Hey! Welcome to my blog, here you will find (hopefully) what I'm currently doing regarding stage and screen performances! So please, have a look around and if you've got any comments, queries or just want to say "Hi" then drop me a line over on the Contact page :)
Oh, and another thing... You can now leave comments on individual blog entries - wooo! :)

06th December 2011 - "Server move!"

I'm moving server today, sorry for any downtime you may expereience during the move. That's it really :)

In other news, the 'Your Call' song was played on the radio again today :)

Peace.

28th November 2011 - "Your Call (The video!)"

So after a pretty successful release of the 'Your Call' MP3 a couple of weeks ago comes the video to accompany it! :)

Give it a watch, see what you think and leave us a comment - we'd love to know what you think!

Also, if you missed the previous blog post with the links to the MP3 I'll post them at the bottom of here anyway :)

So, let's have it...

'Your Call' MP3 (right click "save target/link as")
'Your Call' MP3 (in ZIP file)

14th November 2011 - "Your Call (Free song download)"

Hi guys,

It's been a while since I've made a post on here but it's all been worth the wait because now I have something special to share... a free mp3 download of a song that I've been doing with a couple of close friends of mine, Lisa Coleman (vocals) and Daniel Prochera (bass).

This is a cover of a song called Your Call by Secondhand Serenade and it's yours to keep, for FREE :) If you listen to the original you will notice that ours is vastly different.

I, we, hope you enjoy this track and come back for more very soon. Also, there will be a video coming which I will of course post on here.

One more thing before I give you the links, we're getting air time... tomorrow! So tune in to 87.7 Bailrigg FM (in the Lancashire area) or listen live on http://www.bailriggfm.co.uk/ to Angus' and Phil's Teatime Takeover between 5pm and 7pm (I think they'll play it around 6pm *wink*)

So, without further ado...

MP3 version (right click "save target/link as")
ZIP version

25th June 2011 - "Updates and forthcoming happenings :)"

Hey guys, long time no... blogging...

Anyway I just thought I'd pop on and update y'all with what I've been up to. Well you can all see in the previous blog post that I made a sort of 'how-to' video for Machines by Biffy Clyro on guitar and drums which means yes, I've been learning guitar - but that's fairly old news now.

Next up on the agenda are the end of year Theatre Studies BA shows that have recently passed. The piece my group devised was in the style of Anton Chekhov and followed Chekhov through his life as a writer. The basis of the play was to engage the audience by allowing them to see how a writer such as Chekhov actually developed his characters and themes; from real people in his life. The piece kept the audience "on their toes" by constantly shifting the emotions felt; one comment we received was "I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at points but then realised, that's the point." As you may already know Chekhov wrote his plays as comedies but they were often seen as tragedies, as you can imagine comments such as the one above made us confident that we were doing Chekhov justice. 

I will be uploading a video of the whole performance, named A work in progress, to my site at some point which you can have a gander at if you so wish :) On to my next bit of business... The REAL Impossible Quiz.

The quiz was created many years ago by me (with some help from my good friend Ben Archer [www.benarcher.co.uk]) and until recently had been forgotten about by me. However after news of an iPhone port being developed, which I am now involved in, and seeing that it does actually still get quite a few visitors every week I thought I'd share it with you guys again! You can find it at http://quiz.adenbeckitt.co.uk but let me warn you, it is NOT easy! It is full of odd logic and strange answers, even the ability to decompile flash is a good one to have in your skillset... HINT! ;)

Also, for those of you who enjoy watching my videos or even find them helpful never fear I will be gracing YouTube with another video soon (I've just got to record it first :P) But yeah, all my equipment is at home right now which I am not (I'm in Lancaster) so that'll just have to wait. I'm hoping to incorporate guitar again into the next video so that'll be fun :)

Another quick point I guess is that my band Makrel Jak are currently in the procoess of recording some tracks for your listening pleasure but due to time constraints it appears that these may not be available until the somewhere in the first term of the 2011/2012 University year. Dah well, we tried.

