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RB: That was a nice gig for him. I couldn't say: Oh no, you don't do that. I couldn't do that. I said
okay, yeah, go on. I'll get someone else. I got someone else and on the second gig he was back
and then sadly on the second gig, our regular bass player, Tony Martin, had got COVID. So we
had to get a different bass player. I ended up getting the guy who recorded the first gig as he’s
also an adept bass player for me. So I got him to come and play bass on the second gig, which
was recorded by someone else [laughing].
BiTS: Well, what you just told me does explain why there is such a mass of musicians shown on
this.
RB: I know. Yeah, yeah.
BiTS: Tell me, Robin, how the thing was
actually recorded, because I’ve heard stuff
done in studios that doesn't have the quality
of what you produced there.
RB: Well. Thank you, Ian. That's very kind. I
mean, you know, I've always been very,
what's the word? I've been very particular
about how I get my stuff recorded and I have
recorded a few live albums in my long and
chequered career, you know. But I've always
had them digitally recorded on a professional
machine that can be transported around. And
of course nowadays, with all the technology,
you just stick mics in front of the instruments,
and you go into your mixer and then
everything is digitally recorded.
BiTS: I take it from what you say that all the instruments were individually miced, is that right?
RB: Oh yeah, totally, totally, totally.
BiTS: Yeah, that's if I may say, so bloody obvious because the sound is so fabulous.
RB: Well, that's right. Thank you, Ian. I mean, I wouldn't do it any other way because if you're
going to do a live recording, you’ve got to do it properly. I've done a lot of live recordings and
even in the acoustic one I've done, it's been like that as well, you know, with just me and Tony
Martin. We've done it the same. So you can raise and lower the levels and you can edit and stuff
like that. It took us a long time to edit this record. Because it's live, there were some little things.
There were little warts and all moments, most of which we actually have edited out, but one or
two might still be in there. But you know, I'm pretty happy with it, I have to say. I'm pretty proud
of it. It’s very, very nice but nice of you to say all these lovely things, thanks so much.
BiTS: Tell me something about a couple of the tracks on the album. For example, ‘Royal Sonesta
Stomp’. Is that one of yours? Did you write that?
RB: I wrote the majority of this album. I think there's two covers and the rest of it's my stuff
and ‘Royal Sonesta Stomp’ was written a long, long time ago, and in fact, it's the first track on
our second ever studio album which came out just 24 years ago, Ian [laughs]. And we've been
playing it regularly ever since, but we've got a nice horn arrangement on it now as well and I
also feature the horn players on it. So again, even though it's been recorded before, I thought,