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All is well with the world

OK, so the labour party is run by fascists, public transport is a disaster, London’s getting set to be ruined by the Olympics… But Danny Baker is back on Radio London so all is well with the world.

Oh yes, for the last few months, the radio dial has been Bakerless – in his place the broadcasting car-crash that is Joanne Goode, and now the antipodean waste of oxygen that called himself Jono Coleman. But now Danny is back, in the afternoons, and the BBC London 94.9 running order is looking a lot better. Vanessa Feltz is on from 9-12 – she was dreadful in the afternoons, but seems to handle topical serious phone-in better than celeb gossip nonsense. Robert Elms still has the lunch time slot, which he does so well, and now Danny in the afternoons. What’s more, he has Amy Lame back on as well.

All is indeed well with the world.

Soundtrack – David Bowie, ‘Reality’ (marvellous stuff – it’s been a while since Bowie last did two really good albums in a row. Let’s hope he keeps this up); The Pixies, ‘Bossanova’ (one of the Pixies albums I never got round to buying first time out – genius is parts, but it’s no Doolittle).

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gigblog

Ok, last night was the gig at Darbucka – big thankyous to all you blogsters who made it along to the gig.

Before we get to the gig, back a few hours – 11am and we were back rehearsing. Wednesday night’s rehearsal with Orphy was messed up by Rise disappearing, saying he’d be back by 8 and not turning up til gone 11. Helpful. Doug, Orphy and I ran through the songs, and it was clear that Orphy was going to do a fantastic job on this stuff, though like me it was a real test of his stamina having to play this stuff consistently for that amount of time!

Thursday morning’s rehearsal was better, in that Rise was there, so we got to go through all the songs. It was interesting for me in that each time we’d play a song, Rise would notice another bit that I’d missed out from the CD, so the parts were getting more and more complex, which made it even more of an enjoyable challenge. Orphy again acquitted himself fantastically.

In the afternoon, Rise and Doug headed off into town, planning to be back in time to run through the songs with Jez before we packed up to go to the gig. Jez arrives, but no sight of D and R. We give up on the idea of practicing and instead start to load the cars up with all my toys, Orphy’s kit, jez’s piano etc. Cars loaded, still no D and R. I write a note, so we can leave, and just as we’re getting into the cars, they show up. The tube system is screwed, so big delay getting back. Quick turn around and we head to the gig. Soundchecks go fine, with Simon Jaquet from Duncan Senyatso’s band sitting in on drums (Orphy was performing the two-gig-dash, playing at a jazz fest before heading down to get to us for the last set).

Right, jumping forward to the gig itself, it was a marvellous night ,and felt like a suitably eclectic tribute to John Peel. Calamateur gets better every time I hear him. An excellent set that kicked things off really well. We did two songs together at the end of the set, which were lovely (and we’re recording together all this weekend, building on the stuff we’ve already done, so expect an album some time in the next couple of years!)

next up was me – not having had much of a chance for practicing, I didn’t launch any new songs at this one, though I’d intended to do at least one. Instead, the only non-album tune was the one for Eric. Set went well, people were entertained, lots of good comments afterwards.

And then Rise’s set – started by two tunes just Rise Doug and Orphy which sounded lovely, Jez and I then joined in for 6 songs. Despite a couple of wobbles (largely due to Orphy’s kit moving on the stage, and me having to hold it in place with my foot!!), we sounded pretty good, by all accounts, and people really enjoyed it. Doug and Rise were thrown by people not getting up and dancing – which, not surprisingly is not something that Orphy Jez or I have ever really thought about, not ever playing dance music as such. I guess it’s a london thing, and also just a Darbucka thing – it’s a pretty chilled venue, and people were blissed out enjoying the sounds…

So all in, a good night – it would have been nice to get a load more people there (the numbers were OK, but for Rise’s set in particular, it would work really well it the place was packed and dancing), but as a first outing for a particular lineup it was a great way to play without pressure, and to just enjoy the music. I had a great time, remembered the lines, played well, and much fun was had.

There are some photos of the gig, posted by the lovely RichardH off the forum, here

eagle-eyed bloglings will notice that I’m actually standing up to play there… don’t expect this to become a regular occurrence.

