Playing guitar now. For for another site so context stuff.
Discussion
But first, let's go back a few years.
I lucked into a band around 15 years ago.
After having learnt the basics, and I mean basics, I started writing the odd thing - they were quite tuneful but I had no outlet. I was reading Q magazine one day and saw an ad for 'Guitarist wanted for rock band - influences are Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and The Doors'.
Well, I like those bands so why not give it a go - please remember, I'm still a complete novice with a few tunes. I go for an audition, and I turned up with an 80's type bloke called 'Angel'. He sat there and told everyone how great he was, I sat there and said nothing. He was dismissed pretty early on and I started talking to these two blokes - Bass player and singer - and we had quite a lot in common and, bizarrely, I was in the band having not even reached for my brand new, wine red, Les Paul Studio that I was going to unleash rock upon the world.
Turned out we didn't have a drummer.
We rehearsed in the local rooms - when I say local, I mean local to the bass player, the singer and I had had to commute for at least an hour each to get there. We fleshed out a few songs and started to look for the elusive drummer.
Time out here - anyone wanting to set up a band, a good band, needs a damn good drummer - I've learnt that if you don't have one of these then everything can fall apart... or sounds a bit s
t.
We had a mate come in on the skins, who was a bit crap but enough for us to put things together - shortly after we had a keyboard player come in. This guy was a qualified teacher - awesome. He really started to bring the music on. I'd write riffs, bring them to the band, we'd develop them, help the singer write the melodies and after a few months we had five whole songs!
Drummer left.
We then auditioned properly for drummers - we already had a tiny bit of a buzz going on. Two days, 15 drummers, some terrible, some great but not right and then on the 2nd afternoon, having spent 15-30mins with each auditionee, we hit gold. Started jamming away and 2 hours later we remembered to send the rest of the waiting guys home. We’d found our Bonham, our Moon...
We tightened up our 5 songs and then decided to take IT OUT THERE!
We blagged our way into playing at the Rock Garden in Covent Garden (London) as a support act – it’s very strange having to give the headline act autographs as they knew we’d be global rock’n’roll stars... We then decided to invest in a decent set of demos – they found their way to a number of labels – big and small. The afternoon before we played our 6th gig, just after soundcheck, we were approached by a small label, but they had major label backing, that we knew and were asked if we wanted to sign with them. They knew that the audience for that evening was going to be filled with A&R people and wanted to get in first. They offered a huge (to us) advance and a development deal with the option for 3 albums. We got extremely drunk and played the worst set of our lives! No one else was ever going to sign us so we got drunker!
The label did a very sensible thing given our inability to actually play our instruments. They paid, up front, for 6 months worth of rehearsal time a studio in Camden (London). On a Monday morning we’d set up our gear and then it would stay there until Friday 5pm. Being rock’n’roll became a nine to five job. They gave us an advance so that we all had money to live (get fked mostly), I got a new Marshall head and Cab, a new Standard, a few more pedals and all the picks and strings I could imagine – Bass player got a new bass (70’s Jazz IIRC) and a full Ampeg rig, Keyboard player dug up an original Hammond and Leslie (that would come back to haunt us when gigging) which was paid for. Drummer had his Ludwig set reconditioned and got a deal with Zildjian. Singer got a tambourine, or something. You’ll learn later that there was not much love lost for the singer.
So, we’re on a development deal, best we develop!
And, it has to be said we did. We worked damn hard – we’d write new tunes, record simple demos, send them to the boss of the label, and for the most part he was a happy bunny. Ok – we now have 12-15 tracks that we all think have legs, let’s get recording properly. We’ll record the album later, we need a single and a couple of B sides. Problem was, we didn’t have a song under 4 minutes (we liked to jam/prog stuff out). ‘You must write a song under 4 minutes’ and we have a producer for you!
The producer we had was great at Indie stuff but we were a rock band – everything sounded squeaky and thin – we wanted dirt and guts. That lasted about a week – then we had a guy come in who had been a bit of an idol of mine since my teens. Here’s a funny thing. I went to see Big Country play live at Wembley Arena when I was 15 and this guy was playing guitar for the support band, and they went down like a... umm.... Lead Balloon.... move on 10 years and I meet him in a club and I said to him that I’m in a band and you should hear our stuff – scroll on a few more years and I’m sitting in a booth with the fella recording guitars – how fked up is that!?
So we’re locked in a studio in Hastings (UK) with our producer who‘s a rock legend and an engineer who has worked with the likes of Queen and we record a really st 4 minute song! Goggle me and you’ll find it – it’s not representative of anything we wanted to be or did in the future but what the label demanded.
