Diana Stones Blog

Out on 3 gigs, two with the Elephant Shelf and one with Deltas. All pub gigs but good fun especially when you have a good audience to play off. Its nice to get back into it all again. Its also nice not having to travel too far as well. On sunday we met a new at our gig friend who is a magician with a mad sense of humour rather like ours and had just been doing a show and brought his dad along as well. I don’t think he is a real magician though as the last lottery numbers he gave me didnt win

Yesterday my sister came down to visit from Colne and we spent most of the time chating which was pleasant enough. She is not in the best of health having developed diabetes and high blood pressure. I was recently checked for this and am OK at the moment fingers crossed.

I also was working on learning some Ray Charles and Dr John tunes as I have found some quite good transcriptions. Its frustrating when your hands don’t go to quite the right place though. after about 4 years of titanic struggle

I am finally getting to be able to sight read more complex music a bit. The trouble is having played by ear for the past 30 years its a difficult thing to do as you tend to play what you think you hear rather than what is written. Of course the music has an improvised content as well, but actualy getting down a tasty Ray Charles move or two is another thing altogether. Jazz and blues.boogie stuff written down is often very inaccurate or shorthand at best so for my befuddled brain its a bit of a workout.

Also last night I watched a recorded documentary about Prince. Hes got a lot of talent, but his songs don’t really do it for me.
Personal taste I suppose.

Work up in the middle of the night aching quite a bit and to get relief requires me to lay on my back, so a bit over tired and irritable today. I will go off for a rehersal later this afternoon which will get me in a better mood hopefully. I must remeber to do my streching excerises too as they do help a lot and not to spend too much time at the computer as that tends to make things worse.

Its interesting listening the rants about over paid over pensioned public service workers, which always come from the same sources and unfairness or otherwise.
The interesting thing is of course that two of said ranters of my aquantance are ex-coppers and so will have some sort of gov pension at some point?

I worked in the private sector for 17 years and as a civil servant for 13 years. Yes its very different and was in my case possibly a life saver making the move. I also saw a lot of how the other half lived.

Our society such as it is becoming more divided and many more doors are shut for both young and old and there is no more room at the inn.

I am starting to get back into the more usual routine of gigs now. It varies from slightly chavey pubs (though often with very nice salt of the earth types) to proper music venues so the vibe is quite different although the shows the same. We had a couple of good gigs this weekend, and the one on Saturday night was a real work out in every sense, but my stamina is returning. If I can remember to discipline myself to keep doing my exercises that will help a lot too.

My back is not up to getting serious with the accordion yet, but I do need that for the folksy stuff we are starting to do, perhaps in another month or so I will be able to get stuck in a bit.

My sleep patterns have completly changed now as I seem to sleep for exactly 6 hours no matter what, after having been permanently tired for about a year or so. My abilty to concentrait on stuff is much improved too and the pain has eased off quite a bit.My temper has not improved much though unfortunately.

Long term prospects with the music seem to be slightly better gigwise but not quite enough for financial stabilty yet. We have got some good stuff coming up though including Cambridge Folk Club for for the Deltas that should improve our employabilty though. If we can average 12 gigs a month that would get us about right, we doing between 5 to 8 at the moment, so its not a huge leap in the amount of stuff we do really.

I also need to try and get a bit of IT work again to help out with the cash flow which could tip the balance, its very competitive though of course, and I ‘m not. I am still 10 years of the state pension age so I need to be doing something to boost my income that won’t tip me back in to mental health problems.

There is still quite an issue about this, and it seems to me that regardless of legislation, its mostly lip service thats paid rather than actually following guidelines. I commented on a thread recently that I thought it may be easier to get employment if you have just transitioned than if you have had mental health issues as it is still the case that people regard depression as laziness and then there are all those really scary ones like schizophrenia (which is often conflated with bi-polar by folks that don’t know) though some symptoms are similar.

I had musician friend who was schizophrenic who I have now lost touch with who was mostly harmless, and I wonder from time to time how he is getting on. We spent quite a lot of time working on music together a few years back…

Its been a slightly different start to the month.

On Monday we recorded a Jazz album (9 tracks) and this is specifically for getting work, but a little different for me as everything was live including the vocals, though my voice held out OK, so its down to mixing it now. I am quite pleased with the rough mixes.

I am still feeling pretty rough at times as the bones are creaking and aching a lot, but I am assured that this is all part of the repair process and that apart from excercise and pain killers its just a matter of working through the process, though real ale is very effective in taking the edge off it(it is a muscle relaxant after all ). Its been depressing at times though, without a doubt.

