The Brown Stuff

I omitted the new additions to the band's Crew in my last blog…..Rie! She is a bit of a floater! Now I'm not talking of the toilet variety although she has the knack of turning any innocent conversation down said toilet into the drain!!! Especially if Mother Dearest and/or Wifey are in vicinity to encourage her. No, she floats between managing the band , doing the sound desk and making sure her beloved and master of the cheesy poses Gary (step away from the ebay screen ) is kept in check!.....She is especially usefull at organising the new Sprigs rehearsals and keeping us focussed on tasks in hand….and she brings round scrumpy…so she's got the job.

John , is another dual purposes member of the Sprig's family….Roady ….every band needs a few and an amazing live photographer …..I pinched him ..he is definitely alive! He is also Bex 's other half and I totally get his sense of humour..not that the two statements are related at all except Bex doesn't get his sense of humour.

So we have a lot of backing to the band now …I can't however not mention our little Aaron he is probably the best Roady we have ..with his little red cart and his encouragement to his dad with little pet names like "You muppet!" and his favourite saying "what's the point Dad?"
Nurturing and teaching is a natural thing for the father figure in any species isn't it? Wifey and the Wee were off in the New forest playing with Brownies, that is of the girl guiding type and not cakes..or indeed anything else brown one finds in the forest..as everyone knows what bears do there…excrement is becoming bit of a theme in this blog isn't it? .. Why is it called the New Forest.?.hey I'm 40 and it's always been there in my life time..so hardly new...and yep….. .just checked Wiki…. it was there even when Mother Dearest was little …apparently she used to throw rocks at the Terredactyles as they swooped on by! Anyway I digress….I was Windsor bound doing a recce on Chicago Rock café the scene of our next gig so to beat the traffic get some exercise and to take the opportunity to teach Aaron my 10 year old how to ride his bike on the road we decided to cycle .The lad did very well too, only a few hairy moments when as we were going around a roundabout I shouted "hug the island !" to keep him on the outside lane ..to my horror he thought the said " island " was the roundabout and crossed two lanes to get there but apart from that it went relatively without incident and one proud little 10 year old was soon sat enjoying his whippy by the river as I tried to rid myself of a whippy deposited due to the aformentioned story. (That theme again)
So Chicagos was shut but a large poster that Darkmarge had done with a very dark eyed Sebastian in Guard's uniform playing leccy guitar in front of the castle quoting the phrase "Spriggan Mist Live in Windsor" September 28th 2011 was posted up beside the door…..wow! I caught the eye of the cleaner inside the premises , he was intently hovering . Now when I mean I caught his eye I don't mean in my gay icon type of sense…well at least I don't think so…I mean, he may be gay and may have fancied me..but I mean he saw me with face pushed to the glass looking like shrek…..Amazingly he let me in to see the place. Amazingly as I wouldn't let me in if I was inside looking out at me pressing my face through the glass at me…..was that last sentence like a Matrix film? No I couldn't understand me either…..then most people don't. Any way this cleaner chappy tells me that the management are expecting a large crowd on the 28th….and points to the poster….at this point readers I chickened out!!!!!!!! I should of asked the question "Why is that ?" I was afraid he might say …that band look quite proffesional they must have quite a following……then it's ..squeaky bum time….I'm hoping he knows something we don't, like he has sold loads of tickets???? Or maybe Flea from the Chilli Peppers is at a loose end and has decided to musey on in to Windsor and take the bass duties away from me that night…either way it promises to be a good night …can we have a good turn out please we kinda need you
Maybe Marge needs to do a flyer of Sebastian in kitchener mode pointing to get bums on seats!!!!! Or maybe we just play as we did at Tribal Dreams and them bums will just sit…..or jump up and dance ..the latter being preferable

Therapy

hi there blog fans! it's been ages hasn't it.....well I'm back. so what has prompted this return to blog land?

I've ditched my personal facebook page ...why? my firm have been monitoring what I've been doing in my private life..and although i have done nothing outrageous...(or wrong certainly nothing illegal) it bugs me so it had to go. Also because of work related depression I have done a lot of soul searching and I have decided that this blog is a bit of self help therapy. I was getting Gazillions of hits on here too.

So what has changed? three band members for a start ....out went Shaun the drummer, he couldn't commit....truth be known playing to hundreds of Faeries and/or bhuddists in robes was a bit too much for him..but just another day in the office for a hardened Sprig! The Lamberts have gone. Dave has taken his sandals off the Sprig's stage and together they are planning world domination of the prog sort under the name David Jail..currently seeking musicians to launch that. Still good friends and we wish them the best....

So we now have three new members Bex on Recorder and Cello. Yes we wanted to go back to Max's original recorder sound and Bex is the perfect addition as she plays Cello too..really adds texture to the band and translates what Max writes perfectly into the live scenario....

Gary on guitar. tough shoes to fill given Dave Lambert's fret wandering skills ...but Gary never filled that Dave replacement role ...instead he pushed that aside and said "it's Gary time" bringing his own brand of heavy chugging screaming wheeling cheese infested posing ..well Garyness. Has been a breath of fresh air. With his range of ultimately cool guitars.

Then we have Colin, the most low maintenance drummer I have ever played with. Colin is as steady as they come ...really drives Spriggan Mist, adding to that all new rocky outlook

Max does quite a bit more soloing now and is writing some excellent material and i think the Real sound of Spriggan Mist as she envisaged is starting to emerge.

Me? i'm writing a bit more ..singing a bit more and I think the bass playing is a little more driven now....(even use a pick at times) I'm also playing bouzouki on stage now ....

But don't take my word for all this.....check us out....

oh one last thing...we kinda have a manager...Rie.....more about her next blog LOL!!!!!!!