Sunday 20 February 2011

After lunch in the Rio Cafe yesterday, we dropped in on the folks next door at the Cottonrake bakery, where master patissier Stefan has decided to name a pie after me in honour of my being their first ever customer. Somehow the name McGuinness doesn't work with a cake. I wonder what it will turn out to be. My birthday earlier in the week was hugely enhanced by Helen nipping out in a taxi at lunchtime and returning with a collection of Stefan's finest, after I'd spent the morning in the eye clinic. Being sat in a waiting room did give me a chance to finally read Simon McKerrell's paper on commercialism in Scottish folk music, which is very interesting indeed. He describes the way the music changed in the 1970s in order to get gigs; I think the other parallel effect going on at around the same time was a move towards sweeter New Age-type sounds to enhance record sales. 

Speaking of which ... it's fascinating how the same live performance can have a completely different effect depending on how the recording is mixed.  The rough on-the-fly mixes that Steve made of the Revenge of the Folksingers show sometimes capture a better feel than the more forensic ones which are suitable for an album release: they're what Calum Malcolm has called more 'vibey'. So I'm finding myself often making different editing decisions from the ones I'd expected. But I also like that the live recordings keep a character distinct from the 'studio' recordings made the following day in the same room. Having said that, I was very pleased with myself yesterday morning when I successfully cut two improvised sections from the live show into a studio performance - that wouldn't have been possible with a vibey mix.

Also this week I soldered my Grado headphones back together after dunking them in hot water to melt the glue to get them apart, and my piano playing and (barely audible) singing finally made it onto MTV in episode 5 of Skins. I'd post a youtube link here, but of course every time someone posts it, MTV get it taken down again for copyright infringement and it's not available to watch in the UK yet ...