It's been a couple of weeks since the last blog...I guess that's what Christmas does to you, time suddenly gets away. I dislike the Christmas build-up immensely. The most obvious reason is that I don't like shopping at any time of year, unless it's a stock car programme fair. But on a slightly deeper level I destest the commercialism that always ensues from about October onwards. Then there's the lousy weather, and it annoys me to hear the shops moaning about loss of trade as if we should all be ashamed for not venturing out. To my mind, if I didn't get any presents until next March I really wouldn't be bothered, it's not that important.

On a more music-related note, I always get asked how many gigs I'm doing over Christmas. And this year I can proudly and relievedly say 'none'. Again, it's no fun getting around in this weather and despite the possible financial incentives it's really no fun working at Christmas either. I played 8 New Years Eves on the trot and now that I've 'retired' for the safety of my local pub on Dec 31st I'm much the happier person. I also recall some fairly miserable Christmas Eve gigs, yes I think I've done my bit!

That said, the final gig before Christmas with Atlanta Soul in Stockport was very good indeed. The Bakers Vaults is another pub dedicated to live music and you can pretty much guarantee a good weekend crowd in there.


I have a few gigs lined up in January with all three line-ups featured. I'll be solo at the New Inn, Barwick-in-Elmet on Sunday 16th and with Katie/The BitterSweetShop in Leeds twice: @The George on Thurs 6th and The Chemic on Thurs 20th. The latter will be a headline slot for the Cloth Cat night. Then on the 29th my acoustic trio will be performing it's first full night at the Rose & Crown in Greetland.


I've also been to a couple of gigs this past week or so. I went to see Half Man Half Biscuit at Holmfirth. A few past blogs will reveal how much I like their sense of humour. It was a good gig, but with everything hinging on hearing the lyrics clearly it was sometimes a bit hard to follow the songs I didn't know as well. Last Sunday I went to see the fantastic Jon Strong Band supported by the equally fantastic Tim Wood in Chapel Allerton. A lovely sounding room helped this to be one of the finest gigs I've ever seen from these guys. It was a thoroughly worthwhile trip, even with temperatures on the roads down to minus 9!!!

As mentioned recently I've been re-visiting my love for electronic music and in particular Jean-Michel Jarre. I've enjoyed listening to his back catalogue including some albums that I'd never before heard on CD, nor indeed heard at all for about 20 years.

OK, I won't moan on about Christmas any more except to say I prefer Spring, Summer and most of Autumn. It only remains for me to say thank you and wish you a Happy Christmas and New Year.

Looking for a fox

Last week:

Despite really terrible weather conditions, both of my gigs went ahead on the weekend. On Saturday night I played with Atlanta Soul at Cafe Artisan in Rawtenstall, which is near Burnley. This gig was excellent on all levels, and it begs the question: where are the other venues to match this??

Based in West Yorkshire, I've been mainly used to playing in pubs, virtually none of which have a PA system or any sort of emphasis on live music. This venue had it's own PA, an engineer and an easy load-in. I could practically throw my gear into the car from the back door. This was the best load-in since the Boot & Shoe in Ackworth....one of the few venues I've played to match this one.

Then there's the element ranked close to Satan's spit in my home county....a door charge! Of £5!!! Ok-pause whilst Yorkshiremen reading this blog are given chance to get up off the floor.

OK now? Right. As I said, there is a door charge and a fiver may seem a lot to watch a band playing all covers, with no known following in the area and making it's debut at the club. But it works. 60 tickets had been sold IN ADVANCE. And more turned out on the night paying on the door. Now we have the makings of a proper gig. 60 folk have paid to see a band they've not heard of and are going to come and enjoy themselves.

Needless to say it went down a storm and I'm looking forward to being back there in March. The sound was terrific too. The set-up at Cafe Artisan is first class.

On Sunday night I played solo at the Rose & Crown in Greetland, with the temperature dipping well into the negatives that night. It was a bit on the quiet side but still enjoyable to do.

This week:
Quieter this time with just one gig with Atlanta Soul on Saturday at the Townhouse in Macclesfield. This should give me a bit of chance to recover from the extra work required last week to get around in the snow.

A-Z of music:

(or should that be musique?)

I watch the Sky Arts channel quite a lot. As they tend to show a lot of good music and music documentaries, mainly on artists I like (ie, old music!). Recently by chance I got to see a documentary about Jean-Michel Jaree. It reminded me once again of my love for Jarre and synth music in general. Long before I sang songs in bands I composed and performed instrumental music heavily influenced by the likes of Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Vangelis and Jarre.

These days as I've got deeper and deeper into singer-songwriting it's all too easy to forget how long ago I loved this type of music and produced quite a lot of it. It makes one think...


Moan of the week:
Last week I tentatively mentioned the newly revamped scene at Myspace. Myspace Beta. This was before I'd got to realise the full extent of it's sins. I'm beginning to wonder whether Beta is the greek word for 'Shit' when it comes to technology. Remember BetaMax for example?

Basically, they've felt the need to change everything (I don't like change) and generally make the whole thing a poorly diluted form of Facebook (which I also don't like). However, having found my way around and got to know how to do the basic operations (adding friends, adding comments etc...) I relaxed a little.

But worse was to follow when I realised they'd changed my profile page (the one you see) to the new format. Then I really got annoyed. All the work which has gone into building that page has been swept away. It used to be so simple and the template allowed you to add in things as you went along, such as embedded videos and widgets. Now no html seems to be allowed. So all my vital links to my other pages (where I sell my CDs and downloads) have gone. The biog isn't immediately visible, the whole thing has been mucked around with. It's made it hard to promote my music on the site where once it was straightforward.

While Facebook continues to actively discourage the promotion of businesses on it's site, we're now faced with the tricky situation of there being no one definitive, easy-to-use music social networking site. I wonder if Purevolume.com is still going??

Last week:

I stepped in to host the Moorlands Open Mic last Tuesday at Ogden. In and amongst the other performers I played a few songs solo and also some with Dan and Ol as a 3-piece. I've also been recording vocals with Katie for the BitterSweetShop's 'debut' CD which was great fun to do.

The weekend was the usual hectic madness but not for any work-related reasons this time. I went to see Peter Kay in Sheffield on Friday night which was brilliant, perhaps even better than expected. I went with an open mind as so long has passed now since he last did a stand-up tour and some of the gags have taken on near legendary status. This gives the new material a tougher job to measure up against it. I thought it was all very funny and it cheered me up no end. The opening Bernard Matthews comments set the tone nicely as I'd made the same observation on the way to the gig. Thanksgiving Day, turkey's ultimate revenge.

The following day I was down in London to watch the Masters Tennis at the o2. I was staying in Stratford amidst all the building work that's going on for the Olympics. I was a bit concerned about how much tennis I'd see from the upper tier but to be honest it was dead easy to see where the ball landed, the venue was superbly lit. It's luck of the draw when it comes to which match you will see. I saw the second semi where Federer demolised Djokovic. The afternoon semi had of course been Nadal-Murray which was something of an epic. We saw the closing stages of this in the bar outside which had a great atmosphere as there was a group of Spaniards present.


This week:

Snow permitting, and let's face it I hate snow, I'll be playing with Atlanta Soul on Saturday and then solo at the Rose & Crown in Greetland on Sunday evening.

Moan of the week:

2 words: Myspace Beta.

Last week (and the week before!):

Welcome back, I've been away for a week in Angelsey. It was just a holiday break, and what a fantastic place it is. I know many would prefer to disappear to somewhere a little warmer but for me it was perfect. The rain thankfully stayed away most of the time, and the whole island was very quiet. It was an absolute joy to visit the secluded coastline, bays, villages and have a whole vast beach all to myself.

The week previous I'd been to see Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson in Manchester. No need to complain about audience reaction this time (see previous blog!). The music was first class of course and with most of it being on the quiet side it meant people had to be quiet to listen.


This week:
Tonight (Tuesday) I'm hosting another open mic night, this time at Moorlands- a venue popular with my old band. Then this weekend something different again: I'm off to see the Masters Tennis at the O2 in London and also Peter Kaye on Friday night in Sheffield. I first saw Peter Kaye in a comedy club in Manchester in 1998, before he hit the big time. I actually also shared a stage with him briefly at the Palace later that year. We were playing for the NSPCC concert and he was on after the band I was in. As we loaded out behind the curtain, he performed in front. It's my only claim to fame I know!

Music:
I got a bit of time to catch up on Sky Arts on the weekend, as they always show some good classic concerts. Thin Lizzy were being shown, and after 20 minutes I realised this was the most Thin Lizzy I'd seen in one go. I'm always a bit put off because I remember the type of bloke who used to like them when we played rock covers gigs in pubs. I must admit I'm not overly enthused by them now. It's not very melodic and seems to appeal to a more basic need to rock and grunt along. Status Quo are often accused of this, but they to me have the melodies and I would much prefer to listen to them.

The other concert I saw on TV was much easier to judge. Talk Talk at Montreux '86 was excellent! What a great sound and all the music fitted together superbly. I love the un-expected chord changes and I must surely now get some of their back catalogue.

