FRIDAY, 16 JANUARY 2009 Astoria....were loosing our heritage.... Standing out on Tottenham Court Road on the afternoon of the final Astoria show on Wednesday I had an experience Ive enjoyed many times over the years, but sadly won't be experiencing again. The west end has lost something very historical that no number of regeneration schemes and crossrail stations can replace. The heart of our London will in future resemble cabott square at canary wharf. Homoginized and soulless. A building is more than the bricks mortar and design, it's the memories connected to it, it's emotional attachment to people and their appreciation of it, just look at Lennons house at Menlove Avanue in Liverpool, bought by the national trust and preserved for future generations in all it's semi detached pebble dashed glory. Standing in front of the Astoria it's shocking how many disastatous buildings were erected behind centrepoint, how much space there is to build and dig and how unnecessary it is to loose the old lady of rock and the beautiful buildings that curve round onto Oxford street with it. Like the skylon and the Euston arch, we'll regret losing this little corner of London. The Astoria's a valadictory building, a place you play when you think you've first connected with people, a right of passage to go to your first gigs there and dream of one day headlining there, to spill out into the west end late at night and dissapear down alleys to find your favourite caf or late night bar, a hotch potch of people and cultures all colliding and a feeling of great joy bring able to have such a fantastic venue in the heart of one of the greatest musical cities in the world, the experience in future will be all the more suburban. The future? Were heading headlong into a world of music where it'll be a beautifully sanitized tube journey on the Jubillee line, a wander accross the spotless piazza, herded through the cavernous experience of nando's and pizza express into a spanking new arena where we watch music made on the same computers that work the CCTV that watches our every step all the way from Waterloo and back again. Progress? RIP Patrick Mcgoohan... you were way ahead of your time..... POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 10:45 6 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUNDAY, 11 JANUARY 2009 Rehersals..... It's late and som and I have just finished rehearsing for the Astoria final show, we jammed crazy by gnarles barcley, umbrella by geraldine, wide open space (yawn) and disappoint u, then we abandoned it and had a philosophical discussion about bands splitting up and the dark side of fame and listened to audio clips of Lennon slagging off mcartney (were both big beatle fans...) and discussed the future of the music industry, sorry this post isn't witty, it's late and I'm just showing som my iPhone blogging software....by the way catherine AD who I've been doing some writing with at the southbank had her first radio 1 play the other day, I expect big things of her, check her out, ages worrking with bernhard butler at the mo, looking forward to hearing it.....x POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 17:20 1 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TUESDAY, 30 DECEMBER 2008 A new years message...... Hi everyone, hope you all had a good christmas and wishing you all a great new year for the year ahead, don't get too drunk on new years eve. I have been busy in the studio writing and recording some tracks for my own project right up to christmas but I've headed home to Chester for the festive period to do the rounds of family and friends. Also I've been doing some co-writing with some excellent new artists that you'll hear a lot more of in the year ahead, I hope. I did mention on the forum around the time of the Six blog that I'd hoped to send a free mp3 download of one of the tracks Ive been working on before the end of the year and I'm still going to do that, it'll just be after the new year instead for various logistical reasons out of my control, so I hope a few weeks delay is ok and please accept my sincerest apologies if you've been waiting. Don't berate me just yet, it could be worse, you could be a guns and roses fan LOL!! Seriously though, thanks so much for your patience in waiting for some new music, I really hope it doesn't disappoint you. Paul x POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 11:45 6 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRIDAY, 3 OCTOBER 2008 Italian Dictators....... Every great band needs a dictator to work properly, so I thought I'd go to the British museum and check out the Hadrian exhibition. Not rocky's wife, your getting the Italian connections mixed up. Emperor Hadrian. Firstly I wanted to check out the roof which I haven't seen b4, secondly to test my new mobile blogging software (if your Reading this it works) and thirdly to get a few tips from the dead emperor. This got me to thinking, ive only written 1 song about dictators and that was another Italian, musilini. In my six blog I put a link to nonotnowjims cover of said track on youtube, and as a joke said it was actual footage of me writing it on the outskirts of Rome in 1944. I got a message on facebook the