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The purpose of the jottings page is to show news and publish my ramblings, we will try and place the latest news at top of page, so here goes.....
30th November 2007
Religion !!!!!!!!!!!!!
So the Sudanese court has found the teacher from Liverpool Guilty.
But they have let her off the 20 lashes and the year in prison and given her 15 days to contemplate her guilt in prison and will then deport her. Meantime outside the Court, the fundamentalists are waving swords and chanting for her death! All because she agreed with the children to call the teddy bear Mohammed. Apparently she was grassed up by her own work colleagues..
Over in Saudi Arabia a muslim woman got herself gang raped by muslim men and then found herself in court facing a time in prison and on the receiving end of 200 lashes. Her crime being that she should not have been in the company alone with a man who was not her husband. ..........
All this in the aftermath of the most powerful man in the world bombing the crap out of Iraq, based on mis-information and he used the term "crusade" to stir his people up.
Our own Tony Blair revealed this week that he tried to keep quiet about his Catholic faith whilst in power, as he was aware that he would lose credibility in this secular nation in which we live now (though it wasn't always secular and the laws etc are all based on what Christian leaders thought was decent and charitable behavior).
An old friend of mine who does not share my faith and is a confirmed atheist has 2 sayings that he trots out every time the above stuff comes to prominence and they are;-
"life is hard, and then, you die - that's it, nothing else" and "all wars are caused by religion, get rid of religion and we get rid of the wars"
I can't change his mind on the first saying, that is just how he sees it and I can't prove he is wrong and he can't prove he is right, so we live in harmony, me agreeing not to force my views on him and vice versa.. Except it isn't vice-versa, because our conversation must never be about religion - he makes the rules you see..
Just like in our society now, secularism rules..
With my friends 2nd saying, he is completely wrong and he can't see it because he has no experience of faith. I did not say religion...
I actually despise religion. So did my hero, Jesus.
Religion is merely the tool that men (and they ARE mainly men) use to justify their disagreements.
The Crusades were nothing to do with REAL Christianity! Those who are REAL Christians understand this perfectly.
Religious and secular people don't see it.
I know very little about Islam, but I know enough to see that these sword waving nutters are just that, they don't even understand their own faith, probably don't know how to read properly their own holy book. In the same way president Bush knows little of the bible, he memorises certain passages, but actually he knows nothing about how to understand the context of these passages and is plainly clueless about exegesis and hermeneutics.
Secularism is also a religion, but Secularists don't see it that way.
Jesus did not come to start a revolution, nor did he have plans and projects to stop wars or to reduce famines or any other man made catastrophe.. Because he knew that man had made the world an unjust place... yes you read that right, MAN has made the world unjust. So why did he come to live amongst us apart from all the usual reasons that are trotted out by my fellow Christians?
Well, he taught us how to live properly, he showed us that despite the injustice and persecution if you love others as you love yourself, then you really see the person in front of you and you can listen to their rantings and yet not feel the need to hate them back but to actually love them back. A topsy turvy statement?? No! it's just that we live in an upside down world and so this type of thinking just seems topsy turvy! The teachings of Jesus were the best and still are, it's just that people need to understand, but first they need to want to understand and that is the real problem.
Finally, the teachers.. The priests, vicars, ministers, pastors, gurus, leaders, fuehrers, Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, Arch-Bishops, Imams and other Holy Joes... you know what, you guys need to take responsibility, you need to fall down on your knees and get to know the MAN! Get to know this God that you might have different names for.. Then when you get just a glimpse of what he is really about, you will take off your ego-centric clothes, stop your rituals and ceremonies and start to LOVE your enemies..but, you won't .... will you?
It's because all religions are built on a hierarchical structure & feed ego's and so the "people" get lazy and don't learn for themselves and so as has happened in Christianity, the world dismisses it, as it has viewed it from the wrong perspective, a perspective that the Church has concocted - good ole Constantine! -(not!). And now as Islam is in its' own death throws, (yes it really is, but not in the way you probably think!) it makes the same mistakes as Christianity did and forgets what it really is about!
Love your enemies!
Peace be with you!
Graham
14th November 2007
I am so angry!
I have just been told a story about someone I know, a family actually.
Let me start by saying that I am not very politically motivated but recognise that the world can't function without politics. Politicians have a very hard job.
I am not a woolley liberal and I am not a tree hugging lefty. I recognise the need for entrepreneurship and I know how the world of economics function, but I am not a thatcherite either.
That out of the way, let me tell you the story, because quite honestly the newspapers are not interested in this type of story..................
A family here in Leeds (remember, I know them) are asylum seekers. They are as genuine as it gets. The family comprises a Mother and her 2 sons, (1 in infant school and the other at primary school. They have gone through the "process" and to be honest they have been messed about, due to having to move house several times.
They are on the brink of being fully accepted as their case is genuine.
So the other night, well, early morning actually, 4 burly men (Government) broke into the house and took all 3 of them to a cell in Leeds. No phone calls were allowed, no messages could be left.
The children were frightened out of their tiny minds.
Then they were transported to London, that is 200 miles away.
Then they were told after a week that they were being deported.
Then, at the 11th hour someone told them that they had made a mistake and they had arrested the wrong people!
So 1 week later they are back in Leeds.
This is scandalous!
The 4 burly men were no doubt doing their job in a professional manner, for professional - read, "not allowing themselves to get personally involved" and that my friends is the problem! - we NEED to get personally involved, that is the only way we will understand people, especially frightened people who are running away from horrors that we can never dream of.
So, next time you read the Daily Lie newspaper and start to get all hot under the collar about how these people are ruining our country (and indeed some of them are, but there again there are many of us natural Brits who lie, cheat, steal and murder!), just remember this ONE story. I bet there are thousands like it!
PEACE OUT!