So yeah... look out for the video of the show soon, await my new YouTube video, go play my quiz (quiz.adenbeckitt.co.uk), await the iPhone port of the quiz, do a little dance and get your creative juices flowing for the Makrel Jak tracks that'll be landing in a few months. :D

I hope you've enjoyed this read and I'm leaving you with a track I recorded a while back with a friend from university, Amy Kaye. Its a cover of Love Story by Taylor Swift, I hope you like it.

Peace, Aden.

9th May 2011 - "Machines (Biffy Clyro cover)"

I fancied making a little instrumental cover with a bit of a how-to so this is what I ended up with :) Machines by Biffy Clyro. I hope you enjoy it, I'll try and post some more stuff when I get my new mic.

Video recorded with: iPhone 4 (drums) Logitec HD C270 (guitar)
Audio recorded with: REAPER & Shure Prologue Mic
Electric kit used: Roland TD-6 w/ Addictive Drums VST plugin (running through REAPER & MIDI)
Video production software: Adobe Premiere Pro CS4

Please leave me a comment and let me know what you think. Like the video, share it, twitter me, whatever you feel :)

Peace, Aden.

Oh... and remember to watch in HD! :)

6th April 2011 - "Twitter updates!"

Hey guys!

I've been playing around whilst on holiday from uni and I've developed a new way to let everyone know of my new blog posts, automatic twitter updates! :D

So if you follow me on Twitter or even have me on Facebook (my Twitter posts to FB) then you'll always know of my happenings :P

In other news, I've recently purchased a bunch of stuff for home studio recording so I'll hopefully have some Makrel Jak tracks to share with you in a couple of months (gotta get back to uni first).

Anyway, until next time... stay crispy - I don't know what that means.

Peace, A.

24th January 2011 - "Song 2, Bananas and other crazy shit"

Okay, this video is a bit mental but I had fun putting it together so all is good :D haha.
Hope you enjoy it and whilst you're at drop me a comment or something :) Oh yeah, and it's got all the usual goodies like HD and shizz :D

Peace guys.
Aden

19th January 2011 - "Dani California and copyright"

Here we go, another video... well actually it's the first on Vimeo, this one got blocked on YouTube for copyright reasons! :( Okay, it's not the best but I brought a couple of my own things to it and all that jazz :D haha. I hope you enjoy it and make sure you stay at the end for an outtake ;) 

Again, this was recorded using my iPhone 4 at 720p HD resolution in combination with REAPER and addictivedrums... just in case you're wondering :)

Let me know what you guys think even if it's "haha you suck, i'm a trolllololololololol..." etc :)

Big love guys, peace.
Aden

19th December 2010 - "Arenas, Comedy, Theatre, Snow and Home."

Well, it's been pretty hectic a lately. As you can see I haven't updated this in a while. Anyway, where do I start?

Cuckoos nest, it went super well... absolutely fantastic! I got loads of comments and feedback from the audience such as;

"My favourite character"
"When is the guy in the wheelchair coming back, he's awesome!"

etc etc etc, I'm so great lalalala. :P haha. Unfortunately we didn't get chosen for NSDF but according to the feedback we got from the guys that came and watched it, they really enjoyed it.

Moving on, Arenas and comedy... On the 17th December, the Friday just passed, I went and watched 'Tim Minchin and his Orchestra' live at the M.E.N arena. IT WAS AWESOME!!!! I think watching a live orchestra is the best thing I have EVER seen or heard. Coupled with the comical genius of Tim Minchin was such a great idea. :D I actually cannot wait until the DVD comes out.

After the show I embarked on a journey to a place I like to call 'home'. :) Travelling through the snow, sleet and cold with some great people who I had just seen Tim Minchin live with. Great times. Booyah!

Anyways, I'm gonna sign off now. I'll try and get the images up from Cuckoos nest as soon as possible, until then... just imagine me pretending to be lobotomised whilst sat in a wheelchair. :)

The game.

25th November 2010 - "Our lands are green and skies are blue..."

Well, that took a while :P This video includes multiple shots from different angles (because I felt the others looked a bit boring at times) - don't expect this every time! I'm not a machine! :P

Anyway yeah, this is me doing a drum cover of 'In the meantime' by Spacehog. I love this song, the bass and drums and just spectacular in my opinion... they gel together perfectly.

So yah, enjoy :) Leave me a comment, twitter-ize me, facebook, do whatever... or do none... there are so many ways these days!!!!!!! :O haha.

