2015! What a year for The Kilsby Open Music Collective.

The Kilsby Open Music Collective, 2015

February

Our Valentines night turned into a real night of lurve, with the best love song of the evening winning champagne and chocolates.

 The winner, by a fair margin, was Napton interloper Gordon (not seen since).

 Not as we hold any grudges. It would be lovely to see him again.
Perhaps February 16 when we have our next Valentines night.

Plain Joe Smith visited us again, adding a splash of colour, with bassist Phil, or is it Bill? Sorry

 

 MDF's Love Letters In The Sand put a whole new perspective on the seaside.

 'Dance with me tonight' has been my favourite song of the year. Mostly because I sang it at my daughter's wedding as their first dance.

Tony brings an international flavour to the evening. His whistle playing is Irish and his singing is French, and they all seem to be about drinking.

For most of us, March and April were all about elections. Kilsby was a Politics Free Zone, that so wasn't.

Steve and
Martin

Ken with and without strings

MDF celebrating the benefits of union membership.

Photo Free May I forgot to bring my camera. Alright, I couldn't find my camera. Be asured, we had a good night. In June, because I was away in Spain, there was a 'singing in the round' evening, also known as a free for all. As I wasn't there, there are no photos for that either. While we were away, Maggie got busy with the paintbrush. When we reconvened in July the accoustics and appearance were very different, but how would the atmosphere be affected.

July New decor, old faces

The shiney tables and absence of drapes really changed the acoustics of the venue.

Not only could the treble carry to the back of the room, the performers could hear every murmer, scrape and coffee being made. A PA was required to boost

the bass and add a bit of volume to some of the vocals.

Judy drops in for a little moral support, and some lovely vocals.

August

 Introducing the new PA. With the room accoustics so changed, the PA helped to add the bass and deepen the sound for most of the performers. The operator has got a bit of tweaking to do and only one mic meant that we missed out on the full effect of the stunning

harmonies from Hannah and Alixe. Their 'Matty Groves' stopped the pub, and has to be considered as one of the top performances of the year.

Mike is stuck in the middle of  a Ross free MDF while John and Mike are 'Stuck in the middle with you'.

George's Birthday Bash

The birthday boy......
MDF lead the obligatory singing.

Paul and Steve

A good crowd with a mix of performing and non-performing audience.Roland was on his own tonight. Time for some blues.

October...
was one of those nights when there were only a few performers. The great thing about those nights is you really get to stretch your repertoir.The backing curtain is back, though it is a bit on the short side.

November
2nd Bangers and Mash Night

Newcomers Torgul, Paul and Sue rocked the mic. A strong heavy bass has been a bit rare at KOMC nights. I wonder if I can persuade her to accompany a few others.

No strings nicely mic'ed sounded great. It has taken a couple of months and two additional mics, but we're getting there. Just a monitor required so that they can hear each other.


Another first timer at The George was Steve, who treated us to some oldies and goldies.

And yours truely, sporting a 'Steve Jobs' look got to perform solo and as part of Kilsby favourites MDF.

 

 Apparently I was so like Ross that the band forgot that it was me. Good job they didn't pick any Jordy tunes, my cover would have been proper bluewen.

Ross pointed out that the beer was in the wrong hand, and there wasn't enough in the glass. Next time Ross, next time.



 Highlight of the night, if not the year,

our very own Paddy Wex bewails the state of the nation's education policy to a familiar tune. Click the link to see a video of the performance.
I am the very model........





The Warm Up for The Christmas Party - December 2015, our last night of the year.

Probably the busiest night of the year with eleven acts and a few non-playing audience members.

Ken checking his state of tune as we wait for other performers to arrive.  Added to the PA are some lights. They only arrived on the Wednesday before, so they've not been properly deployed, but they added a little colour to the evening's performances.

Regular KOMC performers: Opening were No Strings Attached.

Paddy sings of Good King Whatsislad and the overcooked sprouts.
MDF with Ross back on his feet. (After my performance last month he had to make an appearance, if only to rescue the reputation of the band.)

There were a few first time performers, with a diverse range of musical genre.

 Friend of the collective, Tony Wilding, suggested to Tony Collins that he might enjoy our evening. We certainly enjoyed his performance and hope to see and hear more of him in 2016.

 Jason had been to Kilsby before, but not for a few years. He and Rachael sang Run and Baby it's cold outside, Dream a little Dream, Please come home for Christmas.

 Matt Powell and Benson Fox came along as the extended 'Original Members'. Real rock and blues with Copperhead Road as their finale. I don't think I will ever get tired of that song.

Dave Pepper lives just up the road only recently heard about our night from a mutual friend. Great to hear him, and really enjoyed the flamenco; not something we've had a lot of.



Thank you to all of the performers that have helped to make 2015 a wonderful year. I 'm sure that 2016 is going to be even better.