Graham
9th November 2007
Someone was asking about how "Emeror's New Clothes" was recorded..... so;-
This took 58 minutes exactly to record.....The tune was pretty much worked out by the time I got around to setting up the recording gear. I had played around with various chord progressions and wondered what it would be like, if I could try and fit some of them into the same tune.
The trick seemed to be to try and remember what the next "figure" would be whilst coming to the end of the one I was playing.I was going for the Keneally/Vai vibe...So I hit "record" playing to no click track, yes, you read that right! (which accounts for the slight variations in tempo.) & played my £100 made in China Stagg Strat using the bridge pickup via a Boss GT3 on some distorted setting.. I managed to play it in 1 take, for 1 minute and 42 seconds but then stumbled after the longish fastish run, on the following chord. This is why you can hear a slight overdub at that point. I also changed to the bridge pickup part way through, no idea why!So now I had 2 minutes and 45 seconds of tune, on 2 tracks of the multitrack recorder playing in a linear fashion with 1 slight overlap.I giggled and had a mug of tea.. Now the hard for me bit.
Drums.. Curse them!
I have a cheap drum beat box called a Zoom RT123, so I found a rock groove on it and then discovered my poor tempo guitar playing...
More tea..
I eventually played on 1 track the drum groove just where it fitted, this left massive gaps in the tune, so then I played the zoom by hand, just bashing the drum buttons until I thought I was ready for a take!
I then recorded the haphazard drums, playing just where the groove had left gaps.
I was well happy with the result!
So I hooked up the guitar synth and selected a Rock Bass sound and recorded in 1 take the bass... at first I wasn't sure, but after a listen back I decided that was ok.
So the tune was finished.. Except I can't help fiddle about with stuff, so I had set up a 3rd guitar track, selected a delayed effect on the GT3 and started to fool about, unfortunately nothing really worked so I didn't bother recording, then by accident as I was listening back I started to just strum the strings but at same time just slid my left hand fingers over the strings, up and down the fretboard, I liked the ambient effect and so recorded it but made sure that 2 thirds through the tune, I stopped doing it - in the name of contrast!
Voila, 58 minutes after starting, my Emperor's New Clothes track finished!
I transferred it to the PC and then Compressed it (went mad with the compressor actually) and then posted it on my website!
"Genius" or "Sucks" ???????????? (probably somewhere well in between! - but I have learned something and that is that all the MAGIC that I hear by my heroes, isn't really Magic is it!!!!!!!! But I love them all the same!)
Perhaps that's an idea for next months task? "RECORD a tune in less than 1 hour.."
6th or maybe it's the 7th now (not looked at the clock) of November 2007
Posted my November Guitarist Collective Task entry and I have called it "Emperor's New Clothes" and you can listen to it via the MUSIC section... but you knew that!. Anywayz, what's that all about? well, it goes back to May of this year when I met up with a good guitarist friend and we were talking guitars and guitarists... as u do...and I mentioned that I often listen to radio Keneally which features the music and extraordinary guitar and piano playing of one Mike Keneally (virtuoso!), my friend fell on the floor laughing!!!!! he said he'd been to see MK and hated it! he believed that MK was just laughing at us all as his music was nonesense!!!!! This thought/conversation stayed with me for quite a while....
So when Bill Jehle of Guitarist Collective forum fame, posted the TASK for november, I thought this was the ideal opportunity to construct/compose my own ENC type tune... shades of Vai and Keneally in there as well as Satriani, but as usual with me, it is ALL original! - I know I am not in their league, but I am well pleased with the result. A friend of mine laughed and said it was "well mental !!!!! ", which I take as a compliment!
So.... is it "a great composition" or does it just (as the task asked) ..... "SUCK" ?????
(Still in 1 Peace),
Graham
2nd November 2007
The November task for the guitarist collective has just arrived.... maybe this month I might fail to complete??? we'll see what emerges! but it does seem a rather negative task! and here am I trying to operate in the positive.... albeit years after wallowing in the negative!!
Just completed the 3rd of the 4 CD talks by Richard Rohr, really enjoying them and I know that I am now a fully paid up 2nd half lifer! - who on occasion dips back into 1st half life ways and thinking....
Also, my Buy section is now the ? section.......... oo er......wots dat all'bout?
20th September 2007
I have a STREAMING AUDIO PLAYER on the HOME PAGE now! - This streaming audio player came with my membership of www.mychristianbands.com and quite a while back now I managed to get it to work on my www.myspace.com/bernamicagray website. However, for some inexplicable reason (as seems to be the case quite often with the web and computers in general!) it wouldn't work when i tried to put it onto this website. However, BIG THANX to Andy Windsor, who managed to get this to work for me today!
Because it is STREAMING, you need to select the track you want and click the Play button and then be patient! - It does load quite quickly actually and works a treat and the bonus to me is that when you "play" a track, I "think" it counts as a play back on the mychristian bands website. But the big advantage is that when I upload a song onto the Christian bands website, this automatically adds the song in the streamer for viewers of the myspace or this website.
Whilst I am in the mood for "jotting" or is it really blogging?!? I can also add that the Glimpe part 1 song managed number 1 on the mychristianbands website and the new "complikashunzz" is also getting a fair amount of plays and I saw it today in the charts at number 3, although the website history is showing its' best position as 299!!! - no idea how that works!
School hols are well and truly over now, so that means we are back at Kidz Klub Leeds and we got off to a great start last week. Just got in actually from doing my "round" tonight and again I felt happy to be back in the thick of it!
The 1st of the Richrd Rohr talks went well and I'm busy now organising the 2nd (there will be 4 of them) - this is really strange for me as these talks are about dealing with and embracing the 2nd half of life! - amazing actually as I still feel like a teenager! - remind me of that statement after I have finished a week at work and followed it by KKL on saturday, i tell you, I just lie in front of the telly on a saturday afternoon and doze...... especially when the weather has turned colder!
