And for anyone who is tempted to subside to HMV's lack of research when it comes to band names... we still are, and always have been called
THE Maerlock!
We have a new review. From the Classic Rock Society. Are we classic rock? Answers on the back of a postcard... anyway, you can read it on our website.
Sarah x
Tuesday, 12 August 2008
Sofa in HMV!
So I was walking down Market Street and I thought I'd have a little peruse in HMV.
This is what I found:
The fact that there was only ONE copy of Sofa left made me happy. Some copies had actually been sold!
And we're right next to the charted items! Excellent product placement, HMV, excellent!
SIDMOUTH PHOTOS TO FOLLOW IMMINENTLY!
Salma
This is what I found:
The fact that there was only ONE copy of Sofa left made me happy. Some copies had actually been sold!
And we're right next to the charted items! Excellent product placement, HMV, excellent!
SIDMOUTH PHOTOS TO FOLLOW IMMINENTLY!
Salma
Friday, 1 August 2008
The Album, Festivals, and THE SOFA!
Well hello. Long time no see. Haven't we all been busy bees!
The album (upon which we finally decided a title - much to Salma's torment) was released on Monday 21st July to the unsuspecting public. It was forthwith reviewed by David Kidman of fROOTS magazine, who said some very nice things! Read a bit of it here.
So we went down splendiferously at Brampton Live on 19th July - one member of the public even used the phrase "I know you're famous, but..." when approaching us. We signed some CDs. And then Sarah, Salma and Toby spent the rest of the day walking around muddy fields and drinking festival ale. And then they watched Bellowhead and slept in a muddy field. Oh yes.
Toby also tried on lots of festival hats.
And our name was on a T-Shirt and NOT AT THE BOTTOM!
So last weekend was Warwick Folk Festival. This was the weekend where we went to Warwick on the Friday night, had to come back to Manchester on the Saturday night to play a ceilidh for a psychotherapists' convention (Pif managed to squeeze in some wonderful psychotherapy jokes on the mic) and then went all the way back to Warwick for the Sunday. We really are living the lives of travelling minstrels! So Warwick was great. We played on the main stage on Friday evening - with a BIG SCREEN (which was actually highly distracting) and in a wonderfully intimate venue called The Bridgehouse Theatre on Sunday night (reviews from this gig include "The Best Maerlock Gig EVER!" - from Jim and Dan of 4Square). On Saturday afternoon we played a rather strange and very intimate acoustic gig as part of a 'Meet The Artist' series of gigs which involved a bit of playing every now and then and some questions pitched by the audience. It was a nice experience.
Talking of 4Skin, I mean 4Play, I mean 4Square (who also played at Warwick) - they happened to try and take us down a peg or two on stage with the words 'If you liked us - we've been 4Square, if you haven't liked us - we've been The Maerlock,' so we got them back good and proper on Sunday night. It's nice isn't it, friendly rivalry. ;)
So we will be crashing into Sidmouth on Monday! Salma is in the process of making a lovely 'The Maerlock - Sidmouth 2008' sheet-banner-type-thing with a white sheet from Primark and some spare paint from Olly's house DIY-ing, whilst rehearsal and soundcheck and gig schedules have been distributed for, yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Maerlock BIG BAND! We managed to squeeze in a rehearsal earlier in the week on Monday morning (after getting back in the early hours of the morning from Warwick!) and may I say a huge 'HOW DID YOU DO IT?!' to Olly for his musical geniusness in the Big Band arrangements. All I can see is BE AT SIDMOUTH and only then, will you understand!
So, IT'S OFFICIAL - THE SOFA IS COMING WITH US TO SIDMOUTH! (And the armchair!) We're going to try to have it with us at every five-piece gig, including THE ALBUM LAUNCH on Wednesday 6th August AT WHICH WE HAVE SOME SPECIAL EXTRAS!! This is all too exciting. Just catch us at Sidmouth. You won't regret it!
Toodles!
Salma
The album (upon which we finally decided a title - much to Salma's torment) was released on Monday 21st July to the unsuspecting public. It was forthwith reviewed by David Kidman of fROOTS magazine, who said some very nice things! Read a bit of it here.
So we went down splendiferously at Brampton Live on 19th July - one member of the public even used the phrase "I know you're famous, but..." when approaching us. We signed some CDs. And then Sarah, Salma and Toby spent the rest of the day walking around muddy fields and drinking festival ale. And then they watched Bellowhead and slept in a muddy field. Oh yes.
Toby also tried on lots of festival hats.
And our name was on a T-Shirt and NOT AT THE BOTTOM!
