Guitars and Life

Okay something a little different... It Came Upon a Midnight Clear God Rest you Merry Gentlemen A few other little classical pieces... two by Tarega, Lagrima and Adelita, and then the famous Spanish Ballard. Enjoy - have a happy Christmas all

As regular readers will know Son-of-Furtheron is residing at Aberystwyth uni these days. So we needed to get him back home for Christmas but with the weather... I originally planned to go Saturday but weather in Wales on Friday and at our place on Saturday made that a non-starter. I thought I'd wait until Monday. But Sunday morning I watched the weather and thought "I better go today I think". So 2 hours to dig out our drive, car and road - we'd had about 4 inches I suppose. I left about 11:30 and got through the slush to the motorway. All went well until I got to the M1 - first crash. Wasn't too long there. Then into the roadworks and frankly aweful road conditions near Newport Pagnell there was just packed ice that wasn't shifting. Two lanes only as the contraflow was shut and then a break down. Through that and carry on. My biggest problem was the washers gave up working about Shrewsbury. So I had to stop and clean the screen from time to time. I...

So Mrs F says - "Can you go up Tescos and get the Christmas food and stuff on Thursday?" Of course being I'm not working it is least I can do as she runs from school play to governors socials etc. "There is booze on the list you ok with that?" "I'll see how I am at the time" She still doesn't get a response like that, but given probably 2 years ago I would have instantly said no things are moving on - Alcohol is for the moment a past in my life if Alcoholism is still very much in the present. Anyway - I come back with the shopping - no pork pies and the wrong type of shortbread but overall a success. She pulls out the bottle of Baileys (her favourite). I said "That cost £15 - good job you only drink it at Christmas". She looks at me - "I only drink it at Christmas and it is only me in the family. Why did you get a 1 litre one, the smaller would have done." Ooops - I'd pick up the little one and thought "...

I am totally over the moon (as they say) that I have won the 2010 ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP Outstanding Achievement award. Many thanks to Toby at ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP, frankly without his encouragement and the support through the network he started I'd have never got off my backside and got out there doing what I've been doing for the last year i.e. writing, performing, recording etc. I have to thank everyone who voted for me in the awards as I also got nominations in both the Song of the Year with Let Me Love You Tonight and the CD of the Year category with Within, my début solo CD. The Award PODCAST is available at ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP at the moment or directly off Divshare. Not often I say this but I'm a bit at a loss for words frankly!

Do you remember that I put a plea out for readers of this blog to vote for my in theROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP 2010 annual awards? Well at 6pm GMT tonight the winners will be announced in a special 2010 ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP-AWARDS podcast, which will be available to listen to, or download from the ROCK-TIL-YOU-DROP blog Fingers crossed :-)

My statement and royalty cheque from PRS tells me so! Okay it isn't going to mean I have to contact a wealth management consultant but nothing can better the feeling that I have received money for the songs I have written. So this ties up this year nicely - last year I'd just started as a solo singer, I have had stuff played on the Internet (thanks Scooter Forums Radio and Dinners!), I've played gigs, I've written and recorded a CDs worth of material, I have sold that CD internationally and now I get royalties. Shame there are not enough 0s on the amounts I've earned or I could seriously think about not doing a proper job again and living the dream! :-)

I've done things like these before - this one was via Facebook via my son... looks similar to where I've fallen before. This one seemed to have very USA centric questions to me. My Political Views I am a left moderate social libertarian Left: 5.54, Libertarian: 3.24 Political Spectrum Quiz

I'm a child of the 60s one of the last of the baby boomer generation, my parents lived through the war, my Dad didn't get called up as he was in a prescribed occupation - i.e. working in the dockyard but he was considering volunteering just as the war ended. My Mum was just too young for service as she only left school just at the end of the war. I imagine with their background and general political persuasion that they were exactly the kind of young people who really welcomed the 1946 social welfare revolution with the NHS, Welfare and of course the education reforms that led to the explosion of the universities in the 60s. When I left school university was free in terms of fees and it was a grant not a loan. I sort of flunked my A levels a bit, too much time thinking I was going to get my band off the ground and that worldwide stardom was but a few odd timing licks and suspended chords away - but Rush had cornered that market. Anyway I did go to college locally and it did...

so 30 years ago today Lennon died... I remember my Dad coming in and telling us that - also that means 30 years ago I went to see Blue Oyster Cult at the Hammersmith Odeon and we had the disastrous swear box to raise a drinking pot idea - it was abandoned before we got off the drive due to the level of contributions!! Makes me feel flipping old however

