Letter to Jamie

This is a copy of a letter I sent today to Jamie Campbell’s myspace site - (myspace.com/jamicambel). Jamie was fellow founder of Flying Colours, a band we formed in 1980 which was together until 1983.

“Hey Jamie, guess what! I bumped into Pete, our old drummer from Flying Colours last week. It was so great to see him. he hadn’t changed at all, apart from the colour of his hair :-)) He hadn’t realised it was the ‘real’ Simon Cowell we were signed to way back in 1982/2. I reminded him of the time Simon and his pal Jim invited us to dinner at his parents house just outside London. After a great main meal, made with much care, Simon and Jim presented an amazing looking dessert, cream gateau or something similar and a can of cream. When Pete, yourself and I sprayed the cream onto our dessert we picked up our spoons and being in the mood for munchies :-)) scooped a healthy portion down the gullet, milliseconds after that, this horrible disgusting taste hit the back of our throats all at the same time. “EuGHHHHHHHH! We grabbed our stomachs and bended our heads down to the floor. It was far and away the worst thing any of us had ever tasted before. Simon and Jim were suddenly in stitches, it was ****ing shaving cream!!! Pete didn’t initially appreciate this “funny” public schoolboy joke and reacted lightning fast…the next thing I knew I Simon was up against the wall with Pete’s hands round his neck…”ye wee fucking bastard” he whispered at his hand pulled back. I stepped in between them just in time and said “he’s only joking Simon, he’s from Port Glasgow”!! Pete looked at me for a moment and broke into a mad dog grin, Simon turned from red, quickly back to his normal colour, and with a nervous smile he breathed a noticeable sigh of relief … and we all burst out laughing…………….

so I reckon I saved Simon Cowell’s life that day”!

Universal Records- Week1

Halfway through the session now and it’s on target. We’ve laid down tracks for eleven out of fourteen tracks. Next week we should finish the pipes by Tuesday and then we’ll move on to the drum tracks. The tracks so far have been done in 8 and 16 bar segments in groups of four players and solo performances.

The prism ada8 arrived on  Wednesday afternoon and it sounds just as good as it should for the price! A clear tight sounding bottom end and lots of clarity in the midrange. Comparing it to my studios Metric Halo unit I’m glad I chose the latter as it sounds just as good although has less channels. The Apogee didn’t impress really and the outputs were very noisy too, perhaps as a result of dodgy software though so mustn’t judge too harshly. Having a well earned weekend off now!! Last weekend Yen from first Light conducted the first Offbeat podcasts which we will air soon on the site. Just re-recording some bits for that when I feel up to it at some point over the weekend