blakejonesmusic
local music, local arts, The Underground Garden

Fresno-Manchester-Liverpool (Fri., May 20th & Sat., May 21st)

Here's The Pineapple where we stayed in Liverpool.

Neptune with the Tesco Pig.

Our first day was really two days long. (time zones and all that jazz).
We woke at my house at 3:32am (gagh!) Long flights, but good company.
Lauri had packed me a sandwhich (ah, love!). Leland had loned me his mp3
player (whats this 21st Century?). I remember listening to Nilsson’s “Harry” album
on the trip, and some early Who just as we were coming into Manchester (seemed
appropriate!) courtesy of the in-flight movie/music selections
one could make on the little screen on the back of the airplane seat.
Terrible long line for passport control, but easy passage, even after admitting that
we were musicians.
Relief and happiness abounded when we met Neptune (the only band member not flying the same schedule as the rest of us) at the train station adjoining Manchester airport.
The only worry remaining was my cold-ruined voice for tomorrow’s Cavern shows.
We stopped at our home-away-from-home The Pineapple (pub and hotel) as soon as we got into Liverpool. It was great to be back. These people treated us so well on our first trip here 4 years ago and we were glad to get reservations here (along w/ Fresno friend Jaime Holt [and her mom] and Lancaster,Lancashire friend David Summers—all due tomorrow—yes, we practically took over the joint.)
We took a taxi over to Lark Lane—a sort-of Tower District-like area where there were lots of places to eat, cool little shops, and most importantly–not the tourist-ey/price-eyness of the city center.
Since it was so early….about 1 in the afternoon, most dinner places weren’t open, but we had a great lunch at a cafe’ called Pistachios. I had haddock chowder and Chicken & Mushroom Pie. We also found a pet shop for John to look into as well as a small music shop that looked a little more like a hang-out than a business for the lone worker (“How much are you selling that Les Paul Jr.?” “Oh, I’m not sure I’m selling it; I might just play it for a while.”).
The rest of the gang went into the town center to say ‘hello’ to IPO festival head David Bash, show Neptune Matthew Street and the Cavern, etc.
I stayed in the pub, drank tea , wrote in the journal, and generally rested my voice before going early to bed.

and here's when we met up with Neptune at the Manchester Airport train station

If you’re curious about the tour itinerary, of if you’re in the UK area….here are
the gigs we have set up for our English tour!

Sunday, May 22—Liverpool
The Cavern—2:30 in the afternoon. (front stage..the one that looks all wine
cellar-ey)
***just added, another show at The Cavern this same day, but this one on the back stage—4:15pm

Monday, May 23rd—Liverpool
The Cavern Pub—6:30 in the evening.
(this is just across Matthew Street from the Cavern. Matthew Street is a small pedestrian-only lane lined with several pubs and clubs.)

Wednesday, May 25th—Manchester
The Tiger Lounge—gig begins 9ish, we’re on at 10:15.
(Thanks to our friend Olly Neasham for setting this up!)

Saturday, May 28th–London
The Bull and Gate—4:15 in the afternoon
(apparently Nirvana played here on one of their early tours)

So, there you have it. Besides enjoying the sites when we can, this is what we’ll be up to for the next couple of weeks. Thanks again to the many who have helped, in one way or another, to get us launched!

thanks to world atlas dot com for the map!

Thanks Todd and Pam Severson for the cool pic.

We had a great time last week at our BonVoyage/Blake’sBirthday show at Fulton 55 in downtown Fresno. Thanks to all who performed and all who attended. Lots of guests hit the stage. Besides the bands: The Dale Stewart Band, Poplord, Josh&Jaime (see the pic above), Trike Shop and The Escorts, we had special guests Lisa Kao and Ron “Doc” Morse join the fun.

Also, special thanks to FresnoFamous.com who posted this review of the show.

and thanks to Todd and Pam Severson for the pictures [the good ones up top]!
(and then there’s this one after we’d scavenged through the KFC and cupcakes (thanks Lauri!) and my mom’s famous potato salad!

and here’s Poplord…

and there’s several more good ones taken by Todd and Pam, but I’ll have to re-size them to make them fit here on the blog.

