Friday 31 October 2008

Spriggan mist -musicians wanted

Spriggan Mist are currently looking for musicians to perform live. We are looking for dedicated ,easy going musicians age and gender not important that like our music with the view of doing a few gigs in the spring into summer. Rehearsals will be about once fortnightly (maybe a little more frequent leading up to a gig).

Musicians needed

Drummer/percussionist..
All considered but would love to hear from a bodhran player too.

Recorder/tenor recorder player
A recorder player /guitarist would be ideal (for 3rd guitar pieces)

Singers
Lead /Backing male female we'll consider anyone.....a singer musician again would be ideal .


Want to hear from any musicians with an interest in our music so email on

sprigganmist@sky.com

Tuesday 28 October 2008

New Spriggan Mist song- "Reflections"

Music by Maxine Cilia (2008)
Maxine Cilia--Recorder , Tenor Recorder ,Fife Electric Guitar
Baz Cilia- Bass

Reflections has been knocking around for a few months now, originally under the working title of "mist clearing". It was whilst playing around with the keyboard for the "Visions of Mist " meditation CD that Maxine discovered the main tune of this song. She recorded it and left it in the "maybe bucket" I put a bass line to it and again it got left to one side not making the final cut of the visions of mist CD with us favouring the more subtle Cernunos and Hathor tracks. Maxine decided that we ought to replace the keyboard with recorders and she set about re recording with Tenor Recorder, recorder and for the first time a fife that can be heard towards the beginning of the track off in the distance. By now we had called this track "Reflections" although Maxine had in her mind The Oak King and the fact that it was autumn and it signified Oak King had laid to rest. Whilst researching the Oak king I found online on the Fairy Encyclopedia



"The Oak King exists in the pagan lore of western Europe as something more than a faery but less than a God. He is the king of the waxing year and the other half of the Holly King, the king of the waning year. From Yule to Midsummer the Oak King reigns, taking over the mantle of rulership from the Holly King.

In many pagan Yule rituals this struggle is acted out between two coven members who portray the two kings, who are really only reflections of each other. Though they fight and one pretends to die, it is merely the other half of himself resting until it is his turn to reign again."

To us this means the track had to remain as reflections. So as you listen to this track join us in wishing that the Oak King is having good rest and we will meet him again after Yule.

Saturday 25 October 2008

Slap pop

So they all laughed in the Council Office when I told them. Wifey had a similar response at her office. "Level 42 ????" they all said scoffing. I pointed out that Mark King is just an awesome bass player with his percussive slap pop style. Anyway it was at the Royal Albert Hall and as I had never been there I was looking forward to it .

Now upon entering the hall which I must say appeared smaller than on telly. I noticed by looking around me that the make up of the audience was predominantly over 30 perhaps mostly late 30s and into 40s 50s and I would say 99.9% white........which would account for the fact that no one could dance....seriously...it was like watching your parents at a family wedding...everyone knows white dudes can't dance (Eddie Murphy talks about this at length on his Delirious Video).

The band were however really really good and King did not disappoint . The band as a whole were really tight especially Mark King's trousers he has (like a lot of us) eat a few pies since the 80s. The concert flew by and the encore of "Chinese Way " was brilliant.

Now I like my live music and yeah I will wear a band t-shirt maybe get quite excited and jump up and down at the likes of Kula shaker ,U2 and Wolfmother concerts but I was doing my usual people watching and saw in the seats in front of the stage (about half way down ) two blokes. They were like Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee they were about 25 stone each and had shaven heads. They were obvious Level 42 fanatics as they were wearing American Football shirts with Level 42 on the back...matching ones of course . They were well into them and you could see them stood up even in the ballads much to the annoyance of a small woman behind them who remonstrated profusely.You can tell a fanatic ...they will look to the sky and lift their arms up like they are saluting the heavens at certain points. They will also shout out the most obscure song the band may have released on a B side before they were famous demanding they play it. As they walk out after the concert they will also use the bands first names and say stuff like" Mark played well tonight...yeah yeah they didn't play ( naming that obscure song again ) though"

I also noticed that Level 42 fans don't air guitar....oh no ...they air bass...and slap and pop their chests like the Bass maestro himself .

It was a great night and I'm glad I endured the scoffing........anyway off to do some slap pop .

