Black Cross, Bromsgrove

4th December 2010

Heeeeeey! How you doing?

Another Green Head Man outing (this is getting into a habit) happened last week at Ye Olde Black Cross in Bromsgrove, West Midlands. Particularly special this one as this is where I spent my formative years getting "overly refreshed" on a regular basis so it was good to return and play the old haunt. Fair play to Ian and Dee the owners, they have made every effort to transform the dreary lounge that I used to drink in in the early '90's and turn it into one of the areas best gigs.

 

So, to the load in; this was half six a full half hour before the international load in standard but I was keen to record the gig as we had a few new and original compositions in the set and I wanted to see how they worked and were received (very well as it went).


As a band we are really keen to make each show, now matter how big or small, really special and this inevitably involves us bringing all of our best equipment, FX and ideas to the table. Lots of cars and lots of space taken up but hopefully this results in the audience having a unique experience and that is something that we think is special and that will encourage people to come to more and more of our gigs.

Always searching for the sound Timmy this week bought just the 2 bass rigs and ran them in stereo

Setup took a while; mainly because of the added complication of recording but also, as above, we had an acoustic guitar, Didgeridoo, Space Synth, 2 bass rigs, 2 oil wheels and Fairly lights to install and sound check as well as the rest.

A freak shaving incident meant that Little Dave had the same facial hair as Timmy

It was also so hot in there until I found the radiator valves and cranked them off. I was not wearing my gig clothes and in a scruffy big jumper, I swear I lost 2lbs just setting up!

Sound check was brief and the gig ensued (a little later than we expected at 21:45). The sets went well despite having a poor on stage sound and listening to the recordings things unfolded rather nicely, which is how we liked it.

You gotta love the fairy lights!

We performed the Greenwich Meant Standard two x one hour sets (1 x 64 minutes and 1 x 71 minutes) and finished some time after midnight. The audience were nice and appreciative and after a quick chat with friends the setdown began.

Green Head Manning

It's good to play. We are now back in the studio working hard on the originals, battling the snow and ice and trying to get them into good shape - its looking good!

Out next outing is on the 18th of December and then we (as a band) have Christmas off to look for fresh inspiration and spruce off the set for 2011. Many gigs already booked for 2011 including 3 notable ones:

Jan 27th at the Robin2, Bilston, West Mdlands where we support Space Ritual (Hawkwind)

Jan 28th at the River Rooms, Stourbridge, WM where we headline and then

Apr 27th at the Robin2, Bilston, West Midlands where we get a first full headline there!

as Little Dave said, next time we will all have facial hair!

See you laters,

Nick



A sneaky peek into the life of a bass player

Dairy update

Hi folks,

November has been an expected quiet month gig wise-but for good reason. Firstly and importantly Ron has recovered extremely well and is as strong as Ox again so Green Head Man are ready, willing and able to bully off for the final chucka in December and on through the new year.

Whilst we have been 'away' we have been busy writing and working up fresh music into the set and I have to say we are all pretty excited about it too; Human Zoo is turning out to be an instant fave and we hope to be able to offer a studio version of that to you soon. Other new songs include Moths to the Flame, Rise up, Golden and Fly Away. A few of these at least will make it into out next gig; please do let us know what you think of them.

We have ten or so gigs booked already for the new year so things are looking promising. Notably we start again this Saturday the 4th of December at the Black Cross in Bromsgrove and that's been a long time coming for us, especially as we were forced to redefine our last gig there due to illness.

Then after a stop off at the Stagborough Arms in Stourport on the 18th its into 2011!

We are playing our regular gigs throughout the year with a few notable additions; we have been asked to play three dates at the 300+ venue the River Rooms in Stroubridge along with a brace of gigs at the, frankly massive, Robin2 in Bilston (one support one headline).