Last week:

Enjoyed a few fireworks on Friday night then rounded off the stock car season at Coventry on Saturday (more fireworks, dissappointing racing results!). On Sunday night I went to one of those 60s package shows at the Grand in Leeds. I know I have a reputation for liking very old music and musicians but on this occasion I swear I wasn't supposed to be going. But a ticket became available so there it is.

On the bill were Chip Hawkes, Gerry & The Pacemakers, PJ Proby and The Searchers. It was a good gig and I'll always readily watch professional musicians perform live, I might even become one myself one day.

One thing got me though, the attitude of the audience. From being a performer for some time I've become very sensitive to audience reaction to musicians. This extends to all gigs and not just my own. At one time I used to watch a pro band totally oblivious to the audience reaction, now I find myself studying it.

It may just be my hyper-sensitivity to these things (I blame clubland) but I detect a slight lack of respect among punters these days. Naturally in these circumstances I blame X-Factor and co, something I'm only too happy to do. Seriously though I have a theory that these shows have made people more blase about what a live performance actually involves.

TV shows make it look a lot easier (The Searchers weren't using autotune!) and with the angle on reality TV being 'give the public a chance' I think more people now think they could give it a go. Or at the very least, that more people can 'sing', without necessarily having any experience or training.

The one thing those guys on Sunday have is experience. Hundreds of combined years of it! The crowd however seemed to treat it a bit like a commodity rather than a finely honed craft. One person even came out with one of those comments I used to detest at club gigs. 'Best song so far' she says. Does that mean the previous songs were rubbish? Is she keeping a scorecard? To me, as far as the average punter is concerned, in the presence of such luminaries as these, EVERY song is equally good. And before you ask, no I don't expect people to think like that at my shows, these guys are legends and have had number one hits.


This week:

Going to see Rick Wakeman and Jon Anderson in concert. This one is more my choice and let's see what the audience reaction is like this time! Best song so far indeed.

A-Z of Music:

More ELO this week, I now need a discography of their's as this is a double delux 'best of' containing lots of songs I haven't previously heard. All good stuff though.

Moan of the week: See above!

There was a power cut here this morning, that's called 'outage' in the States I think...(usually it's the US who have more literal names for things)...we were told it could last until 4pm so I was kind of hoping I wouldn't have to do any work today as I seem to need a computer to do anything these days. However, those good old boys got it up and running again by mid-morning. Bastards, now I've got no excuse for not working.

Last Week
Fairly quiet. I spent Saturday night in Boston (Lincolnshire) having watched an enthralling stock car meeting in Kings Lynn. There was a Monstor Truck demonstration, it does 54 yards to the gallon. There's very little chance of a carbon-neutral stock car meeting.

I did get chance to add a home video to my youtube channel. So click below for a version of 'Young, Lost And Hopeful'.

Young Lost And Hopeful Video

I'm enjoying making these little films. For one it saves going out doing them at a gig! I know it's not quite the same, but thinking logically I've done over 1000 gigs and managed to promote the song a little, whereas I can film it at home and immediately post it for people all over the place to view. The chances being these people will actually want to see it, unlike the majority at a gig!

This week:
The big Stock Car finale in Coventry Saturday night. I have my priorities right!

A-Z of Music:
There was a major splash on Elton John over the weekend, with an hour-long 'One Show' (good music, and twice as long to watch Alex Jones), then there was 3 hours on Saturday night. I'm still watching these but the opening documentary was very good. I shared his sentiments about clubland (if I hadn't been fronting the bands I'd have stormed off too!), and the anecdote about Stevie Wonder made me laugh. Have to say Robert Crampton's derrogatory remarks about Sir Elton in the Times mag belonged more in the Sun than elsewhere. I don't recall him being a music critic, not that that would have made it any better.

I've also been listening to Tangerine Dream for the first time in years. I still enjoyed that. And then to follow that I've had a listen to some really old stuff I recorded. This was a mixture of cringing and pleasant nostalgia in equal measures. But good to remember those parts of songs I'd forgotten, those middle 8's and instrumentals I couldn't remember writing...

The Blog is Back!

Yes, after a little break, the weekly blog is back today. The reason it's been away for a bit is that I've been having my website completely revamped...in fact if you're reading this you're probably on my website as we speak! So please feel free to take a look around, and listen to some of the songs!

The new format website means that it's easier to access this blog, as it's embedded directly into the site. This should mean more people get to read it, but will also mean I'll have to be extra-careful not to offend anyone...at least for a little while!!

Last Week:
I won't drag things out un-necassarily by including all the news from the past 2 months...so please imagine the last blog was a week ago, ok?!
Last Wednesday was my birthday, and as in previous years, it was the same date as Tom Petty's. How we continue to achieve this is beyond me. He was 60 this time, meaning that by far the majority of my biggest influences are 60+, the longer-term consequences of this are quite scarey.
On Thursday night I was gigging at Verve in Leeds with The BitterSweet Shop - that's Katie and I as a duo, and once again I enjoyed our set. We were first on and the vibe was intimate and the sound was really very good. We're currently working on our first CD which will be a 6-track mini album. I'm very excited by how it's coming together.

I also performed twice with Atlanta Soul on Saturday and Monday nights. They were both wedding parties (yes, people can get married on a Monday) and it was good to get out and play and feel like a working musician again. Saturday was in a big tent in Skipton and then Monday was over at Ormskirk.

In between these two gigs I went down to Northampton to watch the Stock Cars on Sunday, just 2 more meetings to go this season and I've been to that many this year I feel like I've taken part in it. Can't wait for the last 2 though, it's going down to the wire this time!!


This Week:
Quieter by far this time. I might possibly play one open mic, and also work on the BitterSweetShop album will continue.

A-Z of Music:
I've been listening to the new album by Elton John & Leon Russell (both well over 60...), entitled 'The Union'. 16 tracks of piano singer-songwriters, plus Neil Young on one song. It's growing on me, with no obvious singles, but it's more like the early days and the production is excellent. I know Leon is one of Elton's biggest influences, and the piano styles are similar. The pianos are panned to make it easier to tell who does what but they both play so well. It's a real inspiration to hear them both on the same record.

I've also been listening to fellow birthday boy Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, I currently have his first and latest album on the go! The debut has the same name as the band and dates back to 1976. The highlight is obviously 'American Girl' closely followed by 'Breakdown' but I like the rawness of it, even if some of the tracks are so short they feel almost unfinished.

'Mojo' is the 2010 version and after an indifferent first listen this one is really beginning to gel for me. It's different to the acoustic-driven radio hits of previous years. It's much more rootsy, bluesy and electric. There's acres of lead guitar work and it's much more of a band album. But for all the blues it's the reggae track 'Don't Pull Me Over' which is my absolute favourite. In fact I'd form a reggae band just to play it.

Last Week: (and a half!)

I didn't get chance to write anything on here earlier in the week, so just to recap: I had a fairly busy week and a bit with open mic/acoustic appearances at The Ship in Leeds, Bar 62, Horsforth and the New Inn at Headingley. These were all solo and it's been good to sharpen up a bit and play my own material!

The main gig was on Saturday (Aug 21st) with the Barwick-in-Elmet music festival. I played a set at short-notice and it was 45 minutes of solely original material, a rare event in that sense but really good fun to do. The festival was by all accounts a great success. The gig was also notable for a unique interruption after I'd played my second song: A heckler perhaps? A streaker? Nope, it was the local combine harvester and my car was blocking it in. So I had to leave the room and go move it. I don't know, it never happens to Cliff....

WEBSITE AND VIDEO NEWS:

Just very briefly, my website is currently under-going a complete overhaul. It's almost there and indeed if you go to my site you'll see a lot of the changes already. When it's all done I'll mention a bit more about it.

I've also posted another new film on my youtube channel, this time playing a solo version of 'Your Shadow'. A lot of people have asked to see live performances, particularly those overseas who can't get to the gigs, so I'm hoping these films will go some way towards getting the idea across, and getting more exposure for the material.

This week:

It's the final bank holiday of the year, if I'm writing another blog on Tuesday it'll just be over...I've no gigs this weekend but will be busy doing lots of things.

A-Z of Music:

I listened to another Bruce Springsteen album last week, 'The Rising' (2002). I'm a big fan, and I'm still learning his back catalogue, which is substantial of course! This album has a lot of material to digest, all of it new to me. But there's always moments on his records that move me straight away. In this case it's the refrain to the opening track and the 4th song, 'Nothing Man'. Altogether it just inspires me to write more songs....oh to have more time!

Last Week:

I completed doing 5 gigs in 7 nights on Thursday (12th Aug) where I was hosting the Open Mic night at The Plough in Warmfield. This was the first time I'd done this (I played a few songs too) and it was very interesting to see how it worked from the other side.

This Week:

I'm doing the Ship Open Mic in Leeds tonight (Tues) and then tomorrow an acoustic set at Bar 62 in Horsforth.

A-Z of Music:

Mine this week! I've got behind a little with updating you on the latest updates...there's quite a few new videos involving my music which have appeared recently.

Cold Cold Day has been subject to a new 'fanfilm'! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3Oh7Hn0S1Y

My Acoustic 3-piece has been filmed in action twice in the past few weeks...resulting in 3 new videos, the first indeed of the this project.

All I Want From Love

Even

Four Seasons In One Day (cover)


Have a look thanks!


