SATURDAY 16th MAY 2009

Live performance at Beatles'titude in Laon (France)
Recording and filming: 'Things we said today'
Recording and filming: 'I want to hold your hand'
Recording and filming: 'Mean Mr Mustard'
Recording and filming: 'Polythene Pam'
Recording and filming: 'She came in through the
Recording and filming: bathroom window'
Recording and filming: 'I'll be back'
Recording and filming: 'Free as a bird'

Maison des Arts et Loisirs, Laon, France - afternoon - P: Dominique Grandfils. - Present: Dude, Coco, Jean, Phil, Mathias Bouyez, Filou, Mathilde, Rocking Cloud, Jean-Louis, Eric, JC OK, Laurent G. and a whole lot of people....

Jean-Louis Polard kindky asked me to participate in his Beatle Day in the wondeful and beautiful town of Laon. He asked for a majority of Beatles tunes, so I obliged. It all went very well, but I believe I sometimes sang out of key, because I could'nt hear my guitar loud enough in the PA system. I had bought my amplifier but I didn't use it. Never again !
My best memory of this day is the time I spent with my friends Calico and Coco. I never had such time in Mons so I tried to enjoy every second of it. We had a blast playing some lose stuff around a table. We did a lot of George's, and Calico played "Just like starting over", some Bee Gees, "Mrs Robinson"... it was great.




Thanks to Dominique Grandfils for the video, and to Rocking Cloud, Dr Robert, and Laurent G. for the photographs.

THURSDAY 30th APRIL 2009

Recording: 'I need you'
Bag-end Studio - afternoon - P: Dude.

Another very quick cover, just for the fun of it. This is live in the home-studio.

MONDAY 27th APRIL 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 18
Not Recording: 'My friends'
Not Recording: 'Under the bridge'
Not Recording: 'Dani California'
Not Recording: 'Time is running out'
Not Recording: 'Hysteria'
Not Recording: 'Wild west'
Not Recording: 'Look sharp'
Not Recording: 'Sunday papers'
Not Recording: 'On your radio'
Not Recording: 'Fit'
Not Recording: 'It's different for girls'
Not Recording: 'Little bit stupid'
Not Recording: 'One more time'
Not Recording: 'I'm the man'
France 3 basement - 21:00-23:00 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

We played the Red Hot and the Muse tracks for the first time that night. It was refreshing. We enjoyed it very much. I have to really start working on my guitar soloing now.

THURSDAY 21st APRIL 2009

Recording: 'Outside the wall' (SI on take 1)
Bag-end - afternoon - P: Dude.

This is the very end of my "Pink Floyd The Wall" project ! I'm very pleased with how it turned out. I had a blast, and the reactions on Ysn were tremendous. I'm a very lucky guy.

FRIDAY 27th MARCH 2009

Recording: 'No reply'
Bag-end studio - 14:15 - 14:30 P: Dude.

How to make a new cover from start to finish in just 10 minutes ! ;)

TUESDAY 24th MARCH 2009

Recording: 'Waiting for the worms' (SI on take 1)
Bag-end Studio - 14:00 - 14:15 - P: Dude.

I quickly did the megaphone voice, before leaving to take Julian from school. I loved it.

MONDAY 23rd MARCH 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 17
Not Recording: 'Wild west'
Not Recording: 'Look sharp'
Not Recording: 'Sunday papers'
Not Recording: 'On your radio'
Not Recording: 'One more time'
Not Recording: 'Little bit stupid'
Not Recording: 'I'm the man'
Not Recording: 'Fit'
Not Recording: 'It's different for girls'
France 3 basement - 21:00-22:30 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

We didn't record this rehearsal. It was a strange night. We agreed not to play too late, because Nono was quite tired, and there was a kind of urge feeling thru all the songs. We didn't play very well that night so it's cool we didn't record anything ;)
I tried some experiment with the setlist: I made them play all the fast rock numers in a row, and then only the two quiet songs. It was special.

