Summer Fun

Well folks, its been a while since I sat down at the laptop and wrote the blog for Rain.. Its been all "go" here.. well, not so much "all go" as go a bit, stop a bit and reflect on what, where and how we go about things. Yes, we've had a few gigs.. all needing blogging about and working behind the scenes, writing new material and the like..

Anyhoo, without further adieu...

Saturday 13th July.. a blisteringly hot day and the everso brilliant Alsager Music Festival. we were billed to play at 6.45 on the Acoustic Stage, which was set in a lovely sunken garden, away from the main stage area. Was such a delightful event to play, lots of folks we knew were there, The Slippery Hill Boys, Rick Ford, Bitter and Twisted and Sugar Rush.. the hard work of the team who put together this wonderful event really paid off, the park area was packed, we received a healthy audience and went down well, which, is as ever encouraging, with lots of positive feedback... reckon we'd be hard pressed to not do it again...should there be another one.Its definately one to go for when the weather is right... such a great space and used to its best. We were interviewed by Red Shift Radio too, asking us what we thought of the day, and well, what could we say, other than amazing!! Big thanks to Stath and his team for pulling it off.. well done guys, you deserve a medal!

Wednesday 17th July...Saw us taking part in the Rubber Soul Session at The Old Brown Jug, supporting Hannah Robinson, a very talented young lady from Bournemouth.. who has definate star quality (Jools Holland's show next year, we reckon!), we also shared the stage with a young girl called Hollie.. overall a delightful session and big thanks to Rob form Rubber Soul Records for booking us and to Gaz Williams for providing the sound.. Its always a bonus when you get a good sound guy!

Friday 26th July took us to The London Road Tavern, once quite a venue, but more recently being known for its food.. however, the owners were keen to put some entertainment on.. so we played, doing our usual 2 and half our set.. including a bundle of Who songs, which went down a treat with the crowd!! Was lovely to see some old friends in the audience too.

Saturday 27th July took us all over the place!! Firstly we played as part of Bidstock 13, a metal festival held in The Commercial Hotel, Wheelock, quite literally in the middle of nowhere! Well, in the village of Wheelock.. The Commercial Hotel was like stepping back in time, we played on the Snakey Jake Acoustic Stage following the utterly brilliant Hayley Strangelove. The Snakey Jake Acoustic stage was rather akin to playing in someone's living room.. old comfy sofas and chairs around the room, a welsh dresser against one wall.. very strange, but very lovely... We had a lovely crowd, who were very appreciative. Bidstock wasn't our usual kind of event, but never say never, there were some brilliant musicians there, who were undaunted by the rain and who had practically drunk the place dry!! Looking forward to working with the Bidstock team in the future too.
That evening, despite thunderstorms and driving rain, we managed to escape to Derby.. It had been a while since we'd supported The Longmen, and they invited us back for a long overdue visit. Well, we were in Bar One, which was entertaining a disco night when we arrived.. a short walk through to the beer garden revealed a covered oasis, with its own stage.. absolutely perfect for playing on.. with heated lighting, meaning it was toasty warm and dry, despite the thunderstorm overhead... Need to bring The Longmen to Stoke, as they are a cracking band.. sort of bluesy with a veritable Hugh Lloyd Langton on guitar in the shape of Ferrit! They really are a great bunch of guys and deserve to come this way soon.

Sunday 4th August, once more into Tremolo Studios to do some more work on the tracks we've recorded. This time joined by the mighty Kris Grainger.. who works magic on the fretless bass.. he's added the finishing touches to two tracks.. you don't realise what's missing from a song until you hear the final parts being added in, unfortunately we weren't able to stay there as long as we'd have liked, as its meant having to leave the rest of the songs too... We're unsure whether to add in any more songs, or whether to just leave it at 7.. The songs have begun to take on a life of their own, each having a depth and intricacy that we never imagined possible when we first went in. Heaven knows when the CD will be ready... Its looking likely that we may have to put the release date back again!! I hope not though!

Right, that's it from us for now... As you know, we never rest on our laurels and have more things in the pipeline.

Its oh so quiet.... Its oh so still... well not really.

Hi folks,

You may be wondering why we've not updated for a while.. well, its cos we've been busy doing stuff.

We should have played The Imp at Crewe on June 27th, but sadly Graeme had the lurgy, which prevented us from playing.. watch this space, or check out the gig guide page for details of where we're playing next! Hopefully we'll rebook for The Imp soon.

