The next phase in the New Age of Blyth began in Norwich on a Tuesday morning. And why not you may ask? With recording dates looming, the powers that be piled into the Skoda and made haste to Norwich for rehearsals - a rare and unprecedented feature in the Blyth routine. Band members normally rehearse via cassettes and telephone calls, as the questionable delights of smelly rehearsal rooms have long been exposed as a hindrance rather than help. You know the problem. There's always some git of a drummer pounding away in the corner during tea breaks, or a spontaneous 12 bar jam breaking out when you're trying to explain the intricacies of a middle eight. How many of us recall the misery of Alan Gordon's studios under the railway arches in Leytonstone, in which the most inspiring thing was the graffiti on the walls. Hah!

But with Trinity Heights barely a week away, and a new guitarist who had barely had time to learn a live set, let alone 12 songs for the recording, it was deemed necessary to meet up and toil. How we all hate it so.
Steven's odyssey began the following day after several runs through of the entire album. With three dates at the end of the week, and a day off on Sunday, followed by two weeks in Newcastle he was obliged to pay a farewell to his wine rack, and the nearby Norwich City football ground and prepare himself for the gruelling ordeal of TDL's company for the foreseeable future. Rehearsals went well, as Steven seems to automatically assimilate anything we send him on tape, so it was with confidence we returned to Harrogate on the Wednesday - what is known in railway jargon as a positioning move - in order to collect the hire van and sally forth the following morning.

Afternoon actually, as the first show was in Derby, which wasn't too great a distance. Those of you who follow our adventures regularly will be aware that this was TDL's 40th birthday bash, and the old gimmer was in a state of high excitement, having received the priceless gift that day of the Modeller's Datafile profile on the Hawker Hurricane, which featured some practical views of arresting gear and catapult spools for the navalised version, which was his consuming passion that week.

The Victoria in Derby was the perfect venue to celebrate his dotage, being friendly, pleasant, and possessed of a grown-up PA. Thanks to everyone there who helped to make the night a success, and even to the wicked souls who hurled buns onstage. We are informed that they were vegan. Fingers were pointed. Underpants were hurled. Everyone was jolly nice, and as he cut the first slice from his Bob the Builder birthday cake there was a hint of a tear in the corner of the despot's eye - although only because he was obliged to share it. We hope everyone who had a piece enjoyed it, especially Aston, who was seen nibbling on Bob's helmet.

General Winter played first, which was splendid, Chris Butler did his thing between bands (albeit all too briefly) and everyone who brought cards and presents can consider themselves jolly good eggs of the first order. Likewise those unable to attend who sent messages of joy and goodwill.

A pleasant night and a relaxing day in Kettering enabled the cake-stuffed ones to recover in time for another trip to Boston, wherein the Axe & Cleaver was a more relaxed affair for all parties than last time. The van didn't breakdown, although the monitors did, three songs from the end, but the Axe was its usual pleasant self, and the evening was notable for the quality of the graffiti in the ladies toilets, where those bold enough to step over the copulating teenagers could inform themselves that 'Katie's bin mardy all weke' and 'she shagged Mike five tims in a nigt'. Apparently she is a 'jeleiues basted.' This is utterly tru as any fule kno, and we almost wish we had met the young lady on the night. Chiz chiz.
Steven and Fiona - the young red-haired lady who sometimes sells you CDs - were briefly reunited with their house that night, as we returned to Norwich to rest and recuperate in preparation for the following night's rock mayhem in Hitchin. Here the hire van was roped into service to pick up a new couch, while TDL and Annie caroused in the fleshpots of Norwich. Actually they went shopping. Departure for Hitchin at 16.00hrs ensured a punctual arrival, and the gig was a real pleasure, partly due to the excellence of the dinner provided but mainly thanks to all those who braved the train strikes and managed to get there in spite of everything.
Here endeth chapter twelve, as we're in a hurry to get on with chapter thirteen, which takes place in the studio, wherein our heroes laboured long and hard to produce the new CD. Hurrah!

