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Many thanks to the audience who gave the Wright Brothers such a warm response last night at the Listening Room. Perhaps because of, rather than despite, the loud monthly meeting of the Edinburgh Rum Club (yes, it exists) in the...
June 4, 2008: Not quite collaboration but ...
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It wasn't quite what I'd expected when I took a new song along to a practice with Brother Wright last night. The song is barely a week old. I'd dreamt up the chorus and really liked it, and had some...
May 20, 2008: Acoustic Idols 08
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Thanks to anyone and everyone who voted for Romantic Fiction 2, which got 3rd place in Best CD, and for getting the Wright Brothers an 'honourable mention' (better honourable than dishonourable, I say). And congrats to Lyndsay Sugden, who collected...
May 19, 2008: Gigs and Tinariwen
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Three performances in four days, that's what I call living. First was with Ms Fi and the Misfits at OOTB on Thursday which had a nice groove to it, and we did her songs justice. Then on Saturday Secret CDs...
May 14, 2008: Live and ... living...
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Three new gigs on the Live page, two of them this weekend!
May 6, 2008: Dalriada Saturday
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If you're in the vicinity please join me on Saturday night at the Dalriada, Portobello Esplanade. I'll be doing an acoustic set, then a set of electric stuff using loops including my once-only-performed Strawberry Fields and YouTube favourite Nicole. Not...
April 24, 2008: No longer roadblocked
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Here's hoping some of you can go to my gig on Sunday night at the Village (South Fort St, off Ferry Road) (map). Starts 8:30. There'll be someone else on, but I don't know who. It's run by Simon Kempston,...
April 15, 2008: Portastudio memories
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Tonight I fulfilled an overdue promise to send a friend a song culled from my vinyl collection. To do this I had to find a way to get records and tapes into mp3 conveniently, and I did so. This led...
March 9, 2008: Please befriend the Wright Brothers
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The Wright Brothers have cropped up on MySpace. Please spare a thought for the lonely fliers and befriend them.
March 6, 2008: Rehearsals
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Tuesday night was a rehearsal for a recording session with Fiona Thom. I was on bass, Nelson on guitar and percussion and Les Makin on piano. From the bass seat it felt like this: stage one is characterised by scrabbling....
March 1, 2008: Rudolph's Diner
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My friend Dave Watson invited me to join him for a charity gig at the Edinburgh Rudolph Steiner school last night. With Dave Christopher we had one rehearsal at which we practised four songs, one each of the two Daves',...
February 26, 2008: The uklear option
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It seems like such a long time. I think this is the first recording of the year, other than the Wright Brothers tracks. A flash of intuition told me what was needed for a song on which I've spent hours...
February 15, 2008: WaveForms rediscovered
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Browsing my folders in order to put together a demo, I found a lot of WaveForm instrumentals I'd ignored for a year or more. I also discovered the secret of how I can enjoy them - wait until so many...
January 10, 2008: Lotsa music
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Spent every non-working minute of the day at the same desk as work, recording and editing and learning about some of the music software, for example the DS-404 VST sampler I got from Computer Music magazine in 2002. That makes...
December 22, 2007: Wright Brothers Christmas video
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See the jiving Wright Brothers yuletide stomp here! Not me-related, but funny: http://www.sawse.com/2007/11/28/20-photographs-taken-at-the-exact-right-angle/
December 11, 2007: For Kyle
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On 28 November, my friend Tom McEwan's son Kyle was found dead in Dundee. He'd been missing for a few weeks and friends and family had mounted a huge campaign to raise awareness and find him, including a concert in...
December 8, 2007: Christmas Revolution
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This was a fun song I wrote a few years ago in the tradition of 70s Christmas chart songs. I finally recorded it with Nelson's help so here it is as the first Wright Brothers single! Christmas Revolution
December 6, 2007: Secret CDs launch gig
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The Secret CDs gig went well; despite the grim weather and early start there was enough audience to cram the small venue. Nelson rang just before I left the house to offer his services on percussion, so with Mary on...
December 1, 2007: Burnsong
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Went along to a 'songwriters workshop' offered as part of the Burnsong festival. The idea was that music professionals would critique your offerings on CD (or in one case a live performance). There were three in the panel, and they...
November 30, 2007: Old songs, new song
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Spent this afternoon with Mary Robbs, formerly violinist of the Innocents, renewing our acquaintance with each other, and with the songs from the Wolf album, in preparation for Wednesday's Secret CDs gig. I wanted to be able to do the...
