Musical mayhem, mid-Corona

The Squidgelings are both rather musical.

Squidgeling J plays violin and recorder very well, but has also dabbled with guitar, mandolin, viola, harp, penny whistle and piano, and is currently teaching herself the melodeon to accompany the Folk Society at their sessions.

Squidgeling T's main instrument is the bass guitar, but he is also pretty proficient on 'normal' guitar, has dabbled in keyboard and played the double bass previously, too.

Being in lockdown - and at home for an Easter holiday that's been indefinitely extended for the foreseeable future - Chateau Squidge has therefore been rather more music-full of late. I've really enjoyed hearing folk tunes from one bedroom and bass lines from another.

However, one unintended consequence of the shutdown and imposed social distancing has been the desire to learn - and manufacture - even more instruments.

Chateau Squidge has been echoing to the sounds of;

1. A homemade low flute, made from a length of pvc pipe using some very detailed instructions.

2. Homemade bagpipes, cobbled together from a bin bag, a straw, the new low flute, a recorder, and plenty of gaffer tape. (If you fancy making some yourself, here are the instructions!)

3. An alto saxophone. Now, Mr Squidge is talented, (he helped make the first two) but not THAT talented. He hired one, as T expressed a desire to learn the sax and this seemed a better way of trying it out than committing to a purchase.

Cat in a (sax) box

By the end of today, J had played recognisable folk tunes on both the low flute AND the bagpipes (the latter was rather short and sweet because there's a knack to keeping the bin bag topped up with air through the straw) and T had managed to work out how to play (a rather ropey version) of 'Happy Birthday' on it - a challenge set by Mr Squidge for T to achieve in time for his birthday at the end of April. (Thank goodness for the garden room - it was definitely easier to listen to the sax from a distance...)

Not sure what tomorrow holds...

Maybe earplugs? 

Like a Bat out of Hell...

Squidgeling J bought Squidgeling T and me tickets to see the musical Bat out of Hell as early birthday presents. Mr Squidge got himself a ticket, too - and we went to see it yesterday.

I was introduced to Meatloaf's Bat out of Hell album on a dodgy pirate tape that my dad brought back from a trip working abroad in the Oman. We used to write and ask him to bring back tapes of some of the best albums of the time - I have all sorts still in my tape drawer. And back then, in the late 80's, there wasn't such a big thing about piracy. In fact, I don't think I even thought about the legality of it. Dad was just pleased to be able to enjoy lots of his favourite music while he was working away from home for extended periods, and bring us home some of ours...

I digress.

Bat out of Hell. I loved the album - dramatic, sing-along, storytelling...it had a bit of everything, and I felt like a bit of a rebel for having it in my record (tape!) collection when I usually listened to the Eurythmics or Duran Duran or Soft Cell...

We drove down to Watford Junction in the afternoon, parked at the station, and got the train into London. We literally came out of Tottenham Court Road and there it was - The Dominion Theatre, with BOOH all over it.

We wandered down Oxford Street to get a bite to eat (BRGR Co - lovely food, and not too pricey considering we were in central London.) and then sauntered back through Soho Gardens to find the Phoenix Theatre so Squidgeling T could take a pic. (His 'house' for the theatre club he belongs to is Phoenix, so it had to be done)

Back to the Dominion. A quick photo opportunity..

..and we took our seats.

We sat somewhere up the top, out of shot, on the RHS

I'll try to give you a flavour of the show, but without too many spoilers!

The set is amazing - built to come right out into the theatre. This is obviously not a show that going to be moving on fast! There's a solidity to it, a play on perspective, that directs the eye into the centre of the stage. It makes the most of the space, too, with retracting walls and raised stages and a video screen for the live action footage being filmed during the performance. At times, you didn't know quite where to look, because the performers were acting there, but the video was showing THERE. There are some real 'oooh!' clever moments in set manipulation too, and we were trying to work out how they were done.

As you'd expect from a West End show, the performers were incredible. The energy that goes into it all... I didn't recognise all of the songs, because apparently some are taken from the follow-up album Bat out of Hell; Back into Hell, which I don't have. But the ones I did know...I sang, much to the amusement of Squidgeling T. (I did apologise to the lady on my other side in advance for any singing, but I simply couldn't not join in. Quietly, of course.)

