Blog: I Got In One Little Fight And My Mom Got Scared

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I was in DERBY last night for the very first ASSAULT on the NEW ALBUM. As i probably mentioned before, we have a RADICAL new PLAN for how we're going to do this one: we're going to learn the songs BEFORE we record them, and we're going to learn them WELL. THUS i met with my MIGHTY RYTHMN SECTION (we're having Front Line Practices later in the month, it's Joined Up Government made MANIFEST!) in the Music Shed, in Derby last night to learn up some NEW songs.

It was STRANGE and EXCITING being in a new rehearsal place, but it was NICE and the gear WORKED and LO! there was even some air conditioning - the only downside was that it is HIDDEN so Tim had to come and collect me from down the road, where i was Visibly Distressed. We realised it had been at LEAST two years since we really WORKED OUT on some new stuff (altho there was a brief FLURRY of activity recently for the new EP, there were only actually a couple of new songs to learn), so we warmed up with a BLAST of "Easily Impressed", before offering up "Never Going Back To Aldi's" as the SACRIFICE to the GODS OF ROCK.

I say "sacrifice" because it didn't really work out - the verses sounded like DIDO, the bridge like P-FUNK, and the choruses... well, they sounded like SNUFF, I'm afraid. I think we may have to "revisit" that song a little further down the line... HOWEVER, we then worked up a FANTASTIC version of "Lesson Of The Smiths", which is sort of hoe-down, sort of FUNKY, and fifteen kinds of ACE, ESPECIALLY this bit just after the choruses when there's an EXTENDED DRUM BIT. Honestly, I was DARNCING around the room with GLEE at this point, it's FAB. It will also be featuring a STRING QUARTET CODA, but I haven't mentioned this to Tom just yet.

After a toilet/telephone/Budget Water break, we then did "The Fight For History." GOOD GOLLY! I'd pretty much worked this out in my head, but in the hands of RYTHMN SECTION it became Quite Different, and - CORKS! - VERY EXCITINGLY FAB INDEED! It's LOUD! I got a bit distressed at one point by the lack of Dynamic Change in some parts, then realised "AHA! This is only HALF the Validators! There's a whole WORLD of extras here!" and when i HEARD the possibility of Tom and Emma on it too, my JOY was unsurpassed.

And after THAT we spent half an hour working on something NEW... as tradition demands, we started off GOTH and veered wildly into REGGAE (this ALWAYS happens) before getting to something that was GROOVY and rather SUMMERY. We played this for AGES and I sang some words, firstly from another song, and then made up ones about watching Sgt.Bilko and The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air on daytime telly. This was GOOD because it helped me think about what i was going to do, but VERY BAD INDEED because a) Rob taped it and b) I have spent ALL MORNING today with the tune going round my head, with the words replaced by the lyrics for the theme tune to The Fresh Prince TV Show. Altogether now, "The licence plate said fresh and it had DICE in the mirror!"

Happy with our achievements, we played through What We Have Learnt Today, then bunked off early for a swift pint in the Real Ale Pub round the corner. It was three ROCK SATED Validators who swept away into the night, and the signs for this next album are GOOD. VERY GOOD!

posted 15/9/2004 by MJ Hibbett

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