The Musiclab Live (pt 3)
Sunday 13th February 2011

After a brilliant start to the day with Session 1 completed, the staff at The Square and The Musiclab tutors were able to take a 45 minute break to rest and re-fuel before Session 2 was due to kick off at 7pm. Quick repairs were also needed to my Rickenbacker bass which had given up the ghost towards the end of the previous show. Bob was quickly on the case and applied his electronics genius and had the bass back up and running in around 10 minutes. The "Ricky" has been described by one young student as an icon of The Musiclab and it is covered in battle scars as it has been battered and abused for many years. It's a '78 that I picked up second-hand 14 years ago in a little guitar shop on Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, so who knows what history it had before it came into my hands. As he handed it back to me, Bob gave me an earnest look and said "maybe it's time to retire this one". So I am looking forward to giving Bob the go-ahead to refurb this lovely instrument and I will need to find it a little niche somewhere at home. Anyway, I digress....

The venue had filled up nicely and everything was in place for a 7pm start. Electrlab kicked off the set with seven numbers with an 80s influence. First up was Hands On You - an instrumental version of an old SVC original. With Toby on kit and Ash providing electronic percussion, Electralab worked their way with ease through a tricky arrangement with stops, breakdowns and silences. I was really pleased with how this went - super tight! With the final guitar notes still ringing, Ash took his place behind the kit so we could seemlessy go into a cover of Calvin Harris' Colours, this was followed by Ollie taking over kit duties and Ash moving back on to E-Perc for The Girls which again saw Paolo take to the mic for his vocal cameo. It was great to see Joe return to The Musiclab Live after a two year hiatus and he provided funky sixteenth note patterns aplenty on Acceptable In The 80s!

Returning from a short homework break, we welcomed back to the stage Conor and the rest of the Vest Of The Parrott guys to stretch their legs and show their skills on three of their original numbers. This was followed by a guest appearance on drums by Musiclab student Tom, who did a great job on two more VOTP originals Liberation and Maybe One Day - good work Tom!

We then welcomed on stage the first of Paolo's guitar groups. Holly, Laura and Toni were joined by Ollie on drums and the superb Rhys on vocals for their versions of Misery Business, Slither and Seven Nation Army. The guys and girls really set the standard for the guitar classes to follow and it was great to see Toni getting involved with backing vocals too.

Special credit has to go to Rhys. Rhys learned the lyrics and vocal parts for over twenty songs which he performed on during both sessions. Leading up to the gig, Rhys was averaging ten hours per week at rehearsals with our guitar groups along with learning his guitar parts for his own guitar class who performed a great four-number set in Session One.

Rhys's stage performance was fantastic on the day and not only did he provide vocals for the songs, he bantered with the audience and introduced numbers with confidence. All this and he's only 12! Rhys was with us from mid-day through to 10.30pm and he was as bright and bubbly at the end of the day as he was in the morning!

Rhys finished his vocal duties for the day with two more mini-sets. The first of which saw Scott, Kirbie, Lauren and Hannah take to the stage for Wish You Were Here and In Bloom - well done guys!

Following on from that Adam, Katy, Josh and Rhys (The Pod Mice) played a mixed set with student drummers starting with Under The Bridge with Andy adding some tasteful playing on drums. This was followed by Muse's Plug In Baby featuring some tast lead playing by Katy and some driving drums provided by Chris. Lee then took to the drum stool to make his Musiclab Live debut on two numbers - Molly's Chambers and Billie Jean (nice triplet fills Lee!). This was then followed by Stu doing superbly well to keep pace with Adam's tempo on Breed. The Pod Mice finished with the instrumental Dance of Death with Adam and Katy showcasing their guitar skills and Josh getting a chance to show that he hasn't forgotten how to play drums!

Next up we welcomed on stage the first of our adult groups. Featuring Stephen, Gary and Dave (another Musiclab Live debutant). On drums we had John, who took over drumming duties for this group at very short notice and did a great job. I was down for vocals and bass with these guys and I was also pleased to have Bob accompany / help me with vocals on the difficult-to-breathe-on 500 miles. This was followed by Louie Louie and I have to say that the guys' playing on this made it really easy to do vocals and play bass!

We then finished this mini-set with one of my faves, The Who classic - My Generation. As John only had two weeks to prepare his drum parts for this set, we felt that this song was a touch tricky and although John almost nailed it he did ask me to play on this one (next time John!)

I was more than happy to do this as it's also one of my favourite styles to drum. I've heard a lot of covers bands just go out and thrash this song, but it is in fact a high tempo blues shuffle, so getting it right is all in the triplets and if you can play fast paradiddle-diddles then the fills really open up and flow. We were joined on stage for this number by Conor and Josh who did a great job un-rehearsed on vocals.

Speaking of Conor and Josh, next up we were treated to a Vest Of The Parrott covers set. Kicked of by some excellent high-tempo, slightly swung quarter note rock drumming from Chris on Saturday Superhouse, this was followed by Tom (Foxy) driving along on Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor. Taking over the kit from Tom, we had Kieran, sporting a very stylish military jacket and applying military precision to his drum grooves on back-to-back numbers Everlong and Dakota.

Although the Vest Of The Parrott guys had played all their songs for the day (thanks again Conor and Liam!), we weren't quite finished with Josh as he joined Paolo and I for a quick three-song burst. First up on kit was Terry whose hard-hitting style was very well suited to a couple of original songs. First up was Breakthrough written by Josh (more or less his first attempt at the age of 14 - check out the version here, where he plays almost everything). Although this song is a lot "poppier" than the material that he is writing now, Terry provided punchy, rocking drums to drive the tune.