Bean's brought his Les Paul into rehearsals now - we needed an extra guitar. The frets are a bit worn down in places but it's fine for open tuning, and sounded great last night. He lent it to me a couple of years back and I thought it was terrific then - it still is.

Captain's had his hair bleached. Bean and I were both impressed, but prize reaction goes to Mayes, who swore for about a minute upon seeing him.

We got through about twenty-four songs last night, often running straight from one to another. And it was a lot of fun.

x

James

Back from the London Guitar Show in East London. Good stuff - went with the rest of the guys. Perhaps less amazing than last year because I had seen it before, and I guess I was also rather tired (Bean and I had stayed up until the early hours watching A-Team related videos on YouTube) but still terrific.

Highlights for me included the Warwick basses, playing Musicman Stingray basses with Captain, eating a largely bland lunch (enlivened by a pint and the company), playing pianos and synths, playing on a few ukuleles (Maholo do some with pickups now - interesting) and presumably being good enough to the extent that the guy in the stall was urging me to try out the more expensive ones - Antonio Carvalho, you have made a fine instrument there.

I'd have liked to try out more acoustic instruments. Wanted more time playing pianos. Wanted to try the electric Double Bass but someone was on it for a while and I decided to catch up with the other guys. Then, while Bean and Mayes tried out guitar effects pedals on a bass and guitar respectively, Captain and I spent some time playing two Roland Fantom G6 synths, often tapping each other on the shoulder and swapping headphones to play each other sounds we'd discovered.

Good rehearsal last night - first in a week or so. There's clearly something set deep within me that responds joyfully to a dual guitar solo (i.e. harmonising with each other), because I adored it when Bean and Mayes were doing that last night.

That said, there's also obviously something deeply ingrained within Bean and Mayes that responds to a dual guitar solo by... what's the word... prancing...

Pioneer. Legend. Thank you for pointing and showing the way.

I can't count the amount of times I've picked up a guitar and strummed it in his style. I remember the first time I ever thought a song in the charts sounded like someone else's song, I later learned this was because the song in the charts was a cover of a Bo Diddley song (Mona) and the other song, Not Fade Away, was written using the Bo Diddley style by Buddy Holly, a big fan.

Another great rehearsal last night with so much covered, great fun had, and, at one point, me on mandolin and Bean on bass. We're all going along to the London Guitar Show in a few weeks. Don't think I'll get anything there, though Bean and Mayes are threatening to. Looking at a new acoustic later this year, I think.

We're tending to record rehearsals at the moment, so do sign up for the newsletter as you're likely to hear the results via that and that only.