Davy Lawrence: Urbane, witty frontman, and writer of songs so catchy you can see them from space. As handsome and charming as a man can be without actually falling over.
Davy Lawrence built Big Arena Records, an independent musicians record label, with Ashley Morgan and Paul Varga in 2005. In 2011 Big Arena Records followed the lead of Ashley Morgan’s other record labels (447 Records and E&R Records) and went analogue.
Travis Peters hails from a musical dynasty spanning over 50 years and has explored more genres than you can shake a stick at. He has a penchant for the Hammond B3, fat chords and blues scales. Most often spotted working a big organ with aplomb.
Trumpet player Ashley Morgan joined Enormous as the band expanded from its original 4 piece format to it’s current throbbing 6 piece leviathon in the early 1990s and has been a fixed enormous member ever since. At that time, all those years ago, along with saxophonist Paul Varga, The Enormous Horns were duly formed, providing voluminous brass reinforcement to the band’s existing slaughterhouse of hooks.
Paul Varga, purveyor of the finest shiny pipework fully befitting a member of The Enormous Horns, the boisterous brass behind the band, on tenor saxophone. Heavily influenced by Cu3Zn2. Possesses an underlying evil side – probably caused by the Oligodynamic effect.
Mike Ridley-Dash has played in everything from jazz quartets to punk rock bands. With Enormous he has found the perfect home for his combination of musicality and passion. He recognises the importance of the three T’s: tone, timing and toe tapping. A naturally exuberant character he loves to bounce and will do so any available opportunity.
Graham Boffey, drummer for more years than he cares to remember. One day he’ll be really good at it. Guesses he’s still an awkward kid. Influences include Keith Moon, Gilson Lavis, Clem Burke and Gene Krupa.
Ashley Morgan made a lot of recordings over the years and today Steve and I finished archiving them all, up until today’s date, on a number of formats including tape and mini-disc. Ashley Morgan had a habit of recording everything he ever did on mini-disc so this was a long process!
Most of the recordings were intact so the process was pretty easy once we had figured out how to get all of the necessary pieces of equipment to talk to each other.
Some of these recordings are going to be remastered for vinyl distribution but the majority have been catalogued and archived purely for personal reasons. While this process will almost certainly be part of Ashley’s move to analogue it’s also an interesting study in how to archive audio in a number of formats and a valuable lesson for any studio engineer, old or new.
Ashley, you owe us a big drink!
Ashley Morgan, jazz musician, jazz trumpet player and record label owner is now the proud owner of what we in the old school music business (I’m showing my age there, sorry about that readers) call a catalogue.
Ashley Morgan has spent months in the studio (with help from yours truly, studio engineer to the stars) getting everything ready before sending it off to the vinyl monkeys who handle the kind of stuff that mere studio engineers can’t do.
To order any of Ashley Morgan’s jazz records click here and get in touch with him.
p.s I almost forgot, please don’t keep sending us email about other Ashley Morgans. There are plenty of Ashley Morgans on the web, including that blasted Lady Gaga tribute act.
I just realised that I made a pun in my last post but didn’t make the most of it.
I said that Big Arena Records (the label that I set up with Ashley Morgan and Paul Varga all those years ago) following the lead of Ashley Morgan’s other record labels and going analogue. I then went on to say that Audrey was being employed as chief stamp licker.
Audrey is a dog.
Following the lead.
Get it?
I’ll get my coat and return with other record label and dog inspired puns.
Big Arena Records, the independent record label started by yours truly along with Ashley Morgan and Paul Varga has just recruited its latest member.
Big Arena Records has followed the lead of Ashley Morgan’s other record labels and gone analogue, leading us back into a world that we are much more familiar and comfortable with.
Audrey’s role is chief stamp licker, a job that she relishes and one that is very important in this new analogue age we are going back to.
British jazz musician Ashley Morgan today launched 3 UK record labels all of which offer no digital downloads and no mp3s. E&R Records, 447 Records and Level 9 Records are all entirely analogue, distributing music on vinyl and cassette.
Yes, that’s right. Analogue only. E&R Records, 447 Records and Level 9 Records. All recordings are analogue and all recordings stay analogue.
Form an orderly queue at your local independent record shop.
Ashley Morgan, jazz musician and Enormous trumpet player, has told me and the rest of the band, including a very confused looking Audrey, that he plans to go fully analogue in the next 12 months.
Quite what he means I really can’t imagine.
He says he’s going to only record his own music using analogue equipment, keeping the path from recording to release completely analogue. That means recording on tape, mixing and mastering on tape, and releasing on vinyl.
I suppose that jazz is a good candidate for analogue but I honestly can’t say that I think the pros outweigh the cons on this one. We shall have to wait and see. The end product will be interesting and, according to Ashley Morgan, have more humanity than anything digital every could (and I agree with him on that point, salient as it is), but the costs will be huge.
Time to go shopping for a new tape machine.