Oh, hey, long time no see - where have you been? What? Us? Oh, you know, this and that. Hibernating really. Not done much. In the summer we kinda did a thing. Nothing special. Just recorded our first studio album. Yeah, mixed and mastered by Martyn Stonehouse. We think it’s good. You can decide for yourself here for free - with the option to download the whole album on a pay what you like basis! We’re socialists, after all.
Speaking of Martyn - We were back for our first gig of the year at Spital Arts where Martyn was the very able soundman. You would like to think so, seen has he has spent the last 6 months listening to the same same 8 songs over and over and over and over and… Veteran fans of Kootch will be thinking: pffft, that’s nothing - we’ve been listening to the same 8 songs for the past 8 years!
Spital was awesome! Set in the amazing St Leonards in, you guessed it, Spital, Chesterfield. The acoustics were amazing - it’s almost like it’s what they were built for. The creaky stage did, however, remind Beth that the diet of pure biscuits and cheese is not working for her. Sad.
Anyway, this all pales into irrelevance (what else is new in these blogs - are we right?) as the real star of the show was the FAB-U-LUSH Ichabod Wolf. The voice! The lyrics! The sheer animal magnetism! (Which animal? You decide). What’s a little nepotism between friends? Martyn also mixed and mastered Ichabod’s new album Too True to be Good and my god, it’s too good to be true. The Barry-Tone of Barry White. The Poe-Etree of Allen Poe. The Mel-O-Dee of Melanie C (okay we ran out of good word play on the last one, but you get the gist). But seriously. Listen to the songs, buy the album, fall in love, follow him around the country, get in his car, find out where he lives, peek through his kitchen window, wake up, find out you’ve been transformed into a giant cockroach. Get sad that you can’t listen to the album anymore because cockroaches don’t have ears. Sad.
Sorry, the blog writer went a little off tangent there, they’ve been reset with some coffee - back to Spital!
Woah! What a great night we had. No matter how good we get, or how far we travel, there are always the pre-gig nerves of ‘are we ready to play to just Beth’s mum and the sound engineer?’. Of course - this completely underestimates the pull of the esteemed Ichabod and the church was packed.
Now, many in the inner circle may know that Beth has recently turned 30. This means that she is absolutely not allowed caffeine after 3pm or she is awake for days, maybe even weeks. However, the amazing thing about Spital is the offer of tea, coffee and, most importantly, home made cakes. Fool she is, Beth went in for the coffee. Not just any coffee. Filter. It was filter coffee. Ian snuck in for a slice of Granny Mary’s Ginger Cake, Dean shivered near the radiator with his collar up around his neck, Katy fiddled with the straps on her dungarees and Beth stood in the corner, eyes dilated, seeing dragons.
The audience were amazing, attentive and receptive. Katy pointed out that Beth had pears on her trousers and therefore it was a PEAR of TROUSERS and Beth’s universe slowly crumpled in on itself in a feat of amazement. All in all, a blummin’ brilliant night. It’s been a week and Beth still hasn’t slept. Sad.
Love, harmonies, cwtch.
Kootch x
P.S - Just in case you can’t be bothered with an extra couple of clicks, listen to the new album below. You won’t regret it. Unless you’re a cockroach - then, sorry.