This was gonna be a short entry about the streamer....as I'm still here, i might as well add that we are receiving some visitors from BRAZIL (hence the background colour choice), this weekend and I have arranged for my Ronaldinho authentic Brazillian shirt to be washed and ironed so that I can give them a proper greeting when they arrive at the airport!
This is becoming bloggy.... er, oh yeah, next year might see me colaborate with a few people, including Chris Freeman (yeah!) and Joe King (yowzer!), Chris is more electronic music influenced (erasure and william orbit type), and I can't wait to play over some of his grooves! - remembering to leave "space" that is!!!! (reminder to Graham - remember to leave some space!). Joe came around a few weeks back and we jammed and he was knocked out with what we could do between us and my Boss RC50 Loop Station !!! - it was really satisfying to see Joe's musical interest getting re-kindled, he got well excited. If the gig comes off, The Paul Poulton Project might also make an appearance (yeah!).
I'm also watching very closly a young man called Miller,who masquerades as Ghelid Rains and I'm sure we will do the odd song together soon (I hope so) and I'd like to see what he can do with the new Akai MPC500. Talking of gear.... the new Pocket POD, it really is a bargain.... can I resist??????
Peace, Graham
9th September 2007
A long while ago now, I set up this website and dreamed of releasing music regularly and explaining stuff as and when! it seems now that these dreams have slowly turned into reality without me really knowing it! I love digital technology, the recording, the music equipment and of course the internet oh & b4 I forget my darling daughters bought me an iPod and I love that too! - in fact, the iPod and mp3's seem to have just come alive for me.
Anyway, the point of this months jotting is simply to say that i was really thrilled with my latest guitarist collective offering and called it "complikashunzzz" simply because it seems a complicated type of music in these dull musical times... oo er contentious! but that is how I feel at the moment as nothing seems to excite me like the music from the 70's and 80's and early 90's....
But there was also another reason for using a word-extended word based on
"complication" & it was simply that as i have entered the 2nd half of life and have been listening to 4 x 1 hour long talks by Richard Rohr, that it has dawned on me that during my first half life I would race to a conclusion, more or less like the world and especially business and the media do now, you know, "so mr politician on the issue of x is your answer yes or no????" & in early life I was frustrated at long winded answers, assuming that they just wanted to avoid giving away their true position. However now I can see that avoiding giving away their true position might well be a tactic, but also there are for some subjects no real clear cut yes or no's in fact there are more grey areas now than I ever thought possible!
So......... I am well aware that in the so called bible belt area of America and within the churches that are now labelled "republican right", there is an almost obsessive interest in Homosexuality and Abortion. In my 1st half life days, I would have accepted what these preachers preached and bowed to their superior knowledge of the bible and agreed to their views that these 2 practices are abominations...... there's an however coming.......... however, these days i see things differently and could go on about the different grey areas, but that would take up too much space, let me just say simply though that whilst i might be against the practice of abortion and am very deffinitely against it for lazy birth control, the grey areas kick in when your daughter comes home after being raped and says she just wants a quick abortion right now, well, I'd drive her straight to the clinic.
By the way, please don't use the "your turning into a lilly livered liberal" coz I most definitely aren't!. So, this 2nd half life stuff is starting to kick in with me and i have been questioning and learning a lot over these past 10 years and you know what, after i've read countless books, been on dozens of forums and talked and listened for hours in fact days! I have now concluded that i know even less than I thought i knew and life is very complicated - et voila - I present "Complikashunzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"
21st August 2007
Another free mp3 posted yesterday! - this one is an instrumental and is called "Glimpse part 1" It will be followed up by er... part 2, which will have vocals and will be a slower paced almost acoustic song, that is written, but not yet recorded. I think posting free mp3's is the way to go for now and maybe later on I'll assemble a new CD Album.
Graham
5th August 2007
I've been threatening this for a while! Go to my "BUY" section and read the new text at the top! - NJoy! --- oh yeah, and then have a listen to the new song
"Job - an unseen world" it's contained in the middle section of the MUSIC page.
Graham
30th July 2007
Well, few things have happened on the "music" front at Studio Bernamica... I have been really getting into the Guitar Synth and have also obtained a new pedal unit that is making me smile every time I use it. I've also discovered some "production" tools and you can hear the 1st use of this (compression) by comparing the 2 "Tapas" tunes in my July GC ask. I think I'm feeling "productive" again.....watch this space!
Peace, Graham
28th June 2007
Hey! I decided after looking at the remaining stock of CD's that I have left to let these go at £5 each including post and packing & in fact if my next Album is done in CD format I think this will be the price!
I am also still contemplating releasing stuff just as mp3's and I have discovered that I have loads of disc space to do that.
I had hoped that by now I would have enough tracks recorded to release another album, but things never go to plan.... watch this space!
Oh one important thing, if you send me an ORDER do it by letter as I am presently swamped with SPAM and people offering me ........ stuff.........
Graham
22nd June 2007
OK Right, next CD, Album, EP, collection of mp3's, or whatever I eventually produce, the one thing I can guarantee are, er. songs! Although technically some might end up just being best described as "tunes" as I am not always convinced that a "tune" needs to be converted into a "song" and by "song", in the world of Bernamica, that means having some "words", sometimes known as "lyrics". So, more of the same eh??? Well not really!
Let me let you into a secret, but not really a big deal secret..You see, up till now I've been playing a kinda "catch up" - most of the songs (and tunes) I have released until now have been "written" in the past.. Well I guess everything is written in the past, but no wait! Let me explain further. I had (yes, that's "had" and no longer have) a myriad of songs, tunes, lyrics and ideas and could have continued going nuts trying to decipher my scribbles and turning them into what has appeared thus far on CD.