So to brighten the dark winter we've got the decorations up - much to Daughter-of-Furtheron's liking. She was moaning that we should put them up early, normally we are some point in the middle of December but with the snow and being stuck in etc we did it yesterday - although the snow was thawing quite quickly. I downloaded Annie Lennox's A Christmas Cornucopia. If you want a new Christmas album I'd recommend this one some great interpretations of many a school hall favourite and I have always loved her voice. Daughter-of-Furtheron has also created a Christmas Playlist in Spotify, I got in with Steeleye Span and Jethro Tull whilst she wasn't looking and we had that playing all afternoon whilst the girls but the tree and the tinsel up. I've pull out the family old ancient angel chimes to annoy everyone at the dinner table! Just looked blimey they still make very similar ones :-) I've had these since I was a boy, my aunt bought them so they have so much...

Ok So here is a little side by side comparison of three of my guitars. All through my H&K Statesman Dual 6L6 combo. There is a Boss Flanger throughout - that is connected via the amps effects send and return in parallel mode which I like as it has the effect colouring not dominating the sound. In each sound clip is a shortened version of one of my tunes. Starts off on the clean channel with Twang in, then moves to the drive channel, finally the solo is on the drive channel with the boost in. On the guitars in order the following.. Peter Cook Custom - clean is on the neck pickup then move to the neck for distorted chords and solo PRS CE22 - position 9 on the selector (Outside coils of both pickups in parallel) for clean bit the position 10 bridge humbucker for the rest Gordon Smith Graduate 60 - neck pickup with coil tap engaged and then bridge humbucker once drive is selected.

"I dunno Dud!" :-) Alright as asked by many of you... well one reader! So here is a demo of the Peter Cook Three settings - first on a jazzy sequence. This is using the Neck pickup - through my H&K Statesman 6l6 combo which is on the clean channel with the Twang button in. So the only change is on the guitar. First - Freq pot at 1 Boost at 8 Second - Freq pot at 10 Boost at 10 Third - Freq pot at 7 Boost at 8 Nothing else is changed! Shows how versatile this beast is. Then we go RAWK! On the drive channel of the same amp, gain on the amp about 50%. This is on the bridge pickup - again only thing changed is the tone controls on the guitar. First - Freq pot at 3 Boost at 8 Second - Freq pot at 10 Boost at 10 Third - Freq pot at 7 Boost at 8 The third settings on both are my favoured settings with the guitar. So here's the sound clip with all those on... enjoy

I posted these photos on a vintage guitar forum... thought I'd stick em up here too... It has an active preamp in it - more similar to that used in basses. One knob is overall volume, then a freq knob to pick a freq to boost/cut and then a boost control. The switches are some funny phase switch (never use it) and the preamp on off (I never have it off!). Powered by 2 9 volts under the smaller cover on the back. It is same scale length as a Strat, Strat hardtail bridge Mighty Mite I believe. A forearm contour but no back contour. Mahogany body and neck, rosewood fingerboard 12" radius with jumboish frets. Nut the brass nut - very late 70s/early 80s! Must be over thirty years old now and I've owned it well over 20. I should use it more but the preamp controls aren't the easiest to get on with - i.e. it is easy to quickly screw it all up!!

I've just been looking at my blog stats... People from Poland, Denmark, all over - including China! Most popular search that hits my blog is Hughes and Kettner Dual 6L6 review. Really!!! So hello all owners of that amp - or prospective users. You know what I ought to post some more stuff about it now I've had it 18 months given it is popular reading :-)

I owe some ... here goes I am Ozzy Ozzy's autobiography - well sounds like he rambled into a tape recorder and some other guy tried to make sense of it all! Actually it was a captivating read - he is a pretty humble guy in many ways to who life seems to happen with some stunning results! He tells it how he remembers it, but he admits that he has probably arsed up his brain cells over the years and that others are at liberty to contest his version of events. Black Sabbath's rise is interesting, like other stars who I've read about there is this bit where... "we were in the van driving here and there, doing loads of gigs, any gig, we had no gear/money/anywhere to live etc. We got this manager and he was hawking us about, we made the album, this went well, that less so, we went back on the road - then the manager called and said The album is no 1, 10 whatever"... It is amazing that the move from nobody to star is a) so quick b) seems to not be noticed directly b...

