NEWS

• September 2007: Well, it's been a busy few months since the De Rosa tour, which was great fun. I recorded 5 songs for the Off The Beaten Track compilation album released by Mister Tramp Records, and have been working on songs by Skeleton Bob, CoPilot Effect, Mr D, The Savings & Loan, Tall Ships, and more! In July I was sounding at the Wickerman Festival again -I was given a much better PA and desk this year so I was content before any bands had played a single note, and there were some great performances too from teh likes of Y'all Is Fantasy Island, Kazoo Funk Orchestra, Black Affair, Frightened Rabbit, Popup, Miss the Occupier and the 10-strong How To Swim. It was a cracking weekend. Next week I'm off on tour again with Finniston, who are promoting their new album, but in the meantime I'm finishing off songs for the Savings & Loan, and playing a Tall Ships gig or two. Wahey!
• April 2007: I'm doing tour sound for De Rosa starting in Anstruther, then trundling on to Germany, Italy, France, and finishing up in good old Glasgow: May 6th at Tuts if anyone's interested. Anyone know the German for "phase reverse"? Also in April I'm finishing the mixing and mastering of a demo EP for Black International, finishing a couple of songs for Me + You = Does Not Compute, engineering for AfterChristmas when they play at Tuts on 5th April, and I'm recording a downloadable Italian phrase book for publishers HarperCollins. A mixed bag indeed. Good at the Note this month- Titus Gein (2nd), AfterChristmas (12th) and Desert Hearts (8th) are the highlights for me before I head off.
• March 2007: This month I'm recording a few bands: First up is Black International from Edinburgh, a spiky, rollicking outfit, then it's the awkwardly-monikered Me + You = Does Not Compute, and finally The Recovery Club, a three-piece still in their infancy who conjure dark and dreamy pasasges reminiscent of various 4-AD faves such as Red House Painters and This Mortal Coil [who writes this stuff?- ed.]. Meanwhile in Live Sound World, Headcases (23rd, from France) and Gold Soundz recordees Conscious Pilot (29th) get my juices flowing at the Note.
• Feb 2007: Following on from the Great Gold Soundz Upgrade (as I know it), I'm setting my sights on Glasgow country shufflers Skeleton Bob, a fantastic beat combo who lollop and amble bleary-eyed through songs mainly about women, drinking, and more drinking. [Postscript:- in a weekend we ended up recording backing tracks for 10 songs at Eilidh's Dad's house in glorious EK- good work all round.] Also this month I'm recording some B-Sides for Attic Lights. The previous recording sI've done with them ("Bring You Down" and "Dirty Thirst" especially) earned them a pure fancy record deal with X-Phonics/Shoeshine. Let's hope their rough edges aren't smoothed out too much- it's what makes 'em, hell yeah!
• Jan 2007: Happy New Gear- Gold Soundz version 2.1.2 is launched with the upgrade of essentially all my recording gear. This is now listed on the Equipment page. Other activity this month included Engineering for De Rosa and the Note and at the ABC (when they supported Idlewild).
• Dec 2006: The Main Event this month was tour-sounding for a few dates for De Rosa on the Scottish leg of Arab Strap's farewell tour. Later in the month my own band Tall Ships played at the Note with the excellent Galchen and Bee Heid. This was a great night with a fantastic atmosphere. Galchen's set was one of the best I've seen at the Note (and I've seen a lot).
• Nov 2006: A frantic month, and no mistake. Between boiler repairs and taking the car for a MOT it's a surprise I got anything done. Yes, my life is THAT exciting. Highlights include: Attic Lights at the Note- this was majestic, in a rough and ready sort of way. I hear Big Things are in the pipeline for these young fellas. I also finished mixing the classical duet I recorded last month, mastered Evan Crichton's "Bright Our Broken Days" at 4th St Studios with Gal (until 7am, Evan), and went down to Cambridge with those cheeky AfterChristmas boys to engineer their show, which was thoroughly ruined by the promoter in Cambridge running off with the band's travel, accomodation and gig money.