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Blimey! I had no idea they'd gone bankrupt and come back to life again.

And they've dropped the DBeat. Mind you, the two I had never bloody worked...

Hello all,

Well we're back safe and sound, I just wanted to say such a gigantic thank you to everybody who braved the weather and came down to see us over the weekend and into Monday. We had SUCH a good time and it was lovely to see everyone after what's been quite a while really. I realised that we haven't played Milliontown in about 18 months!!!

Thank you also for making Craig so welcome, taking over from TBE is no easy task, but he's a herculean drummer not to mention the toppest of blokes and it feels like he's been part of the family for years.

Big thanks also to Paddy, Nellie, French Freddie, Shilts, Pod and Steve who made it all run so smoothly and put up with our buggering about. Thanks also to Ark for putting on a great show each night.

Vit P also deserves strong ale and manly hugs for being so supportive over the tour and designing such amazing merch.

Lastly, big thanks to you guys for being such a friendly force to be reckoned with.

Things will prolly be a bit quieter next year, but what a lovely way to see 2010 out. Have a brilliant Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Jem xx

Civilians!

Fresh off the back of the Frost Black Live Machine tourette. It is with a great deal of trepidation, sorry...pleasure that I can now announce a return to the war years on Friday December 10th at The Peel in Kingston. Join myself, Pete T, Johnny M and Blunders for some festive wartime larks as we wheel out Defence Of The Realm 2. With Tinyfish and Touchstone playing the next night, it promises to be a weekend of sound progressive tremendousness. Those who will witness events next Friday will know what I mean. Or at least they will next week. If you see what I mean.

In the meantime, keep calm...and mellotron.

Jx

Yes, that's right. Further adding to my collection of legendary guitarists, me and DB will be supporting Steve Lukather at the Robin, Bilston on Friday November 19th. We shall be ransacking our back catalogues and pulling out some Destroy All Monsters, Frost and maybe some Darwin's choons if I can persuade Dec. I should imagine that now we're playing, tickets will sell out in a matter of hours. Just as well as I'm sure Steve needs all the help he can get.  :lol:

So come see us, bring jelly.

Got the new album finally yezzerday. I think it's his best stuff for ages. Slightly worried about the 3 minute piano solo on one track. We're onstage with this in a month  :shock:  :shock:

I'm just watching Sky Arts' programme from High Voltage...To the gentleman I've just spotted in the front row wearing a Frost t-shirt during Focus' rendition of Hocus Pocus - Sir, I owe you a beer! :-)

Pip pip!

Just a quick note to say that there's been a slight change of plan to Friday's Touchstone gig in London. Whereas Johnny Mitchell and Johnny Beck are advertised to perform, it's now going to be me and Mitchell doing a wee acoustic set.

John Beck's suddenly now otherwise engaged so I'll be his stunt double on Friday. Obviously physically there's a bit of a difference, I look like a Tombliboo and he looks like Matt Smith's dad, but if you close your eyes you shouldn't notice much of a change.

Hopefully see you there.  

I'm knee deep in gig prep, I'm up to verse 2 of The Dividing Line programming wise. That's the only set list spoiler you'll get from me btw :lol: , after much buggering about with keyboard rigs (I was going to use 2 Nord Waves at one point!) I'm back with a shiny new G6 which, I have to say, is delighting me all over again with it's ease of use, especially in the sampling (and more specifically multisampling) department. I have some other new toys on the rig too, some of which might not appear till the Xmas shows, but it's not a conventional keyboard rig any more which I rather like. There isn't another keyboard player out there with a rig quite like mine now.  8-)

Blunders is in Portugal (on holiday) learning lyrics, bless 'im.

I'm about to drive to Reading now, to then head into London to produce a singing session for the dayjob. After that I'm heading back to Reading (ooh, I love a rhyme) to have a Defence Of The Realm strategy meeting with Lord Connaught (or L'il JM to his mates) and Paul Tippett hopefully. There may also be some discussion of the DVD filming event.

From there we will take the wines...

Tomorrow we shall be heading (by powerboat) to Henley for the Rewind Festival to see dear Nathaniel King and The 42. He's kindly organised us some backstage as well so we can hug it out like proper men apres show.

On Sunday, I shall return home and cook a roast dinner for the fam and head back into the studio in the evening to resume programming for The Dividing Line. As you can see, Frost is very much on the agenda this weekend. I shall have you in my thoughts throughout.  

Pip Pip!

Jx

Craig Blundell is on holiday in Portugal. But he emailed me requesting the lyrics to the choons so that he may learn them while he's there.

Now that's dedication! :lol:

I'm activating lots of accounts at the moment.

