My name is Lee Burchell and I play bass guitar in not one, not two , but three bands and this column is to be a weekly publication on my general experiences within the music ‘scene’ and the Bournemouth musical community. In addition I will be running features on prominent people within the Bournemouth music circle including venue owners, promoters and many more that will prove to be very interesting interviews and tales! Friday will be my weekly update of my general experience within the bands, booking gigs and personal recommendations as to what gigs will be happening at the weekend. Sunday I will update with a short review of the gigs I went to, sound quality, etc… This I’m afraid to say is on top of working a 9-5/10-6/11-7 job, Monday to Friday with the occasional Saturday thrown in.

So without further ado….

For my first piece im going to tell you about last week. It was a hell of a busy week and I had the best time! It started on Monday 16th January with band practice. Monday consists of practice with Escapefrom’98 which is a punk/rock band near and dear to my heart because I sing lead vocals and play bass. I’ve always loved punk/rock, it’s catchy, you can sing and bounce along and I have always wanted to be in a punk-rock band, so now, here I am with one!

We practice at the well equipped and centrally located Blueline studios in Bournemouth. This week we are preparing for a gig at Sound Circus in Bournemouth along side ‘The Snipers’ and the ‘Sex Pistols Tribute’.  Monday practice also meant that we had time to prepare for the most prestigious Dorset Music Award’s.  For those of you that don’t know, the DMA’s (as we in the ‘biz’ call them) are like a battle of the bands, and yet so much more. Bands are given the opportunity to play venues that are difficult to book, play in front of industry professionals and at the end win some epic prizes including recording time, photo shoots etc… Oh and the final, yeah that’s at the O2 in Bournemouth/Boscombe.

The first stage involves playing 2 songs, and whilst that’s not a lot of stage time, it’s more than enough for the judges to decide if you can play well enough for the next round. So we have to pick our songs carefully. Many bands went with an upbeat number and a slower one, my guess is that it will enable the bands to show some musical variety.

So the 3 hours we spent at Blueline studio’s on Monday were solely based on playing those 2 songs over and over and then run through our repertoire (such as it is, we have only been together for 6 months and have 6/7 songs) to make sure we’re tight for the other gigs that we have.

Tuesday was to be practice for Monkey’s Uncle. This is a largely acoustic band, but with a nice foot tapping groove behind it. Think Crowded House but unplugged.  Alas this had to be cancelled due to work commitments, (honestly, I have to work AND play in bands, there’s no justice I tell you!) We have however been practicing quite a bit recently and knew which songs we were going to play in the Dorset Music Awards. Oh yes, I entered in 2 bands. What can I say I want to play music for a living rather than work for insurance, wouldn’t you?

Wednesday consisted of practice with Disco’s Out (Murders In!). Now you may or may not have heard of these guys, but its all about big flamboyant shows, dressing up in all manner of random clothing and providing the most interesting and zany show we can. DoMi had been invited to play at Salisbury Arts Centre on Saturday so we had to go through the set, and make sure all the songs were tight together, and design a set. On top of that we started the process of writing 2 new songs and had a bit of an improv, jazz odyssey; much fun as it lasted for about 10 minutes!

Thursday I get a day off, night in with the lady watching series 7 of Bones and starting series 1 of Spooks. I have only seen up to series 6, or maybe 5 come to think of it. I had to stop watching as one of the lead guys died I hadn’t seen the episode and someone at work (Marc Corcoran I’m talking to you; that’s right named and shamed on the interwebs!) told me that he died and how!!!! I couldn’t believe it. I actually haven’t been able to bring myself to watch another episode since. However the Miss was intrigued and I thought, well if I start from the start I should be fine….although secretly I’m dreading the episode!

So Friday arrives, we arrive at Sound Circus with gear in tow (amps, guitars and what have you). It’s weird walking into a nightclub in the day, without the music or the smell of sweaty people and alcohol all over the place (classy place, I know). It smells awfully of cleaning fluids and the carpets….like velcro. I love dingy clubs, just not sure I do with the main lights on!