There was actually a couple of songs that are on my previous 2 CD's that are now well over 15 years old!So what's with the "catch up"? - Because of the sheer volume of stuff I have created and never, until the dawn of digital recording arrived, recorded it, I have been recording stuff that was no longer "current" in the sense of what I play when in creative mode nowadays.So now, I have been thinking. If I continue with the present strategy, stuff That I am creating today in the summer of 2007 will probably get recorded and released in 2057, which will be when I turn 100 years old (slight exaggeration). Hence I am always playing catch up with the actual recording work. Hmmmm.
So a decision has now been reached, until I change my mind that is. I am going to abandon my written but not yet recorded music..(lots!) Let me pause here for a while, do I mean that?.... Yep, I think I do. I am going to put it down to "learning" and hope that I have learnt a lot, which I know I have, by writing all this music, and then by clearing the decks and not imposing self imposed and self absorbing pressures on myself, this will FREE me up to say to myself, RIGHT, let's plug everything in and press record and just see what develops, rather than try and work stuff out on paper in my own shorthand that I often can't read later. and then attempt to record..I have the strangest feeling and an excitement that this different approach might just throw something "new" up.I hope so!
One of the problems with having a large collection of CD's and other song carrying media and having a brain full of other peoples styles and stuff, is that I end up mimic playing.So, without sounding too arty, too self absorbed, I am gonna try and find my real sound, whatever that is!
Stay tooooned! If I am still in this mode by the next Jotting, I'll try and give an update with what I have recently recorded.
By the way, this has nothing to do with the stuff I will continue to record for the guitarist Collective Tasks, because, I see that aspect of my recording as primarily fun and also it gives me a different outlet that I enjoy just for itself.
I know what will happen though...Instead of capturing my music on paper with the intention of recording later, I'll end up with tons of recorded stuff that can't possibly be released on CD, due to the cost of getting them professionally printed up etc. so, this is why I am thinking about releasing stuff just as mp3's. Yet I still have a warm feeling everytime I "handle" a CD...
OK, some domestic stuff to deal with, and then I'll just dive on in there!
8th June 2007
Kids Work..
I have been wondering whether to post this or not as strictly it is nothing to do with my music!
One of my passions is Childrens charity work and the organisation that I do this through is Kidz Klub Leeds. We have a website at www.kidzklubleeds.org.uk but it is vastly out of date and doesn't really represent what we do, the refurbishing of the website is yet another job on a massive list of tasks for our organisation!
What prompted this then is that I was "interviewed" recently for inclusion into our Newsletter and after doing it I wondered if I could re-produce it here.
Let me say here and now that the song writing part of me (on my CD's) often reflects what I observe via this kids work, but although the first CD had a picture of me wearing a Kidz Klub T-shirt, the CD was not a kiddies praise type album, far from it!So, before re-producing the interview and in view of the fact that the Kidz Klub Leeds website is presently not that informative, let me first explain the background;-
1 My wife (Bernadette) and I travelled to New York City and met a man called Bill Wilson who has for well over 20 years run something called Metro-Ministries. We have been there twice (when I say New York, I am not really talking about Manhattan.. We were deep in The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Spanish Harlem! - we were inspired and learned a lot).
2 In parallel to this we also visited a Church called Frontline in Liverpool who had been doing a UK version of what Metro-Ministries were doing - again we were inspired and helped a lot and we have a continuing relationship with them.
3 Kidz Klub Leeds was born in 2000, although we had been running the same model under a different name since 1997.
4 Kidz Klub Leeds is run by many Churches working together! - we were the first to do this successfully and now we get visitors from all over not just the UK but we actually get visitors from all over the world! - nice to see churches actually "working together!"..
5 We visit 1500 kids each week in their homes and streets and generally get to know them and sometimes their families. We also give them an activity sheet and remind them to come on Saturday. We hire 6 double Decker Buses each Saturday and get on average 350 kids attending each week. Some weeks like Christmas and Easter we get double that! - you have to remember that these are completely UN-Churched kids and a high percentage of the kids we get are actually expelled or excluded from school.
.6 The Saturday morning event is best described as a TV Magazine programme! - it has to be fast moving and attention grabbing as these kids have very short attention spans, so we do games, team games, pantomime, we sing up tempo songs and there are prizes and giveaways oh yeah and there is always water and gunge involved!!! We then have a short 15-20 minute section which we call Silent Seats and this is where we "teach" the kids and we do this through video and acting! We call these Object Lessons.
7 We have also started up a satellite version which operates in a further out district of Leeds and over 100 kids attend that each Tuesday.
8 We generally have 2 Kidz Klub events going on at the same time and they are split by age. The ages of our kids are from 4 years old through to Year 6.
9 Space Groups are for kids that have been through Kidz Klub and are now too old.
OK, so now you have the background, here comes the interview;-
Questions for Graham
1. What is your name and where do you come from?
Graham Fell and I was born and bred here in Leeds.
2. How long have you been a member of the Kidz Klub team?
Since it was first thought about when we wrote and drew the "vision" on the back of an old roll of wallpaper. That was in 1997 and we started Kidz Klub in 2000.
3. Where do you visit?
I visit on the Halton Moor estate, which frightened the living daylights out of me when I first set foot on the estate! However, after about 12 months I felt that we had been accepted and now we are just "street furniture"!I can honestly say that I enjoy walking around that area better than the area where I live! - it's a place full of characters and there's always something going on. I even saw a four foot long Monitor Lizard being taken for a walk last summer!
4. Please give us an insight into family life in that area?
Well it is obviously a run down area, lots of unemployment and crime/drugs and is typical of what the media would describe as a sink estate. But, despite that, the people just get on with life. Of course most of the families I meet are not the neat and tidy nuclear family that we are supposed to aspire to and generally there are broken relationships and half brothers and sisters living in the same house etc."Family" is just as important to them as it is to so called normal middle class families and often the families I meet are full families with uncles and aunties and cousins living in the next street, so there is a strong sense of family and community. There are also some families who seem to have just been plonked there, they have no roots in the area and so they struggle more to be accepted.Finally, there are too many families where the children do not have a dad - some never knew their dad and some just don't see their dad anymore.