I hadn't realised that the story of this musical - conceived so many years ago - is based around Barrie's Peter Pan, and when you know that, you can see references to it all the way through. Let's just say the 'Captain Hook' character was probably my favourite...

Can I just give a shout out too, to the crew who came out in the interval to clean the stage? There were folks with hoovers and a chap with a fishing net to get all the silver glitter off the stage and out of the pond, and kudos to the fake blood clearer-upper. That splatter got everywhere...

The cast and orchestra got a deserved standing ovation at the end, and once again Squidgeling T had a laugh at his mum because I was punching the air and singing along...

I was buzzing when we came out. Even the fact that we ended up on a slow train back to Watford, sitting opposite a young lady who was speaking very loudly and frankly to a friend in less than complimentary terms about her work colleagues (she was so rude, Mr Squidge got up and moved two carriages down so he didn't have to hear her) and we didn't get home until about 1.30am, couldn't take the shine off.

Best. Birthday. Present. EVER!! Thank you, Squidgeling J!

And don't take my word for it - go, see it yourself, even if it's not your birthday! You won't be disappointed.

A little bit of flash - In the Darkness of Night...

As you'll have seen from my previous post, I've been busy editing StarMark. Still am, actually - had completely under estimated how much time it takes, but more of that at a later date! 

Last Wednesday, I took some time off from editing to go to NIBS.

We had a musical evening...no singing, but I did take a stack of CD's with me. 

One of the exercises was to pick a CD whose artwork appealed, and use that as inspiration.What was interesting was that they were my CD's - and I'd never looked so closely at some of the art before. Did you realise that on the Muse album Resistance, there's the world right in the centre of the rainbow tunnel? Or that on Muse's Absolution cover, the guy left standing has a gas mask in his hand? I didn't. (And yes, I have a lot of Muse!)

Anyway, I chose Madness's The Liberty of Norton Folgate. Here's the cover;

Now, at first sight, the shadow looks like he's dancing, but there's something about the silhouette that I found more sinister. Perhaps I'd been watching too much Dickensian...but it definitely felt a bit Victorian.

Anyway, here's what I wrote as a result...

In the darkness of night...

In the darkness of night, 

he comes,

in a coat made of shadow,

his cane tapping time away with every cobble it connects with.

A hint of swagger,

a dance of confidence,

where there is fear in a street cowed by his rule.

He trips lightly in this place,

tips his hat to the women he owns...

On the surface a gentleman-

but the cane breaks flesh and bone if his property fails to deliver.

In the darkness of night he comes,

to be caught only by the lamplight - never the law -

near dark alleys and dead ends,

watching and waiting with a tiger's smile

to entice the curious or desperate to sample his wares.

Until, as the gas lamps sputter and fade at dawn

he melts away until darkness falls.

Why 2016 is going to be Music to my ears...

Mr Squidge gave me a huge surprise at Christmas - a new music system.

With valve technology...apparently.

We did have one - an old Bose model (inherited from a distant relative who died many years ago) which was temperamental at the best of times. (And although Bose players are good, it bugs me that you can't alter the bass level -I don't like feeling the bass beat in my chest!) We also had a very old CD/cassette tape/radio system, which over the years had stopped playing tapes and CD's, but we'd not got rid of it because we had the Bose...which didn't word so well, etc etc.

Lovely - can now play all my favourite CD's and adjust the bass! And as you can see, there's plenty of CD's to choose from. I have a rather eclectic taste in music - you're as likely to find Muse as Music to Watch Girls By, Taize chants or Tom Jones, Eurythmics or Enya and so on.

The CD shelf

One thing that's always saddened me is the move to digital music; I have a basketful of cassette tapes of music I can't find on CD which are linked to my student years and the time my dad worked in Oman for a while (and brought us back pirated copies of tapes I could never afford to buy for myself. The job in Oman also bought my first real sound system - a record player with tape deck and radio! I'll never forget the day Dad came home on leave and there was music blasting out of all three of us kids' bedrooms because he'd bought one for each of us...) Those tapes - and the memories linked to them - have been gathering dust in a basket for the last twenty years.

