Greedy Scorpios, and yes it does sound a little Kinksy which we take as a huge complement. Mid evening Mike and I do an interview in the courtyard talking nonsense and eventually some kind of sense, I think, about the making of the record. The filming will be incorporated into a DVD which we are putting out with the record god willing…we still need to record the live session which will form the bulk of it. Mike does his drunken uncle routine which is priceless. We spent the early part of the day getting our pictures taken at a Blackburn studio a few minutes walk from the Sinister Place. Thanks Amy for the direction and the bleaching, we look forward to seeing the proofs. We now have a deadline to finish the record by the end of this month so I really must crack on with the vocals…still only half done. On Wednesday I recorded the BBC 6 Music chin wag with Rob Hughes which goes out on Saturday afternoon around 3pm I think…though no doubt you can listen again from the site if you’re glued to the cup final or fishing for carp.Meanwhile maybe see you at a Durutti Column gig, tour dates pages have the details, VPx