Monday 20 October 2008

The Quest for the Golden Shoes

Ok ok .....they weren’t golden they were black school shoes for our Mini Minx but today’s offerings from your Lord of the blogs is a story that is on the whole true and involves a journey of discovery ,intrigue ,eastern mysticism (easy to say sucking a toffee) danger .....like proper Danger Zoiks!!!!!!!
It all started one sunny Saturday Morning when Wifey showed me the Princess’s (our Mini minx) school shoes . They were so badly scuffed by the wicked magical scooter which she had been using to get to her school that we decided to embark on a quest to get some new ones. So dangerous was this quest ...we had to wait for Wifey to get a flu jab first!!!!

So we set off on foot in to the big wide world.........well Bracknell! Our first test was to pacify the whinging Prince (Rockstar) A test I hastened to adds we failed miserably at and added to the tale of woe for the remainder of the quest. Our arrival at Clarks was a swift one unlike the queue.... size nine and a half E was our request . Unfortunately after 45 minutes we were turned away....you see kids had all gone back to school and there weren’t many sizes left now. So dragging our Royalty with us still moaning we went from shop to shop but alas no shoes. It was then we felt we needed some guidance from the East.......we visited the Chinese ........no not a wise old monk with white eyes ...but The Real China ...eat as much as you can possibly stuff into your body before you burst for the price of a Macky D’s restaurant.

So we sat there chomping away and Rockstar knocked his glass of Diet Coke off the table with his elbow ,Wifey with the speed of Mr Miyagi slapped the glass back on to the table like she was playing ping pong that made it shoot across the shiny surface and teeter on the edge by me I pushed it back on giving the glass a palm strike whilst screaming like Bruce Lee in Enter the dragon....this caused he glass to do a funny little dance sloshing it’s contents all around whilst Wifey managed to steady the vessel........phew. An obliging Chinese waitress came over and started to clean our mess up when she too accidentally swiped the glass clean off the table with her cloth ...sending it off the edge ...with her other hand she thrust out at the glass and it kind of snapped into her hand ...like a fly being caught in chopsticks!........After laughter of disbelief The manager came over and said he would ban the glass for being troublesome ...Rockstar finished the contents of the glass ...amazingly there was three quarters of it still left. So fresh from completing our tasks of skill and dexterity (not to mention bellies full of chicken balls rice and all the other bits associated with pigging one’s self at the local Chinese again set off on our quest ....first we returned home and got into our chariot and set off on the dusty road towards Nam...........Wokin-nam....ok ok it’s Wokingham but it would of spoiled the gag spelling it properly.

So upon arrival at the Kingdom of Nam........we realised they are a posh lot over there . We managed to find the Clarks I sat down Minx took her a shoes off Wifey was being served by a young sales assistant when a member of staff came out of the stockroom and said to his Supervisor the profound words

“Bit Smokey in there innit?” (must have been from Bracknell...he said” innit”)

With this she went into the stock room which by now had a haze coming out from it .....she came back out and said in a loud nasily annoying voice......

“Sorry but we are evacuating ...the store ...please leave the store by the main exit” I’m glad she told me this as I was considering going out through the stock room!!!!

Wifey in desperation stood shoulders dropped and said “Oh no ! we came here all the way from Bracknell on purpose just to get shoes” I understood what Wifey was saying she was pointing out the Irony of of luck!!! Supervisor then did something that really grips my proverbial. She slung her hands out to usher us out and said those annoying words

“I’m sorry Health and safety” she then proceeded to repeat the phrase about five times “

What's wrong with..."please leave the store we think we have a fire in the building" or "please leave the store we are on fire" or even "run like F**K we are going to blow up!!" but......

“Health and safety ...you have to leave Health and safety”

She sounded like a robot “Health and safety” .......it reminded me of this woman I once worked with when Health and safety came into the workplace and was a real buzz word in the mid 90’s She was the Health and Safety rep for the office and she was walking along in the corridor where she saw a discarded cardboard box sat in the middle of the corridor . She stood over it pointed to it as anybody passed saying ...you got it “Health and safety” she did this for about two minutes when a colleague of mine came up with an ingenius idea.....”well why don’t you just move the F*^%er then!”

