It's been a hectic couple of weeks. I've been heavily involved with the Comic Relief Song, (see previous post) enjoying doing a decent radio spot in the cold on Surge FM at Soton Uni and listening to people from the local media get really scared because the song I wrote, Belly Laughs, dares to mention Gordon Brown and a pig in the same sentence.
Either way, much fun was had at the launch party (photos here) and we've raised nearly 900 quid for Comic Relief. Thanks again, sincerely.
Then it was back to life, back to reality. Which in this week's case is all about some new ideas plopping around my head for something to write, researching ISBN numbers for Hands, thinking about new artwork designs for it, loads of stuff about the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT that's going to be made in the next couple of weeks, not to mention website work for the Heads, managing a couple of nights there this week, going to the wonderful comedy night at Hamptons, followed by a less than exciting trip to the Rhino afterwards (no offense to anyone there or anyone who runs the night, I was twtiching to get writing, so had to leave before i started to get angry - it's the writer's way...I think).
Then my brother's blog reminds me that Battlestar Galactica is coming to an end this weekend. I've been an avid fan for years and I should have been more excited about this all week, however I've had my mind on other things. But his decent predictive plot blog got me excited all over again.
The writing is so brilliant on the show that it's actually one of the few shows where i even acknowledge that there was a script at all. I haven't seen the final episode yet, Daybreak, Pt II; but it says in the bar below my screen that it's 36% downloaded and that's enough at 5:48am...daybreak.
Sit back, make a cofee and hope that cylon bukakke scene is finally going to become a living dream.
39%...
Also this week I've watched all 6 seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm and all three series of Black Books.
RED NOSE DAY may be over, congratuations to COMIC RELIEF making £57m last night. However, the work still continues to reach our £1500 target to send in.
To purchase PHOTOS FROM THE SINGLE LAUNCH PARTY (through Just Giving - state the code of the photo you want, min £2 donation - more is always welcome!)
See, this is a strange one. We've had a little bit of a kick back from some of the press that have promised to cover or play the song on RED NOSE DAY. That's ok, it's their place to do so. However, it doesn't help us very much in getting the word out to people about the song and raising some money, whilst also supplying a damned good toe tapping disco, Tom Jones type groove song.
Having been there all day, I can tell you that everyone involved with this record put 100% into it, believing in the causes that Comic Relief supports. For that reason alone, I'm writing this.
WE NEED YOU TO BECOME PUNK ROCK! :)
I don't mean you have to put on skinny jeans or do anything different with your hair. It just means you have to step outside of the media mainstream and do something you believe in.
To do this, some explanation of the more ambiguous lyrics may be required if you happen to believe that mentioning Gordon Brown in a song will cause your particular personal political leanings to collapse or for the Hutton Report type scorn to be brought down on your particular media outlet.
BELLY LAUGHS starts off with someone binge eating. They're binge eating because they don't know what else to do when they have no money. They're worried about their bills. It's also paralleled in my head with a poor City worker who's lost his job thanks to the collapse of his bank. He's hungry.
If you want another image to think about, then imagine the Fat Cat who's lost everything ending up on the street. The food mentioned is fast food. Common food.
"Are you depressed?..." is talking to everyone who's worried about the current financial chaos (something ALL CHARITIES are worried about at the moment, I speak to the managing director of Burma Campaign UK quite a bit and he's seen people remove their subscriptions recently)
The end of the first verse is mirroring a piece of Doug Stanhope comedy that rightly points out that comedy doesn't work in happy times. Comedy works best when everyone is depressed and in dire moods about a pessimistic future.
Then comes the chorus. Megan Thomas from Thomas Tantrum sings along with me so well.
The DO YOU WANNA BUY A PIG? joke has been circulating at the Talking Heads for some time. On the surface, it's just a joke. The secondary meaning is that we're going to have to shout to sell anything to anyone for COMIC RELIEF.
With this is mind, it's worth pointing out that I spent two weeks worrying about this song as did many others at mintsouth and southscene. Olly from SubGiant was the first to get in touch and offer his musical services. There is a lot of work in this song, including the 24 hours the guys at The Ranch put into it.
The second verse is about the guys that caused the credit crunch, the people that let greed get in the way of good judgement and who live very well on the back of it. I'm not angry with them, they're just a fact of life. They've eaten well and now their fingers are too fat to cross when they wish for better times ahead.
Then there's another, brilliant, sing along chorus. Maria Howell, who's been a good friend for year and years -
Instrumental break - this was just down on the original song as '32 bar to do whatever'. Scott Reynolds stepped up and put in some amazing guitar. Then Johnny from The Ramblings had been working on his little four line rap which he delivered so well that he got a round of applause from the control room.
