I love how excessive we get in Britain, to the point where we get so ridiculous nobody notices because it’s been happening gradually for a long time. Why not just skip the middle period and have an under 80 rule? Only I.D. those without zimmers and hairnets. Luckily I don’t get ID’d because of the wisdom in my eyes and the fact that I’ve been sleeping on my face for the past 20 years; but its still apparent how over the top it is when someone next to me who is blatantly buying wine for cooking is given the robot speech of ‘its just my job I have to ID everyone with any degree of innocence’.

I’m waiting to see how the new government will tackle this issue but I can’t help but be pessimistic.  I see a sci-fi futuristic setting where only those with a tattoo of their age on their necks are allowed alcohol and moonshine runs rife but then I play too much Xbox and therefore can’t be trusted.

But it looks like we are about to enter a prolonged Guitar band drought. Second and third albums by what we thought were fairly established bands like Razorlight and Kaiser Chiefs have failed to do the expected business with the Kaisers playing to a half empty MEN recently.

The Killers have abandoned their fenders for a bizarre Saxophone/Keyboard hybrid approach whilst the NME said lately of the previously guitar dependent Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, ‘killer album, but where are the guitars?’.

We have been here before though. Before the Stokes arrived fully formed to shake the cobwebs from the nations guitar racks was the post Britpop black hole. If a guitar band emerged in this period they were often unfairly tagged with the ‘Saviours of Rock’ label.

I was at Starsailors first major UK gig, in a hall full of people who had been told that they were watching one such band. A room full of expectation that they had neither the songs or the attitude to meet. Not their fault, more the Stone Roses generation hoping to have their lives transformed once more.

So like Britpop before, it seems to have got too big, too pop. Was the beginning of the end The Arctic Monkeys? For Britpop read Tony Blair appearing within the same Cool Britannia Vanity Fair issue that had Liam and Patsy on the cover. Perhaps Gordon Brown’s claim that he had the Arctics on his iPod did for it this time (hell, even Alex Turner is now making Scott Walker albums). It may have been this huge selling record that put the first nail in.

Chins up though, Johnny Marr has joined the Cribs. So there’s always that.

The argument runs thus, that by having the Television show reach its end in the weeks running up to the festive period that the X-Factor has got the Christmas  top spot ‘tied up’. That the very gullibility of the British public means that no other artist even has a chance of yuletide glory.

X-Factor has provided us with the last four with the 3rd rendition of Do they know it’s Christmas grabbing top spot in 2004. Here then is a selection spanning the last 40 years. In 2000 Bob the builder was fixing it, ‘99 Cliff Richards Millenium prayer, ‘98 the Spice girls, ‘97 the Teletubbies said Eh Oh, ‘94 East 17, ‘93 Mr Blobby, ‘88 and 90 was Cliff Richard (again). In 1984 the flying Pickets barber shopped their way to the top with only you and in 1980 the St. Winifred’s school choir knocked John Lennon off the top spot with there’s no one quite like Grandma. ”72, Little Jimmy Osmond’s Long haired lover from Liverpool, ‘71 Bennie Hill with Ernie, ‘69 Rolf Harris’s two little boys.

There are some notable exceptions, The Beatles three years running from ‘63 to ‘66, Pink Floyd in ‘79 and Don’t you want me Baby by the Human League over Christmas ‘81 but on the whole an artistically bankrupt lot.

There have been numerous charity singles over the years which we will leave to one side but I think that when you are looking at a list where East 17’s stay another day is a high point, well I think that the British public should have the back of their collective wrists slapped! We are not gullible. We just like rubbish music!

Now I dislike Evil Galactic emperor Cowell as much as the next man but it’s hard to argue that he’s ruined pop music. On the evidence presented above, it was already ruined. and by allowing Hallelujah to be released last year, X-Factor went some way to replenishing Leonard Cohen’s pilfered retirement fund. Based on this, I feel almost magnanimous towards the high trousered one.

Just how selfish are music fans? I was flicking through the pages of one of the more sensible music mag’s that adorn the walls of the newsagents of this land when I alighted upon a readers letter. Within this letter were the complaints of an ‘Avid Elbow fan’. I paraphrase his argument thus ‘I’ve liked elbow for ages and now ‘cause the BBC used one of their songs the gigs are full of people who only know the end bit of On a day like this’. I see his point but the alternative was Guy Garvey and friends getting dropped if this one hadn’t gone big. And after 17 years,  three albums with universal good reviews and galactically disappointing sales, I think they were due a break.

This issue was brought in to sharp focus for me when one or two Christmases ago, my favourite single by my favourite band was covered as part of  a double A side by a bunch of  musical lightweights. The Band was McFly and the single was Transylvania/Baby’s comin’ back.

