Year: 2006

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Another great day at Greenbelt

It’s was a fabulous day at Greenbelt on Sunday – I wasn’t scheduled to play, but did a couple of poetry and bass things with Steve Stockman, which was much fun.

Two great moments to day – Nizlopi on the mainstage were outstanding. If you get the chance to see them on their upcoming tour, don’t miss it. John’s an amazing bassist – to play like that and beatbox at the same time is remarkable, and for any of you BassMonkeys reading, it’s unmissable. Go and see it!

Great moment number 2 was Jude Simpson’s gig – jude is an amazing performer. She’s a performance poet, comedy songwriter and weaver of rambling spontaneous tales and stories from her life. She was in a tent that held 450 people, with at least as many again outside – they had to take the sides down, and she had the entire crowd rapt. You may remember she guested on my last night at Edinburgh last year, and was brilliant then. Go and see her if she’s gigging near you – I’ll book her for the Recycle Collective soon…

And now it’s Monday, last day, and we’ve got loads to do – have got keyboard sorted out for the gig, am compering this afternoon for a couple of shows, and then getting ready for the recycle collective show tonight. And somewhere in there i’ve got to pack up the tent, and get the car loaded so TSP and I can get back to London late night tonight, so that I’ll be ready for tomorrow’s gig at the National Theatre Foyer! Busybusy…

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Greenbelt gig with Julie

Tonight’s Greenbelt gig with Julie went well – playing in the Winged Ox to a pretty packed venue, we played pretty well, though obviously not with the sharpness we had in Edinburgh. Because of Julie having lost her voice during the week, we dropped the key of ‘Video Killed The Radio Star’ which made it slightly odd to play, but we got through it OK, and Julie sang really well considering her sore throat.

A great preparation for the big Recycle Collective gig on Monday! Yay!

Greenbelt on the whole is going superbly well – catching up with many many many lovely friends, meeting fascinating new peoples, eating delicious food, going to the occasional seminar or gig, and generally having a fantastic time. Double Yay! This is definitely the the best weekend of the year…

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Bob Dylan – closet mullet-rock fan??

So Bob Dylan has said that no good records have been made in the last 20 years. So far, so typical for aging rockers who don’t get modern music.

But wait a minute – twenty years? That takes us back to 1986.

Yes, 1986. One wonders quite what the work of musical genius was that piqued the great Dylan’s interest in 1986. So I did a search of albums released in 1986, and found this Wikipedia entry. Some highlights –

Who Made Who – AC/DC (hardly their best work)
Scoundrel Days – a-ha (not a patch on Hunting High And Low)
Rapture – Anita Baker (a great record, but Dylan’s favourite album of the last 20 years??)
Licensed to Ill – The Beastie Boys (Fight for your right… to be a tragic old curmudgeon?)
Slippery When Wet – Bon Jovi (yeah, his Bobness is definitely down with the ‘Jovi)
Third Stage – Boston (overblown codswallop? oh yes, in spades)
In America EP – Britny Fox (gimme an M, gimme an ‘ullet’…)
Solitude/Solitaire – Peter Cetera (I am a man who with fight for your honour… my arse)
Night Songs – Cinderella (debut) (uh-huh)
Constrictor – Alice Cooper (not so much billion dollar babies as £2.56 worth of teenage nonsense)
From Luxury to Heartache – Culture Club (Bob’s a spender of the pink pound?)
Into The Light – Chris de Burgh (the Lady In Red… no, please, stop)
Notorious – Duran Duran (another great record I’d never have associated with Mr Grumpy)
Emerson, Lake and Powell – Emerson, Lake and Powell (WTF?)
Wonderland – Erasure (pink pound pt II)
The Final Countdown – Europe (maybe Bob didn’t realise that Joey Tempest was a guy?)
August – Eric Clapton (Clapton at his best? Not. Even. Close.)
Whispering Jack – John Farnham (You’re the Voice. Not any more you’re not.)
The Divine Punishment – Diamanda Galás (yup, another certain Dylan fave).
Invisible Touch – Genesis (ewwwww)
Shot in the Dark – Great White (ha-ha!!)
Somewhere in Time – Iron Maiden (Somwhere.. in the mid 80s)
Rendez-Vous – Jean-Michel Jarre (yeah, this is clearly the one bob had in mind)
Control – Janet Jackson (What has Bob done for you lately?)
Psychocandy – The Jesus and Mary Chain (Yay!)
Raised On Radio – Journey (see Boston entry)
Turbo – Judas Priest (how did we not know Rob Halford was gay?)
Trilogy – Yngwie Malmsteen (wheeeeedly wheeeeeedly)
Peace Sells… But Who’s Buying? – Megadeth (chugachug)

…and so on.

