1st rehearsal with my new Telecaster!

Hello all!

Nice to get some of the hot weather back. Last week was not so good, typically, the week of my birthday! Fingers crossed this weather stays nice across the UK until next week - I'm off to see family in Bournemouth Sunday!

Tonight is the first rehearsal that I will be using my new Fender Telecaster. I'm so excited, I've not really played it at all since I bought it last Tuesday as a special birthday treat to myself, so tonight should be real fun!

Yesterday, myself and Bill came across an opportunity to acquire our own rehearsal space. This means a permanent setup of all our equipment, including all our in ear monitoring kit and backing tracks. It would be ideal for the band, a place that we could call home!
The space we have seen needs a bit of TLC, it could do with a good clean and something to make it our own, maybe a big poster of 4Hours across one wall! On the up side though, i does have a pool table in it, so we can chill out in between songs!

However, it might not happen yet, so we'll continue dreaming.


Until next time...

4Hours
http://www.4HoursMusic.co.uk

A (belated) Birthday Blog

Hello all,

I quick update direct from the hub of 4Hours.
It was my (Adam) birthday yesterday, I turned the grand old age of 23. I had a fantastic time, spent lunch with my girlfriend and dinner with my family, as well as getting some fantastic gifts include the most awesome watch you'll ever see.

I then decided to buy myself a shiny new guitar, because if you can't buy a new guitar on your birthday, when can you?
So here it is. A brilliant Fender Telecaster Standard. I played it in the shop for a good 20mins to get the feel of it, and it plays like a dream!

To see more of it go to twitter.com/4hours - we'll pop some video's up soon too.




Until next time...
4Hours
http://www.4HoursMusic.co.uk

The summer of Music

So, summer is here. At last, days of heat, sunshine, BBQ's, and most importantly, live music.
Festivals are the height of summer music, writing the soundtrack to millions of people's 'summer 2010'. That tune you've just got into, the band you and all your mates can't get enough of, the song that you and that special person make your own. All these things make the summer what it is.

It's the same things that make it for the bands too. I know that if 4Hours got the chance to make an impact on your summer because it's our tune stuck in your head, our song you can't stop singing and go mad for when it pops up on the radio, it would make the summer for us!

Seems like that dream is still so far away, and where we've missed the chance to do all that in summer 2010, we've got a whole year until 2011, plenty of time to write the song you won't stop singing next year.

Until then, we'll stick to our mid week gigs, our late night headlines and half empty bars.





4Hours
http://www.4HoursMusic.co.uk

Horrace and the Tweets!

Hello bloggers, fans and those who have stumbled across this blog!

Only a quick one today, as I'm hoping to go out and enjoy the sun and warmth before it disappears (which, no doubt, will be the weekend).

Our newest band member, song writer, ladies man and general knowledge-base of all music, Horrace, has discovered the world of Twitter. Back in his day (circa 1950) music was all about being different. Nowadays, it's about standing out from the crowd - be it for being different in your music, image, or whatever.

So, Horrace has decided to take his wisdom to the masses on Twitter - twitter.com/horrace4hours. This adds to his social media / internet presence, already he has a Facebook page and own bio page on our website! He'll have his own blog soon... :0

Until next time...

4Hours

4HoursMusic.com

Flip flops in the work place?

Morning all,

Something that escapes me - why wear flip flops in the office?

Here at 4Hours HQ, we share an office with 6 or 7 companies, all with a little office of our own. Great for getting a nice office in a fantastically historic building (apparently, Thomas Cromwell's brother used to live here!).

Not great, however, for people who wear flip flops.

As our office door is propped open to let the fresh air through, the sound of a woman's flip flops reverb around the offices. The building is old, so think high ceilings and lack of 'sound absorbing' furniture (everything is made from wood), which means any sound seems louder than normal.

Why wear flip flops in the office?

I understand the idea of flip flops, great for avoiding nasty tan line of the foot when abroad, or enjoying a rare hot sunny day here in the UK. Walking along a beach, where the sound of crashing waves, seagulls and ice cream vans overpower the 'SLAP, SLAP, SLAP, SLAP' of the said woman walking.

I don't know if you've ever had to endure a flip-flopped foot walking around a quiet, empty office corridor, but let me tell you: It's a tad annoying!

