Blog Archive: May 2026

Piano Planning By The Seaside
On Wednesday I headed once more to sunny Brighton, for further ALBUM ACTION with Mr CJ Thorpe-Tracey. It was a lovely sunny day and as I headed to the station I thought "How delightful it will be to be beside the seaside"... as had approx 87% of all parents currenntly dealing with half-term in London, and so the train was RAMMED!

Once in Brighton I headed off to meet Chris, pausing only to buy a HAT in a HAT SHOP (I have a MASSIVE HEAD so was delighted to find a specialist supplier of hats of various sizes) and then to say hello to a member of Top Local Band The Highchurches who we bumped into in Dave's Comics (it would have been RUDE not to pop in). It was a highly auspicious start to what would turn out to be a highly auspicious day.

For LO! we had gathered not for the simple delights of Actually Making Music but rather for the much more important aspect of ROCK that is ADMIN. It is a truth universally acknowledged that the work of ROCK is about 95% admin - you wouldn't believe it from the LIES of Rock Biopics, who would have you think it is mostly doing gigs, taking drugs, and saying the names of your songs out loud, but even on TOUR you spend between 30-60 minutes doing the actual gig and the whole rest of the day trying to get to places, arguing about setlists, sorting out financial matters to do with merch etc, and saying the names of your songs out loud.

THUS, as two Wise and Experienced artistes we had given ourselves a whole DAY to do exactly that, with a proper AGENDA and list of things to consider, and that is what we did indeed do. We began with an excellent discussion about ASSETS, which is what you have to call PROMO stuff these days, and came up with various thoughts about getting pictures done, FONTS, websites, The Socials, album titles and even a DIFFERENT NAME for the act as a whole!

We then moved on to GIGS and Chris put forward a very exciting plan for some ACTION later in the year which I shall go into no further here but which will hopefully start to make its way into the public domain in a few months. It's basically a way to say to THE UNIVERSE that we exist as an ACT and it made us both Quite Excited!

All of this was conducted in The Fortune Of War pub, looking out onto the beach, but then we upped and strolled along the seafront to No Catch, the vegan fish and chip shop. This seemed entirely the right thing to do on such a lovely sunny day, but again clearly we were not the first to have this thought as they were SOLD OUT of the fish-style products so I ended up having a BATTERED SAVELOY! COR! It was very nice! It was not all SAUSAGE FUN though, as we used this time to go through RECORDING THORTS, talking through all of the songs and making our way to some production ideas and also SOUND PALETTES. Excitement reigned once more!

Full of GRUB we stomped back into Brighton centre and on to The Evening Star, where Chris and I had had our very FIRST meeting about this project just over a year ago. This time we finished our day's work with a discussion about the ALBUM what we are making, and how we plan to get it out into the world. It was all very exciting and full of POSSIBILITIES, but as Chris said, the big thing about it all is that we are pretty sure we are creating something BEAUTIFUL. It would obviously be NICE if the entire planet went mad for it and we have to spend our days fending off offers for Netflix Specials and Albert Hall residencies, but the key thing is that what we're recording sounds GORGEOUS.

Happily sated with this idea and all the planning for it, we said our farewells at Brighton station and I headed home, alongside all the parents and children who'd come down with me, THRILLED at what the future may hold for this album/PROJECT - all we need to do now is finish MAKING it!

posted 28/5/2026 by MJ Hibbett
(click here for permanent link)


The Lemon Twigs (again)
On Wednesday night last week I headed over to distant SHEPHERD'S BUSH, there to go and see THE LEMON TWIGS. Executive Summary: they were dead good.

Originally I was going to go and see them with Mr M Sutton, who I had been with last time. I'd thought this had been only a few months ago, so was surprised that they'd had time to record a whole other album since then, but it turns out it was about 18 months ago, so fair enough. We had both had a GRATE time but sadly Mark was unable to come along in the end because he had a higher calling i.e. Aston Villa were playing (and WINNING) in the Europa League Final so he was off to watch that instead. This was entirely fair enough, LAUDABLE even, and it ALSO meant that I was able manhandle Mr S Wilkinson to come with me.

We met for a BEER over the road from the venue in The Defector's Weld, which was really nice and oddly FRIENDLY with people actually CHATTING to each other at the bar. We then headed over to the Shepherd's Bush Empire where we were sat upstairs, as me and the aforesaid Mr Sutton had been when we went to see JimBob last year, so I remembered that there was a whole BAR area up there. We thus had time for a further relaxing PINT before heading back into the venue, where we ending up STANDING along the back, behind the seats. This was FAB as it gave us easy access to both Loo and Bar, as well as still being able to see and hear everything perfectly.

