Stuck...

Grr.

I hate weather like this. It's really horrible out there, & I'm stuck inside (due to loss of umbrella and possibly unhelpful lighting strikes). Some useful things can come of that; I've been back through the ton of little recorded ideas on the mobile, and there're definitely some that could be useful. Plus, there was the techy stuff that needed to be done in the Studio - a bit of re-wiring, updating my new sample library (which means trawling through old Future Music DVDs and copying everything over into sensible folders) and generally finishing a bit of a cleanup.

But best of all, there are the time-wasters - online Mah Jong, the demo for World of Goo (which looks awesome - buy it, buy it - it's about £13.59), and iPod Peggle (warning - naughty words from the awesome Zero Punctuation review - love Yahtzee) which we've decided is actually pure evil - how addictive?. But for pretty-automatic-quickness, I quite like Wordle.net.

So here are the Wordle outputs for this Blog, our Front Page (which I like the most) and our Twitter twits. Clicky Clicky.

Blog

Main Page

RiddlerMusic Twitter

Sometimes 'purdiness' is so quick and easy. Reading this on FACEBOOK? Pop over to the blog to see the piccies.

Anyway, back to doing something useful - remember - FREE GIG (& last gig of the year) on Sunday the 30th of November @ Proud Galleries, Stabels Market, Camden - shop and listen to music from 2pm (we're on 3pm) - previous blog actually tells all...

Mike

Nightly in November

Well, ok... maybe not 'nightly', but it's been a hectic (productive) little month :). The Ebony Bones gig was a hell of a laugh and a half (made much more pleasant by the opportunity to actually sit down @ the After Party and have a few drinks rather than the more-usual 'bang everything in the back of the bus and leg it before it gets too cold') - Ms Bones was (as expected) lively as anything, and there were more obscure costumes in the Rhythm Factory than you could shake a massive stick at. Great night!

We've also been doing some recording down at The Roundhouse, Camden - a very live version of Lipstick Blonde is currently awaiting another visit and a mix session after a really enjoyable time down there... If you can, we recommend their Scrambled Eggs, or Club Sandwich as food that's gorgeous and a fair tackle to get through :). Still, we have a few photos from the day which may well migrate onto the site fairly soon (after losing a few too many USB cables).

Alongside that - some new songs have wiggled into the Live set, and that time to sit down and write in October is starting to produce some rather nice little tunes that we'll be knuckling down to over the Winter. The Stables was awesome as ever (they really are lovely people there), and hopefully we'll get another chance to pop back there next year - incidentally, check out our stage-sharing-mates from the Stables, Jackdaw4 - we've played with them once before, and they just reminded us of how damn good they are - well worth a look. They were kind enough to give us a copy of their latest album, and very good it is too. Cheers guys!

Finally, we've got a FREE GIG this month - Sunday the 30th of November, Proud Galleries, Stables Market, Camden - and it's in the afternoon - we're on at 3pm. Bit of an odd story that - it all came about from a business card popped onto Mike's keyboard while we were on stage storming away to a tune down @ Nambucca earlier this year (think it was Stop the Clock, but can't be sure!). After a few impossible dates, we've got one of their rather rare slots. Word is, it's a great gig to do, lots of people milling about, and of course, Christmas Shopping ahoy!

Come. You must! It will, almost certainly, be our last gig for about 3 months while we get on with all this writing/recording we've started, and generally jive everything up.

Oh, and really finally, you can now follow us on Twitter as well - over at http://www.twitter.com/RiddlerMusic, or indeed at the top right hand side of this page. We'd love to get more talky with you. Clicky Clicky...

Hope you're having a lovely month...

RemembeR wish George W. 'Au Revoir' - get over that election fever...

Our wonderful friends RemembeR have been up to their old tricks again (no surprises there then ;)), and have released yet another spankingly great video to an unsuspecting world.

Number One Creation - Ian George feat. RemembeR is the perfect antidote to all that election fever, and is not only a wicked video (some of you might notice some similarities with New Shuuz, New Life) but a great song to boot.


Go, watch, enjoy, vote, rate, comment... - Number One Creation - Ian George feat. RemembeR

Meanwhile - we've been rumbling on in the studio - should have some new tunes to play at upcoming gigs - & there are two great ones coming up - we're lead support for Ebony Bones on the Saturday 8th of November down at Rhythm Factory, and a trip up to the amazing Stables on the 13th of November to play with Jackdaw4. Come! It would be lovely to see you :).

MTV Top 10 Videos of all time...

There you are, having an afternoon tea break, watching a bit of TV, and suddenly it's the 'MTV Viewer's Vote Top 10 Videos of all Time' - awesome (where the HELL were Riddler ;)). That'll pass some time, perhaps chuck a bit of inspiration our way, and ensure we can have a little break from running Studio Dog round & round until we feel dizzy.