5. Do you have any stories to demonstrate what God is doing with the kids that you visit?
I have too many stories! Most of them should and will be kept in the private domain.What I will say though is that I have noticed a difference in the spirit over the area. This is an area that is targeted by people who tie tape into boundaries - it's a curse thing. Many of us have prayer walked the area over the years. Most people would not see the difference, however as someone who goes there every week, I can tell that there is a difference. Things like being invited into houses to pray, usually over an illness, sometimes after a bereavement. Some of those lovely people do believe, they do understand our faith and they want to be part of it, but there are too many distractions for them to cope with and too many temptations...The children will openly talk about God and only yesterday I met some youths, whilst on my "round", who have never even been to Kidz Klub, but recognise who we are and what we believe, and they entered into a conversation with me about whether God exists or not! - I saw questioning and some openness in them, as well as the usual ridicule! - I don't have those kind of conversations on middle class estates.. Another thing that I see is that the children that come to Kidz Klub are eager to know what the next stage is. That could mean "when can we go to Space Groups"? (there just aren't enough Space Groups about to meet the demand) and for some, they even manage to get to Church!. When the kids speak about "the next stage" I know that for some it's just a throw away comment, but I also believe that for many of them God has touched their little lives and has placed something in their hearts that urges them to have fellowship!
6. What is your prayer for your visiting area?
Hmmm.. I think most of us Christians pray too generally! "please turn this estate Lord, into your Kingdom" and "send your angels down now to convert all the people now Lord!" and I have been as guilty as anyone in being desperate and impatient with the praying for this little part of England.Your question is a good one!I think my prayer now is for PEACE. Most of the Children have very noisy lives, they have more turmoil than they should have. There is much aggrevation and violence. "Love" is talked about, but only in either sexual or close family situations, there is a need for an understanding of real Love, of God's love, but to get to that stage they all, children and parents, need PEACE.God's Peace.
7. What has kept you going through the years?
God. I am competitive by nature. Some would say too competitive! - so consequently I try to do things in my own strength and I have lots of stamina and I am incredibly stubborn.. BUT, this work is of the LONG HAUL variety and we underlined that way back in 1997. There have been times recently when I have said to myself "Graham lad, you've done yer bit, you deserve a rest, go and leave this to someone else" - maybe that day will come soon!. All I know is that to get to this stage it wasn't through my own strength!Let me illustrate this;- For the first few years I stayed incredibly positive and amazingly enthusiastic, even when we faced calamities and there have been many of those! - eventually I started to notice that I got Asthma on Saturday mornings, even being physically sick every Saturday morning. I also noticed that I was worrying and feeling nervous each Thursday (visiting day) through to Saturday. You could put this down to attack, but I think actually it was simply a symptom of trying to do things entirely through my own strength. You could say I reached burnout, it certainly felt like it! It would have been easy to pack it in and to justify it by blaming ill health or simply saying that I'd done my bit. But, like Rocky said. "I'm still here!" and that is firmly down to God.Giving it to God is a long and painful lesson, but it is the ONLY way to do this kind of work.
8. What role do you play on a Saturday morning?
I play a very LOUD Electric Guitar in the praise party!I do "headers" (head tennis) with the boys (sometimes the odd girl!) during the warm-up. I am the Bus Captain of Bus 5.Often I get to be part of the pantomime act - I seem to have a penchant for being a baddy!! In the early days I did a lot of Object Lessons during silent seats - I don't do them now as the old memory is fast fading..(I can't learn the lines anymore!)I am also seeing a role developing on the discipline side - for the boys.
9. What has been your favourite pantomime character/costume?
There have been many!If you pushed me I think my crescendo was Doctor Dastardly! - Like I said earlier, I am a good baddy!!
10. What would you say to someone thinking of joining the team?
I wouldn't want to put anyone off and right now even if you can only commit for 12 months that would help us a great deal. However I would say that this is a work that rewards you more than you give and you will give out a lot! - especially in the long term. I was fortunate to see both my daughters work at Kidz Klub as well as some of their friends from our Church and they all confirm that this work expanded their perspective of what Christianity is really about and the same can be said from me and also for me it takes me deeper with my relationship with Jesus. Finally, can I say that this work is for ANYONE! - we need older people like me particularly as these children need adult role models, they need to feel Parental Love. Very finally, don't hang about waiting for a sign.... the NEED is the CALL! and here in Leeds we have more than enough people in NEED.
Do it!
3rd June 2007
Age... hmmmmI don't know if the prospect of becoming 50 has suddenly got to me, but things are changing..
I seem "out of step", suddenly.In my younger days things were very black and white. Stark. Crisp. I knew where I stood and why.
Nowadays, there is much complication going on in my head, things are now distinctly grey.I don't mean grey as in boring.I don't mean grey as in dull days.I don't even mean grey as in not colourful.I mean, grey as in grey areas, different shades, different ways of answering questions, different answers, none direct answers, as in different perspectives.
So, am I getting old?Am I losing it? Whatever "it" is! I am mindful that there are a lot of old fools out there...There are also some wise old fools as well..Second half of life is definitely different to first half of life. I've been learning about this via some friends, old ones that is!
First half of life is about Achievement, ego, accomplishing things, proving yourself - this is true of any culture - just think about it.I'm still learning about 2nd half of life - but already I feel the philosophy of "I don't have to prove myself anymore" - there's more to this, but that'll do for now!
So, polititians, they are usually or at least they "were", people who had experience, people who could see other perspectives, dare I say they were elected because they were wise?All cultures look to 2nd half lifers to guide them..
Don't worry, I'm not entering the political arena and no, a political career is of no interest to me. Politics does interest me though and I think no matter who we are, we should give politics some thought...