Moan of the week:

Why do people with no knowledge of a particular case feel the need to debunk a particular theory put forward by people very knowledgable in their field? And why is someone who believes an alternative theory labelled a crank by someone who is ignorant of enough information to form any opinion?

Last Week:

A bit like the days of old here, I've just completed 4 gigs in the previous 4 nights, and all with different line-ups!

On Friday I was solo at The Abbey in Bramley, then on Saturday I was playing a function in Huddersfield with various members of my old band, Morris And The Minors. This was a great evening and rather reminded me how much I'd enjoyed my time with them circa 2006-2007.

Then it was onto Todstock on Sunday afternoon with Dan & Oliver. I really enjoyed the set we played for this event, playing for about 40 minutes in the Acoustic Tent. The tent was run by the fantastic Hole Note Acoustic Club who of course we know well from various venues around Calderdale.

Last night (Monday 9th) I did another new venue with Katie in Leeds, this being The Hop. This is the same people behind the Hop in Wakefield and it's built into the arches underneath the station near Granary Wharf which gives it a unique atmosphere, as well as the ground-shaking noise of trains passing overhead once in a while! So there you have it, 4 gigs and this at a time when I'm supposed to be doing less gigs! All good fun though.

This Week:
Slightly quieter, with just The Plough on Thursday night this week. That's in Warmfield near Normanton near Wakefield. Postponed from a couple of weeks ago, I'm hosting their open mic night. So if anyone sings or plays, please feel free to come down and do a few songs!

Last week:

A busy and totally enjoyable week with another visit to the Chemic Tavern last Thursday with Dan and Ol. We played a different trio of songs this time, and it sounded very good. No two weeks are the same at an open mic so it was good experience to go back and play again after the previous week. We're now looking forward to doing Todstock this coming Sunday (Aug 8th). We're in the 'Acoustic Tent', playing from 2pm til 3pm.


Here's the poster! My name's on there, spelt correctly, job done!










On Saturday afternoon the BitterSweetShop (that's Katie and I) had another gig, this time at the Yarnbury RFC Beer Festival. The club had gone to a lot of trouble to make their innaugural beer fest a success and it looked like it was indeed a great success! There was a stage errected, and thankfully it stayed dry for our set....always a nervous moment given the combination of the British Summer and outdoor gigs. I did a couple of solo tunes and then we performed about half an hour as a duo.

This Week:

In addition to the above mentioned Todstock, I'm doing a full Friday night session at the Abbey Inn in Bramley. That's starting at around 9pm.

A-Z of Music:

I'm still listening to the over-long Fleetwood Mac album 'Say You Will'. But I've also had my ears open to some other great tunes. I'm sure all musicians have had this experience, where you learn a song and then wonder why you weren't playing it years ago? Well I found this with Billy Joel's 'Always A Woman To Me'. What a song! I've always known this, but only just got around to learning it. It'll be in on Friday night!!

Stock Cars on the BBC!

Just a quick plug for my other great passion, which has found it's way onto BBC 1 for the next few Monday nights. 10:30pm, straight after the news. You have to watch it and thus understand what I keep rambling on about! Here's the link to the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrqGEGl13Qo

Last Week:

It was a busier week of gigs, with one for each of my current projects. Following on from The BitterSweetShop at The Hop on Monday night (as mentioned in last week's blog), I was out with the 3-piece at the Chemic in Leeds on Thursday night. The Chemic now having witnessed all 3 of my projects.

Despite it being student holidays the pub was packed and I really enjoyed the atmosphere. Especially when we played '39 and there were premature applause before the song had finished. There are certain songs that have pauses near the end, or 'false tabs' as we sometimes call them, and if the audience are up for it you can sometimes get a cheer going at this point, without having to milk a big U2-style ending in order to let people know the song is about to finish!!

This was one such occasion and I was half-tempted to do a Freddie and hold the song up and keep the applause going for longer!!

On Saturday I had a full night solo gig at the Rose & Crown in Greetland. I'd previously played there for the LiveSpace night back in February. The pub are really into live music which got things going well from the start. I played a lot of covers and it was good to do this type of show, as I haven't done too many '2 45s' gigs lately. A throughly enjoyable night and I'll be back there in December.


This week...

A slight change in plans means the acoustic 3-piece will now be back at the Chemic this Thursday!! Who knows, we may even get some more premature applause! On Saturday afternoon (at about 4pm) it's the Yarnbury Beer Festival, in Horsforth, Leeds. This will be with Katie for the main part but I'll be doing a couple of songs solo as well.

A-Z of Music...
I'm part-way through another attempt at Fleetwood Mac's 'Say You Will' album from 2003. It's a long CD, with about 17 songs (why?), and ranges from brilliant tight tracks such as 'What's the World Coming To' to others that sound very experimental. When you compare this to the Eagles double album from 2007 which is quality throughout, one wonders why The Mac didn't just stick to the stronger tracks. There's a lot of acoustic guitar picking, similar to 'Big Love' and an awful lot of shaker on there. I just wish it was a shorter album then it would be really good! Having decided to take a break from the shaker, I switched back over to Radio 2 who were playing.....a Fleetwood Mac song!

Last Week:

I did the Ship Open Mic, solo this time, last Tuesday. I played five songs which isn't bad for an open mic night. I feel my playing's a bit rusty at the moment. I've got a busier period coming up so maybe that will help things.

One other bit of news is that the new camcorder is working well. I've managed to set a sound balance that is at least passable, so I'm hoping to crack on and post a few films very soon.

I was also out with Katie last night doing the open mic night at The Hop in Wakefield. This is one of the best music venues in the area and we did a good short set.


This week:

I'll be out with my other project, the acoustic 3 piece, on Thursday. We're giving it a blast at the Chemic Tavern in Leeds, meaning that now all 3 of my projects will have been there! Then on Saturday the 24th I've got a full night session at the Rose & Crown in Greetland. Solo this time, it starts about 9pm and will be covers and originals.


A-Z of music:

I've recently finished listening to a Bonnie Raitt live album called 'Road Tested'. In music circles, she's extremely highly regarded, and I can see why. There's a quality that's so consistent about her music. And despite the fact there isn't really a massive hit song, there's just a constant thread of good tunes, well played. Her band is so tight. I'd just love to be able to step on stage every night and play through songs that way. There's not much fancy stuff on there, it just keeps on chugging along through every number, very enjoyable to listen to.

I've also had a bit of a Genesis session recently. Ok, I've listened to the same albums many times before but it was good to re-visit the 2 live albums from the 'We Can't Dance' tour. There's a sonic quality to these that was similar to when I saw them live in 2007. It's almost too good to be true. But it really is that good! The depth to the sound, coming mainly from the keyboards, gives it an orchestral quality.

There's a moment in 'Firth of Fifth', part way through the guitar solo, when a deep rich synth pad enters, and suddenly I'm on the road to Damascus. That moment somehow typifies what I love about them. Strange, but true.

Last week:

I made my first return to the Ship Inn in Leeds last Tuesday (July 6) since about 2007. I was doing an open mic night with Katie and am pleased to say the night is going pretty well. I do believe the pub has been closed and re-opened since I was last there so it's good to see things picking up. The management are very keen on live music, so this bodes well.
From our point of view, the little duo sounded excellent! I think we also got the best slot to play when it was both fairly busy and people were attentive. We played 5 songs on what was our 5th outing. We also now have a name, 'The BitterSweetShop', is slightly more catchy than 'Katie and Paul' or 'Her and Him' or whatever.

Seriously though, it was a good night, one of the most enjoyable gigs I've had for a while.

The camcorder I think I mentioned last week had it's first test outings on Wednesday night. I'm aiming to run it connected to my mixing desk, singing into a mic, rather than just using the in-built mic. Of course, using the keyboard means it has to be plugged into something. I still need to do a bit of work on the sound and balance, but hopefully I'm not too far away from recording a few songs ready to post on youtube.

Don't forget, you can already friend me or subscribe to my youtube channel, where you'll find a few videos of my old band.


This Week...
I liked it at The Ship Inn so much I'm going to go back tonight (July 13th) and play a solo set. I should also get chance to test the camcorder before it's off to the European Stock Car Championships at Northampton, probably my favourite weekend of the entire season.

A-Z of Music:
Did you know it's 25 years ago today since Live Aid? By which I mean the original and best one. I always feel like that was the zenith of my musical taste, the artists from around that time, and the stage at which they were at in their careers. The really strange thing is I was only 6 years old at the time and barely remember it taking place. But then there are many strange things about me. I feel like it was 'my era' for some reason.

Queen and U2 were arguably the best on the day, working the stadium rock concept to the max. I also found Sir Bob himself to be one of the highlights, giving his all during 'I Don't Like Mondays'. There were so many others as well.

It's such a shame they had to bother with Live8 in 2005. The artists that played the first time around were much older and the ones who were younger lacked the talent, passion and stagecraft to bring the event to life.

Ok, I think that doubles as the moan of the week too. I'm still having problems with Facebook but won't bore you with the details. See you next week.

Last week:
A lovely summer's week it has been too! I played at the Abbey Inn festival on Friday evening. I was the opening act so was a bit unsure what the turn-out would be like. With the weather very definetly in our favour, it was a good turn-out and I enjoyed my set.

