This came about through a random CD I played whilst Rob and I were driving. The song is from Austin Powers and it got stuck in our heads. So much so that whenever we had mental blocks whilst talking to the camera we’d break out into singing this song. Sometimes (like on the bus) we’d just mime it to the camera, I think to get over the uncomfortable situation of having a camera in your face : ).
It came together nicely when I was editing and it turned out that I managed to get through the entire song from the footage.
The most impressive thing was that our timing was spot on and that most of the time we were in tune - It was a good laugh!!
Not to forget to mention this trailer is for our up coming documentary; Eurobusk 07.
To be more exact I’ve scheduled the trailer to be up next Wednesday. Without giving to much away this trailer is completely different from the first. Obviously it has the same clowns in it but it’s more of a spoofy kind of video.
You’ll enjoy it.
I also invested in a great piece of software for podcasting. Now all I need are the dam microphones!! I’ll keep you posted on that.
If you’ve not been following my blog you may not be aware that The Quarter Tones are going to release a documentary about the trip we took last christmas. The Trip was called Eurobusk and all details can be found on The Quarter Tones Page.
Because the task of editing down over 100 hours of footage from 2 cameras has taken longer than we first expected I’ve created two trailers to wet your appetite for the full episodes to come.
Quite literally with the clocks changing tonight I’m losing an hour of what little sleep I’d get after a late Big Band gig tonight and a wedding in Coventry first thing in the morning. It’s not the best time for it : ).
I caught up with Chris Lydon last night and discussed the pick up shots we need to do for the Eurobusk Video and plans for this years trip (which will probably include a small crew for filming). Now we know what we’re doing our plans are getting bigger and better.
For now I will keep pushing the Eurobusk Video so I can put it up ASAP. If you have no idea what I’m talking about read my web pages to catch up with Eurobusk 2007.
I hope you enjoyed my Top 5 Worst Gigs whilst I was away.
I’m back in Derby after my EuroBusk 07 trip to Collogne, Amsterdam, Brussels, Paris and London.
We stopped playing early in Derby today as after Paris and Covent Garden yesterday good old Derby was a bit of a come down. We’ve got loads of footage and photos and as it is edited and becomes available I will put it up on the site.
We had an amazing time with crowds of people watching us and applauding after each carol (which was a strange experience), being moved on by the police in every country and covering nearly 1,500 miles.
Rob and I tested out our camcorders and recorded the evening. We also worked out how much camera time we would have between charges and downloads to the laptop.
This is about just over 3 hours of stereo filming (I’m not sure if that’s the correct term – 2 cameras running at once) and and about 5-6 hours with the cameras running after the other.
This means that we have to find a electricity hook-up for the flash (mobile base) every evening or stop at services to charge.
Music and Accessories
The music that we usually use was falling apart so Chris has made our own book and tweaked arrangement so they work better. We’re also adding new arrangements to keep the insanity at bay.
In order to reduce the stuff we have to carry I suggested we get lyres (so we don’t need bulky stands). I already have a bell lyre from a series of gigs that needed one for a while ago.
Chris whoever has found possibly the greatest lyres on the planet!! Universal Lyres!!
See picture below:
Chris Lydon with Universal Lyre
Attached to the players neck – nothing could possibly go wrong.
And the rest of the meeting was spent clarifying that a “fund” was some sort of box? (See the Film in 2008)
If this is the first time you’ve read about Eurobusk 07, there’s a whole page that is being updated as we go along - take a look!!
Last night the guys came round to mine and we took a few hours of footage (well we did once Rob realised he’d left his running on Standby for an hour) and had a quick play through some new arrangements and old stuff. Tomorrow I will post up how that went but for today I thought I’d post what busking means to me personally.
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that this is the only group I’ve ever busked with and that we do it more for a social thing (i.e. we don’t take seriously … even a little bit). But if you’ve never played outside for long periods of time in the cold then you might not know where the difficulty lies in the good old Busk.
The music is extremely easy (so at times we change speeds or embellish to keep it interesting) but the difficulty is in stamina. Standing out in the cold for 5 (plus) hours and playing non stop is a lip destroyer.
I think it’s called Chinese Water Torcher - where a single drop of water falls non-top onto the victims head and drives them mad - and this is the best way to describe busking. The melodies drive you insane and the relentlessly easy tunes gradually kill your chops.
The fun in this is having good mates to go insane with - this will all be on camera and eventually on this site!!