Jesus.Haven't mentioned him for a while.He seemed quite rude sometimes.Before you shout heresy and blasphemy at me, think about it, go read his story and what he said and how he acted and read it properly, in context, learn about him. Believe me he was human.That was the whole point!No, I am not about to shoot down the whole da vinci code route, that's just nonsense, escapism, people making lots of cash, crap actually!
Jesus.He would answer questions with questions.That, according to my English teacher, was rude.But there was a reason for Jesus's reaction to these questions...You see, people wanted a straight answer.Black and white.Yes or no.Stark. Crisp. They were probably 1st half lifers or if they were 2nd half lifers they were still operating as 1st half lifers.Jesus knew.He gave perspective.He answered in grey. Different shades of grey and with tones and hues that were not always seen.
Check him out.Graham
Wednesday 30th May 2007
So... Why do I open sentences with "so" ? when in normal conversation I don't! maybe it's an insight into what floats about within the electrical signals that I laughingly call my brain!
Well, I met the keyboard/electronic muso and it went very well! We haven't seen one another for quite a long time and it didn't seem to matter. I came away completely blown away by the apple computer and pro-logic software he is using for his recordings and was amazed at all the plug-ins that are now available. He was at one time very much into the hardware side of things and it came as a surprise to see him equally enthused about the software.
I have to say that the real icing on the cake was the fact that his chosen platform was an Apple computer (actually Pro-Logic won't run on anything else at the time of writing). The beauty of the Apple is that well, it doesn't crash and do unexpected things! And it's easier to drive, oh yeah and you don't get silly "the program is not responding, shall I send an error report to Microsoft" messages...
The Pro-Logic software is also a breath of fresh air and seems quite simple to operate and yet has all the horsepower even the most complicated recorderist could use.
He showed me a couple of plug-ins - amazing things these! The software has a picky of some old vintage very very expensive analogue synth and you can press a few buttons and you get a very accuarate representation of the sound - remember that in the old days, Mike Oldfield etc would spend hours and hours getting one sound out of these type of synthesizers and now you can point and click and get exactly that sound and at the same time you can modify it, muck about with it, effect it and generally ruin it as well as having loadsa fun along the way and then you can save it or discard it knowing that the original is there anyway!
His studio was very nice as well. A custom room really and very neat!I reckon the neatness is due to the fact that apart from the monitors and the midi keyboard, there are no other signs of music making! As it is all contained within the Apple! - nice!
So (there I go again! - aw, leave it!) will I get one?Eventually maybe I will, but for now I am well happy with my own hardware based set-up and being a guitarist and predominantly of the electric variety, I have to plug leads in and power stuff up anyway, so the neatness of the Apple wouldn't be as great an advantage to me.
Having said all of that, I then surfed the net and found a brill video of Dweezil Zappa doing a talk and demo of the Guitar Rig software!!!
Yep, you plug any old cheapy guitar into a connection box that is USB connected to your pewter and Guitar Rig allows you to sculpt the sound, so.. You guessed it, you can model any type of guitar, any type of amp and any type of effect and you can even set up dual amp set-ups and can re-amp if your not happy with the sound a few days later..!!!!Man, where will this all end?????
Hey, don't knock it, this is good!
One final point on this rather gear and software jotting is that my old/new electro-mate showed me the "production tool software", now, this was serious and he modded some of my songs there and then!
Thankfully I reacted the right way as he then offered to "master/produce" my final efforts for the next CD - this is great news for me as I have been criticized for the "production" and by getting my mate to do it, it puts another set of ears on my songs, which has to be good.
Now, it's nearly the end of the month and the guitarist collective need to appoint a taskmaster and then issue the task...
Peace, Graham
Thursday 17th May 2007
My Guitarist Collective entry for the May task has now been posted. To listen to it go to my music page. By the way, these tunes/songs are free mp3's, so feel free to download!
I am still undecided about whether the new Cd will be a CD or a free mp3 file or even if it will be an Album or an EP.
It's best to just concentrate on writing and recording the songs for now!
The recording has had to stop for a while though, due to me slicing the end of one of my guitar freting fingers !
I am still wondering about buying a loop station.... it would come in real handy if I ever got around to doing some teaching.... it would also come in handy for musical compositions in both the recording and writing process.... but there again, I'm trying to break the bad habit of GAS... Gear Aquisition Syndrome... and then I start to wonder if I should be going the DAW route with recording - pro-tools pro logic, Cubase etc ???
A rather interesting thing recently happened to me on the music making side of things - an old friend who is a keyboard and electronic music maker has asked me to get together. Now I don't really go in for the collaboration thing, but he has some interesting ideas and I feel that I CAN contribute!
Nothing ever came of the radio station interest....... no surprise there!
Peace out, Graham
29th April 2007 --- blogs n sad day...
Long sigh................... look, I didn't ever intend this section to be a blog and so far it hasn't descended into that. Not that I am against blogs, I actually do read a few that I obviously find interesting. When I started this website I made a decision NOT to do the normal blog thing, this jottings section was meant for news and views on my music and perhaps would be widened to Christian matters etc (although I haven't really posted anything deep here as I use a forum for those type of posts).
Anyway, yesterday was a sad day for me and for those in my home city that follow our football team. Just for the record we got relegated, that means we are now in the 3rd division, though they now call it Division 1, due to marketing blah.
Not a human disaster story, no one got physically hurt (just) and not that big a deal for none LUFC supporters.
But it did hurt and still does.
The problem with being a "supporter" is that you are really powerless. You can shout, scream, and sing, you can wish and even pray, but you can't effect what goes on down on the turf.
But there is a sense of "ownership" - you'll often hear supporters talking about "we", that's because they have a sense of "belonging". This is great when you are winning and extra special when you win a trophy, but the consequence of that is that you feel the extreme opposite when footballing disaster strikes.
So, the season is all but finished and there'll be a fresh one next year. Enuff abbout football.