Is it still November? Doesn't look like it outside - we got the long awaited snow over night and it has carried on snowing on and off all day, only mostly small flurries but more looks to be coming down now. I'm surprised it took this long, normally if the wind comes in from the east in the winter we cop it - we live on the slope of the North Downs and the snow just gets unloaded from the North Sea on us as the cloud comes in. I think 10 miles east it will have largely fallen as rain, that isn't uncommon but as the height rises we get the snow. So snow in Kent - my daughters school shut early at lunchtime, but at least they tried to operate unlike many. Mrs F has gone off and her school has stayed open. No trains running by the sound of it but frankly that is hardly surprising you pay £4000 plus for a season ticket and they provide the biggest joke of a service in the country! Probably in Europe! I don't want to sound like a whingeing old man but I did commute to...

The interview came and went and I didn't get the job... I blew it - the preconception was that the job was a long way from what I'd previously been doing. I liked the guy who owned the company but in the end he really wanted a team leader on the up not someone like me who's done that job some years ago. Never mind - onwards and upwards as they say

I've been somewhat quiet on here lately, so what's been going on... I've been decorating - that took a lot of October up. We have a large open plan house, it wasn't originally like that but someone (before our tenancy) put an arch between the lounge and the dining room (very 70s) removing the old fold back doors that were there - they were on the back of the garage when we moved in, what a joke they had to go! - and they also moved a wall through 90° to remove the hallway but make an entrance porch but the stairway is now in the lounge. That means when you decorate now you have to decorate, the dining room, the lounge, the stairway and the upstairs landing. This means all 8 room doors in the house have to be painted and three large cupboard doors as well! Anyway that was a minimum three weeks with me working pretty much everyday - I did have one day off to help out at some AA thing. November - well the decorating bug had got hold so I did my sons bedroom. In fairne...

Ok - Looks like that might be it on the gigs front until 2011. The private party gig was a laugh - I did a short solo set and then was in an "easy listening" jazz band thing a mate has put together. I know it isn't really my sort of thing but then playing something you don't listen to or play much can stretch you. My brother-in-law, sister and some friends came along. My brother-in-law is a bass player and he said "The band sounded great" - so must have been good. The Libertine was another great afternoon of fun. Only three acts due to late illness withdrawals but I still enjoyed it and Toby of RTYD fame indicated how much he thinks I've come along in terms of confidence, quality and choice of material in the last year. That is nice to get comments like that. So 2011 - the year I finally get the recognition I deserve and get catapulted into super stardom? I doubt it hopefully some more solo gigs - the drummer from the jazz band thing has suggested a...

I'm playing a private party in Strood on Saturday. If anyone in the Kent area would like to come along I have some limited invites available - email me. Sunday I'm playing at the RTYD Acoustic Sunday at The Libertine in Borough. I'll be on sometime between 1:30 - 3:00.

I've used Award Session before for leads especially. They make such a range, it's like you just pretty much custom order what you want, they use top quality components and they have never been an issue. I ordered some recently and they arrived in double quick time. However I noticed an issue with the billing - I emailed them and it was sorted out in double quick time as well. Top service award of the year so far goes to Award Session!

The Rock Til You Drop 2010 awards are nearing. This is a bit cheeky I know but hell everyone else does it don't they... Could you all just click on this link to the voting form and put Graham Hunt - Within in the best CD category and Graham Hunt - Let Me Love you Tonight in the best song one? I'd be very grateful... ta!

From good old FlatEric ... Who remembers the Bells catalogue ? As a kid I used to send off for these and wear them out thumbing through them :-) Page 24 - look at the bottom right hand corner - that was the first electric guitar I ever owned! My Mum and Dad helped me buy it when I was 12. Les Paul gold top deluxe for £239 anyone!! Or a Black Custom - like mine at the top of the picture here... yours for £389!!! Although you had to pay £18.90 for a hard case! Memories!

Well I throughly enjoyed the Lamb & Flag gig yesterday. We (that is Mrs F, Daughter-of-Furtheron and I) made our way up to London on the train and met up with my brother, his wife and daughter for a meal before heading to the venue. By the end of the meal I was into the usual pre-gig nerves which I think Mrs F could easily spot - I had been talking with my brother about the Grand Prix and other stuff but slowly started to shut down. This is my way a bit before any gig - I get to the point of wanting to a) get to the venue to check all is ok b) get on stage and get it over with! Funny isn't it I really want to play live to get my stuff heard by people and I do genuinely enjoy it once I'm playing but before hand that day all the "Why on earth did I agree to this?", "It'll be crap", "I'll be booed off" etc. thoughts can't help but invade the brain. I've read several autobiographies of other performers who have similar issues, od...