So last weekend was Warwick Folk Festival. This was the weekend where we went to Warwick on the Friday night, had to come back to Manchester on the Saturday night to play a ceilidh for a psychotherapists' convention (Pif managed to squeeze in some wonderful psychotherapy jokes on the mic) and then went all the way back to Warwick for the Sunday. We really are living the lives of travelling minstrels! So Warwick was great. We played on the main stage on Friday evening - with a BIG SCREEN (which was actually highly distracting) and in a wonderfully intimate venue called The Bridgehouse Theatre on Sunday night (reviews from this gig include "The Best Maerlock Gig EVER!" - from Jim and Dan of 4Square). On Saturday afternoon we played a rather strange and very intimate acoustic gig as part of a 'Meet The Artist' series of gigs which involved a bit of playing every now and then and some questions pitched by the audience. It was a nice experience.
Talking of 4Skin, I mean 4Play, I mean 4Square (who also played at Warwick) - they happened to try and take us down a peg or two on stage with the words 'If you liked us - we've been 4Square, if you haven't liked us - we've been The Maerlock,' so we got them back good and proper on Sunday night. It's nice isn't it, friendly rivalry. ;)
So we will be crashing into Sidmouth on Monday! Salma is in the process of making a lovely 'The Maerlock - Sidmouth 2008' sheet-banner-type-thing with a white sheet from Primark and some spare paint from Olly's house DIY-ing, whilst rehearsal and soundcheck and gig schedules have been distributed for, yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Maerlock BIG BAND! We managed to squeeze in a rehearsal earlier in the week on Monday morning (after getting back in the early hours of the morning from Warwick!) and may I say a huge 'HOW DID YOU DO IT?!' to Olly for his musical geniusness in the Big Band arrangements. All I can see is BE AT SIDMOUTH and only then, will you understand!
So, IT'S OFFICIAL - THE SOFA IS COMING WITH US TO SIDMOUTH! (And the armchair!) We're going to try to have it with us at every five-piece gig, including THE ALBUM LAUNCH on Wednesday 6th August AT WHICH WE HAVE SOME SPECIAL EXTRAS!! This is all too exciting. Just catch us at Sidmouth. You won't regret it!
Toodles!
Salma
Sunday, 20 April 2008
And action...
After rather a while perfecting our chops in the studio, The Maerlock are back on the road.
We kicked off this season's gigs (I hesitate in calling it Summer!) with a show at The Met in Bury, where we had the privelege of sharing the bill with the fabulous Lau. It's in Outer-Lancashire somewhere. Actually it's really close to Manchester but it always seems to take AGES to get there owing to the rush hour traffic and AAAGES to get back owing to my inability to circumnavigate Manchester going the correct way round the M60.
Anyway, what I really meant to say was that Roger Liptrot from Folk Images came and took some great photos, you can check them out on http://www.folkimages.com/images2008/pages/themaerlock.htm.
We shall also have some Youtube footage shortly... watch this space.
Sarah
We kicked off this season's gigs (I hesitate in calling it Summer!) with a show at The Met in Bury, where we had the privelege of sharing the bill with the fabulous Lau. It's in Outer-Lancashire somewhere. Actually it's really close to Manchester but it always seems to take AGES to get there owing to the rush hour traffic and AAAGES to get back owing to my inability to circumnavigate Manchester going the correct way round the M60.
Anyway, what I really meant to say was that Roger Liptrot from Folk Images came and took some great photos, you can check them out on http://www.folkimages.com/images2008/pages/themaerlock.htm.
We shall also have some Youtube footage shortly... watch this space.
Sarah
Monday, 14 April 2008
The show goes on
After a brief moment when the sign on the studio door placed doubt in the minds of The Maerlock as to whether this project could continue...
it was thankfully established that we could in fact re-enter the studio. We wonder if pIF's momentous shopping trip to Ted Baker could have done something to dispel any fears from Fellside Central that there were in fact vagrants in the band. I mean, one can't go round with trousers stuck together with gaffer tape for ever...
It was a near miss, but I think Olly saved the day by his highly creative pan-pipe, I mean, marimba playing.
Sarah
PS The album's out mid-June.
it was thankfully established that we could in fact re-enter the studio. We wonder if pIF's momentous shopping trip to Ted Baker could have done something to dispel any fears from Fellside Central that there were in fact vagrants in the band. I mean, one can't go round with trousers stuck together with gaffer tape for ever...It was a near miss, but I think Olly saved the day by his highly creative pan-pipe, I mean, marimba playing.
Yes, the marimba did get carted up 3 flights of stairs to the studio, all for the purpose of 5 notes... but they're good notes! See if you can spot them on the record... then we'll know that we didn't blow our budget on extra vehicles to transport huge percussion instruments around for nothing. I forgot to mention the orchestral bass drum...
So life is getting back to normal in Manchester after some larks up in the Lake District. Olly has negotiated the loan of a rather nice piano (and the house that goes with it) to put some tracks on at the end of this week, and then we're done. At least the weather's a bit warmer than when we did the The Maerlock Big Band recording in Feb.