We can nearly announce the support gig but are just waiting to have it finalised but lets just say, for the moment, that the headline band are RIGHT up our street and have been around for a very long time (not only that, one of the cover versions that we play in our main set will have to be omitted for that gig - hint!)

The River Rooms is on the 28th Jan please do come to that but if you can't then there is also the Robin2 on the 27th April, See Here for details

Can't wait until this Saturday, See you soon!

Oh Yes!!

Katiefitzgerald's, Stourbridge - 30th October 2010


Ooh I am getting out of practice in many ways. I nearly forgot the view from the stage shot, and in a departure from the usual behind the Hammond vibe (and because the stage was so small - more on that later no doubt) I ended up taking this gem from behind the drum kit - the stage entrance of choice.

Hello you!

How are you all doing? I don't want to come over all Sinead O'Connor but its been quite a few months since we all got together and had a bash and met you all again, and jolly nice it was too. Great to see faces new and old and on this frankly bizarre occasion .

So its was Katie's and it was the Saturday before Halloween - a good combination. Ron was and is still recuperating well and it was time to start the GHM machine up once more after the enforced break. The last time we played together was 3 months ago and we were concerned about rustiness, bum notes, muscle wastage and flatulence. (the latter is an on going concern)


I love the effort the staff put into the gig and they are always so happy and upbeat about their job and meeting us.

Arriving at the Greenwich Mean Time of all gig get ins, 19:00, we entered the tube that is the venue. Instantly we all commented that it was even smaller than we remembered (we had already brought the cut-down kit - no acoustic guitar, smaller bass drum, no piano and only the 2 bass cabs and 2 bass amps)

Getting on the stage is a difficult affair, I need to get the Leslie speaker in at the back before the Guitar amp can go in front of it, the Bass amp needs to be in to show Ron how much space we are working with so its a struggle of an operation. We got it all setup in the end and the only way I could get to the Hammond was either on my hands and knees (presenting as it were to the audience) or from the other side past the bass amps, mind the cables on the floor, tilt the hi hat, over the drum seat (admiring the padding), over the floor lights and into position (Leslie*).What a laugh.

I was pleased also that Canadian Dave brought his stunt keyboard along and managed to wedge it in front and to the side of me.



This machine makes all the difference in our stage show I feel and takes us another step closer to the unique end of the spectrum (probably. Well that's what someone told me on the night anyway!)

Having agreed the set,printed it and then lost it I had spent the previous evening hand writing set lists out that we promptly tore up after 4 songs when it was clear that Ron was going to be able to make it! After so long away I just wanted us to play the first note and then I knew it would be fine and god was it fine. I am continually astonished at what this band can achieve and that the sum of the parts is a million miles away from the whole - but enough of that. Silly.

The set went well it was un-fathomably tight (when the team have their backs against the wall I think we produce our best work), there were moment of brilliance (ahem) and there were straight forward cock-ups but on the whole it seemed to work really well. Its good to have the space to explore on stage and at one point (while Canadian was 'exploring') I had enough time to snap this photo of him (above).

Then, cue the snare drum explosion and an impromptu performance of Gloria (G.L.O.R.I.A), something always explodes at Katies, I don't know why - next time: My Liver!

The set was tight, the buttocks were clenched but we needn't have worried, we pulled off a professional and consummate performance with Ron only losing his stamina on the very last song and cutting it slightly short - very impressive work seeing as he was still in hospital in August!

You guys were great, a lot of you were in fancy dress and had really gone the extra mile, my favourites were Where's Wally and the Mummy but the rest of you were great too.

We are all fired up and we are back. Well ish, November will be spend getting the 3 new and originals firmly in the set after the break and also working on more new ideas that we have and then its onwards and upwards to Bromsgrove and Stourport in December and then The River Rooms in Stourbridge in January.

Come and see us on the road, say hello, ask for a free and exclusive Green Head Man dot com badge and join our Facebook revulsion (sic).

