Final practice went underway at Berkley studios in Glasgow on Thursday 29th April. Everyone was present apart from Lizy the trumpet player as she had something else on. The practice went extremely well and we were able to run through the complete set three times.

The newest singer Amanda performed very well. She only had a week to learn her 5 songs plus the chorus of "Hella Good" and she was able to sing through all the songs no problem. I am very pleased with her abilities and I believe she will do a great job on the night.

Stephanie my other singer who is covering Emma's songs performed them very well also. There was no problems and her backing vocals for all the other songs are amazing. She is a very talented singer and I believe she will perform brilliantly on the night.

Nas was as brilliant as ever. Her confidence has grown so much over the past few weeks and I am pleased with her attitude towards this project and her vocal abilities are growing stronger with every practice as I felt she was holding back at first. This is a completely new experience for her but I am glad she is involved and I believe she will perform to a high standard on the night.

The band were amazing once again. John and Adam figured out how to work the sequence track so that only I could hear the click and the audience can't. I wasn't sure how to work it at all so I am very pleased they were able to figure it out at practice. The set is now very tight and because we haven't really had vocals on the songs over these past few months, we can play the set even better with vocals.

John's friend Johnny is filming the gig tonight. He will be editing the footage for me and recording out performance through the desk and lifting it to sync with the DVD that I will be making.

I feel the gig is going to be a great success tonight and I am looking forward to it. I have put a lot of work into this project and there has been many problems along the way but I think I have managed to overcome these and I just hope the end result is a good one.

The second practice this week went underway at James Watt College. My band turned up along with singers Nas and new singer Amanda. Emma canceled on me again saying she had to work so I have decided to officially drop her and replace her with Stephanie. I called Stephanie to double check this was OK to which she replied yes. Jennifer also did not show up and did not contact me to say she couldn't make it. I asked Amanda if she would be interested in doing Jen's songs and she seemed very keen to do lead vocals. I let her hear the songs to check if she would be OK with singing them in case any of them were out-with her vocal range. She decided that she wanted to try "Ex-Girlfriend" and "Snakes" at the rehearsal even though she did not really know them. I took her into an empty ensemble room and put on the CD's with the two songs on them so that she could listen and learn them as best she could to give them a go.

The rest of us played through the set which went very well. The band know the songs extremely well and we are playing the set really tight now. Nas was brilliant also and with every practice she is getting better and growing more confident. Amanda learned the two songs in under an hour. The first one she sang was "Ex-Girlfriend" and it sounded great, she is a very talented singer with a great voice. She sang the whole song right through coming in at all the correct places and seeming as if she knew it well. "Snakes" was sung brilliantly the first time through. She made it her own at some bits of the song which I felt sounded amazing. I was really excited when I heard her sing this song and I feel I have made the right choice in replacing Jennifer with Amanda. We played through these two songs a couple more times and then we played through the whole set again in order and I felt it went really well and I feel a lot more confident about the gig now. I also feel very relieved that Amanda and Stephanie have agreed to fill in and they both seem more enthusiastic and reliable than the first two singers I chose. I have taken two videos of this rehearsal, one of Nas singing "Total Hate" and one of Amanda singing "Snakes".

I have arranged for brass players John and Lizy to come up to my flat on Sunday to go over their parts together as we are unable to practice on Tuesday due to a recording session. I have arranged this because they have not played together yet and I want them to go over their parts together and play together before we move into our final rehearsals. I have also arranged my two singers Amanda and Stephanie to come up to my flat on Monday to go over their songs. This will give them an extra practice and give me the opportunity to hear them and help and make sure they know the songs well enough.

I have arranged with everyone a six hour practice at Berkley studios next Thursday as the studios have larger rooms which everyone will be more comfortable in as my band is very large. I also want to go over the set with everyone present and begin forming the show and practicing it as a show. The final rehearsal after this will be on the day of the gig before sound check.

Practice went underway at James Watt College last night. Emma could not make it again last night as she said she had to work. I am giving her one more chance to come on Thursday and if she does not show or cancels then Stephanie will definitely be taking over her songs.

Nas and Stephanie came along to practice last night and they performed their songs brilliantly. They worked very well together and seemed to get along no problem. Nas struggled with "Don't Speak" at first as she is very new to this she kept singing out of tune and getting confused with Stephanie singing backing vocals along with her. We had to play this a good few times so that Nas could get used to it. The last three times we played the song it sounded fantastic and this is shown in the video I have taken of this song. There was no other vocal problems with any other of Nas's songs and I feel she is getting more confident in rehearsals.