One unexpected side effect that I have started excercises which should help with my posture. I have a life long spine problem,(basically a small hump) and the workout seems to to be helping with some of the postural issues I have. One of the worst things is that I can’t lift anything too heavy, but I have got a trolley for moving gear around which I should have got a while back but the old one broke and I didn’t replace it which was a bad move. I need a bit more advice as I may need a back brace of some sort, but I have been waiting for my ribs to fix first.

We did a support slot on Saturday night in Reading for Larry Miller at Reading Arts Center, quite a contrast from just the two of us in our extremely roots incarnation of the Deltas, but it went OK  phew. Larry is great, but very, very LOUD!

We are back in Reading in a couple of weeks at a little place called the Retreat which strangely enough has a very good selection of real ales. At this point you may be detecting a theme. Actually I am not a huge drinker, usually 2 pints max on an evening out. Rarely I will have a pint at home but mostly not. Next week we should be back in the studio to do more work on the band (elephant Shelf) album, which is nearly cooked now, and we have a couple of localish gigs at the end of the week which should be fun.

I had a good night out on Friday and I should be feeling chilled and relaxed, but I am totally wound up and very jumpy.
Its like I have my own personal demon just throwing me often balance when I think I have got it all together.
Whats it like not to jump at your own shadow?  I wish I knew and I wish someone else could actually know what it is I am talking about, but it will make no sense to them.  I do feel that as the days go by I am losing it more and more day by day.
Whats lurking in the shadows? I don’t know, but I feel like there is something chasing me…

I had a fun gig last night (Sat 15th October) at the Mermaid which is a bareboards ale house in St Albans that has always been an enjoyable gig for us and I finally felt back on form again. I was begining to wonder a little. We were not in the slightest bit subtle last night as the place was very crowded and we had a very noisy but appreciative crowd so we put ‘My old mans a dustman’ in the set, but no Cole Porter though quite a lot of Rock and Roll Piano. We had a guest player last night too. A guy called Ramone who really is from Barcelona, and yes he has seen Faulty Towers and totaly gets the joke. Hes a very good harmonica player and warmed up the vibe nicely. Its nights like that that make you realise why you do it, I mean getting paid to party, you can’t really beat that can you The violin was well received last night too. The back and related stuff is easing slowly and I am feeling a bit stronger, plus I am not half-asleep all the time.

Got to go back to the studio for the ES Album this week, though we are getting quite near the final thing now

Also did a good gig at Cambridge Folk Club ( takes place at the  Golden Hind 335 Milton  rd cb4 1sp), a 40 min support slot to Chris Sherburn and Danny Bartley, to promote our Delta Ladies full gig there in February 2012.

I am still feeling quite rough at the moment, my body seems to be doing its best to repair itself, but I having some very rough days. Today seems to be one of them though and my mood is not good. The meds that I have to fix the problem also make me feel a bit ill on the days that I take them, but the good thing is that I now know what is wrong having had an array of symptoms including cronic pain and exaustion and that there is a fix for it, but it will take a while. The annoying thing is that I had written off a lot of my symptoms as depression or anxiety and then to find out there was a definate and very specific reason why I was waking up completly exausted everyday was a real shock as I thought it was just me being lazy and neurotic

Musically we are in a quiet period with the band excetera with only 5 gigs this month, but thats actually a help as its giving me a chance to build my strength up, but I would like to be busier and feel a bit more up for it.

I finally got my main violin fixed, so that at least is good health and a new stage piano which made its debute at the New Inn Witney on the first of October and seems to do the job OK, though I could have done without the expense. So at least the first gig of the month was a good one. Nothing this weekend though, but we have been in the studio a lot recently so thats not a bad thing at all, in my somewhat depleted state.

I managed to put together a 1000 words for Transliving mag about Elephant Shelf though I am not sure how interesting that will be to most readers of a transmag as its all very normal stuff. We are really just another struggling band and the TG aspect is a very small % of it. We compete on the same basis as everybody else re gigs and so forth. We do have a bit of a once seen never forgotten aspect though and we are a bit like Marmite in that people seem to either love us or hate us

There are a few annecdotes that I managed to dig up that may make it seem slightly more colourful, but apart from the bit where your are actually on stage its mostly hard work and so much driving as most of our gigs are well outside London.

Still if it all keeps together, we should be back to France and hopefull on to Spain, Italy and Holland for 2012 in various incarnations of the Shelf and Delta Ladies. Driving is often a lot more pleasant though outside the UK IMHO.

Its been a bit of a crap month really. My back injury seems to be mending and I have been out playing gigs again though I am really feeling it.