In the early nineties when the parent album for baby’s comin’ back, Bellybutton by Jellyfish  was scraping around the lower reaches of the Gallup album charts and I was singing along to its glorious melodies I wanted nothing more than the whole world to discover the secret. Why didn’t everyone love this seminal pop record? On first hearing McFlys’ version,  my first instinct was of wanting people to love Baby’s comin’ back, find out it’s a cover, discover Jellyfish for themselves, and buy both their albums to force a reunion show.

But that’s not how I feel at all. I’d miss bumping into the other 38 people who bought both albums. It’s my secret and I don’t want you to know about it. So when the avalanche of record sales failed to materialize I was delighted. No reunion, secret safe.

I wonder if they needed the money.

My dear self pondering a bass line, John Henry

So yesterday was a bit special in OSA world.

Firstly we found out that we had won Steve Lamacq’s rebel playlist with a whooping 81% of the vote against The Holloways and The Futureheads, which was an amazing moment. This means we get played on 6 Music everyday. We felt very proud of our song!

Then if that wasn’t enough excitement Lauren Leverne played us as well…and then…

Well then Zane Lowe played us as part of his Fresh Meat feature on Radio 1!! That’s national Radio 1 at 8pm in the evening. It’s a wee bit frightening how many people may have heard that!

Anyway, we’re nearly mixed. 4 more days to go, then a week of going ARGH YES NO MAYBE, then hopefully it’ll all be done.

Here’s a bit more from my diary during the recording.

So we’re now well over half way through recording. What will the world be like for the Official Secrets Act when they finally see the outside world? Will London still be in one piece, will our friends and loved ones remember us, will we have missed the Cold War Exhibition at the V&A, will Celtic still be in the Champions League? (Yes, maybe, no, probably not)

We spent a lot of time on Monday working on a song called Hold The Line, which has a Bowie meets Breakfast Club thing to it (hopefully), it references the 80s synth pop kings Japan and Tears For Fears so it was a bit special when Liam pulled out a Prophet 5 synth that he had bought off of David Sylvian of …. Japan!!! for us to use on it!! This made us all very happy. Now we just need a song referencing Radio Free Europe and The One I Love and Liam might be able to get Peter Buck from REM in to play on one of our songs, or at least lend us his guitar. (A 360 Rickenbacker I think Mr Buck). We also worked on a song called Under The Flightpath which has a feel that makes me think of the urban wastelands (High school poetry 101) where West London meets deepest darkest Suburbia. There is a bridge over a railway line that i used to walk over everyday on the way to school and all the planes for Heathrow fly over it, and when it’s a really crisp winter evening all their smoke trails freeze in the sky for hours.
 
We’re getting near the end of the main tracking and decisions over what might make the album are starting to come into play. So we’ve written all the song names and pinned them up on the wall so people can make their own tracklistings. It’s like a DIY tracklisting kit. Well no it’s not like that, it is that. We’ve also got a sheet of paper up for prospective album title ideas. We had a couple prepared before we came in, and some of them are evolving out of what’s going on in the studio.

Team crossword is currently hard at work. They are upset that i filled in some answers in lower case, it seems these are the actions of a madman. Understandable. Team Ping Pong is also still training hard, learning ever more skills. We played some dates with Operator Please before we came in the studio. If they had a pound for every time we sang a little bit of “Ping Pong Song” in the studio they would have enough money to buy a nice second hand typewriter off ebay or maybe a meal at Pizza Hut.

The studio detritus is also developing. Alex is reading Metamorphisis by Ovid, I’m reading Please Kill Me by Legs McNeill about the rise of Punk Rock in New York (Very good it is too!) there is also a Viz annual, a Kaoscillator synth (check these things out they are like your own personal disco) sleigh bells, cow bells and conkers scattered around the mixing desk. I’m also sitting next to a French Horn while i write this.

We have some old band friends coming round for dinner tonight. We don’t see the outside world much and we lock ourselves away when we are working so it will be nice to sit down for an hour to catch up on what’s happening with our pals. But we’ve got a lot to do so it’ll be a brief brake before getting back into our lovely lamp lit live room, which is starting to look ever more like our bed rooms at home. (This means basically it’s a tip with guitar pedals and microphones scattered into every corner)

We are starting to sort out Tour dates for when the record is finished and the thought of taking all this out to people is  exciting, if a little scary. When we toured earlier this year it felt like we were never out of Denise (our lovely battered Transit Van) and now we’re not even sure where we parked her (Mike? Alex? Any idea?). Al and Mike will get to go back to Scotland to start the tour and we’ll get to visit Leeds and Manchester again which are kind of home from homes for OSA. In Leeds we’re playing the Cockpit, which is where I used to go and watch gigs when I was studying. Indeed the “Best Gig” I’ve ever seen was Mars Volta their a few years ago. Omar is just the sexiest guitar player on the planet and they were so intense on stage that night. Just thinking of it brings a big punk prog smile to my face. (Check the footage of At The Drive In on Jools Holland, Omar and Cedric’s previous band. It’s just insanity)

Just a quick note to say that we’ve been nominated for The Rebel Jukebox on the rather lovely gent Steve Lamacq’s Six Music show. Be rather lovely if you could go ove and give us a vote….PICTURE THE SCENE

Election night.

