Here are some videos from the live DVD that we filmed on tour, this is why I unfortunately missed performance class on the odd occasion.

I was really happy with my playing on these recordings, there was around 170 people there that night too which really made it even more special, when I'm in that kind of situation, I get into the music so much more so I put on a better performance. I think I play better under a lot of pressure.

The feedback so far from that show has been great. I have realised that in some cases, pushing the tempo in a live setting can actually be a really effective thing to do, especially in a function band setting. It can really be a great way of getting the audience motivated and up for a dance, which in turn makes for a better night all round. Also, being able to quickly know whether or not you will do an extra couple of choruses or a solo at the end of a track, Rod likes to keep you on your toes with that sort of thing when we play live.

I learned so much about myself and my playing when I was on the road with these guys, I really feel a lot more confident in my playing and on stage abilities. I am definitely looking forward to the festivals and bigger gigs in summer.


The Birthday Suit - Hope Me Home (LIVE)

The Birthday Suit - On My Own (LIVE)

The Birthday Suit - Past Passes By (LIVE)

Analysis of recordings during the year 




Funk-  "Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay" - Otis Redding

This was a nice track to play, We had quite a big band for this track, this involving guitar (both acoustic and electric), bass, drums, piano, vocals and a horn section. I think my playing is quite solid throughout without too much fluctuation in time. We had put a lot of work into the structure of this track so I was quite confident in what I was playing. The whole idea this year in performance class was to get the tracks sounding as close to the original as possible and I think we managed it with this recording. I tried to have a very dynamic performance, although the track doesn't really leave much space for dynamics in my playing, that is really in the rest of the band and the overall texture of the track.  I think my job in this track was to really just keep a solid tempo and easy feel to the song, which I feel I did.


Jazz - "Take 5" - Carmen McRae

This version of Take 5 has quite a similar feel to the original take five, the only real difference is that it has vocals written for it. I tried to keep a similar idea to that which Joe Morello (the drummer for the original version of take five) played. I found playing in 5/8 relatively easy, although keeping the off beat timing on the Hi-hats was quite difficult. I used brushes for this performance as it sounded far too harsh with sticks, it seemed to sit much nicer in the texture of the full band with brushes.

I think the overall performance of the song went well, there was a bit of a slip up near the middle of the song where Jilly went out of time quite badly, this had been a recurring problem in rehearsal but on the whole, the performance of the song had come a long way from all of us from where it first started out. I think we managed to deal with the mistake quite well and recover from it quite quickly, I think that is one of those situations in a live setting where the audience would soon forget about a mistake which is well recovered from.
I can admit that I find Jazz much harder than my usual choice of genre to play, it is something that I have never really tried in great depth and is clearly something that you can't just "learn" in a matter of weeks or months. I have been working on it and I can see and feel its benefits working into my playing so in the long run I feel it will really benefit me.


I was involved in the rehearsal processes for other tracks during the year although I unfortunately missed the recording of the performances. Proof of this will be in a later posting with youtube videos from the tour showing my playing with The Birthday Suit.

20th March - 

Angie has created a facebook group for our band so that we can keep in touch over the break and decide on which songs we will be choosing to play, Our set songs are - Dignity - Deacon Blue and Sweet Dreams - The Eurythmics. Our band will be - 

Angie - Vox

Brunon - Keys

Dechlan - Guitar 

Donal - Bass

Steve - Drums

31st March -

 Through contact on the facebook group we have been throwing a few ideas of songs back and forward, so far we have not come to a full agreement. Songs by Sons And Daughters and The Communards were suggested. We  are trying to find something that will suit Angie’s voice but still allow us to play enough to show our instrumental ability. 

1st April -(SOLO PRACTICE) 

Started work on the Eurythmics and Deacon Blue, never really listened to the tracks so I just need to get the structures in my head, the playing isn’t too technical on them which means I can really concentrate on the performance and feel of the tracks. The Eurythmics track is heavily electronic so I could use my Roland Electronic set up live to get the genuine sounds. We may need to use my sequencer software live with an interface as the track has a loop which continues throughout, if we did this it would let Brunon play out a bit more on keys and focus on the licks and runs rather than the main repeated riff throughout the track. I have always been quite quick to learn songs on drums, especially recently with playing in a wedding band, turning over 3/4 new songs a week has become a regular part of my weekly routine. Sometimes I struggle to get time to actually sit at a kit and spend a lot of time learning songs, I have my own way of dealing with this as I can listen to a track on the move and get the structures and parts in my head to be able to play it without actually having to play it prior to a rehearsal. This has been working well for me over the past few months as I have had a lot of different rehearsals and gigs each week with 5 different projects outside of college. I really feel that playing so much has moved my playing up a notch in the styles of music I have been playing. As with everything there is a balance to be found, so I can admit that my “jazz” playing and reading skills have taken a back seat over the past few months, however the styles of music which I have been playing, and really enjoy playing, are becoming more natural and fluent each time I sit behind a kit. I have always been one to learn by doing and being so busy with so much playing each week has really made me step my game up, this has paid off more than I had expected it to. Playing bigger gigs with Rod and the Birthday Suit has made me a lot more confident on stage. Especially after having had the experience of filming an entire show with them for a DVD. I have a lot more control over my emotion on stage and I have almost learned how to harness the nerves and use them to put out a better performance. 

