lowstar logo

contact: info@lowstar.co.uk
contact us
Home
News
Gigs
Sounds
Images
Videos
Blog
Scrapbook
Contact
Links

The lowstar lowdown 6 - monday 5th june

Hey there lowstarians! How's it all going? Welcome to yet another update on the goings on in lowstarsville. It's like eastenders without the gangsters or neighbours with less Australians, emerdale with no cows and a country practice without cookie and esme Watson. So I guess I should recap the cliffhanger from last week, like they do in American shows. I think we were just wandering what would be happening to the ikea trolley and we teased you with the possibility of 'the adventures of imaginary alan'. Well, let's start with the ikea trolley. It's still there, although was buried this week beneath a mountain of drums, but ikea trolley fans can rest easy in their beds tonight and dream their dreams of molly the trolley. Fans of imaginary alan may have to rely on their own dreams for now though. We have had literally one request to hear more about imaginary alan - thanks lucy for your email - and we're working on it. Keith has contacted imaginary alan and asked him whether or not his adventures can be shared. He's heard nothing back though, imaginary alan doesn't check his imaginary email all that often. So until next week, we just can't tell you what imaginary alan has been doing, which is a real shame as he had a brilliant week.

lowstar at work So what have the 'star been doing? Well, it's now only a very short time until lowstar go into the studio to record a few live favourites and so it was back to the rehearsal studio for rehearsals. It was an unusual practise, keith tried to compete with magic's rainbow of rock but came a very pitiful second falling someway short. In fact not only did he lack in quantity but also quality - his 'rainbow' was only about a third the size of magic's and was nowhere near as gloriously technicolour - it was like the wizard of oz, keith having the tiny rainbow in black and white while magic took centre stage with his all singing and all dancing scarecrow/lion and tin man, red slippers and flying monkeys rainbow. When it came to playing though, things were different. Magic uses his rainbow to colour and tone his guitar to create magnificent soundscapes. Keith turns everything up to 11 and creates noises like underwater space monsters would make if they had water to be under in space. Some of which may make it onto the tracks next week. Hurrah! Meanwhile rob and ian were still trying to work out whether they play twice in that bar in the second verse or just once. The mysteries of the rhythm section - it's like another world. It's a world not many enter but few who do ever want to leave.

But what of rob and ian I hear you ask. Well rob is very very worried that he will be locked in a tiny room with his bass amp and not be allowed out till it's all done and dusted. The room itself is a bit like a greenhouse though and the last thing magic and keith need is for rob to grow anymore so they'll be making sure that doesn't happen. It would be interesting, however, if leaving rob in the greenhouse dry room with only his bass guitar for company would result in a new hybrid human/guitar plant. The 'throbbing guitaradendrun' or something. Imagine a forest full of them gently swaying in the breeze, producing not a calming swish as foliage brushes against foliage, but rather a terrifying rasp sounding not unlike the intro to cannonball. Maybe in the distance the 'mark kingadil' slapping away to lessons in love'

Ian has been spending too much time with keith and his imaginary friend though. He thought no one had noticed but throughout the practise and with growing regularity ian appeared to be playing an imaginary cymbal. We're not sure how it sounded in his head, but in reality it sounded much like a much more quiet type of silence. I mean, obviously he looked cool when he played it and he carried it off with so much charisma that you almost felt you could hear it. But you couldn't. cos he was banging thin air. The nutter. It was like a roadrunner cartoon where wile coyote is running along and runs out of road but keeps on running anyway. That was ian rolling round his kit, he just kept rolling even though he ran out of road. Of course ian didn't end up at the bottom of a canyon with an umbrella to protect him from a giant rock. Ian doesn't need it, because when he's not messing around with imaginary cymbals he makes his own kind of giant rock!

magic's rainbow of rock Anyway, practice went well and it's looking good for the session. We'll update you on how it went next week. Quickly onto the lowstar woestar then. Firstly, an apology, apparently last week's woestar was not immediately obvious, so just to clear it up - ROB WAS LAST WEEK'S LOWSTAR WOESTAR. I hope that's dispelled any confusion. This week is a tough one. There were a number of reasons as to why there was no real stand out winner. A lot of things were being tried out, there was experimentation, there were difficult mic placements, there was a huge mirror and there were biscuits that had coconut in them. The nominations would be for magic for successfully overcoming of very trying conditions, although if he will stand directly infront of keith's amp how does he expect to hear anything but keith's guitar?! Ian for successfully overcoming his new imaginary cymbal fixation. Rob for his bit in the third chorus of is it now, which is just genius. Or keith for turning up, when his own imaginary friend won't contact him. And the winner is, well this week it's actually a joint winner again. You see in one corner of the room there was a truly horrendous noise sporadically being produced and I know he was trying things out and I know it's better to get it out the way now rather than in the studio, but this week the award goes to ian. And rob. And magic. For managing to keep playing when someone who shall remain nameless got so muddled with all his extra pedals he kept forgetting the chords.

Before we sign off with the thoughts from the studio, a quick thank you to cass who kindly emailed in all the words to the theme of the pink panther show. I'm sure she just copy and pasted them from the web, but thanks for bothering.

Thoughts from the studio:

- magic brought in his camera to take pictures for this update, but was it our imagination or did he seem to take more care over the ones he took of his pedals?
- Could we find a profit-making way of exploiting magic's uncanny way of finding the exact spot in a room where he can't hear himself sing?
- Where is rob's bass pedal, we all miss the unholy noises that aid regularity that he saves for tea breaks
- What will ian's drum kit look like when he gets to the studio' Current speculation has the toms taped to the bass drum with a whole 3 strips of elastiplast, 2 imaginary cymbals, a china and shoebox for a snare
- Can anyone explain how keith despite having considerably fewer pedals than magic and less equipment in general than ian takes longer to pack up than either of them and so ends up missing out on taking the bass amp back to storage?
- What with ian's imaginary cymbals and keith's imaginary friend, can anyone be really sure that magic and rob exist at all?

Right, so that's it. Another update updoned. We're in the studio next week and looking forward to it, we'll let you know how it goes and I'm sure there'll be a way for you to hear the fruits of our labours soon, so if you're interested in what an underwater space monster sounds like, keep reading these updates. Write to us to let us know stuff, don't matter what, whether it's what you think of lowstar, or the updates, or you have questions or you want more of the adventures of imaginary alan or you're just bored and want to write to someone, we could be that someone. I like to think we better than nothing and we'll probably reply cos as you can see, some of us really don't have anything better to do. Until next time then....

lowstar lowstopping.

blog list
recording november 2008
gig email - 20 nov 2007
gig email - 24 jul 2007
happy new year - tuesday 16 jan 2007
lowstar lowdown 17 - monday 16 oct 2006
lowstar lowdown 16 - monday 18 sep 2006
lowstar lowdown 15 - monday 11 sep 2006
lowstar lowdown 14 - monday 28 aug 2006
lowstar lowdown 13 - monday 14 aug 2006
lowstar lowdown 12 - monday 31 jul 2006
lowstar lowdown 11 - monday 24 jul 2006
lowstar lowdown 10 - monday 17 jul 2006
lowstar lowdown 9 - monday 10 jul 2006
lowstar lowdown 8 - monday 26 jun 2006
lowstar lowdown 7 - monday 19 jun 2006
lowstar lowdown 6 - monday 05 jun 2006
lowstar lowdown 5 - lowstardate 27th may.6
lowstar lowdown 4 - monday 22 may 2006
lowstar lowdown III - return of the blog (15 may 2006)
lowstar lowdown 2 - wednesday 10 may 2006
lowstar lowdown 1 - friday 28 april 2006