Back to music, coz according to Zappa "music is best" (I understand and agree his sentiment, but of course life and death are a little more important!).
(Shankleys famous saying proves that.....now, that is!)
Just starting to learn a bit more about compression and its proper useage in the studio, thanks my collective friends!
I have already written approx 4 new songs that will make the next CD and I am very excited about them, i just hope my recordings of them does them justice.
CD, now, there's a thought... should I bother with all the manufacturing stuff again? or do I just make the songs available via mp3 ? after all, I'm not doing this for the cash, though that would be nice! - Well, actually, I like CD's, I like to hold them and look at their cover and read a bit about the CD and I just like inserting it into a real hi fi and listening to each song in turn as the artist wanted me to listen. So, I probably will go the CD route.
I did give some CD's away last time, mainly to people who had either supported me by buying my 1st CD or people who I thought wanted one, but couldn't afford one, and there were other people who I gave them to who I just got "moved" to give to!
I will attempt to get the processing costs down a bit more for the next CD and try and sell them at a fiver each, that seems fair.
OR.... do I go the EP route rather than a full scale Album?
I'll just get on and record and then when the songs dry up I'll see what I've got and decide then.
Bye 4 now - Graham
2nd April 2007 --- Guitarist Collective Task
I am the April Taskmaster and I have set the Guitarist Collective a task to come up with a tune/song that is in an odd time signature, that is in an odd beat, say 3,5,7,9 11 etc.
This means that for me I have to break new ground in my home recording! I have played odd time signatures loads of times with bands I have been in, but I can't remember ever writing AND recording anything with an odd timing!
So, I have set myself quite an interseting task, particularly as my little trusty zoom drum machine unit tends to lean towards the 4/4 normal stuff. Time I think to dust off the old keyboard/synth and set the metronome to 7/8 or 7/16 or whatever!
This should be a good task as I find that with odd timing, my playing moves away from the normal boxes that we sometimes can't get out of which makes the whole thing just sound more interesting!
As I am typing this I am listening to THINGs (Dave Wilsons) tune called High Flight which he has just posted onto the forum & he has indeed set this months standard very high indeed! (no pun intended) - yes, Thing really nailed this task, a beautiful tune and exactly what the task called for.
Time for bed now and to dream up my own odd time sig tune...... (in 7 I think).
19th March 2007 - Best gig ever.....
Got into a discussion re the best gig you ever did..... here's mine;-
Our band was called "Sack the Sax" on account of our Sax player, Gareth being so virtuoso that he never felt the inclination to help with the "roady" work that the rest of us did. So we constantly threatened to sack him.
We were hot! Well rehearsed, tight, great crystal clear sound and we knew what we were doing! We had "attitude" as well!
So, one day we were asked if we would "play" Armley jail, we were so arrogant and blasé that we just said yes.
Armley Jail is the big prison in Leeds (my home city). It is dark. Large stonebuilt, fortress like, drab and did I mention it is dark? .................................
It also has an off the graph statistic for suicides and no wonder! - when I stepped inside, the first sensation was the incessant noise, made by bored warders who constantly jangle their keys, but this noise is amplified by the natural acoustics of the stone built leviathan building.
So we parked our cars and heard the giant doors clank behind us. A warder told us in a voice that you don't question, where to go. and where to stick our equipment. we ended up in a room with a large seating area and a 6" high platform that we will now call the stage.
There was no green room, no dressing room, no-where else in fact to go. We were told to get ready and then the "boys" will be let in and this might take 45 mins as they will saunter in when they feel like it.
At this stage, I noticed that we were not joking about like we normally did. We were not laughing, not even smiling, in fact none of us had spoke a word since driving into the place! We tuned up, quietly.
I breathed a sigh of relief that we had decided against any "costumes".
The in-mates started to arrive in dribs and drabs.It felt very strange.I walked across to one of the in-mates, "you'll clap, won't you?" I asked"ha!" he said, "listen mate, we get all sorts in here!, if yer any good, you'll know"He paused and walked away, then he turned slightly and said "and if yer crap.." And he laughed, loudly, perhaps an evil laugh?
Then we overheard 2 in-mates chatting "hey Dave, we'll get a right price for this gear in the morning" said one to the other, we stared at them and they just laughed.The world suddenly went very dark.. an extremely large man hovered over each of us and in a booming voice he asked "who's the singer?"Each member avoided eye contact and mumbled "not me", they then shuffled away until his eyes and voice were directed to me. Before I could get my words out, he just made expletive remarks and stomped away.Out of some kind of reflex action, I asked another in-mate who was that large man? And what's up with him? - "he had a record deal with EMI before being sent down, he comes to all the gigs, he hates you, he hates everybody" said the in-mate.I asked why was he in here ? and was told very matter of factly, murder..
Gareth and Phil were well known as being "joe cools", no matter what the gig was, they were laid back to the point of being horizontal, nothing bothered them and they were coooool. Except on this night they resembled rabbits, frozen by the headlights and 52 spotlights of a Hummer, feeling the earth tremble as it hurtled towards them! At 100mph.Still none of us spoke.
Suddenly, the chief warder announced to the in-mates to"settle down lads, we are going to bring them in now", the in-mates made noise, loud noise as a host of warders came in with very ordinary looking men (more in-mates), who as it turned out were the sex offenders..they were seated in a segregated area. The warders kept up with their instruction to "settle down" and soon they did.
The chief warder told us to begin.
So, this was it, it was now time to play.. Except Gareth and Phil were still doing their rabbit impressions and I probably looked even worse.This gig was 10 years ago and still to this day I have no idea why I suddenly decided to do a "funny". Our 1st song in the set was always "Dancing in the moonlight" by Thin Lizzy and so I asked in the microphone, if anyone out there liked Thin Lizzy? Half a dozen hands shot up at the very back of the hall and these long haired hippy types hollered and then went very quiet again. In fact, the whole audience was deathly quiet, arms folded, slouched back in their seats, all with the "go on impress me if you can" faces on."We were going to start with that Lizzy favourite, Jailbreak..." I lamely continued..The stunned silence got more stunned.4 very large North American tumbleweeds blew across the short area between "stage" and seating area. The wind dropped the temperature by 10 degrees and I shivered.Gareth and Phil, still doing the Rabbit, stared at me..