So there shouldn't be so many technical issues with dexterity of the digits...
Here endeth my slightly feeble attempt to fabricate a feasible tale out of a few of the random photos I have of the recording process... It's probably time for bed now. If you want to know more about pIF's Ted Baker story, you'll just have to ask him!
Sarah
PS The album's out mid-June.
Tuesday, 1 April 2008
Fellside session (Easter Break)
We're in the middle of a five-day recording session at Fellside.
We're getting used to the studio and our engineer is getting used to us. Some things we just nail. Some things take ridiculously longer than one might expect.
It's difficult knowing when to say when. When you listen to a track repeatedly to pick apart the minutiae of timing, etc., it is very easy to lose perspective.
We've had some rather amusing Ron Burgundy-inspired jazz-flute moments.
Oh and every night we have huge discussions (arguments) about what we're going to call the album. This argument starts over breakfast and has been known to overflow into recording sessions, break (fag and tea) and meal times. Olly even sent pIF a text about it just as he was dropping off to sleep.
So, we've narrowed it down to one or two possible titles... Well, four or seven...
We've had cause to refer to Youtube for inspiration on several occassions - notably: an excerpt from Anchorman, Bjork's Play Dead, the Crimp-off from the The Mighty Boosh and Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap... And we had a good laugh listening to the Treme Brass band.
Band relations are doing well and everybody seems to be bearing with each other with a good deal of patience and humour. And occasional sarcastic asides. But really being together every day for most of a week is fun. Last night Toby even managed to interest pIF and Sarah in a programme called Skins. And we had a merry time around the piano singing songs by Stephen Sondheim and Jason Robert Brown.
This morning all attempts at April Fools gags fell flat. It seems we're just not that funny. Although Toby kept bleating on about some BBC footage of flying penguins - which it turns out was true!
We've had some very pleasant experiences of multi-tracking working out well. Especially in the percussion department. The highlight so far was the bowed marimba notes. Tomorrow's session will feature orchestral bass drum. Bring it on!
Oh, and Linda's cooking is immense! (Linda is the wife of Paul, who signed us). We've had amazing meal after amazing meal. Our advice - if you want good food and you are a folk band, get signed on Fellside!
We're getting used to the studio and our engineer is getting used to us. Some things we just nail. Some things take ridiculously longer than one might expect.
It's difficult knowing when to say when. When you listen to a track repeatedly to pick apart the minutiae of timing, etc., it is very easy to lose perspective.
We've had some rather amusing Ron Burgundy-inspired jazz-flute moments.
Oh and every night we have huge discussions (arguments) about what we're going to call the album. This argument starts over breakfast and has been known to overflow into recording sessions, break (fag and tea) and meal times. Olly even sent pIF a text about it just as he was dropping off to sleep.
So, we've narrowed it down to one or two possible titles... Well, four or seven...
We've had cause to refer to Youtube for inspiration on several occassions - notably: an excerpt from Anchorman, Bjork's Play Dead, the Crimp-off from the The Mighty Boosh and Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap... And we had a good laugh listening to the Treme Brass band.
Band relations are doing well and everybody seems to be bearing with each other with a good deal of patience and humour. And occasional sarcastic asides. But really being together every day for most of a week is fun. Last night Toby even managed to interest pIF and Sarah in a programme called Skins. And we had a merry time around the piano singing songs by Stephen Sondheim and Jason Robert Brown.
This morning all attempts at April Fools gags fell flat. It seems we're just not that funny. Although Toby kept bleating on about some BBC footage of flying penguins - which it turns out was true!
We've had some very pleasant experiences of multi-tracking working out well. Especially in the percussion department. The highlight so far was the bowed marimba notes. Tomorrow's session will feature orchestral bass drum. Bring it on!
Oh, and Linda's cooking is immense! (Linda is the wife of Paul, who signed us). We've had amazing meal after amazing meal. Our advice - if you want good food and you are a folk band, get signed on Fellside!
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
The glamorous life of professional musicians
Day two in the Fellside house. Toby, Pif, Salma and Olly are all in the control room listening to the rhythm section playing Jungle Queen. Sarah is in the studio practising. This stuff is taking way longer than we thought, but we LOVE Bob, the genius engineer who makes it all OK. Good ol' Bob, although he is in fact younger than Olly and Pif.
We stayed in a Travelodge. It is newly constructed - so newly constructed, in fact, that they have not yet installed the regulation Travelodge sofa. So Olly slept on the floor. But we were too English and polite to complain...
Happy days. Or are they?
We stayed in a Travelodge. It is newly constructed - so newly constructed, in fact, that they have not yet installed the regulation Travelodge sofa. So Olly slept on the floor. But we were too English and polite to complain...
Happy days. Or are they?
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