Happy New year everybody!

I’ve been a bit out of the loop for a while recently what with the wedding and honeymoon. We had a great time in Edinburgh and it was made all the more special by finally ,after 2 years, having all the HEADSPACE members in the same room!!We also raised over £1000 when myself and the wife jumped in the sea on new years day in aid of Cancer Research UK. We did our vows straight after we came out.Many thanks to the chaps and everyone who passed on their good wishes and donated to this brilliant charity.So, back to the grindstone after 3 weeks in Thailand….this country is too cold I’ve decided.Onwards with fine tuning drum parts for the album demo’s and then spending some time with ‘Fingers’ Rinaldi to look at kit sounds we want to get. I always find that having a second pair of ears for drum sounds is important (I also dont think I have a choice!). Sometimes you’re too close to your part of a project and need a second opinion (or third or fourth with everybody sticking their oar in).The other HEADSPACE limbs have been hard at it finishing vocal parts and arrangements  so we’re on course for spring deadline.We’ll keep you up to date with EVERYTHING…….and I mean EVERYTHING (that we can legally print) over the next few weeks.Rich (Mrs).

Well, the year is disappearing quickly now! Pete and I have finished the demos of the concept album at my studio here in a very snowy North Buckinghamshire village. Damian is coming here next week to finalise the lyrics and melodies, then it’s full steam ahead with the album tracking. We’ll post videos on the our you tube channel as and when we do them!

I will be interviewed on Paperlatte radio on 23rd Jan at 8pm Dutch time for a live interview and play of the EP on Sunday 23rd January www.brto.nl

It repeats on these following stations www.omroeptholen.nl  SLOS FM www.slos.nlWebstreams available on the sites of the mentioned radiostations.

Information about Paperlate  www.paperlate.nl

More news next week and hopefully some more video too.

AW

9^th January 2010

Happy New Year, the Big Freeze and Men in Skirts…

Well Happy New Year to all, wishing everyone a fantastic 2010. We have managed to cram a lot into the final gasps of 2009 and kick off 2010 with a bang.

For those of you not in the UK you may not be aware of the dawn of the ice age so let me be the first to warn you…there is an ice age apparently localised to the UK which is nice for those of you not here. To make sure that we are not merely scaremongering and jumping on the seemingly endless coverage through traditional media routes we felt it was our duty as purveyors of weather (as both my and Damian’s last blogs will attest to) we should travel the length of the country to see this phenomenon for ourselves. This expedition was not taken lightly at Headspace HQ and our fearless drummer Richard Brook thought he should mark the occasion by getting married at the Northern most point of the journey to his lovely lady Jo. We commended the proposal and set off from London early on the 1^st day of the year. Yes to be clear that is the day after New Year’s Eve.

To change tack for a moment I thought best to mention my previous travel endeavours over the last few weeks had taken me from driving a 15 passenger van through a snowstorm in Oregon and Washington to catastrophic Euro-star failures (culminating in a 6 hour wait frozen with all the doors open at King’s Cross station) hoping to travel to Paris for Xmas. I thought “3 times a lady” and wanted to make it all right by proving that surely things weren’t that bad on the roads in Britain…

Now back to our meteorological mission Northward, 1^st stop on the way was to pick up none other than Mr Damian Wilson, then on further North to the land of the Wakeman’s . With my trusty Mondeo Maude now holding 60% of Headspace we suddenly realised that when we reach the summit of Edinburgh we would meet up with the remaining 2 members and do something that has not been done since Christmas 2007…All be in the same room together at the same time.

Now mother nature was kind enough on the outbound section of our journey, just a little snow on our way into Scotland. At which point Mr and the now Mrs Brook (Hurrah!) felt it the best time to jump into the North Sea. Sounds silly, because well, it is, but true none the less. Around 9 hours after I set off that morning we arrived in the frost bitten Edinburgh, I’m sure Rich’s 2^nd and 3^rd Adams apple had not yet retreated further south to more familiar territory, but under the serenity of chainsaw sleep breathing and the opulence of room share we settled into our accommodation for the night. Well until I had enough of the snoring and got another room (thanks kindly to the understanding staff at the hotel).

We awoke the next morning to heavy snow and the inimitable Lee “Pimmy” Pomeroy who took us out for a lovely breakfast where a young local lass cooked us eggs which we found out were the first she ever made, amazing. We thought at this stage best to secure a gift for Rich and his lovely bride and head off to the Caledonian. Only to get a lovely glimpse of Rich and his pride (or shame) in a kilt, not the drummers first choice of attire but it was his big day so we let it slide, actually I say let it slide but we did just tease him about it all night.

Let me offer a huge congratulations to Mr and Mrs Brook. Jo looked amazing and even Rich scrubbed up nicely (if you like that sort of thing). Have a great time in Hong Kong, look forward to seeing you when you get back.

Now at this stage of the journey drinking had ensued and I feel it best to point you in the direction of our youtube channel to see the celebrations in first person

http://www.youtube.com/headspacetheband

Director extraordinaire Adam Wakeman on the trusty iphone cam there, lovely stuff.

To cut a long story long, we had a brilliant night even managed to butcher some cover tunes all playing together for the first time in ages. A suspension-less cab ride back to the hotel and it was up nice and early to brave the ice drive through Scotland back to the balmy arctic temperatures of England. 12 hours later I arrived home after managing to drive through just about every dangerous driving condition known to man other than a plague of locusts or fire. One particularly hairy moment involved a brilliant sow motion slide of about 50 yards only to pull up 1 foot shy of another car.

Much was learned on this trip…

1) Rich and Jo are now married

2) Maude the Ford Mondeo kicks arse

3) West Morland Tebay services on the M6 is the best of Britain.

4) Adam loves his Iphone

5) Headspace have nearly completed writing their debut concept album.

6) Its very cold in the UK at the moment

7) Watch out for Adam’s feature in the new Metal Cookbook this year…seriously.

Never sit opposite another man who is wearing a kilt…I am still having nightmares.

We are very much looking forward to releasing our album this year, although its been tough for us to get together all at the same time we have really been busy getting this together and are very proud of how it is sounding. I am just finishing some guitar parts on the final track and then we can sort arrangements and begin tracking in the next week or so. Look forward to some more music related video (or not) in the coming weeks.

Happy New Year