MONDAY 9th MARCH

Rehearsal with the New Trio 16
Recording: 'Look sharp'
Recording: 'Sunday papers'
Recording: 'Wild west'
Recording: 'It's different for girls'
Recording: 'Fit'
Recording: 'Little bit stupid'
Recording: 'On your radio'
Recording: 'One more time'
Recording: 'I'm the man'
Recording: 'Evil empire'
Recording: 'Exploring the empire'
France 3 basement - 21:00-00:30 - P: Arnaud. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

This is a really great rehearsal, because we recorded everything with an outstanding 5.1 device, consisting of a Holophone surround microphone and a digital multitrack recorder. And also because we did our very first, real proper jam !
It happened at the end of "Evil empire, which lasted 22 minutes :)

SATURDAY 28th FEBRUARY

Recording: 'Is there anybody out there ?' (SI on take 1)
Bag-End studio - morning - P: Dude.

I recorded all the basses and guitars for this number, and then I went to see Magma play live ! :)

WEDNESDAY 18th FEBRUARY 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 15
Recording: 'Look sharp'
Recording: 'Sunday papers'
Recording: 'It's different for girls'
Recording: 'On your radio'
Recording: 'Fit'
Recording: 'Wild west'
Recording: 'One more time'
Recording: 'Little bit stupid'
Recording: 'I'm the man'
France 3 basement - 21:00-00:30 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.
Recording: 'Hey you' (SI on take 1)
Recording: 'Run like hell' (SI on take 1)
Recording: 'Waiting for the worms' (SI on take 1)
Recording: 'The trial' (SI on take 1)
Recording: 'Nobody home' (SI on take 1)
Recording: 'Stop' (SI on take 1)
France 3 basement - 21:00-00:00 - P: Dude.

This has been recorded for the first time directly onto my laptop hard-hardrive. It's cool because I don't have to enter into transfer mode after recording, but it's in mono.
That day we played the usual stuff, and added "Wild west" in the process ! :)

And then, after the rehearsal, I stayed in the room and made good use of my now warmed up voice for some small repairs into the vocal parts of "The wall". I redid the final singing of "Hey you", some sentences in "Run like hell", and one phrase into "Nobody home". I also did the crowd chants at the end of "Waiting for the worms" and "The trial". And then I shouted: "Stop !" :)

FRIDAY 6th FEBRUARY 2009

Recording: 'Don't leave me now' (SI on take 1)'
Bag-End studio - 18:00-18:15 - P: Dude.

Doing all the guitars in "Don't leave me now".

MONDAY 2nd FEBRUARY 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 14
Recording: 'Look sharp'
Recording: 'Sunday papers'
Recording: 'It's different for girls'
Recording: 'Little bit stupid'
Recording: 'On your radio'
Recording: 'Fit'
Recording: 'One more time'
Recording: 'I'm the man'
France 3 basement - 21:00-00:00 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

Finally, a recording :)
This was cool, but perhaps a little frustrating as I'm begining to question my guitar playing. I think I should go into practice mode for a time. We did the usual numbers, except Evil empire, and we agreed to add one more song for the next rehearsal.
I think we finally determined a proper ending for "Sunday papers". And we played a very good "I'm the man" and "Look sharp" duet.

FRIDAY 30th JANUARY 2009

Recording: 'Don't leave me now' (SI on take 1)'
Bag-End studio - morning - P: Dude.

Finally attempting, and succeeding, the lead vocal for "Don't leave me now".

MONDAY 26th JANUARY 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 13
Not Recording: 'Look sharp'
Not Recording: 'Sunday papers'
Not Recording: 'It's different for girls'
Not Recording: 'Little bit stupid'
Not Recording: 'On your radio'
Not Recording: 'One more time'
France 3 basement - 21:30-00:00 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

More work on the songs. Things are moving forward rapidly now. It helps a lot to rehearse once a week. A cool thing was that we improved for the first time at the end of the session. No recording, 'tho...

THURSDAY 22nd JANUARY 2009

Recording: 'Empty spaces' (SI on take 1)
Bag-End studio - afternoon - P: Dude.