We can't do it without you, well we can but we won't, we'll wait for you, but not too long, don't take the mick now



















* Crap 90's Vic Reeves reference.

Where HAVE you been?

Well nowhere really...well out and about...the odd curry...you know

The holiday period is over and so is the enforced break. I am pleased to say that Ron's operation was a complete success and the boys are rehearsing again. Short rehearsals to start with just building up the stamina for our return gig at Katiefitzgerald's on the 30th October.

The break has allowed us to work on Green Head things that do not involve Live playing and I think this has been beneficial:

Ron and I have been frantically trying to get wider reaching Gigs - more on that later - whilst Timmy and Little Dave and Canadian Dave and Little Dave (still following me? good) have been writing and recording. My piano has been upgraded to firmware release 2 - yes you heard me, release 2 - Wow!!


The recording session we did was a little fraught as it turns out, we really didn't capture what we wanted to capture that day, added to that a few technical recording difficulties unfolded - more on that too later. Still, we persist and work on the recording. In tandem we are trying a recording technique used by many a rock star (!) whilst Ron recuperates. In essence we are in our own studios adding our own parts to a song that starts with a timing click. Little Dave performs his guitar and vocals and emails the tracks to me and Timmy, we add Piano and Bass and forward it on to Canadian who adds guitar, space guitar and backing vocals and then - strangely - we add drums at the end. Only way we could do it timing-wise but lets see how it goes. As far as the acoustic track that it currently is its a killer and the drums are going on this week. Very happy about that.

The object of 2011 is to play bigger and better gigs whilst retaining our feet in the pubs and clubs that continue to support us and live music along the way. We already have a gig on the 28th January 2011 at the River Rooms in Stourbridge (please come, go on please) which is a dedicated gig holding up to 350 people. We can also announce that we now have a gig at the Robin2 Club in Bilston (please come, go on you know you want to) on the 27thy April 2011, yup Easter break. Now, the latter is a 700 seater and we need all the supporters that we can get in order to show the admirable Mike (owner) that people really do want to hear psychedelic rock and soul these days.

So the gig getting is going well, we have 12 or so for 2011 already and with a decent recording of what we do (we have never really hawked our wares to get gigs but usually receive calls asking us to play - which is extremely nice of everyone) but now we are going out for the assault of the festival circuit in 2011. Wish us luck!

Canadian Dave and Friends performed the originally scheduled Green Head Man gig last week at the Black Cross in Bromsgrove and pulled off an excellent tribute to John Lennon's birthday - featuring the great Mike Bannister from Slowburner and Stepping out on guitar (everyone's left handed these days!). Ron got up for two numbers with Timmy and the GHM borg briefly connected for the first time out since July. We really can't wait until the 30th October. (You getting it now? 30th October. I'll slip it in later just in case).

Oh and I went to Cornwall this year for my holidays:



So to recap:

Drummer = Well
Rehearsals = On
Gigs = Oh yeah
Recordings = On Sale soon
Cornwall = Wet
Onwards and, at the very least, sideways = Oh go on then.

Thanks for reading,

Nick x

30th October!!

Summer Hols...

Dave just wanted to say hi. Hi!

Green Head Man are on an enforced break at the moment due to an operation that Ron has had. He is fine and is recovering pretty well - I know this because he is already itching to play the drums again!

A couple of the band are on their Summer hols and things have quietened down a fair bit since the frantic and really enjoyable first half of the year. More to come too!

So we are chillin', but anyone who knows me knows that I can't really do that! Before the op we went into the studio (see earlier blog) to record a few songs. Canadian Dave and I have been having a listed to the film equivalent of the "rushes" (whatever that is) and are quite optimistic that there is some scope for a few nicely laid out songs. We want to maintain the vibe so are pushing for limited overdubs if possible.

Keys are pretty good (even if I say so myself) with only 1 notable gaff but we are not sure if that song is going to make it onto the EP yet anyway.

