EightyOne

Progress is slow to non-existant because I’m suffering from creative block (AKA lazyness). So far I’ve done a little styling on a plain theme that I’ve applied to the ghost-blog of my chum, Dan Stevens.

So far, setting up the theme has been almost as easy as setting up a stylesheet. In addition to your stylesheet, though, you have to create at least one template file, which forms the markup. This is essentially setting up an XHTML file with added custom PHP tags to insert the blog posts and information. e.g.

the_title()

This template I’ve split in to three files — header.php, footer.php and index.php. This will allow me to re-use the header and footer, whilst providing customised versions of the main content to suit the front page, individual posts and archives, for example.

The most useful concept to get to grips with is the WordPress ‘Loop‘. This is the portion of code responsible for looping through posts, and repeatedly inserting the desired markup.

This blog was my first foray in to the world of WordPress, and when a Left Hand Red site redesign was on the cards, I decided to implement WordPress on there so that the other band members could post news easily (the original was a static, hand-coded affair), adapting the existing design for use as a template. At the same time, I knew that I could completely redesign the site without having to edit any of the content simply by creating another WordPress theme.

We decided some time ago that the existing design had served its purpose, and that it was time for a change to something that better fits the band’s current sound and the image we want to project. So, I’ll be developing a new theme from the ground up, and documenting some of the process on this site as I go.

It’s four months since Left Hand Red‘s last gig with Dead! Dead! Dead! at the Freebutt in Brighton. During those four months we’ve been hard at work recording our new demos, have written another (excellent) new song, and worked at making our existing songs even better.

On Sunday 6th August we come back with a bang! We’re headlining a ‘Sunday Spectacular’ Cable Club show, with three other bands also on the bill. After having to cancel a previous date (scheduled for today, as it happens), we’ve been extremely lucky to get another headline date just three and a half weeks later.

Not only that, but we have three of the four demos very near, if not at, completion. Hopefully we’ll have plenty more gigs lined up very soon.

Update

Looks like we’re being resceduled! Probably Tuesday 8th or Wednesday 9th August.

The grit trucks are out in Hades — we may well have finished recording two of our new demos!

Singer Dan and I spent the bulk of yesterday evening producing the seventh mixes of Clockwork and Out of Focus (excluding the abortive attemps back in January), and we may well have nailed it this time. I’m going to attempt to add a bit of polish to the stereo mixes (I wouldn’t go as far to call it ‘mastering’), and they should appear on a band website and MySpace profile near you soon!

Still in the mixing stage are Against the Grain and Midnight Sun. The intention was to bring all four demos out together, but as Midnight Sun is proving a little difficult, we’re going to reveal them when they’re ready. That, and we’re getting impatient.

Dan has produced a scrapbook-inspired cover for the demo/EP, which is quite appropriate for the no-nonsense, do-it-yourself approach we have to our music. It’s going to provide the inspiration for a redesign of the Left Hand Red website, which has served its purpose, but is now getting a little stale. One project ends, another one begins…

Update—6th July ’06

Something just ain’t quite right with Clockwork. *sigh* Will this never end…?

It’s already been a busy year for Left Hand Red. As well as spending a couple of weeks working on our new demos, we’ve had a handful of gigs lined up, with a couple more hopefully in the works. Here’s this year’s gigs so far, including the couple we’ve done recently.

• Thursday January 24th – Pavilion Tavern, Brighton
• Thursday February 2nd – Rock Brighton, The Engine Room, Brighton
• Thursday March 2nd – Cable Club, Pressure Point, Brighton
• Saturday March 4th – Charity thing at the Con Club, Newhaven
• Monday March 13th – Freebutt, Brighton with Dead! Dead! Dead!
• Saturday April 29th – Stringbendy’s, Eastbourne