THE SWEENEY musicians are all exhausted! We tend to meet up
and discuss how little sleep and food we've been having over the last few
weeeks. But we're wired - up for rocking and rolling too - and ready for our
next two Saturday gigs (Dec 14th and Dec21st).
Sweeney's Katie Ritson (vocals/guitar/piano) and Hannah Dacey (double bass) have full on weeks of Christmas concerts and musical deadlines at their respective colleges in Manchester (RNCM) and London (RCM) and are playing non stop. Katie now has a solo residency in a Manchester cafe on Deansgate. Hannah will be back for Christmas gigs, photo shoots and recording sessions and we're really looking forward to meeting up and playing with her again.
It gives us chance to plan any festival for next summer and work on new songs like Concrete and Soul, Sketches of Elvis, Without Your Love, Above Me Now and The Best Mistake. Songs which I'll be playing solo at Preston music nights near my flat whenever I get the chance in 2014.
Sweeney's solid shift working, other bass player, Elliott Dryden, has just come back from a week in London where he was meant to be playing a gig for a group of promoters with Hannah Spurgeon and his main band, a duo called the Remedy. Sadly Hannah succombed to an English wet Winter mix of asthma and cold and was unable to perform. She lost her singing voice completely but is recouperating at home. We wish her well and The Remedy will be back down in London in 2014.
I had the a similar problem recording vocals at Sunnybank Studios for the forthcoming album with Ruby Records (yeah it's an album now). I had to record some of Rooks line by line to get my lungs and brain working. (I may also have been hungover). Rob Kentell of the Susie Jones Band, mixing and producing the album, assured me it sounded fine. It's definitely turning out to have tracks which sound like a northern city Winter.
I'm also running a series of music nights at the Korova Arts Cafe & Bar, a cute artsie venue off Fishergate Hill in the City of Preston with art all over the walls and theatre performances upstairs. The people who work and run the place are rapidly becoming like an adopted surrogate family for me. I've been booking acts, acting as a sound engineer, promoting events on top of teaching the guitar and writing songs - and dancing in cocktail bars with them - don't ask.
Percussionist and drummer Anna Ashworth is fitting in practice and performance around the insane workload they pile on FE Tutors at the end of each term. Tory governments like to abuse and belittle the public sector as much as they can with the ideological intention of dismantling every well intentioned social programme of mass education and public health to be sold off for quick cash - but we know that!
Having said that we're truly up for a new set of songs. Personally I'm feeling well fired up to play right now with the fight to make things happen through winter and financial struggle just spurring me on. The practices have felt good and we're looking forward to a busy Christmas period.
Sweeney Astray will be performing at 8pm at the
Hurst Green Beer and Music Festival on Saturday December the 14th and I mean
8pm. Line up Mike; Katie; Anna ; Elliott - full band, full kit.
Sweeney Astrya will also be performing at Korova Arts Cafe & Bar at 8.30pm on Saturday December 21st. Line up: Mike; Hannah; Katie, Anna on percussion.
Rob Kentell of the Susie Jones Band, who is playing guitars/mandolins etc on and producing the Sweeney album will be sound engineering for us on December 21st.
Thanks for reading this and all your support.
Mike
Sweeney's Katie Ritson (vocals/guitar/piano) and Hannah Dacey (double bass) have full on weeks of Christmas concerts and musical deadlines at their respective colleges in Manchester (RNCM) and London (RCM) and are playing non stop. Katie now has a solo residency in a Manchester cafe on Deansgate. Hannah will be back for Christmas gigs, photo shoots and recording sessions and we're really looking forward to meeting up and playing with her again.
It gives us chance to plan any festival for next summer and work on new songs like Concrete and Soul, Sketches of Elvis, Without Your Love, Above Me Now and The Best Mistake. Songs which I'll be playing solo at Preston music nights near my flat whenever I get the chance in 2014.
Sweeney's solid shift working, other bass player, Elliott Dryden, has just come back from a week in London where he was meant to be playing a gig for a group of promoters with Hannah Spurgeon and his main band, a duo called the Remedy. Sadly Hannah succombed to an English wet Winter mix of asthma and cold and was unable to perform. She lost her singing voice completely but is recouperating at home. We wish her well and The Remedy will be back down in London in 2014.
I had the a similar problem recording vocals at Sunnybank Studios for the forthcoming album with Ruby Records (yeah it's an album now). I had to record some of Rooks line by line to get my lungs and brain working. (I may also have been hungover). Rob Kentell of the Susie Jones Band, mixing and producing the album, assured me it sounded fine. It's definitely turning out to have tracks which sound like a northern city Winter.
I'm also running a series of music nights at the Korova Arts Cafe & Bar, a cute artsie venue off Fishergate Hill in the City of Preston with art all over the walls and theatre performances upstairs. The people who work and run the place are rapidly becoming like an adopted surrogate family for me. I've been booking acts, acting as a sound engineer, promoting events on top of teaching the guitar and writing songs - and dancing in cocktail bars with them - don't ask.
Percussionist and drummer Anna Ashworth is fitting in practice and performance around the insane workload they pile on FE Tutors at the end of each term. Tory governments like to abuse and belittle the public sector as much as they can with the ideological intention of dismantling every well intentioned social programme of mass education and public health to be sold off for quick cash - but we know that!
Having said that we're truly up for a new set of songs. Personally I'm feeling well fired up to play right now with the fight to make things happen through winter and financial struggle just spurring me on. The practices have felt good and we're looking forward to a busy Christmas period.
Sweeney Astrya will also be performing at Korova Arts Cafe & Bar at 8.30pm on Saturday December 21st. Line up: Mike; Hannah; Katie, Anna on percussion.
Rob Kentell of the Susie Jones Band, who is playing guitars/mandolins etc on and producing the Sweeney album will be sound engineering for us on December 21st.
Thanks for reading this and all your support.
Mike
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