With all that sorted out the band came on, once again in their four-piece line-up, and once again were AMAZING. It was like a BARRAGE of ROCK for the first half an hour or so as they reeled off BANGER after BANGER, relentlessly sounding AMAZING. They then did the same thing as last time of swapping instruments and STILL being amazing, and had lots of dancing and clear enjoyment of the brilliant SOUND what they were making. I must admit I found myself reduced to GIGGLING at how silly it was that one group of people could be so GOOD at all this.

The only DOWN side was that, with all the songs being equally amazing, there was no specific song that really stood out as amazing-EST. Normally at gigs you think "Hang on, they haven't done THAT song yet, it'll probably be the encore" but here ANY of the songs could have been the encore, or the first song, or at any place in between. It was a bit odd really, it felt like we'd not had the clear WOW moment because it had ALL been pretty WOW!

Apart from that though, COR, it was dead good - possibly not QUITE as good as watching your team win a European Championship, but I somehow doubt I'll ever get that feeling myself, so this was near enough!

posted 26/5/2026 by MJ Hibbett
(click here for permanent link)


The Validators Return!
Last week I found myself in lovely Leicester, where I indulged in some new experiences.

The first came about because I recently saw a mention of "Leicester Castle" and thought "Ha ha, how foolish, there is no such thing" and then discovered that there totally is and that it's a whole big area and building which I would have walked past LITERALLY THOUSANDS OF TIMES in the 15 or so years I lived there, on my way to work. THUS I went to have a look at it (it was nice), before going to The Good Earth, a vegetarian restaurant which has been in Leicester for over 60 years but which I had ALSO never been to in the entire time I lived there. It was exactly what you'd want a 60 year-old vegetarian restaurant to be and so I'll hopefully be back again soon, but it did all make me wonder how I could have been so INCURIOUS about things like this back in those days.

Anyway, the REASON I was in Leicester was to take part in the first Validators gig for over THREE YEARS, supporting The Loft at The Big Difference. This had all come about due to the actions of our NEW TOUR MANAGER i.e. Mr T Pattison, who had got fed up with us only meeting for CURRIES and so took it upon himself to book us an Actual Gig. The rest of us have been DELIGHTED with Tim's ascendance to tour manager, even though he humbly insists that he isn't but he TOTALLY IS THAT NOW, because LO! it all went really well. Thanks Tim!

We all met at The Big Difference for a sound check which sounded LOVELY as they do have a nice PA there and the soundperson was dead good. We haven't actually ALL played together since Gig One Thousand back in 2023, and haven't done a fully PLUGGED IN gig with all of us since - crikey - June 2021 but it all came flooding back as if we'd only been out on the road a couple of weeks ago. I guess after nearly THREE DECADES of ROCK then some sort of MUSCLE MEMORY develops!

Duly checked we went to get some CHIPS and then returned to The Green Room (i.e. the upstairs bar) to say hello to The Loft and to have some of the FREE BEER what our Forever Tour Manager had managed to negotiate for us - he's very good you know. Various pals and familiar faces rolled in and LO! there was much fun and chat before it was time to take to the stage where we went and did THIS:

20 Things To Do Before You're 30

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

Billy Jones Is Dead

Please Don't Eat Us

It Only Works Because You're here

The Lesson Of The Smiths

Easily Impressed

We Did It Anyway

As you can clearly see, it was BANGER after BANGER after BANGER, and it all went really well. We did Please Don't Eat Us because Joel - one of the tiny wee children from the CHOIR in that song - was now somehow the BAR MANAGER at Big Difference (surely this is child labour?) so he got up to sing his bit with us, and he did so wearing a SHOWADDYWADDY jacket. Somehow the venue has TWO such items behind the bar, one of which Emma wore and then handed over to ME to wear for the rest of the set, which was amazing. I think I have found my new look! Even more amazingly this brought about a NEW FEATURE for the live show, as Ms E Pemberton - quite probably the person who has seen us more times than anybody else - said she had a JOKE related to Showaddywaddy which she then got on stage and TOLD to the audience!

