Loss Of A Great Man.

Uh oh, I'm starting to lose effort in keeping this up! But I'm really trying!

Some thing very serious this time, Yesterday morning at 3am a great friend of mine passed away. Geoff had been diagnosed with cancer last summer, which was  a shock to everyone, he was one of the healthiest people I knew! I don't want to focus on those few months though, because there are years of great times that deserve much more attention.

I met Geoff when I was about 14, can't remember the exact year. I had been given a drum kit for christmas and I had set it up in the attic, for some reason. I hadn't had any complaints so far so when some one knocked on the front door asking to speak to "the drummer of the house" I was nervous, expecting a angry old man as I came down the stairs I was greeted by this tall smiling Austrailian man. He lived on the street and tracked me down using my drumming. He said he'd like to teach me how to play properly, which was probably wise as the whole of Sandhurst could hear my rhythm-less bashing.

I took him up on the offer and the next few years he taught me how to play at his house, this was great although at the time some days I just wanted to be out playing with my mates in the evening sun. I'm so glad I kept at it, when I started I just wanted it to be a hobby but thanks to Geoff's tutoring and taking me to see a number of drummer's clinics my love for the instrument grew, he is the reason I am on the path I have chosen, studying drums at the ACM and trying to get the Cheap Days some recognition.

Geoff with Jof and Myself at a Bar Four Gig.

When we needed a drummer for the band he was more than happy to play for us, also offering a great place to practice. His enthusiasm kept the energy on stage at a peak level, always playing the hardest and best he could. His talent could be heard specifically on "You didn't let me know", which is almost a country beat, but his playing on "One Up On Me", a drum track which I had written, proved he had the stamina to hold a quick tune like that together. All the tracks that we played live and wrote together evolved into something that we never imagined they could be, reshaping what you can hear today. It will be impossible to replace that man on the tubs.

It was a great privilage to play in a band with Geoff, and an even greater honour knowing him. Everyone who met him fell for his charm, he was a great great man that will be forever missed and never forgotten. 

If I know Geoff he'll be chatting away to the greats, like Buddy Rich and Bonham, already! He deserves so much more from me than just 500 words on a blog no one reads but this is all I can do right now, there are so many things I could write about the years I knew Geoff. If you ever met him you know how much of a loss to the world this is.

Goodbye and rest in peace Geoff.

Geoff Benton.

Finally, A Result!

After my rant last week I headed into work for the evening shift, a bit tense from my experience earlier in the day. I like the out of hours staff, they're down to Earth and have a good amount of common sense! They agreed that the person I spoke to in the day had been rude and shared their own "other people being rude" stories. 

One of my supervisors checked on the system to see if my laptop had been ordered when I asked it to be and it turned out it hadn't, I was annoyed once more by the incompetence of some people, although this time from another shop. Down hearted I carried on with my work. Out of curiosity I checked the stock of "my" laptop myself. To my joy the one we had that was held for sale for a customer was now 'Pristine'! This was ace! This meant that I could buy it for myself! So I did so! After a bit of trouble getting my card to work I finally had it, £473 worth of Acer 6920G. Brilliant!

So yes, now I am writing this on my shiny new laptop, on which I have already installed and played a few of my games, such as Counter Strike: Source and Half-Life 2, they run beautifully! I am so very pleased with it! I'll have cheesy smile pictures up with me and my laptop for the next post :-D

Now I've just got to get some accessories for it! Like a new mouse, I've got one in mind from work and a portable hard drive, although this is a bit expensive so I might have to wait till next month to purchase that particular item!

I'm looking forward to my birthday next week, we're gonna go out for a big 'ol meal as we always do. Undecided weather to make everyone come to Godalming, there are some nice restaraunts around here, or to travel up to the Hurst. It's my choice, I hate choices! We've got a gig at Bar Four this Wednesday, we would have a load of new stuff to play but unfortunately we can't practice before then, Sim's globe trotting means he couldn't make a Sunday rehearsal and I'm at work every other night! It'd be good to see some people there if you can make it :-)

Don't you hate getting phone calls from a recording?!

Cheers Guys.

Pay Day Rant.

I got paid today, three times what I normally do. This is because PC World owed me money for the overtime I did for training, and also I think I recieved my tax back.