Saturday 29th June took us to The Bank Corner pub in Alsager for the Pre-gig warm up for Alsager Festival. What a great evening it turned out to be... starting with Maddy Storm, who plays a number of heartwarming songs in her own unique way proved to be an excellent opener, followed by us, we gave them a number of original and covers and went down brilliantly. Following us were the excellent Sea Based Turtles, who really brought the place to life, with their funk rock numbers. Leading the proceedings were the truly marvellous Sugar Rush who kept the venue dancing into the night with a splendid array of covers. Might I just add that Stath from Sugar Rush is one of the main organisers of the Alsager Festival and that he's a top bloke, along with Pete Weatherburn, who was taking photos for posterity.
It proved to be an excellent warm-up to the Festival, which starts on 13th July.. we'll be hitting the Acoustic Stage at 6.15pm!

Thursday 4th of July, and we made an appearance at Arthur's Table Open Mic night.. a truly fabulous night, with the cream of the talent in Stoke in attendance. We'd recently learned another couple of covers, and decided to play them to the ever appreciative audience.. Showcasing that evening were the veritable bastions of chapness "Sons of Clogger"..who delivered their usual rambunctiousness to the delighted crowd. They never fail to please and are gearing up for their upcoming CD official launch parties!

After this we took a well earned and deserved break to the south coast, just a couple of days to de-stress... well and for Graeme to acquire a new guitar.. which I have to admit is really rather nice and I'm looking forward to him airing it at the next gig.

So we'll hopefully catch you all at Alsager Music Festival on 13th July!

Its Studio Time!!

Crikey, doesn't time fly, there we were doing loads of gigs, suddenly we found ourselves with a bit more time on our hands! So, rather than waste it, it was time to go back to Tremolo Studios and set to work on trying to finish off the tracks we'd started.

Saturday 22nd June, there we sat with Dan mulling over recordings and deciding over what we should do next to the tracks we'd already put down. So, Graeme set to work putting bass lines down on a couple of the songs and adding some extra twangy guitars to Alone. The main job of the evening was to lay basslines, guitars and vocals on Mary Go Round, one of our newer songs. Surprisingly it all went smoothly, overlaying guitars and vocals, harmonies, etc and weaving what started out as quite a plain sounding track into something rather beautiful. In 3 hours we'd completed work on 2 other songs and pretty much completed Mary Go Round.

Sunday 23rd June, Back into Tremolo, despite thinking we wouldn't get back for a couple of weeks.. More basslines completed, so there's only 2 songs requiring the skillful dexterity of Kris Grainger and his amazing fretless bass.. Not saying that Graeme isn't skillful, or dexterous, because he is, but in a different way, plus one more requiring a banjo part, which is yet to be written!

The idea of using other musicians on the tracks, not only means that someone else gets some credit somewhere, but that we like organic instruments. Synths and the like have their place in the music scene, just for us, this time around, we decided on an organic approach, and when you have such talent around Stoke, why waste it?? Why not put it to good use. So where we can, we've allowed the other musicians free reign to construct a piece of music to fit into the songs, allowing them to shine as brightly as us. Plus, it helps them too, they can say "Hey I've played on such and such".. Not saying that we'll become millionaire's off it, but you never know.. stranger things have happened, what's more likely, is that they'll become famous and we'll end up saying "Hey, they played on our CD"..

Its all coming together nicely, and hopefully the finished product will be ready very very soon.

London Road Festival weekend and studio times.

So, the time of year was upon us, London Road Festival weekend, we'd played there last year on the main stage and were looking forward to playing again... anyway, here's the weekend, broken down into bitesize pieces :-)

Saturday 8th June, we decided it was time to return to Tremolo Studios and do some more work on the tracks for the CD. It had been some weeks (11 to be precise) since we'd had enough free time to book a spot and do some work, such are the joys of gigging regularly! Still, can't complain, as its what we love to do. Anyway, back to the studio. Basically we were going back to overdub on the tracks that we'd laid the bare bones down to and to add in extra bits to some that needed it. Also in attendance was Katharine Luff, a rather talented brass player who had written some parts for one of the songs, all I'll say is we had given her the song and the remit "mariachi style please" and as before, she delivered, bringing life to a piece that we would have struggled with otherwise. The song "Falling" has a kind of Spanish/Spaghetti Western feel to it, rather like "Alone Again Or"..or something in that vein.. for those of you that have heard us play it live, maybe you can hear it too, or maybe not?? Anyway, its sounding really rather good, just some final touches and it'll be complete.
What I like about being in the studio, is the being able to break a song down into its component parts, and then glueing them back together, adding in flourishes, touches, depth and colour, where there was none before. The beauty of being in a duo is that, yes it can be as simple as just us two, guitar and vocals, or as complex as we like. We're adding in so much at the moment, we know that at some point during the editing stage we'll have to start taking away too.
We also worked on "That Brief Encounter", Graeme adding in Spanish guitar (some very nice pieces, if I say so myself) and the vocals..including some nice harmonies. So the newer tracks are beginning to take shape.
Another few sessions in the studio and we should be done with the CD.. but don't hold your breath anytime soon.. I know we keep saying we'll get it done, first it was May, then June.. now we're thinking September.. But we'll see. We need to record a couple more tracks for it and work on them, finish off the ones that we already have and then set about mixing them.. so who knows, maybe it'll be ready by Christmas!!

