Well, that was fun. We now have our first dance band gig under our belt, and a record in the can. Well, more specifically it’s in a ProTools session and on my laptop awaiting further attention over the summer. I’m really looking forward to editing this one, and that’s by no means always the case. We even have a ton of video footage from the sessions, so I could be about to stay in backroom studio boffin mode for some time.

I’d hoped that by this point I would have a functioning square piano to use for the domestic music in the gigs, but I still haven’t found an instrument that might be worth the expense and risk of restoration into a roadable beast. I made a trip to Edinburgh this morning to see a possible candidate, but wasn’t quite convinced.

Anyway, this news report this morning irked me for more than just the obvious reasons. If you scroll down you’ll read that Camila Batmanghelidjh is described in passing as ‘a trained psychotherapist’, which is a piece of journalese like ‘classically-trained musician’ that should be firmly consigned to the bin. Becoming a musician, like becoming a psychotherapist I’d guess, is not something you can simply be ‘trained’ to do. Sure, you can train (actively rather than passively) as one, but that’s something else. I think I’d have been happier with ‘who trained as a psychotherapist’. ‘Classically-trained’ is one of those lazy terms for any musician who, shock horror, actually decided to learn some craft to underpin what they do.

Quite apart from that, the whole notion of a classical musical training surely now only exists in the most conservative and backward-thinking of conservatoires. Haven’t we all learnt by now that fencing off ‘classical’ culture doesn’t really make sense?