other day from someone very concerned about a grave error I made in the six blog. Namely that I'd made a mistake and that surely I'd written the song on the outskirts of Rome in 1994, as I wasn't alive in 1944. Note to self; irony and rock n roll just don't mix...... POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 11:20 6 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY, 2 OCTOBER 2008 Mobile blog test! I'm testing this mobile blog software on my iPhone to see if it works. Whilst doing it I've got my laptop next to me and a mac pro in the studio, I'll go somewhere more remote and test it tomorrow......shit, standard leige have just scored........... POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 11:06 3 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TUESDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2008 tattoo.. someone messaged me with this pic of their tattoo, not much compromise here, awesome! POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 15:53 6 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- WEDNESDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2008 recording...... Mike arrived today and we did some editing on the drum track that I recorded a while back. Got the drums sounding cool, pretty dry sounding, not really any effects going at the moment and ill try and keep em as they are, prob a bit of eq and compression here or there, the ride cymbol sounded a bit to 'nice' so tomorrow we'll look and making that a bit more nasty. It always amazes me that recording takes longer than you'd imagine. Then we moved onto bass, but only had time to get a sound up, so Im gonna record bass tomorrow. I added some distortion under the clean bass sound but ill have a listen back tomorrow. Ive got my 70's rickenbacker 4001 out which Ive had for ages and Im gonna try it thru a few amps tomorrow, an ampeg svt2 and a selmer head from the 60's. Everton lost to Blackburn away..........bollox POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 19:40 13 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TUESDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2008 banks..... i see goldman sachs and morgan stanley have converted into regulated banks, thats it folks, no more investment banks left, the end of capitalism as we know it! POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 21:34 3 COMMENTS recording tomorrow... mike is coming tomorrow and were starting work on a new track, wayne put the drums down previously with me producing so thats all i have at the moment. as usual no lyrics ready but ive got my notebook out and im going to extract a load of bits and bobs. its a track ive written a while back and demo'd before, im gonna tackle all the instruments on the drums i think..... POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 15:46 6 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRIDAY, 19 SEPTEMBER 2008 Plants.... Someone said to me recently that if you cant look after a plant then you cant look after yourself. Now after my goldfish fiasco where I went away for a week and forgot to feed them, only to return home to find Ringo had ate John from the arse upwards, Johns dead face with a look of astonishment on it, mouth wide open, eyes bulging...err, no i take that back, he's a fucking goldfish, let me start again....Johns dead pan face, fixed at the point of anal termination, whilst from the neck down, simply a rack of skinny ribs glued to the side of the bowl, while ringo, now twice the size of when i last saw him, lording it round and round the bowl, occasionally stopping for a chunk of Johns neck. Anyway, back to plants. So I thought Id do an experiment to see how well I could look after a plant. So I went to the garden centre and asked for 'the worlds easiest plant to look after' After much deliberation and conference meetings in the garden furniture area, a gaggle of garden centre assistants (is it a gaggle or a pride, i could never quite remember in school when it came to retail assistants, or was it penguins?) returned with this minature sort of tree. One of them proudly announced that it was an ancient Aztec Plant and its natural habitat was the desert of the ancient Aztecs. Now you may be surprised, but I know very little about the Aztec deserts, but Im guessing there werent many alan titchmarsh types with horses hooves in their bottom lips and a watering can to look after them if you get my drift. The assistant proudly proclaimed it required no maintenance at all. I took 2. I got up this morning and for some reason had forgot all about the plants so thought Id check em out. 2 fucking husks of brown fucking powder in a plantpot they were. The rest of the day ive been frantically searching for my car keys to go and complain to the garden centre, the housekeeper didnt do the fucking ironing so im wearing a 20 year old 'police' t shirt with japanese pyjama bottoms and 1 fucking sock, theres red wine all over my fucking austin powers rug and I had eat a linda mcartney special out of its cardboard box coz I couldnt remember how to put the sodding dish washer on....... POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 09:27 23 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- WEDNESDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER 2008 Fame at last.... someone just emailed me to say i was in todays popbitch mailout taking the piss that i was listening to mansun on my own lastfm page. Fucking awesome. Ive got a lastfm page! Why didnt anyone tell me! Not exactly Steve Coogan at the Dorchester, but its a start! POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 22:50 6 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LloydsTSB and Halifax merger???? So the Halifax has been taken over by LloydsTSB, and Ive decided to withdraw my suggestion in the Six blog that 'Negative' (my song about a blood test for a mortgage application) should be the new Halifax theme tune, as sung by Howard Brown and filmed from a chopper looking at a giant X on a hill. I think Ill rename this song, 'Negative Equity' and donate it to LloydsTSB and ask them to replace their theme tune with it. You know, the one that goes oh oh oh oh oh oh by Aled Jones sampled over 'The Snowman'. Im considering a career in marketing for Investment Banks instead. So today Im putting a fiver on Morgan Stanley going under, and 28/1 that Goldman Sachs is gone by Friday, thus wiping out the whole of the Wall Street bulge bracket Investment Banks, 3 down, 2 to go. Capitalism really is a house of cards, as soon as people stop believing in it you realize that the paper money system we use really is an illusion. Nothings happened, weve just stopped believing in it all, so weve stopped shifting the CDO's round and round in an ever decreacing circle of pass the debt parcel and he who has the parcel when the music stopped, is fucked! David Icke definately knows more about the world economy than Alistair Darling, he really is rubbish isnt he. It just shows what a sham capitalism is. As soon as the capital dries up, the whole of our economic system simply collapses, as it has done in front of our eyes this week. The government just print more and more paper money out of thin air, inflations at 5% already, what a fucking joke. Then we realize, its all just a scam, these banks go bust and we just move the goal posts so theyre 'bought out' What a load of shite weve all been led to believe about the free market. Its no such fucking thing as a free market. If it were then AIG, HBOS, Northern Rock, Fannie May, Freddie Mac, Merril Lynch and Bear Stearns would all have gone the way of Leman Brothers, ie, down the fucking swanny. What a sham we all live. Even Lehmans goes into insolvency only to be immediately bought by fucking Barclays for 50p instead of$4bn 18 hours earlier. Paper money is just a joke. Im proud to be an old commy this morning and hope the whole fucking lot of em go tits up. Of course they wont because someone else will receive the 'governors eyebrows' treatment and merge, be taken over, be nationalized and any other bullshit scam they can think of to stop the whole sodding house of cards we call capitalism to disintergrate right before our very eyes. Ive never voted, and never intend to as the 'democracy' bit in 'capitalist democracy', the system we live in, is just a little carrot on a stick to make us all believe we have some bloody say in the capitalist system. Do we fuck!! Its a trick, theyve been tricking us for centuaries, Marx was dead right! Weve already got secular societies where we realize you cant dupe the people into line with religion any more, thats all been replaced by TopShop and Waitrose.i.e. instead of going to hell if you dont tow the line, you just dont get that extra burburry scarf and Tescos finest cheese with the cranbeeries in it. Now that, is more fucking scary than going to burn in hell for eternity to most dullards in this country. You think im joking? Open your curtains and bloody look next door, as Richard Dawkinds says, were living in a mass delusion, the fucking lot of us. Were all being tricked by democracy into letting these bastards get away with it all. These so called 'masters of the universe', the investment bankers and private equity gurus really are just that. i.e. 12" fucking plastic action figures with plastic between their ears. Pricks. One footnote-us British really are devious bastards, while the yanks go tits up and Wall Street has effectively vanished, theres Barclays cherry picking the carcas's, and I bet HSBC is next, picking up the debris (with a polite english smile of course). I wonder if we'll wake up to find in a few years time the wall street masters of the universe all re-emerge, in fucking London. We did invent the concerntration camp after all, although someone I know says it was the dutch? Mind you RBS has already taken over ABN Amro and their Wall Street operations. He-Man and Skeletor did have english accents right? Time will tell I guess. If im wrong, pack y bags kids, Im off to Spain. They own the Abbey national and Alliance and Leicester after they went tits up anyway!! Im banking with Ken Dodd's bank in future. The Abbey Mattress. Viva Marx!! POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 22:50 9 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SATURDAY, 13 SEPTEMBER 2008 Leona Lewis I like her song 'better in time' POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 19:51 9 