Sunday 9th June, Wow.. London Road Festival. There had been a few mix-ups with this festival initially. We'd said from the get go that we were interested in playing the main stage again, seeing as we did it last year and were looking forward to going back and initially we weren't booked to do that, nor were we booked to play in any of the pubs, then within a few days before, we were asked, could we play The Oak Tree and then 2 days before.. could we play the main stage. Being us, we said yes!
On the main stage we decided to try something a bit different. Graeme, who was trying out his friend Raj's Rickenbacker 330 (it needed fixing and Graeme fixed it so needed to try it out) and me.. with hair extensions in, did a couple of our numbers, followed by The Who's "1921" and "Pinball Wizard", which went down well with the crowd, following with "Northern Lights" and ending our set with the usual "Je Ne Regrette Rien"... The assembled crowd were incredibly receptive and even in the hot sun saw to give us tumultuous applause. The newly eletrified Rain had arrived :-). We were sandwiched between The Jake Leg Jug Blues Band and The Legendry Lonnie Band, so knew we had to pull off something different to make an impact. If the sight of me in my hair extensions wasn't enough, Graeme was even wearing shorts.. :-O
Later that day, well 7pm to be precise, we set up to play The Oak Tree, however the poor landlord was feeling a bit down, he had put on a craft fair during the day as part of the Festival, but sadly no-one had come to it.. we played for about 40 minutes and he said "Look guys, lets call it a day".. so we summarily packed up. We played well to the few folk, who were stall holders for the craft fair, that they were supportive, but we were flogging a dead horse and we knew it. Not one person put their foot through the door, which was such a pity, as The Oak Tree is rather a nice pub inside.. recently having been refurbished and looking quite contemporary now. Once packed we said our goodbyes and rather than go home discouraged took ourselves off to The Swan in Burslem for Arthur's Table Open Mic. Where we stayed for a while, listened to the delights of Arthur, Tony Roberts, Trent Vale Poet and some guy called Keith (I think, terrible memory for names!) and then played a few songs for the crowd. It was a pretty good end to a pretty busy day.
While this weekend has had ups and downs, I would say the ups have definately out weighed the downs an its all a learning curve, eh?

Anyway, we'll get back to you with more news as and when we have some..

And into Flaming June

Phew, talk about a change in the weather.. June has brought sunshine aplenty and about time too.

Saturday 1st June
This morning we played at Wirksworth Farmers Market, at the request of the very lovely Brian Boothby (who is local to Wirksworth and does quite a bit in the music scene there.. check out his website: http://www.brianboothby.co.uk) and a glorious day it was too..
We followed a hurdy gurdy player, who played ancient tunes and sang some plainsong.. can't remember her name though, which is rather remiss of me. Let's just say she was excellent. We were given the slot of mid morning, which is apparently when the market is quite busy, and suffice to say it was. A steady stream of people milled past, giving the thumbs up, or stayed and listened for a while as we delivered our songs. Once we'd finished we were allowed to keep the few pounds we'd raised, Brian had kindly put a hat down for us, so we were off around the market to purchase our lunch. Farmer's Markets are great places to visit, with many local producers coming from local farms to sell their wares, which isn't just meat, milk, cheese and eggs, but a whole plethora of culinary delights. We're hoping to go back to Wirksworth again sometime as it is such a lovely village, with such a community spirit, vital in these times.

