http://irishrock.org/ipnw/bands/nohotashes.html#nohot

They even have a scan of the cover of our single ‘She Drives Me Crazy’ on there.  Greeaat!!

Thanks to steady, ready and totally Eddie, Currie from Alliance (Annexe/No Hot Ashes partnership).

However, when it came to adding the photos of Power of Ten, there was a slight problem.  No pics.  None. A big fat zero of pictures of us gigging.  I suppose that is understandable in a way.  We can’t really take photos of ourselves while we are playing, so if anyone out there has any snaps of any of the gigs, please feel free to send them in.  And they don’t have to be of us playing, oh no.  They can be of you and your mates at one of the gigs.  And I know I keep promising to get the No Hot Ashes pics up, along with the music, and I will, honest, so if you have any pics from the good ol’ days at the Belfast Labour Club, The Rosetta Bar, or any of the other venues we gigged, send them in.  We’ll get them up on the site when it is ready.  And why not add a few words to describe where and when the pics were taken, who was with you, and any other info you’re happy to have posted on the interweb.

Give it a blast.

My Gear

I’m not really one for grabbing as much gear as I can, constantly on the wheel of upgrading and getting the latest model of this or that. In fact, I’m quite blasé about it; as far as I’m concerned my gear is just a bunch of tools to get the job done. Now that’s not to say I don’t love my guitars, blasphemy!! I’m just not that precious about them, I’m not going to cry my eyes out if one of them gets a scratch or ding, but I wouldn’t be careless with them either.

I have had a few accidents though (well they have). One place we play quite regularly would appear to a reasonably safe place to have a couple of guitars on stands sitting on the backline, and right enough it had been for a number of years. However, one evening I decided to bring Priscilla (my gorgeous Cherry Burst Westone Prestige 250) out of retirement to sit in the wings just in case a string breakage would call for a quick replacement. It looked lovely resting on the sturdy stand, with a red spotlight shining on it, gold hardware very tarnished, giving it a proper vintage look appropriate for it’s 25 years of age. Towards the end of the set, some very drunk young ladies were doing their best to dance. Funny how dances used to have a name, like a waltz, or tango or whatever, but nowadays it’s just ‘dancing’ and that is generally a loose term. During a particularly energetic bout of ‘dancing’ one of the drunk young ladies fell onto the stand (normally quite a robust stand) that held one of a pair of very large PA speakers.

Now then. Sometimes you watch an accident happen as if it’s on TV, you’re a bystander. You would like to stop it but you don’t, you can (well, not if it’s on TV), but you just don’t. Instead you freeze, and watch like any other frozen bystander as the mighty PA speaker tumbles earthwards, crashing and crumpling and cracking all in it’s path. That’s what I did, I watched as the PA Speaker landed fully on top poor Priscilla, her going from an upright, proud, vintage guitar on stand look, to an ‘ohhh crikey, lying flat on the floor’ look with a big PA speaker on top of her. Sigh. I had actually managed to grab one of the handles of the cab on it’s way down but even still, once I righted the stand and cab, and said ‘No worries’ to the embarrassed drunk young lady who I could have quite happily jabbed with the sharp end of the guitar I was wearing, I expected the worst. And the worst was…a slight lacquer crack at the neck joint. Wonderful things ‘Through necks’ on guitars, a nice bit of mahogany that goes all the way from the headstock right into the body of the guitar, no bolts, all glue and perfect cut. When I lifted the cab I actually saw the neck spring back into place, love springy mahogany necks. But I digress. Here’s my gear (and is likely to be my gear for some time, cos a) I don’t like spending money and b) they’re tools (nice ones).

Guitars
Fender American Series Strat, 3 colour sunburst, Kinman pickups

Brian Moore iGuitar, i2000, Flame maple top,

Ibanez rs 430 ?

Westone Prestige 250, Cherry Sunburst

Epiphone ES335 dot

Aria Acoustic

Amp

Ashdown Peacemaker 40, 40 watt, self biasing Class A valve amp

Modelling and effects
Line 6 PodXT
Line 6 Pod2

KeeleyCompressor
Barber SS Drive pedal

Recording
Macbook
Logic Studio

PC
Sonar 4 PE

Wishlist
Nothing

In a previous life as another PCuser I just could not deal with spending loads of cash on apps that did something I wanted it to do. Build a professional looking website? That will be 400 gold coins, sir. But you can bit-torrent it for nothing using your neighbours broadband if you prefer, sir. And you can spend time instead of money searching out every alternative to this app until your blue in the face without actually doing anything productive if you wish, sir.

Quality Software? Not that mac apps are any better coded (though they might be, haven’t looked, and don’t want to, and don’t care) than MSWindows offerings, and some of them are cross-platform, it just seems to me that mac platform apps have less to contend with, less conflicts with other apps and hardware, less configuration to deal with and definitely, definitely more pleasing to look at.