Not any more!

Because Mr Squidge also bought me a little gadget that plays old cassette tapes and records them as mp3 files so you can plug a memory stick into the new music system and play them! Hooray!!

The natty little gadget itself - smaller than a Walkman

Needless to say, I've not played with the technology yet, but Mr Squidge has; yesterday I heard Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf for the first time in literally yonks, followed by a bit of The Light Programme, a jazz band we saw busking on the streets of Newcastle.

I've sorted out the tapes I'd like to capture...the blue tapes are all pirated copies! There's a fab Disco double cassette with hours of 70's disco...The Damned - Anyhting Goes - from a gig I saw in Wolverhampton while at uni...Andrew Lloyd Webber's Variations which our dance teacher used at Limehurst (Mrs Freakley - big hair, always in a leotard!)...Adam Ant, from my thirteenth birthday...'Love Songs' and the B52's...Prince, 1999...King (Another uni gig - Get your boots on!) So many memories, flooding back.

The ones that DEFINITELY need to be digitilized!

I reckon 2016 is going to be full of rediscovered music...and memories.

Creativity, Squidge-style

Our summer hols have been more of a stay-cation than a vacation... especially after T's axe-ident which meant he wasn't able to get out and about in the first few weeks. (Pleased to report all is healing nicely).

Anyway, the Squidges have still had plenty of time to get creative, and there are a few summer projects to share with you...

1. The waa-waa box.

Apparently it's a technical term - honest; T was given a bass guitar effects pedal last Christmas from his uncle. However, said waa-waa box had to be built from scratch. Now we're not really into electrical engineering in this house, though Mr Squidge knows enough to get by. So Squidgeling T and Mr Squidge sorted out their resistors from their transistors, got to grips with a soldering iron and hey presto;

Doesn't look much on the outside...

...but it's spaghetti junction on the inside.

There were a few teething troubles when they tried to connect it to the amp, but after a bit of playing with the balance knobs, the bass sounds brilliant - all ready for WBV Rock Club in the new term.

2. Airfix.

Another Squidgeling T project - a model of a Type 45 Destroyer. It's yet to be finished, but there are, I'm informed, some VERY fiddly bits on this one, so it's taking a lot more time to put it all together.

The official Airfix desk

3. Extending the tree house.

When the Squidgelings were one and three, Mr Squidge decided to build a tree house in our pear tree. Fine, says I, just make sure it has a retractable ladder so they can't climb up without us. We ended up with a shaped platform and roped sides which looked a bit like a boat. And a retractable ladder which cunningly folds in half as it's lifted. (Hooray for engineers!)

Pirate 5th birthday party on The Jolly Knickerbocker Tree-house Ship.
(Squidgeling T is on the platform, second from left...)

Thirteen years later, and it's time for an extension. T drew up the plans (floor space long enough for a bed, walls, ceiling, a solar panel for the TV and a cat flap) and he set to work with Mr Squidge. Again, it's not quite finished, but it's coming together.

Squidgeling T, nine years later, cutting the old ropes away...

The new platform takes shape

4. The electric violin.

Squidgeling J plays her normal violin with an electric 'pick up' through her amp - but after borrowing a friend's dad's electric violin for a production, she decided she'd like to build herself an electric violin of her own. Except it wouldn't look like a normal violin. The core would be wood, but the shape would be cut from acrylic and lit with LED's. Plans were laid for the building of a prototype; various bits arrived in the post, wood was hewn, acrylic was cut - and it all came together yesterday. Granted, some bits are still sellotaped on, other bits need a few tweaks, but it worked!

From this...

...to this!

It looked like a violin - albeit a funky one - and this morning, Squidgeling J tuned and played the protoype. In fact, I think she only put it down to eat her dinner...

5. The King Stone.

I'm not able to help much on the technical side of the aforementioned projects (Mr Squidge has been kept VERY busy!) so I  have used the time when the rest of the family was in the garage/garden/their bedrooms to work on the second draft chapters of my WIP. I am up to Chapter 10, and tomorrow will see my one hundredth day of writing since I began my 100 days challenge. Hooray! Here's to the next 100!