This week...
With the World Cup nearly over, it's time to start thinking about more regular outings to play gigs. I'm going to be doing a short set with Katie at The Ship in Leeds this evening (Tues 6th). I am also now in possession of a fairly basic camcorder in order to film some 'home-performances' of my songs, and some cover versions as well! I'm looking forward to doing this for a number of reasons. The main one of these is that it gives people who can't attend the shows a chance to see some live performances, without either of us having to leave our own homes! I'll be uploading those to my youtube channel so will let you know when they're there.

A-Z of music:
Listened to the rest of Paul Carrack's mid-80s solo album 'Groove Approved'. Not really any very strong tracks on this, I think his best material really began about 10 years after this point. I also listened to a Crosby-Stills-Nash album called 'Allies'. The short up-tempo opening track was very good and full of energy. The bulk of the album is live and there's a great version of 'Blackbird' about halfway through. Their material is growing on me all the time, once I get past the gorgeous harmonies and onto the songs themselves!

Speaking of harmonies, can you believe that it was only a few days ago that I had my first full listen to the Beach Boys 'Pet Sounds'?? Of course, 'God Only Knows' is one of the finest songs ever written, and I think everyone ought to agree with that (!), but what of the album as a whole? Must admit another couple of plays may be needed. The drug-influences are very strong, and that makes it harder for me to follow. Some of the songs felt like sketches without having a beginning, middle and an end. Of course, nothing wrong with that, but it was at times hard to follow what was going on. Perhaps that's how BW was feeling at the time too!

Moans:
I've finally calmed down about Facebook and my 'blockade' on friend invites has been lifted. I'm still very cautious about inviting friends on there, but will see how things settle down. The upside to all this (and there's always an upside) is that I've found a few new things to do on myspace, including utilising their excellent Instant Messenger in order to keep in touch with the many people I've added on there over the past few years.

Last Week:

Watched a lot of tennis, watched a bit of football, enjoyed the pleasant weather, oh and wrote a few songs for what will be my 4th solo album, I'm really happy with how they've come together.

This week:

Time for a gig again with the Abbey Inn Festival this weekend. My set is on Friday evening (July 2nd) between 6 and 7 pm. The Abbey Inn at Bramley has run this 3 day festival of beer and music for the past few years and each year it seems to grow in strength. I've been fortunate enough to play at the past 3 events and am looking forward to this one. Let's hope it's decent weather!

A-Z of Music:

I mentioned last week that I'd begun to listen to 'Cloud 9' by George Harrison. The album has really grown on me in the past week with 'When We Was Fab' becoming a real favourite of mine. I'm already sold on the Jeff Lynne production, for obvious reasons being a big fan of all his producer-writer collaborations.

I think the zenith of my new-found love for this album was on Friday when I watched the video of the above song on YouTube. You must check it out sometime!!

I'm also now listening to an early Paul Carrack solo album called 'Groove Approved'. It's a pre-hat and pre-baldness album from about 1986. It sounds a bit dated but still quite exciting. I'm yet to see if 'Don't Shed A Tear' is on this CD as that was a favourite of his from that era.


Rant Of The Week:

I could mention dis-allowed goals, I could even mention inept Bradford Bulls performances, but I'd like to have a go at FACEBOOK.

Up until mid-way through last year, there were still more people worldwide on Myspace than Facebook. This has since changed and so with myspace feeling distinctly less busy I decided to have a presence on both pages. More people on FB, meaning more potential fans for my music...or so I thought.

It now seems that the last thing Facebook wants you to do is add friends, heaven forbid someone you don't already know.

I've recently been blocked from adding friends on Facebook. The best thing is, I only added 3 people before I got an anti-spam warning, followed by a ban lasting 'anything between a few hours to a few days'....well that's very precise!

The trouble is that instead of letting the site police itself, always the best way, they have set in place a draconian system. Myspace has addressed all these problems, and whilst it has plenty of spammers, you can easily delete them, block them or report them. They also have a daily limit on the number of friends you can add. This is much fairer than Facebook's policy which it says is based on how quickly you add them rather than an exact number. Exactly how quick is too quick?? It doesn't say.

So I may well not bother much with this site. After all, there's still a good few million on myspace, more than enough to be going on with for the time being. And at least it was set up by musicians with musicians in mind.

Back home, we'll be thinking about you...

Last Week (and the week or two before!!)

Yes, things are back to as near normal as possible this week. I've been away in Ireland having a much-needed break. I thought Eire was a beautiful place, both the city of Dublin and the West coast. It was a good trip, and it didn't even rain once!

The week before I left, I was out with Katie at the Yorkshire Rose Open Mic in Guiseley. This is certainly one of the friendliest open mics around, and we had a good night. It's nice to see the night is still continuing succesfully, as it's quite a long while since I was last there. After our set, I duetted with the host, Scouse Andy, on a few songs including 'Oliver's Army' which I used to know but now only partially know (!), and a couple of Beatles songs.

I then had my regular gig at the New Inn, Barwick-in-Elmet on Sunday June 6th. After recent PA problems, I'm happy to say my new amp worked like a dream, and the newish keyboard is now starting to sound the business. I got through lots of my own songs and covers as well. There were a couple present all the way from Queensland, Australia. No, they hadn't come specially to see me but they did take home a CD :)


This week

With the World Cup in full swing, it's time for live music to take a back seat until the finals are over. It's not because I'm obsessed with football, although I'll happily watch the games. It's just that, from past experience, it's a bad time to be sharing a pub with a football match and a load of drunkards. On one famous occasion I drove up to a pub the same day as an England match, got out of the car, saw a bloke come staggering out covered in blood, got back in the car, and went home!

A-Z of music

Roy Orbison: I could go on forever about my love for Roy's voice, but I'm still finding new tracks of his, particularly from the early days. This compilation covered the 60s hits in their original guises. I think I'm correct in saying that later he re-recorded most of them as he couldn't get his old Label to release them. Personally I prefer the newer versions such as the KD Lang version of 'Crying'. But the original version of 'It's Over', when it gets to that high note at the end....it is akin to seeing Christine Bleakley in the shower, honest.

George Harrison, Cloud 9: For all my years of love for the Wilburys/Jeff Lynne/Petty stable, I've never actually heard this album before. This is George's Jeff Lynne-produced album and sure enough it's got that sound of his I love. There's some great tracks and even those that aren't great still sound great if you see what I mean. I've been covering 'Got My Mind Set On You' for so long I can even remember the words, but the others were virtually all new to me. I must say it's good to be able to tick off another album I've kept saying 'I must listen to...'.


Moan Of The Week:

Who the bloody hell does John Terry think he is? How can anyone criticise their boss when they've just put in one of the most inept individual performances I've ever seen? I don't care what the formation was, it was tripe whichever way you look at it.

Last week....

Back on schedule this week, with 2 gigs done over the weekend. The first was with Atlanta Soul at the Bakers Vaults in Stockport on Friday night. My old band played here and had a really good night too, it's a great venue, better than the average pub gig. It has a PA system and a member of staff to do the soundcheck. Will other venues PLEASE take note of this, I'm not the only musician who loves venues with their own PAs!! It gets busy too, and the audience were soon dancing to the music, it's a great atmosphere on a Friday night.

Next up was my acoustic 3-piece at The Hole In T'Wall, which also has it's OWN PA downstairs!! This was our first 'full' 30 minute set and it was great to finally get to play some of the songs we've been rehearsing. It was busy enough but not over-crowded, and people listened. I was pleased with the response we got and can't wait to play the set again. We've got two local festival appearances over the summer to come.

Well, another weekend has now become available to me seeing as the Bulls are now out of the Challenge Cup. It's a case of 'what can go wrong will' at the moment, even though we gave it our best shot and could have beaten Warrington with a bit more luck. I couldn't fault the effort but it's going to be another hard season if various rumours actually occur. The main one concerns our main man wanting to go back to Australia. I mean, Manly Beach versus Bradford, the great Aussie Climate, our shit one. Why would he possibly want to leave??

This just left stock cars at Belle Vue yesterday (bank hol Monday). It's not rained much lately, although that's being rectified as we speak (!), so a very fine dry track caused lots of dust to find it's way into my ears. The last two races were terrific though, and I was back in the pub before the quiz finished.

This week...

I'm playing at the New Inn, Barwick-in-Elmet, with a new PA amp, which will hopefully work, on Sunday (June 6th), starting at 9pm, I'll be playing originals and covers to the usual intimate audience, I wish there was a venue like this in every village!

Last Week...

A quick blog this week, as I was out on business* on Tuesday and now it's getting towards the end of Friday afternoon...not a great time for doing anything productive! I don't think there's been any gigs since last Tuesday. No there weren't. I enjoyed the hot weekend and have generally been spending more time outdoors than usual recently. Yesterday I think I found a new potential favourite place in the country at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I tend to think of favourite places as needing to be further away but sometimes ones close to home are good too. There's something about this place, and it isnt't the free entry! I could go back and just wander round, planning things and suchlike, lovely place.

*Well, I spent all afternoon at a pub in Upper Mill (also very beautiful) and then went to see Mark Knopfler at MEN Arena, (See below).

