Yep, it really has.
Starting with what can only be described as a less than perfect Friday rehearsal two weeks ago to working right through with no days off. The rehearsal was one of those things; they happen from time to time. Sometimes one of us has had a bad day/week and, as is human nature, we fail to leave it at the door. Provided everyone else is on reasonable form it soon gets put to one side and we crack on. Once in a blue moon we all turn up in various states of Victor Meldrew like irritation and it ends up being a slow motion car crash.......for four hours! Yes folks, four hours a week for the other guys, four hours every two weeks for me and that's just the time we spend together rehearsing. Take into account the hours of personal practice time, time taken writing new material, there's a lot of hours go into what we do. I suppose unless you're a musician or the family of a muso you don't see all that work going in. Or the many pounds spent on gear, transport etc. Or the constant irritation of our spouses when they find that every room in the house is full of musical gear. So to combat that rotten feeling of 'it's all wrong' I did the sensible thing and didn't pick up my bass for a week. Took a holiday. Skived off. And it's done me a power of good! Practiced the other night and played the whole set through while watching Ironside and was practically note perfect. I also got myself out to a gig last Saturday night too.
Guernsey has a very active, lively music scene and some great bands. Pubs put their hand in their pocket and pay bands to perform knowing that it will bring in the punters who'll then spend their hard earned on booze. There's no entry fee to most places. The atmosphere is great and as a band you know you're generally going to be playing to more than six people. Oh that the UK music scene was as enlightened. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to deal with businesses that want a band to entertain and bring a group of people with them to fill the coffers but think that the band should be happy to play for free 'for the exposure'. Now don't get me wrong, there are some decent places out there who are simply looking to promote local talent and fair play to them. As a band, all we want to do is break even and play but my god it's a hard thing to do! It helps that people over here really 'get' live music. It doesn't seem to matter what the genre is, if it's live it's cool. We seem to have lost that at home and that's sad. How long before bands start performing 'live' on Youtube because it's no longer viable to go on the road? So, support your local bands and keep it live. And if you're ever in Guernsey on a Saturday night, find out if Stuck To The Ceiling are playing anywhere. If they are, go see them. Seriously.
In other unexpected news it turns out that Nic actually has a bit of a knack for this blogging lark. Full marks to him for just the right amount of ramble, incoherence and obscure movie trivia! We have had long, arduous discussion over the whole social media thing but it turns out that you people out there do actually read the blog.........you nutters. Don't you have anything better to do? :)
Anyway, home tomorrow for a better rehearsal, family time and a bit of general chillin.
Laters
Dunc
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