Tag: Gigs

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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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Home again…

Back home in North London now. It’s a quieter Giz-less place, and it’s now a bit more real that the little furry chap has gone. V. sad. The other fairly aged feline (tabby model) is very clingy at the moment, which is nice from a lots-of-cuddles point of view, but possibly suggests that he’s missing his ginger buddy…

The last gig on Saturday was great – our biggest audience, and a wonderful reaction from the crowd. I managed to dish out almost every flyer and poster we had (despite being handed a ‘hidden’ stack of flyers at 10pm!) and we played well, again. We didn’t really have an off-night, musically – Thursday was the least marvellous as I think we were both pretty tired by then but even then we played well.

So now I’m back, nursing my knackered knee, having had a mostly fantastic time at the Fringe, met some lovely people, caught up with lovely old friends, played some great fun cabaret shows, seen a few marvellous shows, flyered and postered like a mad thing, and done as much as I could to make the whole thing a success. Which it was. It could’ve been bigger, but with TSP coming back half-way through the week, and julie and her hubby for some reason not really believing in the usefulness of flyering, it was a tough one too. that many days pounding the streets of edinburgh, followed by setting up all the gear, packing down the gear, playing the late night shows was exhausting. But the music was fantastic – it’s a set I’m very proud of, and Julie’s got an amazing voice and sang the songs so well.

In some ways I wish I was still up there – I’ve never been to the Fringe just as a punter, and it’s clearly the single coolest place in the world to go for a holiday, except Greenbelt. I’d love to stay and hang out for a few days, but no time for that – bassists need to be taught, Recycle gigs need to be organised and promoted, Greenbelt needs to be prepared for, and my Italy trip in October needs sorting out… now more than ever, it’s looking like I’ll probably take the train, given that you can’t even take books on the plane (supposedly because you might decide to bored the passengers to death with a reading from Midnight’s Children?)

I’ve also got to sort out some more solo gigs! I’ve had a new album come out, done a launch gig, but don’t have anything as yet planned for the UK – all this New Standard stuff has taken over, and I think it would be prudent for me to work on some more me-gigs for a while!

If you’ve just found this after coming to see us at the Fringe – thanks so much for coming, it was a real pleasure to play for you, and to meet some many lovely people in the audience. I’ll be back there next year for sure. Feel free to join the mailing list to keep up to date with goings on through the year… xx

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That's More Like It!

Right, that was a much better audience size. Back on track now.

After a day spent flyering, postering and eating interesting food in funky cafes, a fine gig. Not only that, but we got an encore. Much fun.

We changed tack today – decided to offer some 2 for 1 offers to entice in a bigger crowd. Lots of very eager sounding people on the royal mile, and out and about. Also lots of people recognising me from all over the place – MySpace, Bass Day UK, The Radio (they didn’t recognise me by seeing me from the radio – that would just be silly – but when they saw my name, then said ‘aha! I heard you on Late Junction last week’). All over the place.

Likewise, a straw poll of those at the gig showed they came from all different paths – flyers, posters, friends’ recommendations, me sneakily recommending the gig to people who’ve come into the venue for information about something completely different, people reading the Fringe programme…

Both of which show that you can’t do either/or with promotion of any kind. We’re all looking for the short cut, the one thing that will expand our audience, give us fame fortune and a full house every night. But it doesn’t exist. It’s all cumulative. People who’ve seen your name in the programme might only think to come to the show if they then get given a flyer. People who’ve heard you on the radio might only visit your website after they see you at the fringe. People who’ve checked out your myspace page might be more inclined to buy a CD once they’ve seen you in person.

Talking of seeing people in person, I bumped into my old boss today – Howard Jones. You may or may not know that I toured playing bass for Howard in 1999. It was a fantastic experience, playing really great songs with a really lovely band. He was a real treat to work with. I haven’t seen him in years, but he’s up here doing a show, that sadly clashes with mine so I won’t get to see it, but he’s great live, and I’d have loved to have got along. Still, ’twas a delight to catch up with him, and I’ll have to get to one of the gigs on his Autumn tour.

Tomorrow’s a busy day – we’re doing Mervyn Stutter’s Pick Of The Fringe at lunch time, then our gig at night, and then The Midnight Carousel again at 1am… In between, much flyering, postering cajoling and coercing of lovely people to come and check out the show.

thenewstandard.co.uk

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First night success!

We had two gigs yesterday – the first was a 20 minute set at the Fringe opening party. I did this last year where it was a bit of a pointless waste of time given that I was on straight after a Stones tribute band… not the best of Stevie warm-ups, I’m sure you’ll agree…

Still, this year we were told the band before us were a cappella as I mentioned…. were they shite! Four singers with massive fog-horn voices and a rhythm section doing vegas stylee cabaret stuff. Great.