At least I think this as I have not got my pay slip yet. I checked my bank this morning to see if and how much, I have been paid, and very excited I was to see just under a grand sat in my account, just waiting to be dug into. After my lesson (in which I had to play Bohemian Rhapsody in front of the class, ace!) I drove down to work to get my pay slip and buy the laptop that I mentioned in a previous post, but I find to my dismay that the manager I have been sorting my laptop and money stuff out with isn't in today... chuffing brilliant. This rules out buying my laptop, so I ask someone if our pay slips are in, which I know they are because they are always in on the day we're payed, but I need someone to go and get them as they're in a locked room, but no, these people can't be arsed to help me out so they tell me they don't think the slips are in. So I can't check where my pay has come from this month.

...Great, thanks guys, you've been a boon to my day!

Nevermind, I'll check later when I'm in work and possibly buy my laptop too. :-)

We'll see. The next post on here may come from my shiny new Acer! :-D

Rant over, my appologies.

Third and Final Day Of Recording.

Another episode in the most epic weekend of the year.....!
Today we got the remaining lead vocals done and I did all of the backing vocals and extras like cowbell and tambourine, these tracks are finally ready to be mixed! Which we got onto about half way through the day, We've finished mixes on Feeling Sore, You Break My Heart and I Believe In You. Jennifer and Easily Led have been roughly mixed to be finished off at a later date, probably a couple of weeks although I expect Jof will get his hands on them before then and I'm sure they'll get put on the net. I can't wait to have a copy of them to listen to, I'm so proud!
Al is such a great bloke. He seems really quiet and shy but that's just how he is, and he's bloody hilarious! The same kind of humour as me and Jof, The amount of laffing fits we had over the last three days is... well... a lot. For more pics of the weekend follow this link.

One Of Many giggle-Fits!

That's it for the studio diary I think, not much more I can add, other than it's been a great experience, one I hope to do again soon, with more songs and more giggles! Cheers for reading for the last few days, this blog will probably get a little less frequent but I'll update it when something interesting happens, or if I want to get something off my chest :-) Cheers guys!

As a footnote, Rach came home early from work today, she's got a really bad case of the flu, her work superiors don't seem to care and just think she's making it up. From the stories I hear I hate that place, and she was so happy when she got that job. Bastards!

Have a nice week :-)

Cheap Day Recording: Day Two.

Not to worry, this post will be a lot shorter than yesterday's, I'm not feeling very talkative tonight :-)

Today went so quickly compared to yesterday... compared to any day really. We got loads done though. The bass guitar I borrowed was a squire, not the most quality instrument but it did a great job, once we got the sound we wanted I bashed through the songs, surprisingly quick, I think I did one song in one single take, although some overdubbing had to be done to clean it up a bit, I'm not superman! It's amazing how much the bass fills it out.

Once I was finished Jof started on the guitar tracks, a little more complicated this, he double tracked almost all of the guitar parts and added some melody lines over the top of some of the tracks. The tunes were really starting to sound like proper radio-ready recordings even at this pre-production period. It's amazing how all the individual parts sound much better within the mix, especially the drums, which have started to sound really professional, I feel.

Some of the ideas that we've come up with, both Jof and myself, and Al, are great. You Break My Heart sounds massive, a bit like Yellow by Coldplay I realised today, but ours is better.... of course. That song is a real chart climber I reckon! I Believe In You is so dark and I'm really proud of the intro fill, it sounds brilliant if I do say so myself! Jennifer is a whole new entity, I don't think we ever thought it would sound like it does. I can't wait to show people these tracks, I am very proud of them.

Jof's vocals have massively improved since the last recordings, once he stopped shouting the lyrics like he does live his voice really sounded ace, especially the gentle parts in You Break My Heart, when it's mixed it'll be hair raising I reckon!

It's backing vocals tomorrow and little touches like tambourines and shakers... possibly cowbell too :-D There might be some corrections to be made if we hear any mistakes or imperfections but that's it... tomorrow is the last day in the studio. It's a real shame, it is a great way to spend my time, I love it. It makes me want to do it all the time, although I already knew that's the kind of thing I want to be involved in. It's Al's job to do that and run the live shows, what a job! I'd love it!

No pictures today, I took a few and a video of Jof playing the solo in Feeling Sore but I'm back at my flat in Godalming and I've got no way to get them onto Rachel's laptop. Speaking of laptops, I should have mine this time next week... OH YEAH!