I discovered that I have something caused by vitimin D deficency that has caused my bones to soften which explains a lot of the pain mysterious pains I have been getting over the last few months and also the lack of concentration and extreme tiredness which I put down to depression at the time but which seems not to be the case. It will take a while to fix but thats OK now I know what it is. Got all my bloods checked and everthing elses came out OK, which is good as my siblings have Thyroid problems and diabetes.

Then just to put the tin lid on it the main keyboard I use on stage packed up mostly due to being bounced around in the back of vans and stuff for 7 years or so. I have  bitten the bullet and ordered a new one as it was about time to make a change particularly as my playing style has changed so much now. On a gig last night my violins tail piece broke so we couldn’t do a lot of our normal set with the Deltas. Perhaps October will be better. Add in a string of car problems as well just to add spice to the mix. So lots of extra expense and less money coming in because of not being able to work.

The curious thing is most of the folks in the band seem to have had problems this month too. Spooky that.

Good things though are that the new Elephant Shelf album is shaping up very well indeed and also the new Delta Ladies Album that we have started. I have just recorded another over the top Piano piece which I have had quite good feedback about inpspired by my general pissed-offness though I recorded it before my back had quite recovered enough and was in agonys the day after. Nothing like a bit of suffering for your art and all that don’t you know.

I have a 1000 word article I am suposed to write this week about the History of Elephant Shelf and I havn’t started on that yet so I need to pull my finger out as well…

Earlier in this year (2011) I recorded this. Its a sort of contemporary Classical Style Piano work.
I have a few works like this and I would like to do a proper performance to video if I can arrange it.

A very bad start to September  as I have managed to miss 2 gigs due to health problems. I have injured myself somehow and been stuck flat on my back, so I missed Elephant Shelfs gig at Plumpton Blues Festival which I was very much looking forward to. I am just keeping my fingers crossed that its nothing too serious in the longer term.

An instrumental track from the first Glass Cage CD from 1998, when I got my first Korg work station keyboard.
Its still sounding very good  10 years later I think

Its nearly September and the year has flown by. My Ancient chariot needs to get an MOT (15 years old but only done just over 100k) and I think so do I as I have had a lot of aches and pains post gig recently. A trip to the docs is indicated me thinks. So far so good as we had a really good gig at the Cambridge Rock festival recently that should have upped our cred a bit. We also have a local london festival appearence tommorow at Abbey Fest at the Colour House Theatre on Bank Holiday Monday. We were up in Nottingham at the Trent Navigation as our duo which went well to a mixed crowd of the local blues club folks and rugby supporters so we will be back there in the not too distant future we hope. We also had recent gigs in Lincoln and a few other places. We have one more festival gig in September which is the Plumpton Beer and Blues Festival near Lewes in Sussex which could be good for us apart from the normal ongoing stuff. We are still waiting on the the rough mixes of the new Elephant Shelf Album to come through,as we we will be down in the studio again to do a bit of over dubbing as soon. We have also started recording a Delta Ladies Album and have a couple of rough tracks down for that which sound promising. I have also still got a rather iritating cough which has now eased of enough for me to get my full voice back on gigs but which nearly left me mute for the Cambridge Rock festival but I got me mojo working sufficiently for that thank goodness.

The Delta Ladies playing at the Unicorn in Camden.

I have just started going through my back catalogue of songs and listening through the recordings from 1998 with a view to possibly putting the good stuff on the web(if there is any of course ). Its all a bit prog rocky on the whole! At the time I was also a fair amount of anti-depressants too which judging by what I have listened too so far gives a distinct stoner feel too. There may be a few little gems in there though, with a bit of re-mastering and fiddling about.

Filmed an interview with Dennis Greaves of 9 below zero which should be on the web soon.
Checkout www.liveblues.info and the youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/ukmusiccity for some interesting stuff we think.

Yesterday I got a Piano Accordion, which is an instrument that’s new to me, primarily for using on the rootsy stuff I play in the Delta Ladies, and I think its going to work well for me, though it is a bit physical as you have to get used to a lot of rhythmic pumping, but that may well turn out to be a useful skill at some time.  I am quite pleased as I can just about squeeze out an almost recognisable but slightly wheezy version of the Dixon of Dock Green theme, so be afraid, be very afraid.

Only one gig this weekend at “The Farmers Boy” in St Albans which really will be totally unplugged. It wil be very informal and should be fun. Then back in the Studio on Monday for Day 3 and 4 of the Elephant Shelf Album session. In between a bit of work on various websites, so enough to keep me occupied. A gig in Reading on Thursday night at the “Retreat”, then Saturday at “The Mermaid” in St Albans then on Sunday a Private do in Holton Le Moor in Lincolnshire!

This is amazing and wonderfull ….
just hope I don’t get on the list..

http://www.worldsworstrecords.blogspot.com/

About the Old Bell Enfield

Got to love this