Bob, 86 was not even close to being a year of great albums. Try again.

What a tool.

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Greenbelt begins…

Ah, Greenbelt – finest weekend of the year. Many lovely people, much great music and endless mind-expanding seminars and discussions. All good, nothing bad.

It starts today, but I arrived yesterday, and the lack of panic over trying to get on site, getting tents set up, gear delivered to venues etc. is just wonderful. All my gear is in the venue for the first bit of playing tonight, and all I’ve got to do for today is put up a few posters round the site letting lovely peoples know where I’m playing over the weekend.

Weather is magic too :o)

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More magical recycling…

It’s becoming a bit predictable – Recycle Collective rolls around towards the back half of each month, and an evening of fabulous creative exciting music ensues.

Audience sizes are less easy to predict, but August is a tough month for playing anything other than festivals in the UK, so I was actually quite happy with our modest gathering of lovely Recyclettes.

We went with the three set/three curators model of Recycling – starting with me playing a couple of solo tunes (Behind Every Word and MMFSOG for those taking notes) and then inviting Andy Hamill up for some bass duets, he on upright, me on fretless, that came out beautifully. Andy’s been playing with Natasha Atlas, and he fed a gorgeous middle eastern melody into one of the improvs.

We then got Seb up to join us on drums, and I looped his drums, and anything else that happened to end up being picked up by the mic over his kit! Much fun indeed, some great noises and great moments.

Second set was Andy’s to curate, and he started it off with a lovely solo piece for looped bass and harmonica, followed by a duet with violinist Julian Ferraretto, who also sang beautifully on Nature Boy – yup, proper jazz at the Recycle Collective! They did another standard after that, My Romance, with Seb on drums, and played it really well – Andy’s chordal comping on the upright was just amazing. Fab stuff.

I then joined them for a quartet improv piece, which started off with a violin and bass loop and spiralled out from there. Such a treat to play with such marvellous musicians.

Seb’s set – the final one of the evening – started with him playing his first ever solo drum piece. Always nice to have firsts at the RC, especially when they’re as good as this. I then went up and we started what was to be about a 20 minute abstract piece that began with me looping his drums, replacing bits of the loop, flipping it back to front and adding some scary elephant noises and spookiness, then moving to a filtered faux-tabla rhythmic thing before andy joined us, and finally Julian and another violinist, Mandy Drummond piled in for a very dark atmospheric finish, with andy playing a sparse groove, seb scattering percussive sounds all over the place and the two violins adding violin loveliness to it all.

All in all, a fab night’s music. Some truly amazing moments and a fascinating journey through a new musical landscape, as well as the first ting-ting te-ting jazz at the RC.

Here’s hope the Bass/Bass/Drums trio happens again very soon!

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Preparation for tonight's gig…

Just getting sorted for tonight’s Recycle Collective gig. I’ve not done an improv gig with a drummer for ages… probably since I last played with Seb Rochford, in Brighton! So that’ll be fun – I’m hoping we can find a way to mic the kit and loop the drums as well, but even if we can’t, it’s going to be so much fun.

Andy Hamill is threatening to bring a harmonica and do a couple of solo things with bass and harp, which is going to be great – these gigs have become such an oasis of relentless creativity and fun in each month for me, I really look forward to them.

If you’re in London, please come down!

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October European Tour expands…

Yay! I’ve just been booked for the European Bass Day in Krefeld, Germany on Oct 29th. That’s the week after the Euro Bass Day in Italy (keep up!), which I’m also at, and I’ll be able to get from one to the other on the train, with my Inter Rail ticket! This inter rail thing is definitely looking like THE way to travel round Europe. I’m going to have to start planning European gigs in three week chunks, so I can do this again, rather than flying in for one or two days… it’s just not cost effective, especially when the goons in baggage handling smash up your instruments…

So I’m ‘doing’ Europe by train. I was a little worried at first that the InterRail website hinted that TGVs (the fast trains) cost extra, but after calling their phone booking line, it turns out it’s just a two or three quid booking fee for each journey. Which is nowt in the grand scheme of things. So it’s all go for Europe by rail!

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Tuesday Random 10…

Didn’t get to do a Friday random 10 for the last few weeks, and this Friday I’ll be at Greenbelt, so here’s one on a tuesday…

Juliet Turner – Vampire
Steve Lawson/Jez Car – WhateverWhatever/Migration
Paul Simon – Late In The Evening
Iain Archer – The Shadow
Shawn Colvin – If These Walls Could Speak
King’s X – Goldilox
Pixies – Gouge Away
Anja Gabarek – Dizzy With Wonder
Jonatha Brooke – Secrets And Lies
Kate McGarry – But Not For Me

there you go – that’s my iTunes random function’s gift to me today.

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