26^th July 2010

Detroit Rock City

I just arrived back from just about the fastest US visit ever done. One show at the Fillmore in Detroit for Riverfest on Sat night, flew from London Thursday back Monday morning, A lesson in “the show must go on” with local crew and sound techs on hand, nobody could foresee the roof 100 feet above the monitor board giving way to water 10 mins before doors. That then made our lives a little tricky as we had yet to actually soundcheck and people were starting to come in. Luckily we had a sound guy and monitor engineer we had never met, let alone heard any of our music so chances of this trip being worthwhile were looking slimmer by the second. I guess at that point you make the call and we decided to just go for it. I’ll be honest, not the best show we’ve done, actually far from it, but the people who had come to see us were none the wiser that we hadn’t soundchecked and I had no monitors at all, luckily the constant pulse of a Tama rhythm watch gave me some solace, albeit not the most inspiring mix, and pretty hard to sing when you can’t hear a note your singing. Hence the title seemed apt for this one, as these kind of unforeseeable cockups are the unpolished truth of rock and roll.

In other news, I am in the studio tomorrow guesting on a track for a buddy of mine singer/songwriter Aaron short, with the rest of the week working on tracks for the new album. Damian and I will be in the studio early August finishing vocals and Mr Brook has been busy hitting drums. Now time for some artwork and design and we will be looking forward to finally unleashing this album on you all. Heading back out to Denver for Mile High Festival mid August with One Eskimo, but looks to be another in and out trip so we should have a good run of time at home to finish the album.

Notable mentions on the ipod at the moment are Pain of Salvations latest Road Salt One, I love these guys, can’t stop listening to this the title track is amazing. Meshuggah’s DVD Alive is nothing short of jaw dropping, just ridiculous, a must have. Porcupine Tree’s live blu ray Anesthatise  is also brilliant, very cool show. Bit pissed I was away over the weekend as High Voltage Festival was featuring Transatlantic  (with Steve Hackett joining) and Opeth.

More from the studio soon

pete

Monday July 19th 2010

With the Ozzy tour off to a great start, a 3 week break means I can jump back into my old seat playing keys and a bit of acoustic guitar with Will Young on 8 Country House / Festivals through July. Nice to be back with Will’s band for these shows and the great British weather is not disappointing us with plenty of wind and rain for these outdoor shows!
The show on Hampsted Heath from Saturday 17th July will be aired on Radio 2 , Thursday 22nd July 2010 at 8PM.

An in depth interview with Keyboard Magazine due out in November has video interview clips and tuition clips here;
http://keyboardmag.com/..article/117051
Some tips on how to play some Ozzy tunes on keys if you are inclined!

AW

26th June 2010

Sydney Sydney Sydney

No, this is not a homesick cry to my homeland but an update of where I am in the world, Sydney…Nebraska?! Yes its true, actually we are pretty much stopped at a truckstop en route to Salt Lake City but there is not much between Omaha and SLC and this is it. Shows have been going well with the One Eskimo crowd, busily working on new tracks while trying to get more guitar tracks finished for Headspace album. Never enough hours in the day it would seem. Have managed to sneak into our dayroom motel to use some interweb to download the OS4 software for iphone, look forward to that…how sad.

Unfortunately miss Adam in LA by a few days, he has been busy rehearsing with Ozzy for the last few weeks before heading back to the UK for some shows. As for the other Headspace crew, we are once again scattered around the globe. Brooky I think is still in Scotland, Damian in Cornwall and Lee on the road somewhere? The album moving slowly as ever but most of which emailed back and forth as parts are coming together. Stay tuned.

Head to LA in a few days to play more shows and cram in some studio time, flying back to the UK 2^nd week of July, looking forward to some time at home. See you on the road somewhere in the States soon.

pete

Well, it’s been a busy time with rehearsals in Los Angeles wrapping up with a one off intimate show we played Sunday 20th June at the House of Blues on the Sunset Strip in LA . Tickets were being given to the first 800 people who queued up and bought the new Ozzy Osbourne album “Scream” at the Omoeba record store.

The album is released around the world today, on June 22nd.

An error in the liner notes means the first pressing will have only 4 of the 5 tracks cowritten by myself, Ozzy and Kevin Churko being credited. The 5th track “I want it more” was incorrectly labeled just “Osbourne / Churko” due to a title change at the last minute, meaning the absense of my name. This will be corrected in later pressings.

Inbetween the rehearsal schedule, we played a few Tv shows - the Jimmy Kimmel show which can be seen here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaC3b8XIPPg and today the George Lopez show, which I’m sure will be on you tube within a few hours!

