Wednesday 22 August 2012

Tom, Alison and I revisited Hume briefly this afternoon in preparation for our live appearance on Radio 3’s In Tune this Friday – we’ll be on between about 5.30 and 7pm.  Next week I’ll also be making a brief appearance in a Radio 4 drama studio as a music hall pianist, so I’m looking forward to that too. Had better practice my stride piano and finest non-jazz twiddly bits to go on the top.

Anyway, time for a brief recap of last week’s fun and games with Tobias Hume. Working on the principle that food is one of our main priorities, and that it usually has a substantial bearing on the end result, Alison hosted a Sunday night gathering and meal to welcome most of the band. What was encouraging at that point was that none of us had a clue how the music was going to sound, so when on the following morning the noise of us grappling with unfamiliar instruments in slightly eccentric repertoire was like a school orchestra warming up, at least we knew that we were likely to improve. By lunchtime on the first day we had (a lot), and then Thomas Walker joined us with a very clear idea of how the songs go, ranging from strikingly beautiful to uncomfortably deranged. As Tobias Hume seems to have spent much of his life making people feel uncomfortable, this was very promising.

Alex Woodward came along on Tuesday to take photos in rehearsal, and the sun even shone obligingly while we were out amongst the trees. Then on Wednesday we were off to Greyfriars and our waiting Edinburgh International Festival audience. Playing at a well-appointed festival like the EIF is a luxurious pleasure: friendly support staff, a beautiful venue, and it being Edinburgh, they don’t bother with nonsense like flowers at the end of the gig, they hand you a bottle of festival whisky instead (courtesy of Springbank, no less) as you come off.  So in the afterglow when you’re being congratulated by the great and the good for your ‘zestful self-belief’ (as the Scotsman put it) you have a comforting bottle to hang on to. Do I sound like I have a problem?

It was a shame not to have time to partake of the other Edinburgh festival pleasure of just hanging around the streets bumping into people (socially, not to injure them). I had just half an hour free to go to the hat shop and wander about, and even then managed a few entertaining encounters with folk I hadn’t seen for a while.

I don’t think we’ve played in Greyfriars for ten years and more, and similarly we haven’t recorded out at Crichton Collegiate Church since 2004. It was great to be back in its humid but glorious-sounding space, where we were going to attempt a repeat of our ‘Revenge’ trick of trying to record an entire album in a day, this time under the watchful ears and vintage microphones of Calum Malcolm (so the sound is really lush).  Working at great speed means that many of the checks, balances, and comforts that normally go with a classical recording are abandoned in favour of momentum and just getting finished.  Chris described the process of keeping the day going as like herding cats.  But the end results are rather good if I say so myself: there’s a sneak preview here.

When we’d all made it back to Glasgow we headed en masse for the pub, and stayed there till they chucked us out at 2am. Thank you Captain Hume, and goodnight.