All sorts of great, great videos...
Radiohead - Check.
Madonna - Check.
Bjork/Chris Cunningham - Check.
Ah-Ha - Check.

We got to No.2, and started to feel a little confused... Thriller? Surely that's No.1 - there must be some mistake. It has GOT to be Thriller - no, no, they fade out about 5 minutes in, and it was definitely No.2.

No.1? Duran Duran - Rio.

Democracy is sometimes wrong. Just wrong :). Great song, great band, DREADFUL video! A massive fun-loving binge with a smug wink back @ the budget department at the record company a couple of thousand miles across the Atlantic. How much paint?

TV's brilliant.

The lovely Sue Marchant, some Stables and a demolition job - What’s the connection?

A busy little week this. We've already managed to get through one week of tidying, boxing, lugging and general demolition (see the slightly dodgy quickly made Panoramic), followed by a pleasant if confusing hung-over afternoon in Homebase prepping for some painting work - but that's not all, oh no...

...there's more. Anneliese & Mike are being interviewed on the radio this evening - it's BBC Eastern Regions - so if you listen to any of the Eastern local radio stations (like Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, 3 Counties) they all combine at about 7pm, and Sue Marchant should be questioning us at some time around 9pm. Unfortunately, we've got some prior commitments, so we're doing this over the phone, but there will be a 'new' song for you to hear (well, you haven't heard it like this yet, so it's really a 'World Exclusive'... yup.), and hopefully plenty of banter ('cos Sue's lovely, and so are we ;)). We hope we'll be able to go back later in the year and actually do some of that playing we're meant to be able to do!

Catch us on 95.5, 104.5 & 103.8 FM anywhere in that Easternish area of the country, or live online @ one of the local radio pages (BBC 3 Counties Radio would be a start there - just pop down half way on the right hand side and click 'Listen Live')

As if that's not enough, we're also up at The Stables (Wavendon, which is just south of Milton Keynes) with Toni Castells on Friday the 12th - it's a beautiful venue, we're on Stage 2 (which hosted Gabriella Cilmi's UK Tour Debut gig), and it will hopefully be a lovely night - you can buy tickets direct (HERE!), or call the Box Office on 01908 280800. It's going to be an amazing mix of classical/Cafe Del Mar chilled joyness & our random jumping around, and your support there would be unbelievable.

Hope you are all well.

Studio Dog takes over...

Those eagle-eyed people over on MySpace (and a couple of friends over on Facebook) have been asking some questions of our status updates... Who/What the hell is Studio Dog? Why are you so obsessed with him/her? Eatball?

Well, we've had an absolutely wonderful time over the last week - dog-sitting. The Dog in question is known, locally, as the mighty Scooby Doo! And he's an absolute Sweetie :). In fact, there were enough questions about him for us to make him a little blog all of his own, so you can find out more about the Mighty Mr Doo over on The Adventures of Scooby Doo. Bit of a work in process, but there's much more stuff to go up there, and we'll do that when we grab a moment!

As for musicy goings on - loadsa stuff. 3 gigs this month (Ramshackle on the 3rd, the legendary 'Stables' on the 12th - we're playing on the same stage that launched Gabriella Cilmi in the UK), and The Good Ship on the 19th), and we'll blog them in a little more detail if we can get the camera working again (blogs without photos - can't be done). We also have a stack of photos from the Nambucca gig that need processing, so those should be popping up.

Other than that -rehearsing, writing, recording - the usual really :). More to come ASAP...

Oh Hamswell, Hamswell, Hamswell...

My God, what a weekend! It really was stunning, and even with the spattering of rain that invaded a bit of Friday night and Saturday afternoon, it was warm, friendly, fun and definitely worth the trip down to Bath!

What happened? Easy - music was blasting out over the rolling Somerset hills when we turned up, and we took great pleasure in continuing that tradition for 45 minutes in the early evening as the first full-band on stage. Awesome sound, a wicked 1st play of 'I Am The Machine', and people jumping around in the August sunshine. We met lovely people, drank amazing pink cider, met even more lovely people after that, and generally mixed chilling with bouncing around all night to some really excellent bands & staring blankly at the whisp-covered moon.

Saturday was a bit more of a damp experience, but after music all-night, everything kicked off nice and early. And even if some of us missed the 'Disco King' (which was gutting), it was just as good as the sunny Friday. Good to see the required number of fairy costumes too. There may also be a video of Dan doing his best Once-In-A-Lifetime-Talking-Heads impression, but we'll have to dig that one out.

So, if you didn't go this year, GO NEXT YEAR!

In the meantime, lots coming up - the Ramshackle Showcase on the 3rd of September, The Stables on the 12th and an Electro night @ the Good Ship on the 19th - new songs to play, new songs to learn, new places to play - it's gonna be a riot ;).