We head back to the UK tomorrow for a few shows:

OZZY OSBOURNE
26th June - Birmingham town hall, UK
29th  June Folkestone, UK - Leas Cliff Hall
1st July Oxford, UK - Academy
3rd July - Camden, London - Itunes festival - Roundhouse
5th July Padova, Italy - Villa Contarini
9th July - Turku, Finland - Ruisrock Festival

I will be with Will Young on the following dates of his summer tour, before the Ozzy tour starts up early August.

WILL YOUNG
15th July - Rochester Castle - Kent
16th July - Leicester / Leicester Tigers Rugby Club
17th July - Kenwood House Hampstead
23rd July - Howard Davis park, Jersey
24th July -  Newton Abbot Racecourse - (South Devon festival)
25th July - Billericay / Essex Lake Meadows
31st July - Osborne Houes (Isle of Wight
1st August - Tatton Park (Cheshire)

More news soon!  AW

Morning all….I’ve been out of the loop for a little while dealing with some family stuff but am now back in the land of the living.Recently, I’ve been in Croatia with Martin Fry (ABC). A real hidden gem of a country. Lovely people and beautiful scenery. The gig was on Brijuni island in some roman ruins.Now I’m back, it’s straight into the Headspace machine.  The drum parts are coming along but self producing means you become more anal about parts. I send of the takes to the guys (wherever they are in the world) and they come back with any comments they may have (good or bad). Our schedules are pretty manic so this is time consuming but worth it to get the best possible sounding album we can.Now looking forward to the festival season and am pretty much booked until end of August. Thankfully some time at home to finish Headspace stuff in the week then 3 festivals at weekends. Busy time but thats the way uhuh uhuh we like it.

Saturday 29th May - Los Angeles.

AW

23^rd May 2010

Driving South

Hot from the 3 week break home in London I find myself back on a bus driving around North Carolina heading to a show with One Eskimo opening for Michael Franti and Spearhead in Ashville. Time at home was way to brief and unfortunately didn’t allow enough time to get more done on the Headspace album. Apologies for the lack of actual information regarding this however, as it has been a long process to write so bare with us and we should have some more concise news soon.

Interestingly watching a documentary while writing this about freedom of speech in America. It really is amazing the conviction of people’s views about religion and speech across the world, especially when armed with very little information. I guess, as the dominant species on the planet, we don’t really change very much despite our best intentions. It would seem the institutions of media that are our main source of information are believed in whole-heartedly when delivered with the appropriate level of fear. I guess our humanity is what stands in the way of actual acceptance.

Currently working on guitar tracking from the bus, not ideal but thanks to technology means we can continue to get the album finished even while apart. Perhaps catch up with Adam in LA in the next few weeks; he starts rehearsals for upcoming Ozzy shows over the summer. Caught up with Damian while I was back in London, working through vocals while we have time in the same country. Lee even fired over some new Chapman Stick parts for a track too, sounding great Pimmers. Thoughts with Rich and Jo, hope things are cool with you guys, speak soon mate.

More news from the road soon, I will be with One Eskimo somewhere in the United States near you soon.

Pete

1^st May 2010

Good to be home…briefly

This week finally sees me back home in the UK for a brief time and after the seemingly endless van drives around the United States its true there is no place like it, home that is.

The last 3 months I have been across the states and back several times with one Eskimo opening with Gomez, played a LOT of radio stations, appeared live on the Ellen Degenres show and played at Coachella festival in Palm Springs.  The last of which got to see some great performances by Them Crooked Vultures (with John Paul Jones playing keys and bass pedals with his feet-awesome), Faith No More (with Mike Patton showing everyone how to sing like a god) and Muse (showing everyone how good you can sound at a large outdoor festival). Unfortunately missed Dillinger Escape Plan and Porcupine Tree due to press commitments, which was a shame.  In that time I also managed to get guitars recorded for an upcoming tribute CD which Headspace are lucky to be a part of, Adam is busily mixing while moving house, not the simplest option but as a band we were never ones for the easy route, speaking of which our debut album is being tracked as we speak.  While back in the UK I will be laying down as many of the rhythm guitar tracks as possible. Now that the vocals and main melodies have been written it’s a matter of going back through the parts and refining riffs and harmonic movements to suit and create the best songs we can. It’s a long process but an interesting one going back through tracks we have been spending such a long period of time on. I am back on the road with One Eskimo in the middle of May so there is a lot to do in a small amount of time, the rest of the guitars will have to be done from the road, thanks once again to technology.

Have a few great releases to recommend that I have been enjoying on the road that I would like to share with you.