His rap is really interesting. He's young, he's naive, but he has a simplicity of point that makes me smile every time i hear it.
Get Gordon Brown drunk and convince him to spend the Fat Cat's pensions on Comic Relief, plus if we all contribute then 'Lenny Henry will be sweet!'. We had to blur out his rhyme with 'Bankers' of course, but saw nothing wrong with the message at all.
Then there's the big point with the OI GORDON BROWN DO YOU WANNA BUY A PIG?! line. This is the one that's got most of the press people nervous.
Firstly, it's just the same joke repeated. But it should have meant that the Banks tried harder to get their Government sponsorship. That when they did buy out some of these Fat Cats they were in fact buying out fat pigs.
It's all ambiguous. I apologise for not writing songs that have one meaning, never been good at that. But it's also the reason me and Toupe aren't as big as Kylie.
It's also the reason why this song isn't patronising you and I can sleep safe knowing I've tried my best to produce a piece of art for your hard earned pound.
If you have some money on a debit card or in your paypal account, then please buy this song. Firstly for Comic Relief, secondly for the song and the artists who are used to having no money so they're not losing anything, and thirdly, to prove the more timid reporters that you're not that stupid.
It's easy to do, just click 'Buy Album', fill out the registration and enter your details by card, paypal or some other method. We've chosen to go with Rawrip.com because they offer a full %100 of the proceeds back to us. They work in dollars but at the moment $1.49 is better than it looks.
Once you have received receipt of your payment, then you can go to 'My Rawrip' and then 'edit my music' and download it to your desktop. And of course, if you really like it, you can buy it all over again! :)
Or come to the SOUL CELLAR, Southampton on FRIDAY NIGHT (13th March). Music from Toupe, The Ramblings, Dustproof and Jazica, comedy from Alex Dawson and DJing from Rowly (Delays) and Route to Routes. FREE ENTRY on the night, though donations are actively encouraged as you enter for Comic Relief (this will turn to a minimum donation of £5 after 11pm).
There you can also enter a raffle for some really hot prizes and also pay for your copy of the single in REAL TIME by paying up, signing the mailing list and then hopefully getting home to the file up your inbox.
On top of that - we would love you to do a little bit more (you know the feeling of doing something good for charity is worth it) - we would LOVE YOU TO TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS!
Rumour has it that some other musicians in Brighton have enlisted ALVIN STARDUST in to recording a song for them to help raise money. We're sure it's POO! (I'm also trying to stir up some of that fake Oasis/Blur rivalry here, you know?) and we would like to beat them into the ground by declaring that we've sold more copies by monday night than them.
WHO'S WITH US?! :)
Sincerest thanks once again for everyone's support in all of this. I'm just about to head off to Surge Radio (http://www.surgeradio.co.uk) at Southampton Uni - on between 12-1pm as part of their 48 hour Comic Relief Radio Marathon. Tune in if you can!
I'm so proud of this song it hurts a little bit. The day was brilliant, so much fun to watch the door every couple of minutes and someone else walks in to contribute their voice, playing, thoughts to the song.
By the looks of it now, BELLY LAUGHS (Food for Thought) will be available to download for about a pound, all money going to COMIC RELIEF on FRIDAY 13th MARCH, with is of course Red Nose Day.
So, today me and a few friends (listed as the day goes on and depending on who turns up) form the local music scene are getting together and recording a song I've penned by request for COMIC RELIEF at The Ranch Productions, so far it's me, Mike Spall from www.southscene.net and Neil from The Ranch laying down the loops for the recording.
The bass is done, Metro from Atlas and Xavier Floyd Firebird is behind the kit right now making things groovy as all sin whilst Mike has gone to go and get Dave Jones from VIVAsleep to come and bring some guitar to the mix. And then hopefully Olly from SubGiant is strolling in to lay down the phat-phat synth part he's been working on. Not to mention Thomas Tantrum and Joe Parker are coming with the mINtSOUTH guys.
We'll be taking pictures throughout the day and doing some posts and tweets about it! So we hope we can bring a smile to your face if you're sat at work and following this.
Twitter = twitter.com/GrantSharkey if you want to follow on that. Also have to mention @xanphilips, @mintsouth, @dailyecho and @stevelawson for all their support. :)
Hannah George asked me if she and some friends could film some comedy sketches at the Heads the other day, and sunday was the day of choice. It was loads of fun and I've never seen a dildo used like that before! :D
