Last Saturday I played a gig with a great friend of mine, Colum Regan in the legendary Cardiff venue The Four Bars (so pleased it got it’s name back after years of being called a generic Dempsey’s Irish bar). The band consisted of Colum on acoustic guitar and lead vocals, Joe Grant on drums, Jammy Harris on lead guitar and myself on bass. This gig was mostly about Colum’s original music. Below is a video from the gig of Who Do You Think You Are?
I have collaborated with Colum on various projects over the years including producing his second album, the stark and introspective Hotel. This album was recorded in a recreation of a prehistoric round house near Cowbridge in South Wales. We applied a strict “tape rules’ strategy to this project. This meant that even though we were using a computer we only allowed ourselves techniques that would have been possible in the halcyon days of reel to reel recording. This meant absolutely no copy and pasting or any other digital shenanigans. We also had an only appear once rule too which meant that no vocal or instrumental parts were double tracked. This, along with utilising the natural reverb of the round house and using only acoustic instruments, has ensured that Hotel has an organic sound which I think will always sound timeless.
The Roundhouse in St Hilary, South Wales.
Colum is an interesting guy. Hailing from Cork in Ireland, he is a superb entertainer and is out most nights gigging solo, with his wife or with a variant of his band Goose. Irish Goose, Super Goose, Wedding Goose, Indie Goose. Essentially a Goose for all occasions! He is also frontman for The Dandos which is a more original slanted band and features Incredible String Band man Lawson Dando. If that wasn’t enough Colum is a newly published author with his freaky debut novel The Fly Guy now available.
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A short doc about the launch of Colum’s new book, The Fly Guy.
Gaz Williams 