So - got any summer projects of your own to share?

Musical stories

I love music almost as much as I love words.

This morning, I was ironing to the accompaniment of Plan B's 'The Defamation of Strickland Banks'. If you don't know this album, it tells the story of a man wrongly imprisoned for rape and what happens to him inside prison. It's a strong theme, but fabulous music.

I started thinking about how much I like story-music - and decided to share some of my favourites with you.

My first exposure to story-music happened very early on; when I was seven, or possibly eight, I went to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat at the theatre. For my birthday, I was bought the LP of the musical soundtrack. I loved how the story of Joseph was told through song. I still prefer that original version to the modern one (sorry, Sir Andrew) and had the LP put onto CD a few years ago so I could continue to sing the 'proper' version. I suppose every musical tells a story, but there are very few that have no spoken words at all - Jesus Christ Superstar, perhaps? Not as much fun to sing along to though.

(Back in the Am Dram days, Mr Squidge used to act as stage crew - he had to dress up as a Roman soldier for Superstar and was on stage more often than me (crowd member)).

The Planet Suite by Holst was the next one I remember. I used to do my homework to it. I loved how the character of the different planets came through in the music. (I will admit to pretending to be Mars, God of War, and dancing around the bedroom when I should have been doing my maths...)

War of the Worlds... a brilliant book in its own right, but something else when Jeff Wayne mixed readings from the book with music to tell of the Martians' attack on Earth. The Red Weed music is so eerie...

I have a pirated cassette tape of 1984, by the Eurythmics. They wrote the score for a film of the same name, but it was never used. I'd read the book not long before I heard the tape, so I understood the references to Doubleplusgood at the time; I don't recall much of the details of the book now. Unfortunately the tape's not in such good nick either, so I can't play it often.

More recently, I've been impressed by Muse (my favourite band after the Eurythmics!) for their storytelling prowess. Resistance is based - again - around 1984, and I don't think there's a single one of their albums which doesn't have an over-riding theme and a story, if you're prepared to look for it. Showbiz has one, The Second Law does, and Drones certainly does.

I also admire Roger Jones, a christian composer who has written Christmas-themed musicals which we've performed at church. While Shepherds Watched tells the Nativity from the point of view of the shepherds, while Stargazers focuses on the Wise Men. I have been known to sing along to them in July...just because.

And if I had to pick one other band who tell stories in every song they write, it would have to be Madness. Only as I've got older have I really begun to listen to the lyrics and hear the story and poetry behind the music. It adds a whole new dimension to my childhood memories of songs like Baggy Trousers.

So it's not just words that tell stories - music does too. I wonder if you've got any favourites of your own? Drop them in the comments if you have - I'd be interested to see what floats your story-music boat.

The Scribbles get their first award!

The Scribbles have been nominated for the One Lovely Blog Award by Loretta Milan, of the Literary Lightbox! Thank you SO much Loretta - it's always good to know that folk enjoy visiting this little digital corner to see what I'm sharing, and to know that you think it's 'lovely' is...well...rather lovely!

The One Lovely Blog Award nomination is the award, if that makes sense - the nominations are chosen by fellow bloggers for newer or up-and-coming bloggers, the goal being to help give recognition and to also help the new blogger reach more viewers. It also recognizes blogs that are considered to be “lovely” by the fellow-blogger who chose them. 

So I have great pleasure in 'accepting' the award - which means I've got to follow a few rules. I have to;

1. Thank the person who nominated me (see above!)

2. Add the One Lovely Blog Award logo to my post and/or blog (ditto!)

3. Share seven facts about myself.

4. Nominate 15 bloggers I admire and inform them by commenting on their blog. 

Numbers 1 and 2 are done, 3 is coming up...but can I say up front that I have a problem with number 4? Because I don't follow that many blogs! So I have picked rather less than 15 (15! If I kept up with 15 blogs I'd never have time to write my own or work on my WIP!) but they are ones I like visiting because they are easy to read, easy on the eye (I'm having problems with varifocals and computer screens for some setups), and often have something to say that touches my soul. I hope you'll check them out for yourself.

