Blog: Now I Want To Sniff Some Glue

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I tell you what, I am KNACKERED right now, largely due to the PUNISHING REGIME OF ROCK I have undergone for the past couple of days. After getting back from Croydon LATE I had to get up EARLY yesterday morning, in order to get to Derby in time for our Super Bonus Annual Leave Using Up Recording Session.

The first part of the journey involved a rather unpleasant section travelling on The Central Line in the rush hour, which I usually do my utmost to avoid as it is HORRIBLE. THIS particular journey, however, was made rather more pleasant than it might have been by the presence of The Engine Of My Locomotive - we discussed BUYING LAND! ROCK!

One change of tube, a BRISK WALK across St Pancras and a very pleasant train journey later I was in Derby, where The Tigermobile came to pick me up at PRECISELY 11.04am, as arranged, and we ZOOMED over to The Snug, where we could here the unmistakable sounds of a Drum Soundcheck coming down the stairs. Tim had got there an hour before us so that he could get this done and, as ever, I was DEEPLY SAD to have missed most of it. Getting up an hour early in the morning is only IMPROVED by listening to a Percussive MAESTRO hit each of his drums and cymbals one by one first ting in the morning.

With that done Rich set up the guitar and microphone for my GUIDE VOCALS and we LAUNCHED into the first TASK of the day, our cover version of "Glory Days" by Mr Bruce Springsteen. I'd done a DEMO of how I thought it'd go, and after a couple of run throughs and AMENDMENTS we ZOOMED off through our SKIFFLED UP version, getting it all sorted out pretty much in two takes. Next there was some DISCUSSION about how we were going to do our cover version of The Ramones' "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue". I'd done a demo for this one too, as a folk song in Waltz Time, and Producer Pattison suggested we EXPAND upon the idea of Radical Reinterpretation and do it as a SERIES of different versions, to be linked together later.

So that's what we did, WHIPPING through folk, George Formby/skiffle, 70's cod-reggae, goth, acapella and Standard Punk versions of it. It was a GREAT DEAL OF FUN, doing each one at HIGH SPEED in much the same way as we did The Music Of The Future for Do The Indie Kid.

Job done Tim wandered off into town to spend some Birthday Vouchers whilst I did my Acoustic Guitar and UKELELE overdubs. He returned just after I'd done my English Translation Vocals on "Glory Days" and was moving into the Ramones, which was EXTREMELY handy, as him and Tom were able to provide much needed help. Tim was especially helpful when I FLOUNDERED doing the GOTH bit - funny that.

The Tiger was next up, and he STRODE MASTERFULLY through the process of his four part violin arrangement for "Glory Days". It was GRATE, and when he THORT he'd finished Tim pointed out that he still had to do the Mournful Solo Violin in The Quiet Bit. Because, clearly, we ALWAYS have Mournful Solo Violin in The Quiet BIt. "Do something BRILLIANT Tom", I suggested - after years of practice I am GRATE at Doing Production as you can tell - and he DID, going back to the Old Trick we used on our Early Recordings on double-tracking something he'd half worked out, generating AUTO HARMONIES. It sounded lovely.

EVEN MORE FUN came with his parts for "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue", which involved the Electrical Violin and a LOT of effects. The best bit of ALL was when he did MASSIVE FEEDBACK for the PUNK version. Me and Tim sat GRINNING LIKE LOONS during the SONIC ASSUALT, we are Old Skool gentleman who LOVE that sort of thing. Our expressions turned to TERROR shortly afterwards when he did Unsettling Dissonance on the GOTH version - it was SO scary I had Genuine Real-Life Shivers Down The Spine!

To finish off Tim went back in to do some PERCUSSION, culminating in some heavily echoed BREAKBEATS which, i am sure, would have made Lee Scratch Perry think "That's a good idea!"

We packed up the drumkit, got rough mixes, and headed off home, full of the knowledge that we'd had a GRATE session. Doing this sort of thing really is IMMENSE fun... though it made the prospect of coming in to work this morning feel much LESS appetising than usual! When can we be International Superstar Producers and do this ALL the time please?

posted 11/9/2008 by MJ Hibbett

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