I just wanted to say HELLO! to all our new Frosties, normally I'm around a lot more than I am at the moment, but I'm snowed under with work type things at the mo. Here's my to do list to give you an idea -

1. Program up the keyboards for Summers End
2. Program up the keyboards for the winter gigs
3. Organise the live DVD (details to follow, keep December 6th free if you can, especially if you live in the midlands  )
4. Write and record 1976
5. Write Pocket Sun (long story...)
6. Put together my radio show for The Dividing Line
7. Prep for Satriani gigs, learn the new album
8. Write Sound On Sound articles on jingles
9. Dayjob (which is also manically busy at the moment. I've just completed a big old jingle package for NRJ in Vienna, I've done all of Chris Evans' breakfast jingles on R2, did a big pitch for Newsbeat on Radio 1 which we didn't get sadly even though it took a week to do, I'm writing a new library CD, helping one of the writing team on his jingle package at the moment, top ups for BFBS.. the list goes on)

Plus I'm possibly working on the new series of X Factor. Probably not the most popular thing to admit on a prog rock forum  :lol: , but it'll mean I'm wed to it for 3 months. Mostly at weekends much to the delight of Mrs G...Basically it's 7 day weeks for me from the start of October right up to Xmas.

Then it's time for the new album!

I'm not whinging, but I just wanted you to know that I'm not sat by a pool drinking gin and having my nose hair sculpted. Honest guv.  

Back asap

Jx

It's my ageing brain, but I've had 2 requests for the X7 files, dtscape I know about, but I can't find the emails from contestant number 2. Can you PM me please? Sorry about that. Ta.

I'm delighted to announce that I'll be playing keys for Joe Satriani for 2 shows during his Autumn tour. I'm depping for Mike Keneally, Joe's main keys man on this tour who has a prior engagement on those dates. He very kindly got in touch with me and I was delighted to be able to help out. As surprise emails go, this one was a belter.  :lol:

I'll be there for the Glasgow show at the Clyde Auditorium on Fri 22nd October and the Birmingham Symphony Hall gig on Saturday October 23rd.

Hopefully see you there or thereabouts.  

Full details of the tour are here -

http://www.satriani.com/road/

Sorry I've not been around this last couple of weeks, I've had such a bonkers amount of dayjob to do.

BUT! it's all done now and I'm having a couple of weeks off so I'll do some catching up, do the blog etc etc...  

Just to say to those who don't know, I'm doing a 2 hour radio show for The Dividing Line, due to air in about 6-8 weeks. I've sorted the tracklist out now and I just need to record the links and put the show together. Obviously, as it's me I'm not going to just do "that was, this is". I'm a massive Kenny Everett fan.

Anybody who kindly listened to my short experiments with AudioBoo will know what to expect.    :lol:

You are a clever bunch, is there a device on the market that can effectively let me plug a USB keyboard into a midi synth and control it without having to go via a laptop?

It would be really cool if I could add a Korg nanoKEY to my rig. All the midi controllers are too big. I don't want 3 octaves and pads and knobs and sliders or whatever, I just need some simple chromatic on/off triggers really.

Any thoughts?

This just arrived in my inbox, I like his release model very much.  


Hello again.

Today I'm releasing my first new studio music in nearly 20 years. It's called Amerikana, and its available ONLY to members of my online fan community, The Flat Earth Society.

I've chosen not to make this a full commercial release for various reasons. My plan has always been to put out a series of three digital EPs (taking their names from the 3 sections of my upcoming album A Map Of The Floating City) followed by a physical album with additional tracks. But as I've yet to settle on a particular release method for that album - be it self-publishing, a record label, or some new hybrid - I'd prefer not to undermine the album's commercial appeal by pulling the trigger too early. However, my 'hardcore' audience have been following my adventures on my blog and web site as I go through the process of writing and recording these songs, and it's only natural they would want an early listen to my new music. So I arrived at the idea of releasing the EPs exclusively to FES members. You will only be able to buy it here on my website, and not on iTunes, Amazon etc.

Amerikana is an affectionate look back at the 22 years I lived in the USA before returning to my native Britain three summers ago. While living in the States I became very fond of roots American music. And as it's music that was always spread and shared by travelers sitting around camp fires, I felt I'd add my traveler's voice to its ongoing story. Needless to say, I'm no hillbilly or good ol' country boy, so my own flavour of americana is a bit twisted, a bit mischievous. 'Road To Reno' charts the progress of a pair of hapless lovers as their red convertible blazes a trail across the desert in a kind of indie road movie, serenaded by my longtime cohorts the Jazz Mafia Horns. 'Toad Lickers' is about a group of crazed eco-hippies in the Welsh mountains who get high on Bufo alvarius and creep into the local town after hours in search of munchies. It has cameos from Imogen Heap on jaw harp, longtime FES member Crackers on accordion, and fiddler Natalie MacMaster.

