Monday, August 31, 2009

Silly shoes and all...

Well me dearies, it's Monday after a weekend that would intimidate even the stoutest of heart. Needless to say that the ladies of Coal had a fantastic time on Saturday night, playing at ROAR, even with the drama that surrounded this gig.
No, we didn't cry, we didn't scream or even flinch when we were informed that we were to go on stage at 10:30pm, instead of 12:00am, to hail the re-opening of Gotham. Instead, I tried to break all land speed and make-up application time records
to run from the car to the stage in the nick of time! Apologies to all the friends who I was unable to sms to notify of the time change, applying false eyelashes and smsing at the same time is not to be attempted!
The crowd attending the Seven Deadly Sins party was a real treat to perform for and I hope that we see you guys soon at our shows. Wednesday will see us
attending Fezray's gig at ROAR. Come along, it would be lovely to see a few familiar faces.

The next day while nursing my bruised tootsies,(the shoes I bought for this gig were not my dancing shoes, they were the shoes which looked pretty and almost caused acute ankle failure on the way to the car) and working my tuch off at the Celebrate life festival, it was on a cloud of post-gig elation that I managed to get through the gruelling early start and day of massaging the knots out of peoples' shoulders.
Thanks once again to my band-mates and the folks who come out to support live music. I, for one, felt like a Chinese foot binding victim after wiggling on the spot to the Sleepers' set... and by the way their cover of Bela Lugosi's dead was superb!

This last little while the lassies have been picking apart our songs and rearranging them. It's a painstaking process, but one which fills one with an enormous sense of satisfaction when we perform the new babies for the first time and they are well received.*sigh*
The next month is going to see more refining of our material, as well as the crafting of a few new songs, so best diarize the 30 September, when we will be on stage at the Mercury Lounge with Cape Town legend, Inge Beckmann.

Rock on!
C

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Pretty posing and the travelling comb

On Sunday morning, a delightful white plastic comb found its way into our waistbands, was tucked discreetly into the tops of our thigh-high stockings and even enjoyed a brief rest in a sunbeam coming through the stained glass windows of a church gallery.

All this in aid of some seriously teased hair.

Sherri and I had to keep plumping up our locks in order to get them poofed out in their full glory for our photo shoot, for which we wandered around Vera’s neighbourhood in search of suitably quaint/grungy/well-lit settings. And the comb was our constant companion.

*Tease tease*

The whole experience was relatively painless, apart from the hot stench of pee on the street at one of our backdrops (a rickety picket fence behind some beautiful old sticks and twigs). Oh, and the shoes. Wow. Cathy and Helen especially deserve a medal of bravery for their patent leather stilettos!

We were lucky enough to be given permission by the church in Mowbray to shoot inside just after a service, in some lovely soft amber light coming into the gallery. We did, of course, ruffle a few of the churchgoers’ feathers: trussed up in our corsets, black lace, fishnets, tulle tutus etc. we must have resembled some kind of cultish coven! And don’t forget the big hair. “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes!”

Michaela Verity, our intrepid, patient and talented photographer is currently tinkering with the negatives (yes, she used real film!) and we hope to have some proof of all of the excitement (and the teasing) within a week.

L*

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Coal conferences

We’re making plans for another meeting tomorrow (there will be avo to lure us to Helen’s) at which we shall discuss world domination, shoes, our upcoming Gotham gig and our photo shoot with the lovely and talented Michaela. We have loads of ideas of pretty things (unearthed mostly by Helen who certainly does not abuse the net at work, oh no sireeee) and references for the shoot, and we are very excited about practising sucking in our chins while we pose. Maybe that’s just me :)

Last week our Wed planning-of-miscellaneous-goodies get-together at Sherri’s involved lots of sweet tea, watching a martial artist drag a truck by his winkie (only on video, sadly), popcorn, banana bread, plastic diamante belt buckles, and many an 80s music video of a group we hope to cover soon. We love the poofy hair and the neon! And the white-washed jeans! We also learned how to connect our gmail calendars together, so that future pracs and meetings can be pencilled in around the very busy and fabulous private lives of all the Coal members. Yay for technology!

Speaking of which, Cathy brought a song idea which she had cleverly recorded on her cell phone. This lovely ditty we further developed on Saturday at practice. Goosebumps all over! (Although, again this is probably just me. I am a bit of a sap.) It was so inspiring for all of us to work on some new melodies and play around with ideas. The cheap drinks helped to lubricate us too. I look forward to more of the same this Saturday.

Yours in Black Label and lace,
L*