Back to the story ......so there we are being ushered out by Metal Mickey we stood on the pavement as we heard the distant sound of fire engines sirens blaring we dejectedly walked off to find another shoe shop leaving Metal Mickey chuffed by her health and Safety. The only other shop in Nam didn’t have them either.......they recommended Crowthorne .......not that we’d find shoes there they said it was a nice place. (not really)

So off we trundled to Crowthorne and again we got the Windy Miller shake of the head. There was only one thing for it ...ignore Rockstar’s whinging a bit more and go to ....that place of retail torture................The Meadows..........dum dum dummmmmm.

Arriving at the humungassly gigantic..... Mark’ sand Sparks we rooted around the shoe department like cave men foraging for food when there they were ....a big golden glow lit up the aisle we found the shoes we wanted.
We returned home weary and battle scarred...The Princess did indeed get her shoes The prince didn’t stop whinging Wifey and I lost another slither of our sanity.

Thursday 16 October 2008

Spriggan Mist.... Live

Life at Spriggan towers has been hectic. We are busy recording material for the album and on Saturday took part in Rockstar and mini minx's school Talent night which we helped to organise .

It was a great show.........no seriously it was ..some parents have said it was the best activity the school PTA have done and there were some real talented acts on . Spriggan Mist together with Rockstar were the house band accompanying "The Von trapps" a very talented family of singers on a couple of numbers (more about them later.) We were the last act before the finale . It was a good testing ground to see how Spriggan Mist would go down live be it that the audience did not get the full extent of Wifey's song writing and performing prowess .As most of you know the two Tunes we played "Echoes of Beltane" and "The Merry Mead" Wifey plays about four instruments on each and we were stripped down to drums ,Banjo and bass. Nonetheless Rockstar our 7 year old dynamo on drums was great and although we went out a bit on Merry Mead he pulled it back as fast as we lost it . We had them all with hands in the air and stomping their feet . I ramped up the bass a bit just to give it a bit of Tempo. We played whilst everyone got off the stage for the finale with an instrumental Kultural Karma with rockstar really banging out some fills. I'll await the DVD of the events to see how it sounded as I'm not sure the volumes were right but it served it's purpose and people seemed to enjoy it..................................Spriggan Mist ...live for the first time.!!!!!

The Von traps are Mum and two daughters aged 11 and 15 They all very talented but middle Von Trap is going to record Kultural Karma with us. It should sound brilliant her voice is very strong and beyond her years. More when this is recorded.

After months of office arguments I have posted a new poll there down on the right. Mr T supports Leeds Utd...yeah they are some club languishing in League 1 (div 3 in old money) i support the mighty Pompey...yes the current FA Cup champions and Premier league Club...playing in Europe this season three England Internationals in the team etc...etc...etc...
T reckons Leeds are a bigger club.....I say No ...............so it is down to you good people to settle the argument vote away....

Friday 10 October 2008

Holy Bread- 2 points

Back ..........way back ......when this blog actually made sense, I wrote about an unsavoury incident where I accidentally walked into a weightwatchers class in the church hall.

A great philosopher once said

“lightning does not strike twice!”

He lied!


So Rockstar will be doing his First holy communion next year.........(....this is when holy communion is taken for the first time ........funny that eh?) it’s kind of important for us Catholic dudes so he has to attend Billions and Zillions of lessons and as a parent I had to attend a meeting at the church last night . As usual I was running dead on time or just a tad late . I did a James Bond style shonky manoeuvre into the church car park and expected not to find parking so I attempted to squeeze into a miniscule parking space thinking there wouldn’t be parking I was in parking mode squeezing my 4x4 into a mini space...... ..holding up two other parents in the process I let them through looked up and realised there was loads of parking further down so parked up down there and spoke with the parents I held up.

It was Cristina’s Mum and Dad . They are Portuguese and we laughed at my stupidity at the parking stage of the evening walked into the hall still being quite jovial walked up to the table to sign in ........in unison we looked up as we saw Weight Watchers on the sheet.......blimey I thought ......maybe the church can’t have fat people eating holy bread anymore ....maybe they eat it all and leave none for everyone else?

We looked at this group of rather rotund women........obviously new ...or maybe it doesn’t work???? Looking back at us .I sucked my belly in and my Portugese friend followed suit..we span round on our heels ...”we don’t need to come here do we.........no no no.....” and hurried out leaving the fat fighters to talk points and waist sizes.

