Monday 3 December 2012

Ben Folds and Skyfall

Another busy, bizarre week this week! It's been great fun though!

The first thing happened on Wednesday, where following something that Ben Folds posted on twitter, I walked to the Richard Goodall Gallery in the Northern Quarter of Manchester. The post said that he was there opening an exhibition of his photography work and people had the opportunity to meet him! As I am a huge Ben Folds fan, I jumped at the chance and I was not disappointed. Many other people were there with similar plans to myself, namely to meet Ben, and get him to sign something, but I hoped that I would be able to stand out in this case...

Ben Folds Signing my Trainer

Ben Folds performed in Sheffield nearly 20 years ago, a gig which my Dad attended. As a result of a misjudged stage dive, someone stole one of his shoes. He told this story the two times I saw him live in Sheffield (2007, 2010) so I thought it would be funny if I asked him to sign my trainer, he laughed and asked if I was the guy who stole it? I'm not.

On Saturday night I went to Leeds to see Ben play with his band Ben Folds 5 (all personal heroes of mine) on their 20 year reunion tour. They were fantastic. It was definitely a gig that I won't forget, marking the fourth time I've seen Ben live, but the first time I've not been the youngest there. That title was taken by my 16 year old sister Cathy Simpson on this occasion.

 Ben Folds 5 Live in Leeds
(L-R Ben Folds, Darren Jesse, Robert Sledge)

After fangirling over Ben Folds for nearly 4 days straight, I returned to Manchester on the Sunday for another recording session at SSR. This was a different experience for me as it was the first time I had been called upon to arrange parts for a session. For the project, Charles Macdonald, Ollie Harding and I recorded the band parts for Adele's newest song Skyfall for Stuart Armriding's Audio Engineering Degree. So last Saturday I recorded Piano and Bass Guitar, as part of the full band recording.

Sunday, we recorded a 4 piece Brass section and a 4 piece String section. I arranged the parts for the session, marking my first time doing that kind of thing and pretending to be a Musical Director! I really enjoyed myself and it was a great experience to hear the real orchestral instruments playing the music that I'd arranged, as opposed to the MIDI approximations "playing" the score before.

The Brass Ensemble at SSR

The String Quartet at SSR




Another busy day at SSR, but another great experience recording. Yet another busy week. How far away is Christmas again?


Alasdair