November 25, 2007: Secret CDs launch night
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Jim Igoe announces that the first ever Secret CDs gig will be taking place on Wednesday 5th December 2007 in The Phoenix cellar bar, 48a Broughton Street, Edinburgh EH1 3SA. Doors open 7.30 and the night will run until approximately...
November 20, 2007: Kyle McEwan Acoustic Night
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I'm playing at a music night in Dundee on the 29th organised by friends and family of Kyle McEwan. Kyle is the son of Tom McEwan, a friend of mine for many years and co-founder of the Edinburgh Songwriters Showcase....
November 6, 2007: Back in the saddle
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Last year I wrote only one song - Sword of Love. The year before, I don't think I wrote any. I wasn't trying, I didn't particularly want any, I was concerned with getting my back catalogue heard and even rediscovering...
October 24, 2007: The Wright Brothers engineering
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Good evening's recording with Nelson on his Arty French Film. In the space of a few hours we got two guitar tracks, mandolin, lead and harmony voices done. Nelson had been afraid that recording would be stressful and I'd want...
October 19, 2007: Spiders or whatever
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Gradually picking the needle of music out of the haystack of 'stuff' in my life. Nelson and I commence recording the Wright Brothers CD next week (four songs, probably); the Gravy Spiders or Non-Fast Coloureds or whatever we're going to...
September 30, 2007: Sparrahawk
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Finally got back to some recording, laying down guitar, bass and squalls of noise on some tracks by Sparrahawk. He may or may not use them, but it was fun to play along with his masterful ravings.
September 14, 2007: Normanello pix
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Normanello played a happy set to a small but friendly audience last night at Out of the Bedroom. Since our debut at the Spiegeltent last month we've played three gigs, two of them paying more than Nelson's ever earned from...
September 13, 2007: Normanello at OOTB
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Catch a headline spot by Normanello (Nelson Wright and your humble correspondent) tonight at Out of the Bedroom, Canon's Gait, Royal Mile from 8.00 on!
September 12, 2007: If You Had Said - YouTube
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There's a video of If You Had Said, from the same performance as Nicole, on YouTube. Originally on Romantic Fiction 1, this seems to be one of my more popular songs, despite being so sad. 'Like McCartney's Blackbird played backwards...
September 10, 2007: Why to avoid new software
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I should have known. An opportunity came up to buy some new music software, and I opted for Steinberg's Groove Agent, which is a great way to generate realistic-sounding drum tracks, a step beyond looping. I'd used an early version...
September 7, 2007: Flashes and plans
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The second Normanello gig - at the Dalriada in Portobello - was enjoyable for the players, and the manager seemed to like us. What the audience made of it was hard to construe, as there wasn't much response, but we're...
August 29, 2007: Strange Clouds
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Some time ago I mentioned that when Lindsay Sugden, Karen Austin, Fiona Thom, Nelson Wright and I went to Arran we wrote and recorded a song from scratch. Here it is - Strange Clouds
August 27, 2007: Weekend gigs
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I've been thanking whatever guardian angels are on my case for two successful gigs over the weekend. The WaveForms at St John's Church Sacred Space caused me some anxiety. I was practising at home when I realised I should have...
August 24, 2007: Sacred space tonight
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Just a reminder I'm playing a candlelight WaveForms set in St John's Church (corner of Princes St and Lothian Road) tonight as part of their Sacred Space series at 9:30. It's free and you can come in, wander about the...
August 19, 2007: Normanello on a Sunday
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'Good morning, Mr Lamont' 'And good morning to you, Mr Wright' 'What are you doing tapping away at the old computer this rainy day?' 'Well I thought I'd attempt to draw the attention of the public to our debut performance...
August 3, 2007: Ferry Forth Soundtrack
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I've posted in 'Music' some of the tracks I did for the short film Ferry Forth a couple of years ago. They're free downloads; you can also just listen, but the Play button takes a second or two to load.
August 2, 2007: Normanello
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Just had confirmation of a lunchtime set at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Sun 26th August - the debut of Normanello (Norman Lamont and Nelson Wright)! 12:45 till 3 in the Spiegeltent.
