Blog: Preparation And Revision

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As you may have gathered it is ALL GO here at the moment, as the Artists Against Success MACHINE wakes from its temporary slumbers and begins to GRIND into action. Today the PROOFS of the album artwork have arrived (GORGEOUS), we've recieved confirmation that the POSTCARDS (which I'll be sending with orders) are on the way, DESIGNS for the T-SHIRTS are EVOLVING and - perhaps most thrilling of ALL - I've just ordered a MOUNTAIN of ENVELOPES, ready for sending it all out in!

But while all that ADMIN has been going on I've also had to return to work as an ARTISTE. It was lovely to have September OFF but today marks my return to LIVE WORK, with a spot at tonight's "The Cuts Won't Work" gig in Bethnal Green (details on the gigs page), and so I thought it was probably a good idea if I picked up the GUITAR again and checked that I could still PLAY it.

Turns out I can - well, at least as much as I ever could - but still I felt the ARM ACHE that is familiar to all those who lay down their AXE for a week or more. COR BLIMEY but playing guitar is HARD WORK - and singing HURTS! Still, i reckon I've worked out a SET I can play tonight - why not come along and see if I'm RIGHT eh?

Whilst working out what songs I'd do I felt a pang of GUILT - we're currently BICKERING about what songs to learn/re-learn for the forthcoming Validators gigs, and AS EVER we are divided into two factions: those who want to play LOADS OF NEW SONGS (most vocally Tim) and those who would prefer to stick to THE HITS (Me!). One of my main reasons for wanting to stick to the songs we already know is... well, we KNOW them! I always worry about forgetting words or not knowing songs well enough to do them JUSTICE, and am always aware that, if I don't FORCE myself to relearn stuff, I could happily do the same set FOREVER.

I sat down to feel a bit GUILTY about this... before realising that, HANG ON, if you came to see me more than three times this year there's a good chance you could have seen three ENTIRELY DIFFERENT, also LENGTHY sets - an hour of Dinosaur Planet, an hour of Moon Horse, and at least half an hour of The Other Stuff! Then I remembered that i wrote and recorded A WHOLE OTHER ALBUM during February Writing Month and didn't feel QUITE so bad about it.

And then I realised that, this time next month, I'll have to know ALL of Moon Horse again, MOST of Dinosaur Planet, SEVERAL ENTIRELY OTHER SONGS that we're bringing back into The Validators' set for Germany AND my usual songs, and felt just a little bit AFEARED. If my BRANE ends up EXPLODING over the next few weeks, the reason will be REVISION!

posted 4/10/2011 by MJ Hibbett

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Comments:

Ah yes Mr Hibbett, YOU get to do different sets everynight, but what about the POOR WORKERS who end up having to do the same set week in week out? (well 3 times in the last 2 years...)
posted 5/10/2011 by Tim

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