The Keys Diary
Thursday 2nd October 2003. The Bethan and Huw show.
Surprisingly, we found ourselves arriving on time to the BBC for a live session on the Bethan & Huw show. Fair play, Ed the producer, (formerly Ed the Duck from Broom Cupboard fame) came out to help us carry our gear into the studio. He likes the album I bet he says that to all the bands!! Well, Ed led us through the labyrinth that is the BBC to a room that had some amazingly old U67 Neumann mikes. I was tempted to put one in my bag, but let myself down with my honesty. There we met Mike the engineer. A Cardiff boy judging by his accent.
This is one of the strangest things about being in a band. Whether it's a radio session or a gig, you immediately strike up a relationship with the in-house engineer: You've never met these blokes (it usually is a bloke I'm afraid) before, and you're unlikely to see them again, but you have to find a common ground with them. An instant rapport to make the (sometimes) stressful world of performing/live recording that little bit more enjoyable. Some engineers are easier to get on with than others. It usually involves a sense of humour. Well, Mike was great from the off. A real pleasure to work with. A jazz musician, but we didn't let that put us off!
We set up, and of course my amp had died!! Perfect timing! Gwion managed to keep the amp fairly happy by ramming some tape over the lead that went into the input. It seemed to work. Little did we know it was going to let us down LIVE on-air! Amps aside, the sound check was fine. We ran through BAD BOY a Larry Williams 12-bar rocker that Pixy and I cannot get out of our heads or larynx! 'Now Junior, behave yourself!'. You must have heard it. Well you will soon because we'll be covering it!!
After that we strolled down to the BBC canteen. Bob Monkhouse always takes the piss out of BBC food, but I don't have any complaints. The Keys are not particularly fussy when it comes to food & drink. Whilst eating our food (I had cod, peas and chips), we decided that we were going to play Lucifer Sam, and jam it until we get cut off the air. It's our little tribute to Syd you see. This allows us to go mental if we wish. It's quite liberating! Gwi and I have always been partial to a bit of a freak-out but we've never really devoted much spirit to it in the past. All credit to Pixy, he positively encourages that side of the music. I think its all that listening to wacky Elephant 6 bands like Olivia Tremor Control and Of Montreal! Whatever it is I love it! It's fun to make noise. It's healthy. I love songs, but I also like to be spontaneous too. I like to surprise myself. It's fun for me to listen to the album. There are lots of sounds on there that I couldn't remember making! The Keys album was a lot of fun to make.
I'm really glad I came back to Resolven to make it. The people are crazy. Gwion is always flabbergasted by the stories that El Goodo have about folk from Resolven. There's a rich vein of humour among most Resolveners. I've lived in many parts of Wales and there's no humour richer than Resolven's. It's belly laugh humour. To tell the truth, I'd forgotten what a belly laugh felt like until I moved back here in March 2003.
A typical Resolven conversation:
Stephen Billens: Oy Pix, what do you think of Ocean Colour Scene?
Pixy: I don't like them, Bill. They suck!
Stephen Billens: Oy Pix! Keep your fucking opinions to yourself!
So we hung around waiting for our food to go down. The security guard @ BBC has an easy life, he just watches 6 TV screens all shift. Each TV shows the BBC channels.
Naturally Gwion had brought some beers so I had one for dutch courage then finally we were to go on air.
First song was TENSE, always a good one to get us settled in. I think we did a fairly good job though it was hard to hear anything in the cans. The main concern I have with live recording is that we can sometimes over compensate. Aware that adrenaline might make us play too fast, we pull the songs back. Sometimes we end up pulling them back too far!
Then we did DRIVING SCHOOL. That's a funny little number. I never actually look forward to it in the set, but when we do it, I nearly always enjoy!!
There was a good ½ hour break before LUCIFER SAM. I noticed that the show was very hip-hop orientated which wasn't exactly appropriate! They had someone on there that reminded me of that guy in POLICE ACADEMY who makes all those funny noises. I wanted to be him when I was a kid. Obviously, Bethan and Huw were fawning all over him. It was nice to give them dead air for a couple of seconds during the interview!!
And so we tried LUCIFER SAM. And sure enough, my amp died the second we started!!! Only it wasn't a quiet death, it was a kicking and SCREAMING death! I didn't know what to do!! The amp was screeching and wailing, howling and hollering! It put me off my singing and I nearly forgot the words. I was really annoyed with the amp, and didn't feel like improvising for 15mins live on Radio 1 anymore! So I cut the jam short after 7mins. I was kicking myself afterwards because Ross (Elliott's brother) said the amp sounded cool, like it was feeding back!!! Well you live and learn!
Matthew Evans
