bodixa diary
Recording a memory….
A few weeks in Pravda where you get good coffee instantly and 24hour news constantly and comfy sofa beds and good equipment for…oh yeah…recording. Drummer Phil and bassist Dan worked hard those few weeks along with producer Andy who only left the building to sleep between different walls. The chip run kept the boys and us girls smiling though…damn it! I stuck to women’s tea and chickpea curry. Women’s tea is for women and has healthy ingredients that only women can drink; it helps with our womanly cycles! If men drink it they turn into a manwoman, which can’t be good. Anyway back to the recording…Drummer Phil had drummer arms by the end of our time at Pravda and Bassist Dan had blister fingers! Myself, Emily and Dave had pre-laying down our parts- blues! We were all excited about Ireland! There were many things to be excited about like staying in a gorgeous house with a log fire and lake in the garden, the beautiful beaches, games of trivial pursuits around the fire (and we almost sound like a functional family) and all this after a hard days work of course. Producer Andy didn’t get time to enjoy the above and we did feel sorry for him because he was constantly working. He kept smiling all the same! There were but a few things to be unexcited about like buses breaking down on the way to the house (the bus Dan was on), mice eating Emily’s spaghetti and then the same mouse dead and found by Dave, Little Mo (Dave and Claire’s infamous Doggy) being attacked on the beach by a bigger dog the size of a mini donkey and olive oil being poured down an ear Not full of wax! (But olive oil is good for ears full of wax by the way). The joy, the tears and the music, that is sounding fantastic by the way. We’ll be getting it to you soon…2005 isn’t so far away. Anna xx
Glastonbury
Where the sun shone and the rain poured. As the fields became blobs of colour, the alternative world of Glastonbury was underway. I took a walk up to Sacred Space and could feel the hum of excitement, the sound of people arriving at the biggest party in the world! And not only that, we had been invited to play! No longer being a Glastonbury Virgin, this time felt more exciting, more peaceful, I knew my way around better and kinda knew what to expect! The privileges of playing at the festival are endless but one that stands out is the access to the showers and less contaminated toilets! A 24hr bar sounds great in principle but pitching your tent up against one of the speakers is not advisable. Listening to the Bluetones album over and over again at 4.30am has only reinforced the fact I don’t like their music and definitely never want it blasting out next to my Head when I could have the option of two hours sleep. Friday morning I felt very grumpy after a nig ht of bad music and no sleep but Harv (my partner) thought of the genius idea of moving the tent up the field so off we went after persuading a guy to let us squeeze our tent next to his. Most people were up quite early on the Friday morning as the tents became like saunas after feeling like freezers at early dawn.
Now I reckon this beats Alanis Morrisettes definition of irony, forgetting to pack the acoustic guitars when playing The Acoustic tent at ur………Glastonbury, is never a wise move. Or is it just unlucky! Yep, in Bodixa style, we had forgotten and after some panicked rushing around, a band called Waking the Witch (from Leeds and also playing Glasto) came to our rescue! Thanks to them we were sorted for the radio show and for Saturday. Watching Damien Rice play to a handful of us at radio Avalon was something I will savour, I felt privileged to be able to be there and listen to him sing. Bodixa Dave has always raved about him and now I can understand why, he sings with such warmth and delicacy that you almost feel what you’re listening to is breakable and needs looking after. Go and see him if you ever get the chance.
The bands are such a small part of what Glastonbury is about; the theatre and performance fields are great. I could wander round for hours (and probably did). It’s all so random. The creative fusions echo throughout the site, peoples eccentricities seem to be unleashed and people watching can keep you (or maybe just me) occupied for hours! Of course I loved watching the bands and among some of the highlights were Elbow, P.J Harvey, Slovo and Sir Paul! Singing along to ‘Let it be’ with thousands of people was an extremely surreal moment, one I will never forget.
Playing at Glastonbury was amazing, I think we all felt so lucky to have the opportunity. As the rain drummed down, the tent filled up and play we did. It was an intimate gig in a big tent and the reaction we received was a great one. While I was singing I did think to myself, savour this one, and I most certainly will. Thanks to Mr Eavis for inviting us even though I never got to give him a kiss!
Annax
Morrissey - 23rd May, Manchester Evening News Arena
Now I know that strictly speaking this part of the site is for you to read about stuff that's happened/is happening to the band, but I thought I might expand the remit a little by telling you about my weekend.
