Shabbey Road Studios - Upstairs@ShabbeyRoad

Upstairs @ Shabbey Road

In June 2020, we decided we had time for a bit of a refurb upstairs.

Al and Ceri had been dabbling with green screen on a regular basis, so they figured that if they could find a shade of green that was not too extreme they might turn the upstairs into (at least a partial) green screen room.

We had already been using the room for the old school recording of the forthcoming Roosevelt album and also as the main rehearsal space for The Korgis.

With the social distancing that Covid was making necessary, the upstairs seemed an ideal space to do some live videos - in the absence of any real gigs. We set about making it a permanently set-up recording/filming space.

Our Korgis drummer and also regular session player Paul Smith spilled the beans that he had three(!) kits and would be up for leaving one set up at the studio. This turned out to be excellent timing as his partner Elaine Gilmore was in the middle of recording her Bacharach album - Love Is Still The Answer, and the kit would already be set up for that.

Al had his eye on a 360 camera thinking that could be a neat look and as we would be playing 'in the round' the 360 camera would be ideal. Bolstered up by the new Samsung phone cameras we should be able to cover everything that moves.

Here is how that all turned out!

Just before the painting began in Studio 2, Al Steele decided to clone himself and resurrect a song he wrote in the late 80's.

This is 'I Dream Of You', an unashamed tribute to the music of James Taylor... the first guitarist Al studied.

Here is one of the songs from the very first band session. Al invited some of the members of Roosevelt and Nigel Hart to test out the new vibe and give the 360 camera a run on the road.

Here is a new Roosevelt song being given a spin!

As we are always looking for ways to make things affordable, this video was edited on Al's phone!

...and here is the 360 version.

ALSO EDITED ON A PHONE!

Don't forget to have a scroll around the band

Our series Upstairs@ShabbeyRoad has really been running for years.
Here is a rehearsal for our David Juan Lozano gig in Scotland.

The gig featured a 27-piece orchestra conducted by Al Steele and featuring members of the Edinburgh Symphony Orchestra.

The day of the concert wasn't made easier by Al being rushed to hospital with a suspected stroke hours before the sound-check! Fortunately it was a false alarm and turned out to be something much more benign... or perhaps he is just a drama queen!

Other variations on the theme include a mixture of live band and click tracks.... meaning the strings and brass are on playback while we play to a click.

Here is Elaine Gilmore doing a promo for her latest album with Al, Rob and Nigel in the band. Shabbey Road complete right there... as Ceri was manning the cameras!