Adventures at Pinewood.
Written on:Friday, December 18, 2009
It's been a little while since I put pen to paper (or whatever the digital equivalent is) to tell you of my adventures so I do apologise and I will try and be more frequent in my blogging in future. That could be my New Years resolution.
Last time I wrote I had just played on a recording in composer/pianist Ronnie Smith's house. A wonderful experience, memorable for its amusing anecdotes as much as it's fabulous music. I will never look at frozen pizza in the same way. In the mixing stage it was decided that some of the tracks would benefit from some strings. Both Matt our long suffering sound guru and a piano-playing friend of Ronnie's knew a terrific arranger Richard Niles. Matt had worked with Richard on numerous sessions so he seemed the man for the job. Now Richard is one of these incredible musicians who's arranging and composing credits reads like someone's album collection, Grace Jones, Paul McCartney, Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Cher, and Mariah Carey a well as jazz musicians such as Pat Metheny. He has even arranged and conducted for classical artists Kiri Te Kanawa, Placido Domingo and Montserrat Caballe. After a few meetings and some discussions of what was wanted off he went armed with the recording and some scores. A few weeks later and all was ready to go. The session was booked in a recording studio in Pinewood Studios, a studio with an ample sized live room to hold 18 string players and a harpist.
The day before the session I drove down to Ronnie's. It's funny how after a while the service stations begin to seem like old friends and the M1 such a familiar path it's almost a pleasure to drive on it. Well, except on this day when they have decided to put road works everywhere and what the heck is going on at Nottingham, those road works have been there years yet no one ever seems to work on them. Nearly six hours later I arrive. A few drinks later however all is well.
The following morning and we're off; actually we're not really. We are sat in a car on the M25 (the world's biggest car park.) By way of a bonus I did get to hear the new Swingle Singers album, a surprisingly pleasant distraction and one I'd actually recommend. Eventually, by some miracle despite trying to get directions of the 118 118 men who though we should go somewhere else, a shop in Slough I think, we get there. After signing in and parking up we walk past some of the most famous film studios in England. There is a definite theme to some of it as we walk down Broccoli Avenue past building 18 on 007 Road, a left and a right and a brief detour up Goldfinger Street and here we are, Phoenix Studio's. A real state of the art studio that has been used by Clare Martin, the film soundtrack to the pleasant sounding 'Drag me to Hell' and even Zingzillas for Cbeebies (whatever that is) to name but a tiny few.
The recording went brilliantly. Richard has worked his magic on the arrangements and the players some of the finest in the country, worked theirs by playing wonderfully. A job well done and five o clock meant time for drinks in the bar with Ronnie, Matt and Martin from the publishing and distribution company responsible for the album before a pleasant drive back up to Yorkshire. Three and a half hours this time, much better. The album is called Ludamus and will in the shops sometime in the spring and hopefully we shall be touring it so.... watch this space. In the meantime I'd like to wish you all a very happy Christmas and I hope the New Year brings much joy.
