I played as support last night for UNKLE at the Royal Festival Hall opening for James Lavelle’s Meltdown Festival. Here’s my live cello-looped version of ‘Glow’ by UNKLE, a track I first worked on way back when we were recording Never, Never Land…
Here’s another track from the set.
I’ve been a long-term collaborator with James Lavelle since being invited in to the Never Never Land sessions with UNKLE to play acoustic and electric cello. Since then, I’ve performed on numerous tracks as a string player, and have been a co-writer on many album tracks.
My first impression of James and his working method has remained intact, save for the fact that over time he’s become a dear & trusted friend.
James is an alchemist.
He instinctively knows how to throw disparate personalities & elements together, resulting in beautiful dissonance and restless confluence.
At the time of the first sessions I was working as a classical cello professor at the Royal Academy of Music and James blew the doors off my recording life, giving voice to my wilder sonic personalities, encouraging me to stretch the potential of my musicianship.
I remember one day working on Beethoven sonatas at the Royal Academy, then getting in a cab up the road to a North London studio with James, Keith Flint, dry ice, strobes and a license to let rip in an all-night recording session. That’s living the dream…