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- lucy in the sky with diamonds, sorry i mean a day in the life...... Woke up got out of bed, dragged a comb acr....sorry, wrong day in the life. Woke up at the crack of midday and came into the lounge and said 'good mornsternoon' to the family. Thats John and Ringo my 2 fantail goldfirsh who are already dead. Well actually john ate ringo from the arse up. Theres only a few ribs stuck to the side of the bowl these days, like most of the beatles. thats the only family I got you see. Its ok the housekeeper will clean em up. So flicked thru the web quickly on my laptop. Noel got a cracked rib, new bloc part lp etc. Put 'In rainbows' on the stereo again and tried to convince myself 'seldom seen kid' is better than 'in rainbows'. Whacked on my pro tools rig then collapsed in a panic of self doubt and ran a mile, so went for a chicken salad box instead. Suddenly before I knew it, it was time to head out. Headed up to Som's (My vitriol) gaf up in isligton. We headed to Bungalow 8 as Farris from the Horrors does his 'marriage' night up there. Hooked up with Paul from Snow Patrol and got a bit to drunk, then headed back to islington for a supergroup jam then collapsed in a drunken heap before heading to Brick Lane for a few coffees to sober me up before heading home to collapse to do the whole thing all over again the next day, but maybe a bit more productively music wise. Is this really an existance? Maybe I should make an album, but lets face it, who gives a fuck? Who the shit wants to know what I do with my day.........Im not doing this day in the life crap again...... POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 19:35 7 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- MONDAY, 8 SEPTEMBER 2008 Comments...... Ive just read your comments from the previous post and I think you have a valid point. Im changing my mind about this blogging lark now Ive had a good nights sleep. Its true, there would be no way for people to know what 'Six' was about if they hadnt have been able to read my blog yesterday. So for the first time Im seeing the power of the blog instead of just moaning about it being narcissistic. It was actually a very cathartic experience getting all that old crap out of me, mostly the cryptic stuff that would go over most peoples heads, but I woke up today, for the first time, a fully fledged blogger, and proud too!!!! I sort of left the blog till the last minute, a bit like Six itself LOL!, and theres a few little mistakes in it, but ill get it on the website with a few little tweeks. There was so much in it, like album itself, you'll only get into it after a few reads I guess. You've opened a can of worms now because my next blog will be all about how I make my porridge. Ill do one of them day or week in the life of ones next unless I get a load of complaints in advance, it might be a one off, ill see how it goes. Oh and interestingly, Mike Hunter, the engineer I regularly work with, is coming next week to record and mix a track for a free download to the mailing list, so ill blog off about that in a few weeks. Love to you all from the newly self proclaimed and unashamed Perez Hilton of indie bloggers! p (for perez) x POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 09:59 11 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUNDAY, 7 SEPTEMBER 2008 Blogging about Blogging, the worlds gone fucking mad.... Im a fucking boggle eyed blogging blogger blogging about the giant fucking blog Ive just finished and sent out to my mailing list. I actually had to edit it down from what I had written coz it was so bloody long. A whole week of fucking blogging in one giant blog off. Anyway I hope you received the blog ok. If your not on the mailing list then you wont have got it, but you can if you add up to the list, its about the making of the 'Six' album. If you dont know what Im rambling on about I did a giant blog. Fuck knows how many words are on that sodding blog but its got to bigger than any dissertation. This got me to thinking. The first thing Ive done when finishing the worlds longest blog is to go and do a 7 and a half hour online q and a on the blog, which you can read on the official forum if your joined up to it or want to join up, then come on here and blog about a blog, the worlds gone fucking crazy........... POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 21:34 4 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- THURSDAY, 28 AUGUST 2008 im coming to the conclusion that musicians really are musicians secondary and marketing men/women first and foremost. in the olden days all you had to do was pretend to laugh at gordon the gofers jokes to shift units but these days its all about doing blogs to get some publicity. Im really struggling with the idea of writing what type of porridge im eating to shift some units. the only consolation ive really given to myself is that ive got no units to shift. so that begs the question, why am i dont this blogging thing. Most days ive thought, i know ill update the blog, then i just think, well fuck it, its really sad, then i think im just a miserable out of touch bufoon. is it shameless self publicity? Err.. I dont actually know coz im happy