Farewell Fairground are a wonderful trio from Hull. While they're still a young band, they started early and have been chipping steadily away at their sound for several years now. They've certainly won us over as part of their fan base along the way. 

They are very friendly, laid back guys and this really comes across in their music. It's all heart-felt and written from collective personal experiences, and one of the nice aspects with Farewell Fairground is that they really can deliver it live.

'Constellation' is the final piece on an EP called 'Little Problems'. It was recorded over the course of one day and mixed and mastered on another. We can heartily recommend it!

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Constellation

Here's one from the vaults. In 2001 I recorded this track with SLACKERS - Mr Richard Stephenson on Drums, Jez Cauldwell on Bass and myself on guitar and shouty stuff. Recorded in the bedroom, stems were handed over to the very lovely Mr. John Spence at Fairview Studios to mix - this was before Africa Studios... well... existed really. Interesting to listen back to what I was doing at that time. I suspect I was listening to a LOT of Pearl Jam. It's all a bit fast and loose and shot from the hip, reminds me of fun times :-) David x

Slackers - Level Headed

This is a cover version of the Nirvana track, played by Novana, a top Hull tribute band. A day project, the morning was spent laying down tracks, the afternoon editing, mixing and mastering. The only really tricky bit was getting the drum gates just right, particularly the snare. There is a massive dynamic range in this song, but some tweaking got the threshold to where it needed to be - there's a big sound for the chorus, but the rim click still gets through for the quieter verse passages.

Africa Studios. Recording. Rehearsal Space. Sound Hire. Tuition. Vinyl Transfer. Audio Restoration. Music Solutions For Music People.

Recording from £130/day.


Heart Shaped Box

Abbie arrived with a rough acoustic version of this song, we got to do the rest in-house. The main challenge was keeping interest and dynamic in a song as long as this, so going to town on the arrangement was the only real option.

I first laid down a rough drum track to provide a backbone for the song, then worked at the arrangement until everything was in the right place and I had an idea of what we were looking for tonally.

I next brought in session drummer Al Smith. Once we had Al's parts down, I laid the bass, electric and acoustic guitars again. The piano (and all other instruments) were in MIDI format, so for them it was simply a case of editing.

Once the track had been entirely re-recorded, we had the rather talented Ms Lammas back in to drop the vocals on top. It's worth noting that she was only sixteen years old at the time of recording, and there is NO pitch correction whatsoever on this take.

Africa Studios. Recording. Rehearsal Space. Sound Hire. Tuition. Vinyl Transfer. Audio Restoration. Music Solutions For Music People.

Recording from £130/day.


Deadbeat Girl

A wonderful gentleman by the name of Roy Dyson decided upon his retirement to write a folk album... but hadn't really picked up an instrument in many years. Along with his friend Graham, he brought us some lyrics and some melody to go with the some lyrics... and zero instrumentation. Not even a guide as to minor or major keys.

Nonetheless, we got cracking and this is what we came up with. Vocal legend Daniel Spooner plumbed deep into his best Yorkshire accent and pulled this one out of the bag.

Africa Studios. Recording. Rehearsal Space. Sound Hire. Tuition. Vinyl Transfer. Audio Restoration. Music Solutions For Music People.

Recording from £130/day.


Bitter Pills

Undertow

Difficult Times

Chronical (aka Nick Mitchell, "Chronical" spelling deliberate) is without doubt one of the finest rappers & hip-hop crossover artistes we've had the privilege to work with. With Nick behind the mic we've made it on to a pair of movie soundtracks (Vampires: Brighter In Darkness Saga) and fully expect to see more of him on a larger and more public platform in the not too distant future.

Decidedly more tongue-in-cheek in nature than Chronical's other material, the beats here are a mixture of organic, sample and MIDI construction, with live, lo-fi, wah guitar laid over the top for added sleazy 70s effect. Chorus vocal was perpetrated by one-take-wonder Megan Price, our in house session virtuoso.

"It's Not Personal" was needed in a hurry for a commercial project, so with the lighter of time burning steadily underneath our collective jacksie, we managed to turn it out in a single day: recorded, edited, mixed and mastered.

Africa Studios. Recording. Rehearsal Space. Sound Hire. Tuition. Vinyl Transfer. Audio Restoration. Music Solutions For Music People.

Recording from £130/day.

It's Not Personal

Recording studio ingrained in the music scene of Kingston-Upon-Hull, Yorkshire, since 2006.

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