Blog: Feel My Pain

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Off to LEICESTER again last night, for another Frontline Section Practice with Tom and Emma. This time we were back in Stayfree, which has recently been redecorated so it is now Actually Quite Nice, rather than SQUALID like it used to be. It was quite a shock to be in a room that had ALL working equipment and DIDN'T smell of 10 years of MAN SWEAT. It still felt like Stayfree though, which is a GOOD thing - unlike most of the rehearsal places I've been in, Stayfree always feels like somewhere that Musical Things HAPPEN, rather than somewhere that people go to learn a bunch of cover versions.

Anyway, I had a few minutes to myself at the start, so tried out a couple of IDEAS for songs I'd had on the train, including "Quality Of Life Enhancement Device", which I've been trying to finish since i was in VOON the last time, and a possible rejig of an ANCIENT song called "If You Need Loving". Tom and Emma arrived, we had a chat, and the CREATION BEGAN!

Ooh, it was EVER so good. We started off with "Breaks In The Journey", which features Emma singing Harmony all the way through. This sounds GRATE, but I'm finding it REALLY difficult to sing what I'm supposed to sing, as I keep listening to what Emma's singing, thinking "Ooh, that's good", then EITHER singing along with her OR forgetting the words entirely and having to stop. Something similar happens to me at gigs - I'll be singing along and then start looking around the room, looking for people I know, or checking that everyone's with me, and then start wondering about what song to do next, or how we could do the song differently with the band, and before you know it i get DERAILED. These days I stand there being my own GURU, thinking "Concentrate on the NOW, Oh Hibbett Oh Me, Be Where You ARE."

Yeah! So I'm trying to do that... it's hard though, especially when we're learning stuff as I was ALSO listening to what Tom was doing and thinking about what HE could be doing too. In fact, by the time we'd finished doing that song my BRANE HURT. It really did too, my MIND was OVER EXERTED. ESPECIALLY when we did the "it makes no sense" bit, with the three of us singing (or playing) around an over each other. BRANE! PAIN!

We then moved on to "The Fight For History", and things got even MORE complicated when Tom and I had a HEATED DEBATE about what to do and where to do it, largely involving me waving me arms around saying "Like, ZZZZZZZR in the first bit, the DA DA DA DAAAR in the next, solo, then half and half". For some reason Tom found this a little frustrating, HOWEVER it all started coming together in BEAUTY in the middle, when we combined VIOLIN SOLO with me and Emma going "Ba ba ba ba ba ba", but DIFFERENTLY from each other. OOH! It sounded ACE!

Next "The Gay Train", which sounded LOVELY, with Emma doing MORE harmony/counter melody bits and Tom doing a BEAUTIFUL solo. GRATE! He then came over to OUR side of the room, and the three of us stood in a line which, suddenly, felt MUCH better. We then spent almost an HOUR on "Zipcodes", but an hour that FLEW by as Tom did some of that FIDDLE PLAYING he did on "Good Cooking" and Emma did EVEN MORE HARMONIES, AND boosted up the choruses, and did all sorts of things in between, and OOH! It was GRATE!

We finished up by running through all four songs again (also SEGUEING from "Breaks In The Journey" to "The Fight For History", which made us all GRIN), and off we went across the road to the PUB for a celebratory DRINK. It really REALLY had sounded FAB, and I especially got Quite Excited. So much so that, when we left, I was too busy PONTIFICATING on our MIGHTINESS and waving my arms around (again) to remember that The Hind has a REALLY big step down from the front door, and I FELL! HARD! And REALLY hurt my ankle - YAROO! People at work today asked if it was because I was drunk, and my dears i DEARLY WISH this had been the case, as it would have meant it would have hurt a WHOLE LOT less. Alas I was pretty much sober-ish, and saying "OW!"

This morning I woke with a STIFF ANKLE, full of JOY which was only slightly diminished by the knowledge that the ANTI-FONZ appears to have won. I guess we can cling to hope with Ohio, but it looks like another four years of He-Man And The MAsters Of The Universe, rather than The Simpsons.

posted 3/11/2004 by MJ Hibbett

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