The eyes of the entire planet are firmly focussed on the battle for the american presidency. History uncoils before our very eyes.

Yet one member of your favourite band has the bare faced cheek to draw your attention to another voting contest that opened this evening.

Official Secrets Act are up against the Holloways, and the Futureheads in Steve Lamacq’s Rebel playlist on his 6 Music show. This is your chance to listen to three new songs and vote for your favourite.

Take a step from the sublime to the ridiculous (you choose in which direction) and vote here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/steve_lamacq/

Or simply send an Email to: Lamacq.6music@bbc.co.uk

With the Subject Matter; Vote 2 Official Secrets Act

voting closes on sunday.

Change we need!!!

Anywhooo….that done, here is the kind of equipment we’ve been using in the studio. Total gear tech’s heaven!

Alex has been using a 1976 Ludwig kit which he got off of a lovely guy called Martin who used to play in The Others and is just about the best Drum Tech a band could ever hope to come across. He also bought a whole load of new K cymbals, which are only new to him really, cause some of them are from the 70s. He would also want me to tell you that his high hats are not of a pair and are different makes from different years, which makes them kind of special.

I’ve been using Liams 1970s Jazz bass mainly, putting through my ashdown amp and a boss blues driver which is actually designed for guitar but which we just pull all the tone out of and drive it a little bit to cook the bass slightly. I’ve also got my beloved 63 P-bass reissue which I restrung just before we came in the studio so I can get some really nice aggressive New Order sounds when I want them.

Mike has been playing with a synth called an Oscar which was made by the Oxford Synth company, it’s got some wonderful Grandaddy/Muse type sounds and we had hours of fun trying to synch up a 6/8 arpeggio that it generated with a 4/4 beat that Alex was playing. He’s also been using our trusty old Harmonium which is flat, broken and older than OSA themselves, but it’s been all over Britain with us and is doing us proud in the studio. He’s also currently laying down some synth parts on an old Prophet 5 which are sounding gorgeous. When guitars have been needed it’s hard to take Evans away from his Hohner very thin (I’m sounding like a QVC advert)

Tom’s had a lot of fun with his 60s reissue Strat which I think he bought cause he liked the colour, but it’s been great for getting a whole different load of tones on the songs, and we never fall out of love with the Danelectro guitars we’ve got. Alex especially did some lovely guitar parts on one of our songs using he favourite lipstick pick-ups.

We’ve got Line 6 modulators, loads of memory man effects and the old school dirtboxs for when they’re needed as well, but that’s all pretty standard stuff. We’re also all taking turns to hit away at the piano keys, and Mike and Tom have flirted with some Clarinet/Horn and trumpet parts.

We’ve been exploring found sounds and the sounds we can make from anything we find around. We’ve stomped our feet on floorboards, whistled melody lines and tried reversing them and spent hours on the free sound project listening to thunderstorms in Madrid and busses driving along Parisian backstreets. Europe has been a big influence on this record.

A lot of this is probably pretty boring stuff, we don’t really understand it all. We just get on our hands and knees and dial in any sounds we can find and see if we can get something worth having out of it.

The sound of the assistants at Konk dancing round our amplifiers may also be detectable on one or two of our songs. They are like our modern equivalent of the Old Grey Whistle Test, if they don’t dance and smile then it doesn’t work.

My dear self pondering a bass line, John Henry

Hello One and All,

It’s Lawrence Diamond here. I worked at Mojo Leeds for 3 years back in my heady student days before leaving a couple of years ago to go to the big bad smoke with my band Official Secrets Act. After a summer living above Mojo Manchester writing songs and drinking to much mount gay we signed to One Little Indian Records (Home to Bjork, Jesse Malin and Alabama 3 among others) and are preparing to release our debut album with them. My blog will be all about our travels and adventures, as well as any comments on the music we’re listening to and any recollections from my time dancing on top of the bar at Mojo (and occasionally serving some drinks)

We’ve just spent a month in Konk Studios in North London. It’s owned by Ray Davies from the Kinks and has received plenty of coverage recently as the place where the Kooks did their latest album “Konk”. (See what they did there?!). I kept a diary of what we got up to and i’ll post it in stages up here. We’re also preparing for our first full supported British Tour, and that starts in December and comes through Manchester on the 2nd and Leeds on the 6th, so I’ll try and find a spare minute on the endless drives to put some words together.