So, I closed my eyes and resolved not to open them until after the chorus at least and counted us in.
We started.
Once the first chorus was over I started to open my eyes, incredibly the in-mates were all to a man, smiling, there were 2 black guys actually dancing! We arrived at the guitar solo. Perhaps I should point out that Phil (Gibson les paul x 3 Customs) always did the recognized guitar solos in all our songs and each song was extended by numerous pre-set bars to allow Gareth on Sax and me on Guitar (Strat) to trade improvised licks. I prayed that phil would nail his solo, he always did, but tonight was more difficult. I couldn't believe it when he trod on his digitech unit and then leapt from the stage... er plinth and did the solo in the seats with the dancing in-mates.. He nailed it! And we all relaxed, Gareth and I traded lines, we all started to strut and the in-mates kept smiling, applauding and whooping between numbers!We did the entire set, except we left out Claptons, "wonderful tonight"..We did things like "Bad Love" (Clapton) and even a Phil Collins "can't hurry love" version as well as 3 of my songs. It's amazing that I can't remember how all the other songs went, maybe because it had turned into "just another gig"!!
After our encores, the chief warder asked us if we would stand at the exit and allow the "boys" to thanks us, "they might wanna shake your hands" he said.It was in the words of Vinny Jones, "emotional", these rough, tough, hard men shook our hands and a few tears were shed (us and them) and even the very large man with extremely bad attitude, gave me a bear hug that I'm sure broke a couple of ribs!
Then it was over.
I think it was 3 days before we dared talk about it..!!!!
18th March 2007 - March entry to guitarist Collective
Go to MUSIC page to listen to mp3 of my march entry.....
5th March 2007 - not much to report actually. A bit of a no news jotting entry! - the initial excitement of releasing the new CD is now over and I think if it wasn't for joining the Guitarist Collective, I might be a touch depressed (musically speaking that is). I'll leave it at that for now. Feeling a bit let down by certain people who shall remain very nameless........... (in fact so nameless I shall not shame them in print!)
13th February 2007 - Guitarist Collective TUNES
Made a good start with the GUITARIST COLLECTIVE, in that I have already posted 1 random song and have posted 2 TASK tunes! - what happens is each month the "collective" have a taskmaster and he/she decides what this months task will be, it could be technical, like create a tune using only the Mixolodyian scale or it could be something like create a tune with the theme "a new beginning".
So, I have completed January and February tasks and have received some VERY favourable feedback and at the same time have offered my own positive feedback on the other members task posts.
A very small "claim to fame" here is that my latest task received praise from none other than the music editor of GUITARIST magazine.... fandabidozy!!
So, if you want to listen to my efforts, go to bottom of my music page and you'll see what to do! - (particularly enjoyed FEB task due to using a SITAR.....................!!!!!!!) - Graham
20th January 2007 - 3 number ones!!!
The world must have gone mad! - I've just checked on www.mychristianbands.com and of the 5 songs that I have put on their site to date, 3 of them have reached Number 1 !! the other 2 arn't doing bad either a number 3 and a number 4 --- Graham
17th January 2007 - BREAD!Someone asked me "why are you bothering with all this music making?" - their question was obvious, I mean, why would someone in their 50th year... "bother"? I am not young, I am not obviously sexy, I have no "image", I am not a celebrity, I have no recording contract, I don't do this for a living and I don't have a gimmick or even an outrageous stage act.. My Christian songs don't even "fit" in what the Christian Music Market calls "Christian Music" !!
The following day I bought an uncut loaf in my local bakers shop.Hovis, Warburtons, etc all make bread and sell probably millions of loaves every day. My local baker makes approx a hundred each day and gets up before 4 in the morning to do it!
So who makes the best bread?
Well the market says that my local baker isn't even on the map!So, who is the most successful?
Again, my local baker is deemed by the market to be a nobody, a losser..
The market is not everything! (Personally, there is no contest, my local baker easily bakes the best bread!)
It is a pity that even the Christian record labels have followed the market trend set by the secular labels and are only interested in bands/artists who are going to sell masses of CD's or downloads.
The market is telling us what to dream, what to think, what to buy.. After all this is a business!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If records or a band are "pushed enough" they will sell. the charts as we know them are simply a measurement of the efficiency of the marketing team..(not every record though!)
Well, for me, I don't mind not making a profit!
For me, my music is art! And I'll continue doing it the way I do!You know what! I would definitely think for a long time before signing any contract. not that one will come along!
Thank you MyChristianBands for allowing this local baker to show his loaves! Time to cut another slice! (and, by the way, this is NOT a sour grapes posting! I mean it!)
Peace out! - Graham
11th January 2007 - mychristianbands website - cd review approx 3 to 6 mths! due to backlog of work. Not heard from Cross Rhythms yet.
10th January 2007 - 2 radio stations are listening to my CD! - yowzer! Graham
4th January 2007
You may have noticed a re-vamped website complete with promised mp3's.
First "REVIEW" of new CD already in - and he LOVED it!!! - cheers Steve!
Also joined the guitarist collective (see links section) and hope to make new mates there!
Still in 1 peace,
Graham
2nd January 2007
Happy new year!
The new CD Album "Not 4 da Superficial" is now available! - feel free to buy it from anywhere! see buy section for details.
I am really pleased with this new CD and I hope to post some decent reviews shortly, 1st impressions received so far are "good!"
Many thanks to Howard from Winmax for his help with the printing!
Right!....
On with the songwriting for the next one! - maybe I'll try an EP next.....
Graham
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