It is more interesting than it sounds.
There once was a band called The Smiths, who, as far as I understand these things, achieved a sort of minor celebrity in the 80s. The lead singer of this band and the guitar player eventually fell out of love, and the lead singer went on to have a solo career, was embraced rather dangerously by people who keep bulldogs and get tattoos of the flag for a little while, moved to LA, recorded a new album and decided to return to Britain to play a few low key gigs to promote the aforementioned album. Me and 5 friends (Emily and Anna amongst them) went to see him, along with 14,994 of our friends.
I like Manchester. I'm from Leeds, so I'm meant to despise Manchester, complain about how it always rains there, how it's full of bloody Mancunians (spell-check wants that to be 'Manchurians' - nice), how Leeds has got an easier city centre to find your way around in, and so on. Well, I like Manchester. And Manchester, in its turn, likes Morrissey. A man who at a gig doesn't say 'Hello Manchester', but says 'Hello Rusholme', 'Hello Chorlton' is a man you can love. It's like he's shaking you by the hand personally. Which Morrissey did seem to make a point of doing to anyone who tried to jump onto the stage, though that privilege was offset by being dragged away from the stage by burly security men.
Ah, gigs.
The popular beat combo Franz Ferdinand supported, and did the best of a very difficult set. Supporting an act with dedicated fans is like offering a cigarette to a crack addict - they might just take it, they might even enjoy it, but they're really just waiting for their next fix. And judging from the quiffs and the faded Smiths T-shirts, there were some people who were really looking for their next hit.
Morrissey himself was immediately preceded by a very strange light show/voice over combination, featuring a man with a scouse (spell-check wants 'souse' for that one - like it) accent reciting words that alternated between seeming political in an early 90's sort of way ('Maggie bloody Thatcher', 'The Poll tax') and quite frankly bizarre ('Lost keys', 'Bonnie Langford'). Nice light show though.
After a rapturous reception, which must be nice to get before you sing a note, he launched into one of the tracks off the new album, from which a lot of material was played. No crowd pleasing retrospectives for Mr M - you'll buy the new album, and learn the new songs. 'The first of the gang' gets my vote as best new track, though this is probably the point where I should confess to not being a devotee of either Morrissey or the Smiths. I went because I was interested, and because I have a friend who's a proper fan who was willing to do the whole phone-on-redial thing. I'm glad I went - I feel like I know what the fuss is about.
Getting home from Manchester Evening News Arena when 14,998 other people are doing the same thing a challenge (you'll notice the numerical discrepancy - Emily and I elected to come back to Leeds rather than stay in Manchester for the night) (And when I say 'elected', I mean 'forgot to book a room in the hotel'). The timetable was very clear. Get the train to Huddersfield, change at Stalybridge and arrive in Leeds at 0:23. I can handle changing trains. I've done it before. Twice.
We're on the platform at Stalybridge, having just got off the train, and we're looking a bit confused. A helpful porter asks us if we need help. We ask where the Leeds train goes from. There is no Leeds train. You'll need to get back on the train and go to Huddersfield and change there.
Sinking feeling.
We get back on the train. We wait. We feel nervous. We ask if we should have changed at Stalybridge. Yes, we should have. The porter was wrong. He told us dirty lies. Sinking feeling. We arrive in Marsden. Where this service terminates. I'm sure Marsden is a beautiful town; a shining example of a northern town re-inventing itself after the decline of industry, with stunning views of the Pennines off to all sides, glorious sunrises and locally brewed ale. But at 11:15pm, when you want to be in Leeds, it's a horrible trap from which you may never escape.
But wait - there's a bus! A glorious, shining, neon beacon in the night, with a shiny, smiling, easy-ironed driver ushering us on. We were going to Huddersfield. It also turns out that we're going to Huddersfield with some young chaps who know a lot of Morrissey songs, and aren't afraid to use them. We pass through Slaithwaite, which of course is the town that tests your Yorkshireness. The correct pronunciation is 'Slough-ert', if it ever comes up and you're not local.
We get to Huddersfield, just in time to see no trains at all listed on the departure screens. Sinking feeling. But wait! A porter and his drunken friend aver that the Leeds train is due on platform 8 in 10 minutes, and that the screen is 'bust'. And despite the fact that as a rule I never trust the drunk, I take his word and we wait. It's not 10 minutes, but it comes.
