Linford Song Club

After a long day of rehearsing for the next days theremin event, and packing equipment for that, and sorting out CDs and things rehearsing for the song gig with Dan Britton at the Linford in Newtown Linford I was oddly in hyped up mood for the Song Club event, organised by Wally from Yellowbelly, a band that goes right back to Storm Thieves days 15 years ago - we used to be on the same circuit. The club is hugely succesful and the night was packed with performers and over 100 audience. Yellowbelly were up first in new 5 piece format - country rock sounds with great harmonies, Stevie Jones & Mark Gill (+harmonica player) played a strong set of songs from the heart. Sara Space is a singer songwriter I haven;t seen in years - this was her new band and it was a delight - violin, bass, mandolin, drums and Sara often on ukelele singing songs with a fun 30s even cabaret type feel. Natalie Squance played solo and captured the audience's hearts with her uniw=que voice - she made  abig thing about forgettign her words but the audience loved her all th emore for it. 
Dan & I hadnt played a duo (non Govannen) gig for many months - but it came back to us - we stuck to a safe set tho - we had Neil Rabjohn on cajon. We offered a big CD deal 1 duo cd and 2 solo cds for a tenner - we made 10 such deals - plus I sold a couple of DVDs. 

Then it was pack up - get home - swap kit for electronic kit and drive on to London - getting to bed in hotel at 3.10am for a 8.30 wake up.

Hands Off @ Ether Festival, South Bank

photo by Greta Pistaceci

After getting to bed at hotel at 3.10am, the 8.30am wake up was a bit of a shock - I hadn't slept well after the gig and long journey needed a sleeping pill to unbuzz my brain. With my newly purchased and assembled  trolley which proved invauable, I got to the Royal Festival Hall on time 10am. Unfortunately the sound crew wewre 3 hours behind (they had to break down stage from previous gig at 5 instead of 2. The main co-ordinator hadn't gone to bed at all...

Us thermeminists gathered in the dressing room and made our introductions - what a nice bunch of people, coming from all over the UK and some from Europe - tho we lost a few with the Icelandic Volcano flight problem. Before long were called to set up. We weren't quite ready at 1pm but amazingly the event started just 20mins late. Soundchecks took quite a while

The great Lydia Kavina (Prof Termen's great niece and regarded as one of the finest thereminists in the world) did her set accompanbied by a pianist and some of her theremin students playing pieces from the calssical repetoire - my favourite being her own 3 part suite.

Then Beat Frequency (Gordon Charlton - the organiser of the Hands Off events) played a great imaginative solo set of theremin & electronics including innovations like a kind of thumb button and using a wandlike stick.

After that there was a set by 2 theremincello players - a very rare instrument - Theremin designed it but only 2 survive in museums - recently 10 were made by an instrument maker in the states - these 2 theremin cellists had played in a Varese concert the night before. They played in duo and with Lydia and some of her students. Quite special seeing these instruments I;d oly read about.

Then it was my set..
1st improv went OK - single notes with long delay to ease my ear in.
2nd improv I brought in voice, low whistle, bells and harmonizer - went OK but had the odd tricky moment
To lighten things up I did the Star Trek Theme and Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
3rd improv - a piece I had been working on for a while with the looper which I was most happy with. I still had frustrating "oops I left that switch on" moments but on 4 hours sleep I was pretty happy.

Then Lydia gave a masterclass with questions, aswers and illustrations with more pieces with students.

Then Alex Thomas gave a great solo set in territory not so far from mine - he used an RC50 loop station which was interesting to see used. Went for a walk around the hall and it was great hearing these sounds relayed over the whole pace.

Then the public was invited up to have a go - each theremiist held their station as members of the public were invited to have a go. Madness :-)

Finally there were group improvisations and graphic and text score pieces for 20 theremins. Lydia had some pieces, then Gordon had some fun ideas (including a sound picture of the Icelandic Volcano. A text piece by Christian Mason - A Night By The River  0010. We finished out with a suggestion from Gordon to "Rock Out" - with 20 thereminists & the 2 theremincellos - madness!!

All in all a great success - I wish I had had more sleep before hand but it all went well - went for quick dinner then drive back up to Leicester getting home around 11pm. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz