News Archives
Tuesday, 5th April 2005
Hello everybody.
I got my Postgraduate course!
So I get to go to Dublin and do my Higher Diploma in Education, and head back school-ward for a career teaching the little terrors. Well, not little, i'll bve in secondary school after all. I'm so unbelievably happy. Anyway, given that the weekend after next is Finbar's birthday, there probably won't be any celebration for me, but i might arrange a small one, with close friends, this weekend.
In band related news, practice has been ongoing with Issue Ever Reign - some day soon i'll give this site an overhaul. We've been practicing once a week, and we have some original stuff done, as well as plenty of covers. So i reckon we'll be ready for action by Finfest. The next gig we know we're going to have after that will be in July, for Maeve and Deirdre Quaid's birthday. Hopefully though, we can get one in between fin's and theirs for more experience. Also, we'll have to get recording on our album soon enough, as soon as Fin's birthday is past we'll be back into writing mode.
Expect to hear a lot more from Templemore's most dedicated band.
But for now, I'm overcome with righteous joy.... I'm gonna be a teacher! (hopefully)
JiM2!
Monday, 21st February 2005
Hello everybody.
My project is done. It's handed in. I'm totally willing to forget about it. And i promised music once the project was done, right? And i intend to deliver on that. But, i feel obliged to inform you that the Black #8 project is no nore. At least for the moment, i will not be working on any solo material.
Assuming you're one of the UAMers, then you know of my involvement in "the semantics". It's completely summer based. You should also know of my involvement in U.D.(Unauthorized Distribution). We have renamed ourselves Piracy. So it was those two and Black #8. The change is that, to replace Black #8, I'm involved in another, new band.... Issue Ever Reign. The name might change later, but for the moment that's our name. We considered calling ourselves neon train rail disaster for a while, but thought better of it.
Members of Issue Ever Reign:
Peter Delaney
David Hanley
Jimmy Hanley
The plan is to do original songs. You've probably heard some of mine - we'll be using the good ones of those. David is writing/has written the guitar for some songs. Peter has written the guitar for some songs. I'm going to come up with bass for the songs, Dave and I will be coming up with lyrics. Because we all have a few songs written each already, an album should be quick enough in coming together. Only disadvantage is lack of available practice/recording time, because of David's upcoming Junior Cert. We'll work around it. This site may be modified slightly, and be used for the band. I'll talk it out with Dave and Peter.
Anyway, i'm gonna head on my way. Pop back here every now and then, i'll be posting up progress on work etc.
black #8.
Tuesday, 1st February 2005
Hi again! I know no-one ever comes here or reads this, but i'd feel wrong if i didn't changes the news at least once a month. I have a project due on February the 18th. I'm supposed to have been working on it for almost a year. Well...they don't really expect you to work on it that long, but thats the kind of time frame available. I have very little done, and i'm a bit lost as to what i'm doing. Nevertheless, i'm in college all week this week to try and find out what i'm doing, and get it done and therefore not fail. Not failing is really all i care about. I'm not deluding myself into aiming for an A. Man, is my head unsettled.
New Black #8 music update: I had the fortune at the weekend to stumble across a recording i made that i had totally forgotten about - just music, no lyrics or anything (yet). There is the little bonus that my godson and cousins can be heard yelling in the background. It actually adds something, the way it's done, so either i won't record it, or i'll sample the yelling on a re-recording.
Despite all good intentions, U.D. still have not started practicing. One of these years, it might happen. As most of you know, there will be no Semantics for a few months. Brian was thinking of coming home for a while in January, but it never happened. Unless myself and Sean get up to something without him, hold on till summer.Thats all from me for now,
black #8
Thursday, 20th January 2005
Hey there! Just finished my exams today, and i just want to say, if i never have to do something like that again it will still be too soon. Exam was great, easy coz i had studied for it. However, due to storm, power failure etc, i couldn't even make it in on time. I was ringing in and my only option was to get in before the end of the exam, otherwise it would count as me failing, and i would have had to repeat in September. Now repeating in September would be grand, except for the fact that my makr would be capped at C3...which is crap. So got going out of town, and got into college at 11, when the exam was due to end. They brought me to another room and let me do it. And like i say, it went well. The uncertainty of the morning however, was god-awful.
Anyhow, i'm back, i'm done, and i'm starting work on some new Black #8 material. Expect to hear updates of the older stuff too, i'm a bit of a perfectionist i suppose but i reckon i can do better. Got some new stuff started aswell, and i'm hoping to make some major headway with it...it would be nice to get some stuff together. Once i have some form of EP recordings made, i'm going to look into making an album of live recordings. I've got just the session musicians in mind. So if you're reading this Sean, Steven, or John...you're cordially invited to help me in the recording of the album, by being my musicians.