Windows has freeware too! You don’t have to spend a bundle getting a good app that does what you want. Yes, I know, but have you ever been to a restaurant and thought there was too much choice? Nothing wrong with having plenty of choice but for me there comes a time when I get really pee’d off hoking through tranches of freeware on the Interweb or a magazine CD giveaway, picking some that seem to ok, slapping them on the machine to try out and then instantly removing them because I really need to configure them to work properly. I spend all day configuring and re-configuring in my day job, I don’t want to do it when I get home unless it involves reconfiguring a chicken madras and a beer tin so that it has no lid. I can honestly say that I have done very little configuring of anything I have installed on the mac, it always just seems to work when installed. I remember laughing out loud when I first got the macbook home and joined the wireless network, it took seconds. Literally, seconds. I didn’t know diddly about macs (still don’t) but had joined to my wireless network armed with just a wep key, no installing drivers for a wee usb wireless thingy, and didn’t need to go hoking in any ‘advanced’ tabs to see if there was something there to configure.

There are a lot of apps out there for mac that are very expensive. As you would expect these are aimed at the professional market and are normally cross-platform. But I’m not looking for that, I just want to be a ‘user’. I don’t want to think too much about how can I do this or that, I just want to do it, and I want to get it done in as little time as possible (because that is what I have even less of than money) with as professional output as I can manage. Diminishing returns and all that. And the macbook does that for me, everywhere I look. And there a lot of free or inexpensive apps for mac too, and my next post in ’switchers’ will give you a run down of my current favourites, and why. Until then, go configure.

They always just seemed, well, bothersome. Adding CD/DVD Writers, changing hard-drives and graphics cards, working on the PC instead of actually using it. I’m gonna try hard not to make this a Microsoft Windows bashing post, that’s not the intention but I now firmly believe in different horses for different courses, and while Microsoft are great at business solutions, to be honest, It’s never really done it for me as a user.

So after many years of resisting and putting up with my brother slagging me off for using PC’s (which he called BC’s due the fact that he believed they were well out of date) and Amiga’s (or Amoeba’s as referred to them) I jumped ship.

“My name is David Irvine, and I’m a ’switcher’”. Feels good coming out about it now.

Last year I splashed out and bought myself an Apple Macbook. I didn’t feel the need to go for the big cahuna Macbook Pro, just the bog standard, white, 13″ Macbook. What a revelation. From taking it out of the lovely packaging, powering it up in the back seat of the car on the way back to work (accompanied by lots of “oohs”, “aahhs” and curses from the other occupants) to sitting here now blogging this, I can honestly say it is one of the best purchases I have ever made. I LOVE it. It has made every other computer I own redundant, including my self built music workstation. I still tinker with ‘the others’ and even built myself a Vista Media Centre recently but their numbers are reducing as I give them away.

I’m not going to say I’ve had no problems with the Macbook (wrote another post on a display problem I had, which my wife still smirks at if I mention, I just know she did something and is hiding it) and initially encountered a couple of random shutdowns. But that’s it. There will probably be more in the future, but a couple of problems in a year? I had a couple of problems every sitting with the BC, sorry, the PC. I use it for work (Music School), and play; building websites, surfing, ripping, skyping, blogging, music, writing, photos, home movies, and using one of the built in voices to tell my daughter she really needs to go to bed (and she actually talks back to it, brilliant). And initially, as expected, it took me a while getting used to the mac way of doing things (What? NO program files, system32, add/remove programs, Ctrl/Alt/Delete?). And not entirely happy with some of Apples own programs requiring a .mac account., but that’s ok because it made me look for other cool, easy to use programs. I’ll write about this in another post, but generally, the future looks bright. And fun. I’m still learning and as time goes by I’l doubtless find other things I’m not happy with but generally I am one happy camper.

So I’ve decided to add another category in the blog for those who are contemplating ’switching’, it won’t be anything technical or grande, just reports of me having fun and loving my mac. So look out for posts on my favourite software, working habits, and findings of good and bad things with my macbook in future.

So…You wanna jam in a band? Live fast, play loud? And you live in Belfast or Dundunold area? Well, if you want to learn how to play guitar, bass, drums or keyboards then our school is the place to do it. We’ll teach you how to play and the weekly sessions are fun, socially rewarding and confidence building. We’ll channel your creative energy into music, help you explore your limits, make a statement and find your voice.

In the weekly sessions in our unique Clive’s Easylearn Pop Schools, you’ll find that you don’t have to be a virtuoso to rock, write songs and be cool. You just need to find your own style.

And whether you are a total beginner or have a little experience, we can help you to get started or improve. We’re on your wavelength!

So what are our schools all about? Clive’s Easylearn Pop Music Schools were established in Southampton in 1981 by Clive Brooks BA (Hons). A respected music teacher and author, Clive began his musical career back in 1973. He went on to tour England and Europe in a variety of bands and has written a number of books and magazine articles on music. More recently, Clive has been the music-making columnist on the national computer magazine PC Home, where he wrote about emerging music technology, AND our schools have won the much coveted BFA Franchise of the Year Award for Enterprise 2007!!