Anyway, we played, a few people watched and really enjoyed it, so that’s good. More worthwhile than last year methinks.

The rest of the day was flyering and postering. Got back to the venue after the opening party gig, and friends started arrived – the oh so lovely G and J, our delicious hosts from last year, and Simon who organised the gigs with Duncan Senyatso last year at Greenbelt.

The balls up was that the gig before us wasn’t due to finish til 11! which is when we were due to start. Then they overran… fuggin’ jazz nonsense. So we got on as quick as we could, while they packed up slowly and chatted to friends. Started about 25-30 minutes late, but the audience (my biggest opening night crowd at the fest yet) stuck around and were very appreciative. We played pretty well – only a couple of mistakes that no-one but us would have noticed. So apart from the jazz-induced lateness, a very fine night.

No proper gig today – instead we’re doing the Midnight Carousel, a cabaret club, which’ll be great fun. :o)

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Fringe underway.. :o)

We’ve arrived in Edinburgh… well, right now I’m in Berwick on Tweed, but I’ve been up in Edinburgh for the last three days, putting up posters, arranging extra gigs, and saw my first show last night – Stephen Daltry in Ludwig’s Van – a one man light comedy show about classical music. Like Gerard Hoffnung, which is no bad thing in my book, always loved Hoffnung’s stuff. Anyway, much fun, worth going to see, particularly if you know a little about classical music.

Other than that, Julie and I have tramped all over Edinburgh putting up posters in windows, shop doorways, loos, restaurant walls – anywhere with a space and the permission to put them up! Today, flyering starts with a vengeance – out of the Royal Mile convincing people that ours is the show they just can’t afford to miss (which shouldn’t be too hard, as, let’s face it, it’s true).

Gig in Glasgow on Thursday was a tough one – at such short notice, it was a sparsely populated affair. The bar itself wasn’t, just the bit where we were playing, but the people who watched seemed to really enjoy it, and a few said they were coming to Edinburgh to see it again, which was nice.

So tomorrow, Sunday, we’ve got a tech rehearsal in the afternoon, the Fringe opening party early evening, and then gig #1 at 11pm. It’s two for one on tickets tomorrow night, so if you’re in Edinburgh, come down, bring a friend, and enjoy!

click here to buy tickets!
and here to hear the MP3s and read about the show!

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The disappearance of the best gig in the country…

Ronnie Scott’s is one of the most famous jazz clubs in the world. It’s legendary. The late saxophonist who gave his name to the club was clearly a tireless campaigner for jazz music in London, and for as long as most jazzers can remember, Ronnie’s was a place to go and hang, to meet other musicians, hear some great tunes.

They’ve always done really cheap tickets for MU members, and best of all, they always booked a local band to play opposite the big names. It was pretty much the only serious venue around that booked UK jazz acts for week-long residencies. the money wasn’t great, but it was fabulous exposure, a chance to shift a load of CDs, and a great one for the CV. Without doubt, one of the best gigs that any UK jazz band could get booked for. I’ve seen some great stuff there – Ben Castle’s quartet opposite The Yellowjackets, Christine Tobin opposite Gary Husband….

well now, they’ve refurbed the building, but made a right arse of the booking policy and now have a house band. The James Pearson trio play every night, with a different guest. Yup, just like a regular restaurant gig. There are lots of these kinds of gigs around – house trio, hired in front person, plodding through the Real Book, sometimes playing lovely versions of standards, often sounding a bit bored. It makes a really nice accompaniment to dinner and is a great way to spend £4 if your local pub has put a gig on like that in the back room.

But, it’s not what I’d expect if I’d just paid £45 (£45!!!!!!!!!!) to see Chick Corea or Wynton Marsalis or whoever.

I’ve not heard James Pearson play. This isn’t about him or his trio. It’s just that the format isn’t an art gig. It’s not fair on the front person to not have their own band there – Theo isn’t going to sound anything like his records with some generic trio behind him. You can’t turn up to a blowing gig and expect them to play Schizoid Man. Ben Castle couldn’t go in with the chart for Mousecatcher General. They’ll just end up playing Satin Doll and Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, and it’ll be like any other restaurant gig in London.

So, if you feel moved by this, feel free to boycott Ronnie’s. email them and tell them why, if you like. I just think it’s sad, and will take my custom and my gig money to The Vortex, or the 606 or just about anywhere else instead.

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Two nights at the vortex.

Been to two gigs at The Vortex in the last week – last Monday, I went to see the launch of Ingrid Laubrock and Liam Noble’s album ‘Let’s Call This…’ – I’ve heard Ingrid play before, in a quartet, but wasn’t familiar with Liam’s playing other than through MySpace. The music was exquisite, whether improvising or playing Monk tunes, the interplay between the two was gorgeous, with Ingrid switching between squeally extended range techniques and lovely lush full melodic stuff, with Liam providing entirely unpredictable but completely logic accompaniment – a really really interesting piano player.

