It was my 30th birthday which for me, wasn’t easy – I found the thought of leaving my twenties behind quite depressing.  So the morning of my birthday I wasn’t in the best of moods, that was until I opened my present from my most excellent girlfriend.

I  opened up the Buyagift.co.uk tin which had a ticket inside inviting me to Orchard-Studios in Cheshire for a pop-star singing experience where I had the chance to record several tracks and burn a load of CDs with my mug shot on the labels and cd cases.

I chose to sing “Teenage Kicks” by the Undertones and “When You Were Young” by The Killers.  Two of my all time fave songs.  I’d had a blast at both of them on the good old Karaoke before but obviously hadn’t been given the chance to record in a proper studio… and more importantly with a little auto-tuning!

The staff at Orchard Studios were fantastic – really down-to-earth people that understood you may be a little nervous and never once made me feel I didn’t have the right to be recording in a professional studio.  If any of you ever read this – thank you!

The sound engineer was also a top bloke explaining everything that was going on.  He also never made me feel rushed and more importantly never looked frustrated at my attempts to be Brandon Flowers!  He had worked with some professionals in this studio and now he was listening to me!

Anyway, we recorded my chosen tracks – took some pics for the CDs and let the engineer work his magic on my voice!  We also recorded the whole thing so… here it is…

Buy a Gift Popstar Experience Orchard Studios, When you were Young from Neil Smith on Vimeo.

I can honestly say it was one of the best experiences if my life!  Although I was a little nervous to begin with, it was that excited kind of nervousness and the whold day was one I will never forget.