July, A Month of Drums.

I started July in France as a bass player. I had a great music tour with Ashville College Music Department enjoying a lot of great gigs throughout Normandy and surrounding areas. Throughout the week I enjoyed reading Guy Pratt's book "My Bass and other Animals," which I highly recommend to musicians, not just bass players. As per usual, I was listening to Pino Palladino, this time to his work with Paul Young. Octave pedal and fretless at it's best.

Back in the UK by the 6th of July, I spent the weekend at Durham Brass Festival playing with the New York Brass Band. We enjoyed busking in glorious weather during the days in Durham Town Centre, and playing in evening gigs at Spennymoor Town Hall, Belmont Parish Hall and "Jam Jah." (A jam session that saw performances from a variety of Brass Bands including Oompah Brass and Bad Ass Brass.) Following the Brass Festival, on Sunday the 8th we travelled to The Cumberland Arms Pub near Newcastle to perform a headline set as part of the Ouseburn Festival. A great adventure in the North East of England.

New York Brass Band at Durham Brass Festival

Another NYBB adventure took place on the 20th of July. We played at two weddings; an afternoon event, and an evening. While this doesn't sound like that big a deal, the afternoon gig was in Gosforth in Cumbria (Near Seascale) and the evening gig was in East Ayton in North Yorkshire (Near Scarborough). The playing was great! All in all it was a fantastic experience, but after 370 miles of driving on A roads, I was pleased to see my bed!

The weekend commencing the 26th of July saw a lot of exciting things. On the Friday, NYBB travelled to Perth in Scotland for Rewind the 80s festival. We enjoyed performing around the campsite and seeing a lot of excitable middle aged people who were exciting about seeing Rick Astley, Level 42, Starship and many more acts. It was also nice to see people who remembered NYBB from last year's festival as it made the event feel much more personal.

Saturday and Sunday saw consecutive Rugby League "Tetley's Challenge Cup" Semi Finals. The first of which was at Leigh Sports Village, which I can tell you is 256 miles from Perth (another exciting drive). We played on the pitch as the pre match entertainment which was fantastic fun. Wigan Warriors played London Broncos and hammered them 70-0. A great result for what was basically a home game...

Following an overnight at my flat in Manchester, we travelled to Huddersfield John Smith's stadium for the Warrington Wolves and Hull City FC game. Same deal, we played in the middle of the pitch to a bigger stadium and more people. This time due to poor weather conditions, we were able to do a 5 minute set on the pitch at half time which was also great! The final score was Hull FC 16, Warrington 12.

Kieran, Tim and Charlie Soundchecking at Huddersfield John Smith's Stadium

I've enjoyed playing drums a fair bit this month, however in other news. I've done a few bass gigs which have been good fun! The Spinoffs Band recorded a Promo Video in Witney near Oxford which I will link in due course. In very exciting news I have finally bought a MacBook Pro! I'm now very pleased to be using Logic, MainStage and Sibelius and doing more programming / sequencing / arranging work. Watch this space for that as well.

The Rugby Matches were televised on BBC 2, so that's another first for me! Although we were not the main feature, throughout the BBC coverage, you could hear the band playing and see us over the Pundits' shoulders! Haha.

The New York Brass Band can be found at http://www.newyorkbrassband.co.uk and on Facebook! Give them a like if you get a chance.

Also, like The Spinoffs on Facebook! You will see the promo video there first!

That's all for now! I look forward to returning to Bass full time next month! ;)

Alasdair