Saturday 1st of June
Yes, not content with one gig in a day, we found ourselves with two! The White Hart at Tean is a delightful pub with loads of character and friendly locals who welcomed us into their abode. We set off playing a bunch of our songs, which went down well, but things brightened up when we began our second set, which was all the cover songs we do. We played and played and played, the crowd kept asking for more.. so we gave them just that... Everything that we do!!! We ran out of songs and gave some half remembered covers.. and they still wanted more!!! An insatiable crowd. We had a few conversations after the gig with some of the locals, which made it even more memorable. In total, I think we played for well over 2 and a half hours, ending the set with a medley of Who songs. I'm most grateful to the audience who were very keen to sing along to the words that I forgot...Its that which makes gigs special.

So flaming June is here, well and truly.. much more coming up so there'll be much more to write about.

Jazzy Bluesyness

Well, Newcastle Jazz and Blues weekend arrived with all the extravaganza and ceremonious pomp that is part of the heritage of this lovely market town in Staffordshire. On the back of the old Newcastle Carnival, which was extraordinary in its day, and sadly came to a close some years ago.. the brainchild of the Newcastle Jazz and Blues came out of its embers rising like a pheonix from the flames. What Newcastle Jazz and Blues does mainly is showcase heaps of local talent, and people leave their homes and generally celebrate it in style...

So... the weekend arrived, and with it, some little spots for us to play..

Saturday 25th May, we played an impromptu spot at The Blackfriar's Open Mic evening, hosted by the very smiley Joe Bennett... We ran through a whole bunch of covers, and went down a storm, which was lovely and a pleasure. One guy in particular took to thanking us in person after each track, as it appears we may have actually found someone who listens to and has a liking for the tunes we picked to play! Either that, or he was full of the spirit of the Festival, which is based in pubs, so consequently leads to people drinking rather a few sherries. We were all done quite early on.. which was nice, giving us the rest of the night off.. We could have stayed in town, but promised we'd see a couple of friends... you know how it is.. hectic social lives... plus we had to plan for the next day.

Sunday 26th May, took us to The "Little" Vic, a rather friendly and welcoming hostelry in Brampton, to attend The Friendly Campaign's alternative to the Jazz and Blues weekend. Our PA was being used all day by the various acts.. and we took a sly opportunity to play early on, just to make sure that the sound was right.. as you do. We were deftly followed by John Oakes regaling songs of love with his 12 string. Clair Brennan, our local songstress, continued in the acoustic theme with her wonderful songs... and she went down a storm with the crowd. Interspersed between the acoustic acts was "London" Paul and his Rhythm and Blues collection, heaven knows where he found half of the songs from, no doubt some dark dusty cupboard somewhere! But it got the crowd dancing! As the sun began to slide low in the sky, the electric set began.. The Seers were set to play, however they were without their drummer!!! As luck would have it, in the room was a chap called Rob, a regular metronome and possibly one of the most natural drummers ever. Usually paired with "Tornado" Pete, Rob and he deliver fantastic Bragg-esque tunes about trains! Rob, having a day out in the pub to watch the bands, on his own was least prepared, but happily agreed to step in on drums. What a star, The Seers played their set, including a rather awesome version of "Neat Neat Neat"! Rob didn't miss a beat, placed all the fills deftly and without pause!! Think it was one of the highlights of the day!
Up next, The Friendly Campaign, a rather rowdy bunch of "N'er do wells", delivering their usual Pop/Punk songs with aplomb and deftness. (I hasten to add, both G and I are in The Friendly Campaign as well, so we are rather biased!). Taking things to another level, with the crowd merrily dancing away, some even dancing as aeroplanes, during "She Flies" was as sight to behold. TFC were testimony to the adage, practice loads and you'll get it right.. Managed to get through the whole set without a blip... "Sorrow" a perennial favourite, had the crowd singing along! TFC just know how to do it, and can pull the rabbit out of the hat every time!! More gigs now!!
Lastly and headlining were The Black Widows, down from the usual 7 to a 6 piece, they squeezed into the covered area and managed to pull out the stops and keep the mood lifted.. with their new additions to the band, and apparent CD release, they'll probably go quite far now!!
MC for the evening and general inbetween act during the evening sets was "Nervous" Dave, somewhat of a poet, recited his poetry and had the crowd in stitches!! Rather cleverly put together, with marvellous play on words Dave should get this work down onto CD and out there!!
Overall a wonderfully entertaining day!

