Newsletter Del Amitri February ’94
There hasn’t been a Del Amitri newsletter in some time mainly because there hasn’t been very much happening to tell you about. However, as it is now the start of 1994, it seems a fitting time to recap on the nonactivity of the previous year and unveil forthcoming plans.
The only major live appearanceby the band in 1993 was at Edinburgh Castle on 4 September. This concert was in the site used for the Military Tattoo which takes place at the end of the Edinburgh Festival. An audience of 8000 people saw the Dels, supported by fellow Scots Aztec Camera and Gary Clarke, on a clear and starry and slightly chilly evening. The chill in the air was probably responsible for Justin’s energetic on-stage antics as we can only guess he was trying to keep warm in the kilt he had donned for the occasion.
The Castle concert was oreceded by a short run of warm up shows as the band had not played live since the Barrowlands concerts in Glasgow the previous Christmas. Leeds Town and Country Club and Redcar Coatham Bowl were the chosen venues as well as two small club gigs in London – The Mean Fiddler on 31 August and The Borderline on 1 September – where they appeared as Del alter egos ‘The Groovey Tubes’.
Other than this short burst of activity most of 1993 was spent writing and rehearsing songs for the next album. Recording is about to commence and as a prelude to this the group have recently played a couple of small shows in Aberdeen and Alness.
If all goes to plan, there should be new singles from Del amitri in 1994 with an album being released by September at the latest (maybe). This would, in all likelihood, be accompanied by Touring, Radio, and TV appearances and other mould breaking forms of promotional actvity.
Last year, Justin was asked to write a small piece for ‘The List’ – a Scottish listings magazines. We have decided to reproduce this in full for this newsletter because it is a particularly fine piece and most definately not because we are desperately short of other news. It’s called ‘A Life in the Year of The Album – stages 1-11’.
A Life in the Year of the Album – Stages 1-11
Index to stages:
Stage One: Taking Time To Write…Stage Two: Getting Inspired…Stage Three: Writing/Arranging…Stage Four: Demoing…Stage Five: Finding Producers…Stage Six: Making The Right Choice…Stage Seven: Pre-Production…Stage Eight: Recording…Stage Nine: Mixing…Stage Ten: Choosing A Single…Stage Eleven: Promoting The Single.
January:
Stage One: You wake up. You feel like shit. You look like shit. Inches from your face the bass player is still snoring wearing nothing but the support band’s T-shirt on his head. The end of tour party, end of party is over. If you ever have to sing that bloody song again you’ll puke. You long for a solitary night in front of the TV. You need a break.
February:
Stage Two: If you have one more solitary night in front of the TV, you’ll puke. You fiddle around with a tune entitled ‘Baby’ about a man who wants to find someone to rock all night long because he’s bored of spending solitary nights in front of the TV. The group get together for a drink, tell stories about the tour that everybody’s heard, decide to decide to do something.
March:
Stage Three: The group turn up at a rehearsal room one by one clutching their heads and telling stories about the night before that everybody’s heard but can’t quite remember. Fiddle around with the beat for a song called ‘Baby’. Have a break. Decide to do a demo.
April:
Stage Four: You find yourself in a studio with an engineer called Donald who keeps telling you that he loves that bit in the chorus because it reminds him of an AC/DC song. You decide to change the chorus.
May:
Stage Five: The record company loves the demo but feels that the chorus needs something more. A man with a name someone’s’ definately made up is suggested to produce the album. Claims to once have worked with AC/DC. A meeting is arranged. While negotiations concerning his air-fare continue you decide you’d better write more songs quick.
Stage Six: Having met the producer and A&R man (who keep going to the toilet together during the meal) the band argues about the merits of having an obviously insane person mess around with their art. A&R man quickly reminds you that the AC/DC album recently acheived quintuple platinum status in America. You decide that art isn’t the issue here and besides this guy did have some good stories about Iggy pop.
June:
Stage Seven: You’re in a rehearsal room in London playing the middle eight of that slow song only the guitar player really likes over and over again. You are introduced to the engineer who’s going to work on the record. He gets everyones names wrong but stikes up a meaningful relationship with an old bass amp in the corner.
July to November:
StageEight: You’re somewhere in England surrounded by fields. It’s July. The singer has hay fever and keeps leaving snotty tissues on top of the multi-track. The manager keeps phoning up asking if the drums are finished yet. They’re not but the drummer is. He’s in the village pub telling anyone who will listen he always preferred programmed rhythm tracks anyway. ‘Baby’ is really shaping up but the chorus sounds a bit like AC/DC.
December:
Stage Nine: After six months and two nervous breakdowns the band are feeling fine. You’re all sitting on a couch at the back of the control room in a studio called Spank or The Rattling House watching the engineer have a nervous breakdown. No one knows where the producer is but he was last seen on the phone in the cafeteria booking himself a holiday whilst eating a tofu burger.
January:
Stage Ten: The record company are ecsatic – they only have two problems. The final mixes aren’t toppy enough and they think the demo version of ‘Baby’ was better. Meetings are called. The singer announces that the album’s called ‘111’ but not just because it’s the band’s third. The demo version of ‘Baby’ is edited down to four minutes and five seconds and everyone says it’s the single. Two weeks later you’re making a video for that slow one only the guitar player really likes and ‘Baby’ is stuck on the third track of a bonus free CD given away with VOX magazine. The slow one startes picking up airplay and just as you feel you could do with another break someone called Swaggy D speeds it up and remixes it and it enters the Top Ten. A tour is booked and though you long for a solitary night in front of the TV, you decide you’d better learn how to play the bugger the Swaggy D way.
Stage Eleven: You wake up. You feel like shit. You look like shit. If you ever have to sing that bloody song again you’ll puke.
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