This Week:
It gets a bit more exciting with a long-awaited Altanta Soul gig tonight at the Bakers Vaults in Stockport. Then tomorrow (Sat 29th) it's the first 30 minute appearance of the acousitc 3-piece at The Hole In T'Wall, as part of the Big Green Weekend in Hebden Bridge. Our slot is at 9pm.

A-Z of Music:
I've now watched all 4 hours of the Tom Petty documentary, and found out a great deal. I enjoyed it very much. There's more depth to the man than I'd previously thought of, but it inspired me to keep going and to stay true to my particular dreams, which I guess is the general idea!

Mark Knopfler has written one of my all-time favourite songs (Brothers In Arms) and has the sort of guitar sound and feel for melody that causes instant air-guitar moments. I remember once having one of those moments in a record shop when 'Boom Like That' came on. My biggest cause for concern here was that it was in the Arena and I don't have him down as being a big venue performer. Sure enough, with Mark sitting down for the whole show due to a back injury, it hardly rivalled Queen in those stakes. His mumbling vocal-style meant it was hard to hear the words at first, and I wondered how much patience the audience would have, given the way people are these days.

Luckily it improved as it went on and I think he just about got the show to carry. Certainly the response was much better than for others I've seen who were stood up! The band sounded superb, it's just a pity that it didn't rock a bit more. When I saw Chris Rea in March I was tired by the end as I fed off his energy and the effort he puts in.


Moan of the week:

A non-musical one this week, although it could apply to any situation. My question is this: Why do I always get stood next to the guy at Rugby League matches who feels the need to constantly slag off his own team from half an hour BEFORE kick-off, until the end of the match??

I mean, surely it would be better to save the £18 and stay at home and moan. That way they could avoid inflicting themselves on everybody else. I find myself often commenting on the need to stay away from negativity, but this was a whole tirade. Poor lads, everything our team did was wrong, why not support the opposition instead? Why not just shut the fuck up, as I said to him about 10 minutes into the match. It didn't work of course. But I'm glad I said it.

I've been in bands with people like that too. I'm sure I've done it myself. In fact I'm doing it now, a moan about moaners. But surely when it gets so bad it's time to think: What am I doing here, and how must I sound to other people, right: I'll shut the fuck up.

I'll be standing in a slightly different place this Sunday :)

New blog feature (see below!)

Last week...

A bumper week of gigs, albeit of the short, sharp open-mic variety. I played at the Abbey Inn on Tuesday night (11th) for the first time in about 2 years. It was nice to catch up with some familiar faces and to meet some new ones, but moreover it was good to see the night itself still going strong-such is the transient nature of live music.

The following night, and one coallition goverment later, I played at Verve's open mic night with Katie. Having played Verve many times solo this was the first time I'd done their Wednesday session. I have to say it sounded better than ever in the downstairs room, and my new(ish) keyboard sounded absolutely spot on through the PA system. After all the recent problems with my own system it was a relief to finally hear the instrument as nature (and Roland) intended!

On Thursday I opened the night at the Chemic Tavern, playing 3 of my own songs, and that was that for the week. That just left time for a Bulls win on Friday and 2 BRISCA meetings in Northampton and Buxton. Oh, and then last night I got to see Francis Rossi's solo project in Sheffield. As a lifelong Quo fan it was nice to hear some of the songs that don't fit into the band's set. Album tracks like 'Blessed Are The Meek' and 'Electric Arena' have long been personal favourites of mine so it was good to hear them live.

This week...
No gigs this time, but there will be rehearsals and a recording session to fit in. I also have a new PA amp for my solo shows and what's more it works!

A-Z of Music...
Not much listening time this week, but I will now need to find 4 hours to watch the Tom Petty documentary that was shown in full on Friday night!! I think originally in the States it was shown as a series, but here we got the whole job lot in one go. I've also been listening to a 'best of' Fleetwood Mac CD, which may sound a bit predictable but funnily enough I've never heard a lot of the songs on CD-warped now as my old cassette album of 'Rumours' has become, a bit like it's owner :)

Moan of the Week (*new feature*)

A special new feature for the UK edition*, seeing as we are a nation of grumblers. I don't like to talk negatively and far be it from me to offend anyone** but here goes...

I get annoyed with the submissions policy at some Music Review Blogs. They seem so uptight about the high volume of CDs and emails they get sent. So they take this out on us musicians in their submissions policies which basically amount to a rant about, well, musicians sending them stuff. There are so many 'don'ts'. 'Don't do this, we'll delete your email straight away'...'Don't do that, we'll shove your Cd up your arse'...'Do this and we'll hate you for evermore'...

I sometimes feel like they don't actually want to review any music at all, even though they say they review unsigned acts. I think I should have a submission policy for would-be bloggers and podcasters who want to use my music. But then that would assume any of them are going to contact me, so we'd best not go there.

*Ok, there is only one worldwide edition. **I've no-one left to offend.

Last Week:

My only gig of last week was at Hoagys Bar in Leeds on Friday night (7th). This is essentially a covers gig which is fine by me, as I've plenty of other nights to play my own material. Then it was off to Skegness for the weekend. Stock Cars of course, not for sightseeing, and I stayed in the beautiful town of Boston on Saturday night.


This week....

I'm doing 3 open mics this week, starting with a return to the Abbey Inn (Bramley) tonight (Tuesday). Then it's into Leeds with Katie on Wednesday to see what the open mic at Verve Bar is all about. On Thursday I'll be at the Chemic Tavern also in Leeds, solo this time. So that's some form of gigging for the next 3 nights. This is more the kind of schedule I've been seeking since the band packed up: A nice run of mid-week gigs, all connected in some way with my songwriting, then a clear weekend to fill with other things!!


A-Z of Music....

Still been listening to Don Henley this past week, and I've now finished the greatest hits album I mentioned briefly last week. The highlights are 'End Of Innocence' and 'New York Minute', but there are others I enjoyed too. Don has plenty of angry tracks and in a way I think these would influence me in the future, as it's a similar style to my own writing. The only downside here is that the songs are mainly long, and I don't mean the 4mins30seconds tracks I get critcised for length on... most of these are 5-6 minutes, so I hope any session musicians were well paid ;)

Last week:

Facebook...

I've finally taken the plunge and got a Facebook page. Here are the links:

Music 'Group' Page

Profile Page

I've been using Myspace as my 'hub' for around 3 years now but in that time things have changed, as they inevitably do. I've noticed that less and less people (as opposed to bands) are using Myspace these days and this means there are less opportunities to target new fans, meet new people and generally introduce my music to. There are of course pros and cons to both sites but at present the sheer volume of people on Facebook means I'm really missing an open goal not having at least some presence on there. So there it is! I'll be remaining on Myspace and also I have my Youtube channel, which is progressing quite nicely now I've got into it.

Gigs....

2 to report on from last week. I played solo at Verve bar on Thursday night. This went fairly well, I was on first and there was a decent crowd there. Going on first can mean 'breaking the ice' a bit, with people still sober (!) but I find the spin-off from that is that you have people's attention a little easier. I thought playing-wise it was ok so I'm happy with how things went.

Onto Sunday and I was playing with Dan & Ol at the Hole Note in Hebden Bridge. The sheer number of performers on this night make it a very popular night, with over 4 hours of live music it's tremendous value too!! We played after the main act and did 4 tunes. It sounds like a lot of hanging about, but it makes for a more focussed performance, and we did get a very good reception.

Throw in 2 stock car meetings and a trip to North Yorkshire and you have a typical bank holiday weekend!


This week...

Main event this week is Hoagys Bar on Friday night (May 7th). This is on Eastgate in Leeds which is central, and not far from the Headrow. I'm on at 9:00pm and am doing the full night solo, mainly covers but may sneek a few of my own in too.


A-Z of Music...

I had another listen to the Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young album I mentioned last week. It's definetly whetted my appetite to hear more of their music, even though the album doesn't contain a stand-out track as such. But it's all good quality writing and recording.

My only other foray this week was to Don Henley's Greatest Hits which I am also re-listening to at the moment. With Don you get a very thorough product as he's well-known as a perfectionist. The early tracks, apart from Boys Of Summer, seem a bit bland but the album really came to life after the magical 'End Of Innocence', the later tracks were a lot better and I'm looking forward to seeing how they move me on a second listen, which is usually more so!

Last Week:

The Grove open mic night last Wednesday (21st Apr) saw the debut of the new acoustic 3-piece. It was the first time I'd visited the Grove in a long time and it's still a thriving night with many performers and spectators. We did our short 2-song set at the start of the second half. With the piano in the room now officially dead I used my keyboard in there for the first time.

This week:

I'm hopefully playing at Verve on Thursday night, I say hopefully because I've been unable to confirm my set at this time. Confirm before travelling as they say! On Sunday the acoustic 3-piece is back at the Hole Note Acoustic night at Hebden Bridge. That's in the upstairs room of the Hole in T'Wall from 8:15pm.

A-Z of Music:

ELO: 'A New World Record': Featuring about 3 songs from their 'greatest hits' this is a strong album typical of all the Jeff Lynne trademarks. I enjoyed this one, the album tracks are good too.


Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young: 'Young American Dream': Still listening to this one, but it's showing a lot of promise. It's from the 80s (I think) and has some pretty good tracks. As usual, the vocal harmonies are as good as it gets and, stone me, they're touring the UK in the summer (minus Young). But don't tell everyone as I don't want it to sell out before I get a ticket!!