17th April - 

This is really the first class time rehearsal that we will have for the end of year show, Unfortunately due to a miscommunication, only a few people actually turned up to performance class as it is now on a tuesday instead of a friday. Myself and Angie are the only two from our band here, so we have decided on the final set list between us and will let the rest of the guys know through the face book group. We have decided on the following songs - 

Rama lama - Sons And Daughters

I Think I’m Paranoid - Garbage

These both fit into the criteria of having a scottish background as the singer from Garbage is Scottish and Sons And Daughters are a Scottish band. The songs suit Angie’s voice and are a bit different to the usual “pick” for college gigs. I quite like that they are a bit more grungy and different as we usually don’t really get to play that type of genre in college to it’s full effect. I am thinking about doing some backing vocals in some of the tracks as it seems like it could add a lot to the tracks. 

24th April - 

This is a great chance to have a full band rehearsal, unfortunately Donal is in another band so we only have him for part of the class although because we all know our parts, we can get a lot done in a short space of time. 

We have got quite a lot done today, we ran through the structures quite a few times and worked on getting the right feel and overall sound of the tracks. Dignity is quite straight the whole way through so we have tried to dip the dynamics slightly at the piano solo and in other places to add some dynamic. Rama Lama and I Think I’m Paranoid are coming together well, Dechlan has decided to use a seven string to save him having to tune down for the Garbage track. So far sweet dreams has proven to be the hardest track to get the genuine sound with, I have been messing around with the sequencer at home using MIDI programming but it is hard to find a genuine sounding MIDI synth to replicate the Sweet Dreams sound. Brunon is going to record a loop using his keyboard which has the right synth settings and send it over, at the next rehearsal we will try using the sequencer live and see whether or not we need it. We do still need another rehearsal before the gig as the tracks could be a lot tighter overall, although they are definitely coming together very quickly. I have decided that using my Roland electric set up is going to be too much, I don’t think it really needs the electric drum kit because what I’m playing has such an electronic feel to it anyway, I don’t think that the roland kit would sound particularly good in the auditorium and it is a lot of setting up just for one track, there are a lot of bands to soundcheck on the day so this may save time too. 

27th April - (SOLO PRACTICE) 

I am having another run through at home to try out the sequencer as Brunon has sent me the sound clip of the synth part which he recorded on his loop pedal. I have struggled to find a tempo for it, I am assuming that the phase effect on his keyboard which helps make the sound produced seem very genuine doesn’t have an exact tempo setting, It must just be a setting knob on the keyboard without an exact numerical value to it. This has meant that because it is an audio file rather than midi, when I try to quantize one part of the file to a click, it warps the audio which sounds horrendous and is very out of time. It doesn’t help that I have garageband, which is fine for basic recording and editing, however I have realized that for playing live with this type of set up, it is just simply too basic. Ideally, I need a programme like logic in which I can select independant outputs for tracks. The click track in garageband just comes through the main output, which wouldn’t be what an audience would like to hear. By the sound of the sample that Brunon sent me, he really has put time into getting the right patch sound for sweet dreams, so really it doesn’t actually seem that we will need the sequencer. 

1st May -

Today we have tried Sweet Dreams with and without the sequencer, I tried it with the sequencer without the click track, this would be fine if the synth riff continued throughout the entire track , although because it drops in and out, it is impossible to keep in time with without a click track when I’m concentrating on what the rest of the band are doing too. If I had a click, this wouldn’t be an issue. We weren’t too sure what Annette would think of sweet dreams without the sequencer and electronic drum kit, although she reckons that we have the feel, power and sound that the track puts across in a live setting, so I think we have done a good job with that one. I have also given backing vocals a try and it is coming together quite well. Rama Lama is a challenge to play and sing with, the drum part is quite busy although because I can almost switch off and play the part without really having to think too much about it, I can concentrate on the vocals in the chorus. I really like how dynamic Rama Lama is, it builds up to the chorus, then drops right back after each chorus.  We have managed to really get the right feel for Dignity, it seemed a bit too slow and sloppy to listen to, so we had decided to try pushing the tempo a bit and this has worked. It has a nicer feel to it and doesn’t drag as much. Brunon has figured out a nice keys part for I think I’m Paranoid which actually fits really well. It almost sounds like a second guitar. 

We have decided to arrange another rehearsal before thursday, although all the rooms are booked out solid in college so we will arrange a rehearsal at ColourSound Studios in Edinburgh for tomorrow. This way we can also have Donal for the entire rehearsal and we can just finalise everything. 

2nd May -  

We have a rehearsal at Colorsound today 12-3, this should be plenty of time to just get everything finalised and have a couple of run throughs before the assessment. I am feeling quite confident about it, the only problem I had was that Sweet Dreams wouldn’t sound right, however after yesterdays rehearsal in college, I am a lot more confident about it. 

Today we have really just worked on getting comfortable playing the tracks as a band, they are starting to sound really tight. We didn’t really have too many problems with anything. Dechlan and Brunon both have the right sounds for different tracks, Angie has seemed a lot more comfortable with the lyrics, I have managed to get the backing vocals down to a decent standard which I am quite happy with and they actually add a lot to the track. Tomorrow we plan to have a quick run through with Annette before or after soundcheck as she is doing some decorative backing vocals on Sweet Dreams. 

3rd May - 

Today is the day of the assessment, we have a quick run through with Annette at some point when she is free, soundchecks then the gig later on tonight. I personally am quite confident after yesterdays run through so I think we will be all set! 

The assessment went really well, I feel quite confident in my playing and even the backing vocals seemed to go quite well. Everything seemed to sound tight on stage and everyone put on a good performance. Angie was especially animated on stage so this allowed me to play out a bit and settle in, giving me more of a chance to perform and enjoy it. I would need to see a recording of the show to really critique the performance but after speaking to some people who were in the audience, they all seemed to enjoy it which is one of the most important things! I am confident that I didn’t make many noticeable mistakes, nothing really stuck out in my head as being too bad, so I am really happy with how it went!