Rock n' Raga.......

So I haven't discovered a higher celestial plane or anything like that but about 2 million years ago I purchased the "Ravish Sitar" from Electro Harmonix. It is, to an extent, a sitar emulator with lots of knobs and setting, which frankly terrifies a technophobe like me. So much so, I put it into storage about 2 days after I bought it and never gave it another thought. Here she is:

I've recently taken her out to play after rediscovering the song "Something For The Pain" by Bon Jovi and am having a lot of fun with her. Expect a few sonic experiments to pop out of the woodwork in a week or so. Once I figure out how to use it. Wish me luck!

LOUD NOISES!!

So, I bought myself a new toy, as you can see above! Loud is an understatement but to be fair I have saved the neighbours eardrums as once the level passes 4 o' clock, the windows threaten to wobble in the spare room. It's an investment which will be useful for any parties (home or away) which we may have in the future or should "Skin & Blister" choose to play an impromptu gig for family and friends. It was an impulse buy but overall I am very pleased with it. Downloaded some custom backing tracks, wired up the laptop to it and played along through my trusty Vox whilst warbling along.

It's a new sensation to be honest. As I have been forced to learn to play along with with some popular standards (some enjoyable / some necessary evils) and that is completely alien to me as somebody who only played along to my own compositions for a long time. New mainstream music rarely excites me as it's been monopolised and raped by the Simon Cowell-esque manufactured mentality that's pandemic today. So that's why I tend to live in my own head, listen to older music or find sounds completely off the grid.

Not to go off topic, I'm ultimately pleased with with my purchase and having been gifted some further excellent equipment from my grandfather (I'll cover that in the next one) I reckon I'm in for a fun and interesting musical summer. Thanks for reading.

A Shameless Plug!

This is a shout out to my friend Tomasz! A fantastic photographer (one of a couple I'm lucky to know) who is rarely, if ever, seen without some sort of photographic equipment on his person. As you can see by his work, he's a consummate professional and clearly loves what he does. This is A LINK FROM HIS WEBSITE to the photography from the charity night for AWARE, detailed earlier in my blog. There is plenty more examples of his work available there. Anything that catches your eye, drop him a line on it. He'll reply quickly as he spends more time online than working........ Just kidding! Check him out now.

The Video - Skin & Blister - "It's Only Love": Live

So, here it is for your viewing (dis)pleasure. Our live debut. Loud, brash and a little arrogant. Just like many classic performances. I'm not saying it was a classic performance as there was plenty wrong with my own personal one but I was vibing off the admittedly brilliant crowd. And as most people who've experienced such a thing will tell you, there's no better feeling than a crowd who's 100% percent behind you. So hopefully my court jester guitarist antics will give you a giggle! Susan, my sister, was practically flawless, though a little nervous right at the beginning. To be expected as this was her first EVER live performance that didn't include karaoke coupled with inebriation in our local pub! Thankfully she rocked it, as I knew she would. Filmed by my wonderfully enthusiastic better half, and yes at 2:45 is the moment I kneecap myself! Enjoy, dear reader. Rock n' Roll!

 

This is (nearly) Spinal Tap.

We made it through relatively unscathed in last night's charity talent show! I was called up in a last minute request to perform a solo number as due to some acts not being able to attend, they were a little short on numbers. I wont lie, it rattled me a little. I had to pick a song on the spot and perform as the third act, which disrupted my groove a little. Thin Lizzy's "Dancing In The Moonlight" was duly downloaded and I performed it in my best amateur capacity. My sister was nervous, extremely so and I'd hoped my onstage horseplay (I'm a pretty energetic performer) would calm her down. It didn't, but the couple of drinks and her hidden nerves of steel surprised us all.

The soundcheck at the start did not please me. My guitar was too low. The sound producer said it was fine, but you don't argue with the producer. Musician's bible: He's responsible for how you'll sound. If he's having a bad day, so will you. A pre-show natter with a fellow guitarist informed me it was too low though, so against the producer's wishes, I boosted my amp emulator pedal's volume later on. The sister turned into a mouse on the mic check. Not literally. She just lost her voice with the pre show jitters. I practically exploded my microphone and drowned her voice out. This was largely my fault as she had misinterpreted my instruction not to go all out on sound check as "sing clear but not loud". I had actually meant "tone down the stage gestures, shape throwing etc".

So the big moment was pure Spinal Tap! I asked the audience "Are you ready to rock, are you ready to roll?!!" and the instrumental track intro clicks were suddenly inaudible. I remained calm and requested a restart. Again the intro clicks were inaudible, so I winged it, timing the intro wrong. The sister's nerves were shot and she started singing at the wrong point. I started soloing over it and she stopped straight away. We got that out of the way and then BOOM! She sang like a bird - bright , melodic, loud and clear! She was excellent, a pure ROCK DIVA. The place was rocking. Our harmonising was spot on and she threw me a "Play it, Phil!" I couldn't resist, I dropped to my knees and indulged in some ridiculous fret widdling. It was fantastic fun at the time, but my knees don't approve today!

