WELL I'VE finally done it. I've now seen probably the last of my singer-songwriting heroes previously unseen. It was a long trip but fully worth seeing Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers at London's Albert Hall on Monday night. They haven't played in the UK for a long time, since probably before I was a fan, and bearing in mind they might not come around here no more there was no chance of me missing out.
It was also my first visit to the Albert Hall, which is a unique venue in terms of it's size and shape, thus giving a unique ambience too. By rock legend concert venue standards it's pretty small, and extremely raked up at the sides. I can only imagine what the atmosphere must be like at the Proms. I'm pleased to say the gig was brilliant, with Steve Ferrone doing what is expected and braying out a powerful groove...the band are all great musicians, everything was live, and the songs, well they just play themselves really!
All in all a wonderful night, too many highlights to mention but certainly the acoustic version of 'Learning To Fly' was one. Other commitments meant there was no chance of staying overnight so it was straight back to North London to fetch the car, and then back home by about 3:30am. It annoys me when people say this is madness. Isn't this what dreams are all about ?
GIGS
I was rehearsing with BitterSweetShop on Thursday at our new rehearsal venue (!) and then I was playing covers gigs at Shipley and then a magnificent mansion just outside Grantham on the weekend.
This Thursdsay (June 21st) BitterSweetShop are doing the headline slot for the Chemic Tavern open mic night. Judging by the response on Facebook it should be a good night and we're playing at 10pm for this one.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
I had one of those 'what's the world coming to' moments last Friday. Yes sports stadium regulations in the name of 'health & safety' never cease to amaze me. I've been refused entry before on the grounds of carrying offensive sandwiches but this time it was umbrellas! I wouldn't have minded so much but it was raining (I don't normally carry an umbrella when it's dry). So after a 20 minute walk from the car park to a well-known brand new stadium in St Helens it was a case of 'ditch your brolly or be gone'. The problem with all these incidents is that although I'm laughing about it now at the time the only thing you want to do is to allow the steward who gave the order a much closer inspection of the item. The point is it's all getting rather silly in my opinion. Refusing food and drink is simply a commercial decision, but an umbrella (unopened I might add) is hardly an offensive weapon, except at the point when a punter is told they can't take it inside with them.
GIGS
There wasn't supposed to be a gig last week but in the end I did play one with BitterSweetShop at the New Conservatory in Leeds. It was raining (again) which meant it wasn't so busy and I got wet walking to the gig. (I'll save moaning about car parking charges in Leeds for another time!). Thankfully, having got soaked getting there, the gig was rather good. Perhaps the smaller audience helped because all present were listening to what we were doing which gave it a nice intimate atmosphere. The room sounded good too. Definetly a succesful gig I think.
This weekend I'm playing at being a working musician again with covers gigs in Bradford and Lincolnshire.
INTERNET
Things are hotting up a bit on Twitter at the moment, which I've finally decided is the best site to promote oneself. If you're a tweeter but not a follower of mine then please find me and follow me by clicking here: FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
I should add of course that it's only my favourite site until they'll probably decide to change everything!
LISTENING TO MUSIC
My latest listening of the week started with the new album by Rumur 'Boys Don't Cry'. I enjoyed the last Rumur album and this one is very good too. There's still a lot of Karen Carpenter in her sound although this time less so. Nonetheless I find it a relaxing experience hearing her music.
I then moved onto 'Season's End' by Marillion which is actually my first proper taste of their music. It's everything I hoped for but unfortunately ends up being a bit of a poorman's Genesis album. They sound very similar but without the finesse or melodic inspiration. Simple Minds' 'Street Fighting Years' album lacks any inspiration and depsite the mouth-watering prospect of Trevor Horn producing them I found the album very hard-going with messy arrangements, over-long songs and nothing really solid in the songwriting department.
I'm currently on with Shakespear's Sister's 'Sacred Heart' album. I love Marcella Detroit's voice but unfortunately this album is predominantly Siobhan Fahey with Detroit only on selected tracks. Her vocal range is about 3 tones which is ironic given that Marcy's is about 300. Then again maybe that contrast is what makes a succesful duo!
By next week I should have seen my hero Tom Petty perform live so will fill you in on that one next time.
GIGS
There wasn't supposed to be a gig last week but in the end I did play one with BitterSweetShop at the New Conservatory in Leeds. It was raining (again) which meant it wasn't so busy and I got wet walking to the gig. (I'll save moaning about car parking charges in Leeds for another time!). Thankfully, having got soaked getting there, the gig was rather good. Perhaps the smaller audience helped because all present were listening to what we were doing which gave it a nice intimate atmosphere. The room sounded good too. Definetly a succesful gig I think.
