New album in production

[Tally]

I'm gonna miss Matt, I think his playing fitted Mark's music very well. The outro to This is Us on the piano was fabulous, for instance.

I liked Danny very much and I have always presumed that he was held back in the studio. On Border Reiver and Cleaning My Gun, he added great energy. This he also did live, though I was not always sure about what he was doing sometimes on stage, like playing that thing on the hi-hat in Sultans that usually goes with the Dm-C-Bb-A descending line after that line (on the 'pause' on A). Oh well. We'll see.

[Justme]

The first picture of diary entry #3 is visible: http://www.guyfletcher.co.uk/index.php/2011MKStudio/Diary_Page_3

GF:"I will be updating this page throughout the day so drop by later...."

[Dutchessy]

Exciting day!!!

[Pottel]

strange how there is so little talk about matt not being there.
the shouts about Danny were enormous, and now it seems only emiliano will miss him 

[Pottel]

also, DIARY UPDATE!!!

http://www.guyfletcher.co.uk/index.php/2011MKStudio/Diary_Page_3
I will be updating this page throughout the day so drop by later....

[Jarle]

Paul Franklin will also join the band

[NicoMK]

the shouts about Danny were enormous, and now it seems only emiliano will miss him 

Hey Pottel, haven't you read my post yet? 

Damned, I still can't believe Danny isn't here any longer. To say the least, I'm really PISSED-OFF by Mark's decision. This is UNFAIR and unjustified.
I won't say what I clearly think of it because nobody cares and I also have to respect the boys' work, so if they ever would read these lines, I will keep my mouth shut.

Guy didn't even had a line for his mate in the diary.

There's nothing we can do about it because 'it's Mark's decision' bla bla bla

[Dutchessy]

Paul Franklin will also join the band

could be awsome!

[ingridswing]

I love it to see Paul Franklin back, I hate to see Danny is not there. That really disappointed me.
And for Matt ... yes he is great but I love to hear Jim Cox again.

[Best Brown Baggies]

Hey Ingrid. As soon as I read on Guy's forum
about Paul Franklin, I thought of you. I was going to text you, but
you already know.
The addition of pedal steel should be great.

Cheers BBB

[Dutchessy]

Hey Ingrid. As soon as I read on Guy's forum
about Paul Franklin, I thought of you. I was going to text you, but
you already know.
The addition of pedal steel should be great.

Cheers BBB

I texted her

[ingridswing]

Thanks to Dutchessy I knew. But thanks my dear BBB, I know you think of me a lot... 

[sak4]

Yeah - good celtic contingent
  

[herlock]

No! No more pedal steel! No more pedal steel! No more pedal steel!
Ugh.

Actually it depends.
PF was clearly overused in the OES tour. Special mention to Telegraph Road, where it did a geat job butchering the song, and on BiA, where his solo seems out of place to me (but to some others it sound great...). But he shined on the songs that were designed with Pedal Steel in mined: OES, YAYF, etc. And on some songs that were not designed for Pedal Steel, he dis some discrete but nice additions (cf. SoS).
Watching "A night in London", the promo tour before the great GH tour, I feel that PF (who was a guest star for the promo, not the tour) was well used - more discrete yet efficient, on songs like Rudiger for instance.
So, yes to a little bit of PF, no to overuse. Same feeling I got with the flute on the GL tour - too much flute kills the flute ! why a flute on What It is, for god sake ??
It seems that Mark goes cyclically when coming to the number of musicians on stage:
-1978-1979, 4 musicians
- 1980-81, 5 (+ 1 keyboard)
- 1982-83, 6 (+ 1 extra keyboard), + 1 saxophone used lightly on a couple of songs
 - 1985-1986, 7 (Saxophone used widely)
- 1991-1992, 9 (!) (+ Pedal Steel, + Percussions)
- 1996: reducing (- Saxophone, - Pedal Steel) but adding a mini-orchestra (Electra Strings) + Irish Musicians !
- 2005: back to the Alchemy roots, only  6 musicians !
- 2008: increasing again, 7 musicians with JmC
-2010: increasing even more, 8 musicians with MmG
- 2012: up, down ?

[Jackal]

It seems that Mark goes cyclically when coming to the number of musicians on stage:
-1978-1979, 4 musicians
- 1980-81, 5 (+ 1 keyboard)
- 1982-83, 6 (+ 1 extra keyboard), + 1 saxophone used lightly on a couple of songs
 - 1985-1986, 7 (Saxophone used widely)
- 1991-1992, 9 (!) (+ Pedal Steel, + Percussions)
- 1996: reducing (- Saxophone, - Pedal Steel) but adding a mini-orchestra (Electra Strings) + Irish Musicians !
- 2005: back to the Alchemy roots, only  6 musicians !
- 2008: increasing again, 7 musicians with JmC
-2010: increasing even more, 8 musicians with MmG
- 2012: up, down ?

June 28, 2011 The day the geeks landed on Earth.