Practise, Practise, Practise...

Bassist Bill Keller and I tried to book a studio in Brighton for a Unison Bends rhythm section rehearsal - and gave up after the third one we tried was fully booked. And this was early evening and midweek.

There are obviously a lot of bands in Brighton. But it's more or less the same story everywhere. Unless you book well in advance, you won't get a rehearsal space.

So where are all these bands playing – apart from in rehearsal rooms? Are they actually gigging or just rehearsing?

The number of venues booking bands seems to be shrinking – and the number of bands seems to be increasing. It's always been tough to get gigs, but now it's getting even tougher.

You could be forgiven for asking: what are we all rehearsing for?

Final Edition

The Independent is dead. Long live The Independent online?

The Independent was launched as a radical, politically independent newspaper in the UK in 1986. That it survived for 30 years – and through many years of its imminent demise being forecast – is quite an achievement.

The current proprietor has portrayed its demise as part of a pioneering leap forward into the new world of online publishing. Newspaper journalists, on the whole, see it as a deeply sad bereavement.

Dumbing down appears to be the way ahead online – a glance at the Daily Mail online, The Telegraph online, and even The Independent online or the BBC online should make that fairly clear.

Lists, trivia and a paucity of in-depth coverage seem to be what is required. And in the case of the Mail Online, prurient droolings over female 'celebrities' showing their tits and arses. This is the new journalism.

I am glad to say that I freelanced at The Independent for several years in the 1990s, and also again over the past three years. With grateful thanks to fate, I will be in its office on the night we put together its last edition, and say goodbye to a journalistic era that began with idealism and ended with pragmatism – and a sense of dread.

Death On Mars

Sometimes some space is a good thing… now the hoo-ha over David Bowie has died down a little, maybe it's possible to reflect a bit more clearly.
Neil McCormick from The Daily Telegraph may well have reflected quite a bit after his review of 'Blackstar' which drew the conclusion: "It suggests that, like a modern day Lazarus of pop, Bowie is well and truly back from beyond."
Kitty Empire, who got it similarly wrong, used the whole of a piece in The Observer this weekend to make her excuses in full.
'Blackstar', with the advantage of hindsight, is so obviously a grim farewell to mortality, but few people knew what was coming, so it's not entirely surprising that they got it so wrong.
My own feelings about – and memories of – Bowie are fairly straightforward. I loved 'Hunky Dory' and I loved the fact that you couldn't go into my local bar in the early 1970s without 'Life On Mars' blasting out of the jukebox – the perfect soundtrack for that time.
 I never liked the 'Ziggy Stardust' and 'Aladdin Sane' albums that much. 'Young Americans' was a wonderful return to form. And I'm afraid, for me, that's just about it.
I only saw him once on stage – with Queen – and he was truly remarkable. Bowie was a great musician, and a great performer with great presence – and  a great appetite for sex, drugs and rock 'n roll, and maybe he willingly paid the price for that. 
Now he's gone, 'Life On Mars' still says it all, I reckon.

Groovy Writer

There are so many drum tuition books, and, perhaps surprisingly, so many good drum tuition books. But of the good ones there are only a few that score on the word content as well as the music.

One of these rarities is 'Groove Alchemy' by Stanton Moore. It's a fantastic analysis of the great grooves created by some of the funkiest drummers, with lots and lots of beats lovingly transcribed.

But, as with Royal Hartigan's 'West African Rhythms for Drumset' which I mentioned in a recent post, you get not just marvellous music to play but also an articulate, passionate and clearly written guide to the subject.

Stanton Moore, like Hartigan, has done a great service to drummers… and also helped make it clear that good drumming and a sharp intelligence go hand in hand.

Buddy, Can You Spare £63?

I love Buddy Guy. He was one of the first truly electric bluesmen that I ever listened to. He was a wild and crazy showman, as well as an amazing guitar player. He was Hendrix before Hendrix. Seeing Buddy in concert, you could see where Jimi got some of his stuff from.

Unlike most of the great bluesmen, he is still alive, still recording and still gigging. But he is as likely these days to be singing about the realities of old age as he is about love and loss.

I was overjoyed when I saw that he would be appearing in London later this year – until I found that the cost of sitting in the stalls would be £63.

I'm sorry but that's too much money. Of course, Clapton and Bonamassa have gone the same way, and it costs a fortune to see these blues masters now. But if you're a young person struggling to live in London on a meagre wage, you'd best not be a blues fan. This music is for the old and well-off.

Those who really have the blues can't afford to go to blues gigs like this.

I'm lucky. I could afford to shell out £63 to see Buddy Guy. But I won't. On principle. Someone somewhere is charging too much

Forty Second Street

A musician told me this week that he could tell whether someone was a good drummer within 40 seconds of their starting to play.

It initially seemed a slightly odd claim. But the same day I went  to see a friend give a piano recital, never having seen him play before.

I think it was not much more than five seconds, easily less than 10 seconds into Bach's Partita No 1 in B Flat Major that I realised he really could play – and it was going to be a memorable performance.

So maybe 40 seconds is more than enough to make a judgment. And, I suppose, more than enough if the music is not so good...

When Two Become One

I don't know Joel Rothman. But I do like him. He's produced a wealth of drumming tuition books over the years, and I regret that I have only just discovered him.

I'm currently working my way through one of his Duet Yourself books – a series of etudes that can be played by two drummers, but which actually make more sense as duets between your hands and your feet.

He delights in playing with odd time signatures and moving from one to another – something that resonates with my own modest attempts in this field with my Moving Target piece – and some of his etudes are just beautifully written as well as mathematically pleasing.

Apparently, he has also spent time as a comedian – which may or may not explain one of his other tuition titles: 'Hardest Drum Book Ever Written – Five Way Coordination With Four Limbs'.

Ok, Joel, I'll get to that at some point...