Monday 27th May. Folk and Foam @ The Old Brown Jug, as part of the Newcastle Jazz and Blues Festival... Organised by the ever hard working Andy Tranter from Headsticks, we managed to sneak down earlier than our set to watch the fantastic Sons of Clogger, formed from the family of "Cloggers" Neil and David Owen... joined by Dave "Dougey" Brown on Bass and Rich Raizada on drums, we can be assured that if these guys don't make it big, then no-one will. They have raised the bar to which the rest of us have to now attain to achieving!!! They are full on, energised folk, with supercharged mandolin and lyrical stories, with a new CD out (which we just HAD to buy!!) and promoted onstage several times! We love the Cloggers! We had to follow them.. which is a tough job, as far as I'm concerned.. But we did quite well. Pulled out "The Telegram", which is a new song for us, at only 2 weeks old, its a veritable baby of a tune. Obviously having Rich from Sons of Clogger in the room, meant that we called him up for a few tunes, he's playing on our tracks which are in the studio, patiently waiting for us to go and finish them off! It was great playing on a proper stage again, inside a marquee, with the sound provided by Wayne from Artisan music in Hartshill, its one of the joys of playing different events, is the differing sound/stage set-ups you have to deal with. This one included proper fold-back monitors, which is not something encountered by acoustic acts in a number of venues, so it felt like being in a proper band. Cheered on by Dave and Dougey in the front row, we managed to get through the set with only minor giggles! Greeted by rapturous applause and lots of positive comments once leaving stage, it has once more given validity to what we're doing.
We stuck around for a couple of acts, namely Lucas Marks and Baxter, both giving it their all. Elsewhere in the pub itself, The Barrelhouse Jukes have a couple of hours of their time playing downhome Delta Blues and  their usual array of tunes. A chinese takeaway and a desire to warm up while watching Baxter (who is a duo comprising the enoromously talented Hayley Strangelove and the amazing Paul Senior of Sons of Shinobi) was just the ticket. We would have loved to have stuck around for the rest of the evening, as it featured Phil Maddocks and Nick Bayes, Giro Junkie and Headsticks, among others.. But family matters and time were against us, and something has to give sometimes.

Rightio.. that's the blog up to date again!! Phew!! I told you May was a crazy month for us!!

The Mad Month of May

Well, May has turned out to be a crazy month in Rainland.. Seriously, its been mad. We've bee trying to learn new material, compose new songs, etc, but have had a plethora of gigs to do! Each weekend in May we've had at least one gig, more often 2-3, sometimes 2 on the same day!! But we, as ever, take it in our stride and just want to bring you more of our unique brand of craziness..

Sunday 12th May saw us going to The Gresley Arms Folk and Ale Festival, which is a fantastic event, brought to you by the Lovekins (yes that really is their surname, how ace is that??). They run a folk group at The Gresley, which is a kind of sing around session, which we had been to in April and they kindly asked us to come along and do a spot.. which we were more than happy to oblige. We managed to pack out the room, which was filled to the brim with enthusiastic faces and encouraging applause. Considering we only did 4 songs, we went down really well and were given a free meal and pint as a reward.. which is so wonderfully generous of them. We shall endeavour to return to the singaround night soon, as it was such a lovely welcoming atmosphere, and a truly lovely pub.

Saturday 18th May took us to The Olde Queen's Head in Talke. Have to say we were a bit anxious at going there, as we had never been there before, and were a little worried at what the reaction would be. Its never easy trying a new venue, espescially one that is used to having "pub singers/entertainers". We couldn't have been more wrong, what a superb crowd and fantastic reception! Apparently, according to some of the locals, who had drank rather a few beers, we made a refreshing change an they thought we were amazing!!! Something totally different to what they were used to, as they were a bit fed up of "those that sing along to backing tracks"... Even Graeme was asked to showcase his guitar playing, when someone asked "Do you know, Angie?"... he had to oblige, and dazzled the assembled crowd with a rendition of that and Albatross. We were definately on a winner there!

Sunday 19th May took us to Stafford Rangers Football Club, for a Health and Healing Day.. not the usual place you'd find us, but definately a fun day. We managed two sets, even after I (Sheena) fell unceremoniously off the stage and down the steps, bruising not just my bum, but my pride! And again, went down really well... We shared the stage with Clare Palmer, who is a truly lovely lady and who has written a song in aid of Stafford Hospital called, "50, 000 People Can't Be Wrong"... Let's hope she raises loads of money for it, she's someone we'd count as a new friend, as she writes lovely sings, and has a really powerful voice, yet is so unassuming. Also on the stage was Stuart Woolfenden, who had travelled up from Worcestershire to play, at only 15, he's already a singer/songwriter, rather punkish and definately someone to watch out for. All in all a fabulous day.

Next week we're at Newcastle Jazz and Blues weekend.. should be a good one.. watch this space for updates!! :-)