Further to that, this is a call to Bagman himself, are you ready to start some stuff with Quilly and me? Coz i got my bass amp - and i'm ready to be creative! Anyway, i'm going to shoot off, i deserve some relaxation after those tests. See ye guys around. And just to warn you, session this saturday, and you're all welcome to join!
black #8
Monday, 10th January 2005
Happy New Year Everyone! I know it's a bit late but i cant help that! Just to let you know, the website has moved to geocities, since angeltowns were very slow in posting up my updates, and stopped woring properly for no reason.
Now to more important things - Happy Birthday Aoife! Her birthday is today, so this is pretty much the first time i'm posting something up here at the right time for it to be posted. Which makes a nice change. We did not celebrate Aoife's birthday on the weekend past, so anyone reading this is invited to a session somewhere in Templemore on Saturday to mark the occasion. Don't forget to bring your suits!!!
2005 will hopefully see a lot more activity from the black #8 project than 2004. Really the 2004 work was all about getting myself together with music in mind. I've got LOTS more lyrics already written, some music written, some recorded, so as soon as i get the time, expect to hear more tunes. I'm not sure i'm into the whole Soundclick thing, charts etc..so i will probably be moving my files to a different storage space. My friend Se�n has kindly offered to host them on his FTP site. More on that as I work it out with him.
More on a musical note (pardon the pun) - I am once again the proud possessor of a V-amp. I gave my one to Steve 2 years back for his birthday, given that i didn't use it that much and had lost my enthusiasm for guitar effects. Lets just put it down to a phase i was going through. Anyway, expect to hear more varied musics now that i have some effects going. Also, i'm getting an amp for christmas. It's my christmas present, but i hope to be getting it this week. So, hurray for me! My birthday and christmas pretty much doubled my music based possessions. Anyway, i'll keep you updated on new tracks etc, but for now, i gots to go. I have tests this week and next, followed by a few weeks to get a thesis done, and once that's out of the way, expect to hear a lot more from me!
black #8
Monday, 29th Nov, 2004
Hello there my pretties! I am aware of the lag in posting, but there wasn't time! Let's step back in time to my birthday. Ah, saturday the 20th. It was a pretty damn good day. as days go that is...
Well anyway, first things first, had a birthday breakfast, after which i was presented, with presents. Usual, birthday cards (thanks everyone), dvd and a book from my two darling brothers, then my parents shocked me by producing a rather expensive left-handed cut-away semi-acoustic Ovation guitar... flown in from the states no less! So i was rather happy!!
Bad news. I got a phone call from brian, and thanks to Ryanair, he wasn't allowed on his flight and therefore didn't get home for my birthday. So 2/3 of the semantics would be performing live. No Brian. At about 5 o clock, Sean and I went down to set up our gear in Murphy's, which was the venue for the party. So, after 2 hours set up and driving to houses to pick up more gear, we headed up to my house, ate some dinner rather speedily, and drove back down to soundcheck.
For the musically inclined of those that read this, the set up that myself and sean and brian used last time we played a gig (as "The Semantics" of course) was that of a PA system with everything running into it through a mixer. However, seans sister had borrowed the mixer and left it in Dublin. So we had to come up with some interesting alternate arrangements. For starters, we had my mini mixer...not as good as Sean's..but would still work ok. We used the PA for vocals only.. 2 mikes. Drums unmiked - we used Seans set, but with Peter Delaney's hi-hat and double bass pedal. For the guitars, we used Brians 50w amp, and Tom's 80w one. Quaids 30w bass amp rounded up the set. Soundchecking went well, everything sounded good together, so we got tuned up, and then took a break while waiting for people to arrive.
People arrived, including Mags and Rob, who came all the way from Limerick (thanks guys!) and Paul and Stephanie, and Dave and Claire who came from dublin. We got things underway:
To start, we had Catalyst. And they did what they always do... rock. (the building in some cases) Sounded, as usual, very tight and polished. A nice touch was the original "Preparing the Fold" with new lyrics... Tom, pirate-style, growled about treasure, hidden below a white 'x'. Classic. As expected, there were also blistering versions of Digging the Grave, and Edgecrusher. Singing went from standard, to gruff, to down right screaming. Bass was excellent, Quaid polishing his job down nicely, especially for "For whom the bell tolls". Tom was on form on his guitar also, most noticeable on "for whom" once again. Quill, emblazoned with an A4 sheet reading "meeting in progress", did somersaults on the neck of his 7 string maverick. Peter, true to form, didn't miss a beat, and hit everything good and hard. The adults hated it. I loved it. And as i told everyone after, it's MY damn birthday, if i want blistering metal, then i'll bloddy well have it!
