I'm ready for my close-up or today was the day I was recorded for an album or holy calamity the new Holy Soul record is going to be amazing

It wasn't your normal mission though I was wearing my ordinary clothes. Superman was late, I filled my time by staring out the window intently, with the cat. I can see why cats do this, it is a calm place to be, still while the world rolls by.

In the end we were the first to arrive, they were still recording the horns so we snuck back out and looked for coffee. I had parked my terrible car opposite a cafe where I had spied a man. I declared "I want to be that man". He was old with a beret and an all white coffee cup. He blew blue smoke rings and sat like he meant it. We walked back to the cafe and Superman let me sit in the seat where the man had sat so I could pretend to be him, he's alright that Superman.

One or two people came and joined us as we waited for the horns to finish. I started to worry that I wouldn't be able to do it correctly and floated the possibility of miming. I practiced miming clapping under the table, I don't think anybody saw me.

We did the hand claps first, Jon Hunter conducting like a possessed Tex Perkins wearing enormous headphones and performing large, precise claps for us to follow. We had a few practice runs but it still took a few takes to get it right. Superman later declared that he clapped until his hands were red and then he clapped some more. There were about fifteen of us, including the band, circled around the microphone concentrating intently on matching our claps precisely to Jon's.

We compared red hands in the courtyard while something technical occurred then regrouped for the first vocal part. The singing was quite lovely, if I do say so myself. The next vocal part was more challenging. Spencer conducted with a chopstick, encouraging dynamic changes with large enthusiastic actions. We were quite terrible and took approximately seven thousand goes to get it right. I was worried that I did not sound enough like a pirate. Someone declared that we were not drunk enough, beer appeared in a neat pile beneath the microphone and drinking mightily encourage so drink I did. Superman later declared, with an enormous grin, that if anyone ever had any doubt about our pirateness that we now had conclusive recorded evidence to set them straight.

We listened back to what we had done and were amazed. The parts we recorded were the finishing parts to songs. We stood in a line in the hall while the music played. Its understood that I could be biased but I think this album is going to be spectacular. Madam Squeeze turned slightly pink as she picked out not only her accordion part but her voice in a song.

I'm trying to think calmly about the day but I'm grinning from ear to ear. I thought it might have something to do with being lucky enough to be a small part of something spectacular or that I'll have my name on the back of an album but I'm pretty sure its something else. It was a small room in Chippendale, there were bottles of beer on the floor and drums shoved into every corner but I was one voice among many. I found myself lost in simple rhythmic synchronized sound, I'm fairly certain there's no better place to be.

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