Stephanie sang "Sunday Morning" and "Underneath It All" which she was great at. She knows the songs well and I am very confident she can stand in for Emma no problem. Next time she is at practice I will ask her to do the two other songs Emma sings but I am very confident she will be fine with them, she is a very talented and reliable vocalist.

John brought his sax to practice last night. His sax playing was very good and I felt relieved when I heard him play as I was getting worried that brass was not going to work out. I am going to arrange a night at the weekend for John and Lizy to go over parts together as I am struggling to get everyone into rehearsals at the same time so I will arrange a day where they can go over their parts together and make sure they are playing the same thing.

I am practicing again at James Watt on Thursday. I am giving the sequenced track for "Hella Good" to Paul Brooks, a lecturer at James Watt, on Thursday and he is going to put a click track on it for me. I am getting nervous because the gig is very soon however I am doing everything I possibly can to try make it happen. I know for definite that Nas is fine and Stephanie is fine and will cover Emma's songs. I just hope that if Jennifer does not turn up on Thursday that Amanda will cover her songs otherwise I may have to drop these songs and just do 8. That is the last resort.

Rehearsal last week (8/4/10) took place at Berkley studios in Glasgow. I had invited both singers Emma and Jennifer to come along however they were unable to make it due to other commitments.

I brought along the set list order so that we could through the songs in order and begin preparing for the show. I have decided that the first two songs will be played one after the other without stopping because I want the show to have a strong powerful beginning. The opening song is "Just A Girl" because I feel this is a good opener because it is upbeat, fast and well known and I think it will get the crowd going. I will then go into "Sunday Morning" because I felt it worked well after "Just A Girl" with the snare drum intro and it is an upbeat song that will keep the crowd going.

The rehearsal with the band went very well and I feel we are getting much tighter. As we have rehearsed the material mainly without singers, the band are feeling very confident with the songs.

I had another rehearsal yesterday at Berkley studios. Emma and Jennifer were not free to come in again and as a result I have looked into getting other singers. I have contacted a girl at James Watt College called Amanda who says she would like to do vocals. Lizy my trumpet player has also contacted another girl named Laura who sings for a well known Glasgow band called "Darkwater". I am still waiting to hear from Lizy as to whether Laura will sing for my project. I understand that my project is in three weeks time so I have decided to practice twice a week beginning next week at James Watt College. I will be inviting everyone involved in the project to come along to both days to ensure my set sounds good for the gig.

I rehearsed at Berkley studios in Glasgow on Tuesday night. I arranged for my singer Nas and the brass section to be there however, due to bad weather conditions the brass section, Lizy and Chris, were unable to make it.

As this was the first time Nas was in rehearsing we focused on her four songs which are "Just a Girl", "Don't Speak", "Total Hate" and "Move On".

"Just a Girl" went quite well. Nas was unsure of how some parts of the song were sung as there is a lot of changes and so it did not sound as good as it could. She was aware of this however and will practice it more for next time.

"Don't Speak" wasn't sounding too great the first couple of times we played it and I feel this is because we haven't played it in a while. My band were a little unsure of some parts and so this took a few plays to get it right. Nas performed the song well, I could see she was really nervous as this is the first time she has ever sung with a band and been at a rehearsal. I will ensure she comes to as many rehearsals as possible so that she can overcome her nerves and get used to singing with the band.

"Total Hate" went very well. Although the brass weren't in so I couldn't get to hear it properly, it was still sounding very good. Scott filled in the brass parts with his keyboard so that Nas knew were to come in. The band played very well and the more we played it the better it got and it was basically perfected. Nas sung this much better than the other two songs. I felt she projected more on this song and with the spoken parts and in the chorus the words "Total Hate" are shouted, she seemed more comfortable with it and really got into it. I feel this song is one of the best and will sound amazing with real brass and backing vocals.

"Move On" went much better this week. I feel last time we played it that it was sounding quite awful. Everyone was all over the place and it just wasn't flowing well. This was perhaps due to lack of playing it and listening to it. The band played very well, the first run through wasn't too great. Adam played the end section of the song where it changes into a heavy guitar solo section incorrectly and out of time at first. I told him to practice the part for a few minutes and to look at me for his count in when he comes to it as the timing changes. The next few times we played it were much improved, the end section sounded a lot tighter and I feel we have made a lot of progress with this song. Nas sounded great singing this song. She felt that this was the hardest song for her and that her vocals were weak however I felt that this song again sounded better than the first two as she projected more and because the chorus is spoke with shouted parts that she really got into it and performed it better.