So we walked into the church and sixty other parents were all sitting in the church our Parish priest at the front . After asking the church caretaker to remind me of my name again I signed in and told him that weight watchers nearly had three new members not realising that the Parish priest had now stopped his address as some 18 stone oaf was acting the buffoon at the door ......I could hear several sniggers as I repeated my gag re sucking in stomach and not needing Weight watchers and realised the entire church was looking back at me and the hapless Portugese who rolled in with me the bloke still rubbing his head after suggesting to his wife that maybe she would of benefitted from staying with the Weightwatchers . Not sure what she said to him (as my command of the Portugese tongue is indeed ni),but as a left hooking slap whacked the back of his head but I bet it wasn’t “thank you darling for thinking of my health but I think I’ll decline”

Our Parish priest then quite firmly addressed the importance of being on time!!!!!


I’ll leave you with this .........

“what has more points than Tottenham Hotspur?........................a triangle!”

Wednesday 1 October 2008

Options

I lay there in bed .....I was awoken by the bass line to Queen's Under pressure .......I looked at Wifey's alarm clock with contempt .0530 hours it said .....Option 1....put my head under the pillow and try and get back to sleep...option 2 ...smack the living crap out of it .....and get back to sleep. wifey saved the hapless alarm clock (Ipod docking station actually) just as Brian May comes in with old Red. Then dear reader I find myself wandering down stairs making Wifey Tea......it happens every morning but this morning I sussed why...........Subliminal suggestion...she thought I was deep asleep but I could hear her under her tongue saying "Tea........teeeeeeeeea.......teeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaa" so off I trotted. Tomorrow when I wake up early i'm going to try it...."Full english breakfast........full Englishhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..Full...englishhhhhhhhhh" I'll let you know how I get on ...if I can still walk to the computer that is.

So I've just sent heroff to work and stood in the door way waving goodbye admiring my handy work of laying a ton of slug pellets the night before in the front garden ..it looked like a slug mass murder had occurred .I half expected some Police slugs to turn up and cordon my front garden off ushering me indoors saying " move along human there is nothing to see" It was at that point of wondering I thought I needed to go to bed again .......but no Options entered my head again.
Option 1....i snuggle back to bed for an hour ....bed to my own leaving me to snore fart burp or all of the above.......option 2....turn on the computer and tap out an installment of the life and times of me.........why oh why I chose option 2 is still a mystery to me as I'm typing . Especially as last night Wifey reminded me that my MOT on my car was due and she couldn't get it taxed til I had that done.....shit shit shit shit my MOT expires.....yesterday...So dearest reader added to the fact I have school run ....School Talent show posters to put up all over the school before I even go to work I have to get that pesky car to an MOT station....I need to get to work on time so I can finish in time for my bass lesson too.

The Talent show has taken over our lives a bit....i can't walk into the school yard without a parent giving me GBH of the ear holes regarding their little johnny not being chosen yet so ans so's little Benny ( i don't know i just plucked it out of the air!) is in it etc...(to be fair there were some genuine agrievances which I will address with the teacher I'm assisting to run this )It's ironic that the first public performance of Spriggan Mist is us going to do the backing for another act singing Bridge over troubled water and You're my best friend by Don Williams.......groan (although it does sound good)...but we do get to play Echoes of Beltane and The Merry Mead on our slot be it just Banjo ,bass and Rockstar on drums.

So yes I'm sitting here wondering where I put last years MOT.....lost....eating a bacon and egg bagel...without butter or sauce...I forgot to buy them ....and drinking water....forgot the ribena too. To top it all off every other Thursday I have to do a presentation at work so the wednesday before is always really busy prepping and researching.....Mr T yesterday suggested that I only actually do any work on that wednesday .......shock horror!

Anyway yesterday Mother dearest hung up her Mobility scooter keys for the day (the town centre breathed a sigh of relief) and took to Windsor with three other hell's Grannies and went on a boat trip down the River Thames....I got a Text from her saying they had the whole boat to themselves.....really ? i retorted...what like mutiny on the bounty........my strangely warped little mind gave me visions of the grannies taking over the boat and ramming anything on the Thames and on the banks come to think of it!..... "no we have two boat people .... dishy young men too"

" No mother Dearest " I sighed " they are called carers.....