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Wednesday, Frebruary 11, 2009

Oh, hi!

I didn't see you there. You've caught me doing something really rather clever in the studio and I won't bore you by explaining how very clever it actually is. Suffice to say that you'd be very impressed in the subject of it's own accord and the gentle and patronising method of delivery in which it would be communicated. I'm Simon Brawley.

Something tells me that I should really stop the charade here before someone takes it too seriously - not least myself - so I'll move on rather more humbly to the on-goings and goings-on of The Halcyon Glow over the past few months. The last blog was in October 2008, and in geological terms it's been, like, ages.

Ordinarily, it's left until the end of the blog to suggest an album we think is awesome, but it might serve us better if we agree to dispense with the intermediate ramblings and for you to just pop on "Animals" by Pink Floyd straight away simply because it's brilliant. However, as easy as it may be to listen to one of the greatest albums ever made, there will come a point where you'll have to put on the haunting music from The Elephant Man for emotional resonance in the daringly poignant passages further in. But, I digest.

The most influential personal activity since October has been Olly's trip to Chile, which happened for a month in November and served us with a great excuse to concentrate on writing new material before and after his trip. In this time, two new songs were pretty much completed, each under five minutes, and took form from efforts motivated by our more pronounced wishes to make songs with a more interesting arrangement than we've used in the past. The first has been written by Olly and, although there's no recording as a band as yet, Olly's original recording with just guitar and voice is, I reckon, really very lovely in its own right and can be found on his MySpace page "Room of 95". You should be able to find that in our friends and is well worth a listen. In addition, a new, albeit nameless, song was written by me in this period which threatened to obscure any efforts to try out new sounds by demanding, of itself, a gigantic guitar solo at the beginning of the song in the first instance, and then exclaiming that if it didn't have an even loftier one at the end it wouldn't be at all very happy about any of it and that, if that were the case, it wouldn't be able to see the point in carrying on. Reader, we gave in.

The next port of call is to tell you that we've started gigging again. Our first in 2009 was at The Legion on Old Street and went down really well, so we were chuffed. Barring EyeFest last year, I think it was one of the most populous gigs we've had – so thanks again to all those who came to show your support. My happiest thought about the gig, however, was at the end of our planned set. With each of us happy with having pulled off “Five Years” by David Bowie – a song which incidentally bolstered, for fair or ill, a sordid call of “Very brave” by a beer hugging muso - the organiser, who went by the name of “Spoon”* absolutely loved us and we were asked for an encore. ROCK! indeed.

Anyway, we have more gigs lined up, so check the events calender if you'd like to come to see us; we'd love to see you there. As ever, any comments about any gigs, music or general advice are welcome, so send us a message here or at band@thehalcyonglow.com if you have any ideas.

Thanks again,

Si and the rest of The Halcyon Glow

*Reasons for this are lost. It was thought best not to ask for fear of a steamy practical demonstration.

P.S. This time I'd like to suggest "Animals" by Pink Floyd. It's awesome.