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Sellers & the Scientists
Throughout the duration of my CEP, I've joined and been working with the Dartington based band, The Scientists. It's been a long and tricky process replacing Pete (the old drummer) and touring round the UK for Matt Sellors and Tom First's CEP. We've also recorded a demo at a recording studio in wellington, and I've been working on some online space for the band, and a web site.
Joining the Band
I've always been a friend and fan of the scientists right from their outset. I saw most of their gigs in the first and second years, even when I didn't go to their gigs I occasionally found myself tecking for them, or filming them. So needless to say, I knew how their songs went, which is always an advantage. Furthermore, I used to be in a band with Josh Stopford (bassist) at college a few years ago, so I was more comfortable in a musical sense playing drums for them.
These pointers where pretty much made essential when I realised the daunting task ahead of me. By the time I joined the scientists, their tour was nearly upon them. I had to learn an hour set in two weekends of rehearsals before the first gig, so the pressure was seriously on if I wanted to be in this band. I suppose I was quite lucky being friends with these guys as it really helped relieve it, which I felt made my progress more productive. The less time you can spend worrying I find the better, especially when there's a job to be done.
The Gigs
Over the period of the CEP, the band has played in 10 gigs around the UK. Here's a list and brief description of each gig along with a few contextual issues that immerged. To see a more detailed document on this tour, take a look at Tom first's and Matt Sellers 2006 CEP documentation's. I have also made a blog on the band's myspace with a somewhat more informal outlook.
2-10-2006
The Rat and Emu - Dartington College
3-10-2006
The Porter Cellar - BathThe porter have written a review which can be found amongst all their others here
http://www.moles.co.uk/porter
/reviews.ihtml?step=3&id=671I've also copied it to the CD incase you are viewing this documentation offline or incase the link becomes dead.
7-10-2006
The Illminster - Culmstock
8-10-2006
The Fleece - Bristol
15-10-2006
The Telegraph - Brixton, London
17-10-2006
The Troubadour Club - Earls Court, London
19-10-2006
Standard Music Venue - Blackhourse Road, London
21-10-2006
The Hub - Plymouth
24-10-2006
The Buffalo Bar - Cardiff
28-10-2006
Meze Lounge - Newport
11-04-2006
Dartington Graduation Ball
Online Work For The Scientists
So by the time I had arrived, the planning stage of the tour was already sorted out, and I didn't have to do any of the management side of things initially. I was still thinking of ways of aiding the band using my skills outside music.
First of all, I made an online folder for us to put collective files like photos, mp3s, documents and such. I then started filling it out with the photo's I have of the band members. The folder can be accessed here....
This turned out to be quite handy at the initial stages, as matt used the uploaded photo's to make a poster and flyer for our first gig outside dartington. I also uploaded some images of maps, with the gig venues highlighted on them, so that we could all look at them before we set out to play anywhere.
Myspace
To begin, I started work on cleaning up the bands Myspace site. In case you are unfamiliar with this, Myspace is a web site. that allows users to create their own mini web pages. On these you can upload pictures and videos along with details about yourself. You can also add links to other peoples Myspace sites making it easier for users to find others. The Myspace music section allows users to upload their own music, this is where the scientist's site is situated.
If you are online, you can view the myspace here
http://www.myspace.com/mattsellorsandthescientists
The first modification I made was in the html code of the site. The text on the page had no page breaks in it and read as one huge paragraph. This happens in html unless you put <br /> or </p> between each paragraph. I fixed this to make the whole thing easier to read. The next thing I did, was added some pictures of myself as the new member of the band. I then modified the style code and created some images for the background and the navigation box (on the left beneath the photo section).
I also created a blog (online diary) on the site to give it some content for those who are interested. Here I added entry's about each of the gigs with a few comments about each experience. I decided not to include this blog as it is a little to informal and pretty inappropriate for submission.
Scientists.com
I offered to create a web site. for the band, as all they had at the time was the myspace.
I sketched out this rough design at a pub in london as I was explaining the concept to the band.
During our recording at soundbase in wellington, Rob (josh's father) came down to take some photo's of the band. I asked him if he would take a shot of us together for the web site. Out of a few, I chose to use this one
I also used a picture of Totes bridge to create a template with links to each part of the site, shown below.
Here's the web site. as it stands so far.
http://www.djallergy.com/scientists-test/
You can also view it offline here
There is no flash used in the creation of this site, it simply uses image swap functions to make the rollovers work.
Each member of the band on the image was cut out, and made into a gif (with a transparent background). These where then made into two files. One of which was a black and white cut out of the character, and one was an animated gif of them fading into colour (also cut out). I then used layers to place each black and white cutout over the photo (so that it looked the same), and used a javascript "image swap" function to make these images swap for the animations when rolled over with the mouse pointer.
The only problems I have with this, is that there is no way that I know of to create a loading splash screen. meaning that if your connection is slow, you may not realise the effect and only see the page in black and white. Also if javascript is disabled, the rollover functions will not work.
