Music:
Member Since: 29/12/2006
Band Members: Playground - High Heaven, Satellite
Paul Cumming - lead & rhythm guitars, vocals
Rik Smernicki - drums, percussion
Gavin Jack - rhythm guitar
Eddie Grady - bass
Playground was a band put together by a pre-Kingsize Paul Cumming and Rik Smernicki. Short of a bassist and rhythm guitarist, Gavin Jack and I stepped in to temporarily fill these roles, though I'm not sure if Gavin actually played any guitar on the recordings. Paul had written a handful of new songs, and we spent a couple of months rehearsing and refining them in the back room of Seagate Studios, Dundee in order to go in and record. The songs featured here are two of the four submitted to the T Break competition, and I was asked to join this band to play with them in the final, stupidly I chose the wrong option! Showcasing outstanding lead guitar work by Paul, and a funky, driving rhythm section, the track "Satellite" also features some frantic sitar playing by Vaarstraat 66's own guitarist extraordinaire and multi-instrumentalist Paul 'Lefty' Wright. Engineered by Stuart Firm at Seagate Studios.
South Playground - Scale Free
Christian Dailly - vocals, rhythm guitar
Paul Smernicki - rhythm & lead guitars, backing vocals
Eddie Grady - bass
Rik Smernicki - drums
As with Grapefruit, Rik and I had never heard any of the band's material before we entered the Seagate that morning, but when you've got focused guys like head of Fiction Records' Paul Smernicki and capped Scotland internationalist and West Ham United defender Christian Dailly at the songwriting helm you can't really go far wrong. Paul and Christian had been writing together for a while, exchanging 4 track tapes back and forth and getting together when schedules allowed. The songs were basically 99% written, but as they hadn't been played with a full band before the four of us refined the arrangements and the little details in the studio, and then Rik and I locked the backline down with a scratch guitar and vocal. Rik and I later went in and added a bleepy synth line, and a mix of this version remains though Paul & Christian weren't too keen and the idea was dropped. This song features Christian laying down a cracking double-tracked lead vocal, and the very capable Paul on backing vocals and lead guitars. I seem to recall that this song was even played over the public address system at Hampden Park before a Scotland game!
South Playground on Myspace
Tenement - Black Lungs
Gavin Jack - acoustic guitar, rhythm guitar, vocals
Ian Davidson - rhythm guitar
Eddie Grady - bass, acoustic guitar, lead & rhythm guitars, Rhodes piano
Leon Strachan - drums
Formed by Gavin Jack after the split of Kingsize, Tenement had been rehearsing for around a year and a half when I joined the band, and had recorded five or six songs at Hastie Retreat Recording Studio in Dundee, but Gavin still wasn't happy with the performances on the recordings, and asked me to redo the bass track and to think of other ways to perhaps enhance them, and the parts I added brought another dimension to the songs. Although I redid the bass on most of the songs they'd recorded before (and at Gav's request, a few of Ian's guitar parts on other songs too!), I present this one as I feel it was undoubtedly the best recording. I originally recorded the bass tracks using Willie Hastie's natural Rickenbacker 4001, but re-recorded them once my Warmoth Jazz was completed. For this track I also came up with a little trem'd up bass riff in the second verse consisting of some Jaco Pastorius-type double stops, which Gavin though was rather Quentin Tarantino/Pulp Fiction-esque. I wrote an acoustic guitar part for the choruses, and a dirty guitar part for the end chorus. On the spur of the moment and in a flash of inspiration, Willie suggested a bit of Rhodes piano would add a splash of colour to the track, and I played it over the second verse. This recording of Black Lungs was mixed by myself, Willie Hastie and Gavin Jack at Hastie Retreat Recording Studio, Dundee.
Tenement on Myspace
Influences: Paul McCartney, Jaco Pastorius, James Jamerson, Chuck Rainey, Andy Rourke, John "The Ox" Entwistle, Robert Sledge, Paul Ryder, Mani, Ged Grimes, Will Lee, J.J. Burnel, Nathan Watts, Walter Becker, Bootsy Collins, Bob Babbitt, Mark "Bedders" Bedford, Peter Hook, Anthony Jackson, Jack Bruce, Bernard Odum, Tim Commerford, Haruomi Hosono, Chris Squire, Chris Wolstenholme, John Paul Jones, Herbie Flowers, Bernard Edwards, Norman Watt-Roy, Guy Pratt, Jerry Scheff, Adam Clayton, Rocco Prestia, Verdine White, Aston "The Familyman" Barrett, Tom Barney, Phil Lynott, Tony Levin, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Paul Simonon, Freddie Washington, Rutger Gunnarsson, Cliff Burton, Jason Newsted, Stuart Zender.
Through their own music or recordings they performed on, each of these bassists has played a part in shaping my own development, and how I hear and compose on the bass. If there are names you don't recognise, then do yourself a favour and check them out!
Sounds Like: Bass, baby!
Type of Label: Major
