We did our second and final all day session in Bracknell at Park Studios on Saturday. We recorded 'Searching' and 'Cry Freedom'. While not planned, Paul Stead of Sacred Heart sang co-lead on 'Searching'. Mitch was looking after his voice as he is recording his own album; so we drafted in Paul to sing. I had warned him that if he showed up he would end up doing something, but he was both shocked and flattered at the suggestion of his singing lead. I figured that if you are going to have someone with his talent singing guest vocals why hide em' in the chorus mix with the rest of us? Mitch's CD will be out in September followed by a tour, no doubt the band will be there to cheer him on at his London date.
Not only did Paul sing the chorus of 'Searching' he interpreted it in his own style. His style influenced John. In the end they both produced their individual best ever performances on a recorded track. The board mix was pretty damn impressive; so we are all waiting with baited breath for any further mixes.
John & I sang 'Cry Freedom' at full gusto in the last 30 mins of the session. I managed to hit notes that John thought I was incapable of hitting. He wondered allowed where I found a groupie to squeeze my cohones tight enough to sing so high. It was my 'Shine'. Fortunately its to be a set closer as its a killer on the vocal cords.
PO, over from Norway, to lay down some riffs for us, put in an absolute blinder of a performance, as did Mitch. John was his normal musical genius, coming up with music on the fly at an alarming rate. Last, but certainly not least, Rob laid down some killer bass lines. John, Dizzy Harrison and I are going to hit the studio for an hour or so to polish off 'Cry Freedom' with vocal fills. It looks to be a huge anthemic rocker on the scale of 'November Rain' or 'Freebird'. Most amusingly, because of a creeping feeling of country-rock, Dizzy refered to it as Cry Freebird. This was inspired by watching Mitch play something that began by sounding like Mick Ronson circa his Bowie days and ended up sounding like Gary Rossington. I suspect when the mixing is done it will have a bit of a 38 Special vibe to it. Course with John twiddling the knobs anything could happen.
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