The final push is on! 20-21st June and 3rd and 4th July, Rob and I were in the studio getting The Bite completed. This involved a little re-recording, much knob twiddling and daylight deprivation. And we are pleased to say that, through the sterling efforts of Mark Lee at Blue Moon studios in Bodicote, , we are now there! We have rough masters for all 11 tracks. They are:
Nellie Torrence and Jeannie Waldie
The Bite
Flower of Magherally
Danza La Carina, Danza Prima and El Falton d’Arriba
The Bloody Inn
Billy Don't You Weep for Me
Entemediu, Muneira de Carcarosa
The Child Mother
Tears in my Eyes
Only for Three Months
Three Matelots
We are now just fixing up for the final mastering session, finishing off the final band and CD administrative tasks, and turning our creative attentions back to further developing our repertoire for our forthcoming gigs. We have festival performances at Letchworth and the club tent at the Cambridge Folk Festival coming up – so there is no time or intention to rest on our laurels!
One of the side-effects of this rather punishing timetable was that we were double-booked when the invitation came from the International Brigade Trust to perform again at their annual memorial event in Jubilee Gardens. We have given our apologies to the organisers and made a commitment to definitely be with them again next July – we hope that the ceremony went off went.
However, on the evening of July 3rd, we were able to play at our friends Rob and Jane Taylor’s house party. Rob’s jazz band did a lovely set and we then went on to play for 25-30 minutes. Buoyed up by Spain’s progress in the World Cup, Rob was on fire. I don’t think I’ve ever played the Muneira de Carcarosa that fast! Maybe it was the bottles of Hook Norton Gold or maybe the summer heat – but we powered through it without any trouble, to warm applause from friends. It’s the World Cup final tomorrow – if Spain wins that, his fret board might catch fire!
