Eeeek I've got to publish this as well, because otherwise we'd now have exactly 13 posts, and that's just not lucky!

Louis.

Even though they were a few days ago now, I still think I should write about the gigs we played last weekend; admittedly this is partly because I've been at my girlfriends house in Clare since Monday, and therefore I haven't got a lot of other musical news to tell you about, (that is, unless singing 'Penny Lane' in the shower counts,) but it's also because both gigs were kind of unusual and it would seem a shame not to spare them a few words.

Ennis was the setting of the first gig; we were playing upstairs in a pub called Brandon's, which had a bit of a 'Fred Zeppelins feel to it.
It was one of those places with a lot rooms, and upstairs the floors were all covered by felt like red carpets, while behind the bar was a Murial featuring a 100 or so different musical figures of whom i recognised about 4, John, Paul, George and Ringo, which shows you how much i know. 
By the time we got on to the stage in there were only about 10 people in the audience, but they were a very kind hearted collective, listening attentively to the whole of our 10 song set, (one song for each of them,) despite the the fact we didn't finish playing till gone 2 in the morning. We had one of two songs to finish with, either 'It's a Wonderful World', (not the famous version of the song, but one written by perry,) or Bitterness, and we went for bitterness in the end on the count of it being cheerier?   

The party we played at the next day, was at this amazing place in west cork, which was a farm supposedly, although it seemed more like great sprawling garden, riddled with mysterious pathways, that ran between high hedges and imposing plants. A Cheshire cat marked the entrance gate, and the whole party was Alice in Wonderland themed, much to my delight. I'm fairly sure one or two of guests hadn't red the book though, that is unless I'm forgetting the bit about the pirate....... or the panda?
Our set meandered on for rather longer than it usually does, and included some numbers rarely seen outside our electric gigs. The most enjoyable of these, was a version of 'In the Beginning There Was Funk' including a beat-box drum backing from the Calvinists, as well as other musical members of the audience.
The mad hatter handed around his hat after the gig, which was very kind of him, and the guests obligingly filled it with change, which was sweet -as a sugar lump- of them. Regretfully W!LD were unable to hang around for tea however, as Perry had yet another gig to play that evening, the poor thing.

Hopefully we may get some live recordings from that second gig, as I think they were recording most of it. I'll post some up if we do.

Bye for now.
Louis

Hello dearest readers,

I'm sure you're dying to know all the W!LD news, so here it is:

Firstly, in connection with the gig we played in leap last Saturday, we had our picture in the evening Echo!!!!! And as if that was momentous news enough, they even awarded us a sentence in the article about the event, including in it, the word "Impressed".

News bulletin two is that we're heading off to Ennis tomorrow, as we're playing a gig there at 1am, Saturday morning. A little unfortunately we then have to be in west cork by 3pm on Saturday afternoon, as we're playing another gig at a party. It times like these you wish you had your own jet! I suppose Christmas isn't that far away though - hope you're reading this mum? 

On the home front, I've been doing lots more Hokusai's Waves drawings, (see earlier post,) and perry's been teaching me to play three over two on the piano, (so I can play the Blackout actually in time,) a process that can be described in two short words, "head Fu%!".

I'll leave you with a video of Delilah from our gig in Kinsale, which includes some stylish footwork and exuberant jumping from perry. Plus you've got to love the hat.

Bye for now.
Louis.

I heard an interview with Kieth Richards a while ago, and he was telling a story about how he had kept himself awake, along with the rest of the Rolling Stones, for four nights in a row, and how on each night, the stones had had to played a gig! Granted they were probably full of drugs at the time, but still it does make me feel a little pathetic for feeling a worn out because I'd played 2 gigs in a day.
However 'a bit worn out', was how i was feeling on Saturday evening, having just got home from playing the first couple of W!LD shows this summer.
Maybe it's like football though, where the only way to get truly match fit, (or gig fit in this case,) is.... to play a few matches/gigs. 
Anyway tiring or not, it was exceedingly nice to be performing again and, apart from a broken guitar strap, and some truly terrible stage talk from yours truly, both the gigs went alright, I think.
Many thanks to everyone who came along, and/or was involved in organising them.

The day after our gigs included my weekly football fix, and during that, I rather unfortunate sprained my ankle.
It was nothing a pack of frozen peas, and a temporary crutch, (actually a curtain pole,) couldn't sort out though. And I'm expecting to be fit again in time for W!LDs next performance, (in Ennis on Friday,) that is as long as the manager picks me! 

Louis  

I wrote a song a while ago called Hokusai’s Waves, all about a desert island made of paper, (think Paper Mario, crossed with Treasure Island.)

It was quite a visual song, and as soon as I finished it I longed to have a music video to go it with, preferably an animated one.   

Regretfully though my skills as an animator are pretty much nonexistent, but I did get the idea that a slideshow of still images, (one for every couple of lines in the song,), might make an interesting video instead.

With that in mind I started doing some drawings, and soon came up with a cartoon like technique, simple enough for me to produce a few images with; that is, images that looked like they just might belong together.

However after I’d spent an age working on six or seven of these pictures, I hit a bit of brick wall. What happened was, I did a test slideshow with the images I had so far, and unfortunately it looked shite.

The video just wasn’t going to work without at least a small bit of movement. I really didn’t want to ditch the pictures I already had however, or spend ages learning how to do an animation, so what I decided to do instead, was use an idea that I’d got from those little fold out books you get when you’re a kid.

This is it:

Once the pictures I’ve been working on are all finished, I’m going to print them out, and then glue them on to pieces of card. 

Our little film camera will then have to be mounted on a rail somehow, so it can be gradually pulled backwards, along a tunnel.

Through groves in the tunnel the pieces of card can then be slowly dropped, or pushed, in front of the camera, and kept in time with the song.

If none of that made much sense to you, then here’s a video we made to test the idea out... only we had to use books to make the tunnel and cds instead of my pictures.  

I've also put up a couple of the pics.

Fair play to you if you got through all that, people are always telling me that I ramble on to much:)

All the best, 

Louis.

Hello again,

apologies for the complete absence of posts in the last month, the UK proved to be a difficult place to blog from, not least because, as we didn't get a chance to play much music, we had very little to write about. . . That is unless you'd have been interested in anecdotes about pork pies, and quaint little English towns, full of terribly alluring second had bookshops?  

Anyway we're safely back in Ireland now, and the last four or five days, have had a busy house of visitors, a cunning trick on their part, to make us believe ourselves  popular.
One of these visitors was a cheerful Ben Duffy, who will be playing drums with us in Kinsale this weekend. He was with us Saturday to Tuesday so we've been doing plenty of much needed rehearsing!
The Funk Song, Wait, and The Blackout all got particular attention, and we also road tested a new arrangement of Supernova. 

My bed and sleep are calling out to me, so I'll leave you now with one of the recordings i mentioned in my last post, (it's only a rough demo, but give it a listen anyway.)  Me or pear should be writing to you again pretty soon though hopefully.

Louis.
http://soundcloud.com/old-friend