Guitars and Life

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 :-)