The Smith's Journal - March 2009

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2009-03-06

Sony DPS-R7 and MU-R201 digital reverberators

Tags: Studio

You know how it is with buses and policemen: you wait for ages and then suddenly two come along together...

I've been searching for some vintage Sony reverb units for years now, having read good reports of their underrated qualities. So this week I was more than pleased to find a Sony MU-R201 digital reverb on eBay. Imagine my delight when next day, a DPS-R7 also appeared! Here they are sitting together. One day I hope to find more of this range, and add an F7 and possibly others... [UPDATE: I later acquired a few more :-]

2009-03-07

Africa Junction play for Comic Relief

Tags: Music, Drumming

OK, we all need a bit of Comic Relief now and again. Since Red Nose Day was nearly upon us, Jean decided it would be a great chance for our new band Africa Junction to get out there and perform to raise money. In the end, three locations were planned in the high streets of three nearby towns: Chalfont Saint Peter, Amersham and Chesham. And yes, here you can see that I later digitally altered the name of HSBC bank to replace it with our band logo :-)

We were mentioned in local newspapers and invited friends and family to contribute online, finally raising £806! Luckily it was a fine day of spring weather, and once we'd set up, our funny costumes soon gathered a grinning crowd. I was dressed as a pirate, and nearly got myself in trouble with the law for threatening motorists and passers by with my (plastic) cutlass - ARRRR! Footage of us drumming is yet to be edited, but I made my YouTube debut with a jolly pirate song I wrote en route to the gig. And notice Jed is wearing his schizophrenic dual suit costume from his Howard Jones days, one side of which is an elegant businessman's suit and tie, the other side is a rock fan's outfit with camouflage trousers, studded dog collar and Doc Martens!