Last night I got together with a couple of friends who formed our band, “The Rosco”. We haven’t played together since the summer, when we played a live concert in the Bois de Boulogne near Paris. We were getting somewhere with some original compositions by the guitarist, and had a good musical feeling. I’m on vocals and bass, Paul plays guitar and sings some backing, and there’s Axel on the drums. For a three piece I think we had quite a good sound, considering the sparsity of instruments. We were strongly influenced by blues rock and punk, and you could say we fit in with the British rock tradition. The drummer has since changed job so it’s difficult for us to get together, so it was a real pleasure to be back in the rehearsal studio to run through the old tunes. If you’re interested in other musical adventures I’ve had as a keyboard player and roadie, read the post I wrote for Urban Semiotic in October last year.
It’s amazing how after such a long break things fell back into place and in spite of a few mistakes due to being rusty, we managed to run through our old repertoire and there was a real buzz about the evening. Today in the name of nostalgia I’m linking to an MP3 file (below) of our throwaway warmup jam from a few months ago. It’s recorded direct off the mixing desk in the rehearsal studio, so the quality is not up to scratch. But perhaps you’ll be interested enough to hit “play” and listen to the sound. Maybe later I’ll get permission to put some of the finished stuff up, but none of it is mixed and mastered, so there are just rough mixes and takes like the one below: straight out of the desk.
This song is provisionally called “Got to Get Away”. All the lyrics are improvised, as are all the solos. There’s also a few mistakes in there. But go ahead, be curious and click “play” below.
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© The Rosco, in spite of the “throwaway” reference. The song is a composition by the band. Do not copy without permission.
5/1/2006 at 11:18 am
I am so very impressed.
5/1/2006 at 12:41 pm
Hi Pauline,
It’s not that impressive when you’ve only managed to get about 40 people to show up to an open air concert in the Bois de Boulogne (it was all pretty unofficial and no promoter or tickets or anything). However, a lot of other people did stop and listen so it was good fun :-). It sounds impressive though, huh?
-Fruey
6/1/2006 at 3:00 pm
Hi there. 1. This comment is not about Rosco. 2. I think, I was thinking about those Victoria’s Secret Freaks of Nature, I mean, Angels. 3. Your point is very well taken. 4. You are patient and kind to take time to address such a silly post! 5. Have a great weekend with your family.
6/1/2006 at 3:09 pm
Hi Allison,
I enjoyed your boobs post a lot, so it wasn’t particularly “patient” of me. Sometimes I have time to comment, and if a post is good I’m very likely to comment on it some time. Oh, and silly is most definitely good.
Have a great weekend too!
-Fruey
7/1/2006 at 2:48 am
Very impressive. Really like that sharp sound the guitars have. Hope you don’t leave it another couple of seasons to jam together again! Good luck with the gigs to come…
Have a top weekend – hope your new-born baby is keeping well and healthier.
Best of,
Aidan
7/1/2006 at 2:50 am
By which I mean both the shimmery guitar riffs and the jagged bass lines in the interim…
Didn’t mean to sound rude or divisive…!
7/1/2006 at 10:11 pm
Isn’t it amazing – there’s this photo of a guy in a band I know and the singer/guitarist I actually gave birth to – and I did not recognise him at all. His father did, but only from a distance. Father in question is practising piano for a gig in Brighton, England and thought guitar playing quite good on hearing the Rosco via computer. Hugs to Nathan, be over very soon with new suit for the boy.
8/1/2006 at 4:12 pm
Hi Aidan,
I didn’t take the first comment as divisive in the first place, but the clarification was nice for the ego. Pleased to know people are listening to the music!
Mum,
I do have dye in my hair and my eyes both made up and closed, so you could indeed be forgiven for not recognising me. The photo was taken at work, believe it or not, because it was fancy dress day – an annual tradition for mardi gras. Hope the Brighton gig goes well for Dad. Paul’s playing guitar in the clip you hear (as usual, I’m on bass).
-Fruey
9/1/2006 at 4:22 am
Actually, I did wonder about the greyness too, compared with the thirtysomething self-descriptions, but felt a little too unsure and unnerved to question it…!
Where was/is the Brighton gig? (Spent a few years exiled on the Sussex coast, local-ragging but mainly trying to mop up as many free gig tickets as plausbile in between clocking on and off…)
Best of, Fruey’n’family…
9/1/2006 at 10:17 pm
Hi Aidan,
Yes I’m not yet going grey enough for it to be visible in photos. I’m sure Nathan is working on turning the rest of my hair grey, but for the photo it was fancy dress…
I don’t know where the Brighton gig is. My Dad usually plays keyboard & organ recitals at clubs where there are fans of that type of music. Not particularly rock ‘n roll, a different kind of evening altogether.
-Fruey