Lord Crimson

And here we are, finally I have a name for my “band” that I am happy with.  My “band” is currently just me but I am hoping to persuade a couple of others to get involved.  Watch this space.

Lord Crimson was my alias on a Cure-fan forum I used to partake in.  The name is a jocular attempt at goffness.  By that time in my life I’d stopped trying to be a “goth”, indeed the actual “goth” subculture of music has always been alien to me. Many of the bands I've liked and in some cases still like have been labelled “goth”; The Cure, The Sisters of Mercy, Joy Division, Bauhaus and so on but with the possible exception of Bauhaus I don’t think any of them were.  When you look at all these thin white men pretending they are vampires… that’s my idea of “goth” and I balk at it.  I do however enjoy a bit of “gothic” literature and the classic horror genre in film making… I just don’t take myself too seriously.  I suppose the obvious parallel in music would be The Damned.

My early attempts at a band started when I was 18, obsessed with The Cure and at college studying…erm… business studies.  I had a red and white Squier Stratocaster and along with my brother on bass, my friend Mark also on guitar (we were so unrefined we barely knew the difference between lead and rhythm which in a way made us the forerunners of shoe-gazing) and my other friend Harry on keys and drum machine we recorded one song with the help of another friend and his real-to-real tape recorder which could record several tracks on to tape. I forget how many but we had keys/drums, bass, guitar, vocals, more guitar.  We did a Cure song called A Strange Day.  It was awful.  There is, possibly somewhere, the original tape of that recording.  I hope not though.  It was so bad that even today I’d probably feel nauseous to listen to it. Anyhow, this band was called Crimson Pain and then my brother joined another band and we got a bassist called Nick and “rehearsed” in his annex but I didn’t like it and left, then Harry left and the others changed their name to something else then split up so me and Harry became Crimson Paint (sic)… but never really got anything done.  Despite our lack of musical ability, direction and motivation we were convinced we’d be huge.  We wrote loads of lyrics, loads.  I can’t vouch for his but mine were all awful.  Bit by bit our real lives took over and the band idea was forgotten.

 A typical "writing" session

 Not even my guitar

Over the years I owned several guitars (a recent conversation with Mark makes me believe it’s actually one more than I’d supposed as I apparently bought one off him at some point), tried to teach myself more than once and failed at least one more time than that.   I’m not a natural musician.  I admit that.  I love music and I hugely regret not getting any sort of musical tuition when I was young but I know I’d never have picked up really quickly.  I have a feel for songs I know and can pick up phrasing very quickly if not too technical but that’s to do with a love of listening more than anything else.

 Cheapest, crappiest guitar I ever owned...

I even tried bass for a while, not a success

And so it was that at the age of 42 I started having guitar lessons from a great bloke called Steve.  I’d seen his advert in a newsagent window in Emsworth then by chance wandered in to a pub when (one of) his band(s) were playing in a pub in the same town. I decided to take the plunge once the worst of my money issues cleared and contacted him.  I was a bit worried about my age but he assured me one of his students is in his seventies and it turns out I am about 6 months older than Steve.  It also turns out that we do share a lot of similar interests in music, not least a shared guitar hero in Billy Duffy of The Cult.  I've been having lessons for just over 6 months now and I’m MUCH better than I've ever been before.  I’m still not great, I’m very scrappy and tend to get nervous when Steve is there and play much worse than the day before (honest Steve!).  What I like most about the lessons I’m having is that bit by bit Steve is dragging a musician out of me; I don’t just learn stuff parrot fashion but he mixes it up so that the THEORY (if that is the right word) creeps up on me before I realise I've been learning it.  I’m far from being the kind of guitarist who can improvise but I am moving towards a basic understanding of chord structure and key…a minor miracle on his part.

I have in the past written some music.  There was a particular chords only guitar piece (that I have only recently discovered uses the same basic chord structure as Ziggy Stardust) and a three track piece on keyboards.  Both very basic and not very good but the urge is there to create.  And I do want to write songs.  Even if they are shit I want to write songs and I will.  So I’m reforming the band.  My brother went on to learn bass to the extent he was able to play in a pretty good covers band for a while has expressed an interest in jamming.  I have a friend who plays guitar and but also has a fondness for synths that I’d like to get involved in the , ahem, project.  Heck, if Harry and Mark wanted in then they’d be welcome.

You can't go wrong with a Tele...

The “band” is called Lord Crimson and anyone who can play a bit, lives quite near me and has an interest in indie/alternative/rock/punk and wants to be in it can.  

Just message me.