That's it for tonight, I'll have the last update online tomorrow evening if there's anyone still interested! To finish up here's a great pic that had me and Jof in stitches last night, I hope you enjoy it! Night!

First Day Recording

Here is a pre-warining: If you have a scan and can't be arsed to read my rather depthy review of today's happenings there's a quick review on Jof's blog, which can be found here: http://www.blogger.com/found But I hope I haven't put you off mine!

We spent today in a recording studio at South Hill Park in Bracknell, with our good friend Al. We turned up not knowing what to expect, we didn't even know where the studio was located. It was a lot smaller than I expected but was a great little space. My first job was to lay the drum tracks down for each song, I was quite concerned about this as I had not played any of the tunes for a couple of years, the newer ones I had never played at all. I gave it my best efforts and I am overall pleased with the results. My kit sounded ace, after a bit of setting up and gaffa taping the overtones on the toms were tamed. I was a bit sketchy on some of the tunes, in honesty I was a bit sketchy on all of them! Playing to a click track just complicated matters, I knew that I wasn't that confident with playing with a metronome and I think it showed with the first few takes, but once I had got into the feel of it, the use of the click really helped.


It took most of the day to get all the drum tracks recorded, we did about four takes of each track, so we had some to chose from and to make sure we got the best played one. It was great to play that much again, I don't get much of a chance to play my set up these days and it felt brilliant, I did feel a little rusty though, I must practice more, I just wish Avec Fist would get going so we can gig, that'd be ace. In the studio we recorded some samples of each of my drums and cymbals so we could use them for over dubs and so I can use them to write beats myself using my own kit sounds, this kind of thing still amazes me.

The Beast Ready To Record

Once the kit was put away and packed into my car I attempted to play the bass tracks. After a few takes on One Up it was clearly not working, somethings off with the frets on the bass. We decided to do the guitars today and see if I could borrow a bass for tomorrow. I managed to get one from my old old friend Mr. Keir Bozwell, what a great guy. He's gone all punk and tattoo'd these days, what a commitment, tattoos an' all that. I'd love to get one but I know I'd regret it a few days later, I'd have to feel one thousand percent sure I want it.

Anyway, Jof got the guitar tracks done for One Up and Jennifer, I was worried that One Up wouldn't have the energy in the studio that it does when we play it live but I think we managed to capture something, these tracks are already sounding amazing, I can't wait to hear the finished product. I'm looking forward to getting the bass done properly and moving onto the vocals, the backing vocals should be a laff, if past recording sessions are anything to go by!

Gotta Get That Hair Sorted Joffery!

So, possibly an update tomorrow night, infact there will be as Rach is going out to see her old mates from college so I'll have the night to myself. PS3 and internet it is; ideal!

Cheers for reading guys :-D

New Years Day Excitement!

Happy new year everyone! 

I decided a few months ago to buy myself a laptop, as I have been using Rachel's laptop since we moved to this flat. It's not that I don't like Rachel's laptop but I feel bad when I use it or if I install games on it, it's also rather slow at playing games.

So my research began, and working at PC World really helps with this, I have loads of people to talk to about my choices and I can play with all the laptops on display in my break. I narrowed it down to... well... one laptop. Decision made. It wasn't hard to come to the decision; this is simply the best laptop I can get on my budget.

It is a Acer 6920G. It started off with a price tag out of my range at £699 but it slowly came down and is now £529. With my discount that's £477. The specs are great, it has 3 gig of RAM, 512mb of dedicated graphics and a relatively good proccessor, although it has a small hard drive at 250 gig but I can buy a 1TB external drive for around £60. Ace! I'll never need more than that. It has some cool other features too, like a finger print reader, you can asign each of your digits to a different program so a touch of a finger will open your chosen program... Genius! It's missing a number pad though, which I did originally want, but I'll get over it, or buy a usb one later.

Jof had a Acer laptop before and said that it was unreliable and expensive to fix. I hope that my experience will be better and if not, I'm good friends with the Tech Guys at work so I'm sure I can wangle some freebies! I read good reviews so I'm optimistic about my first computer :-D

We don't have any in stock in Guildford so I've had to order one in from another store. I went into work today to see Adrian, one of the managers, I got him to ring up his mate in another store who said they would promptly send one over, hopefully next week! I've also applied for some money from my savings to make up the price. I am, as they say, excited!

So there you are, now you know my next big purchase :-D