Redoing the bass for the 1st version of 'Empty spaces', which is a tone below the 2nd version.

MONDAY 19th JANUARY 2009

Rehearsal with the New Trio 12
Not Recording: 'Look sharp'
Not Recording: 'Sunday papers'
Not Recording: 'It's different for girls'
Not Recording: 'Little bit stupid'
Not Recording: 'On your radio'
Not Recording: 'One more time'
France 3 basement - 21:30-00:00 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

An excellent rehearsal, full of energy and good feelings. Two new songs were introduced that night: "It's different for girls", and the catchy "Little bit stupid". Way cool.
This was not recorded.

FRIDAY 9th JANUARY 2009

Recording: 'Empty spaces' (SI on take 1)
Bag-End studio - afternoon - P: Dude.

Redoing the voice for the 1st version of 'Empty spaces', which is a tone below the 2nd version.

SUNDAY 21th DECEMBER 2008

Sismeringa Lodge - ICS session #2

Recording: 'Madame sans nuit'
Recording: 'Solide R'
Recording: 'Norgoleckia'
Recording: 'Herr Pillar, warum ?'
Bag end studio - 9:30-13:00 - P: Dude. Present: Val, Julian, Doreen.

This is the first of the shorter sessions. Those last only 6 hours and are thematic. The theme for today was: "pre-determined song titles". I imagined six song titles which I gave to Stef: "C'est l'hiver aujourd'hui", "Underplastic sweet surprise", "Silences interdits", "Orlando - part two", "327" and "Another liquid satisfaction". Stef did five of them (he didn't do "Silences interdits"), and I love what he came up with.
As for me, I recieved the song titles from Emy. Those were "Madame sans nuit", "J'arrive pas...", "Norgoleckia", "Solide R", "Herr Pillar, warum ?" and "Six, theme". I did all of them except "J'arrive pas..." and "Six, theme".

There were a lot of adversity on that day and I almost couldn't attend the session. First of all my car broke down on the way to the basement where I excepted to spend the 6 hours. So after a lot of trouble I managed to come home by 9h30, that is two and a half hours late for the session ! The other problem resulting from that car problem was that I got no instruments with me, since I had installed them all in the basement the day before ! The only thing I got left with me was a bass guitar.
So I had to do all of the session at home (with wife and children living their life all around me), with only a bass guitar, and a shorter time. I managed to do 4 songs anyway.

I took another car to go the ICS reunion in the afternoon, and it was cool. Eric had organised a nice meal that we all shared together, discussing all things Sismeringa.

A brief description of what I came up with those song titles:

1- Madame sans nuit : She's alone at night and bored. She lets her mind wander and suddenly starts to dream about dancing a waltz in the middle of a lot of people... only to wake up still alone and bored.

2- Solide R: something stomping and simple. Direct.

3- Norgoleckia: This is the name of a planet where live a very hostile race of Aliens. They send a message to Earth, and this message gets reapeted over and over, infesting a little more each time, until all Earthlings are contaminated and repeat the message like decerebrated robots.

4- Herr Pillar, warum ?: I could not come up with anything else than a little march. In my mind German language=march. Sound very cliche, I know. Sorry. No offense intended.


http://www.myspace.com/sismeringalodge

MONDAY 15th DECEMBER 2008

Rehearsal with the New Trio 11
Recording: 'On your radio'
Recording: 'Sunday papers'
Recording: 'Fit'
Recording: 'Look sharp'
Recording: 'One more time'
Recording: 'I'm the man'
France 3 basement - 21:00-00:00 - P: Dude. Present: Dude, Thierry, Arnaud.

This one was really cool. We did all the usual numbers, but we changed the sound setting a little and I really could hear myself singing better. We also playd quieter, which helped a lot, and I used mostly a quiet guitar sound.

TUESDAY 9th DECEMBER 2008

Recording: 'Mother' (SI on take 1)
Recording: 'Don't leave me now' (SI on take 1)
Bag end studio - 22:00 - 23:00 - P: Dude.

This evening, 'Mother' got its guitar solo, and 'One of my turns' all the guitars.