Last week:

My first solo gig since the band finished was last night (Mon 19th) at Mr Foleys, on the Headrow in Leeds. I saw this as something of a fresh start, and it's amazing how much better a gig goes when you're in a positive frame of mind. Perhaps I should have tried that earlier!

When the night is not very busy, being in a good mood is very important to stop the dark clouds of doubt creeping in. A brighter mood can turn most gigs into a positive experience.

I played a mixture of covers and originals last night, and the room has a good sound, which helps, and this time I had no technical problems....my thanks go to Alan for the lone of the amp, and Ken for turning up to watch!

Working backwards a little bit, I saw the new Roman Polanski film 'The Ghost' on Friday night. I don't go to the cinema very often at all (and neither does anyone else judging by how quiet it was!), but I do have occasional cinematic moments. I've seen one of his films before and I love his low-fi approach, it's very atmospheric. Love the music he uses too.

I was away with the Stock Cars again over the weekend, at Birmingham and I'm thankful it stayed dry again.


NOW ON FACEBOOK

Yes, after all this time saying 'no' to facebook I've finally given in to it's advances and started a page. I've only just today figured out how to set up a 'music' page and am still tackling the art of adding 'friends'. As a long-time Myspace user it's taking some getting into.

I've taken the decision because I feel myspace is on the decline, although I will certainly be continuing with my page there. The music side of myspace is fine but the 'personal' pages are rapidly drying up as everyone moves to Facebook. Actually, they did this some time ago but it took me a while to realise!

As a songwriter promoting my own work, the main aim of these social networking sites is to find new fans, and potential customers, for my music. Bands don't tend to buy each others' music so attracting genuine musiclovers is the key. Now Facebook holds that key so I'll be on there as well now seeing how it goes. I'm also working on my Youtube channel, which I see as a half-way house between the two.


This week...

The next gig will be the debut of the new acoustic project with Dan and Ol, starting with The Grove Open Mic tomorrow night (Wed 21).


A-Z Of Music...

George Harrison: Living In The Material World:
The alphabetical side of this project has gone to pot, as you can see, but there's always time to listen to George Harrison. Not an album that really grabbed me, despite some of the trademark chord progressions and guitar work. 'Sue you, sue me blues' being about the best one, in typical whimsical Harrison style.

Alison Krauss: Every Time You Say Goodbye:
Foraging at it's best here, as I listen to this purely off the back of the aforementioned Plant/Krauss album. This one is purely country/bluegrass and not really at all in my line. I shall have to forage a little further!

Doobie Brothers: Best of:

I enjoyed this one thoroughly. Quality and energy throughout, good music for driving!

Last Week:

The week after Easter is always a bit strange for me, as the following weekend approaches far faster once things have returned to normal. It's a truncated week and having been so busy again it'll be a few more weeks before things settle down again.

Anyway, that little philosophy aside, things were pretty busy with stock car visits to Skegness on Thursday and Northampton on Saturday. Going to mid-week meetings qualifies me for real anorak status, and my new fur-lined coat is in the post. Saturday was the warmest day of the year and I must say it even made the long drag down the M1 bearable as I negociated the longest Average Speed Check in the world whilst listening to the Grand National and on the way back the US golf. Listening to golf commentary on the radio is funny in itself as they have to whisper in order to not put the players off. It sounds like they're stalking somebody.

On Sunday evening I was playing at the New Inn in Barwick-in-Elmet (this is supposed to be a music blog after all!). I had a problem with my PA amp which was off-putting, and whilst the gig went fairly well I was not best pleased with my equipment, it leaves you very exposed at a solo gig!

More Stock Cars followed with the Monday meeting at Sheffield (anorak now arrived) and then onto last night (Wednesday 14th) I had my second gig with Katie at the Cardigan Arms in Leeds. This fabulous old-style Leeds pub has an upstairs room they use for music, with a very tidy in-house PA system, which worked, unlike mine! We played a 30 minute set featuring 5 originals and a couple of covers. I was delighted with how this went, and was revelling in the comparitive novelty of not having to hump gear around, worry about the sound, or indeed worry about anything.

Music is meant to be enjoyable to perform, which leads me onto another breaking news story.

THE PAUL JEFFERY BAND RIP

Yes, after a little while deliberating I've finally taken the decision to disband my band for the time being. It was of course a tough decision as for the past 3 years it's been my number 1 priority. I was finding the nature of the gigs a strain and the fact that there is so much outside pressure just to end up playing a handful of my own songs hasn't helped. My heart isn't really in the band project right now, although I still think you can't beat a band playing some of the songs.

For now I'm going to be concentrating on my solo work, plus the projects with Katie and the acoustic 3-piece with Dan & Ol (the latter I'm not sure I mentioned before but please read on for more details!). That's still 3 live music projects, hardly a quiet time for anyone once you throw in the recording and practicing side of things.

Maybe in a while I'll get the bug back to do something band-wise, but for now I'm really looking forward to playing without the stress and getting back focussed on making progress and promoting the songs: but most importantly looking forward to doing the gigs themselves and really enjoying them!


This week:

I'm performing a solo gig (full night) at Mr Foleys on the Headrow in Leeds on Monday night (19th) from about 9pm. This will be my 2nd visit there and I can tell you it has good beer and nice relaxed atmosphere. I'll be playing covers and originals and really anything goes. I reckon the next blog will be on Tuesday but just in case I'll mention now that I'll be out with Dan & Ol for our debut performance at The Grove in Leeds on Wednesday night. That's open mic so can't say a definite time, but suffice to say it's a great little unplugged gig which I've done many times solo in the past.


A-Z of Music:

Just the one this week,
THE BYRDS (2 x CDs of Essential Byrds):

I have now had my first introduction to this iconic and highly influential band. I enjoyed the earlier material with its trademark jangling guitars. The songs oosed 60s-ness and were so atmospheric of the era, very representative of that time. There's also a song about the JFK assassination on there, so it's a winner in my book! The later material goes into a country style, which I need to research more as some of it sounded tongue-in-cheek country. Especially 'Drugstore Truck Drivin Man, He's the head of the Ku-Klux Klan....'. Sorry to speaking from general ignorance here but I will get to learn more in due course about why the band did what they did, that is after all a big part of the foraging and curating process.

Happy Easter to one and all. I can't believe it's already the middle of this week, and will soon be the weekend again. Oh well, can't be bad.

LAST WEEK

My band was out on Wednesday night (31st March) at Harrys Bar in Wakefield, playing quite literally to a packed house....

When we arrived we were faced with the unique situation of not being able to physically get the gear in the pub, let alone set it up, as it was packed full of folk. As you may know, Harrys is a rather small room, so with no standing or sitting room left we had no choice but to wait and hope it thinned out a bit. The management were left with the potential headache of having to chuck customers out to fit the band in, which is supposed to be there to bring customers in! (if you follow me). I don't know, never happens at Wembley, or Oakworth...

Don't worry, they hadn't all come to see us by the way. It was the opening night of the Art Trail which had made the pub fit to burst by 8pm. Eventually we got the gear in and set up, and thankfully most people stayed to watch, so we played to a pretty full room. We also played the full set, starting at 10 and going on until nearly 12.

I had my new keyboard but a lack of practice time meant I hadn't sorted all the new sounds out for the songs, leading to one or two interesting moments and one or two very cheesy 80s ones! I didn't have the luxury of a monitor either due to the lack of space.

The Easter weekend then began, and there was much sport to attend. Starting with the Bulls going to Headingly and taking a draw, not great as we should have won, but better than losing none the less. Draws are rare in RL, unlike football, they're not a feeling I'm very used to, you don't know whether to be happy or sad!

There then followed 3 stock car meetings, and luckily the one where it rained (Coventry) I was feeling almost guiltily dry under the main stand roof. Doesn't make for very good racing though when the shale turns to mush. And to rub it in, within half an hour of leaving, the rain had stopped and roads were dry. I think there was a cloud over Coventry that night.


THIS WEEK

I am playing a solo gig at the New Inn, Barwick-in-Elmet on Sunday night, about 9pm. This is one of my favourite venues as people listen and it's a very intimate gig. Another small room, but to date no problems physically getting inside it!


A-Z OF MUSIC

Half Man, Half Biscuit:

Not strictly beginning with B and certainly not A, but I had it in my car anyway. I love this band for their sense of humour, a song that can make you laugh is to me as good as one that makes you feel any other sort of emotion. The humour is very Northern, very dry. You need to know a bit about football to get some of the gags, but aside from that it's just glorious from beginning to end. My favourites being 'Bob Wilson: Anchorman' and 'Joy Division Oven Gloves'. I heartily recommend them.

Robert Plant/Alison Krauss: Raising Sand.

The Grammy Award winning album, I like the concept but not all the content. I've been meaning to listen to this since it came out, but only just got round to it. From what I'd heard in snippets via adverts etc... I'd already come to the conclusion that this low-fi, 2 part harmony sound is very much suited to Robert Plant's voice as it is now. The blending of the 2 voices is superb.
3 songs in and I was really loving the album. After that it faded a little for me, apart from 'Please Read The Letters' which is strong if little over-long. Nice vibe and great arrangements throughout, but there weren't really any new ideas as the album progressed. Still, could have been far worse.