Work continued last night in the secret vaults of Whispermaphone Studios (swamp version*) last night.

The original tracks (cut last week) were made with the four of us playing live in the room (as opposed to the players overdubbing their parts individually). All of them were done this way but one: “Clever Things”. This was cut a few minutes before Leland could get there. So tonight, Leland strapped on the headphones and laid down the piano part—-no mean feat. Sometimes it’s hard to make something ‘feel’ just right; finding the ‘pocket’, ‘the groove’, can be tricky when you’re laying something down while listening to the original track—Leland pulled it off perfectly.

The next challenge was to fix a problem that I had caused. Two of the tracks “Who’s Got a Light?” and “Send the Band to Liverpool” didn’t have drums. Well, they sort of did…I had re-routed John’s mic’s for the previous song, and then didn’t set them back to where they belonged. The result: two perfectly good takes with drums that you could only hear bleeding slightly through the other instrument’s mics. Gargh!

John set about trying to overdub drums. Not only is this an ill-advised way to work (you want your rhythm tracks locked in perfectly), it’s severely difficult. If the band’s tempo varied at all (and it usually does), it can be impossible. I’ve seen John pull it off, but in this case, the original drums bled through enough to highlight any discrepencies. [ach, who was the lame engineer who'd led us to this pickle?] After a valiant attempt and some creative work-arounds, we decided we’d end up with something we were all proud of only if we re-cut the two tunes. Luckily the band had just enough juice left (even though it was getting late) to pull off two fiery takes each of both songs.

So….the work continues.

Not only do these versions have a different ‘sound’…what with us using only acoustic pianos and guitars, but since we’re using a different approach, the arrangements change a bit…it’s more a creative re-working than a reproduction of these songs which are a familiar part of our live sets. I’m hoping that those who recieve this new disc (by pledging 20 bucks or more on our kickstarter.com campaign—-Click here!) will be very happy with this unique project.

watch the video to learn more.

*It does get a little ‘swampy’ in there when recording four folks live, and you’ve gotta turn the air conditioning off (it makes noise y’know) when the tape’s rolling….but that, and Leland playing the rather down-home-y upright piano…made for an atmospheric deep-in-the bayou mood on these sessions.

We’re nearly finished with “Everyone’s Unplugged Except Martin” our un-plugged album that we’re recording exclusively for our kickstarter.com fund raiser. The backing tracks were recorded in one day-long marathon session last week. Tonight we’ll be doing a few overdubs, and I expect the whole of recording will be done by early next week. Add on a couple more days for mixing, and the album will be finished. We’ll be mailing it out to those who pledged twenty dollars or more for the fundraiser that’s helping to launch our tour of England at the end of May.
The way kickstarter fundraisers work, we have a set amount of time (19 days as of this writing) to raise the dough or we get nothing….so, if you’re so inclined, please hop on over (click here) and donate anything that you can. You will recieve fabulous prizes—like the album I’m writing about. A slightly higher pledge will get us to write and record a song customed made for you. A bit more will hire us to play at your party or function. Oh what a bargain! Plus…you’re helping send this band on it’s way to Liverpool, Manchester and London.
Watch the fun video here!

The details for our tour of England are coming together!
We’ve got airplane tickets..some hotel reservations…and most importanly,
some gigs nailed down.
The first ones to come together are the IPO Festival dates:
Liverpool—Cavern Club Sunday, May 22nd at
Liverpool—Cavern Pub (other side of the street!)….Monday, May 23rd
London—Bull and Gate Saturday, May 28th.

Our good friend Olly Neashum (who came into Fresno and played for us thrice last summer) is setting up our mid-week gigs in the
Manchester/Bolton area. [Thanks Olly!

Fun facts:
*Apparenty Nirvana and Blur are amongst the bands who have played previously at the Bull and Gate in London.
*This time at the Cavern, we’re playing in the smaller (but more wine-cellar-ee) front room….very exciting…
looks just like the footage you’ve seen of the early Beatles playing “Some Other Guy”.