Crek!

Bass Solo

Ain't No Sunshine - Bass Solo

MySpace

ThePaperSnakes are now available on MySpace.

Jamendo

Quack

C & H Consultants

Today, in preparation for starting as a contractor at Swiss Re next month, I registered my new limited company "candh consultants limited".

Now I have to fill in all the forms for Directors, VAT reg, shareholders etc.

The Slapmonster in Action

My band - the Papersnakes - have started to use the music room at my son Myles' school for our rehearsals.

Here's me ramping up to sing my modern-day classic composition "Bare Back Monkey".

Cafe Nero, Watford

Me with Thomas

New Papersnakes website/blog

For information about Papersnakes, please go here.

Wiow - nothing new in about 26 years...

Bath Road swimming pool, Luton.

I can't see anything has changed in this place since I was last here at least 26 years ago - probably more. I spent a lot of my childhood in these changing rooms. From the look of the place, if I'd left a pair of socks there when I was 10 they'd still be sitting there now. This was a strange experience.

I asked the woman behind the (original) ticket office window if they still had the outdoor pools. Apparrently the land on which the outdoor pool was constructed was marsh land and the pool was moulded asbestos standing on concrete pillars driven into the marsh. Seems that the pool sank and the pillars poked through the asbestos. Nice. There was a lot of this sort of thing in the late 70s early 80s of course.

Anyway - the indoor pools have not altered at all. The diving boards are still all there - all of them. It tried to explain why this was so interesting to Myles but he didn't seem to care. He also didn't seem to like the pool.

Papersnakes South Park Characters

MySouth Park

We are "Papersnakes" (again)

After all the recent name changes, some of which lasted only a matter of hours, we have returned to where we started. We are "Papersnakes".

More Set List Casualties

"So who's playing the bass on this one then?"

Out : Wonderwall (Oasis)
Out : One (U2)

I suggested that we cut Wonderwall from our set last night.

There were many reasons for this

• Only I know it - therefore it seems a bit selfish to force everyone else to learn it
• It means we have to swap around on instruments
• I might well sound like a strangled cat on the night - I need to get the old confidence level up for the singing.
• I would have to additionally take my guitar and small amp
• The small amp isn't up to the task with the fully loaded volumes
• We sound our best on more jaunty numbers

The list goes on but I think it's the best thing

I reckon we can learn 2 "pub band" songs in the same time it would take to learn Wonderwall to even a passable standard.

So that's lightened the load for me going forwards AND it means I can concentrate on being the bass player - which I really enjoy.

I don't think we're going to learn "One" either for the initial gig - the return would not justify it really. We need to be tooled up with party songs.

Tracie goes mobile...

Today, after about 15 years of having to lug Tracie everywhere I discovered and purchased a set of these "Ernie Ball Amp Casters".

This could be the dawn of a brave new world free of back strains.

Now all I need to do is fit the things. I just hope there's enough clearance between the floor of the cab' and the speakers directly above it. I guess I can always position the casters towards the outer edge of the cab' base, they should only stick up about an inch into the cab'.

Tools of the trade

• Sexy bass guitar
• Ridiculously oversized bass speaker cab'
• Export lager

It's a beautiful thing.

Regular Weekly Meeting

"It's good to talk"

Bob Hoskins

Here's what our company weekly meetings look like from outside the glass "fishbowl" meeting room.

The Woodfield Four

Andy Woodfield : "Why don't we call ourselves The Woodfield Four?"
Paul Woodfield : "I like it"
Chris Woodfield : "I likt it"
Mike Woodfield "What happens when we get a keyboard player?"

The car park, Farm Factory Studios

More songs tumbled out of the intended running order last night. At this rate we'll have the most impressive reject set list in the country. However - a previously unthought of song made it into the set and was played.

During the rehearsal Paul was kind enough to count Mike in at the start of a song on a count of "One". Have you ever tried coming in on "one"? It's not easy.

We ran through the two songs that went so well last week. One of them was fine - the other suffered the predictable collapse. It didn't help that the bass player was playing "all the right notes, not necessarily in the right order". Oops.

Cut from the set...

"Who the hell's going to do the vocals on this one?"

Paul Kerr, Woodfield 2007

There are now two casualties from the original (and it should be said, random) set list.

Walking on Sunshine
Walking on the Moon

The first becuase - well - because it's crap really. The second because it's not a dancefloor filler and none of us fancied ourselves as a young, screachy Mr. String.

Going forward, I'm not going to learn any song with "Walking" in the title until I know for certain it's going to be worth it.

I think this list of rejects will grow.

No, no... you're alright - we're still "Woodfield"

"Well... we haven't got a trumpet... so we'll cut that section out, go straight into the guitar solo and just do the chorus twice. That should pad it out a bit".

Woodfield

It's tough at the top. Being the biggest thing in Sandridge brings with it great responsibilities. In terms of public appearances we're more of an underground movement than a band because nobody apart from the four band members and Billy (Andy's son) our "roadie" has heard us.

The executive decision has been made, by the members of the band, we are"Woodfield".

Last night's rehearsal was great. All four of us were there and two songs got sorted out. If we shoot for doing ten songs in the set then an average of two-per-session is going to be fine. We're also going to increase the no. of sessions.