Pinchpenny Adrian

One of my favourite books as a wee young lad was 'Pinchpenny Mouse'. A beautifully illustrated tale of a miserly mouse. He never spent any of his money and would while away his time counting up pennies in his ramshackle home, while all the other mice pissed their money up a wall.

Whenever I'm skint and resort to counting up the pennies – from the ubiquitous penny jar – I always imagine I'm Pinchpenny Mouse. Even at age 41. I also try and make the whole experience a pleasurable one. Candle light, joss sticks, Canadian psychedelic dance rock, tiffin and fresh ginger and lemon tea.

It's 5.44 and the result is now in:

£85.61 

You beauty! 

All I need now is to go find an attractive wall to piss it up.

The Larynx Effect

An afternoon vocal lesson with the muti-talented singer songwriter and all-round diamond sheezer, Bev Lee Harling.

I'm only too aware that my personal musical ethos is not concerned with musical perfection or virtuosic performance. Due perhaps to my lack of natural talent, when it comes to instrumentation (including ones voice), I instead frequent the path of 'what the hell. I'll do it anyway'. What I may lack in talent I try to compensate for with a liberation of the creative soul, be that melodic or mentally insane. At least that's what I'd say if I was being interviewed by Caitlin Foxmonk for 'The Observer Music Magazine'.

But, if Bev can help me sing more like Nelly Furtado then I just reckon the world will be a better place for it.

Weightwatcher Fridays

For the first time in my life I weigh more than my father.

Now, there are two possible conclusions to this statement.

Conclusion 1 – Turn it into a gag 
'He only weighs his oranges but I've started weighing all my fruit and veg.'

Conclusion 2 – Have a serious thought 
I need to think about my diet (cut down on the Tikka Pathias, Co-op tiffin, ale juice etc...) and start taking much more vigorous exercise on a regular basis.

Needless to say I opted for Conclusion 1.

Bass Solos - How Low Can You Go?

Wrote and recorded a bass solo today. I'm not particularly proud of that. The bass guitar should know it's place. Maybe the odd note cascading to the fore once in a while or the occasional nifty riff, but a whole 45 second solo? I'm sure even Sting wouldn't contemplate such behaviour.

Ideally I would have a French Horn for the solo part but French Horn session musicians cost a hell of a lot of Euros. I've only got a £30 budget for the entire album and most of that's already gone on pitta bread and dips.