Left: Liam practices at the recording session of April 21st| The Free Site | vBuddy - make friends, share photos, blogs, have fun | Cheap Web Hosting - starting at $5 |
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Left: Liam practices at the recording session of April 21st
Middle of the bill, was friend of the Shorties, Scott Ringle. He seemed confident and relaxed, as he played tunes from his album 'Surf or Die'. The crowd, including the Shorties, cheered so hard he was given an encore. After a ten minute break it was time for The Shorties. 5 stools were laid out in a kind of semi-circle and we all fitted in. We weren't sure how the audience would respond to this gig as it was primarily new material; indeed there were no 'Mountain Therapy' tracks in the set at all. We kicked off with 'B Grade Underwear', a big success when debuted at the Camden gig. Again it got a huge response. Next was a new tune of Dan's; 'Roboslut'. This was the one track where we didn't get any vibe or chemistry and played very slackly and I wondered if 'B Grade' had been a false dawn. But we regrouped with 'Chiswick High Rd' another tune that made it's debut at The Dublin Castle. All kinds of instruments were used, including bongos, an egg, the scraper, a jenbe, a kazoo, harmonica and maraccas, and the crowd seemed to love the variety. It really felt like a jam round someone's house, and was certainly the most relaxed and informal gig we've played. We felt like we were chatting with friends rather than it being a band and an audience with a distance between them. It's difficult to explain but it felt like without the 'rock' element, walls came down and there was more of a direct relationship between us and the audience. Anyway, we continued with another brand new tune, Dan's 'Saddest Lights' and then performed 'I could never take the place of your man', a Prince tune originally recorded by us in March 2000 that we had decided to release on our rarities album, and thus put in the set as a preview. My brand new 'When your girlfriend asks you if you're gay' went down a storm, despite some dodgy harmonies that had us apologizing!! The final straight saw us revisit our past by playing 'Steve' (Suitcase) and Yuki (Mooks) before ending with a brand new one, Dan's 'Miss Friel'. As Dan had played it with his other band, we knew it was a crowd pleaser so it wasn't really a gamble playing it last. The audience were soon clapping and singing along, and when it was over, the crowd wouldn't let us leave without an encore. As we hadn't prepared one, we did 'Nazi Dog' , one of the earliest post-Mountain Therapy tunes, which went down a storm. After the gig we sold 11 albums, which was our biggest album sale in a long while. We felt on top of the world, going from strength to strength, and as if nothing could possibly divert or disrupt that progress. How wrong we were.
The following day Ravi sent an email saying he thought we should be rehearsing even more, with regular evening rehearsals. As the group co-ordinator I rang around trying to find the consensus on his idea. It became clear that no-one was in favour. I sent an email back explaining that with Dan and Stuart both in other bands, and me having a full time job and a partner, it wasn't a practical solution. I mentioned that obviously there was nothing to stop band members getting together to jam if they had time mid-week, but to run band practices regualrly mid-week was something the consensus was against. Liam emailed that as the 3 of us were against it, and he didn't want a 2-tier band system developing he was also against it.
Like with the moving of rehearsal studios it quickly became clear that Ravi was not comfortable accepting the consensus of the group. A meeting was arranged for April 19th. Liam, Dan, Ravi and myself attended. There was, in diplomatic parlance, a full and frank exchange of views but it ended in compromise and agreement. Nevertheless it had been probably the most stressful fortnight in my ten years with the band, but with recording finally scheduled to begin on our fourth album, I was determined to be positive. 
Left: Ravi at the recording session for Nazi Dog and Longevity (21/4).
On April 21st, just two days after the crisis meeting, the band convened at Moat studios to begin recording our next studio album, working title: Passport To The Groove:-Just This Side Of Wankdom. The songs we started were (Liam's) Nazi Dog and (Dan's) Longevity. The good vibes were definitely back and Ravi had worked out some fantastic percussive parts to fill out
the sound, so it really felt like the songs were part of a new album, as opposed to just carrying on
where we left off. The only downside to having all the extra percussion parts was that at 6pm,
the songs were still a long way from complete, and where the extra time to accomodate these more complex arrangements would come from, we weren't quite sure. We did know that the songs sounded superb.
Incidentally, to our great surprise, we discovered that Sylvester
McCoy and Sophie Aldred were recording one of the Dr
Who audio plays in the next studio. I had a few words with Sylvester when we were both having a break. He was friendly and groovy, and I got a buzz from the fact that they were recording next door to us.
On April 30th, with renewed enthusiasm, we began rehearsing for the rescheduled 10 Year Anniversary Gig. We had decided on a new date of June 30th and almost all the ex-Shorties we invited to play, were able to make the rescheduled date, the only exception being Mike Ulrich who was going to be on holiday. We decided to book the guest artists for the rehearsals nearest the gig, so they had less time to forget their parts! All six Shorties were there, and having Saul on extra percussion really helped the live sound. A few days after, having visited some very dodgy and/or unsuitable pubs in our quest, Dan and I finally found a venue that was ideal for the gig; The Aldgate Exchange near Liverpool St.
We squeezed in a couple of rehearsals (one Sunday and one evening as I recall) and on May 17th we did another weekday, unplugged gig, this time at The Hobgoblin pub in Brixton. We were able to fit this one into our tight schedule because it was only a 15 minute, 5 song slot. Because of this we told only our hard-core fans, as we didn't want people to have to pay good money for only 15 mins of music. Those who did come seemed to really enjoy it, as did the neutrals who we converted so that by the end they were singing along. Again we sold 7 CDs (which was all I'd brought in my naivete), and it was another great vibe. The sound quality was wonderful, and we definitely now seemed able to charm the neutrals in an audience which always made the shows more fun. The set was: Saddest Lights, Chiswick High Rd, B Grade Underwear, When Your Girlfriend.., and Miss Friel.
Above:Chris Kiely rehearsing 'All Muddled Up' for the 10 Year Anniversary Concert
The rest of May and all of June was spent rehearsing for the anniversary gig. Ex-Shorites, and guest musicians we'd worked with, slotted in to 2 hour slots in rehearsals, and it was a really tight squeeze trying to fit everything, and everyone, in; with only a few weeks to go. On June 26th we finished the booklet for the rarities CD, made it available to pre-order, and sent the masters to the pressing plant. On June 28th, we had a full electric evening rehearsal at Moat, as we had felt underprepared at our supposed final rehearsal, and then, after all the planning and preparation, suddenly June 30th was upon us; it was time to celebrate ten years of The Shorty Blackwells.