Aquarius by my good friend Charlie Griffith’s band Haken , great album, great production really worth checking out www.myspace.com/hakenmusic

Periphery’s self-titled offering is a great record, awesome guitar riffs and killer production from a really young band, very cool www.myspace.com/periphery

Jeff Beck’s Emotion and Commotion is as brilliant as you would expect from Mr Beck and Vinnie, amazing www.jeffbeck.com/discography.php

Meshuggah’s new Alive DVD is jaw droppingly awesome. The sound is ridiculous and these guys are just the kings of heavy. Must have purchase www.meshuggah.net

Patiently awaiting Pain Of Salvation’s next album Road Salt One sound clips available here www.painofsalvation.se/ will be brilliant for sure.

This is always good news, Soundgarden back together. Was talk of possible Coachella appearance but instead played a small show in Seattle www.youtube.com/watch?v=crILNt7-kj8 talk is they may be at Lolapalooza.

Best thing on the Internet by far though is the return of Ziltoid the Omniscient www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLoSV8DbVb8&playnext_from=TL&videos=4S2HnNKGWzw&feature=sub freakin’ sweet.

Looking forward to the next couple of weeks at home working on guitar tracks, and spending some time with my wife. See you all from somewhere in the US next month.
Pete

Slightly late with my weekend blog, due primarily to 2 of our 3 children being poorly.  It’s amazing how soon you forget what sleepless nights are like… Anyway, Mr Wilson has been here at my studio in Buckinghamshire to record the vocal on a track as a tribute to a band we cant mention for a publication we also can’t mention.
Guesses on a postcard….! More on that soon.

We are recording vocals too over the next few weeks for the album, some here at my studio and some in London at Wendyhouse studios, a great place in Shephards Bush owned by Robbie Williams’ bass player Jerry Meehan. Unfortunately my studio (and home) are currently in the process of being boxed and moved before the tour starts with Ozzy in May.

Latest news on Ozzy’s new album here:
http://www.thegauntlet.com/article/303/18402/Ozzy%20Osbourne.html
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=138540

Pete is still out in America although was meant to be back here a few days back but Iceland put a stop to that.
Not the volcano that’s been erupting and stopping all flights in and out of Europe, but the frozen food chain ‘Iceland’ that’s had a sale on. Pete had a delivery to New York and is still unable to leave his hotel room due to a mis order of 1,700 frozen pizzas.

More progress on the album weekly (hopefully) from now!

AW

That is the question. Whether tis nobler in the arrangement to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous harmony, or to take up arms against a sea of dotted quavers and, by opposing, play them.

These and other questions have been ignored by most musos in the progressive field, but as I hurtle into my 40’s ( ouch! ) I’ve become increasing aware of the lack of a strong melody in most music these days, especially in new prog.
Being a Beatles, Genesis and Yes fan, you know you are never far away from a devastatingly catchy, simple and beautiful melody, no matter how bonkers the music underneath is. Another splendid example of sublime melody over brilliantly arranged music is The Zombies Odyssey and Oracle album, which I think is one of Damo’s favourite album’s ( mine too ).

I’ve just finished touring with It Bites, and they are a great example of a band who write complex but nevertheless accessible songs. On the It Bites tour we have been playing a song called Once Around The World which is around 17 minutes long. The last section before the coda is still one of the most taxing things I’ve ever had to play as there are accents pushes and pulls all over the place ( in fact it took me about a month to work out what the bloody hell was going on ). But when that section ends it goes into a glorious and uplifting coda, in much the same way that Suppers Ready by Genesis does. All the way through Once Around The World there are complex unison runs, time changes and accent shifts but it never feels gratuitous because it’s always serving the music and plateauing the melody.

Many of the modern prog bands fall foul of the tendency to say they are progressive just because they have long songs. A band like Cardiacs are more progressive in one 3 minute songs than many bands are in a lifetime.  But enough of my yackin’!

Headspace’s album is shaping up splendidly with just a few bits of pre-production to finish, Brooky has been putting down some ace drum parts for me too lock into which will make rehearsing this material tantamount to training for the olympics. But we are of course more than man enough for the job, honest guv! Well… there is one but he knows who he is. I’ve also recently been playing a lot more of the Chapman Stick having just got a new one, so I’ll try to get that onto the new album if there is a song that’s right for it.

Off to Italy this month for one gig with Adam’s dad Rick. He’s asked me to bring the Stick along for that one too so happy days. It’s always a blast gigging with Mr Wakeman senior, especially when you have to trade solos with him ( he always wins! ).

Anyone for prog tennis? ( Like real tennis but with a beard. )

Be lucky,

Cockney bloke.