The drums turn up, and start setting up, however drum key, missing! Luckily my D-Lock key magically fits and the set up continues without issue. Sound check ensues, we attempt a new number, and it wasn’t too bad. Few more attempts at practice and I think we’ll be there. Once ‘The Pistols’ turn up we discover that they also have bought their bass amp (we thought we were supplying back-line for the night) so we hit upon the idea of linking and stacking the bass amps….interesting look isn’t it! (see photo below)

Saturday 21st January see’s the first heats of the Dorset Music Award’s. Escapefrom’98 were on at 15:30 but we wanted to see the competition so we all turned up at about 12:00ish. I won’t be writing up a review of the DMA’s as all the bands were good and to be fair it would be a conflict of interest on my part. All I can say is that we had a great time playing, and successfully made it through to the quarter finals.

Having played our 2 song set at the DMA’s I made my way to AFC Bournemouth stadium for a lift to Ringwood and then to Salisbury for the DoMi gig. I was reliably informed on route that there was a fridge of beer and water waiting. Now that’s a fridge that I can get on with!

The rest of the band had already arrived and sound checked so I had the rare luxury of getting to line check (making sure that the bass, cables and amps work as I walk on stage.) so I arrived in good time to help with the beer, and briefly wander round Salisbury with the band and to watch the acts that were on prior to ourselves. Our set….the stage wasn’t small but having 6 people on any sized stage can get a bit cramped. This time though I lucked out, the stage was a decent size width wise, but the depth, oh the depth. I had so much room I jumped, spun, leapt, crouched, I have never played a set so animated it was awesome!!!!

The next day (Sunday if you hadn’t kept track) was Monkey’s Uncle’s turn to play the DMA’s. Quite a few family and friends turned out and there was a little dance routine (I didn’t take part in the dance…stop chiding me, I’m left-handed and I have 2 left feet to go with it!) which the judges thought was cheesy but seemed to enjoy none the less. As it turns out, Monkey’s Uncle didn’t get through, however I have a feeling that there will be some interesting gigs coming up due to the genre and status of the band.

After playing the DMA’s it was off to the parents for my Uncles partners birthday. Good time had by all, wine, food, and more importantly Xbox Kinect….FRUIT NINJA…if you don’t know what it is, look it up, seriously.

Right on to Monday the 23rd January. Work as usual, blah, blah, blah etc… then on to practice. This was more a practice/strategic planning session for the DMA’s. We don’t have our quarter-final date yet but we certainly have some plans for it. Watch the space, can’t say much more….they could be reading. Who? All of them!

Tuesday’s Monkey’s Uncle was practice had to be cancelled by me, had a huge headache at work and didn’t shake it until late the evening.

Wednesday was DoMi Practice, this too was cancelled although by others due to work commitments and exams…. I can honestly say that I was a little relieved as I was a tad tired from all the weekend gigging and frivolities.

This brings us to today, I had the day off to indulge in some Skyrim, oh yes, that’s a level 29 Redguard for your information, although it’s taking a lot of time to play, I just don’t get the time these days!

So, that was my few weeks, todays post was extra long as I was so busy, the following posts may or may not be as long, who knows, you might be lucky…depending on which way you look at it. But it also depends on how busy I am, as to the length of the post and what I have been up to.

The Week Ahead.

FRIDAY:

I would personally recommend that you be at On The Rocks. A little gem of a venue just up the side of the BIC behind Ocean Palace. Why am I recommending it? Because Robb Blake the ‘One man ska explosion’ is playing. All instruments (drums, bass, brass) are all played and recorded by him prior to the gig and then played through the PA. Robb then plays guitar live along with singing and oi, oi, oi’s. It going to be an awesome! In addition my band Disco’s Out (Murders In!) are playing, however I would recommend this gig either way, Robb is worth seeing whenever you can because as a one man gig, it’s utter genius!

SATURDAY:

The Winchester on Poole Hill (Triangle) will be playing host to ‘Peace, Love and Gloves’ and ‘The Empire Affair’ both of which incidentally played the DMA heats and I believe that Peace, Love and Glove’s’ got through, so whilst I’m telling you to go watch one of my rival competitors I feel it’s justified. I saw them at the DMA’s and whilst not my thing personally I think they do put on a hell of an entertaining show!

Well, that’s it’s from me until Sunday where I will give you all an update on the Robb Blake’s set for those of you that can’t make it. And then my next weekly update/column will be next Friday same time.

Have a great weekend on all, I’ll see you at the front!

Lee.