We recorded 4 songs at the session, 3 compositions of Little Dave's and a cover by the Open Mind. Watch out for "Human Zoo" that's going to slay you! (I hope, ulp).

So now its mixing and all the things that this entails. there is a little too much overspill due to the live record environment so we may reproduce the awesome acoustic track again with the gorgeous Rode mic to get the warmth out of it that we want.

I popped over to see Canadian last week and it was great to have a chat about everything, as he points out two thirds of the time we spend carrying equipment and the other third playing so its good just to talk a bit of crap (and fix the odd laptop for him) once in a while :-)

So, we're here, we're still psychedelic get used to it!

New CD EP our this side of Christmas, Ron on the mend, gigs booked from October onwards, venues ringing us up for more dates in the new year, new Piano operating system and sounds library just waiting for me to install, so we are as happy as we could expect to be whilst not actually gigging.

Hopefully people will turn out to see us play after the break??

Lets hope we still have our Mojo (if not a Sherbert Dib Dab)

Nick

Goodbye...Again!

Stagborough Arms Stealth Gig
31st July 2010



Hello again. Well this is a little quicker than we had planned but still a pleasure all the same. Hello. When we last spoke we had just finished the recording of a new EP and as I left that late night session Ron told us of a chat he had had with the manager of the Stag, who drinks in Ron's local. He was in a pickle and in danger of not putting a band on Saturday night and asked us if we were free. We were. And besides he really cares about live music and we want to do what we can to help him.

So we confirmed, on Thursday. Bearing in mind the gig was Saturday we expected it to be a quiet sending off type affair - we were wrong.


Anyhoo, we arrived on time - minus Ron who was busy preparing for Slide Boy Roy's Tour de France next week. We had checked his slip and it was approved. So, we setup the whole thing with a drummer sized space at the back - or more accurately about a foot less than a drummer sized space at the back.



Ron turned up after a particularly busy day and we loaded the kit in (well me and Ron did anyway). He's a pro that boy (!) and he had his kit setup and LOUD in 21 minutes flat. Good lad.

We have done this gig many times before so the setup was smooth, the only thing I did different was to put my bass rotor in stereo through the PA - that's right girls, Stereo!! I'm sure everyone noticed.

Soundcheck was good, Marco was invaluable as ever with his perfect and trustworthy ear (and muscles) and the onstage sound was nice and quiet. Could have been a little bit too quiet but I'll take that. A friend of Ron's was playing a gig 10 miles away and couldn't make it but he did send a message to Timmy to ask him to tun the bass up a little so that he could enjoy our gig too!

So to the gig. Well, people turned up. Lots of them. The Landlord Steve was very pleased with this and so were the band, nothing like playing to a full crowd. The volumes were good onstage (Acoustic a little low perhaps) and the outfront was perfect. I can always tell when the Organ is at the right volume as, due to my aggressive visual style (shall we say) I get a little pool or people on my left looking over my shoulder. If they don't come, I turn up!!

Its was hot and the first set, which we had written in the carpark 2 minutes before going on(the set not the songs!) was a belter and really seemed to work. We quickly wrote the second set outside. Personally I was really going for it on stage and I think there was a feeling that we had to do 3 months of performance energy in one night - I certainly did. I was more sweat than man!

So, we are cooling off outside and I am photographing stuff. On the wall, behind where Timmy's bass amp sits we actually noticed a crack forming in the building.

I never checked it when we left, I wonder how big it is now. Timmy asked me to take a picture of his far better half, Sue, which I did.Sue was very self conscious of the cut of her top as you can see..

...and it was only the next day that I though this was odd. I wonder if she knows that she was outside in public where people can see her? I do have a picture without the hand there but I think that stays off the Internet...for the time being anyway...

This is the view from the carpark!

Back in with set number two. Very aptly named that too as Little Dave was suffering from a poor stomach and just before we played the first note he raced off the stage not to be seen for 5 minutes. GHM style we improvised a really atmospheric piece of music for roughly 4 or 5 minutes (in the key of E) before our singer appeared and we could jump into Magic Potion by The Open Mind.

