Its snow use looking for excuses

It’s now nigh on a month since the last entry and that really is inexcusable. I have spent the past few weeks trying to find the excuses but unfortunately they are too feeble in the extreme. The recent snowfall was looking like a strong contender, after all it brought one of the world’s largest cities to a complete standstill, but as it only really settled in Helensburgh for a day and didn’t affect broadband connections, or my ability to type, it ranks as a poor 7 on the scale of feebleness. Similar scores were given to the economic crisis, workload, dental treatment, chores round the house, planning workshops, shock of Big Phil leaving, shock of Chelsea actually winning etc.

Nope. In the end I have decided that the reason for my complete abject failure in ensuring timely and accurate blog communications is the simple fact that I had become a virtual recluse. I had deliberately cut myself off from the outside world for fear of seeing a Kate Winslet acceptance speech in all its excruciating glory. Well now that she has walked off with the last big gong, I am hoping that it is now safe to resurface.

It is a shame that I have not been blogging as so much good stuff has been happening on the Helensburgh Heroes front and it is a shame that I’ve kept it to myself. The main focus has been the recording of Bowie’s Heroes and that has really kept the team busy. As you may know, we had a brilliant time on the 24th January when the great ‘Heroes’ choir was recorded at the Victoria Halls and from the massed throng that gathered a brave number of individuals volunteered to be soloists.

For the past few weeks they have been rehearsing and are due in to the studio at the end of March. After that, it’s down to the mixing whizz kids and then we are ready to rock, as they say. I have heard some rough cuts of the track, and whilst biased, it’s pretty damn fine. It just demonstrates what a talented bunch of folks reside within our area. Running parallel to the recording work, the team is also capturing many local folks on film for the accompanying video. Robert (or Danny Boyle as we now call him) has visited many of the shops and local Helensburgh organisations (and literally climbed mountains) on our behalf to get the shots that we need. To date, he has shot some 15 hours of footage (and still counting) and will eventually use about 3 minutes 50 seconds of it – who’d be an editor?

Helensburgh Heroes has also formed its own record label and we are now fully registered with the various music Industry bodies to ensure that we can professionally publish the fruit of Helensburgh’s labours. This project aside, it now means that Helensburgh has its own record company and that might be of benefit to local artists and groups in the future.

And finally, we have launched a competition amongst the area’s P5s,6s & 7s to design the artwork for the final product. Given some of the artwork that I have seen produced by our local schools over the past few years, I am confident that we will uncover some real artistic gems and have a cover that we will be really proud of.

Details of the launch wil be revealed very soon. A venue is being secured as I type.

Next stop the Helensburgh Heroes tour – coming to a stadium near you.....