October, What Happens on Tour, Stays on Tour

October has been an interesting one. A lot of adventures, a lot of college time missed, but all for the best! I'll try and sum up what's been going on...

So October started with a trip to Essex for me. The RNCM Session Orchestra Rhythm Section travelled down south to workshop an improvised piece with local schools; this is ahead of our performance of the piece with the schools as part of the Music For Youth School's Proms in the Royal Albert Hall in London! We had a very enjoyable few days working with different Young People all across Essex. It was great to see such talent and enthusiasm across the board! It was also great to work alongside Paul (a lecturer at Guildhall School of Music and Drama) to create a really unique and exciting piece. And of course, it was great to be back in the capital.

The following Saturday saw a rehearsal with Classical Crossover singer Mark Llewelyn Jones and the band. This was a great opportunity to work in a different genre of music to what I'm used to. Mark was impressed with our interpretation of his songs from his album and is looking forward to our upcoming gig at The Atkinson in Southport.

Monday the 14th marked the start of the Atom Live tour with James Christy and the band! The whole tour was a fantastic experience, we performed to audiences in York, Darlington, Manchester, Lincoln and London. It was great to experience life on the road in a tour bus with your band mates. A special mention should go to our fellow Atom Live Bands: Vanderjact and Frost-D. Also, our Stage Manager Matt, and Tour Manager Trev were absolutely sound guys. It was a fantastic week, I'd do it all again at the drop of a hat. However, I'm sure the rest of the band will back me up in saying that we never want to have to walk bags and gear through London's Underground System ever again.

JC Band, Vanderjact, Frost-D and Matt on the Atom Live Tour

October including another storming gig with Spinoffs in York! Everyone had a great night, and we're looking forward to a function band showcase in Coventry next month! I'm very excited!

As you'd expect, with the Session Orchestra gig fast approaching we have been rehearsing hard at college! It's going to be an awesome gig, and I'd urge everyone without a ticket to get one for the gig on the 9/11/13 at RNCM! There's no excuse!

And finally I'm just at the start of another Ensemble Week at RNCM! The task this time around is to learn and perform 10 songs from the band... TOTO! Needless to say, I'm absolutely ecstatic about this. I have longed for the day when it would be socially acceptable to play AOR in a band in public. I'm looking forward to the end of the week gig immensely. But until then, there are some tricky unison riffs to see to. Yay.

Alasdair