Road to Chelmsford
There is something about the number 2. It took 2 years and 2 months to complete The Breeding Ground of Vile. The physical CDs will be with me next week (ish) and because it’s a double album there are 2 CDs. Then yesterday, had I driven direct down the M6 and M1 on my journey to Chelmsford from Sale the distance would have been 222 miles, but instead I collected Matt from his home in Leicester, where we both rehearsed our evening set and did a spot of recording for his new album, so the 2 of us could drive on from there. My long day trip saw me returning home 22 hours after I left the previous morning. Well that’s the contrived stats out of the way.
So why Chelmsford? The only time I can recall spending time in (or maybe near) Chelmsford previously was a) when I was trying to sell a woodworking machine to a manufacturer of cricket bats, and b) when a bunch of us went to a party, of which all I can remember is Graham Fisher eating a daffodil. I was much younger then, so last night’s experience was a significantly more sober and very much more fulfilling visit to Moulsham Mill to play a set of our songs for Folk Union on Chelmsford Community Radio, hosted by Carl Spaul.
I made an early start to try and get as close as possible to Leicester before the M1 motorway suffered its usual morning congestion, stopping at Leicester Forest East service station exactly 2 hours after setting off because I could see a massive queue ahead. My car was packed to the gunnels with instruments and P.A. equipment so I couldn’t leave it unattended, and sat in the car park listening the radio and answering a few work emails to minimise the chance of disturbance to my day. That half hour gave me a rest from driving and the traffic cleared enough for me to resume my journey to Matt’s house.
Matt wasn’t originally on the ticket for this adventure. I’d been talking for a while to Carl about playing an acoustic set and doing an interview with him about the new album. Our first effort was scuppered due to ongoing refurbishment of the studio. Chelmsford Community Radio is run by volunteers, so whether it’s presenting a show or maintaining the studio, it’s done in whatever spare time the good people of Chelmsford can spare. You feel the atmosphere at Moulsham Mill. There’s something very warming and positive about the place. I’m good on atmospheres!
I was talking to Matt about the new date and it occurred to us that we could share the journey and play some songs together, so Carl got ‘two for the price of one’. The original intention was for me/us to play a few songs acoustically, but I had been itching to try out a few new gismos and a discussion about how we were going to do everything, the number of inputs on Carl’s equipment etc. led to me taking my P.A. It felt like overkill but it was probably the right thing to have done!
The large cup of coffee that greeted me at Matt’s was very welcome as I arrived, and we quickly set to work on a rehearsal of some of my songs we have played together, some of my songs we have never played together, and some of his that I have never previously played on. Ironing out some (but not all) of the gremlins, we then recorded a few of my contributions to Matt’s next album “Here be Dragons”, then more rehearsing between lunch and collecting his 2 daughters from school.
The journey to Chelmsford on a Friday mid-late afternoon was likely to provide additional traffic challenges, so we set off around 3:30pm and took the route suggested by Matt’s phone, down the M1 and clockwise round the M25. We had a really good run down the M1, listening through his excellent new album, and the M25 was running free. Yes, that was too good to be true. It ground to a halt due to an accident and put back our original ETA by 40 minutes or so. We arrived more or less on time, set up the P.A. between sips of tea, and were ready to roll just after 7:40pm.
The resulting live performance and interviews will be aired next Friday 14thSeptember at 11pm and will be available on Mixcloud thereafterwards. So we will leave you to decide how well (or not) we did after our epic journey. The long day flew by, and our chat with Carl could easily have lasted a very long time. He is a really good guy, affable, professional, knowledgeable, and passionate about playing his part in highlighting the music of independent musicians like us. We very much appreciate the level of effort and support shown by from Carl and other non-profit and community radio stations, and we urge you to support them in return with your music, your time, or your money. Every little helps!