Diana Stones Blog

This week has been a more of the same kind of week. One Band gig in Hitchin at a pub that has a regular blues night and a duo gig in a little Village called Flamstead at a very nice village pub which has quite a good restaurant.

Both gigs were pretty well received and a very modest amount of Ale was consumed. It still amaze’s me that I can chat to almost anyone when not so many years ago I was hopeless I talking to new people. Others tell me that I am very much more open and sociable these days. Well I do feel much more at ease but perhaps not quite as comfortable as others might think.

Particularly when we do the duo gigs you have to create a fairly intimate vibe to get the more subtle stuff across and we try and work a little humor but nothing too contrived I hope. Its seems to work and means folks tend to come back to see us again. A typical duo gig goes from old school Piano Boogie stuff to Rock & Roll country and bluegrass and a bit of swing and Jazz and maybe the odd torch song with a few diversions along the way. “My old Mans a dustman” often go’s rather well with almost any audience.

The band is a bit different as its not such a close connection with audience, but we do spend a lot of time chatting to folks in the break between sets. If only they knew what a miserable git I actually am LOL

I am still feeling the strain physically at the moment, but on gigs the endorphins tend to kick in so its the days after that tend to be the problem. We have bookings as far ahead as Christmas 2012 already.

My favorite gigs are the more intimate ones, even though you do end up staring in to the whites of peoples eyes! My back is still not up to attempting much accordion playing yet though, so that will have to remain on hold although there is a little bit on the new Elephant Shelf album.

I have also recorded a couple of Solo Piano works which are a bit obscure and about as far from Blues & Swing as possible and licensed some of my stuff for use on TV & film which might be useful in the longer term.

I have just about got over Christmas. We were back in the studio in Burnham on Crouch yesterday and I put some accordion on one of the more rootsy tracks, which seemed to work OK.So I shall be doing a bit more of that in future though Phil Cunningham will have nothing to fear from my occasional squeezing and wheezing, mind you Allie Bain has not much to fear from my fiddling either. Due to the ongoing back and ribs problem I can only do a limited amount of playing so my skills are not going to improve that quickly on it. We have about 15 tracks of which about 10 will end on the album I think. The cold is slowly relinquishing its grasp though I felt very tired last night.

We have two gigs this Saturday, one in Billericay in the afternoon at a club called Blues at the Farm as Elephant Shelf. Not the most flattering photo on the website but hey we are quite hale though rather aged and crusty I had never heard of Billericay before that Mr Drury mentioned in one of esteemed songs.

Then one in the evening in our Delta ladies incarnation in the wilds of Barnet at the pub where Elephant Shelf had one of its very first outings (before I joined believe it or not) called the Lord Nelson.

I have it on good authority that at some point this year we will hit the 1000 gigs mark as we have averaged around 140 gigs a year in our various incarnations (Elephant Shelf Jessie Pies Cleavage of Death and the Delta ladies) which I suppose is not bad going really.

Pre-final mix track from the new Elephant Shelf Album recorded at Saint FM studios produced by Pete Crisp who produced the recent Hokie Joint album – the song and the album demonstrates the band’s move to retro style and sound

We did a Christmas Eve Delta Ladies gig in at a small pub in Gravenhurst, and it went very well and we got this message;

“Ladies – I want to say a very BIG thank you for last nights performance. You were just outstanding and I am so pleased that you honored me with playing on Christmas Eve. This is my first attempt at a Christmas in the Green Dragon and you certainly exceeded my expectations. You got the customers joining in and the feedback I have had was ‘When are the girls returning?. I had a few customers come down late in the evening because a couple of the others had rung them and told them to come and watch your gig as it was a real performance worth watching and listening to. So all it leaves is for me to say Vicky , Di and Robbie of course, Have a wonderful Christmas and thank you again for the best evening I could have wished for. Hope to speak to you again very soon to book a few more dates. Lots of love, Tina and Zack xx -
”
Which I was rather chuffed with as Christmas Eve is often a rather thankless task, but this was fun.

I seem to have got very wound up today, for no logical reason that I can think off. The trouble is I can’t put energy in to anything useful as my concentration span has shrunk to zero. Its a bit like waiting for a storm to pass in one sense really, you just have to let it blow over I guess.

Yesterday I had a jazz rehersal for our other,other musical outlet and it went quite well, thoughs it a bit different from most of the other stuff as there are dots to be read. All being well in a month or two we will launch our new venture on an as yet unsuspecting world!

I am not looking forward to Chistmas much as I always get overwrought and wound up about stuff, I have always found it to be a very uncomfortable time of year and tend to feel ill at ease. I also tend to get very morbid at this time of year too. HO HO Humn Bah Humbug and stuff. The Christmas decorations in the Kings Road are quite jolly though. Its not bad for window shoping thoughs that really all I do these days.

3 gigs this weekend one on Thursday at Cafe Rouge in Highgate that was mellow but good fun and we have been invited back in January if all go’s well. One up near Baldock which didn’t go quite so well as they normally have 80′s cover bands so a very retro duo was not quite up their street.

On Saturday night we were at one of our favorites, the Belle Vue in High Wycombe with full band. It was a very lively night and good fun.

The live sound of the band has mellowed somewhat though its actually more energetic, and we had some very complimentary comments from the punters who are mad enough to comeback each time we are there, and so must be real gluttons for punishment. It was pretty much a party atmosphere as everyones really getting into the mood for Christmas and the band was in a somewhat joccular mood too

I record most gigs on a small pocket recorder to get a real ldea of what we sound like, thats very revealing too, sometimes when you listen back its good news and sometimes its awfull! Last nights was mostly pretty good. We put audio clips from the live stuff on the website now. We used to do a lot of video, but its impractical in a lot of places, though we should really get some new stuff done for publicity purposes.

I haven’t been working on writing solo stuff  though as I have been doing a lot of studying and practice and I have felt rather uninspired. Some stuff just never seems to sink in. Also I am not a big fan of Christmas though as a child I really enjoyed it a lot. New Years Eve is always a good feeling though and I try to look back at the good things that have happened though the year.

Suddenly from out of the corner of her eye Diana saw a rapidly approaching cluster of hemidemisemiquavers and a key change

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.

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.

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.

Well whats happening then. My Car has had a few bits wear out so its in the shop as the USA folks say, but hopefully it will back with me soon We have had a couple of really good gigs with the Delta Ladies & Elephant Shelf recently and we have finaly got around to sorting out our recording dates for the new ES album down in Burnham-on-Crouch and we also managed to catch Ian Segal doing an acoustic live broadcast for St FM which I have to say was rather good and a bonus though Burnham-on -Crouch is always worth a visit  but it was very cold and damp looking on our last visit. I quite fancy living down that way, so who knows it could happen

I had a go at a bit of photo shoping  so here is an idealised version of me. Well why not or perhaps the Black and white version available soon. I am also having a bit of a fight with video editing software too, which works but is not quite what I need to match up sound tracks as it has no way to nudge the sound tracks which I can do fine in adobe do da but it is not able to handle HDVC in its native format. I also need a faster computer but I want to make the right choice. As in not too expensive!

Diana Stone idealised 1

Elephant Shelf trying out a new number at the Star in Ewell

Delta Ladies with Linda Gale Lewis at the Jook House Photo by Roger Morton

Our first gig at the Jook House in Worthing backing Linda Gale Lewis.

Photo by Roger Morton

You can see more of his pictures here >> www.fantasticphotos.org