The album is released – like so many great UK jazz albums – on Oliver Weindling’s Babel Label, home to such artists as Polar Bear, Acoustic Ladyland, Christine Tobin, Huw Warren… definitely worth investigating.

Then this saturday, Lianne Carrol was booked to play but fell ill, so the lovely and ever-so-slightly mad Estelle Kokot was booked to fill in, and did a fab job. It was also a rather nice London jazz hang, with JazzShark over from NYC, Orphy Robinson calling in, Huw Warren visiting from north west Wales, Christine Tobin nursing a nasty cut in her leg from a bike accident, and the aforementioned Oliver Weindling from Babel Label.

The Vortex is a lovely place to hang out – if you see something on their Programme that you’re going to, drop me a line and I might meet you there if I’m not playing myself.

Dalston feels like it’s a bit out of the way, but if you’re driving from north london it’s really easy to get to, and it’s just round the corner from Dalston Kingsland BR station… Go on, go out and support some homegrown jazz instead of wasting your time and money on an overpriced trip to Ronnie Scott’s.

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More recycle bookings…

Been busy over the last couple of weeks lining up the musicians for the new few RC gigs – lots of the people have had on my wish-list for ages are now booked! Yay!

August 23rd – Sebastian Rochford, Andy Hamill and me. This is a bit of a dream line-up. Seb’s one of my favourite drummers I’ve ever played with. We did one gig together in Brighton a couple of years ago, and he listened so well to the loop stuff, and played beautifully. An immensely creative chap, and Mercury Prize nominee last year, no less! He’s in Polar Bear and Acoustic LadyLand and plays with lots of people in the F-IRE collective.

And Andy Hamill. As well as officially being of the nicest people in jazz ever, Andy’s also one of my favourite double bassists anywhere. If you’ve heard either of Theo’s last couple of albums, he’s the low end on there, but has also played with 4 Hero, Carleen Anderson, Shea Seger, Theo Travis, Mark Murphy, Nitin Sawhney, Chris Bowden, Boris Grebenshikov, Cara Dillon, Tracey Thorn, Kylie Minogue, Ben Castle, Ursula Rucker and Harry Hill!

I’ve been wanting to try a trio with drums and double bass for ages, and feel so lucky that the first time I get to try it is with two musicians of this kind of quality. Wow.

And then, as if that wasn’t enough, on Sept 20th, we’ve got saxophonist Jason Yarde, one of the most celebrated young british jazzers of recent times. An outstanding performer, composer, improvisor – a really really interesting musician, who will add something completely new to the RC vibe, for sure. Another huge talent.

And with Jason and I, making a very welcome return, Leo Abrahams – currently out on the road playing guitar for Roxy Music, is also Brian Eno’s guitar monkey, and has worked with Imogen Heap, Nik Kershaw, Ed Harcourt, Paul Simon and a host of other great people. He was excellent last time, he’ll be just as great this time.

And at the moment, it looks like October is going to be BJ Cole and Ingrid Laubrock joining me. How lucky am I? Yay!

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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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Deeper Still

just had a beautiful email from a friend in California about the new album. I didn’t know that this guy knew Eric Roche, but it turns out he was a big fan, and was deeply saddened by Eric’s death. Likewise he had no idea that I knew Eric or would have been inspired to write a tune for him.

His email spells out his own loss, and the feeling of something missing at NAMM this year with Eric (formerly an ever-present figure on the Avalon guitars stand) no longer being there. ‘Deeper Still’, it seems, says something that he was feeling as well as what I was feeling, and I’m once again reminded that this music lark is deeper than all the day to day stuff of marketing CDs and getting gigs and hoping people like it enough to buy it.

It’s emails like this that are the REAL reason for music. They aren’t, to be honest, what I have in mind in the day to day business of being a musician (it’d be easy to pretend that my motives are that lofty, but obviously they aren’t), but they are the reason why music is there. They are about what music gives us, a wordless language to tell stories that we’d never get round to telling with words, or where a particular form of words would alienate some who would otherwise get the message, just not the syntax.

I don’t write music to move people. i write music to tell my own story, and to try and get as deep inside that story as I can. There are certain things within that story – in my case, they are very often deaths, but also environmental, political, social and personal concerns – that can indwell a particular piece of music, and when that comes across, it’s a very special moment. Not everyone who hears that new album is going to get that much from ‘Deeper Still’ – clearly, that doesn’t happen with anything – but to make that kind of connection with someone is a very special thing, and one not to be taken lightly.

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