Big Country: Singles

As a long-time Runrig fan I was hoping for more from this band. All I knew before was that Peter Wishart was their keyboard player before joining Runrig, and that they supported Queen at Knebworth in 86. I think Peter made the right move to switch. I like the big anthemic, driving sound, which is similar to Runrig, but unfortunately it seemed to lack the strong melodies and clear direction they employ so well. I waited for a stronger song to hit me, but it never really happened.

I've got an exciting new system for this blog now. From now on it's going to be in 3 sections: Last Week, This Week, and A-Z of Music.

That's it! There may, in exceptional circumstances, be other special feature sections, we shall see.


Last Week

No gigs in the past 7 days. (or 8 actually, as I'm a day late). I'm loving my new keyboard though, and can't wait to get out and gig a bit more with it. I've been using it in more rehearsals lately, and the sounds and playing action are making it all the more fun. Come to think of it, this must be the first time in over a decade when rehearsals have outnumbered gigs! So there you have it, I do practice after all.

Speaking of gigs, the highlight of the week was on Monday night, going to see Chris Rea in Sheffield. Having travelled down the road to Hell, or the M1 as it's known, we reached our own Heaven in the shape of the Kellham Island Tavern in Sheffield, a lovely pub, and not five minutes from the stock car track, but that's another matter. The concert was very moving, every bit as good as the one 2 years ago in Newcastle, which must make this gig rank pretty high in my list of best gigs seen...

It takes a lot to move me at a concert these days. The years of cynicism and pressure (or clubland as it's also known) have left me almost as jaded as a major Record Label A&R man. But the amount of energy and passion in this performance had me hooked from the start. Brilliant band, awesome playing, and that voice... Funnily enough this time it was the blues numbers 'Easy Rider' and 'Dancing Down The Stoney Road' which got me the most. But everything about this man's music, especially played live, is perfect to me. I just love it.

Last weekend there was also a win for the Bulls, and a weekend trip to East Anglia for the stock cars, where it miraculously stayed dry again.


This Week
Tonight (Wed 31st) sees the return of the Paul Jeffery Band at Harrys Bar, Wakefield. This will feature the new keyboard so as far as I'm concerned, it's going to be great already. We start at 9 and it's a unique atmosphere in this tiny venue.

That's the only gig, as we're then into Easter which is always a breathlessly busy time for me. A simple diet of one Bulls match and 3 stock car meetings will pass the time very nicely thank you. I may well be away from my desk next Tuesday too as in Yorkshire we have this thing called Easter Tuesday, which doesn't really exist anywhere else I can think of, but most places take the day off, as is traditional in some quarters of the county. So I will most likely talk to you again later next week. Until then, have a Happy Easter!


A-Z of Music

OK, here we go....

AL STEWART (Best of): I know Al Stewart should technically be under 'S' but in the world of internet search engines he appears under 'A' as well. I picked this one out because over the years a few people have compared my sound to his. And having never listened to any of his music this was either mystical or a coincidence.
I'm a little perturbed to say I didn't really get into his music at this early stage. So I'm not sure where that leaves my 'sounds like' plaudits. It's middle of the road with a capital MOR, and on the bland side. I think 'Year Of The Cat' is his best known song, but it again failed to really move me. As usual, there was good musicianship throughout, but it didn't hit me very much.

ALMAN BROTHERS (Hits): Best known for Jessica (or Top Gear as we know it here), there was some good ol' southern rock mixed in with instrumentals. Not perhaps bang on my wavelength, but I enjoyed what I heard.

ANTHONY PHILLIPS (The Geese and The Ghost): As a big Genesis fan, I wanted to check out this lesser known solo work from their founder member. It's largely instrumental, very pastoral, and a bit strange at times. But there are some good moments and lots of sounds in common with early Genesis, particularly the 12-string acoustic guitars. Looking at a discography I notice that it was released in 1977 and features Mike Rutherford as co-producer and instrumentalist. It also features Phil Collins singing a couple of tracks, now I thought I recognised that voice!!

ALBERT COLLINS (Iceman): As a lover of Guitar Heroes Expo 92 from Seville, I've long known the hard attacking electric blues of Albert Collins. This is the first album I've heard on CD, and it doesn't disappoint. A lot of the songs are stock blues arrangements, 12-8 songs, fast shuffles etc.. but it's extremely well-played and the production is immense.

Firstly, the week's news: Last Thursday was a very exciting moment in the shape of the debut of the New Keyboard!! I've recently made a purchase after 11 years of venerable service by the old one...it has survived the rigours of clubland better than it's owner.

It was a double first as it was also the debut of a new project. The setting was an open mic at the Chemic Tavern in Leeds, with Katie singing and me playing and doing some harmonies. Me and Katie go back a very long way, and we're still performing some of the songs we did back then, but it was a great night, suffice to say that the magic is still there. I'll hopefully bring more news on this in the weeks to come.

The weekend was dedicated to my 2 favourite sports, with a trip to watch the Bulls in Hull on Friday (we lost, and it rained a lot), followed by stock cars in Birmingham Saturday and Belle Vue Sunday. The Brum trip set a new record for average speed cameras on the M6, with a total of 5 (!) between Manchester and the Second City...throw in a road closure on the way back, and it left me wondering how much more of the M6 it's possible to dig up.

This week:

I've no gigs this week but will be rehearsing and hopefully finding some time to write and record.

And now.....

It's time for.....My A to Z of music!!

Yes...you may remember my ramblings about curation of music last week, well it all starts here :) So stand by for more ramblings as I delve into the archive of music past and present, but mainly past, as I explained last week. To keep things organised, I'm starting at A, with Z scheduled to be reached in about 90 years' time.


1) A-HA: I remember A-Ha the first time around, when their posters covered teenage girls' walls and they were big, really big. As the years went on they were not so big, but then big again thanks to the old Slumdog do-da featuring their finest song.
They've also kept releasing new good quality material, no resorting to covers here. And whilst they'll probably never top the dizzy heights of 'Take On Me' and 'The Sun Always Shines On TV' (this being the finest song I was referring to) they do still have melody, atmosphere and falcettos in abundance.
In fact, it was their latest album 'Foot Of The Mountain' that got this project of mine underway. It got me thinking how I'd like to know more of their songs, as I only owned their first album. So, one double-CD greatest hits album later, I'm pleased to report I'm still hooked.

As a keyboard player with a love for the 80s that goes back, well, to the 80s, it's almost inevitable that I'm still drawn to this sound. It's like a thinking mans Duran Duran. The lyrics are often dark and subtle, they are Norwegian after all. It's hard to believe the band is around 25 years old now. That's a lot of albums under the bridge. From the brilliant opening album 'Hunting High And Low' there's then 'Scoundrel Days' which is less good but still contains 'Manhattan Skyline' which is powerful synth pop at it's best. Then there's the Bond theme 'Living Daylights', and then later stuff such as 'Summer Moved On' and the new album highlights 'Foot Of The Mountain' and 'Shadowside'. There's melodies that move me right through and even though I'd have to drop the keys a few octaves, there remains the possibility of cover versions in the future....


2) THE ANIMALS: Changing direction a little here, I listened to a 'best of' album and it confirmed one thing beyond any doubt: Eric Burdon has one of the best rock voices of all-time!
This is how a singer should sound, end of story. Then there's the organ playing. Actually Alan Price is appearing in Brighouse at Easter, I wish it was on a night I was free to go and watch. I discovered some real gems in this collection, aside from the very obvious ones. There's a narrative song about Bo Diddley that I think will end up on my mp3 player, and also some searing vocals on most of the tracks. Unlike virtually every other musician, I still have time for 'House Of The Rising Sun' too. I've never actually covered it, not over-heard it, and remain quite excited about it. Maybe now is the time to change that, maybe I should get out more. Either way I hope you'll join me next week for more classics, by artisits beginning with the letter A!!

I'm a Curator...

In a recent blog, I was talking about the results of a survey I'd read in which it was possible to categorise people into 4 broad groups when it comes to music. These range from the very enthusiastic to the not-at-all enthusiastic, with about 75% of the population more towards the latter.

The book I read this in, 'Nets, Blogs and Rock n Roll' by David Jennings, is proving to be a very interesting read. Further to the above I discovered that the survey had sub-groups for these categories too. One of these sub-groups at the top end (very enthusiastic music lovers) were called 'Curators'.

As I read the description of a Curator, I got this eary feeling that I recognised the person it was describing.... me! See what you think of this:

"They tend to rely on old trusted musical choices rather than engage with anything new or emerging- as a result, they now look backwards to fill the gaps in their collection rather than forwards to discover new music." "They sound like curmudgeonly-before-their-time men in middle youth...."

Well it's nice to know I'm not alone!!

It's true, I admit it, I find it hard to relate to new music, unless it's by an old artist releasing a new album, which I don't suppose really counts. I've never been one to follow fashions, in fact I react adversly to new trends and run in the opposite direction. At the height of the Brit-pop boom of the mid-90s I was in my late teens, peak age for following fashions. At this time my favourite group was Genesis.