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Chapter Thirteen

Blyth Power's Studio Diary

Well, it's been a long time coming, but the end result has proved worth the wait. Sunday 24th Feb passed in torpor at Blyth HQ, following the drive back from Hitchin. You'd have thought that with the epic project due to commence the following day that we would have been running around like mad things desperately tweaking song arrangements and changing drum skins, but in actual fact we all stayed in bed instead, which was very pleasant. TDL claims his old school headmaster used to read a lesson in morning assembly at least once every term, in which a king asked a philosopher ' what is more excellent than a prayer?' To which the wise man is alleged to have replied 'That you should stay in bed until noon, so you do not afflict mankind.' This lesson has obviously sunk in deep with Mr Porter, as his whole life has subsequently been focused on not getting up in the mornings. The fact that he makes up for lost time in the evenings by inflicting himself upon people with a vengeance until the small hours is unfortunate, and we wonder if the learned Mr D. Curtis of Sexey's Grammar has any other pearls of wisdom which could be employed to ensure that he never gets up at all. I suppose breaking his legs would be one answer…
Fortunately for the project in hand none of the band were moved to this extreme, and the two and a bit weeks we spent at Trinity Heights were fairly serene.
So what and where is Trinity Heights?

We first heard about it from The Whisky Priests, as the gentleman who runs it, Mr Fred Purser, was at school with former WP bassist Mick Tyas. Fred was, of course, guitarist with Penetration and The Tygers of Pan Tang, and has a long history of musical excellence. TDL is particularly pleased with the association, as he had Penetration's logo painted on the back of his first leather jacket many years ago. Fred set up the studio in Newcastle, and Blyth recorded both Paradise Razed and Out From Under the King there. It's a comfortable establishment. The studio is in the spacious basement of a terraced house in Denton, which has the advantage of being built on the side of a hill, so instead of being a smelly subterranean hellhole, it has a big picture window looking out over gardens, a park, and out across the Tyne valley. Eminently user friendly.

The top two floors provide kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms and large lounge with huge telly and spectacular views. Everything you could possibly need by way of musical equipment is there, and best of all you have Fred and his expertise, which is an asset that cannot be overestimated.

Day One

Ouch. Day one dawned ludicrously early, as we had to pile into the hire van and get up to Newcastle for an eleven o'clock start. Equipment was loaded in on arrival, and the kettle was put on. TDL commenced setting up the drums while Fred started laying time codes on the 2" master tapes. The drumkit had become swollen and engorged for the duration, with the addition of a 15" tom and an extra cymbal stand courtesy of Chris from Bash the Bishops Stortford. The extra cymbal came from Joseph's murky past, and is 20" Paiste 505 with huge chunks of metal gouged out of it. It looks a mess but sounds pretty good. The kit was miked up, by which time the tapes were ready to start recording guide tracks.

Tempos had been set with a metronome in Norwich the previous week, so it was simply a matter of everyone setting up in the control room and playing along to a click track. This was done song by song, without the drums, and the end result was a usable template of the whole collection, with added click to work up against. One or two of the tempos were subject to debate and alteration, but this part of the proceedings was fairly painless, as they were only guides, and it didn't matter if anyone made a cock up.
With the guide tracks down, it was time to get the drum sounds sorted. This took a matter of some ten minutes or so, as the only tweaking necessary was a half turn on the snare head. Thereafter the kit sounded fine. TDL swears by second hand skins, and hasn't changed the snare head in over two years. He claims this is deliberate, but the truth is he's just too mean. Whatever, the drumkit sounds like it's meant to, so why meddle?
Thereafter it was time to start recording in earnest. Mr Porter played the kit along to the guide tracks in the headphones, with the click track turned up earsplittingly loud. He claims he likes it that way, and by the end of the day's work had drum tracks finished on the first four songs.
Annie had meanwhile driven the hire van back to Harrogate. The rest of the band, and Fred, repaired to the lounge and prepared us spiritually for the next day's work. Actually we drank tea and watched telly, so there.