Oh yeah, and I do a little dance at the start :) Enjoy.

22nd November 2010 - "Sugar..."

Yet another cover video surfaces on the internet :) This time I thought I'd play along to a acoustic cover video that a fellow YouTuber had done (the information in on the video) of the song 'Sugar we're going down' by Fall out boy.

According to the first few bits of feedback that I've been given, including the following from Laurel (honeyfish) - the girl playing guitar;

• "omg so awesome!!!!! you just made my day dude!"

It seems as if it's a pretty good cover? What do you think? Leave me a comment on YouTube, on this blog post, or facebook/twitter - whatever you feel like doing ;)

Also, a quick update on the Cuckoos nest scene... We had our first full run through yesterday and it went pretty smoothly (although we did do a speed run of Act 2 due to time constraints, bah) so all is well! :) We're having another tonight I believe so that should secure our hard work :D It's less than a week now until we perform the play three nights in a row at what is arguably the best nightclub in Lancaster, the Sugarhouse - yes, a nightclub.

Anyway, Enjoy the flick :D

21st November 2010 - "Hey... Johnny!"

Hi guys, another drum cover here for you :) If you know the guy then I'd like to point out that this was a request from Danny 'Gee', if you don't it doesn't matter ;P

So yeah, this was a first attempt after not playing the song for ages!!! (It has a sentimental meaning to me and Danny from a couple of years back) So forgive me if (when) things are a tad wrong compared to the original.

So yeah, that's about it... keep a look out for my stuff on YouTube (if you like it you could even subscribe ;P)

Peace, Aden.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention... this is 'Hey, Johnny park' by the Foo Fighters. Enjoy.

20th November 2010 - "That's what you get"

This is just a quick drum cover of 'That's what you get' by Paramore. It only took me like 25 minutes to learn and video it so some bits aren't right (who cares? :P)

In this video I'm using a Roland TD-6 through a MIDI-to-USB cable into my laptop running Reaper and Addictive Drums. It's quite a nice set up, I've only just got it all up and running so I haven't tweaked with many of the settings yet on Addictive Drums.

On another, slightly off topic, note Reaper is one of the best software DAW's I've used! And it's only like slightly over 5mb! It's really cheap too, but there is a free trial on their site so you can try it out :)

Anyway, have fun watching and drop me a comment :) [Available in HD]

-A

18th November 2010 - "Open mic night"

Well... what can I say? Basically I'm now in a band with a couple of fellow Lancast-arians, we don't currently have a name which kind of sucks to be fair so we decided on 'Ruckly' (my character in Cuckoos nest), until we can think of a suitable name. So yeah, if you have any ideas post a comment :)

Anyway, without further ado I present you with a video of an original that we did at the County bar Open mic night last night. (I'm the one on the drums if you didn't realise :P)

The video is available to watch in HD if required :) Have fun and cheers for reading, watching and listening ;D

-A

16th November 2010 - "Geeks, bands and thespians"

Hi, it's me again.

I'm using my new blog system and I must say that it's pretty sweet :) I'm looking forward to working on it some more if I'm being honest... GEEK!

Anyways, just thought I'd let you know that my band is playing County's on campus bar tomorrow at around 8pm so if you're around then get yourself down. It should be a good old laugh yeah? ;)

I should actually be going to see a production in the Nuffield theatre tonight but the tickets have sold out! :( booo! Sucks right? Ah well, it'll be fine.

I've just watched episode 8 of Chuck season 4 and I must say that it is pretty damn tasty! Actually, that's a good point... if you're not an avid Chuck watcher then sort it out man! Get to the usual sources and watch some Chuck (start from season 1 if you haven't seen it ;]) Seriously, it is most probably the best TV show to have ever been commissioned. Period.

Also, I've been watching 'The Walking Dead' a lately which is also pretty good. It started off with a 1 hour 30 minute long premiere episode (feature length, as opposed to the usual 44 minutes [without adverts]) so that was exciting :D I watched episode 3 last night which seems to tie up a few ends that I thought could be spread out a tad longer, obviously one of them being finished has sprung up a new one but I still feel they could have got another couple of episodes out of it (if you'd not guessed, I'm trying not to spoil this for anyone if you haven't seen it :P)

Well, that's all for today. Leave me a comment, like this entry, like the whole site in general, send me an email, add me as a friend on facebook or follow me on twitter (contact page for details) if you feel the need :D If not then until next time, the game. :)

-A

15th November 2010 - "It's been hectic!"