I'm still in decorating mode... we have a big open plan house so once you start in the dining room you have to continue into the lounge, then the stairwell then the upstairs landing... you get the picture in the end you've pretty much decorated the majority of the house! Well you've painted at least one side of every single door in the place! Anyway the end is in sight, I've only the paper to hang on the landing now and then next week a friend is coming to do the stairwell - I haven't the right ladders etc. to hang wallpaper in a stairwell - plus Mrs F didn't trust me up a ladder with my vertigo :-) Anyway - as a diversion I'm playing a 30 min acoustic set (all original material!) at the Lamb and Flag 24 James Street. It is just north of Oxford Street very close to Bond Street tube station. If you are at a loss or in the area come along - it kicks off about 7:30 and I'm on sometime between 8 and 9 I believe.

Last night I went to Folkestone to see Joe Bonamassa. I went with my brother, it's been years since we went to a gig together but it was just like the old days when as teenagers we went to loads together and met a couple of friends in the queue just before the doors open. Mr Bonamassa admitted he'd never heard of Folkestone and was confused by the venue. The Leas Cliff Hall is built, as its name implies, on a cliff overlooking the channel - on a clear day you can see to France from the roof. Now since it is built on a cliff you enter at the roof of the building and there is a little building above ground as you approach the top of the cliff... see the photo below. So Joe was looking at this little building thinking "And you are going to get 1500 people in that !". To the gig - no support and Joe hit the stage just before 8pm and left just after 10pm. 2 solid hours with now breaks, he hardly spoke at all between numbers so in terms of value for money cannot be fa...

In the middle of a bit of a gig fest at the moment... 3 gigs in 4 days! I finish off with Joe Bonamassa at Folkestone tonight but here are my reviews of the first two... Supertramp - The O2 This was billed at the 70 - 10 All the Hits and More tour. 70 - 10? For those that don't know Supertramp formed in 1970 so this year is their 40th anniversary. It has been some years since they toured and to be frank I thought that Rick Davies had had enough and was happy to put his feet up in retirement living out his days in the USA. Luckily not... some context... Supertramp were a hugely important band for me, in 1974 I heard Dreamer on the radio and was like - who/what was that? They were one of the first bands I discovered for myself and got into rather than others leading me to them if you see what I mean. Crime of the Century was a stunning album I thought, and still do. The opening harmonica of School through to the dying chords of the title track it is just brilliant. However i...

Now if you like modern globe trotting ancient relic hunting thrillers ... this is quiet a good one. The scene is set by the prologue that indicates nearly 2000 years ago a bunch of pretty hard men go through a lot to conceal something in a pretty desolate location, but we don't know what, where or why. Fast forward to the 21st century and an old British stately home owner is being tortured to give some information he doesn't have about something his father is supposed to have been searching for. Thus starts the romp. Three protagonists are chasing the relic (whatever it is), one is a British Museum worker and her policeman ex-husband, the second is a very very nasty man - i.e. the one who tortures our home owner and a USA multi-millionaire. So they shoot off here and there in the world and what they are searching sort of changes as well as you follow more the English couple as they try to catch up and over take the others searching for the relic. Some bits totally unbelievable...

Let me Love You Tonight Written in Feb 2010. The picking bit at the beginning was the start on an acoustic but as soon as I found the chords for the verse I could hear that as a bass intro. I was pushing myself to use chords with suspense in them so a Cmaj7 to start then a Em7Sus4/B ... I think! (It is probably something else!). The lyrics were inspired by something I heard someone say in a meeting once - about when they hit their rock bottom someone said - "Let us love you tonight until you can love yourself". I nearly used that lyric as it was then realised some people could misinterpret it! So the "Until You Feel Alright" line came along and I altered some others so it can be interpreted as a love song - the listeners choice. This was one where I knew I needed to "spice it up" somewhere in and hence the move to the Bm when you're just thinking - has this song only got 3 chords? That was recorded at Broadwood Studios in Kent after my wife boug...