Day Two

Mr Porter finished the drum tracks the following day, winding up mid-afternoon with what must have been the forty-third attempt at House of Cards, which you'd think he'd have known by now. Most of them were done straight off, but in a few instances he walked the bass drum over gaps, and dubbed on a roll or a fill. This is a major time saving device, as he can't usually play them in time to the click, and has to constantly restart the song after a spectacular cock-up. Ironically, all the best bits of drumming on the finished result are those spaces where he left a gap for a fill and then decided to leave it empty. There's a lesson there somewhere.
TDL is always keen to get the drums done as soon as possible, as while he's in the studio drumming, he can't be wagging his finger at anyone and telling them what to do. By the time Annie was back with the Skoda, the drums were pretty much wrapped up.

Bambi then proceeded to steam through half of the bass tracks in record time. Plugged in to a DI in the control room with Fred he rattled them of while TDL kept out of the way, ostensibly on the grounds that he knows nothing about the bass, but in reality because the drum tracks at this stage, naked and exposed, sound particularly naff. He disappeared upstairs to commence work on a Seafire Mk XV conversion kit, which kept him out of everyone's hair until the following lunchtime.

Day Three

Next up was the guitar, and our glorious leader likes nothing better than to hound guitarists in the studio, as he has some very strong opinions on what he wants this instrument to do within the framework of a Blyth recording.

This has led to some interesting debates in the past, but fortunately Steven was prepared to put up with him, and a very effective method was worked out for getting the job done.

Instead of the time-consuming but eminently more rock-godlike way whereby the guitarist plays in front of a wall of amps in the studio, with a set of headphones, Steven played into a DI in the control room, while TDL sat beside him with his acoustic guitar and waved his arms about and pulled faces. By this means all the guitars were recorded by the following evening. TDL would like to register his thanks to Mr Cooper for not punching him every time he raised a finger and asked Fred to stop the tape to go back and have Steven play things a bit differently.

That Steven had less than a month to prepare for the recording and still managed to finish all the guitar tracks in half the time it usually takes was a major factor in putting us ahead of schedule, and ensuring adequate time to concentrate on both backing vocals and mixing. Jolly good show.

Day Four

Once the final guitar tracks were put down, it was time to set up Keyboard Korner. At this point we should mention the assistance of Clive, who kindly loaned a Stratocaster for some of the less guitar-heavy tracks. Clive works at Trinity heights, and was closeted for most of the session in a room upstairs editing a video project. TDL thought that a Stratocaster was a kind of USAF strategic bomber, but then he's a git.

Annie started recording fairly late on the Thursday evening, and as we were working 11am - 9pm managed to get three songs done before close of play. With the drums now well submerged beneath layers of guitar and bass TDL decided it was safe to pack up the kit, and this was despatched back to Harrogate.

Day Five

Keyboards keyboards, keyboards and more keyboards. Annie would have finished the lot with ease by bedtime, but Mr Porter wanted to make a start on the lead vocals, as he claims it's better for him not to sing too early in the day. Thus we split the days between lead vocals and keyboards.

In actual fact it's best not to let him do anything too early in the day, as the howling bodge up he'd made of the Seafire XV's upper wings will testify. Thus he was obliged to rip them off and prise them apart in order to whittle some more plastic off the leading edges. Miraculously he got it sorted out to everyone's satisfaction. Actually no one gave a toss.
Knocked off early and headed back to Harrogate for the weekend. Well, almost.

In actual fact, Saturday was spent in a hire van again, driving to London and back to play at a private function. Mr Martin Cook had paid us the signal honour of booking us to play at his birthday party on the 29th floor of Guys hospital, by London Bridge. Spectacular views, and an excellent night out for us. Special thanks to John Forrester for bringing his PA along. Much obliged John.
Arrival back in Harrogate was at a ludicrous hour, and Annie and Joseph had to get up for a christening on the Sunday. Joseph whinged. No one listened.

