I am feeling a lot more confident and super-grateful to everyone who supported and contributed to the Frome FM Debut Album Launch Party at the Assembly Rooms, Frome on 9th September! The force was with this one and I feel I'm getting taken more seriously now.
It was a very good learning experience as I had to pull a band together, and I've never done that before so I sent up a prayer and asked the Holy Trinity church worship team for support, luckily receiving a response from Andew Howell, who plays bass and Robbie Miles who plays guitar.
We settled into meeting regularly on Thursdays at Andrew's studio, where he told us a bit about his experience and how he's worked with Carlene Carter (Johnny Cash's step-daughter) and The Monkees!
I then asked Richard Churchyard from Sweet Machine to come in on keyboard and my good friend, Katie Harris to play some percussion, as she runs a company called "Drum it Up" with Tanya Sheriff.
I was hoping to pull a gospel choir together, as it's been a vision of mine for a while now but the way forward didn't become clear just yet BUT whilst tidying my bedroom one evening, I did receive the insight to ask Cary Grace to come in on backing vocals, and miraculously she had time! Cary's an emerging artist in her own right, managing to get a review in Classic Rock magazine recently for for her album, Tygerland!
And then finally, good ol' Will Angeloro (the producer of the album and sound engineer at HL Audio) agreed to play slide and electric on a couple of numbers in between sound engineering.
So I did it! Or rather, the mystical force that holds the universe together did it! I always know "grace" is for me when I find a great outfit in time for an event, and this time I was provided with some deep-red-black cowboy boots and a vibrant peacock-patterned mini-dress from the Dorothy House shop in Frome, along with a black top-hat, crafted by Marie Louise Milliner, who's recently moved into the Silk Mill studios and designed hats for James Bond amongst other famous names!!!
Photo by Marc Cooper
I experienced a particularly affirming "sign and wonder" years back after watching Johnny Cash's "Walk the Line" at the weekend and then found a red June Carter-esque dress in the hospital shop (where I was working) in time for my gig in London that evening - nuts!
With my deep, dark outfit and Punk band, the Wochynskis in support, it got me thinking about acts like Siouxsie Sioux and PJ Harvey, who are icons of mine. I love the depth, power and charisma of what I would call pop-punk. I don't sit comfortably with being described as folk as I like a bit of attitude so it was good to revisit this in myself and hopefully remind the audience of themselves too, especially with the addition of Raheesha, the middle-eastern dancer on "Beautiful Soul".
Let us also celebrate the fact that we filled the room with 100+ people and got over 500 views on Facebook! Phil Moakes and Matt Sims from Frome FM enabled live-streaming and audio, thanks to the Frome FM transmitter being located at the venue and I guess we had a strong enough internet connection? See the edited version and listen again at Soundcheck.