But the EP's 'coup de resistance' is a 7'38" epic entitled '17 Hills'. Very much in the tradition of 'I Love You Goodbye' and 'Budapest By Blimp', this song weaves a bittersweet tale using words, sounds, textures, and surprising left turns in the arrangement. It features beautiful playing by Mark Knopfler, who graciously allowed me into his private studio as he added some of his signature licks, complimenting my vocal to perfection. Pedal steel player Bruce Kaphan, who produced American Music Club and has toured with David Byrne, adds soaring atmospherics. Natalie MacMaster injects a touch of Cape Breton charm with a mesmerising looped fiddle solo. Radical string quartet Ethel beckon us into the realm of the surreal. And Jeffrey Wash's pristine fretless seems to channel one of the greatest bass guitar showcases of all time, Joni's 'Hejira'.

As I mentioned, Amerikana is only one section of my album, and three of its four songs are represented here. The price, including high-res MP3s and a print-ready digital booklet, is a very affordable $3.00 / E3.00 / £2.00. The subsequent two EPs 'Oceanea' and 'Urbania' - available later in 2010 - have quite different styles, and some may prefer one over another. My albums, as you know, often cover a wide range of genres, because like a novelist I really enjoy exploring a new idiom, instrumentation, time and place; and thankfully my core fanbase has been willing to go along for the ride. So you have options: you can choose to wait for the full album and get all the goodies in one package, or you can plunge in now, and see where you end up! The eventual AMOTFC album will definitely contain at least 3 songs not included on the EPs.

That said, there is a theme running through the EPs that you might want to be aware of. The album has a backstory which is something you will have to dig a bit to uncover. Contained on each EP is a 'clue', and you're going to need to unravel its secret at each stage of the proceedings. I won't say more than that for now. My recent visit to JJ Abrams' facility in California might give you a hint about what I'm up to!

Here's the link to buy the EP. If you're not already a Flat Earth Society member, now's the time to sign up! http://www.thomasdolby.com/Amerikana

I hope you enjoy Amerikana, and will look forward to hearing your feedback.

TMDR

So I sold the white Rolands today. The Fantom is going to a good home just north of London and the V-Synth is off to a new life in Welsh Wales.

Despite what EvilDragon says ( ) they were good synths, did the job brilliantly, sounded great and served the cause well. Farewell chaps, you done good innit.

Looks like the D50 is good to go as is The Dividing Line's main axe, the Kawai K5000S.

Next thing to do is get Jeff Toman to custom spray my Nord Wave black and ready the new rig.  

Well well well,

I thought it was going too smoothly. I can't really put it better myself so here's an extract from the email I just got from Rob Reed -

"We paid extra,got them delivered on time....
I un wrapped the CD ...
It  looks great..3 discs, clear trays...lovely artwork...
Stuck it in my car...DISC 1.....
WTF??!!!!!!
Disc 1 went into disc 2's audio !!!!!!!!
Gobsmacked.!!!  Double checked......!!!   SH** !! It was true...."

There has been a bit of a major production problem. Turns out the repro company have put disc 1's audio on the disc with disc 2's artwork on it and vice versa. So the whole run is ruined.

The turnaround time on this has been as tight as tight can be so we only actually received them at lunchtime today and had planned to get them out for last post this evening. That's how "of the moment" this whole thing is. It's only when Rob checked the CD this afternoon that we found out.

So...I can only offer my sincere apologies for this, but we'll have to postpone shipping for a few days. It's a problem that's absolutely out of our control. The repro guys are profoundly sorry and will have to start again. Hopefully, it won't take more than a week to reprint and resend so we can get them out to you ASAP.

As soon as I have more news, I shall put it up here and on the blog.

I'm truly, truly sorry about this.

Rob, Nellie and I are as pissed off and as disappointed as you are, but we've been dealt a total pain in the arse left hander out of the blue. These things do happen I guess. Rest assured though, we're working on sorting things out as quickly as we humanly can. Thank you for your patience and understanding in advance.

Sincerely, Jem x

Rob Reed keeps trying to get me to get MainStage and do everything on a lappy live.

I do have it here, but I'm scared of it. Anybody had any practical "out in the field" gigging experience with it?

I have two of the maddest Frost reports ready to go. But I need to co-incide their uploadment with the release of next month's Classic Rock Presents... though as they have some pretty "Fanfare" specific fare contained within.

Anybody know when it's out?

Ta