As we expected, it bombed. We did a cheapo video that was fun but worthless. Stand up fights at the label ensued and it was our way or the high way – damn, we were close to being kicked off.
Next single was great though. We went to Poland to record the video and it was incredibly eventful, even if the video wasn’t that good. We got deported as one of the party decided to burn down the hotel in Katowice.
The single got radio play and we started to get on TV shows.
That single was recorded as part of the album sessions and we went to a number of residential studios that had played host to some of rocks greatest acts. We’d also started to play some great tours, support some top acts and play festivals.
Next single was going to be ‘the one’.
But... the label wouldn’t pay for a video as they’d spent too much on the last. Madness! – the song got top billing on national radio – we did sessions for the evening shows, but they didn’t do a video. We had momentum from the support acts, our own shows and from the radio and TV exposure. We also started to get plays in Asia and on a few rock channels on the West Coast USA.
Everything was starting to happen but it was also falling apart. The album was released, it was ok, not perfect and we knew it was the first step to greater things – the demos we’d done for the new stuff was far, far, far better than anything on the first.
It bombed in the UK because it wasn’t marketed at all and the small UK label decided that it wasn’t going to work for them so we were dropped. The major label looked at us and decided that given the turmoil of the market (and we probably hadn’t proved ourselves enough) at that time, that was it. How many rock bands do their best stuff on their 1st?
We looked at a number of alternatives but nothing came up and that was that.
Four years of me playing guitar professionally, i.e. getting paid for it, and I’ll tell you one thing.
fking Awesome – I don’t regret that we didn’t get big, I don’t regret a single thing – my mid 20’s were mad – the people I met, the people I worked with, the people I partied with –how proud I made my family (who were always down the front, be it in front of 200 in a sthole in London in the early days, or in front of 50,000 at Reading). All I know is that I gave it my all and what else can you do.
I lucked into a band around 15 years ago.
After having learnt the basics, and I mean basics, I started writing the odd thing - they were quite tuneful but I had no outlet. I was reading Q magazine one day and saw an ad for 'Guitarist wanted for rock band - influences are Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and The Doors'.
Well, I like those bands so why not give it a go - please remember, I'm still a complete novice with a few tunes. I go for an audition, and I turned up with an 80's type bloke called 'Angel'. He sat there and told everyone how great he was, I sat there and said nothing. He was dismissed pretty early on and I started talking to these two blokes - Bass player and singer - and we had quite a lot in common and, bizarrely, I was in the band having not even reached for my brand new, wine red, Les Paul Studio that I was going to unleash rock upon the world.
Turned out we didn't have a drummer.
We rehearsed in the local rooms - when I say local, I mean local to the bass player, the singer and I had had to commute for at least an hour each to get there. We fleshed out a few songs and started to look for the elusive drummer.
Time out here - anyone wanting to set up a band, a good band, needs a damn good drummer - I've learnt that if you don't have one of these then everything can fall apart... or sounds a bit s
t.We had a mate come in on the skins, who was a bit crap but enough for us to put things together - shortly after we had a keyboard player come in. This guy was a qualified teacher - awesome. He really started to bring the music on. I'd write riffs, bring them to the band, we'd develop them, help the singer write the melodies and after a few months we had five whole songs!
Drummer left.
We then auditioned properly for drummers - we already had a tiny bit of a buzz going on. Two days, 15 drummers, some terrible, some great but not right and then on the 2nd afternoon, having spent 15-30mins with each auditionee, we hit gold. Started jamming away and 2 hours later we remembered to send the rest of the waiting guys home. We’d found our Bonham, our Moon...
We tightened up our 5 songs and then decided to take IT OUT THERE!
We blagged our way into playing at the Rock Garden in Covent Garden (London) as a support act – it’s very strange having to give the headline act autographs as they knew we’d be global rock’n’roll stars... We then decided to invest in a decent set of demos – they found their way to a number of labels – big and small. The afternoon before we played our 6th gig, just after soundcheck, we were approached by a small label, but they had major label backing, that we knew and were asked if we wanted to sign with them. They knew that the audience for that evening was going to be filled with A&R people and wanted to get in first. They offered a huge (to us) advance and a development deal with the option for 3 albums. We got extremely drunk and played the worst set of our lives! No one else was ever going to sign us so we got drunker!
