Yellow Team Band Project

Three colleagues at work who are all keen to get into, or back into, performing live have inspired me to start working on music again, with a view to playing live in a band again. It's just over a year since I left from rusholme with love, and nearly a year since I was ousted from sloganeer for having an opinion, and the time feels right to be getting involved in music again.

The sloganeer episode made me take a serious look at what I want to get out of music, and at the same time made me wary of collaborating again. I put so much into that band because I believed we were all striving for the same goal, and on equal terms. Finding out that one of my best friends, for whom I had sacrificed much was just using me for as long as I served my purpose, to be thrown away as soon as he saw his goal in sight, was a heavy blow, and put me right of collaborations for a long time.

instead I threw myself into my new job, and poured my creativity into my new hobby, web design, and music took a bit of a back seat. It worked out quite well because it got me spending a lot more time doing what I wanted to do in such a way that the work was its own reward, and not hanging around waiting for someone else (frwl), or catering to someone else's ego (sloganeer). It was a much more rewarding experience and got me learning useful new skills.

What I have realised recently is that it also occupied me for long enough to start *missing* doing music, which was exactly what I needed. Music has now come back round to being something that I look forward to doing rather than something I resent. Music is once again its own reward.

We had our first rehearsal (or more accurately, our first jam) at the weekend and it was great fun. we started off all playing against each other as we waited for some form or structure to come to the playing. we're four quite different musicians with very different levels of experience in terms of playing music, but it very soon became apparent that we all have the desire to play, and more importantly to play together.

Several days and several msn conferences later and we have a potential rehearsal space, a short list of songs we want to work on and a whole load of ideas about guitars, clothes, instruments, equipment and everything else that comes with being in a band. I have no idea if anything will come of it, but that's half the fun. we don't have a plan, we have ideas and enthusiasm and all the time in the world. This time, it's about having fun.