Into 2010... The second gig at The Lib on Valentine's Day was more nerve racking than the first for some reason. I think because now it wasn't a one off and I was nailing my colours to the mast as a solo singer/songwriter and therefore needed to raise the game. In the end it went alright I think. I learnt some stuff there indeed... using 12 strings live is a nightmare :-) I will still go there but not ever gig. I was still "sitting down" as I had at the debut and afterwards thought - I don't feel comfortable like that - so a move to stand up ... moving about... :-) was on the cards. I took the Boss BR600 along to that and got some surprisingly good results with it just running off batteries and on the table in front of my daughter who was in control of the buttons and only using the built in mics. If you to to my Reverbnation site you'll find a couple of live tracks in there from that. This also introduced me to Audacity. I had one big track of the who...

Here is a the story of the last year of my life... In 2009 I looked to put a band together, for sometime the music in my life was a frustration not an enjoyment. I knew I needed some kind of outlet for it. I had some replies to some ads and met some people but nothing clicked. People were either just into "I want to gig endlessly" or "I don't want to gig" or "I'm not good enough"... etc. I just couldn't find people I clicked with. Then in August 2009 I was taken ill and was off work for a while and simply not good at all. Everything took a back seat and the people I had made contact with drifted away - largely my fault I'll be honest as I didn't pursue anything at that time. October arrived and I felt a bit better physically. That month erstwhile blogger, ex-MagicShip front man Colin Gillman introduced me to Rock-Til-You-Drop and he played at the October Sunday Acoustic afternoon at The Libertine. In a moment of madness I thoug...

I'm really pleased to announce the release of my home made CD Within. Within contains 15 tracks all written and performed by yours truly and with one exception (Let Me Love You Tonight) they were all recorded by me at home as well. The CD itself is also home produced with the printing and burning etc. all done on my home PC. Not often in this day and age you get that level of sweat in any product is it :-) There is one exclusive track only available on the CD for the time being so what better reason to buy one do you need? Easiest is to pay me £7 via paypal to Graham.Hunt@hotmail.co.uk or email me at that address for overseas rates (depends on the postage) and how to pay/order via post if you'd prefer.

It's funny - I've had this conversation with many people over the years I've been playing. Now for many the belief it that I picked up the guitar as a way to get girls or because it is supposedly some phallic symbol. I've heard these thoughts reinforced many times by observers, other musicians etc. However for me that was never the reason in my head and I never make the association with the sex thing that many seem to. When I was very little I was obsessed with music, my Mum had one of those huge stereograms that people used to have in the 60s - I just remember that replacing our old Danset record player. Here's a similar type one... Eventually this ended up in my bedroom whilst I was in 6th form / college before I replaced it with a music center I bought off my wife's brother not long before he passed away. Anyway back to the point... I used to stand in front of this loaded with 45s that were on the spindle and crashed on to the deck to play... remember that...

I heard the story today on the news about the failure to repeal the rule banning openly gay people from serving in the US military. I was to shocked to say the least - when did we get rid of that nonsense in stuffy old Britain? About 10 years ago and that was long over due - I seem to recall it being a European directive that finally forced the govt hand. To be honest though now today in 2010 you'd think any such ban in any vocation / job as simply ridiculous and unfair. I can't understand the reasoning against it - some general claims it would "disrupt unit morale" - sorry?! There are over 10,000 people who have been discharged from the forces in the last 10 years over this. It makes you wonder doesn't it... here we are standing shoulder to shoulder fighting wars that supposedly are supposed to introduce our fantastic western freedom to them and those forces have a policy so openly discriminatory. Bizarre. As my brother said about Obama's election - ...

... well just about! It was that weekend of the year I dread, i.e. Son-of-Furtheron (the now semi-professional photographer and physics/space science student) was due to return to university. Well he has a week or so before lectures but wanted to get there and set up his new flat with his flat mate and supposedly do some reading up on the modules he is doing this semester. So Friday night we packed off Daughter-of-Furtheron to stay with her "other family" - some friends of ours whose daughter is the same age and they have been best friends since mother and toddler days. It was the friends 15th birthday weekend so they were more than happy to have their adopted daughter there and there were shopping trips and lunches etc. all planned. Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn my belief being an early start would avoid traffic issues... oh how wrong! Car loaded to near maximum capacity with cameras, clothes, X-boxes, guitars, amps... you get the picture - thank goodne...

