Silent whispers in corridors. Furtive phone calls between the other members of the band. "Eddie can play again!!!" Eddie, if you already didn't know, has recently had a major operation on his back - something to do with removing a yellow streak and implanting a spine. Anyway, he's been given a clean bill of health by the local witch doctor and is biting at the bit to get to whacking away at the old vellums.

But, back to the story. As quick as you could say "Red Lorry, Blue Lorry, Green Lorry, Yellow Lorry", we had a practice organised.

To diversify a wee bit, let's discuss this, the third CD that is about to be given birth from the aforementioned band BedRock. (from now on to be known as "BedRock", the band formally known as "BedRock".)

The name of the new CD had already been suggested and almost agreed upon, namely, "So Where's the Party?"

Kenny, true to nature, decided to take this literately, and soon embarked on a 2 month tour of the town, gate crashing every household that appeared to emit the slightest hint of music or exhibit any ambience of a social gathering.

Michael, on the other hand, 'cos he's left handed, decided to act very grown up and instead of immersing himself, along with Kenny - and Pete at times - in socialistic gathering of entertainment statistics, placed his musical career in serious jeopardy by becoming engaged!!!

Pete, other than the one or two or twenty times that he's embarked on a "tour" of the town with the reprobate Kenny, has (as far as Kenny's concerned), been a wee bit of a "wet blanket". UNTIL, Yes, UNTIL, Kenny found out that Pete was only a slow starter and within 5 minutes of Kenny leaving a party, Pete would arrive to help keep up the reliable and trustworthy name of BedRock.

Pre-Recording Practice.

Kenny's guitar playing was brilliant! He seemed to have picked up the knack of playing just slightly lower in pitch from the rest of the band, but still have the ability to physically bend the neck of his guitar to bring it back into concert pitch at crucial moments.
Then Pete suggested that Kenny tune his guitar and things got better.
Eddie's new drum stool made a big difference. The padding on it is fantastic and should save us a lot of time in having to try and EQ out the vocalistic harmonies from his anal passage.
I must mention that Pete has bought himself a new bass guitar. I tell you, he's only proud of this chunk of wood. He's so scared of harming it that he wears gloves whilst playing. Well at least his playing has improved in the sense that his sound is a lot cleaner.

Well, the first practice proceeded without any serious hitches, although Kenny had to be persuaded to change the lyrics of a couple of the songs. Four letter words and constant references to "poofters" do not go down well with the general public and don't get you much airtime on the radio.

We're aiming to have the all the tracks down by about the beginning of July and then spend the next four weeks or so in mixing before releasing the CD hopefully by the beginning of August. Let's see how it goes.

Saturday 14th August

At last we're starting. Plenty of delays with this album. Nobodies fault really, just work commitments and circumstances. In a way, maybe it was a good thing because it allowed us to play most of the new songs live a couple of times which always makes the recording easier.
Anyway, on with the story. Saturday morning, Eddie and Kenny pitched up and Pete's house and proceeded to totally re-arrange his dining room. (Pete's wife was away on an overseas trip - don't worry, we'll put everything back the way we found it.)
The next couple of hours was spent on attempting to get a decent drum sound. Are all drummers so bloody fussy? "Turn this up Kenny - Turn this down Kenny - to much bass - too little bass - a little crisper."
I tell you, it was never ending. Eventually Eddie was finally satisfied. Now for the bass and guitar. Five minutes later we were ready. Bloody drummers!!
Right, here we go. First backing track for the new album.
We'd decided to be a bit different this time and record the drums, bass and guitar "live." On our other albums we'd recorded the drums, but only "scratch" tracks for the bass and guitar, re-doing them at a later stage. This time, we'd decided to try and get a more "live" feel. It took a bit more concentration from our intrepid bass player Pete, but all in all we were quite satisfied with the result.
Good day, 5 backing tracks done.

Sunday 15th August

Again, we arrive at Pete's bright and early. Straight into the songs this time as we had no setups to take care of. Bloody drummers!!
4 backing tracks today which gives us a total of 9 songs for the new album. Mike, who by the way is in Cape Town bonding with his chick, has got another two songs which we'll lay down on Thursday. Kenny has at least one more and Pete two which will give us a total of 14 songs. Hey, that's an album. Another good day.

 The lads are feeling happy because the backing tracks are always a pain in the bum. Hey, we also got some good footage on video. (Eddies new toy.) Hopefully we'll have a video-documentary of this album. Watch this space.

Monday October 28th 2002

Finally we finished with the mixing, and what a week it's been. We spent until Wednesday last week laying down the final tracks and re-doing a couple of things that we were not happy about.
Then on Thursday - enter Neil Thain. To try and improve the quality of our latest offering, we'd decided to enroll the help of a professional Sound Engineer/Mastering Specialist. Deciding not to skimp on anything in our quest for the ultimate sound, we sent our Citation to Johannesburg to collect Neil and drag him back into the desert. Arriving Thursday evening, he was quickly introduced to the bands families, followed by the bands drink - Taffel Lager - and then a rather large welcoming braai. Good fun was had by all. (especially Pete who got stuck with all the bloody cooking.)

Friday - The hard works begins as Kenny and Neil fired up the Roland and got busy with the final mixing of, by this time 16 tracks of raw, earthy music. With Neil acting as a sort of consulting engineer/producer, Kenny twiddled away at the knobs, letting out small grunts of satisfaction as he followed Neil's expert directions. Here's a couple of memorable quotes from Neil :

• "Paint a Picture Kenny but using sound instead of paint."

• "Get your wings level."

• "The songs standing on only one leg."

• "Oooh, those guitars are bloody 'orrible!"

• "Bring the voice up until you can just hear it, push it up a notch and then bring it down half a notch."

• The bass guitar and drum foot pedal are sharing the same bed. Naughty!

• "Bring the snare and the foot symbal closer. No drummer has 12 foot long arms."

• "Bloody drummers!!"

• "Is it time for a beer?"

By the end of the day we'd done extremely well as we'd managed to complete all the drum sub-mixes. (bloody drummers.) Friday evening, all day Saturday, most of Sunday and all day Monday was spent on mixing the rest of the tracks until, believe it or not, at 17h15 (quarter past five in the afternoon for those who can't understand a 24 hour clock,) we had finally finished. A truly exhausted but happy bunch of musicians then made their way to the local pub for a nice dinner and lot's of small drinks.

Tuesday morning, bright and early, (06h00) Neil was again poured onto the Citation for his trip back home, clutching tightly in his hand the precious CD containing the final mix which he was taking back to his own studio to master.

A BIG THANKS from BedRock Neil and an even bigger personal thanks from Kenny for teaching him so much about sound and revealing so many of your "secrets."

Well, as far as the band is concerned, that's another album in the can. Now it's just the copies to be made and the CD covers to be printed and then fame and fortune will be ours.

Release date? Hopefully the beginning of December barring no disasters. Watch this Space for details of the CD launch.

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