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Some very successful Recycling

Well, last night’s Recycle Collective gig was an absolute blinder! For starters, it was the biggest crowd we had so far (more than 80, possibly 90…), the air conditioning was just perfect after the sweatiness of London these last few weeks, and then there was the music…

I started off with a solo set – I sat down to play and realised that all my song-remembering space in my head was full of the New Standard tunes, and I wasn’t sure I could remember my own stuff! But thankfully they all went really well – definitely the best solo set I’ve played at the RC. Finished off the set with a lovely and slightly shorter than the album version of ‘One Step’ with Julie. Fab first set, well done me!

Then came The New Standard Edinburgh set – as y’all know, we’ve rehearsed long and hard for this, and it all went off without a glitch… well, without a noticeable glitch. Small screw up on the play out to the last tune, but I rescued it, and I v. much doubt anyone but Julie noticed. Julie sang beautifully, and the audience loved it. What fun!

And Set three started with two solo pieces by Cleveland Watkiss – the first a baroque counterpoint thing that was just sublime, and the second a dub/drum ‘n’ bass/gospel thing that was equally amazing. Two fine trio improvs finished off the evening, and everyone went away happy, Julie and I both sold lots of CDs (Cleveland is his usual style didn’t bring any merch).

I think Edinburgh’s going to be magique.

If you were there, please write a review, and post it in the comments here, or over in the forum – thanks for coming!

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Directions to Darbucka

Directions to Darbucka, for tonights gig, or any other Recycle Collective gig.

come out of Farringdon tube, turn left, and immediately left again onto Turnmill Street. turn right onto Clerkenwell Road (the big main road that Turnmill runs into) and then turn left onto St John’s Street, after about 300 metres, at the traffic lights. Darbucka is on the right, on the corner of Compton Street, just past the Tescos.

click here for a map

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Rehearsing done, gig tonight

Yesterday was last rehearsal before tonight’s gig for Julie and I – ran through the whole set twice, with only a couple of mistakes (if you’re at the gig tonight, please remind me when Julie says ‘this is our last song’ or something like that, to make sure the ‘Feedback’ on the Looperlative is set to 100%. Thanks). but all in, it’s sounding great, the song order really works, it’s fun, surprising and I think it’s going to be marvellous.

So, be there!

Today is teaching, followed by solo set practice, followed by gig. click here for Gig details

ta ta!

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Too hot to do much…

No, obviously global warming is just a load of made up nonsense. Yup, this being the hottest summer on record is clearly just a fluke. Anyway. it’s far too hot to do anything for long. I’ve been practicing my solo stuff today (next rehearsal with Julie is tomorrow), and working out how to play Blue Planet off the new album, and refreshing my memory on ‘Nobody Wins Unless Everybody Wins’. Sounding good thus far.

The bad part of practicing is that my office/studio/skip is where the ginger fairly aged feline likes to lie as it’s the coolest room in the house, but he’s really not into me practicing, so he leaves, looking a bit pissed off.

He’s doing remarkably well, considering – I mean, he’s not skipping around like a kitten, but he’s looking better than he was when we came back from the vets not expecting him to last more than a couple of days. if he lasts for more than two weeks, TSP won’t be able to come to Edinburgh with me, and while I’ll miss TSP hugely (not only cos she’s great company, but she’s a wizard with flyering and selling t-shirts and CDs!) I am hoping that the little fella is still around and enjoying life. We’re not going to drag things on when he gets to the point where he’s not enjoying life at all, and aren’t going to put him through any more invasive vet stuff like drips and chemo, but he’s looking pretty good at the moment, so who knows how long he’ll last.

Anyway, I’ve been practicing, sending out CDs, emailing and texting people about Wednesday’s gig, and fielding lots of requests to book Julie and I for cabaret type things at the festival – we’ve really managed to create quite a buzz already! Could end up being the surprise hit of the fringe…

Right, back to learning the songs…

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Friday Random 10 again

Here’s today’s random playlist…

Talking Heads – CrossEyed And Painless (Remain In The Light version, not the ‘Stop Making Sense’ version)
Steve Lawson – Behind Every Word (yay for me!)
Talking Heads – Once In a Lifetime (this time it is from Stop Making Sense)
Duran Duran – Wild Boys
King’s X – Honesty
Kate Bush – Somewhere In Between
Galactic Cowboys – Speak To Me
Window On The Deep – BJ Cole
Stevie Wonder – Knocks Me Off My Feet
Kings X – Alone

two appearances each for Talking Heads and King’s X? Is iTunes making taste-based suggestions for what I should listen to – ‘stop listening to crap 80s pop songs, and get back to listening to lots more Talking Heads and King’s X’ – as advice goes, it’s up there as some of the best I’ve received in a long time!

