The Rock and Roll Lifestyle...

As soon as the wave of Christmas had started to subside, I found myself driving a rather overloaded car to North Wales, with the tingle of anticipation evident in all three of us. After a stop to buy the essentials (drum sticks, strings and picks) we found ourselves amongst the beauty of the Welsh mountains, my brother Jim in the backseat cleaning and restringing the guitars and Rob (who might as well be one of the family) controlling the tunes to get us fired up for what lay ahead.

After a little appehension as to whether the scrap of paper Rob was holding contained sufficient directions to get us there, we ended up in the quirky studio perched on the side of a Hill, and once set up retired to the Mongolian Yurt which would the temporary home for the three of us.

All in all it was a fantastic three days, a great end to 2006.

Jim hitting all the right chords..

It was worth buying those sticks after all...

Rob rocking it up in the control room...

Christmas chez Barne

After my first ever work Christmas lunch (a significant milestone) I found myself travelling back from London late on the 22nd December with precious little time to finish my Christmas shopping. Fortunately the rather unexpectably placed delicatessant in a nearby village saved the day, and Christmas rolled on.

Altogether a lovely family time, the highlight being perhaps the musical crackers. Each one contained a whistle which played a different note, and our hats all had numbers on them. From behind a score sheet, the musically minded among us directed the rabble into our own little carol orchestra.

However the real musical highlight was to come over the next few days....