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July 14, England
We're back at it!
Rehearsing this week - it's the first full band rehearsal this year for us (the drummers have been rehearsing on their own)
And we've scheduled more rehearsing in August, before starting out our tour in the U.K.
Then we'll play shows in Europe, Canada and Japan.
(Want to see the tour dates? They're on my site's main page)
As usual, I plan to have lots of photos here, of the band and the places we go.
I won't have my usual pictures from the shows, because we'll again be asking our audiences to not take photos, and even though, yes, I could get away with it, it seems only right
that I curtail that part of my journals.
Well, maybe one shot of the audience, after the show... I'll see.
(Looks like Robert's got a shot of me!)
For any who didn't catch news of the band last year, when Robert Fripp assembled 7 of us for a new lineup, the members of the band are:
Robert Fripp: guitar
Jakko Jakszyk: guitar and vocals
Mel Collins: flute, saxes
Bill Reiflin: drums, synth and vocals
Pat Mastelotto: drums
Gavin Harrison: drums
Tony Levin: bass, stick, vocals
Plenty of gear...
Lots of discussing how to do the songs... charts... maps...
and, with our tour manager, Dave Salt, a peek at the itinerary
We like to put some fists together before getting underway
No pictures of Mel at work, because his corner of the studio is too dark for me to get photos.
I did get some of his instruments...
Rehearsing with Crimson is always challenging... we've got material old and new to try to master, and new ideas are welcome.
For me it's also a time to work on my sound, and try new techniques.
After a day or two, I see my rig has evolved into using the following pedals:
volume, 8va, compressor, overdrive, digital distortion, bit crusher, analog distortion, and an analog double distortion pedal.
(Then to an amp with more overdrive.)
Time will tell whether I stay with that sound plan for the tour!
Then, there's my new idea: a Ppower Ppick! Or I might call it a Pppower Pppick.
I'm experimenting with attaching two or three picks together, to have the option for a double and triple attack
That's superglue. And the Yen coin... well, I've tried spacing the picks with a penny between them. That was too heavy, and back at home I happened to have a few yen coins lying around...
turned out they're perfect.
Not so perfect is that now, in the 'heat of action' of rehearsing, I'm finding that there's a lot of cement failure and pick breakage!
Well, as I said, this is the time for working things out.
I'm also appreciating, once again, how great my basses sound.
I'd say they deserve their own pictures... the Music Man 5 string I've come to call Barbie Bass, (pretty obvious why)
I guess, has become a bit 'vintage', though it seems fairly new to me. It's been my main bass since about 1989, when it was Music Man's first 5 string model, and I've
played it in a lot of musical situations, always with it's distinctive sound.
Then, there's 'Yellow Bass", and there's no question this one is vintage, though it was also new when I got it (which, I guess, makes me vintage!)
Back in the 80's I took to painting this bass the colors of whatever tour I was on. So, I'm not sure whether it's the one I played on the John Lennon album back in 1980.
Obviously, I stayed with the Crimson "3 of a Perfect Pair" theme after that tour. I can remember before that, the bass being white with a black hexagon, as the theme of a Peter Gabriel tour.
I hadn't played the bass much since then, but in lead up to last years Crimson touring, I found it pretty ideal for the classic material, and kind of fell in love with it all over.
Well, maybe it's been 'tough love'... the paint is a tad weathered and could use some touching up, I'm told!
After a few days of running down music, we move to the control room to see how one is sounding
Trevor, on the right, is helping out with just about everything... guitar tech-ing, filming, and recording...
Pat's Ginger Baker t-shirt has a pretty heavy vibe of it's own
I'd say that's enough pictures for this first page of the 2015 Crimson Tour journal... I'll promise another page in a day or two, and leave off page one with this picture from the studio
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