This weekend I'm playing at being a working musician again with covers gigs in Bradford and Lincolnshire.
INTERNET
Things are hotting up a bit on Twitter at the moment, which I've finally decided is the best site to promote oneself. If you're a tweeter but not a follower of mine then please find me and follow me by clicking here: FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER
I should add of course that it's only my favourite site until they'll probably decide to change everything!
LISTENING TO MUSIC
My latest listening of the week started with the new album by Rumur 'Boys Don't Cry'. I enjoyed the last Rumur album and this one is very good too. There's still a lot of Karen Carpenter in her sound although this time less so. Nonetheless I find it a relaxing experience hearing her music.
I then moved onto 'Season's End' by Marillion which is actually my first proper taste of their music. It's everything I hoped for but unfortunately ends up being a bit of a poorman's Genesis album. They sound very similar but without the finesse or melodic inspiration. Simple Minds' 'Street Fighting Years' album lacks any inspiration and depsite the mouth-watering prospect of Trevor Horn producing them I found the album very hard-going with messy arrangements, over-long songs and nothing really solid in the songwriting department.
I'm currently on with Shakespear's Sister's 'Sacred Heart' album. I love Marcella Detroit's voice but unfortunately this album is predominantly Siobhan Fahey with Detroit only on selected tracks. Her vocal range is about 3 tones which is ironic given that Marcy's is about 300. Then again maybe that contrast is what makes a succesful duo!
By next week I should have seen my hero Tom Petty perform live so will fill you in on that one next time.
Wednesday, June 06, 2012
It hardly seems 2 minutes since last Wednesday, and yet here it is again already. The Jubilee weekend has been and gone and now we're already on the verge of looking forward to Friday! Bless you Your Majesty.
I didn't see too much of the celebrations, and virtually none of the big concert. It was good just to have a few days to myself (with the exception of Sunday...see below). On Tuesday I went from place to place around the Trough Of Bowland, a truly magical part of the UK, and one which still largely seems undiscovered...I should keep quiet about it in that case!
Gigs:
Of course no British bank holiday weekend is complete without torrential rain. This was certainly true of Sunday, the same day I happened to be playing an outdoor gig! I was playing at Barwick-in-Elmet for part of the Big Lunch/Jubilee weekend. I was playing undercover (a tent I mean, not an alias), so on that score there were no problems. It was just going to be the audience that got wet! I have to say I was amazed that there were so many people at the festival. It rained continuously throughout and even came on harder during my set. I played for an hour expecting very few people to brave the conditions. I'm so glad to report that many did stay and see it through and I must say I've had far worse audiences indoors! So a big thank you to the crowd for supporting my set. I know I moan a lot but I do always appreciate people listening to what I'm doing, but I would say even more so on this occasion due to the beautiful British weather!
There's no gigs this week due to the short turnaround into the weekend.
Studio
I've been enjoying some writing time recently too. I mentioned last week the huge backlogue of material so it was good to just delve into several sets of lyrics and make some progress. The songs cover various genres and so will have varying end results. All in all though it was productive and will leave me plenty to do in the coming weeks!
Listening to music
I've been listening to quite a range of songs this week too. I started out with an ABC album entitled 'Up' (I was driving past Sheffield at the time so it seemed appropriate). I was also listening to Runrig's 'Searchlight' album. It's been a fair number of years since I heard any of their music and it's amazing to remember now that I saw them live several times back in the 90s. I enjoyed the anthemic quality of the songs, definetly another to play at top volume. I'm now on with a David Byrne solo album called 'Rei Momo' which is largely latin based music with lots of typically quirky lyrics over the top. Quite a diverse selection I'm sure you'll agree but actually they were all released in the same year.
See you next week,
Paul
I didn't see too much of the celebrations, and virtually none of the big concert. It was good just to have a few days to myself (with the exception of Sunday...see below). On Tuesday I went from place to place around the Trough Of Bowland, a truly magical part of the UK, and one which still largely seems undiscovered...I should keep quiet about it in that case!
Gigs:
Of course no British bank holiday weekend is complete without torrential rain. This was certainly true of Sunday, the same day I happened to be playing an outdoor gig! I was playing at Barwick-in-Elmet for part of the Big Lunch/Jubilee weekend. I was playing undercover (a tent I mean, not an alias), so on that score there were no problems. It was just going to be the audience that got wet! I have to say I was amazed that there were so many people at the festival. It rained continuously throughout and even came on harder during my set. I played for an hour expecting very few people to brave the conditions. I'm so glad to report that many did stay and see it through and I must say I've had far worse audiences indoors! So a big thank you to the crowd for supporting my set. I know I moan a lot but I do always appreciate people listening to what I'm doing, but I would say even more so on this occasion due to the beautiful British weather!
