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.
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