Monday evening I turned on the TV - we still had a big old tube TV (kids please ask your parents what I'm on about). Well it warmed up and George Alaghia appeared, briefly, then *bang* and the picture disappeared and the light started flashing alternate green and red, no doubt a useful error code to an engineer. So I did the usual thing, turned it off and on about 3 times before finally admitting that it had failed. I've been saying for some time that "when the TV breaks I'll get a new one". So my son starts showing me modern TVs. There was a time when I felt up to date on this stuff and new roughly what was what but which 1080i vs 1080p, 100Hz refresh... blah blah blah... I felt totally an idiot and so out of touch. How can so much have changed in the 8 years since I last bought one. However my son guided me through my belligerent denial trying to explain the various features and what they would potentially provide me with. Tuesday we set off to John Lewis...

Summary - a very good book, an excellent read. Kate follows the format from her excellent Labyrinth book of a few years back that I previously enjoyed and my wife liked a lot - so much so that Sepulcher was bought and read by her some time back and sat on the shelf waiting patiently for me to get round to it. The format in question is that of a time shift novel where there are two stories intertwined around each other one in the present day and one in the past - namely in this case in the 1870s. The 1870s story line involves a family in Paris where we are introduced to one of the heroines of the book a teenage girl who is just blossoming into a woman. She is highly concerned about her brother a writer and journalist who early in the year lost his lover and who has had a series of rumours smearing his character. Suddenly they are offered a chance to visit an aunt - the much younger widow of an old uncle who they had hardly ever seen. So they escape Paris - and you know that this is...

The story of Dr Feelgood. I watched this film that was shown on BBC4 on Friday - if you are quick you can catch a repeat tonight again on BBC4 or via the iplayer no doubt. Brilliant film. It charted the Canvey Island boys early lives, talked a lot about the culture and atmosphere on Canvey in the 60s and early 70s which made them what they were. It then charted the bands genesis and sadly the departure of Wilko Johnson - there was a little bit of time given to the imediate time after that with Gypie Mayo when they still had some chart success. But let us be honest Wilko and Lee Brilleaux (now I know where that name came from :-)) were Feelgood. Lee with his agressive vocals and stance and Wilko his mad man side man flinging himself around the stage on the end of the curly lead with his telecaster his weapon. The Big Figure and John B Sharpe were one of the greatest rhythm sections ever - just there on the beat and solid whilst the too loonies at the front went nuts. It is a shame...

I've more new songs to be heard at my reverbnation player. Everyday and Golden Moment. Enjoy

Or is it... My son has just posted a rant on his blog over at The Cynical Scientist . I can't say I disagree with him. Is this country in too much debt? Yes - as a country but also as individuals, too many people have mortgaged themselves to the hilt and have loans for this and that, credit cards maxed out etc. The UKs personal debt is about £1.5 trillion (source BBC news). I can't even thing in numbers that high. So taking the World Bank published population for the UK as 61,414,062 that means we are in debt to the tune of about £25,000 each. Hang on! Each that is every man woman and child in the country. Now think on how many have no debt at all? Suddenly you start to realise the mess we are in - and I'm not talking government debt here - this is the debt people personally have. So we have to stop living the ludicrous way but we have an economy that is pretty much funded by services and the public sector - we make precious little and a lot of our income is thing...

Today my daughter returned to school - year 10! Where are the years going? So I got up at 6am to make Mrs F a tea and wish Daughter-of-Furtheron a good day. She was her usual miserable self :-) She "doesn't do mornings" and after some weeks of coming down stairs wrapped in a duvet to sit in front of the TV whilst one of us got her breakfast ready so she could ease into the day the up at 6:30 and on the bus at 7:25 was a shock :-) However one thing was she had her GCSE results to look forward to. She had taken two a couple of years early - what is it with schools and all this excelerated learning these days? Let them have their childhoods and adolesences I say - anyway... TWO As!!!! So so pleased and proud of her.

I'm on a roll on the music front following my time in the studio. Two days at home with my little BR600 has produced Running in the Shadows - go to www.reverbnation.com/grahamhunt or look right for the player. This is more rockier than my usual stuff and is a good old fashion protest song - turn it up! :-) Enjoy!

A new mix of the Let Me Love You Tonight track from last Friday's studio jaunt. I realised that the bass seemed to drift away in the mix. I emailed Nick at Broadwood Music and in a jiffy another mix was available. Hear it over at www.reverbnation.com/grahamhunt or via the player in the right hand margin on this page. :-) I've been spurred into trying to get a more "band" sound via my little Boss BR600 - I'm half way through with another track now amid some swearing as you find out little annoyances with things - like I shouldn't have done a bounce without first completing the drum track or at least I should have muted the drums in the bounce down. Also I can't figure out the punch in / out buttons... must read the manual that'll no doubt help :-)