It's the train that we could have got on in Manchester if we'd waited for 10 minutes longer.
That's about it, except to tell you about the most entertaining man in the universe, who happened to be on the train with us. In a gentle sort of attempt to pick up a girl, he began telling her about the gig, which he'd attended. She and her friends asked if he'd seen Morrissey on Jonathan Ross. He had, and he had not. What did he mean? Well, he had been watching the program, but his wife (who may have been fictitious) had been out, and so he decided to indulge in the sin of Onan (my words, not his), so he was caught between Jonathan Ross and Men and Motors. Apparently, the most interesting part of the Men and Motors program coincided with Morrissey's performance.
The entertaining man also developed a very elaborate thesis that you could tell how interested a girl was in you from how much she fancied 'having an egg sandwich back at yours'. I assumed this was slang of some sort until he began rating the types of sandwich available - apparently it goes Fried Egg with sauce (brown or red), Scrambled Egg on toast, and then the lowly boiled egg on toast. At this point, most of the train was in hysterics and the sinking feeling and long since sunk.
Ah, gigs.
24.04.04 Pilton Glastonbury Competition
Pilton Working Men's Club
Well. Well well well. It still doesn't seem quite real. Glastonbury. The big G. Glasto. We're going. We get tickets. We don't have to pay. Forget just going, we're playing. It's been a nice weekend.
For those of you who know us well, this competition wasn't our first. Back in the day, when folks didn't sport mullets because they were sad, when Pop Idol was a glimmer in Mr Cowell's evil little eye, we won a competition in Leeds, that we mentioned as part of our band biography for a long time. We then didn't win any of the other competitions that we entered. Finals, yes. Winning, no. So it's nice to have something a bit more recent to put on, with the Michael Eavis stamp of approval.
While we're on the topic of the great man, who was one of the judges at the competition, who else do you know who could get away with orange velvet trousers? And who else but Anna (our erstwhile lead singer for those of you not yet fully acquainted with all of us) would think that when he came up and handed her the money for the gig and asked for a signature to indicate receipt of payment, that he was actually asking for an autograph? Luckily Anna does do autographs. We needed the petrol money.
I'm doing this all out of sequence - let's go back to the beginning of the day. Anna, Emily and me turn up at the car hire place, which we've chosen to use because it's a good deal cheaper than everywhere else. We soon find out why - no one is in the office, and the people who work next to them, who let us into the building, claim that "they're never in - haven't seen them for months". For your reference, and because I can't find any government body to complain to, don't use Leeds Car Hire, on Skinner Lane in Leeds. They're shit. So we have to find a car, and nowhere has one. We're starting to consider what it would be like to hitch to Pilton, until Emily, in all her resourcefulness, sweet talks someone into giving us a car that someone else has already hired, and to give this other person an upgrade. We're now 2 hours late in setting off.
But, hire cars aren't the Ford Fiesta that we were used to (may it rest in piece - I'll tell that story another time), and we end up getting to Pilton at 3 'o' clock, bang on time, after a drive through the warmest day of the year so far. Pilton is the sort of village that I didn't think existed. Bells ringing from the church steeple, a village shop selling elderflower wine, locals stopping and having a chat because they don't know who we are, and a working men's club. With a nice big sound system, the crew who run the New Bands stage at Glastonbury and a couple of guys from the BBC with a big camera, and one of those microphones with all the fuzz on it. Not quite brown trousers time, but you never know.
So we mingle. We chat to the other bands, who are all lovely. Particular mention has to go out to the boys from the Ralfe band, who as well as being a great band (they're in London, if you're a City boy or girl), were also very funny and nice. Then we played - 20 minutes, so 4 songs for us. We've not mastered the 2 and a half minute song yet, and there were dark intimations of what might happen to you if you ran over your allotted time. Sapphire, A Room, Balloon and California. Yes, for all you fans, that is a new song in at number 2. Completely new. Never played it before. What were we thinking?
So we watch the other bands, who are all utterly, almost ridiculously different from us, and from each other. Bluegrass, dark Americana, samba, soul: being a judge would be like being asked for a drink, and having to choose between Absinthe, Pink Lemonade, an espresso or iced tea. It just depended what they were looking for to fit on the stage. It looks like we were it.
