Desire Avenue

I have an amazing opportunity tomorrow and Saturday - I'll be doing some recording at Peter Gabriel's RealWorld studios.

It's come about because someone who works for a Cancer charity heard me playing a jazz gig recently (with three of my very promising teenage pupils on sax, bass and drums). His charity have managed to secure RealWorld this week to do some recordings with young people who are suffering from the disease, but are really promising musicians. They cover all kinds of styles between them, and I'll be working with two singers who are both gifted with a jazz/blues style and want to take it further.

And of course RealWorld is where Stina worked with Tchad Blake mixing for TWIS! I made a CD with Tchad's wife engineering a few years back which is the closest remove I've been to Stina (at the time I had no idea that she had any connection to Stina) - so it feels amazing to be treading where Stina trod.

And I get to play Peter Gabriel's Bosendorfer! ...I've played plenty of Steinways and Bechsteins but never a Bosendorfer, so that is hopefully going to be huge fun. Bosendorfer is the oldest of the great piano makers, and certain pianists, Keith Jarrett for instance, won't play anything else.

I shall take my camera along and post some pics here. I'm not sure what happens to the recordings yet but I'll add them if they are publically available or if I get some rushes.

sound world wrote:I shall take my camera along and post some pics here. I'm not sure what happens to the recordings yet but I'll add them if they are publically available or if I get some rushes.

Wow, that's brillaint Dave, well done, I hope you enjoy and cherish the experience.

Don't forget that camera will you? Just sneak into the ladies loos and take a few 'Stina sat here' type piccies ......-in fact, pinch the seat, and flog it on eBay.

Today at Real World:-

Studios from behind-


This is the studio we were in (The Wood Room). Nearly all artists record vocals in here-everyone from Robert Plant to Tom Jones:-


Here's me at the Bosendorfer-very nice! Peter Gabriel takes it on tour, apparently-


I was recording two songs with Mari, who has had cancer treatment but is hoping to make a career in singing. She has a fabulous bluesy voice-


On the job:-


Listening to a playback. The engineers (who are amazing) use Pro Tools, NB. Tchad Blake is living in deepest Wales, I was told, still comes out to do Realworld work-


This is one of Tchad's 'Head' mics-he is very keen on them, so much so that the Heads are known as 'Blake'. I made a CD using one with Tchad's wife a few years back-


This is the main studio-right now a Disney film is having sound added in there. It's a huge space.


Studio dog-


This wooden chair is something P.Gabriel brought back from Africa, it lives in the studio and he apparently calls it 'the love-making chair'.


This is the main mixing desk in the big studio-where Stina mixed TWIS, I would reckon. It is huge (72-track!!); it's covered up during the Disney film sound processing-


View from main studio window. Nice place to work. The WOMAD offices are through the trees-


I'm back there tomorrow with another singer, I'll get some more pics hopefully.

Second day at Realworld

Today's session was with Alex, who is just 17 and recovering from a brain tumour. He is a very talented guitarist/songwriter, heavily into the blues, so we did one of his blues and then 'Good Golly Miss Molly!'
Here he is with Realworld in-house engineer Greg Freeman:-


Rest of today's band; Jack - guitar/vocals


Rian-drums (in hermetically sealed drum studio)


Nathan-bass


Looking down into the studio. Because we were recording 'live', there was a lot of bleed from the guitars into my piano mics, so the piano was draped in curtains and lumps of polystyrene:-


And that's that for my little bit of recording where Stina has been... One last look at the studios from outside:-

Great photos and captions Dave.

From memory, Stina was there in September 2002, mixing TWIS but I don't suppose much has changed over the years?

There's now a short overview video of the work we did on YouTube; it's well-made and gives a really good idea of the nature of the project and how important it is for these young people.
(I'm the old geezer on the piano )

https://youtu.be/8TA6pSjqWHU

sound world wrote:(I'm the old geezer on the piano )

If its any crumb of comfort Dave, I've known you for over 10 years now and you don't look a day older.

Nice promo film btw.