July 18, 2007: Jack Ketch by The Houdini Box
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The first of several songs by The Houdini Box is on YouTube. The Houdini Box was a band led by Lynsey Hutchinson from 2004-2005. I was the bassist, Sam Barber was the guitarist and the drummer was Ross Galloway. In...
July 6, 2007: Sword of Love
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The song Sword of Love, which I wrote, recorded and posted here a few months ago, is now permanently up on the Music page for listening or free download.
July 4, 2007: 'This Horse' video
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The video's now on YouTube. The years 2003 to 2004 were the peak for the Innocents, and this video is of our set in Princes St Gardens during the 2004 Edinburgh Festival, with Lynsey Hutchinson on bass, Mary Robbs on...
June 29, 2007: 29/6/07 Peace in our time?
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Went to Out of the Bedroom, which was given over to songs of protest and social conscience. I did the only presentable ones from my repetoire, Empty and Jerusalem, fairly successfully in Guitar Craft tuning. There were some good songs,...
June 23, 2007: 23/6/07 When not being a singer/songwriter
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A couple of performance photos sent by friends. The first is from Thursday's Institut Francais performance. This was a WaveForms performance in a small room, following a very funky Latin band. The first WaveForm was badly executed, curtailed quickly and...
June 20, 2007: 20/6/07 WaveForms gig tomorrow
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I'll be playing a 40m WaveForms instrumental gig tomorrow night at the Institut Francais, 13 Randolph Cresc. starting at 6:40. It's part of their annual Fete de la Musique, and is always a great night. Tomorrow night also features Tommy...
June 8, 2007: 8/6/07 Opening with Ivor
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Thursday night saw the opening night of the Ferry Fringe. All the usual last-minute changes and setbacks, all admirably dealt with by the team. The performances were very good, and there was a wave of love and pride for a...
May 28, 2007: 28/5/07
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Spent the morning at the Queensferry Raft Race promoting the Ferry Fringe . In the evening, my gig at the Village in Leith. A nice venue, with friendly organisers and audience. Following enjoyable sets from Simon Kempston and Paul Gladwell...
May 26, 2007: 26/5/07
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Yesterday was spent in London at a conference run by the eLearning Network. I used to go regularly when it was TACT, the Association for Computer Based Training. Then the CBT elements of my job were sidelined for a few...
May 17, 2007: 17/5/07
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Two musical challenges - one a literal challenge, on the Guitar Craft At a Distance course, to compose and record a solo piece in Guitar Craft tuning using a particular scale. I went through two days of 'I don't have...
May 14, 2007: 14/5/07 upcoming gig
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I'll be playing the Southbound Sessions at The Village, in Leith on Sunday 27th at 8:30. 'This hidden gem of a public house can be found in Leith, near the bottom of Ferry Road, and is rapidly establishing a reputation...
May 7, 2007: 7/5/07
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I'm working on the revamp of my site so you might find some audio samples and other links don't work for the next few days as I move stuff around. I'm sure most people in both the developed and developing...
April 12, 2007: 12/4/07 Movable Typecast
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I haven't been blogging as much because I've been, er, building blogs. I decided to try a local installation of Movable Type in my own webspace to see if I could have a little more design flexibility than with TypePad,...
April 8, 2007: RF2 in The Skinny
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Edinburgh arts paper The Skinny reviews RF2 thus: Norman Lamont - Romantic Fiction 2 EP Written by Mark Webb Monday, 26 March 2007 “I’ve never gone down on a submarine girl...” No, not the Norman Lamont whose name was synonymous...
April 7, 2007: 7/4/07
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Been out and about in a very atypical fashion. Played Out of the Bedroom last night: quite a mixed night, the only standout for me being a woman who accompanied herself on plucked blues violin. As part of my current...
April 5, 2007: 4/4/07 More Sword of Love
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... now it's recorded - just a week after it was born! This is one thousand percent boost in my normal productivity! Very simple recording - acoustic, bass, tambourine, one electric and some voices. Hope you like it. Play Download...
April 2, 2007: 2/4/07 Sword of love
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When I used to write songs, they tended to start the same way. Last Wednesday it happened again. Walking from Lothian Road to Fountainbridge, I opened my mouth to see what song would come out, and a new one did....
March 23, 2007: 23/3/07 OOTB 250
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Last night saw Out of the Bedroom's 250th night. Due to a power cut in the Canon's Gait basement (but strangely not upstairs) it was hurriedly redesigned to an all-acoustic affair with a swift one-song turnaround, and pretty damn good...