It was a fantastic gig all round really, and a reminder that KRAZY OCCURENCES and ROCKING GOOD TIMES are something that are still very much available to us. As we stood and watched The Loft (the band I have now seen more than any other this year i.e. TWICE) later, Tim asked how we could make this sort of thing happen more often. I guess the answer is for us to book some more gigs!

posted 25/5/2026 by MJ Hibbett
(click here for permanent link)


Album Sessions Continue, Emotions Also
I had the day off work on Friday to head once more to distant Crystal Palace, there to meet Mr CJ Thorpe-Tracey and Mr J Clayton at Onecat studio for more work recording our ALBUM.

This day was always likely to be MENTALLY STRENUOUS for me, as we were going to be recording a load more VOCALS, and so it went. We got off to an Emotional start with Say It With Words, a song that was sounding lovely, piano-wise, but somehow not quite right when I was singing it. After a while we worked out that it sounded too SAD and MOPEY, as I was trying to sing "properly", being really quiet around the microphone, rather than in my usual way of NOT being quiet. It was a right struggle as I kept thinking "This is meant to be different from what I usually do, so I should try and sing it properly", but then when I did that it didn't sound like ME anymore. However, when I went back into the live room and re-did it sounding like ME, the problem was that it sounded like... well, ME. "It's SUPPOSED to sound like you", said Jon and Chris, but I still TUSSLED with it, and continued to do so throughout they day.

I also introduced a new COUPLET in the middle section, replacing the original words which I have never been happy with, ever since the meeting to decide which songs would go on my DEBUT ALBUM and Ms A Bates of The Durham Ox Singers pointed out that "what's a poor boy supposed to do" was letting the rest of the song down. She was CORRECT, but it's taken me nearly a quarter of a century to do anything about it!

Next we did When You Hear A Bird which I think may be my FAVOURITE of these recordings, as it sounds BLOOMING LOVELY and remained so even after my vocals. This is a song that started off as one of my "Here Is A Thing I Always Say" songs and then became something ELSE, and I really like it. We then did another new one, Was This What You Wanted, which went pretty well, before launching into 7 Hearts. I was a bit trepidatious about this one as THE AUTHOR was sitting in the other room, but I think it came out pretty well, despite (OR BECAUSE OF) some "Lee Marvin-ing" of the vocal i.e. doing lots of drop-ins of specific sections until we got it right.

The morning finished with an attempt at It Only Works Because You're Here. Chris and Jon had been giving NOTES throughout the process, which was lots of fun - usually at home I'm just happy if I get to the END of a song in one piece, rather than trying to make it BETTER - and here Chris made an AMAZING suggestion for the end which was so BRILLIANT that it's going to change the way I perform it forever moving forward. It sounded ACE, but by this time I was struggling with the singing (i.e. even more so than usual) so we paused it there and went off to Sainsbury's to get some LUNCH.

After some GRUB and CHAT we went back in to put down a few more piano tracks. I was looking forward to having a go at I'll Fetch Me Book as I'd been practicing it a LOT at home in the run-up to the session. In the past I've usually done new songs a lot at GIGS, sometimes for YEARS before recording them, which has helped me work out how they're supposed to go and change bits around, but that's not been such an option lately so I've spent the past couple of weeks IMAGING I was doing this one at a gig and making all sorts of lyrical updates. I think this paid off, and although I didn't get to lean into the Hinge And Brackettiness of it quite as much as I'd have liked at this stage my colleague, Dr Evadne Thorpe-Tracey, held up their end admirably!

After that we did a COVER VERSION of a Very Famous Song which I shall speak more of later, before having a LENGTHY practice session for the newest song in our ouvre, Timewasters. This proved to be something of a challenge, and we had many many attempts in the live room together without really getting the whole thing right. Eventually we decided to just have a go at recording it, so I went back into the control room, Jon pressed "RECORD", and suddenly Chris got it completely right on the first attempt - it was AMAZING!

The session concluded with Chris recording a new piano track for Say It With Words, trying to get it to match the new FEEL of the vocal. He did this so well that it made the aforesaid new vocal now feel slightly wrong, so I'll probably need to have another go at that next time!

Chris and Jon were staying on for a practice with The JimBob Big Band, so after hugs (and a hello to the great man himself) I set off back down the hill towards home, very happy with how it had all gone but also FULL of emotions. It's really weird quite how much FEELINGS doing this is dragging out of me, and how VULNERABLE it's making me feel. It's the whole thing of it being PROPER and a long long LONG way out of my usual comfort zone, but I think the INNER TURMOIL it's producing is going to be worth it in the end. Having said that, I'm still looking forward to getting this bit done so we can move on to the fun of overdubbimg flugelhorns and arguing about the alhum title, those are the fun bits!

posted 5/5/2026 by MJ Hibbett
(click here for permanent link)