Quoth followed up Catalyst. Steven, Mark and Liam. After a nicely pulled off "Ricochet" and a very crowd pleasing version of "Whiskey in the Jar", Liam left the stage...didn't know the bass for anything else, supposedly. He soon went home, which was a bit of a downer for me, i was hoping he'd play some 24x stuff on his own. Steven and Mark however, were undeterred, and continued on for about an hour with an impromptu set. Songs like "Porch", "Self Esteem" and so on. All personal favourites of mine, whatever about anyone else. Sounded really good considering the unexpected lack of bass.
Well, after 2 good acts, i felt under a little bit of pressure to be at the top of my game! Of course, things were gonna be different without brian... Kicked off the set with "seven nation army", steve stood in for brian and played solos etc. Went down well. Steve headed off for a break, and sean and i just settled into our groove, like if we were messing around in his garage....we were comfortable, and functioned really well as a unit i think. Played some of the old reliables from our last set, such as "Lake of Fire" and "For all the Cows", "I am mine" and then broke into our few surprises. Once again did the cover of Rachel Steven's "Sweet Dreams my LA ex". Deciding that if we were gonna do it, we may as well go the whole way, we broke into a cover of Enrique Iglesias' song "Hero". Then a very impromptu version of the Darkness "I believe in a thing called love".
I'm almost certain i've forgotten to list some of the songs, but never mind. Sean took a breather and i played "Omerta". Got Steve back up, and played "Pay the Man"....always goes down well with my group of friends. Dedicated it to Tom! Turned things down a notch when Sean came out to play guitar and i sang "Under the Bridge". Same as last time, that one went down a real hit!
Almost the highlight of my night came next though. Called john, steven, and tom up. John slung on his bass, me with guitar, steve and tom on vox. "the gentle art of making enemies" dedicated to Aoife..coz she had missed a lot of the earlier set, and would have killed us if we didn't play it. I know that it went down a savage hit with the group. I was within "high-five" distance of Billy and Maura for the whole thing, we were just surrounded. It was blistering, heavy, precise, melodic, beautiful. I knew at that moment, the birthday couldn't really have gone any better, except it would be better if brian was there.
Well after that, we opened to floor effectively. John and tom got up and played a few... "hope leaves" for me among others. There was a few of these numbers, including a soft rendition of "in heaven there is no beer", during which we all joined up on the floor, and Maura and I did the can-can... After this, acoustic numbers. People on their own. Sean played a few. Quite good..."Tears in Heaven", and "Hitchhikers Guide" among others. Mags finally convinced dad to play a few, and she was very impressed... He called me up after a while, and i played a few tunes with him - "Hotel California" which i knew, and plenty of other stuff that i didn't, so i just followed the key. Mags got up and played "Volcano" and "You were meant for me", which were just beautiful. She was the only female vocalist of the evening, not counting maura, aoife, and deirdre.... they just didn't use a mike! I played a few on my own. I played "Walking after you" on Mags' request, and then she and rob left... I then played "Which?" - A Black #8 song. So yeah, i officially played live, as black #8. Didn't announce that the song was my own, and only the knowing nods of Deirdre, Mark and Aoife indicated that they knew. After that, finished up with "helpless" and then started to pack up. A highly musical night. More happened that night, and involved gardai....but nothing serious. Maura, if you're reading this, we have to write a little bit about that story and post it up!
Friday, 19th Nov, 2004
Well, website officially working, to some extent. I was fixing links and adding stuff this morning, and it all seems to work. Let me know if theres any faults.
My birthday tomorrow! Ye gods, i'm going to be 21. It's a bit surrealistic. Anyway, i'll be working on adding more content to the site over the coming weeks, as all the pages (seem to) be in place.
Got any ideas or comments, let me know. Either email, or post on the forums. I'll check them, i promise. Anyway, i am possessed with hunger, so byes!
Black #8
Monday 15th Nov, 2004
Welcome to the home of Black #8. Yup, that's right, he lives here! Basically i'm just putting this up to talk about music in general, and to post up some of my own works....so you should be able to download stuff soon. At the moment, i'm just getting everything up and running - News section, discography, downloads, links, and guestbook. So....umm, does it work?
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