being anonymous, i think. Is it to drum up some interest in my six anniversary blog...err...yeah thats deffo part of it, i think. Or is my narcissism creeping up on me slowly.Well i think being a muso is defo the most narcissistic thing anyone can do. Im starting to believe sigmund freud was right all along...... POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 11:35 6 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- TUESDAY, 19 AUGUST 2008 now this really is getting ridiculous, right wheres my lawyers number..... http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=c9ZEVGH_RHU POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 05:50 8 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- SATURDAY, 2 AUGUST 2008 Ive just done an interview for a chinese rock magazine called 'so rock' and they asked me about why i was interested in communism so as it was the only interesting answer i gave during the interview and also that i have nothing else in my brain at present except should i or should i not leave the middle 8 in on 'feel like i wanna stay' i thought id post it here- Q. - You used to wear an insignia of The People's Liberation Army, especially during the Six tour.  Well, are there any stories behind it? And where did you get it? A. - This was an expression of my interest in communism. My Che Guvera t-shirt was an expression of this also. As were some of my song lyrics, especcially Being a Girl Part II. Can I just explain why I believe communism in its purest form is the political system I believe in. In the west we have capitalist liberal democracy. This system evolved in the west through Oliver Cromwells revolution in England, the french revolution, the declaration of independance of the united states of america, etc, etc, being important milestones in the history of the evolution of Capitalist Liberal Democracy. I believe this system evolved to where it is today as it fits and sits well with a certain element of human nature. i.e. as religion collapsed, as a way of keeping the masses in line in the early 20th centuary it was replaced with consumerism as the carrot on the stick to keep the masses blinded, and its always slightly out of reach so the average man on the street always wants a little bit more, and will tow the system line and work that little bit harder, not because he will go to hell if he doesnt as he previously was brainwashed, but he will be able to buy that extra material possesion he is led to believe he needs, i wrote about this in the song 'Six'. So consumerism evolved to replace religion as a way to keep the workers in line in the west. To make the people feel they are somehow in control of this carrot and stick system the working man faught for and obtained the vote in the early part of the 20th centuary, in england through the evolution of the Labour movement and the subsequent election of the socialist Atle government in the uk post second world war, introducing a socialist system to the UK. But to accomodate the traders and merchants that had evolved in Europe throughout the previous centuaries we retained the capitalist free market policy as the best way of growing the wealth of the nation, as China is evolving right before our eyes in the west. Our system evolved as it suits and fits with the lesser qualities of human nature. The need to be competetive, to beat the next man, to earn more and have more than the next man, to keep up with the Jonses, envy, greed etc, etc. To believe you are in control. To focus on the shallow material aspects of life. Our system accomodates all that is weak about man. Pure communism embraces all that is good and fair about human nature. The trouble is some people are more equal than others right? This is human nature creeping in. China is evolving, but never forget what is right in front of your eyes. Always remember we are all mere monkeys on a rock, hurtling round the sun, all trying to do our best. So in a nutshell ive never voted and dont intend to as it represents all thats sick and twisted in human nature. (Fuck I hope that doesnt piss of the communist party!) naah, Im well in there now! POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 09:50 4 COMMENTS THURSDAY, 31 JULY 2008 About me - I look like a cross between Kevin Costner with George Michaels beard, but i look nothing like this in real life I assure you, thats all you need to know. Anyway, this is a mere test that my fingers are still working and I am aiming to improve the quality of this blog very rapidly! Im planning on sort of just having a go whenever anything enters my head, which is less often than you might think, and see if anyone finds me. At present theres nobody out there, so itll be interesting, as a narcissistic experiment, to see if anyone finds me I guess, and make me feel more important than I really am y know, isnt that what blogging is all about, a narcissistic experience? POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 18:01 8 COMMENTS --------------------------------------------------------------------------- errrrr...... errrrr, testing, testing, 1, 2, 3......is anybody out there!! POSTED BY PAUL DRAPER AT 17:46 1 COMMENTS * ³Ê³Ä´Ô¿¡ ÀÇÇؼ­ °Ô½Ã¹° À̵¿µÇ¾ú½À´Ï´Ù (2009-11-14 19:58)