I have forgot to report that I managed to get the gig changed to the 4th May at Nice n Sleazy's. This was due to e-mailing Caroline the event organiser for the club and asking her what dates she had free between the 3rd and 16th May. She only had the 4th and 9th available which meant choosing the 4th because I had made a list of what dates everyone could do and the 4th was the suitable choice.

The gig is drawing closer however I am still happy with the progress I am making. I really need to get my other singer Jennifer in and all the brass section. I am going to double up on practices in the next couple of weeks as the gig draws closer to ensure I am fully prepared for the show. I will continue to practice and research over the next week and keep in contact with everyone to ensure next rehearsal goes smoothly.

I have encountered some bad luck this week. I received an e-mail at the beginning of the week from Caroline who works at Nice n Sleazys booking the gigs. She informed me that the 7th May was "no longer available for me". I was very angry about this because she had confirmed my slot for the 7th over a month ago and has not given me a reason as to why it has been cancelled. I'm guessing that something better has come along that will make them more money as it is a Friday night or perhaps she is doing a favour for a friend.

I decided to contact Classic Grand which is another club in Glasgow city centre and I asked if they would do the same deal as Nice n Sleazys. The booking agent Ellen replied quickly and told me that it depends on tickets sales and numbers in at the door. Caroline form Nice n Sleazys has offered me the 4th May for free due to messing me about. I have now had to get in touch with everyone to check if this will be suitable. I have also drawn up a list of dates between the 3rd May to the 16th May as this is the two week slot at which I must perform my gig and phoned everyone last night to ask exactly when they are free during this period so that I can then contact Caroline and ask her what dates she has free during this period also and pick a night when everyone is free to do the gig.

I will not be able to practice this week due to Adam having an interview for University. It is not possible to rehearse the songs without him as he is the lead guitar and it would be rather pointless. I have arranged a practice for next Wednesday involving the band and my singer Jennifer. I am unable to get my other singers in next week due to them being busy however, I have informed them that I would like them in the week after so they will ensure that they are free for rehearsal.

I will continue to practice my set and perform research for my project.

I was scheduled to practice last Thursday at James Watt College as usual when my singer Jennifer McLardy had to cancel due to a last minute play rehearsal of which she was performing the following night. My other band members Adam, Scott and Nick informed me that they were running late due to special circumstances this week and it turned out pointless to travel down to Greenock to practice as we wouldn't have much time left so I decided to call it off and schedule a 6 hour practice for the following week.

I had a practice last night at Berkeley 2 studios in Glasgow. Unfortunately again my singer Jennifer McLardy cancelled due to her babysitter cancelling on her. I think from now on I am going to schedule in 2 singers each week because at least if one of them cancels the other one will still come in and we can move forward. My trumpet Lizy came to rehearsal tonight, however my trombone player Chris was unable to make it tonight.

We focused on the 3 brass songs tonight since Lizy was in which are "Total Hate", "Move On" and "Ache". I feel these 3 songs are the hardest to play because they have the most difficult structures and for the drums especially they are quite fast paced and with the drummer playing constant fast 8th and 16th notes it is tough on your right hand. It it definitely a test of endurance. There are a few No Doubt songs like this which involve your right hand playing consistent 16th notes.

We played the songs over and over and over and we felt they were definitely showing improvement the more we played them. "Total Hate" especially came on very well and is sounding brilliant now, just felt very empty because there was no vocals and no other brass in it. "Ache" was quite messy the first few times we tried it and you can see evidence of this in the video that was taken for this week. "Move On" was the most difficult to play last night for me because it is very fast and I kept messing up the intro of the song. I have been practising this a lot recently and it was fine when I was practising in my room. I will continue working on it and I am confident it will improve for next week's practice.

Nick my bass player has now more or less mastered the song "Ache". It is the toughest song for him as the bass line is really tough. He has shown a massive improvement with it this week and it was sounding excellent, I am really happy with his standard of playing. Scott my keyboard player was having a little trouble with a section in "Ache" where after the solo the piano plays 8th notes and the band play stabs on beats 1 and 2+. He was finding it difficult switching between his string sound and his piano sound. After a few attempts at the song he was showing improvement as at first he would just drop out and not play the piano part.

My trumpet player Lizy was brilliant. She is very good and very professional. Having studied at the RSAMD, her playing, listening and reading and writing of music is of a very high standard. She knew the songs well, having prepared her parts extremely well. The first run through of "Total Hate" she mastered it and I don't believe she made any mistakes. "Ache" and "Move On" were played well also and I am very confident in her playing and I believe if the trombone player Chris is as good and professional as her then I will not need to practice with the brass every week.