It was brilliantly received but as I gathered last year, the judge is not a fan of the more energetic acts, and I have way too much fun to stop hamming it up so I pile it on. There'll be pictures and a video to follow so you, dear reader, will have to make do with my words until I manage to lay my hands on them. Thanks for reading.

Turning it up to 11.

So, as of the past couple of years in aid of charity, the company I am employed by, host a talent show. I took part in it last year and was (not my words) "a highlight". I had fun and was, however among the spectators when the top three were announced. I gave it my all and came up short (well I am only 5' 6", ahem) but this year, I'm not taking it too seriously. I've roped my sister along for the this one and we are covering.......you guessed it, "It's Only Love" by Bryan Adams and Tina Turner. Calling ourselves "Skin & Blister" (last minute name - see Dublin slang for "sister") I have taken on guitar duties and sometime vocal harmonist, whilst she carries the vocal section throughout the song. A big ask, as there's both male and female vocals in the original. The object is to have fun. I invested a lot into the previous year and was disappointed by my failure instead of enjoying the moment and let's face it, these days one must enjoy those little moments!

My sister will own the stage, she's purposeful and dominant. Getting right into the song. A long way from the shy lamb she was when we started. I believe she will genuinely surprise a lot of people. It appears she's adopted my attitude. "It's Tina "f*!king" Turner! You don't sing it to people, you tell them to listen!" I will be noodling away in a healthy mix between the original guitar work and my own interpretation of it. I'm nervous as I've never performed electric guitar in public before. I tend to be behind a microphone instead. I will be using my Sansamp Liverpool V2 plugged straight into the P.A. system with a little reverb courtesy of the sound producer, if I ask nicely, a high quality backing track - minus the lead guitar, and my white Hagstrom Deuce F guitar. The object is fun but barring any Spinal Tap moments, we will be nothing less than professional. Monday 31st March, 7pm at the Heritage Hotel. And if we're too loud, you're too old!

The art of noise.

I'm not a virtuoso guitarist by any means and I don't pretend to be. But I do subscribe to being a bit of a "tone hound". This term is assigned to those who have a particular, if you will, sweet spot when performing on the electric guitar and must by all account hit that particular sound whether fiddling with an amp or placing their pedals in a certain order, right down to what pick up selection etc. Even finger placement and pick type or technique have a huge bearing on it. I've been informed I have a nasal, creamy live tone and I guess I must agree. It's all down to the influences.

I came quite late to the guitar party for my age at the time, circa 2004, which would have me placed between 20 and 21 years of age. I had originally bought a bass as I didn't think I'd have the dexterity for two more strings (sausage fingers) or patience. My friends were into Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and John Petrucci. All seemingly with the patience and gifts to practically emulate these exceptional players. My three favourite players are Brian May, Rory Gallagher and Keith Scott. All players with exceptional tone and superbly fluid type playing as opposed to technical flair. So I bought a guitar with my final wages (the factory I worked in had just shut down) and it kept me sane and busy in the search for a new job. The rest is history. Still playing music and loving it.

Over the years I've bought countless pedals and practically given them away because I'm a spendaholic technophobe. This was in the relentless pursuit to sound like a certain player who caught my interest at the time. But since music is the "art of noise" then why sound like somebody else when art is about individuality. I wear my influences on my sleeve but what's under the sleeve is mine, right?

THE RIG:

Vox Valvetronix AD30VT.
Loved and reviled in equal measure. A digital / valve hybrid with a barrage of useful built in effects. Of which the only one I employ is reverb on the AC30TB setting. I prefer to have my FX controls under foot. Which brings me to:

The venerable BSM treble booster. On the left is the germanium powered RM (Rangemaster) model which was originally used by such stalwarts in the late 60's, early 70's as Rory Gallagher, Tony Iommi, Ritchie Blackmore and Brian May. Essential listening to it's use are Queen: "Procession", Black Sabbath: "Evil Woman" and Rory Gallagher: "Bad Penny". It's interesting to note, this is not a distortion pedal. It merely boosts the guitar's higher frequencies and pushes it into a nice creamy, throaty overdrive. Very old fashioned, nobody really uses them anymore and I have no idea why. The sound is phenomenal. But it does pick up every radio frequency going..... On the right is the silicon powered BM Q Special (Brian May - Queen) Brian May's mid 70's to mid 80's model which has significantly more bite and sustain. Freshly delivered today, I can't wait to put it through it's paces live. It has no volume dial, so you simply run it through your guitar using your guitars tone pots to dial in your sound. Roll back the volume, you've a lovely shimmering clean chime. Turn it up and you have a wild, screaming monster.

Chorus and delay. The guitarist's staple. Nothing too extreme here. The chorus polishes up the clean tone and sounds great with the treble booster rolled back. The delay I use for the more dramatic solos or to add suspense, like many guitar heads! And finally the paintbrush:

My pride and joy complete with broken first string. A fender squier strat with maple fingerboard and Seymour Duncan wired single coils. Or as I call her "Granuaile". Why a strat? Two words: Rory Gallagher.
Think I've bored you enough now. Gotta go. My coffee's calling! Thanks for reading.