Hello to the few who drop me a line. Thanks for your time in remembering the old NRB days. Good times. I'm in new band and still playing live stuff. Have a look at www.splinter.info and you'll see me there with my Les Paul and Mesa amp. Can't not play live...what else would I be doing. Oh, quick plug, we're playing the New Roscoe in Leeds on New Years Eve so if you've nothing else to do, come down and say hello. It's £5 on the door, it'll be a packed night and plenty of rockin' tunes to dance and drink the night away to! On to other things, have found some time to keep messing with this recording lark, have a look in www.tnrb.co.uk to see! Oh, and the other thing I'm in to at the moment is a....wait for it.....Roxy Music Tribute Band, named RoxyRama...it's all good fun you know!! www.myspace.com/roxyramaband. Have a good Christmas everyone, don't get stressed about pressie buying and try and remember to enjoyn it! Cheers!

Little post script. Micky Davison phones me up the other day and he's got itchy drumming fingers again. Watch this space! I know he's made contact with Mr Turner so....

Hello. Well, exasperation and preservation. It's not all that is reckoned. Here I am, sat not paying attention to 4 Weddings and a Pizza typing in stuff. Anyway. Finally got the old website working and have uploaded some songs hitertoo upon it's mortal pages. Is it me or does time acceletate as each day passes. Anyway there should be a link somewhere on this page and that's where you'll find the little demos I've been messing with. And my decision...today I will mostly be recording with Ableton Live. Now that means a lot to you I know. Bye..! www.tnrb.co.uk

Time to do some recording. It's that kind of refinding your way again after a lot of looking around and just getting that bored feeling the the pit of your guts. Suddenly the little brain kicks in, the eyes brighten a bit and something inside stirrs after a long sleep. OK, it's teeth need a good clean, is a bit thirsty and the old bladder is full but the rusty cogs and wheels are starting to move, it remembers what it was like to have ambition and it's getting addicted to inspiration. An idea, never. I don't have ideas.

Cool, now I've got that inspriation, what the heck am I going to do with it? Can I make money out of it?

There's always been two sides to me and my music. Original material and cover material. Now for a long long time I've been earning some spending money by doing the covers thing. In various guises, shapes and sizes, Nick Rivers Band, Nick Rivers Solo and now Splinter plus the odd thing here and there. Always covers, the safety of covers, the earningness of covers but recently I've drunk from the other cup and it's been there, chipping away at the back of my mind like some demented woodpecker with a rubber beak.

Now original stuff, it's what proper, real musicians are made of. You're not well respected untill you gig your own material or produce your first original album. Doesn't matter how much of a widdling demon you are, if you've not done original stuff you're just another damp tissue in the toilet of life.

OK so it's time to do some recording. Now in the olden days before Heinz tommy K, you'd book in a few hours at the local recording studio, reherse your pants off and hopefully complete your recordings as quick as a flash, mix down in the same night and come out with a right load of old rubbish that sounded great in the studio but sounded like a wasp in a jam jar on your car stereo (yes I have these).

But in this modern world of lots of modern things, you can record at home using gadgets that run on spagetti and brown paper. Well they may as well! Have you seen how much stuff there is out there and not only that, what they're called. Now I've work with computers for 20 odd years, played guitar for 20 odd years and I can't work out the world of recording. It's utter poo.

Protools, Logic, Cubase, Alblon - these are all DAWs then...what...do they describe what they do...no, what's a DAW for starters?? It goes on and on and I won't waffle here but it takes some sorting out I can tell you. I don't want a fixed little 4 or 8 track recorder I want to dig about and maybe add more features as I go on.

Anyway the advernture or is it expedition continues...I've found something to start me off but I'm sure it'll be expensive in the long run, will end up being more advanced than Abbey Road and I don't know if I should tell the wife yet..!!