Work on new songs with the working titles "Gone To Ground" and "Pop Outing" was planned to form the large part of our latest rehearsal on Monday October 28 2002.
Like the other songs that we'd been working on so far since deciding to give things a real go as a three-piece, the original ideas had been formed in one of those previous three-man rehearsal sessions when the band was in a state of flux, but had remained largely untouched since.
Having been individually listening back to recordings we'd made during those past practices, these were two songs ideas that we'd subsequently, collectively decided were also worthy of more studied progression, which is what we attempted to do on the 28th.
But before going into any detail (which I won't be doing at all really, incidentally!) about our progress on them, I think it would be nice to draw you some kind of picture of the general Hellfire rehearsal occasion!
We practice in Crash Studios in Davies Street in Liverpool city centre. We've practiced there as long as I've been in the band, and almost as long as the place has been open I suppose, so I'd say we're more than likely the longest-serving members of the distinctive Crash club! The latest night we were there, The Crescent were in one of the downstairs rooms, and it's fair to say that almost every 'known' band from Liverpool and surroundings areas of the past decade and more has ventured down the alley behind Stanley Street to bring their songs together at Crash.
(But if you're expecting the standard rock and roll tale from here, I think now is the time to stop reading…)
We still practice in Liverpool despite the fact that currently none of the band resides in the Liverpool local authority area! With me in Chester, Andy in Warrington and Neal the closest to the heart of town in Netherton, our routes to the practice are varied. Neal tends to work a bit later at his Liverpool city centre office to meet up straight afterwards, while I generally have to knock off a bit earlier to drive the 25 miles back to my hometown.
Neal and I, being creatures of taste as much as
merely habit, always meet in The Grapes pub in Liverpool's Mathew
Street, just two minutes from Crash, for a pint of Cains bitter
before rehearsal. Andy, whose job is in Manchester, usually joins
us later at the studio.
This was the way of things again on this latest Monday; Andy arriving just in time to spare me the ignominy of having to work on the backing vocals that I'd promised to try out one time! Once he'd got himself set up, we ran through versions of the songs that we've already almost got finished to date to keep them fresh, but as always alternative ideas to try and improve them still further had to be tried out before we could move onto the 'new' new songs…
I
thought even before then that we'd been suffering a little bit
from the room that we'd been allocated this night, which was the
'live' recording room. The walls had been carpeted and padded to
within an inch of their lives, so there was nothing actually
'live' sounding about the room, which meant quite a flat sound
prevailing throughout the practice, which we could do little
about. But we soldiered on, as you do, and tried to bring
"Gone To Ground" forward a bit.
Which, without having had the benefit of listening back to the recordings, I thought we did to an extent. The verse of Gone To Ground is in a 6/4 time signature (or it might be 13/8 - I just tried to work it out, but failed...) Either way, concentration is important! Funnily enough, we were all fine with this part of the song, but things did tend to be a bit hit and miss when we were going from a bridge section into a slower tempo chorus. It will come, of course… the first time we did it, we did it fantastically by instinct. Now it's 'written' it doesn't seem to happen as easy… work that one out?
I think
it may have been a case of mental block on my part, but we never
consistently got the changes right - but I know that won't always
be the case; the times when we have it spot on have been so good,
we know its worth persevering
with!
We also worked on "Corporate Action". This was the first song we had attempted to put vocals on a couple of months ago, and there was something not quite right about it. We had been toying with a rhythmic and quite spacious arrangement to the verse, but this approach made the song sound a little too serious, in fact ponderous, which is not what we were aiming for. After trying various arrangements we decided on a straight-ahead-punk approach, committed it to tape, and agreed to ruminate on it until next time.
But, having worked so hard on these two songs, and having made a bit of new progress with other song "Snowdrop" during the course of the evening, all of a sudden it was 10.45pm and nearly time to finish off. The large part of the 'bill' settled, we then, as always these days, because it's a Monday and it's one of the few places open post-11pm in Liverpool, headed towards the Everyman Bistro for a drink-for-the-road.
After chat on a variety of subjects, we then go our separate ways once again. Until the next time, and more than likely the usual routine!
Alan, 29/10/2002