Always such a great crowd at The Noel Arms - gig was nicely mellower than it has been in the past - afternoon gigs are like that - but there was still lots of folks on hand to sing the old songs. I sang The Water Is Wide and Help Me Ronda :-)  Another St Patricks weekend ends with us tired but content with a job well done.

( Read more... )

So we did 3 sets at a 40th birthday party - we'd also played at his 30th :-). .So we did 3 sets at the 40th birthday party - we'd also played at his 30th
( Read more... )

An especially large and jolly crowd at The Grange for St Patrick's Night - The 10th year we've played here! They loved it all! Not just the old songs. They were certainly well into it. I had that slight feeling I get sometimes that I wasn't quite *at* the gig - but I could sense it was going well.

More or less took the day off. Strolled, met a chum for lunch & stroll, mastered some tracks from Quadelectronic 100, went to Birmingham to see Danny Baker who was a constant stream of funny anecdotes. It was quite exhausting following his breathless stream of memories. What an amazing memory for detail he has.

( Read more... )

First solo songs concert since I can remember - months certainly. Went well - new whistles, new kalimba, & new bombarde all debuted :-) Was fairly bold with the setlist in the first set - "hits" in the 2nd. Then lots of folks to talk to. When I got home I was very tired, a bit hoarse, but pleased. :-)

Old/New" Set 1 - Time To Talk, Tomorrow Lives ( Read more... )

Concert for University Of The 3rd Age. Concert first set, 2nd set they were keen on ceilidh. 95 year old George Lees sang You Are My Sunshine and played ukelele with us. :-)

( Read more... )

Finished mix of final track. 9 months since he sent me his first vocal.
Then mastered all the tracks and found one needed fixing so I remixed that too. The Buddhist monk likes them both!
Files sent to Dropbox. Instrumentation notes written. It feels like maybe... I HAVE FINISHED!

Recording with Mo Coulson gave us both a boost - plus we recorded a new very layered 7 minute track (including my new metalophone & bombarde! ) and greatly improved a 3 minute track. :-) I'd say we're about 3/5ths of our way to an album.

( Read more... )

Had a day out in Brum beofre going home. Went to Hobgoblin Music Shop which boldened me into buying things - replacements mostly - new whsitles, a posher bombarde (!), a replacement treble kalimba, and as an indulgence a metal slit-drum sounding like a metalophone. Then met up with G for lunch at the Edwardian Tearooms which is in the Museum & Art ( Read more... )

Hadn't planned to go but G was working in Brum all week hotel included and we'd not managed to meet for our 5th wedding anniversary so I got the last tickets to see Gilbert again. It was fab! Plus great 8 piece band. Waited quite a while after but had a nice chat with him and gave him a CD.
( Read more... )