The label did a very sensible thing given our inability to actually play our instruments. They paid, up front, for 6 months worth of rehearsal time a studio in Camden (London). On a Monday morning we’d set up our gear and then it would stay there until Friday 5pm. Being rock’n’roll became a nine to five job. They gave us an advance so that we all had money to live (get f
ked mostly), I got a new Marshall head and Cab, a new Standard, a few more pedals and all the picks and strings I could imagine – Bass player got a new bass (70’s Jazz IIRC) and a full Ampeg rig, Keyboard player dug up an original Hammond and Leslie (that would come back to haunt us when gigging) which was paid for. Drummer had his Ludwig set reconditioned and got a deal with Zildjian. Singer got a tambourine, or something. You’ll learn later that there was not much love lost for the singer.So, we’re on a development deal, best we develop!
And, it has to be said we did. We worked damn hard – we’d write new tunes, record simple demos, send them to the boss of the label, and for the most part he was a happy bunny. Ok – we now have 12-15 tracks that we all think have legs, let’s get recording properly. We’ll record the album later, we need a single and a couple of B sides. Problem was, we didn’t have a song under 4 minutes (we liked to jam/prog stuff out). ‘You must write a song under 4 minutes’ and we have a producer for you!
The producer we had was great at Indie stuff but we were a rock band – everything sounded squeaky and thin – we wanted dirt and guts. That lasted about a week – then we had a guy come in who had been a bit of an idol of mine since my teens. Here’s a funny thing. I went to see Big Country play live at Wembley Arena when I was 15 and this guy was playing guitar for the support band, and they went down like a... umm.... Lead Balloon.... move on 10 years and I meet him in a club and I said to him that I’m in a band and you should hear our stuff – scroll on a few more years and I’m sitting in a booth with the fella recording guitars – how f
ked up is that!?So we’re locked in a studio in Hastings (UK) with our producer who‘s a rock legend and an engineer who has worked with the likes of Queen and we record a really s
t 4 minute song! Goggle me and you’ll find it – it’s not representative of anything we wanted to be or did in the future but what the label demanded.As we expected, it bombed. We did a cheapo video that was fun but worthless. Stand up fights at the label ensued and it was our way or the high way – damn, we were close to being kicked off.
Next single was great though. We went to Poland to record the video and it was incredibly eventful, even if the video wasn’t that good. We got deported as one of the party decided to burn down the hotel in Katowice.
The single got radio play and we started to get on TV shows.
That single was recorded as part of the album sessions and we went to a number of residential studios that had played host to some of rocks greatest acts. We’d also started to play some great tours, support some top acts and play festivals.
Next single was going to be ‘the one’.
But... the label wouldn’t pay for a video as they’d spent too much on the last. Madness! – the song got top billing on national radio – we did sessions for the evening shows, but they didn’t do a video. We had momentum from the support acts, our own shows and from the radio and TV exposure. We also started to get plays in Asia and on a few rock channels on the West Coast USA.
Everything was starting to happen but it was also falling apart. The album was released, it was ok, not perfect and we knew it was the first step to greater things – the demos we’d done for the new stuff was far, far, far better than anything on the first.
It bombed in the UK because it wasn’t marketed at all and the small UK label decided that it wasn’t going to work for them so we were dropped. The major label looked at us and decided that given the turmoil of the market (and we probably hadn’t proved ourselves enough) at that time, that was it. How many rock bands do their best stuff on their 1st?
We looked at a number of alternatives but nothing came up and that was that.
Four years of me playing guitar professionally, i.e. getting paid for it, and I’ll tell you one thing.
f
king Awesome – I don’t regret that we didn’t get big, I don’t regret a single thing – my mid 20’s were mad – the people I met, the people I worked with, the people I partied with –how proud I made my family (who were always down the front, be it in front of 200 in a sthole in London in the early days, or in front of 50,000 at Reading). All I know is that I gave it my all and what else can you do.
http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/cellar/90492-heres...
Here's a link to a post with plenty of the songs up.
Here's a link to a post with plenty of the songs up.
Asterix - just read that other thread and listened to some of your stuff. Great mix of stuff, really like it. What a shame you didn't quite there - anybody who works in the music industry knows that it's got nothing to do with talent, if it was you would be a household name 
I know what you mean about not being able to do things by halves... Maybe some time you will be able to step back from the running of your company and devote some time to your music? In the meantime, nothing wrong with setting up a studio and getting some stuff down!
Is any of your stuff available for download anywhere?
I know what you mean about not being able to do things by halves... Maybe some time you will be able to step back from the running of your company and devote some time to your music? In the meantime, nothing wrong with setting up a studio and getting some stuff down!
Is any of your stuff available for download anywhere?
Thanks for the comments.
