Coming home.
It's quality.
I've just done 3 small, rather unhinged gigs in Birmingham, Cardiff and Kingston Upon Thames with Johhny Mitchell and Nathan King in a semi acoustic stylee with some Kino, Frost and It Bites songs thrown in. To say we were taking some risks would be understating it somewhat. Firstly, we were ripping apart some of the songs and doing them in what can only be described as a rather irreverent manner, secondly we were doing this in the progressive rock genre which is famously unable to take the piss out of itself. Mitchell was extremely nervous before the first show in case it tanked utterly, however I don't believe much was ever achieved in life without some risk taking involved and we duly tottered onstage and rattled through it.
3 gigs later and the reaction we got was almost entirely excellent. There were a few people who didn't get it, but I don't get The Simpsons so it's all relative. Plus we proved a point that prog rock can successfully mock itself without anybody getting hurt so I think it's win/win. Another successful experiment concluded in the pursuit of doing something interesting with life.
But the bit I liked the best was the drive home. The last gig was yesterday in Cardiff so after a night in Wroughton kindly donated by my mate Nellie, I set sail for the last leg of the journey this morning through thick fog, bright sunshine, rain and misty greyness while my iPod shuffle provided a highly esoteric soundtrack ranging from Frank Sinatra to Jon Hopkins. It was 3 hours of valuably serene thinking time.
As far as my extra curricular musical endeavours goes, that was the last of 2009. And in many ways this is the end of an era as we're moving house and leaving East Sussex. The nice lady and gentleman who are buying Cube Towers want to be in residence by Christmas so I've barely got 6 weeks left here. Obviously, this is going to mean the end of The Cube as we know it. This little wooden square that produced Milliontown and Experiments In Mass Appeal, the real star of all those Frost reports and my little refuge for the last 5 years will be no more. As far as I know, it's destined to become a play room for a young wee chap. This entirely meets with my approval as this room should always be used for having a laugh in. I hope it continues in the same spirit for another 20 years and good luck to all who sail in her.
In terms of what's next, me and the Family G are upping sticks and moving to a place about 20 miles south west of Bath. The new studio is currently a disused stables which require a complete internal refit. On the plus side, it's the size of two Cubes placed side by side divided into two rooms so I'll finally have the live room and control room that I've always wanted. TBE has very kindly offered to give me one of his many drumkits so we'll be good to go for live drums at a moment's notice. On the downside, it's going to be a lot of work and it's going to be expensive. If I get change out of forty grand I'm going to be lucky, that said, once it's done, it will be marvellarma. Proper, even.
In the meantime, assuming it all goes to plan (and when does moving house ever go according to plan?) I shall be inhabiting the study in the new house as my temporary Cube. Not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but needs must. Additionally, the other thing I shall be searching for is a new name for the new studio. I'm looking forward to that bit as I think some element of the new place or some part of the process of renovation will throw up a title at some point, until then I'm very much keeping an open mind. Maybe I'll get attacked by a giant bat one evening and all future Frost material will have to be recorded at Attack Of The Giant Bat studios.
Actually...
And so to Frost. Currently I have no plans to record a new album in 2010. There will, however, be a few individual tracks done next year and released into yon ether. A bit like this year's Doctor Who. From there it might turn into a new interim CD. It'll be the perfect way to put the new gaff through it's paces. Musically, I'm going to devote much of next year to a new project that I've started with an electric violinist, a very tall, very clever man and a variety of singers. I've got Frost in the diary for 2011 as things stand currently. I'm also limbering up for a return to blogging so keep an eye out. Obviously I can't call it View From The Cube as the actual View From The Cube will shortly be that of a young lad happily ensconced in his Wii most likely...
Other than that, I'm home and now readying myself for the descent into the Festive season, only this year, it's looking highly probable that it'll be a scene of things going into boxes instead of things being pulled excitedly out of them.
Ho ho ho...