I feel I am still on form, I would have liked to have had all my singers in and brass players in by now. The hardest part of this is trying to manage so many different people. They all have busy schedules and different things going on and trying to get everyone in the same room at the same time is proving to be quite a difficult task which is why I'm glad I started really early as this would never be possible if I had left it close to the date of the gig. I still have a good few weeks left and nearer the time of the gig I will arrange more practices with everyone to ensure we are fully prepared to perform the show.

I was unable to practice last Thursday due to severe weather conditions. James Watt College closed early so I have arranged for practice to continue next week as usual and I will be getting my second singer in Jennifer McLardy.

Last night at my practice in James Watt College I had my first singer Emma Sunman attend and backing vocalist Stephanie Strachan. The songs that Emma is singing are "Hella Good", "Underneath It All", "Dark Blue" and "Sunday Morning". We began with "Underneath It All" as we hadn't had a chance to play this last week due to Nick being unwell. The song was a great success, after going through it a few times we felt we had it sounding very good and had no trouble with it. There is a section of the song where a rap is performed and due to none of the singers wanting to perform this rap Scott filled out the section with an improvisation which sounded great (as shown in the attached video).

Nick was able to find the real sequencer track for "Hella Good", the one that is actually used in the song. We played along to it last night a few times however the track needs to have a click added so that I am able to stay in time with it as last night there is a few times it fell apart because I had no timing reference.

"Dark Blue" was sounding great last night. Unfortunately Emma hadn't learned the song properly and she was unsure of how to sing some of it. The more we played it, the better it was sounding as she was gradually picking it up. I have asked her to definitely learn it correctly for next time. Musically the band have got it perfectly. It sounds really great and full.

"Sunday Morning" was also sounding fantastic musically, the band have mastered it. Again, Emma was unsure of some parts and I had to get at her again to learn the songs for next time. I have warned her that if she is not going to learn the songs correctly I will find another singer who is more reliable to perform her songs.

The band played brilliantly last night, I don't think anyone drastically messed up or was unsure of what they were doing. I can honestly say I have an incredible band and they are extremely professional musicians. My backing vocalist Stephanie was also very prepared and professional. She had thoroughly learned the songs and performed them very well. Emma was not as prepared as she had not fully learned a couple of the songs. I will give her another chance of course and try and help her if she is having any trouble with them.

I was speaking with my trumpet player Lizy last night and she informed me that she has found the number of the trombone player she knows and she is going to contact him for me at some point today and ask him if he would be interested in doing my project. John has also put his saxophone in for repair today so I am hoping to have my brass section in very soon.

Attached is a video of "Underneath It All" from rehearsal last night, I was unable to record more due to my phone battery running out. I will ensure next time that I have fully charged my phone so I can take videos of other songs and upload them.

Adam's contact got in touch with me today. He called me and we spoke about my project and what I was looking for. He has asked me to text him Tuesday next week, as this is when he sees his orchestra, to give him gig details so he can pass these onto his students to see if anyone will be interested in playing trombone for my project.

I am also pleased to announce that I have been successful in finding a trumpet player willing to do my project. I posted an ad on Gumtree last night and earlier tonight I received a text from a girl called Lizy, whom I actually used to speak to online a few years back and she has agreed to come to rehearsals and play the gig. She also informed me she knows a trombone player and is going to contact this person for me.

I plan to bring in brass players in the next couple of weeks because John is waiting on his saxophone being repaired and I am still waiting to hear back from a couple of people about trombone players. This also gives Lizy plenty of time to learn the songs before she comes into rehearse with the band.

I have been phoning around asking as many people as possible tonight if they know any trumpet or trombone players as the two girls I was given numbers for cannot do the gig due to other circumstances. I have posted a wanted ad on Gumtree in the Glasgow area so I am hoping to get some replies. I also joined a group on Facebook called "Musicians in Glasgow" and posted a comment regarding my need for brass players. I noticed on the page there is a couple of trumpet players listed so I have messaged them both and one of the girls has replied and said she may be able to help. I have sent her the songs that she would be playing on. She has informed me that she mainly reads music so I will have to get Scott to write out the part for me as he is very good at reading and writing notation.

I emailed my old lecturer from James Watt, Neil Weir, just to ask if he would help me out however I think he will be too busy to do it. I also spoke with fellow classmate Amy as she had contact with brass players however she does not have their numbers anymore.

My guitarist Adam has sent me the number of a man who plays brass, a friend of his friend, so I have also tried to contact him. I couldn't get him tonight so I have left him a message and I hope to hear back from him tomorrow.