Anyhoo - back to number 3. Consider this my acceptance speech, if you will. All About Me. Seven things you might not know...

1. When I was a child, family holidays were spent in North Wales. Same house, same town, same beaches every year - and we loved it! For many years, the holiday was timed for the week of my birthday in June (yes, you were allowed to take your children out of school in term time then. Didn't seem to do me any harm, but hey-ho). My abiding memory of those holidays is therefore having shop-bought Victoria sandwich cake (a real treat!) on the beach, on my birthday. 

2. I have been a cover girl. Admittedly, it could have been more glamorous; I was photographed working in an isolator during my pharmaceutical microbiologist days. And the magazine was one aimed at local businesses, but hey - beggars can't be choosers. (The same photo is also displayed in the Charnwood Museum...)

3. I have cycled the Alps on a tandem. Well, the foothills of the Alps. Mr Squidge sold the cycling holiday to me by emphasising they were foothills and wouldn't be too hilly; there was even a tunnel we could cycle through instead of going up and over the worst one. Which sounded fine until we realised that we had no lights, there was only a very narrow walkway through the tunnel (suspended about five feet above the road) and we were on the main trade route to Italy which meant that literally hundreds of artics were using the same tunnel. That day, we cycled 40 odd miles, of which I reckon at least twenty were either vertically up or vertically down the mountain - MOUNTAIN - that the tunnel went through, in 43 degree heat. Mr Squidge was not very popular that day.

4. I have worked as an egg pickler. This rather wonderful job (taken while waiting for my first lot of A level results) entailed mixing up baths full of vinegar (white or brown), counting 20 eggs into a glass jar (checking that the yolks weren't too close to the surface or the vinegar would eat through the white, making the yolk burst out which turned the vinegar cloudy), topping up the jar with said vinegar and screwing the lids on by hand. When my mum picked me up after work, she would drive with the windows open because the smell of vinegar clung...and to this day, I cannot eat salt and vinegar crisps.  

5. I have only ever played Dungeons and Dragons once in my life. I was at uni, and a friend made me a character - a tiny painted cheetah woman - to play with. I have to admit going to bed sometime around midnight while the lads played on...

6. I love an excuse to get dressed up. I don't mean posh frock - I'm talking fancy dress. There's something really weird yet wonderful about being able to put on a disguise and become something or someone different. I have been many things over the years...

Celebrating the 70's at my 40th

Am Dram days - old lady and tea lady

We're in the Money! West Side Story...

Yes, this really IS me.

7. I am a huge Muse fan. I love the theatricality of their music, the harmonies that are created, and the stories behind quite a few of their albums. They are my music of choice when writing - my muse is actually Muse!

And now, to blogs... I'm nominating these for a One Lovely Blog Award because it's in them I find most of my inspiration, determination, good sense and creativity in abundance! 

busy mockingbird - satisfies my creative side no end!
terrible minds - Chuck Wendig's unique, no punches pulled, blog about writing and life.
Jody Klaire - one of the most inspirational authors I know, and someone I'm proud to call my friend.
The Random Ramblings - a wacky bunch of writers who write fabulous stories (keep an eye out, as there's going to be another anthology by them soon!)

So there you go. Thanks again to Loretta, and thank you for reading. The blog wouldn't be the same without you. x

Ups and downs

What a weird week so far.

Good : sold 7 more copies of Granny Rainbow at the school fair last Saturday and made over £30 for the PSA with my rainbow straw game.

Not so good : bloomin' arm's playing up again. Another trip to the walk-in centre, only to be told it's too long after the original injury for them to deal with me, and I need to see my GP to be referred back to the hospital for an X-ray IF they think I need it.

Good : Awards Evening for the kids. Both received multiple awards and performed with rock club. The highlight for me (sorry, kids!) was one of the Y10 boys who sang a solo. Amazing performance!

Not so good : T due on a survival camp at the weekend with Scouts. Not yet received kit list, permission form or health form... I mean, does he need a bivvy bag 'cos he sleeping under the stars? Or will he actually be in a tent? I know the scouts' motto is Be Prepared, but this is getting a bit ridic!