All Fingers and Thumbs

All Fingers and Thumbs


The lessons continue, and my first introduction to the scales was quite gentle. 'This is C Major.' The sheet contained one stave, and underneath was the tab. When played, it sounded familiar, and in no time I could rattle up and down it, and felt very pleased with myself.

I know that learning the scales is an important part of the package when n to decipher the dots, but I don't think I have yet grasped just how important. C Major was followed by D and G, and then A. Each time I noted the additional sharp and tried to remember where it featured. E Major was simply presented as an idea, and I had to work out where the new sharp fitted in. Fortunately, as a guitar player, I don't have to worry about any more major scales, but I do now have the minor ones to look forward to.

I can now look at a simple piece of music and recognise some of the notes, determine elements of the rhythm and identify which key it is in, but translating it into something audibly familiar is proving a challenge. I know that some of it has sunk in, and I recognise that progress has been made, but I had thought it would have been quicker than this. My brain has just about absorbed the concept of bass and treble strings, but defining the melody from the base escapes me and I am increasingly in awe of those pickers that appear to have independently controlled digits.

Ken picks a twelve string and it sounds amazing.

If music be the food of love

If music be the food of love, play on.

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

 

 

Second only to the actual persuit of love comes our fondness for songs about it. So what makes a good love song? With Valentine's Day just around the corner it is worth considering where love songs might fit in the Kilsby Open Music repertoire.

The love song is universal, recognising, as it does, no cultural or geographic boundaries. To my ear, and to my mind, they fall into four basic types. Songs of unrequited love, full of longing and heartache, that demonstrate our reluctance to 'get over it' and move on.  Of course the circumstances might have a bearing; songs of lost love through the intervention of a romantic third party are a bit different to those of untimely death of our dearest.

Then there are songs of adoration for one's girl/boy, like Clapton's Wonderful Tonight, with all of their virtues extolled and no mention of any vices they might possess. For songs about lost love or chance encouters that had their moment and the subsequent heartache look no further than Fleetwood Mac. Their longevity is largely due to the relationships that provided a deep well of material covering all aspects of romantic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEnp3in3gTA engagement.

And of course, there are songs of lust. OK, so lust doesn't necessarily qualify as love. I was thinking of posting a link to Trey Songz', 'Panty Droppa', but I don't think anyone will be disappointed that I didn't. If you want to find it, you can.

These themes crop up across the genres and through the ages. While the language might change a bit, the sentiments expressed are clearly recognisable. How about some of these?

According to the associated descriptions, this is one the oldest known love songs of the British Isles. To me, it seems more like an explanation of some good riddles than a love song, and a boneless chicken has a slightly different connotation these days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OORxUZP2Ez4

What about the last thing on Tom Paxton's mind; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sECA4wP5BE a definite Kilsby favourite, particularly when Paddy sings it.

No list of mush would be complete without this Clapton classic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qx3EQQQ6yjM Eric sings of the gratitude of a husband who is put to bed by his beloved, because he is too drunk to manage it by himself. True love indeed!

Because of the importance of love songs, and the close proximity of our first open session of the year to Valentine's day, there is prize for the best performance of a love song, as voted by audience and performers. Come back and see how we got on.

All the gear. No idea.

I'm on my third guitar. The first cost £120 including a carrying bag. It travelled back and forth to Munich with me as hand luggage in the days when airlines were much more flexible about such matters. I bought it to learn as an alternative to beer drinking, which was the chief leisure activity of the engineer abroad. Indeed, it was clutching this guitar when I met Robert Plant on the airport shuttle bus. He was playing at The Olympic Park Stadium with Jimmy Page. "Where are you playing?" He asked me. When I told him that I was learning, and playing only in my hotel room he suggested that I might have left it a bit late. The guitar died when it fell on its face and snapped the top of the neck.

While in Munich I managed to write my first song. I was at the end of over two years travelling and had captured the experience in a delightful song called 'The L30 Blues'; named in honour of the Land-Rover project I was working on. This was to be my first public performance and I sang it at my leaving presentation as an alternative to making a speech. It went down quite well.

The second guitar I still own. The desire to play was still quite strong. It cost double the first, including a hard case. It was an electro-acoustic and I bought it with the intention of amplifying it at some point. With it being slightly smaller around the neck, and a bit shorter in length, I found I could reach some of the chords that proved impossible on the old one. I wanted to learn Beatles songs, but George Harrison's hand span must have been extraordinary.

This year I got my third guitar. It was a present from Shirley. It is a Martin, it sounds fabulous and my enthusiasm for playing would be astronomical but for one thing; my inadequacy.Owning a Martin, for me, is a bit like feeding caviar to a mongrel; owning an Aston Martin without having a driving licence.

So I have decided that without some help I will never be worthy of this lovely guitar and had my first proper lesson. I now understand, at least conceptually, how chords work and what this means over the full length of the fret board; and given opportunity to scratch my head and pick the wrong notes to play simple tunes with six notes on the first two strings. This boy does deserve good food, but I think it is going to be a while before I am fed.