Slight intermittent user based fault occurred so far that there was not guitar for the first 45 seconds until the fault was diagnosed by Canadian Dave and he got back in. I kind of enjoyed it, reminded me of Deep Purple, NEC gig 1987 when Richie Blackmore had one of his strops and refused the encore. They all did Smoke on the Water without him and Jon Lord was immense. To be able to pull off a song minus guitar is pretty impressive. Needless to say, when Dave did come back in it sounded much better!!

The Second set was also good and my concentration levels were on top form, I managed to stay focused in the music throughout which is pretty good as sometimes you tend to drift.

It was hot and full and the audience were most appreciative. We overrun as usual and finished on 25 miles and Roadrunner missing out the now traditional Pink Floyd / Doors combo. Nevertheless it was a great success.

We say goodbye now, for a bit. We will be working on the EP whilst Ron gets better and we plan to return on 30th October 2010 at Katie's in Stourbridge. Do be there. Oh go on.

See you later dudes,

Nick

Searching for a Green Head Man ... Vibe

Hello!

Bit of a surprise blog this, I was expecting to be a little quiet for a bit but we had an idea – or two. Ron is going to be out of Acton (sic) for a while so we decided at short notice to get a studio recording of some sort initiated (drum parts the essential bit) so that whilst he is recovering we could be overdubbing and generally making great a few songs for a studio e.p for release the back end of the year. As we have had to do the unthinkable and cancel/rearrange/redeploy a few gigs then this would keep our and possibly your momentum going until our victorious return(!) on the 30th October 2010 at Katififzgerald’s – the irony of course being that we don’t fitz on the stage there!

So, where are we? Well we didn’t feel like we needed to enter a commercial studio for this for many reasons; cost of course, the fact that we have got (and it has to be said) some very good recording gear and also that we prefer the manky environment that we affectionately call the Chicken shack (due to there being chickens running lose all around it). Basically it is a rectangular room and that’s what we wanted.


With the day cleared we arrived around 14:00 (well some of us did) and got to work with the load in. That’s a feat in itself, and Canadian Dave started assembling his hard disk recording environment. Regularly being attacked by wasps and me getting a little Spinal Tap about it affecting my performance we got a fair bit of it setup.


Just as Ron arrived we popped out to the shops. Now that sounds simple but for us it gets a raucous affair. Timmy decided that he wasn’t going to bother with food and just bought larger, I was under instruction to get something cheesy and I lived off nuts and Pan au chocolat – middle class rock stars! You don’t need anything too upsetting as the “recording studio” has no erm.. facilities if you know what I mean. Actually I lie, after two years I found a little shed claiming to be a toilet. Actually it wasn’t too shabby expect for the JESUS spiders, occasional Rat and the lack of light or electrics – not that I wanted a shave there or anything just good to see what’s crawling up your leg you know?


Anyway as I was saying, Ron came in late (we checked his note his excuse was valid) and got to work setting up the drums. Once they were in we could get all the microphones in place (boring bit: AKG Drum Mic, SM57 on the snare, Senhiser clip on Tom mics – I liked them! – left and right ambient condenser mics and a central Rode condenser about 2 foot off the floor 4 foot in front of the kit). We had been compromised down to 8 tracks simultaneous recording due to a technical FAIL that is even too boring for me to explain so I won’t. That said I managed to link up my 16track porta studio via optical to Canadian’s computer and was able to sub mix all of my amplifier's inputs into an extra 2 stereo tracks making it 10. Still with me? Blimey! Good….

Next was the incredible bass booth. After the first take there was more hi hat on the bass track than on the hi hat track!! How could that be? The ceiling was to blame and we created a little Den or Fort for Timmy to play in, he liked that.