I'm looking into setting up a home studio soon. Still have plenty of ideas, in fact, pretty much every time I pick up a guitar something comes up that could be developed, so I really need to have a way of 'taking notes', so to speak.
It's not available for download anywhere, as far as I know, but if you're interested I could stick together a bunch of tracks, zip them up and send them by 'yousendit' or something similar.
I'm looking into setting up a home studio soon. Still have plenty of ideas, in fact, pretty much every time I pick up a guitar something comes up that could be developed, so I really need to have a way of 'taking notes', so to speak.
It's not available for download anywhere, as far as I know, but if you're interested I could stick together a bunch of tracks, zip them up and send them by 'yousendit' or something similar.
You're a good guitar player man and good story definitely sounds like a great experience, I suppose you still keep your hand in and play live with that band now?. I always found playing with other people is the way you really learn to play, it's a great feeling when it just works. When I'd play along with mates we used to get wasted enough that we'd keep knocking our guitars out of tune , thank god we never played to anyone other than ourselves and that it was just for fun, I used to say folks wouldn't turn up to watch a bunch of wasters stop to tune their guitars in every five minutes. TBH I'd never be brave enough to get on stage anyway, was that something you never had a problem with?
You added that you learnt a song for your wife, I think a lot of musicians do this for people. I like learning tunes that other people will appreciate too, my dad liked ELO so I learnt a couple of their tracks and played them on the sly when I visited him last just to see his reaction. I'm a big fan of Thom Yorke myself so play a lot of Radiohead and attempt to figure out some of his piano sections on the guitar. Last Flowers to the Hospital is a nice track to play with some great chord progressions. At the same time I'm a big fan of making noise so I play a fair amount of heavy stuff also, I remember the first time I plugged my BOSS distortion pedal in, having angry sounding overdrive on tap made me feel like some sort of rock god, in my living room.
Were you self taught? The best guitarist I personally knew was my Father in law who passed away this year, a fair few years ago he gave me a cheap old guitar so I could practice and when I could keep up with him or he could dumb his playing down enough he would teach me stuff. He was superb at playing improvised blues and even though I was watching his hand on the fret board I was struggling to work out how he got such a superb sound from his guitar. Eventually I inherited his guitars, they are some really nice ones, I could never sell any of them even though I'm not really qualified to play them as well as they should.
You added that you learnt a song for your wife, I think a lot of musicians do this for people. I like learning tunes that other people will appreciate too, my dad liked ELO so I learnt a couple of their tracks and played them on the sly when I visited him last just to see his reaction. I'm a big fan of Thom Yorke myself so play a lot of Radiohead and attempt to figure out some of his piano sections on the guitar. Last Flowers to the Hospital is a nice track to play with some great chord progressions. At the same time I'm a big fan of making noise so I play a fair amount of heavy stuff also, I remember the first time I plugged my BOSS distortion pedal in, having angry sounding overdrive on tap made me feel like some sort of rock god, in my living room.
Were you self taught? The best guitarist I personally knew was my Father in law who passed away this year, a fair few years ago he gave me a cheap old guitar so I could practice and when I could keep up with him or he could dumb his playing down enough he would teach me stuff. He was superb at playing improvised blues and even though I was watching his hand on the fret board I was struggling to work out how he got such a superb sound from his guitar. Eventually I inherited his guitars, they are some really nice ones, I could never sell any of them even though I'm not really qualified to play them as well as they should.
Edited by RV8 on Wednesday 20th October 14:54
Don't play live now - out in Dubai it's difficult just to be able to get up and jam - I know a lot of the guys that play in the bars and clubs but you have to have a licence at each venue to be able to play legally and it's simply not worth the hassle, or money, to get it sorted for the odd random jam.
I lived for playing live. The way I looked at it was all the time rehearsing and all the time recording was simply the stuff I had to do to get that hour and a half on stage. It's a killer buzz with instant feedback (good or bad!) and nothing tightens up your playing more than taking it out there.
Completely self taught - When I was in the Army I ended up sharing a room with a bloke who had an acoustic and after a while I asked him to teach me a song. 'Hey Joe' was the the poor thing that got murdered. I then started playing along to stuff I liked and it went from there. What was interesting was that before I got ok (I'm not a good player technically), I had started writing and then got into the band - so my development was me trying to work out how to play the lines and ideas I had in my head. I'd often want to do something that I wasn't capable of so had to practice like mad and teach myself. I also liked playing with sounds and getting depth - using a combo of slide, 2 or 3 delays set at different speeds and maybe some wah to get more soundscape type of stuff.
