Midgets Videos - Part 1

Here's the first batch of Videos from the recent gig .. Birthday and 99 Red Balloons .. both murdered !!

Sing Paul Sing !!!

I've taken a couple of days to post this blog after the Midget Submarines' re-union gig, partly because I was suffering from severe over indulgence and partly because I was suffering from embarassment ! Was it that bad ? Well in some ways yes it was but in others no. It's got to be said that having a rehearsal was a pretty pointless exercise really .. especially when a key band member starts drinking scrumpy at 3pm on the afternoon of the gig (stand up mr Woods .. if you can :-) ... and it all went downhill from there !

In truth, and maybe it's the Whisky deluding me, but I didn't think it sounded awful mostly, but it always sounds different behind the drums anyway ... I can't really say that Paul played or sang badly becuase he basically stood and swayed for much of the gig ... but anyway .. I quite enjoyed it really .. or maybe this is the recent nostalgia kicking in ... always seems better after the event. For myself, I think I played ok on the whole .. I took a decision to keep it dead simple and not be a clever arse so just held the rythm (mostly!). We did come back on after the main set for a couple of unrequested encores (and this was about an hour after we had finished). I even sang on one of them but sadly that wasn't filmed so I'll never know just how bad I really was :-)

Anyway .. I believe videos are going up tonight so I'll post when available if I can bear to .. but in the meantime, here's a few pics from the gig ... we sound great in photos :-) .. also Maria's blog about the gig after them.

I think the gig was best summed up by Ken who said "Next time, let's not bother to rehearse and just stand on stage without instruments and let people laugh at us"

All photos by Penny Spanglyflora

'As is' was as is but Mayfair is not as was !!

Jazz night last night again at the Bonington with ByronWallen's 'As Is' .. on the whole I enjoyed it but there were moments of self indulgence and the addition of a second guitarist seemed a little .. well almost pointless. Without wanting to be cruel, he was obviously a decent musician but didn't seem to add much. Would personally rather have had a pianist insted but !!!!

Also .. had a nasty shock the other day as I was on teh bus .. I thought the Mayfair restaurant had gone !!!!! However, on closer inspection it's had a bit of a facelift ... Not sure I approve .. there was something comforting about a place that hasn't chaged since the sixties .. though I guess it was probably due a change ... just hope the food is as good !!!

Food for thought

Ok .. a bit of a tenuous title there but just wanted to record something said at a Buddhist Meeting last night. Someone was telling Kazuo at Taplow about their problems, how busy they were, kids jobs, Buddhist practise etc etc and that they just had far too much on their plate. Kazuo thought for a moment then said to them "Chant for a bigger plate" .. Brilliant :-)

Taplow - The Big One

After much umming and ahhing ... I finally decided to get my Tokubetsu Gohonzon at Taplow on Saturday. First obstacle to overcome was to get up a bit after 5am .. wouldn't have been so bad but I was knackered from the night before and still feeling a bit rough ! Anyway .. in the end, we got there at 10am .. an hour before we needed to, though it was nice not to be rushing around for a change.

As usual, I tried to sit near the back out of the way but got ushered forward as those receiving it were near the front. Funnily enough, out of approx 200 people there in the morning, I ended up sitting next to Fiona, one of four people who I practised with in Boston all those years ago !. Also getting theirs from this area were Don, Hannah, Jenny and Bex who used to be here. As usual, it was a simple ceremony which suits me just fine .. can't be doing with fuss !!

As it turned out, I could have got a lift back about 1pm but decided that if I was going to go all that way, I'd try to get my moneys worth !! So I managed to get into the district leaders meeting in the afternoon, which I was pleased I did as it was a pretty good meeting (I'll try to post some key points up when I've de-cyphered my scribbles) .. And that was it .. got home about 7.30pm, cooked some quick pasta and then TV !!

Only negative of the day really was that I didn't get the butsudan to hold the gohonzon ... I really can't afford it but decided to get it anyway but the one I wanted wasn't there and won't be until the new year so not sure what to do at the moment ... something else to chant about huh !!!

Midget Submarines are Go !!!

Badly hungover today .. wine and real ale stout last night .. don't ask !!

