Thursday 30 December 2004

In amongst the holidays, things are ticking along nicely. Joe Davie's artwork for the Kellie CD cover arrived and is brilliant as expected. A sneak preview is on the CDs page - can you spot the re-appearance of the Mungrel Stuff dog? Over the next week I'll finish my notes on the first edit of that, as we're still aiming for a March release date.

Katherine and Alison were in Glasgow for a few days which was a great opportunity to hang out and accomplish a few Lion-related tasks too. Katherine had been writing tunes to give as Christmas presents, and my jig changes time-signature every bar: I've just about mastered it now. On Monday the three of us went along to La Chunky Towers to play on a couple of vaguely country tunes for the new Future Pilot AKA album - including my recorded debut on glockenspiel. After a couple of very enjoyable hours we left clutching our souvenir model aeroplanes from Sushil, and spent another couple of very enjoyable hours as the only customers in the comforting surroundings of Tchai-Ovna.

Then yesterday, we convened to watch the DVD of our March concert in Aberdeen: a sobering experience. It's revealing to find out just how much of how you're feeling reads to the audience. I look a bit sullen for most of the first half (what was I thinking about?) and only really seem to relax after David G has gone berserk in the Szapora. Then suddenly my whole manner with the audience changes. I'm surprised at how long it took for me to relax enough for it to be apparent, and to put the audience at ease too.  I suspect we'll be giving a lot more consideration to our on-stage energy for our concerts in February.