‘I’ve Got A Bone To Pick’
For the last 6 months or so my band Scrat (who rehearse fairly regularly, and play gigs on average once every two years) have been working on a new song. This song, like all of our originals was conceived like a bastard-child by our lead singer ‘The Dicko’.
Most of Dicko’s lyrics revolve around women, usually the ones that have pissed him of – and he has no qualms about righting these ‘wrongs’ in his lyrics. Titles such as ‘Walsall Girls’ (damning all women from his hometown), ‘Teacher’ (yes, all of them!), and ‘Career Girl’ (one in particular) give you an idea of where he’s at lyrically. The song we’ve been working on (for what seems like forever) is entitled ‘I’ve Got A Bone to Pick’ – and began with Dicko (one of his many nicknames being ‘Mr Negativity’) ranting about all kinds of things that had pissed him off.
Unfortunately, due to him being a “busy man” 6 months have passed since we nailed the music for the song and he still only has about 4 lines, along with a melody courtesy of our song-writing guru.
After much ribbing at last week’s rehearsal about his lack of lyrics I took it upon myself to help Dicko out, and yesterday we spent some time collaborating on lyrics via instant messenger. I took what he’d already had, added to them, made a few alterations, moved things around, and then we went through the results together, tidying up the loose ends.
I’m happy to say that I’m pretty pleased with the results. The lyrics still sound like they were conceived in the mind a man who’s sanity is often questioned (Dicko has to sing them after all), but they also have a warmer, more heartfelt slant – something which Dicko alone would never have considered – far too positive!
We’re due to rehearse again on Tuesday where we’ll hopefully put the finishing touches to ‘Bone’, providing all the lyrics we’ve written fit the music/melody!
With any luck we’ll be recording the song for everyone to hear in the not too distant future, and in the mean time if any needs any help, I’m up for a spot of co-writing. “Change a word and take a third”, and all that.
P.S. I may well post the finalised lyrics for your amusement.
Manimal
About a month ago we had the big party to celebrate my youngest brother Alex’s 18th Birthday. We hired a venue, invited 100+ people and put on a great night of music, food and drink. I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun, all of my close friends and family were there, and it was the best 18th Birthday party I’ve ever attended!For one night only the band ‘Manimal’ was born – this consisted of myself, my brothers (Stat and Al), our cousin Steve, long suffering front-man The Dicko, and as previously mentioned a special guest appearance by my Dad aka ‘Fishman’. We played a 15 song set which included a couple of original tunes from our regular band ‘Scrat‘ and a bunch of party-friendly covers.
Check out the video above of us performing Bryan Adam’s ‘Summer of ‘69′, which ironically was the year my Dad left school…more video can be found on my YouTube Channel here.
In Dad We Trust!
My ‘little’ brother turns 18 at the end of the month and we’ve decided to put on a big party to celebrate. The plan is to hire a venue for late February (so Al is over 18 and can drink legally!) and put on a mixture of live music and food, along with some drinks and some DJ spun tunes.
As part of the live music four fifths of my band ‘Scrat’ will be performing. Myself, both my brothers (Stat & Al), Dicko and Steve will be making up the numbers, however there’s a slight line up change (and a name change) whilst Dave sits it out and prepares for his wedding and we’re going to be joined by a very special guest…..my Dad!
Now, Fishman (as we affectionately call him) has a history steeped in rock ‘n’ roll. He played in several bands when he was in his 20’s back in 1970 something, including the infamous ‘Mantis’ who were once paid by a promoter not to perform the second half of their set during a gig at a bingo hall! In fact, Dad confessed last night that Status Quo were ‘in his psyche’ – so he’s definitely the right man for the job!
Last night was our first rehearsal and I haven’t had so much fun for a long time. Not only was I playing music with both of my younger brothers, but my Dad was playing too! It was awesome! We decided to start off with a few covers and threw in some golden oldies that Fishman would know in the form of ‘Teenage Kicks’ (Undertones) , ‘Rockin’ All Over The World’ (Status Quo), and ‘Summer Of ‘69′ (Bryan Adams) – which we were informed (somewhat ironically) by Dad was the year that he left school – perfect!
To our collective surprise Dad picked things up really quickly considering he’d not played guitar for 20 + years (did I mention he was playing his custom built 70’s Fender Tele copy, fresh from the loft?!) and before long we were rocking! He even began to let rip with some Clapton-esque riffage over the end of ‘Summer Of ‘69′ and at one point had us all in tears after attempting a Pete Townshend style jump mid-song, which ended up with Dicko burst into laughter!
So that was our first rehearsal, it couldn’t have gone any better. I really can’t wait for Dad to get back from his week long holiday so that we can get back to rehearsing for the gig…this is going to be brilliant!