Day Six

Back again at Trinity Heights. Fiona had reluctantly dragged herself away from her baby African snails and come along to check out the sights. Thus it was that while TDL and Annie were labouring in various bits of studio, the others set out to carouse. By all accounts a splendid day was had by all.

TDL was particularly pleased as the day ended with the keyboards finished and all the lead vocals down except one. Mr Porter lives in horror of catching a cold the day before he's due to record, so it was a major relief to get the singing out of the way.
Fred had anticipated three days for mixing, as the whole thing is nearly an hour long. This gave us three days left to record the backing vocals, and anything else that needed sorting. That night we took stock. Given the eleventh hour nature of much of the stuff going down - for Steven especially - there were one or two areas where additional instrumentation was required. TDL wanted guitar solos hither and yon, and keyboard overdubs everywhere else. Notes were made on his master document, in between the crude and unkind cartoons of Jessi Adams, and these parts were deferred to a later date.

Day Seven

"What the bugger-pie is he doing down there?" band members were moved to ask, as the rattle of badly played snare drums echoed up through the floor. 'He' was recording the military snare drums on Armstrong. It makes sense in context, but not before.
Much of the day was spent on backing vocals. The lead vox were finished and Joseph and Annie cracked on with the crooning. Steven and Bambi were roped in here and there, and the day ended with things in an advanced state. Hurrah! Knocked off and watched Podge & Rodge videos far into the night.

Day Eight

With TDL safely out of the way on a trip into town to buy some urgently required plastic filler for the much abused Seafire XV, the company got on with some of the additional instrumental parts. There was a synth on Wintersfiend, mandolin on Viking Station, extra guitar on Horse and Away, and the guitar solo on Cider Dreaming Time, which TDL perversely decided he wanted changed the following morning, even though he had returned in time to wag his finger in the now extremely irritating fashion which characterised the whole recording session. What the Hell does he know about guitars anyway? Have you heard him play?

With these sundries completed, a great deal of backing vocals were recorded, most of which involved Annie and Fred alone downstairs, while Joseph whittled away upstairs, having fiendishly decided he wanted her to sing both harmony parts on some tracks in order to avoid having to learn them himself.

Day Nine

Quick photo session on the back steps, but not before TDL had wagged his fingers through a re-working of the guitar solo on Cider Dreaming Time. Not that there was anything wrong with the first one, but he likes to do these things just to make it look like he knows what he's talking about. Let's face it. The whole thing had gone far too smoothly and quickly. He had to meddle with it somewhere along the line.

The rest of the day found Annie once more in the singing booth, and between them, she and Fred got the rest of the backing vocals finished off. Time spent on these has made a major difference to the overall recording, and we give thanks accordingly to everyone for the speed and efficiency with which they got down the main instruments. Not a tantrum or a prima donna anywhere, and the nearest we came to a stressful moment was when TDL realised the Seafire's wings would have to come off for a second time to allow for the insertion of a fillet of plastic underneath the rear of the fuselage joint.

Steven and Fiona set sail for Norwich before lunch, and by the day's end we were left with nought to do but a couple of sound effects.

Day Ten

The day of the foghorn, the sonar blips and the clock. Listen and you'll hear them….
Apart from that it was mixing all day. Fred likes to do this alone, and the drill is that he works downstairs, and calls us down to listen to each finished track. We say yea or nay, and he either changes it, or goes onto the next one. By the end of day ten - having spent most of the time setting up the initial sounds, we had a finished mix of McCullough & Guinea to take home and listen to over the weekend.

Day Eleven

Back to Newcastle on Monday just in time to hear the finished mix of Mary's Mad Army. Then it was mixing all day - apart from TDL who was rescribing surface detail on the Seafire XV, which was now looking a lot better than one could have expected.

Day Twelve

Mixing all day. Our good friend the Reverend Reid popped in for tea. And biscuits.

Finally would up around midnight with finished masters and everything done and dusted. Well done to Fred, and to the whole band, for getting it right first time.On the Viking Station has been a long time coming. Here's to the next one.

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