Spoonful of Poison

Sketch done at Spoonful a little while ago. I really like performing at Spoonful, Vis the Spoon does a great job. Here's the DJ and a performer.

All Skin and Bones

This very nice folk singer at Spoonful of Poison alerted me to the joys of the Warner Collection. I did a little You Tube search and found a very nice version of Skin and Bones from the collection which I will maybe sing with Richard in Foulkestone. The lyrics are so nice as they are a kind of mediaeval type of poem or homily and it has made me think of adapting more middle english verse for our group.

There was an old lady
All skin and bones
Mmmm

She thought she’d go
To church one day
To hear the parson
Preach and pray
Mmmm

But when she got
Unto the stile
She thought she’d rest
A little while

Mmmmm

And when she got
Unto the door
She thought she’d rest
A little more
MMM

She looked up
She looked down
She spied a corpse
Upon the ground

The woman to
The parson said
Will I look so
When I am dead
Mmmmmm

The parson to
The woman said
You will look so
When you are dead
Mmmmm

The woman to
The parson said
Mmmm

Spoonful of Poison

Ooooh that was a really great night last time. A classic. Well done Vis, well done everyone! The Boilermakers rocked (well they improvised) and everyone else was ace, including the Wormlady and Miss Roberts.

Act at Spoonful of Poison

Act at Spoonful of Poison

Vis the Spoon's 'Spoonful of Poison'

Played Vis's night at the Urban Bar opposite Whitechapel tube yesterday. There were some hiccups in his rather anarchical evening but I enjoyed my little set. I did Reuters material, using the stories from Reuters items, improvising with my Microkorg and my Zoom drum machine. I particularly enjoyed interpreting the two stories about the ice fishing competition in China and the ice swimming in Moscow. Thank you Vis, you are such a tremendously witty and warm host. Vis was so kind, he said 'I've found the new Ivor Cutler, and it's Jude Cowan'. I was so pleased, even though he's terribly gracious and flattering he's not full of shit so he must have meant something to compare me to Ivor Cutler. Well, it makes me feel good today to think of it!

I met Matt at an Ivor Cutler evening hosted by Roddy Lumsden so that makes me feel even more wonderful when our names are mentioned together ...

Spoonful of Poison

Yesterday evening took the Minipops, the Microkorg and me out to the Lion in Stoke Newington to play at Vis the Spoon's open mic bonanza, Spoonful of Poison. I did a few improvised xmas numbers. Was fun. I particularly enjoyed singing a rather wobbly and experimental 'Silent Night'. I'd meant to sing it in German (I can't speak German but it's fun to sing in, especially with my impossible no-good accent) but I'd left the lyrics somewhere and so I could only sing the four words I could remember before commencing other vocal patterns. Was great fun! Roll on Helen McCookerybook's Xmas party when I can have another go at xmas vocalisations with electronica in front of unsuspecting guests.

Minipops goes slower!

Matt took apart the Minipops and fixed it so it's slower. I now have a workstation in the home studio with a little Mackie desk and various bits, an old tape recorder (one of those industrial ones from a primary school), the Minipops drum machine, the Microkorg, and the gooseneck mic from the Microkorg going straight into the other Mackie channel. I'm going to do some Christmas stories / fables using the set up on Wednesday when I've got a gig at Spoonful of Poison. I think it's Weds, better check that with Vis the Spoon, the gracious host.

I love my new set up. All I want now is a nice Moog pedal (maybe a ring modulator?) to put through the aux sends, so I can put nice processing effects on all the different sounds. Well, that is the spirit of Christmas!