Kathy Freeman

videos, pics, news on music projects, stories behind the songs and more.

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I'VE MOVED!!! ALL POSTS NOW ON MY OTHER ADDRESS

http://mskathyfreeman.tumblr.com/

See you there

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The Birdhouse, Paris 1988 (Photo featured in the video It's My Life)

I skipped red-eye retouch on this photo, because his eyes probably WERE that colour

As I recall the big guy was “security” and hanging around the dressing room. For some reason he was bugging me and I gave him short shrift. He seized the opportunity later - halfway through the set - to crack my British reserve by sticking his massive head unceremoniously between my legs. Then he stood up so I was obliged to play while sitting on his shoulders. But as you can see I was neither stirred nor shaken….and the band played on.

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It's My LIfe:   a cover of the Crushed Butler song, with kind permission of co-writer and copyright owner Darryl Read

This is to celebrate what i've done over four decades in music. You won't find me in the celebrity mags but I sure had a good ride.....

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Don't be shy - I'd love to hear your comments

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If you dont have accounts with any of the above, you probably have a very full life and dont need to spend time commenting on things.

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IT'S MY LIFE - the Video

It's My Life ....and if I want to prance around on video in a PVC catsuit at my age,  then so be it.

It's YOUR life....unless you're a Buddhist it may be the only one you'll get....go for it!

“It’s My Life” is a raw video collage of action and photos. The moving footage - me now. The photos - me  (and fellow rockers)  back then. Snapshots of moments in my life: the great, the sad, the bad, and the plain daft. I’m no longer the person in those photos anymore….but when I sing and play, then some essence of whatever was there survives, via some kind of rock n roll alchemy. For which I’m eternally grateful.

Why record a song by another artist? I’ve written plenty of my own ….. But my rock n roll girlfriend at Fancy in NY sent me some tracks by cult pre-punk band Crushed Butler, and this one spoke to me. It said "Cover me or else!" Things fell into place; a reunion recording with the drummer from my 70s punk band The Accelerators. Then a chance meeting with the charismatic Darryl Read from Crushed Butler, who gave our version his blessing. And finally - the video  It's My Life  (shot by Rob Raw)

[kathyfreemantest]

Whens the book coming out?Enjoyed your blog and luddite article , yes a lot of it is a waste of time and effort frankly. The technology spoof says it all.

book will come out when I've honed my writing skills on the blog! glad you like the luddite article, thanks!

[kathyfreemantest]

Kathy X in Spain next month with Gwen and the Boppin Rhythms- que bueno!

[kathyfreemantest]

Uno, dos, tres, quatro....

Kathy X has a couple of shows in Spain next month and in a fit of diligence i invested in an audio book of tourist Spanish.

I hate not understanding a word when in another country. My old punk-metal band Joyryde  had 2 shows in Finland. Helsinki no problem, but the next day we were in a van with Finnish bassist and Finnish road crew heading North through an endless hypnotic and eery wall of snow and fir trees, quickly losing all track of time and reality. There was a lot of ominous discussion  - obviously concerning some kind of  MAJOR PROBLEM  but damned  if I knew what our bassist and the other unsmiling Finns were on about. Not a single word was familiar. Would we ever come back from this sinister Artic vortex?

Clearly we did but I still remember that "what-are-they-planning-to-do-with-us?" feeling. As it happened the issue was band politics. Finnish bass player left us soon after......but that's another story.

PS

One tiny unexpected advantage of recent freezing weather here : sitting on public transport with a scarf in front of my mouth and no-one is any the wiser when I repeat several times that Ive reserved a double room and prepared the paella. I havent got to the section about soundchecks yet.

[kathyfreemantest]

You Don't Rock No More  by Kathy Freeman   For a free download of the studio version with drums and contrabass, join my mailing list (download available till June)

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Behind the songs: You don’t Rock no More

"Now you don’t come out to play - Girlfriend threw your toys away   Ain’t got time for all that jive -Work your butt off nine to five..."

(from "You Don't Rock No More")

For a free download of this song, join my mailing list (download available till June)

If you play in a band - or do whatever your special thing is - you may wake up one morning realising the fun’s over. Some people's priorities change with age. The fire that  once burned so brightly gradually morphs into some kind of  minor inconvience and reminders of it are removed from view. Till one day some chance occurrence triggers off the memory and you wonder what the hell happened to your dreams.

Here's the choice: reclaim what you had, or act like it never happened. Neither is an easy road. Reclaiming your old dreams means confronting why you dumped them.  Drowning them seems  simpler on the face of it but there will  always be an uneasy feeling - even if it’s buried six feet under - that you sold your soul overnight.  Or in tiny pieces as the years went on.

 I made a conscious decision not to live with that, and I’ve turned down more than one “safe” job offer over the years.  People are sometimes surprised that I choose a chronically insecure lifestyle  But when I have a rent-panic, I remind myself that I will never, EVER have to answer company mails on a Sunday to ensure I can escape to Isla Whereva once a year.  And when I face the final curtain I'll be entitled to have a certain special song played at my wake:

My Way  (or Sid's Way )

[kathyfreemantest]

Hi Li'l Spaceman... a tough question but I guess supporting the Buzzcocks comes close.

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what happened to the "good" musicstand? Still alive?

it's still doing active service thanks!

[kathyfreemantest]

where was your favorite live show you have ever played?

[kathyfreemantest]

It was expensive. It was cute. It was useless. A 21st century Luddite laments:

It was expensive. It was cute.  It was useless……. I wanted to overdub a guitar solo and harmony vocals onto a  draft track of a new Kathy X song.  But would my new expensive cute useless device let me do that….?

Count-ins, fade-outs, panning, sampling, 6 live drum sounds, 9 guitar sounds, string section and fun-audio-experience graphics – No problem. Overdubbing one track? - Highly impossible.

So  I did a  non-overdubbed track.. No guitar solo. No harmony vocals.  I wanted to e-mail it  to Dr Duck the drummer so he could figure out some beats.  However the fruits of my labour emerged in the form of a “CAF” (Confusion And Futility?) file which his computer couldn’t open. 

I’d bought the expensive-cute-useless device because I needed a no-brainer bedroom-guitar recording device. Then I remembered -  in another life that’s EXACTLY what I used to have. Two in fact. They were called “cassette recorders” I  would record a song on one. There was a little dial to control the input volume level. If I didn’t get the song right, I wiped the track and started again. When I was happy with the recording I played along with it, making the final recording on the second player.  OK, I couldn’t have converted the fruits of my labour into an MP3. But in the hours that it took to convert the CAF to an MP3  I could have jumped on a bus  and taken the cassette round to Dr D. With time over to  sample his HMP (home-made pizza)

just call me a 21st century Luddite!

[kathyfreemantest]

IT'S TOO LATE - one of six new upcoming Kathy X recordings.....in which you can hear if I'm going to make it to heaven or not.

FREE SNEAK PREVIEW  OF THIS TRACK FOR  NEWSLETTER MAILOUT SUBSCRIBERS - CLICK HERE TO JOIN.

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On the subject of technology.......

[kathyfreemantest]

"don't go near the desk unless you're planning on becoming an engineer"

never was interested in all those sliders - and if it's ok by Chrissie Hynde it's ok by me!