March 6, 2007: 6/3/07 Best of the Blues
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The song I gave away as a freebie at Sunday's gig is now a free download on the Songs page. The heart of a drunken Catholic, as written by a sober Protestant. Or something. Occasionally I look at the stats...
March 6, 2007: 6/3/07
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Now this is the kind of company I want to keep: Playlist from last Saturday’s Acoustic Alternative on Argyll FM: Just as the Tide was Flowing – 10,000 Maniacs Canadee-i-o – Nic Jones Tombstone Blues – Marc Carroll I Specialise...
March 5, 2007: 5/3/2007
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Just before midday my neighbour asked if I could help with his PC, which was displaying the 'blue screen of death'. Four hours, a sandwich, two cups of tea, several chocolate biscuits and a flying visit from Plague later, his...
March 2, 2007: Listening Room 4 March
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I'm doing a headline set at the Listening Room in the Blue Blazer, Spittal Street this Sunday. The evening starts at 8 with some open mic slots then I'll do a solo acoustic set, with stuff you know and stuff...
February 26, 2007: 26/2/07 Rhyme and reason
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They say when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. It appears to be true of writers, even aspirant, spasmodic, lazy and confidence-lacking ones like your correspondent. I may have made myself ready by sitting down a couple of...
February 24, 2007: 24/2/07
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Rosie Bell has kindly written a review of Fiction 2. Last night's Springsteen night was a great success - a good variety of songs and performers with a full and enthusiastic audience. If the earlier part of the show over-emphasised...
February 23, 2007: 23/2/07 Brucenight
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The Bruce Springsteen Tribute night is tonight at the Tron, in the Royal Mile. BTW I’ll be singing ’Pink Cadillac’, ’Club Soul City’, ’Mary Don’t Weep’ and (maybe) ’Factory’.
February 19, 2007: 19/2/07
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Downloaded the latest version of FL Studio last night. I was lucky enough to register this when it was a small and cheap application called Fruity Loops, and get lifetime free updates. It's grown into a very impressive music studio...
February 17, 2007: Bossnight
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I'm playing at a Bruce Springsteen Tribute on Friday night at the Tron with Songwriters Showcase founder Tom McEwan. Click the pic for details of who else is playing. Just pumping up my biceps tonight.
February 14, 2007: 14/2/07
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On Sunday did a solo set at the Full Moon Club. Noticed how I sing better when I’m unrehearsed. Pulled out of nowhere a cover of ’Tears of a Clown’. Two days away in Birmingham, followed by a day struggling...
February 8, 2007: 8/2/07
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February 4, 2007: 4/2/06
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I was going to go to the Listening Room tonight, but decided to stay in and work on the new website for the Queensferry Arts Festival and on Lindsay Sugden's songs. There's to be a 'collaborations' evening during February at...
January 30, 2007: 30/1/07 Nicole video
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The video for Nicole is now on the Romantic Fiction 2 page.
January 29, 2007: 30/1/07
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A busy but fairly controlled day where I packed into lunchtime the recording of a vocal track for the old song I'm working on using the following approach: set up mic, switch on, sing one verse as practice, sing the...
January 28, 2007: 28/1/06
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Most of the weekend spent on maintenance tasks - tidying, dealing with accumulated and neglected mail: the rest spent helping Plague with a website he is developing for a local charity. As usual a 'quick job' in CSS turns out...
January 26, 2007: 25/1/07
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A 'quick job' in the afternoon turned into a struggle as I stumbled across one of those Javascript techniques that works in Internet Explorer but not in Firefox. I found a way round that only to find I was getting...
January 23, 2007: 23/1/07 the download store
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OK, I'm slowly getting my act together with regard to Fiction 2. As of today, there are previews of all the tracks on the Romantic Fiction 2 page, where you can also buy the CD for £4.00 plus postage. And...
January 19, 2007: 19/01/07 RF2 is here!
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At last - Romantic Fiction 2 is stalking the marketplace! You can buy the CD here, or wait for a couple of days and download the individual tracks. I've set that up but because I'm going to be away for...
January 13, 2007: 13/1/07
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Rereading some articles on the Guitar Craft site I was struck by this (from A Preface to Guitar Craft by Robert Fripp): We learn to distinguish between wanting and wishing. We may wish to be a musician, but want to...
