My Cheezy Weekend!!

I’ve had an absolute ball of a weekend! Starting Friday night with the rehearsal of Phoenix Brass and The Cheez Rockers and ending today with a three hour recording session it has been a blast.

It all started about a year ago when I was asked to arrange some brass parts to accompany  folk singer Gabby Young. The band was Phoenix Brass and listening to the performance was a couple of chaps who are in a rock band, The Cheez Rockers. They are actually cheese makers who do a nifty sideline in making music as well.

After the Gabby Young gig, I was asked would I be interested in arranging some music to accompany a TV series that was currently in the planning stages. The programme is a road-trip type show and will have a mix of music, food, fun, banter and – judging by the pilot – plenty of laughs too. I said yes even though I felt a little out of my depth, and it has got to be one of the bestest things I have ever said yes to. I was sent a couple of mp3s of songs by Rev (“Mark” to his mum, Rev to his mates) which he had composed specially for the TV series and I got cracking. They are fantastic songs and I tried to use my experience of brass band music, folk music, literature studies and all that to bring together a couple of arrangements to accompany him.

We had a rehearsal at the start of December without Rev to check the general idea of the arrangements and then I worked on them over Christmas to bring them to a rehearsal on Friday night with Rev and Sean (the other singer) and the band. We had a recording session today of the two songs and Rev is going to be using them as demos for working on the series which is being filmed over the Summer. Rev has asked me to do some brass parts for the main theme tune too, which I am thrilled about.

Here are some photos of the events of Friday and today. You might recognise Sean if you are a British soap fan…

Sean, Me and Rev - the musical geniuses haha!

The Band

The cornet section

Graham the conductor

My music!!

Sean singing, Rev playing, me filming, band playing = good times!

I’ll keep you informed of how things are progressing and when the TV show is made and aired I’ll let you know. Rock on cheese lovers!!