Good news is that the Midget Submarine rehearsal vids are available and below ... best to go about 2 mins into teh first one as it's just faffing around before that .. well and during too :-)

Once more with Feelingzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Just a bit of a catch up post really as not a lot has happened since the last post .. partly as I've felt a little bit shattered (and grumpy), so not been very pro active at all. Did see a great Jazz Band on Thursday though ... Jamil Sherrif. I'm not normally a fan of octets etc but this band were really excellent from start to finish .. and played some great self composed numbers too.

Saturday was fairly lazy with just a Buddhist meeting in the afternoon. Sunday was perhaps the laziest ever though. I decide to take a 'day out' .. well from life really :-) .. After waking I made a cuppa and watched 3 episodes of Buffy Season 6 in bed. After that, I did finally get up after mid-day and did spome chanting before settling down to watch the Italian Football on TV with a fry up .. followed by more TV, some chanting and yet more Buffy .. In fact, I've only got one episode to watch in the whole series and I only bought it a week ago !! Poor old Theo Angelopoulos hasn't had a look in lol. Think when I've watched the last one, I'm going to start again from the first episode ever and work right through and hopefully get season 7 at Xmas.

On a positive note I have finally decided to get my Tokubetsu Gohonzon next Saturday and have sorted a lift for that .. and I reckon I'll do the Midgets gig too though I need to sort some things out for that yet !!!

Knackered and OUCH !!!!

So finally after 16 years, the Midget Submarines finally came together for a proper rehearsal .. we booked a room and even a new drum kit .. was pretty weird at first sitting behind it but soon got into it though I found my confidence had gone so ended up (mostly) keeping time and very little else ... which made it fairly uninteresting. Quite amusing though that we naturally seemed to play everything slower at first .. must be age ... even Paul 'Boo' Woods !!!

As time went on, I must admit that I enjoyed it less and less and by the time I got home, I really didn't want to do the gig and am still undecided, though I need to make my mind up pretty quick so they can find a stand in if I do drop out. Number or reasons really but one was that I was completely exhausted after drumming for 2 1/2 hours .. I like to think I'm reasonably fit and nothing really ached .. just feel completely drained of energy .. which is probably why I'm so grumpy about playing, so we'll have to wait and see I guess. If we do play, we definitely need to do the sets shorter and sharper !

With a bit of luck, there'll be two clips here later which might swing my mind one way or the other .. have to say it sounded pretty bad from where I was but the others thought it sounded OK and it can sound bad from behind the drums to be fair. Best quote of the night was Ken 'why's my beard grey' Popple who said .."... hey .. it sounds really good with earplugs" !!

Also .. I think I need to refine my technique ... as well as hitting the snare, I end up wacking my leg at the same time and my leg looks like a piece of tenderised steak today !!!!

Anyway .. here's couple of pics taken on my phone .. poor quality though:

nearly there !!!!

Phew ,... think I'm there or there abouts now .. decided to refresh the colours but not sure about the scheme at the moment .. definitely need to sort a better header .. but not today.

Tonight we've booked a reheasal space for the Midget Submarines and apparently there's a brand new drum kit .. shame I'll be playing a cobbled together one on the night but it'll probably be a shambles anyway so who cares :-)

Oh SHIT !!!!!!!!!!!

Oh bugger !!!!!! I was trying to create a blog for someone and I accidentally overwrote all my hard worked coding now I've got a boring blog again !!!! Initially I lost all my old posts so at least they are all restored now ... I'll try to get my old one back somehow though could take a while .. I hate blogger for making changes that made me do it :(

Later >>> OK .. well I've managed to salvage something of teh design but want to tweak it more but need to do other things now so hopefully more tomorrow !!!

Photos from Birthday one

Ok .. finally got the photos from day one .. some pretty awful ones but here's a few anyway :-)

Without further ado

Pretty busy today and a bit tired from being out so much this week due to birthday and jazz so looking forward to a night in to give my liver a rest !

Good gig last night .. Helen McDonald and the London Bridge Ensemble ... must admit that I thought it might just be ok but actually worked really well so that was a plus .. and of course .. it's always worth going for local jazz hero Brian 'without further ado' Pearce :-)