And it felt great to win, but it also felt awful. Every band was up on stage together for the announcement, and knowing what it's like to be expecting your name, and to hear someone else's, I couldn't jump up and down when Mr Eavis said our name without feeling like I would just be inviting everyone want to punch me. "It is not enough to succeed - other's must fail". I'd much rather we all succeeded, thank you very much, Mr Vidal.
No, not Sassoon. Gore.
No, not Al Gore. Gore Vidal.
Yes, that is his real name. You can look it up on t'internet.
Well. Glastonbury. See you in the Healing Fields.
Daniel
22.03.04
(Heres one for you ED!)
It`s been a while! I can tell you! but over the next few weeks the story of our spring Roadworks tour will unfold on these very pages! Starting in the deep south, not of the US but UK! And Brighton to be more precise!
Brighton Komedia 16.03.04
This was the start of the Roadworks tour, Featuring some of the UKs best new singersongwriters which we are delighted to be considered as one of by the powers that be!! The Idea is 9 gigs around the UK in intimate and on the whole fantastic venues, playing to audiences with a penchant for good tunes! One thing about trains, you always meet a few characters and so the Leeds to Brighton trip saw us sitting opposite a woman convinced that the other man in our carriage had a bomb in his suitcase and was a high level terrorist! In retrospect, following events in Madrid this may seem not as funny as we thought at the time, and thinking about it, probably says a few things about the times we live in and how paranoid it is making us Many Feel. Food for thought really! Anyway not to get too deep! We Arrive in Brighton safely, last time we were here we built a paper mache stone henge and went on the ghost train! This time there is only time for a spot of food in a hippified cafe and on to soundcheck and get the tour underway. Was a good gig to kick off and a great listening audience set the tone for the nights that followed! With Just Me (Dave) and Anna em, its a challenge and also pretty exciting to play the songs totally stripped back. Nice one to David Stenhouse who opened the night as local support, More than enjoyable! Search him out if you are in Brighton, His dad is a lovely man aswell! Cheers Brighton! Next stop Bristol.
2003 Archive
write just having received the final mix of California and Sleepless, two new tracks commited to tape during the week where summer ends and the autumn begins. Its good to see fruits been borne after the work of the last year. With these two tracks in the can its time for us to collect all those ideas that have been flying around for what seems like an age and bring them all together. It feels like a brace of songs will emerge from the Festive period! A couple of these have had outings already, Wish I could say and Social lite being just two which are shaping up. Later this month we`ll be finding some weird, wonderful and probably very cold places to capture the acoustic show we`ve been performing and pressing the record button again! Hopefully a new website we`ll be arriving at anytime so keep logging on and we`ll try and keep you up to date with tracks to listen to, download and even buy online. All for now! Dave
Diary - 23.10.03
An Indian summer, a short drive and 7 people in a relaxing studio
in Huddersfield. I like Huddersfield, the old mill buildings and market
place, a 24 hour tesco, and a park full of freaks! (well on that week
there were).
We, Bodixa, are recording two of our newer songs, California and b-side,
Sleepless. Andykins, (from my Birth Place....um..Peterborough) is
going to be producing it. We feel we know him better this time around
after working with him on Sapphire which we feel captured our sound.
So its already feeling good before we've even begun and that combined
with pink skies at dusk and september sun, California doesn't feel
too far away, yep, i know we are in Huddersfield but northern towns
can be beautiful! And anyway i can always dream....
I'm drinking lots of lemon and honey in hot water as i've got a cold
and need to nurse it better and Andy's his lovely grumpy self!! Phil's
late with his drums, Dave's gone for...a run? Em's making drinks,
Dan's reading and i'm on the couch....soon we will commence with recording
but once you're used to waiting around it actually can become something
fun to do...but you have to do it well.
Eventually...we are ready and the whole process begins.
It ran quite smoothly which we were all alarmed at..band paranoia
is worse than individual paranoia because it's five people's combined.
Never good.
I loved singing these two songs, felt comfortable and free. I think
we all felt good while laying down our individual parts. Andy added
that final, vital ingredient and there we had two pieces of creation.
We all felt happy and topped it off by travelling down to Sothhampton
to play a Logo night with Fleeing New York.
A few hithches along the way as a lorry decided to bump Em and Dan
which meant they ended up on the hardshoulder having to exchange details
with a Guy who didn't speak English! However the week ended on a high
at a party in Southampton with Fleeing New York.
We'll do our best to give you California very soon and hope it will
lift you out of the winter months which lie ahead.......
.