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Handy things online

I love it when websites hand you resources that you’d otherwise have to take ages to make.

maps.google.co.uk is a one such resource – you can link direct to a map of a place, at whatever scale you want, and if the place itself is in their directory, it’ll even do the directions and stuff for you –

Click here for a Google Map to Darbucka, with directions – Darbucka is the place marked ‘B’ on the map – click on the B, and it’ll give you the option to get directions. Nearest tube is Farringdon.

We’ve got a bit more rehearsing to do today, then the logistical fun of getting everyone and all the gear down to Darbucka, and then the proper fun of the gig!

See you there!

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Rehearsal fun

So Rise Kagona and Doug Veitch are here, and we’ve had two rehearsals – last night was just the three of us, two guitars and bass, running through the songs for tomorrow night, and then today Jez joined us to put the keyboard parts in place. Playing this stuff is just so much fun – it’s a challenge to get the African feel right, and to try and ‘think African’, feeling the songs rather than analysing what’s going on, but I’m definitely feeling more inside these songs that I did with Duncan’s stuff at Greenbelt – I think it’s just having spent the last couple of months listening to African stuff more than anything else has got me into the right head-space.

There are a few of the lines that I’d got slightly wrong from the CDs, so we’ve been correcting the parts, and I’m pleased with how quickly I’ve got a hang of that stuff. It’s been a lot of work and it appears to have paid off. You’ll have to come tomorrow night to see if it worked!

Gig details again, in case you’ve missed them up until now –

Venue – Darbucka World Music Bar, 182 St John’s Street, Clerkenwell, London EC1 – nearest tube, Farringdon.
Date – Thursday Oct 13th
Time – doors 7.30, first band on 8pm.
Bill – Rise Kagona and band, Steve Lawson and Calamateur

Be there!

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The Future of the music biz…

I’ve gone on about this enough times that you don’t need me to say it all again… however, it’s really nice when other people say it in a slightly different way with better graphics – step forward, Jyoti Mishra – surely you’ve read things on Jyoti’s lovely blog before? If not, you’ve not been following the links from here very carefully – his is a fab blog. Anyway, his is also the only blog I read by someone who recorded a number one single in his bedroom. He’s in a good position to offer an analysis of the industry.

As a spoiler, he comes to the same conclusions as me – that artist to end user is the model of the future, with no intermediaries. You buying music direct from us (or us buying direct from you if you’re musicians as well!), us charging less but making more, you feeling some level of investment in the process and ongoing loveliness of the music, and us being vocally grateful for your patronage.

Have a read of his post – it’s pretty succinct (then go and have a listen to his last album ‘Peek and Poke’ – a marvellous slice of low-fi tune-heavy electro-pop. Retro in all the right ways.)

Right, now I’ve got a million and one jobs to do, so less blogging, more hoovering…

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6 songs down…

Right, that’s the first 6 songs on the Rise Cd learnt… and my hands are exhausted. Time for a break and a cup of mint tea.

I’m just glad that I’m playing my solo set before Rise’s set, or my hands would be too tired to play! This is like the bass equivalent of circuit training. The masterful thing about it is how he’s managed to write such fantastically busy bass lines without them ever getting in the way of the tunes. If you did this kind of playing in a pop/rock band, it’d sound ridiculous.

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A very fine Big Idea

never let it be said that Britain doesn’t have a vibrant and burgeoning jazz scene.

Mark Lockheart is one of the busiest and most respected sax players in the country, and for his current tour he’s assembled a fantastic group featuring four marvellous saxophonists with a killer rhythm section. It’s pretty rare to see four sax players in a contemporary jazz setting in the UK – it’s not often that anyone can afford to take that kind of project on the road, but Mark has managed it.

Due to my having a gig on the same night, I won’t be able to make it to the London gig next thursday, so last night, Orphy and I headed out to Oxford to see ‘Mark Lockheart’s Big Idea’ play at The Spin, a weekly jazz gig at The Wheatsheaf in Oxford. I’d heard a lot about the gig from friends who’d played there, so was looking forward to checking out the venue too.

The gig was fantastic – playing mainly music from Mark’s latest album Moving Air, with Mark, Julian Siegel , Steve Buckley and Rob Townsend on saxes and bass clarinets, Martin France on drums John Parricelli on guitar and Dudley Phillips on bass.

Mark has a very distinctive writing style, that can be traced all the way back to the tunes he wrote for seminal british jazz outfit, Loose Tubes in the mid 80s. The horn arrangements are stunningly beautiful, and he made full use of the dynamic possibilities of having four horns on stage. Parricelli was on rare form, playing beautifully and blending with the sound of the horns magnificently.

