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It’s the song, not the singer
By Wolfie | January 14, 2008
At one time or another, a lot of us have been in bands. And we’d probably rather forget some of first musical foot-steps. Luckily, for most people that isn’t too difficult especially all you really did was just goof off in your mate’s garage.
Some of us, though, have documentary evidence that comes back to haunt us. I was going through some old tapes a little while ago, converting them to mp3, when I came across some gems (?) from my youth. Listening to them again, I was reminded how bad they really are but I can finally listen to them without too much embarrassment.
I don’t remember quite how it came about, but back in ‘85 (when I’d just left secondary school) a friend and I got together and started to do covers of Dire Straits tunes. As a guitarist, Ian was much influenced by Mark Knopfler and the year before he’d got me into the group. So when he said he was looking for a singer, I said I’d have a go.
I don’t know why I volunteered, but I suppose it’s that thing that makes all those complete no-hopes on X Factor think that they can be the next Kylie or Robbie or Elvis. We’d get together at weekends and run through stuff in Ian’s lounge (where he had the largest set of speakers I’d ever seen for a home stereo), practicising - supposedly - for some fabled time when we’d get up in a school concert and do a couple of numbers.
In the summer holidays, the music teacher from the school that we’d just left suggested that we use the recording equipment at the school to “lay down some tracks”. By this stage, it was clear that for one reason or another the intended public performance was never going to happen so the three of us (me, Ian and our producer - the music teacher who’d suggested it) got together and recorded two tracks - Sultans of Swing and Expresso Love - as a document of what we’d been trying to do.
Listening back to them as I write this, it’s a good thing we never got the chance to perform publicly - I was really paralysed by nerves just singing in front of two people and it made my voice even worse that was before, and Ian’s guitar playing was probably not as good as he’d have liked it to have been. But it was a fun thing to do and I’m actually glad that I’ve got those two tracks to remember that time by.
If you really feel that you want to put yourself through the torture, you can listen to Sultans of Swing - but I take no responsibility!
Disclaimer: All opinions in this blog are either my own or else they’re made up just to get a rise out of you and make you angry. Either way, they’re probably not very well thought out or expressed so do yourself a favour and don’t take the world so seriously.
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Subscribe by: Email or RSS :: Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior permission. :: Disclaimer: All opinions in this blog are either my own or completely made up; you decide.
:: timethief had this to say:
I’m a Dire Straits fan and I enjoyed listening. You have a nice bass voice and I think Ian played well too.
12:15 am :: January 17th, 2008:: Wolfie had this to say:
@timethief:
6:58 am :: January 17th, 2008You’re too kind! Also, I think you may want to get your hearing checked.
:: timethief had this to say:
Yo! My hearing is excellent and I think you are just being modest.
[Wolfie edit: I've removed a smiley from this comment, because for some reason they really screw up the way the comment is displayed]
8:51 pm :: January 17th, 2008