If you’ve got a spare minute while reading this blog you can go and hear our stuff over at www.myspace.com/officialsecretsact.

ALBUM BLOG 1 Konk Studio, Mid Ocotber

We’re now nearly half way through recording our debut album here at Konk studios. It’s been rather good fun so far. We’ve been chasing the ghosts of Terry and Julie round the live room (the studio is owned by Ray Davies from the Kinks), reading old interviews that our producer Liam Howe did when he was in the Sneaker Pimps, and turning frequency filters on vintage synths till it felt like we might actually recreate the BBC’s polyphonic workshops entire output before we’d got to the B-sides. (We dream of being that amazing!)

We’re here for a month which is brilliant. We’ve always caught sessions on the fly and tried to throw everything down in a day or two, normally out of our own pocket and without a clear idea of where we were going. 3 months touring earlier this year, 2 months writing songs in a house in deepest darkest south London through summer, and hours upon hours of listening to David Bowie, Grandaddy, Weezer and Bjork and we now feel ready to stick it all down. We’ve always loved playing live and just throwing everything, our songs, souls, and bodies all over the stage, but in terms of recording we’ve never quite achieved exactly what we wanted so this month we’re determined to get it right.

Mr Howe and our Engineer Richard “THE SWORD” Wilkinson have totally helped us with getting the sounds we could here to only dream about as we passed summers slumbers under the weeping willow. At different times we’ve

*Shoved spoons under piano strings to recreate early 70s New York avant garde sounds (?),

*Used space and the entire Universe as our very own Reverb chamber by sending the recording signal out into the internet, around a couple of satellites and back to the desk

* Tried to summon the power of Detroit Soul City by extensive use of motown piano sounds and Diana Ross bass licks

*Put bass sounds through guitar pedals, guitar riffs through organ amplifiers, vocals through drum skins and synthiser sounds through Marshall stacks

In the run up to coming in we were listening to a lot of what I always called “THE BIG MUSIC”, a kind of reverb drenched celtic soul rock- Waterboys, good U2 and maybe even a bit of Deacon Blue and Aztec Camera, (though I should probably state here it is only me who has been listening to Deacon Blue). We’ve also been listening to The Passions, New Order and Low era David Bowie for little signposts. Though it’s strange what you end up referencing to get an idea across, a cheeky bit of Billy Joel or more pertinently Jacques Breil and Glen Campbell have also been pressed into service. Whether anything we’ve done will sound like any of this I don’t know, but it’s been really fun exploring everyone’s different loves and hates. (Alex and Tom both really like Sound and Vision, Lawrence really likes Motown, Mike really like John Martyn)

We’re 6 or 7 songs in and the feeling in the studio is really summery and light, even though we’re aware that winter is really closing in around us here in North East London. We spent an evening doing a photoshoot on top of the studio and London was crystalline below us in the snap of early winter. Very romantic it looked too.

We’ll keep you up to date on any more stuff that’s happening as we go.

Shiney and new!

If you’ve ever been to the site before, you may notice that things are looking a ‘little’ different around here… Welcome to the all new MOJO website!

The aim of the new site is to really involve you lot in MOJO and everything that’s happening in the bars as much as possible (without actually employing you!) To achieve this, we’ve added some really fancy bits which we hope you’ll really love using, such as a fully featured member area (or the Family, as we more affectionately call it) blog, music reviews and a completely re-styled shop.

We’re also working hard on bringing you our live streaming radio player, but we need a few new parts to get it working!

It’s obviously early days yet, and there are probably a few gremlins in the system which we’ll be sorting over the next week or so, but for now we’d love to hear what you think of the new design and features. Why not give the blog a test by adding your comments and views below?

Today is Thursday 23^rd October and today we not only open a MOJO in Liverpool but we also launch our new and improved website so in the words of Guy Garvey….’One Day Like This!’

Liverpool is the Capital of Culture in 2008 so to be opening now is very special. Not only has the investment and change in the city been huge it now has even more energy and electricity in the air than ever before so we are feeling very honoured today just to be part of it.

If you love MOJO then you’ll love the new website. Faster, stronger, better, brighter and even at 30 gets out the dirty!

Music for the Liverpool People.

Ooooo, fancy!

In our continuing quest to bring you the best website the world has ever seen, we’re happy to announce that the ‘Mojo Family’ area of our site which contains all the fancy social networking stuff now has it’s very own fully featured iPhone site.

So, if you’re lucky enough to own one of these delightful little pieces of kit then simply head over to this URL:

http://family.mojobar.co.uk/m

(Don’t forget the ‘m’ bit!)