There's no gigs this week due to the short turnaround into the weekend.
Studio
I've been enjoying some writing time recently too. I mentioned last week the huge backlogue of material so it was good to just delve into several sets of lyrics and make some progress. The songs cover various genres and so will have varying end results. All in all though it was productive and will leave me plenty to do in the coming weeks!
Listening to music
I've been listening to quite a range of songs this week too. I started out with an ABC album entitled 'Up' (I was driving past Sheffield at the time so it seemed appropriate). I was also listening to Runrig's 'Searchlight' album. It's been a fair number of years since I heard any of their music and it's amazing to remember now that I saw them live several times back in the 90s. I enjoyed the anthemic quality of the songs, definetly another to play at top volume. I'm now on with a David Byrne solo album called 'Rei Momo' which is largely latin based music with lots of typically quirky lyrics over the top. Quite a diverse selection I'm sure you'll agree but actually they were all released in the same year.
See you next week,
Paul
Friday, June 01, 2012
AS THE HOT weather continues, I've had another busy week. I was down in Kings Lynn on Saturday night for the stock car meeting there. After a night of warm ale I was back up North on Sunday in time to see the Bulls match at Manchester as part of the 'Magic Weekend'. There was little of magic for my team though for in addition to losing the match we have subsequently lost 5 players with injuries ranging from a broken wrist to a heart attack. I kid you not.
GIGS
I played with BitterSweetShop at The Hop in Leeds on Wednesday night (23rd). It's an interesting place to play, especially when a train passes overhead and the whole place rumbles!
This weekend I'm doing a solo set on Sunday June 3rd for the 'Barwick Big Lunch'. This is part of a nationwide event started by the Eden Project, with the added bonus this year of being part of the Jubilee celebrations. I'm playing an hour from 2:30 to 3:30. As always with outdoor gigs, hope it doesn't rain!
STUDIO
Work is continuing on the BitterSweetShop project I mentioned last week and I've also been doing some writing. I've so many new songs to work on it's untrue but I've also had fun re-working an old song that never really saw the light of day first time around. It was a fascinating experience playing the original demo for the first time in 8 years!
LISTENING TO MUSIC
The Gotye album I mentioned last week is interesting. It features some predictably quirky tracks but perhaps the biggest quirk of all is the inclusion of a straight motown track in the middle! I was momentarily wondering if it was a rogue track by another band! After all the years and years of record industry types talking about 'branding' and pigeon holing people into pre-determined genres I can only wonder how the A&R meeting went with this track included....perhaps that's the brand...complete diversity and unpredictability.
I've also been re-listening to Soul 2 Soul's famous 'Club Classics' album which is still sounding fresh and makes a great sound whilst cruising the streets of Brighouse :)
Enjoy yourselves, and especially enjoy the extra-long Jubilee Weekend!
GIGS
I played with BitterSweetShop at The Hop in Leeds on Wednesday night (23rd). It's an interesting place to play, especially when a train passes overhead and the whole place rumbles!
This weekend I'm doing a solo set on Sunday June 3rd for the 'Barwick Big Lunch'. This is part of a nationwide event started by the Eden Project, with the added bonus this year of being part of the Jubilee celebrations. I'm playing an hour from 2:30 to 3:30. As always with outdoor gigs, hope it doesn't rain!
STUDIO
Work is continuing on the BitterSweetShop project I mentioned last week and I've also been doing some writing. I've so many new songs to work on it's untrue but I've also had fun re-working an old song that never really saw the light of day first time around. It was a fascinating experience playing the original demo for the first time in 8 years!
LISTENING TO MUSIC
The Gotye album I mentioned last week is interesting. It features some predictably quirky tracks but perhaps the biggest quirk of all is the inclusion of a straight motown track in the middle! I was momentarily wondering if it was a rogue track by another band! After all the years and years of record industry types talking about 'branding' and pigeon holing people into pre-determined genres I can only wonder how the A&R meeting went with this track included....perhaps that's the brand...complete diversity and unpredictability.
I've also been re-listening to Soul 2 Soul's famous 'Club Classics' album which is still sounding fresh and makes a great sound whilst cruising the streets of Brighouse :)
Enjoy yourselves, and especially enjoy the extra-long Jubilee Weekend!
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