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Douglas Coupland interview

Douglas Coupland is without doubt my favourite fiction writer. He’s the only one I can think of right now that writes in my language, where I don’t have to step out into someone else’s world to read it. Reading his books is like talking to friends you’ve known for years, with whom you have endless shared jokes and a whole private vocabulary.

I’ve just finished his book-before-last, Eleanor Rigby, which is wonderful – full of the usual Coupland-style reliance on huge coincidence and wrestling with the most enormous questions of modern life, without positing any particular answers, just challenging all of us to live for something bigger, better, more noble than the world as it’s presented to us.

There’s a wonderful interview in the back of the book, which I was trying to find a link to online, but all I found was this one which accompanied his latest book JPod. JPod’s another fine book, though it’s more impressive than deep, in the way that Eleanor Rigby is deep, or Girlfriend In A Coma… it’s back to the zeitgeist defining magic of Generation X, Life After God and Microserfs, rather than the more traditional novel narrative of Miss Wyoming or All Families Are Psychotic.

Anyway, if you haven’t read Eleanor Rigby yet, but the version got the interview in the back – the interview is worth the price of the book itself. Great stuff.

I just wish he’d keep a blog, but I guess after a day writing, the last thing you want to do is write more. It’d be like me putting tonnes of free music online daily. Great idea, but really, if I’m going to be recording music, it’s going to be working towards a bigger project, not just throw-away MusiBlog stuff…

And now that book’s finished, I’m reading ‘God Has A Dream’ by Desmond Tutu – more about this when I’ve finished it. Suffice to say, he’s one of the most profound and inspiring human beings I’ve ever come across.

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"available in all good record stores!"

Well OK, available at Ray’s Jazz. So maybe not all good record stores, but certainly the best record shop in London!

I’ve mentioned Ray’s on this ‘ere blog before – apart from being a fantastic record shop, it’s also the loveliest indie coffee shop in central london, has FREE WIFI and is situated on the first floor of Foyles, the finest book shop in London.

So all in all, it’s a great place, and you can now buy ‘Behind Every Word’ from there. Or order it over the phone from them on 020 7440 3205 (or just order it from me on line by clicking here!)

Anyway, proper shops, that’s always nice.

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Next weeks unmissable Recycle gig

We’re only one week away from the next Recycle Collective gig, and it’s going to be a blinder.

It’s a three part gig – part one is my album launch! Yes, I know that lots of you have already bought Behind Every Word (if you have please head over to the shop and post a review of it there, please!), but here’s your chance to hear lots of the tunes from the album live, and it’ll be a longer solo set than my usual 25 minute opening to the Recycle gigs.

then part two is Julie’s and my Edinburgh preview gig. Yup, it’s the only chance you’ll have to see the entire New Standard show from this years Edinburgh fringe, in London. We’ve been rehearsing lots, have come up with a pretty much perfect set list, and you need to come and see it! No really, it’s a must. Julie’s great, I’m not bad, and what’s more, there’s a part three to the gig, where Julie and I will be joined by Cleveland Watkiss, UK jazz legend, and one of the most amazing musicians ever to play at the Recycle Collective. He’s great.

So there you go, next Wednesday, at Darbucka, it’s only £7 to get in (£5 if you’re a student or an OAP or in the MU or whatever – bring proof, please) and the venue’s fab. bring friends, come early and eat, make a night of it.

Yay!

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Annually Retentive

Dunno if you’ve been watching it (UK readers) but Rob Brydon’s new panel game show thing Annually Retentive is bloomin marvellous. The weirdness of it is that the celeb panel game show bit of it is only about 10 minutes of the whole show. the rest of it is the behind the scenes discussions about the jokes, the guests and Rob being a really miserable luvvie with a fragile ego. It’s brilliantly written and fantastically observed. Great stuff. Click the link above to watch it online.

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