You only need to take one look at my myspace page to see where I fit in, or don't fit, as the case may be. I don't care: my influences are my choice and I'm not going to compromise them to fit in. Sometimes it can be hard work though, especially in Britain. Touting for local gigs using myspace, I've occasionally come up against a promoter probably half my age, who clearly can't abide the idea of puttting an old fart like me on the bill. Venturing further around local band's myspace pages, I see long lists of influences I've never heard of, plus the obligatory mention of Nick Drake, or Johnny Cash.

Start mentioning Elton John and Phil Collins in that company and you're in big trouble! The North-West music scene has a big problem with these sort of names. I know from first-hand experience that it's probably better to keep quiet when they start on about musical tastes, or maybe mumble the name 'David Bowie' just to keep them off my back. Me and a music collegue call it 'Cheese Tolerance', in most cases there's is set way below mine.

When I was at Music College it was a similar tale. I remember once being scolded by a fellow-student for liking my 'dad's music'. What she didn't know is that my dad likes a lot more new acts than I do!

Also the occasion springs to mind when I did a gig in Leeds and I got talking to another act on the bill. I was waxing lyrical about Bryan Adams' music. Only later did I realise he'd said 'Ryan Adams'.

So there you have it. Old before my time in middle youth. I also prefer older women, but that's another matter.

The curating side of me involves seeking out lots of old releases. I'm trying to find out where it all came from. I'm also looking for songs to cover, or influences to include in future songwriting and producing. Next week I plan to start sharing some of my curating with you in this blog. A few notes about the albums I've been listening to of late, and I'll share a few songs you might like to check out. They'll all likely be crusty old artists who've sold a lot of records. People of North-West England, you have been warned!!

So much to do, so little time!

After playing Mr Foleys (that's a bar in Leeds, not a person) last Monday I haven't done a gig since, but I've been so busy it's hardly been noticed. I've spent 10 years trying to do more gigs, then a few more, and if there was another day spare, maybe another one. I'm now enjoying the reverse process just as much!

I haven't been blogging all the evolutions of my career 'plan' but to summarise briefly I've arrived at the decision to do less gigs and to make live promotion more of a component of what I'm doing in total, rather than a whole issue on it's own. Moreover, it's about doing the right sort of gigs, the right ones for me. So if there were seven great gigs to be had every week I'd still be there. But I'm not so enthused these days about doing the wrong kind of gigs. You know, those where a few more brain cells get left behind each time!

The Stock Car season has started too. Which means I'm more inclined to pursue that particular hobby than do more gigs as well. This weekend just gone I was in Kings Lynn on Saturday and then overnighted there before moving on to Skegness on Sunday. I visit all the best places :) Especially in March when none too warm....bloody freezing in fact. I've always questioned the sanity of mountaineers, but standing out at the opening Skegness meeting of the season is probably quite similar! At least it didn't rain this time.

I've always enjoyed watching sport. I follow Rugby League too. And this weekend it fell that the Bulls played on Friday night, and that was a very exciting game! We won of course, which is why I can now call it 'exciting' instead of 'crap' (no matter how exciting) if we'd lost.

Anyway, I digress. This week I'm playing solo at The Hop in Wakefield on Thursday night (11th), which will be a full set of covers and originals. I'm also working on some exciting new projects which will come to fruition in the fullness of time...in between standing outside in Lincolnshire.

So we're finally into March. It seems to have been a terribly long time in coming this year, so thank Heavens it's not a leap year, or it would have been even longer. We've finally got a bit of sun even though it's still cold enough to snow at night. I'm just hoping it stays somewhere near fine for the all-important first Stock Car meetings of the new season this weekend! I don't mind wrapping up warm, but please: no snow, gales or floods or anything else that might lead to it being cancelled. So much has had to be re-scheduled due to weather this year already that I might just go spare if this goes the same way. I've been looking forward to it for a while you see :)

Speaking of adverse weather, my heart goes out to those in Chile and in France as yet again fate shits on the planet from a great height. I have a friend with family in Chile who remain uncontactable. It doesn't bare thinking about.

I was playing at Mr Foleys in Leeds last night, another new venue for me. It's located on the Headrow opposite the Town Hall, which means it's a bugger to even unload, let alone park. I took to driving down the pavement on the Headrow (a surreal experience) in order to pull up outside the front door and load in.

The gig is good for me though, there's virtually no paid work on a Monday night, or for that matter anywhere else in Leeds (!), and it's a nice relaxing bar. I played 2 sets mixing covers and originals as per usual and I was quite pleased with how it went. I'd also like to say a big thank you to the New Inn 'crew' who came along to support me, it means a great deal.

I hear that The Primrose is to close down. That's a real big loss to musicians everywhere, but especially locally at grass roots level. I was just planning on doing some more open mic stuff and the Primmy, with it's big PA, would have been one of my first ports of call. Now it seems it's gone the way of many other pubs, and alledgedly it's for the same stupid reason as why we now see so many derelict rotting pubs in the area.

More gig news to follow, if there's anywhere else left to play!!

A philosopher speaks...

The band was back out this past week, on Friday night at The Hop in Wakefield. This was our third visit and it's a case of 3 out of 3 good gigs really. The main thing that helps is that the pub gets busy-this is not always the case these days!- also the positioning of the stage makes the band hard to ignore, and people do tend to get involved and enjoy themselves.

This then leads to the band enjoying themselves even more, and it makes the sometimes tough job of hitting the high notes and running about far easier. You may think that a rock band in a pub would be hard to ignore, but believe me some people try!

So all in all a very good night again in Wakefield. There's a few things changing on the gig front for me at the moment. The band has been my main thing certainly for the past 2 years, but I'm feeling that as a means of promoting what I'm doing it's definetly not the easiest! It's time consuming, energy sapping work, and the rewards are skant in comparison to the effort put in. If every gig was anything like as good as The Hop it would be no problem, but of course many aren't so good and that can get you down.

So the band will be being scaled back considerably this year, maybe to the point of going into hibernation, but that's not definiete yet. (it's been a long winter!). It could be that it carries on on a more casual 'fun' basis without the same emphasis placed on progress and world domination and such like. I have to admit I'm not sure yet.

This brings in the wider issue of how much gigs help to further what I'm doing in general. And that includes all gigs, not just the band. I recently read an article in which the results of a survey were very revealing. The survey was of people's musical habits and interests and it shows that all of us can largely be put in one of four categories:

Savants, Enthusiasts, Casuals and Indifferents. The four ranging from people for whom music is everything (also known as insiders and curators) to those for whom it means very little (to quote from the survey: 'Would not lose much sleep if music ceased to exist).

And here's the bad news (to quote a well-known music publicist): That bottom group of couldn't care less folk make up 40% of the population. The casuals make up 32%, meaning that only a quarter of us are in the music-lover division. So on a typical night, that's 3 out of 4 of you heading for the door!

But it gets worse. That's assuming there's a broad cross-section of society at the gig. Of course that's never normally the case. So there may well be an audience made up of 90% from the bottom two categories. That's daunting especially if the audience numbers less than 10 to start with!

Cover bands aim for the 'Casuals' as well. But for original music, those top two sectors are vital. So which category do you fit into?

It's comforting to know that there's some statistics to back up all these years I've been braying my head against a brick wall. It's also fascinating stuff. If I'm ever to get a following I'm going to need to bear some of this in mind. And where can I target and hone in on those categories best??

On the interweb, and not in the local free entry boozer.

It makes you think doesn't it.

No gigs last week, so it falls to me to open the blog out a bit and talk about something else. Not that I'm complaining about not having any gigs in a week, it's no longer quite such a priority to be out all the time. I've done enough of that lately!

It was my mum's birthday yesterday, it was one of those landmark ones, somewhere between 59 and 61. We had a party on Saturday night. In fact, I tell a lie about gigs, because I played one song at that! Everybody wanted me to do more, but I just did one. I wish every 'gig' was like that! I played Walking in Memphis by Marc Cohn, as it's one of her favourite songs. We had a superb evening, with lots of family and friends present, some who we haven't seen in a long long time, in one case 20 years! It got me thinking more and more about how important it is to keep in touch with people. There are enough idiots in life to make it all the more important to keep aquainted with those who you get on with to start with!

I wish I saw more of these people, we're not a close family geographically but when we do get together we tend to pick up from where we left off last time.

So that was another Saturday night where I did as I pleased, instead of playing a paid gig that I probably wouldn't have enjoyed as much. I've spent years not having what you'd call normal weekends, and now I'm enjoying having them. For a long time, my weekend started on Monday and lasted til Friday, which was very nice, but a totally different routine. Then I've had busy weeks followed by very busy weekends. And that just makes you knackered. So it's nice to have a weekend I can call mine. In fact, this one coming up isn't much different. My band is playing at The Hop in Wakefield on Friday night but then the rest is clear.


GREATEST HITS MEDLEY ON MYSPACE

If you click onto my myspace page, you will find that the first song on my player is now a compilation of 5 songs, faded in and out in snippets of about 45 seconds each. This is available to download for free and includes excerpts from the songs 'Cold Cold Day', 'Young, Lost And Hopeful', 'Your Shadow', 'Money From The Satisfied Man' and 'It Will Pass'. The download is really aimed at newcomers to my music, so that you can have a broad overview of what I've done without having to trawl through full-length songs. But, seeing as all you blog readers are avid converts with full collections, you won't need to bother with this, will you? will you...