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The Little Buddha Journal : November 2005

Chapter 9: ‘In the Doghouse'

Journey South

It rained all the way across to Edinburgh where I picked up Da Fuguester and all his bags, guitars, box of toxic waste and one heavy “mofo” of an amp. We set off – Fugue and I in one car, and Kev and Boris in another. When I say ‘Boris' I refer affectionately to Grant's 300 year old German double bass.

We stopped a few times on the road – either to refuel with diesel or caffeine, to pee or to check the map. Even with a map we managed to get lost. We found ourselves in High Wycombe at 12.30am – realising we'd taken a wrong turn somewhere along the line. Grant – on the other end of the phone – navigated us back on track and straight to Lower Shiplake, Kev following not far behind, where Barriemore Barlow awaited our arrival.

Welcome to the Doghouse

With hot tea and warm hospitality, we were officially welcomed to The Doghouse. We were introduced to George Williams (Producer/Engineer). After lugging all our equipment into the studio, we had a brief chat about the order of play. Barriemore asked when our bass player and our manager would be arriving – I told him that Grant would be arriving on Wednesday. After we settled in, George and Barrie headed off and we cracked open some beer. Exhausted after the long, long drive we all headed off to our beds.

Beautiful Halloween

Early breakfast – we decided we would work in the studio from 10am to 10pm daily – with Sunday being our day of rest. Tea and bagels were a nice start to the day, and then we set up our gear and began working on ‘Beautiful'. Late afternoon, Barrie brought over scarily decorated iced cakes – which Kev, like a big kid, excitedly devoured. We decided we would take it in turns to cook and wash up. Tonight Kevin cooked dinner for us all, including George.

After dinner, we decided to lose the sampled tabla and go for the real thing. The Doghouse has a good variety of percussive instruments – including a big bloody GONG!

We asked Barrie if he would kindly play tabla for us. On a wild array of floor cushions and candles, Barrie sat cross-legged on the floor and in the true spirit of Ravi Shankar, he rattled through the song – and set a new chilled mood for ‘Beautiful'.

Through the enormous speakers, everything sounds so rich, enveloped in the warmth of analogue.

Arrival of the Manager & Bass Player

On the morning of Grant's arrival, Barrie asked me how many people were arriving. I told him ‘just the one'. Looking rather confused and bemused, he said that he thought our Manager was arriving with Grant. When I explained that they were one and the same person, Barrie burst out laughing. This was the butt of many jokes during our time at The Doghouse.

Follow The White Rabbit….

It was almost as if we had followed a white rabbit down a hole into this amazing Wonderland! In such incredibly inspiring surroundings, we had a memorable (and almost surreal at times…) two weeks working and re-working songs, arranging and re-arranging, constructing and deconstructing. We worked hard, but played hard too:

• Borrowing Mick Ralphs' (Bad Company's guitarist) guitars and piano… and later being shown around his home in awe of his collection of gold discs…

• Finding bottles of booze that Pete Docherty left behind… (Cheers, Pete!)

• Taking it in turns to do ‘The Tesco Run' – zipping along to Tesco's to buy beer each night before the store closed at 9pm.

• Finding a venue in Henley that switched their widescreen TV over to let us watch the ‘Old Firm' match – thank you ‘Slug & Lettuce'…

• Working with George on the vocals – he set the right mood for each song – candlelit late night gin-fuelled vocals; raspy early morning crowing; pushed to the threshold of breaking point p*%@ed off vocals; and soft intimate breathy whispers… George was very nurturing and has infinite patience.

• Sailing down the Thames with Barrie in his speedboat – seeing all the wildlife – swans, red kites, cormorants, and Paul Daniels padding about his conservatory in this dressing gown!!

• Having Barrie, the Tull's drummer, play percussion on some of our tracks, and playing drums on another.

• Seeing Grant in his element – like a child with a new toy – play with vintage keyboards, particularly the vocoder that Adrian of FX kindly brought along from London for us to use.

• Making the trip along the road, beating the level crossing, to place last orders at the Baskerville Arms – sometimes only making it by the skin of our teeth!!!

• Being elbow to elbow with Deep Purple in the bar on a Monday night.

• Meeting Barrie's partner Paula and having a fabulous dinner with them, and Mick Ralphs and his son Ben, at the end of our stay in The Doghouse.

• We've never been to many places where we've felt homesick for what we leave behind but for Lower Shiplake and its kind people we all felt reluctant to leave…

To all we ‘left behind' there – love to you all – we are forever grateful for making the dream the reality, for making it all possible.

Initially, we all felt as if we had followed a white rabbit down a hole to a strange Wonderland – being in the company of heroes and legends of rock n roll, it was very inspiring – and totally unforgettable!

Love

Kat

The Little Buddha Journals : <Links>

Chapter 8 : January 2006 :

'Annus Horribilus'

Chapter 7 : September 2004 :

London, Baby!!

Chapter 6 : September 2004 :

In The City, Manchester 2004

Chapter 5 : Sunday 8 th August 2004 :

Recording Session

The Sub-Station, Rosyth with Michael Brennan