Good : I finished another Granny Rainbow story for the next book.

Not so good : I realised there's a whole section in StarMark that doesn't work, and I'm a bit stumped as to how to fix it.

Good : Received my first entries for the Granny Rainbow competition! Only a week to go...

Not so good : Have been invited to a book launch and I think I'm away. Pooh.

Good : I am one of 10 writers to have been selected to write a short story for a project in Leicester...but more of that in another post.

So. A bit uppy-downy, and it's only Wednesday. Gutted about StarMark, but I know that battling with it now means it'll be better later. If only I can crack this middle bit...

How's the week going for you? Hoping very much that on balance, the goods are outweighing the not-so-goods...

Music, maestro!

Yesterday was a very musical one for the Squidges.

I love music - if I had to describe my taste, it would have to be 'eclectic'. On my CD shelf, you're just as likely to find Madness or Muse, 80's electric pop, rock'n'roll, Eurythmics, Ray LaMontagne, carols or Taize chants. It all depends on my mood... I'd have to say I'm a singer rather than an instrumentalist, though. I can just about read music (in that I know where to go up and down and roughly how long to hold the notes) but I learn most pieces by ear, copying what I hear.

Anyway, Squidges Junior were both appearing in a school Spring Concert last night. Between them, they were in the orchestra, Rock Club Band and Singing Club Choir, playing bass guitar, violin and singing. We'd heard nothing but Spring Concert stuff for days, they were so excited - and we weren't disappointed.

The drama studio was set up the 'wrong way round', so the audience were on the floor and the artists up on the steps which usually provide seating. There were flowers and chocolates on the tables, refreshments being served, and enough time before the performance to chat to other parents and teachers. The programme itself was pretty varied, with pieces performed by clubs, GCSE music students and soloists - there are some very talented young musicians out there. My favourite (and I admit, I'm probably biased) was Rock Club's version of 'The Final Countdown', complete with rocket launch projection and the music teacher, Mr P, rocking out on his guitar for the solo.

Plans are, I believe, already being laid for the summer concert and a twenty minute Rock Club set at another school's summer fair. I think I'm going to end up being a groupie...

But it didn't end there. Mr Squidge and I thrust the kids into the waiting arms of a babysitter and headed off down to our Town Hall straight afterwards to see Suggs.

Have I mentioned Madness is on my CD shelf? I've always enjoyed their music, so a chance to hear Suggs, their frontman, talk about his life and early Madness days was not to be missed.

It was abso-flippin-bloomin'-lutely brilliant! Not just because Suggs is a consummate showman, whose personality oozes through the mix of words and music and theatricals, not even because the show was a perfect balance of humour, dark moments and character observation which wove together past and present in a seamless mix, but because I have never laughed so much in a long time. Even the programme (and goodness me, it weren't cheap!) was a work of art; I sat and read it in the interval, and found this little snippet...

'I think it's the Icelanders who say there are only two real things in life; love and a good story.'

Sounds pretty good to me.

The Pink Violin.

Today, my daughter took her Grade 5 ABRSM violin exam.

She's an amazing musician by the way - plays the descant and treble recorders, guitar (she's strumming K.T. Tunstall's 'You're the other side of the world' while I'm typing!), piano, and has also tried viola and harp. Given the chance, I'm sure she'd pinch her brother's double bass...

(I'm quite envious - I can sing, sort of, but I have to learn everything by ear as I'm no good at reading music. I did play the drums for a while, but keeping a beat is easy by comparison.)

Anyway, while waiting for J to come out of the exam, I got talking to a fellow parent. His daughter was taking her Grade 1 exam - on a baby-pink, personalised-with-her-name-and-a-mermaid-picture, violin. 'Well,' said the dad, 'you've got to have fun doing these things, haven't you?' I totally agree - having a funky instrument might do wonders in enticing the child to practise...

I replied that we were going to buy J a purple recorder, because she's hoping to play with a local Border Morris group whose costumes are black, silver and purple. 

After seeing that pink violin, I'm now thinking through what I can do to personalise a purple recorder!