Clive realised that music had traditionally been over-complicated and set out to correct this. After considerable development over a number of years, Clive introduced his unique “Easylearn” courses, which have now successfully been used to teach over 5000 people to play rock and pop music.

Our Music Schools in Belfast and Dundonald are part of a network that has become the fastest growing part-time pop music schools chain in the UK. And now you have an opportunity to be part of it!!

We ALWAYS offer FREE taster sessions where you or your child can come along and have a session in learning to play Guitar, Bass, Drums or Keyboards to decide whether it’s right for you, with NO hidden agenda or costs. If you enjoy the session, talk to us and we’ll fit you in for our weekly sessions, and schedule you with one of our hand-picked and trained tutors to ensure that you get the most from your lessons.

So what exactly is it hat we do? Well, we provide rock and pop tuition for all ages and only employ tutors who have been specifically trained in our systems to deliver the quality and brand standards that we have become famous for across the UK. Starting a course, which lasts for up to 18 months, is easy and inexpensive with no large up-front fees to pay. No previous experience is necessary, and the school is equipped with a range of instruments, so you don’t have to buy one before you start!

A one-hour weekly lesson with a tutor in your choice of guitar, drums, bass, keyboards or singing. One tutor to just two students to increase the fun and reduce the pressure! 45 minutes of gaining skills using our simple and unique EASYLEARN courses, plus 15 minutes of testing these skills out with others in an exciting jam session. 30-minute junior sessions (6-9yrs) are also available.

To find out more visit the main website at www.clivesmusic.com and click on ‘Find Nearest School’. Then click on the map of Northern Ireland and select your preferred school. On that page you will see a big yellow star. Click on that, fill in your details and I will get back to you to arrange your free taster session. And while you’re there, please check our ‘Recent News’ to see what other schools in the network have been doing.

So what are you waiting for? You have absolutely nothing to lose!! Click on www.clivesmusic.com, drop us a line, and I will get back to you. And call back here regularly to see what we’re doing at our Music Schools in Belfast and Dundonald.

Looking forward to hearing from you !!

Best Regards
David Irvine
Clive’s Easylearn Rock and Pop Schools (Belfast and Dundonald)

I googled for the problem to get a resolution but although there were a lot of people having display problems with horizontal, coloured lines and other strange artefacts I only found one other mention of this problem, with no fix.  Panic time. 

 The previous night I had updated Mac osx to 10.4.9, but this seemed to be a coincidence, as the lines were visible prior to the OS booting up.  In fact these lines were actually visible on the display when the macbook was switched off!  They presented themselves as a series of darker lines on the display when it was powered off.

The only other thing that I had done was to upgrade the RAM to max it out to 2GB, but that was done the previous weekend so I’m not pointing at that.  Well, I don’t think so anyway, but…

I decided to bite the bullet and pull the Ram (replacing it with the original memory) and boc the macbook up to bring back to PC World.  Now I really didn’t want to do this, with the prospect of being without my macbook for what could be weeks so the next morning before I headed off to PC World, I unboxed it again and powered it up, as much out of hope.

Strange happenings had occurred! The lines were now only half the width that they had been the night before.  I decided to leave it for another day, and lo and behold, the following day the lines had disappeared altogether.  I replaced the origianl memory with the 2GB again and so far (2 days now) the lines haven’t returned.  I’m certain the memory wasinstalled properly the first time so I really have no idea how this happened, but needless to say I am happy it is now rectified.  I will post a couple of pics here to show the lines when I get the chance.

macbook display day 1

macbook display day 1 (2)

macbook display day 2

macbook display day 2 (2)

macbook display day 2 closeup

macbook display day 2 closeup (2)

David
On March 9 Talk Talk broadband support got back to me with this;
Dear Mr Irving, (Can’t even get my name right after all this time and correspondance)
Thank you for your email.If this is the MAC code supplied to you back in January, you will need to contact your old supplier for another one as they only last for 30 days.  I am sorry that there has been such a delay in your order due to this lack of communication however once we receive your new MAC code, we will be able to provision your account without any further delays.If you have any general landline queries, please call customer services on 0870 444 1820.For technical queries, please contact Broadband Technical Support on 0871 226 7146. Calls to this number are charged at 10 pence per minute (call charges may vary from mobile phones and other telecom operators).Both of these numbers can become busy during peak periods and TalkTalk apologises for any inconvenience caused by the delays.Regards,Zoe Walton
Talk Talk Correspondence DepartmentTRACKING NUMBER: A00000559169-00001895237
So now I have had to request a new mac code from Pipex which I have done on the same day, Friday March 9.  As soon as Pipex get me a new mac code I will provide this to Talk Talk and we’ll see how quick the transfer is. 
I live in hope.
David