Fortunately, the room was packed, and the audience were hugely appreciative. It’d be mad to suggest that Britain was in any way deficient in the jazz world – I guess the problem, as it is in most parts of the world, is a lack of places to play anything other than standards. The main jazz gigs in London are restaurant gigs, with venues like The New Vortex and Ronnie Scott’s doing their bit to promote interesting vibrant music. It’s still tough to find a gig, moreso now that the foyer gigs are the Festival Hall are on hold while the renovate the building.

So, in the spirit of last night’s gig, I’m going to offer you a beginner’s guide to the British Jazz scene – a handful of essential CDs that prove our place alongside the Americans and Scandinavians, while still all sounding uniquely British…

– The obvious place to start is with Theo Travis – his last two quartet CDs, Heart Of The Sun and Earth To Ether are both outstanding.
– Next up would be Ben Castle – his last album Blah Street is marvellous – clever, funny and intelligent in all the right ways.
– Of course Mark Lockheart who inspired this list in the first place – his latest, Moving Air is fabulous.
– And then there’s Mo Foster – any of his records are worth getting, but particularly Time To Think is gorgeous.
– Another one featuring Mark Lockheart, the Works is Patrick Wood’s amazing quartet – what Weather Report would have sounded like if they’d grown up in London. Beware Of The Dog is one of my favourite instrumental albums from any part of the world, not just the UK.

If you were to buy that lot (and I think you should), you’d have a pretty decent representation of why I’m excited about the future of British music, rather than wallowing in the despair that would ensue from burying yourself in the world of X-Factor, Pop Idol and the lame faecal mountain that is the pop charts.

Soundtrack – some tracks that I’ve been recording over the last three days with american fretless guitarist, Ned Evett – some really really cool stuff (to add to the stockpiles of other really really cool stuff that are sitting here waiting to be released!) – hopefully I’ll have an MP3 taster or two for you soon from this lot…

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Edinburgh Fringe Stats…

just had a ‘fringe bulletin’ email through, with some facts and figures about this year’s Fringe Festival –

Fringe 2005 presented 26,995 performances of 1800 shows in 247 venues, and hosted 16,190 performers.
As the 59th Edinburgh Festival Fringe drew to a close, the Fringe Society announced a record 1,335,000 ticket sales.

That’s nuts! And only the 335,000 were my gigs! Who were the other million, and why weren’t they at my show?

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'Forward With Technology'

or ‘Vorsprung Durch Technik’, as advertising men speaking cod-German say.

I’ve just bought meself an Oyster Card – prompted largely by the announcement that the cash price of tube tickets is going up, but oyster tickets are coming down. I guess the plan is to get more people prepaying for tickets, topping up either automatically or online, and therefor not clogging up ticket-halls with huge queues, and getting people in and out of the tube network quicker. Either way, the price decrease is welcome, and the increase isn’t, so I’m getting an Oyster card.

And what’s more, Oyster cards make a great bleeping noise when you go through the barriers. Very satisfying.

Britain’s public transport is currently a shambles. Well, not all of it, but certainly the london tube, and the national rail system are nowhere near of the standard they could and should be. Both are pretty much crippled by PFI, or the threat of PFI… The selling off of the Tube was one of those things that nobody, save people managing investment portfolios, wanted. Everyone except the government recognises that what’s needed is huge investment, on a level that won’t be profitable to the tube enough for it to work under private investment. That’s because the benefits won’t be felt by the Tube itself. it will be of benefit to London, make it more attractive to tourists, render cars a pain the ass, and generally improve access for all Londoners, but the necessary renovations will cost billions of pounds.

And I haven’t even started on just how far short of the legal requirements for disabled access the Tube system falls. Somewhere less than 10% of the stations are wheelchair accessible. What it must be like traveling by tube for a disabled person I dread to think. There’s no way that the PFI funding is going to prioritise disabled access – there’s no money to be made in helping cripples get round London, of course. They can just get their mobility busses, and rely on friends to ferry them around. Clearly their independence means nothing in this most modern of modern capital cities.

Anyway, I will soon be Oyster-boy, swanning in and out of tube stations without a care in the world.

Soundtrack – KD Lang, ‘Ingenue’.

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