When recording in a live environment we like to play at a decent volume as we can bounce off each other and make something special. This band is about the interaction and the chemistry – that’s our strongest card – so playing stiff and regulated isn’t going to represent the band very well. The problem with this though in recording terms is the separation, the fact that everything is recording on all mic’s. Timmy went for a stroll. He came back with a couple of 6foor square corrugated roof panels – you just know something somewhere is raining in don’t you – and these made excellent walls so we didn’t have to see little Dave’s face, marvellous.


I’ve not mic’d up a Leslie speaker for proper recording before and there is a trick to it. Seeing as the speaker inside the cab is rotating and giving it that spinney sound you need to calculate how to reproduce the Doppler effect. I’ll leave it there as I can hear you snoring already. All you need to know is less than 120 degrees.


With everything in place we started a take. It was stiff. All too quiet and too “sterile” for us. I think we really wanted to get it right but maybe a little too much you know. I ordered everyone outside to immediately down a pint of Bank’s Bitter. Which we did. When we returned we turned up a little and had another go, much better. Come 20:00 Green Head Man kick into gear as the night band they are and the groove was getting better and better.

We did about 3 takes of our first original composition – “Human Zoo” and it was starting to sound good. Moving swiftly on to our second composition – “Golden” with a slightly Jon Lord-kinda-perfect-strangers-intro-sound going on. Very much liked being Jon for a song, when I first started on Hammond and indeed in this band I simple WAS Jon Lord and over the years my own style has developed but for this track is was 1972 Machine Head and Maybe I’m A Leo mixed with Perfect Strangers and a good old helping of 60’s fizz and pop.

Mistakes were abound and even arrangement and 12” and 18” versions were occurring on the spot. We had forgotten about the recoding and were just having fun – Green Head Man brought to you by Bank’s Bitter, a name you can trust. Things were good and we got the last take right down I think.

We then popped into recording a cover as a warm up, The Open Mind’s classic Magic Potion. This song suits us so well, and is a good indicator of how we want the heavier side of our set to sound. Stick that in with Lucifer SAM and you get the idea. Can’t wait to hear how that worked out.

It was getting late and we had another song to do. Another Original song of Little Dave’s called Moths to the Flame. By all accounts this has been well gigged by him for a few years now but we gave it the GHM treatment and hopefully it’s come out rather well.


Last thing I suggested that we hacked out another 3 versions of Human Zoo from earlier on, on the basis that we were all too tired to be up tight and we were in the groove and all that. They went well, the penultimate version was pretty definitive but the step up to the chorus was going to need to “post work” dynamically we thought. Timmy then had an idea and insisted that we recorded it once more and refused to let Ron play anything but hi hats. Madness pure madness. But we often forget that Timmy is a secret genius….

The song sounded mean, ironic, moody and just waiting to explode out (which of course it never did). Wow! The step up into the chorus is now going to be handled by Ron and Canadian Dave in post by overdubbing some percussion in afterwards to lift it. IT really did sound quite good.

It occurred to me that there were a lot of hats being worn that night. Have we turned into a “Hat Band”? One hat even turned into a rather neat and ornate mixed unsalted nut selection receptacle –which was nice.


Anyway, I think I’m all off topic. Time to pack up! Wow there was a lot of gear and wires all over the place and remembering who has what was an event. We packed up and discussed the very short notice offer of a gig at the Stagborough Arms in Stourport on Saturday. We’ll do it! Definitely the last time you will see us as a band until late October.

So the recording is done. Just the mixing and overdubs now. That’s the tricky bit. Canadian Dave is up to the task and I’m going to help him with it too. It’s got to be done right but I’m also a keen that it is done soon too but I must wind my neck in a little as I am impatient to the extreme! We are hoping that this Studio ep of Original songs plus the Live at the Stag CD will help us get bigger gigs and festivals in 2011 – Here’s’ to that eh?

Thanks for your time,

See you soon,

Nick