Hey guys, this is just a quick update seen as I haven't posted for a while. Anyway, I now have a drum kit in my room at uni :D It's a Roland TD-6 and it's pretty freakin' sweet! I've also started a band with a couple of friends that I've met here at Lancaster, all is well :)

One flew over the cuckoo's nest is going well, we had a woman in today to give us an insight into how people with mental problems actually act which was very interesting... she also told me that I was playing my role as a vegetable correctly. Ha. Good times.

Also, this is kind of a test post for my new blog system that I'm creating. Let's hope it goes well and doesn't cause me too many problems.

Well that's all for today folks.

24th October 2010 - "Grease"

Today has been full of jack shit to tell you the truth so I went through some images that the audience took of the 'Grease' musical I was in (professional pictures should be coming soon) and managed to salvage a whole five! :) Head over to the image page to check them out :)

Thats it for today, over and out.

21st October 2010 - "Cheese and Wine"

Well, today I felt like absolute crap! That's right, after rehearsals we went to one of the directors' house and had cheese and wine (YouTube; "Chin Review"). Everything was really good, everyone had a really good time, everyone bonded great and we all found out some 'stuff' out about each other. Anyway, after getting quite intoxicated on a considerable amount of wine it was unfortunately time to go home - resulting in spinning rooms, self-induced vomit (made me feel much better :]) and some pretty funky acid reflux in the morning. Good stuff ey?

Back to the play, I do feel that my character has actually developed further (albeit very subtly) which is good yeah? :) and now there aren't any more rehearsals until Monday so I get to sort myself out and chill out a bit over the weekend, good times.

Well this is the end of this particular post, I still feel a bit funky you see so...

Peace.

18th October 2010

I'm back with another installment of the experience of acting like a cabbage for numerous hours! Yes, that's right... My character in OFOTCN is basically, a vegetable. You see, Ruckley used to be quite a roudy man until he was unfortunately put through the medical procedure known as a Lobotomy. I find that I will see and feel the character develop further in later rehearsals but as of now he's... well, like I said - "a vegetable" and I'm still unsure about how to fully portray this aspect of him without it becoming monotonous and boring to watch. There seems to be very little stage directions for Ruckley in the script, which is good as I get to mould him into what I feel suitable and not Ken Kesey/Dale Wasserman... but at the same time it makes it extremely difficult as there just isn't any starting point to develop from.

I've been doing research and also looking back on some notes from my A level Theatre course in which I studied OFOTCN but so far I've been coming up relatively short so if you've got any ideas then just pop them down on the contact page ;)

Signing off, Aden.

17th October 2010 - "Fuck 'em all!"

Today was the first rehearsal for OFOTCN and I must say that I had lots of fun :) I'm still getting to grips with my character though but I think I did pretty well for a first try, plus I inputted a couple of decent ideas into the piece as a whole so thats good :) There are loads of great people in this production, it's going to be absolutely awesome... I just can't wait until it actually starts coming together as a full show.

By the way, the "fuck 'em all" reference is from the show - It's pretty much my character's one and only line which he just keeps repeating throughout the play.

Anyway that was just a quick update, it's now 11pm and I have to be up at 8am... So I'm going to get off and watch a couple of episodes of Prison Break (season 3)

Over and out.

15th October 2010

This is my first post on here, and it's going to be a short one. Actually this particular post is the reason I started my blog; I got a part in 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest' on Wednesday and I just needed to let you all know. It's being performed in 'The Sugarhouse, Lancaster' and it's going to be freaking awesome! :)

So yeah, that's about it... I've got the part of Ruckly (yes, he's one of the mental guys) and I can't wait to start with the rehearsals! We are having our first read through on Sunday so I'll pop on here and let you know how it's going.

One more thing, as you can probably see I've given myself a little logo type thing at the top of the page ^ - I hope you like it :) Let me know!

Thanks for reading, peace.