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.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
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??
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??
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