I guess it could be worse. She could have badgers tied to the soles of her feet which squeal every time she walks.

Until next time...

4Hours

http://www.4HoursMusic.co.uk

The pre-gig ritual

I had decided to jump straight into this post without referring to the title at all. I then decided this was stupid, since anyone reading this (the likelihood of which is zero) would be thrown completely off track and probably lose interest within seconds. Although, I believe the same has happened with this un-related intro.

So, here I am, sitting in an office, with the sun beaming outside (it's great this momentary sunshine, but the amount of people who have referred to the 'beautiful weather' and 'glorious sunshine' on Twitter and Facebook is ridiculous! Have that many people forgotten what the sun and warmth look and feel like?), a job which I feel fulfilled in (more on that later) and a pending gig this evening.

It's insane, because I've been gigging since the tender age of 14/15, yet I still get the butterflies at this point before a gig. What's more, I tell myself that, tonight of all nights, there is nothing to worry about! Understandable if I'd not gigged for a few months (4Hours 'return' gig last month very much unsettled me), or if a new song which we were not 100% comfortable with appeared in our set list. However, this will be our 4th gig within a month, our set list is unchanged for all 4 (except a slight re-arranging to the running order tonight), the equipment is all our own bar P.A. and drum kit so we've no issues there... but still I feel a slight airiness in my belly that screams 'nerves!' at me.

Our gig is slightly further afield than the previous 3, at the Purple Turtle in Reading. I've heard good things, and know of the chain of venues of which Camden Town holds one of the same name. It means a drive up the M4 - a journey which sod's law says tonight of all nights will be riddled with delays and accidents. However, our slot is at 9.30pm, so time is on our side. The band we are playing with, Tin Soldiers, are apparently quite a well established popular band, so the crown should be ok. Also, we've no pressure of bringing fans along, unlike so many pay-to-play venues... I could spend a day blogging about the hilarity of these so called 'promoters', however, I'll save that for another, not so sunny day.

So, why the nerves? I've come to the conclusion; because it's a ritual. Rituals so often emerge as doing 20 press ups then knocking back a can of Red Bull, or closing yourself in a room and singing the 1st 3 verses of 'American Pie', or clapping your hands twice, clicking your neck so it makes a horrid 'I'm snapping' sound then shaking your legs like an angry ant colony just partied in your pants. Mine, ends up being a nervous feeling, followed (in the last few years, at least) by a chow down of food and hanging around the venue, not paying much attention to the other bands playing but in fact wishing your slot would hurry up. Not much of a ritual, but it gets me through. I'm sure there are 100's of other artists and bands who go through a similar thing, and probably don't even class it as a ritual. However, just like the previous mentioned rituals (of which I have never participated in any, you'll be glad to know), if I didn't do it... it just wouldn't feel right.

So, to complete my blog for today, I refer back to my earlier mention of work. The long and short of it goes like this - my last 2weeks work have been solely based around re-building the 4Hours website. The remark which initially had began my whole blog was 'why I always link the 4Hours website from these blogs' - only this time, it's one of the final chances to see the old, not-so-good-at-loading-images website. As of next week, it will be reborn(however, it will be looking no different what-so-ever)!

Until next time...

Adam
4Hours
http://www.4HoursMusic.co.uk

Almost a year has passed!

Hello to all who stumble across this!

I say stumble across this, because we don't get many people reading our blog. Through no fault than our own. It's been almost a year since our last update, and how things have changed!

Firstly, it is worth pointing out that if it wasn't for our friend Joe Gardner - http://joeblogs87.blogspot.com/ - I'd never have re-discovered our Blog!

So, the year that has passed. A new Drummer, Oli Leonard, has joined 4Hours and has made his mark. The band have spent 3 months writing new material, having a makeover and getting some new gigs! It's an exciting time. I guess I'll try and keep this up-to-date from now on, it's always worth documenting the exciting things that happen!

The most exciting thing in the last 24hours, has to be the near-completion of our band mascot and 4th member, Horrace. Horrace is not your normal guy, but has well and truly taken on the new image. His musical abilities and song-writing talent, however, isn't great. He's dead quiet, too...

Anywho, I'll post some pics up when he's ready. At the moment, he only has a hat and a tie.

Until next time,

4Hours