As far as getting on stage was concerned - I was always nervous before going on. I didn't want to let the band down and I didn't want to disappoint the people that were in the crowd - they'd paid money to be entertained and I know I get insulted if the band can't be arsed - I can see it and I know others can too. I'd usually have a beer before going on to help with the nerves a bit, but was never drunk. We liked to jam stuff out so it was never a case of 'songs by numbers' so you had to be on it - also, the other guys were great musicians. I had to work hard to keep up with them.
As most of our songs were guitar riff based, nine times out of ten I'd open the set - Always a bit nerve wracking but once it was under way, all was fine.
I lived for playing live. The way I looked at it was all the time rehearsing and all the time recording was simply the stuff I had to do to get that hour and a half on stage. It's a killer buzz with instant feedback (good or bad!) and nothing tightens up your playing more than taking it out there.
Completely self taught - When I was in the Army I ended up sharing a room with a bloke who had an acoustic and after a while I asked him to teach me a song. 'Hey Joe' was the the poor thing that got murdered. I then started playing along to stuff I liked and it went from there. What was interesting was that before I got ok (I'm not a good player technically), I had started writing and then got into the band - so my development was me trying to work out how to play the lines and ideas I had in my head. I'd often want to do something that I wasn't capable of so had to practice like mad and teach myself. I also liked playing with sounds and getting depth - using a combo of slide, 2 or 3 delays set at different speeds and maybe some wah to get more soundscape type of stuff.
As far as getting on stage was concerned - I was always nervous before going on. I didn't want to let the band down and I didn't want to disappoint the people that were in the crowd - they'd paid money to be entertained and I know I get insulted if the band can't be arsed - I can see it and I know others can too. I'd usually have a beer before going on to help with the nerves a bit, but was never drunk. We liked to jam stuff out so it was never a case of 'songs by numbers' so you had to be on it - also, the other guys were great musicians. I had to work hard to keep up with them.
As most of our songs were guitar riff based, nine times out of ten I'd open the set - Always a bit nerve wracking but once it was under way, all was fine.
Awesome story, which makes for an amazing read. I think the thing that stands out for me here is your commitment. Being able to throw caution to the wind and put your heart and soul into something like this is incredible. I've had some great experiences gigging, but the stuff you must have seen and done must be phenomenal.
A couple of years ago I was in a gigging band doing various gigs in London, Bournemouth and elsewhere, but we all needed to invest more time and money into it for it to progress and I just couldn't commit that. e.g. Getting home at 3am and then getting up for work at 6 and trying to concentrate in meetings with people. It's something that I should have done years and years ago instead.
Nowadays I'm in a covers band playing weddings, major birthdays, big events etc. I can totally relate to the first track nerves you mention where you're soloing in front of everyone (albeit with 200 strong crowds instead of 50,000). Still, it's all good fun eh?
A couple of years ago I was in a gigging band doing various gigs in London, Bournemouth and elsewhere, but we all needed to invest more time and money into it for it to progress and I just couldn't commit that. e.g. Getting home at 3am and then getting up for work at 6 and trying to concentrate in meetings with people. It's something that I should have done years and years ago instead.
Nowadays I'm in a covers band playing weddings, major birthdays, big events etc. I can totally relate to the first track nerves you mention where you're soloing in front of everyone (albeit with 200 strong crowds instead of 50,000). Still, it's all good fun eh?
I guess the commitment for me was relatively easy - I'd left the Army, was selling cars for Renault for 6 months (thanks to knowing the sales manager) and once we'd secured the deal and the advance, it was financially sound to do it full time. The guy that I respected for giving it his all was the bass player - he was a qualified lawyer specialising in commercial law, good career, money etc... but had to give it a go as music was his passion. That takes guts! Since the band split he re-trained and is now a senior media lawyer and enjoying it far more than he ever would had he stayed on the commercial side.
First note jitters - only had one major incident - I used to employ a number of different tunings for some of the songs and my tech had forgotten to put it back to concert after the soundcheck. The lights dim, crowd start to cheer, intro music fades out and I unleash the mother of all riffs - in completely the wrong tuning. Not my finest hour. Luckily it wasn't in front of a sold out Kilburn National supporting Reef...
Ah..
First note jitters - only had one major incident - I used to employ a number of different tunings for some of the songs and my tech had forgotten to put it back to concert after the soundcheck. The lights dim, crowd start to cheer, intro music fades out and I unleash the mother of all riffs - in completely the wrong tuning. Not my finest hour. Luckily it wasn't in front of a sold out Kilburn National supporting Reef...
Ah..
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