the rock'n'roll dream (or sleep, more likely)

Having a tidy up (aka Lockdown displacement activity) and came across this.  It was taken in a recording studio in France about 20 years ago.  

The studio, in an old coverted barn in Normandy, was run by a British couple.  We made a change they said, from their usual cliental, the local fire brigade brass band. (They did not say, however, if this was a pleasant change).

We were there to record, what we rather pretentiously called, an 'album'.  The reality was simply a bunch of friends - six of us - who got together once a week to jam.  Sometimes we would play in a village hall - birthday parties and such like - earning a small fee.  We eventually had enough splash out on a week-long recording session (5 working days).

This particular studio had a B&B attached.  So we could live the rock’n’roll dream; breakfast, pop next door to the studio, break for lunch, back into the studio, dinner - and finally, chill by the pool with a beer in the evening.  

And we did chill by the pool in the evening.  Our meagre funds would only stretch to a ‘low season booking’ - late October - and a particulary cold one at that.

Of the 5 studio days, 3 were spent recording the drums. One and a half were spent recording guitars, bass, keyboard and saxophone.  That left half a day for the vocals - and all of us in the band sang - either as lead or backing singers.  The final afternoon was spent mixing the finished CD.  

This sort of schedule - nothing remotely like 'the dream' - is probably all too common among those who do this sort of thing for fun.  Especially if there’s a drummer in the band.  But we managed it and as well as this photograph, I have a copy of the finished CD.

I’d forgotten all this, until this enforced free time placed a tangible reminder in my hands.