The 4th week of practice at James Watt College went underway last night. However, Nick was unable to make it as he has a viral infection. This was very unfortunate as these songs are difficult to rehearse without a bass player as the bass is very dominant in the songs. We were unable to practice the new songs because of this so we worked on the sequencer for "Hella Good". Scott programmed a basic sequence track and we worked together on figuring out how to set it up and programme it to Pro Tools and send it to me via headphones so that I am the only person who hears it and it does not come through the PA. We were successful in doing this task and Scott plans to perfect the sequence in the next couple of weeks as he needs some time to go through the song and programme all of the different sounds.

We played through the song "New" and it was very straight forward, the only problem again was Nick being absent. As this is my function band I am using, we have a practice on Tuesday at a rehearsal room in Glasgow and we have decided to take a small amount of time to go over the songs we had planned to for this week as Nick will hopefully be there.

I visited Nice n Sleazys last night to check out the venue and I found it to have a good sized stage and I believe that it is definitely large enough for my 9 piece band. I have tried to phone the lady Caroline with whom I have been e-mailing about the gig to book it officially as she has only put it on hold for me at the moment. I will continue to try calling her over the weekend and I have also e-mailed her saying I would like to go ahead and book it.

I am still waiting to hear about brass. Scott has given me the number of a female trumpet player he knows and I will call her as soon as I have booked the gig as she is waiting to have confirmation of what night the gig will be on, I do not want to call her until I have definitely booked the gig in case it were to change. My guitarist Adam has also been in contacted with a trumpet player who may be interested and he is going to try and get me her number tonight. I have also contacted Greenock Academy inquiring about trombone players as a student I teach informed me that her school had trombone players and a trombone teacher. I left my details with him yesterday and he has informed that he will ask a few ex-pupils if they are interested and get back to me within a few days.

Over the past week I have trying to book a venue for my gig. I have looked into gig venues in Glasgow City Centre because myself, Alistair Duncan, Andrew Abercrombie and Steven Croft are planning on doing all of our gigs on the same night and we agreed on a venue in the city centre as this is easily accessible for everyone. I have looked into such venues as Rockers, Nice n Sleazys, Cathouse, Classic Grand etc. I have contacted these venues and found out all the details I need including prices, equipment, size etc.

The main problem I am finding now is that the majority of these venues are too small to host the 10-11 piece I am going to have for my performance. One of my singers, Jennifer McLardy, is an events coordinator and I have asked her for her help to find me a suitable venue. She called me last night informing me that she has got into contact with King Tut's and is awaiting reply and also advised me that I may be best hiring a hall so I am also going to look into this solution.

I have contacted a lecturer at James Watt College, Steph Greer to see if he can advise anywhere that would be suitable and within our budget because he has many contacts within the industry especially the Glasgow area and he has hired out the likes of Oran Mor before for our class last year.

I have drawn up a list of my set up required for my performance and I plan to hire out any additional equipment I need from the college. I spoke with Ronnie on Tuesday at my drum lesson about getting hold of a timbale drum. He informed me that there may be one within the college, I will e-mail and remind him of this nearer the time of my next drum lesson to see if I will be able to hire this out for my gig.

I spoke my my old drum lecturer at James Watt College last week and informed him I am looking for another backing singer. I already have one, Stephanie Strachan from James Watt who I met a couple of weeks ago at a recording session in the college. She was doing backing vocals for another Perth student, Charlene Gordon, and I thought she was very good and very professional. I got her number and asked her if she would like to do backing vocals for my gig and she agreed. I have been keeping in contact with her regularly and given her the songs she will be singing on. I hope to get another backing vocalist however if this is not possible I am going to ask my bass player Nick if he would contribute to the backing vocals as he also very good at this and he does backing vocals in our function band.

Last week at practice we decided that "Hella Good" will need a sequence track behind it as there is too much going on within the song for us to compensate, there is not enough of us to fill it out. Scott my keyboard player has been working on making one with his keyboard. On the night he will direct a click track directly to me through headphones so that the audience will not hear this, they will only hear the backing track. He informed me last night that he was making the track and it was going well. Unfortunately for me, he called me today and informed me that his keyboard does not save sequence tracks and that when he turned his keyboard off the track deleted so we are not going to be able to practice this song today. The solution for this now is to make the track again and save it to a memory stick. This will be completed for next week's practice.

I feel my project is going well so far, the band are very professional and have been making my songs sound very good. I hope to have a venue booked very soon. If I cannot get a larger size venue, I will look into cutting my band down slightly so that we can fit comfortably in Nice n Sleazys, for instance just having one extra backing singer and have Nick do backing and perhaps leaving the trombone player so that there is less people on stage.