Dear all,
Time really does fly doesn’t it? I can’t believe we are on the eve of 2016 already and the festive season is upon us. Since my last blog the touring season has largely been over but still had plenty to do. The first weekend of December saw a very enjoyable jam and potential new project to arise from it…I shall keep you posted! The next weekend saw a private function that I can’t tell you about owing to whom it was for…but that saw a great jam too! Finally, Urban Folk Quartet finished our gigging year last Friday in Bristol at Colston Hall which was absolutely fantastic with a very lively crowd indeed and then it was back home to my favourite solo gig of all – the good old Market Vaults in Stafford for the annual pre-Christmas silly-length gig. Loved it!
I was also reacquainted with the wonders of trains this month! I had a very entertaining day heading to London for a very brief appointment in relation to my upcoming trip to New Zealand. As they are so cheap I bought a ‘London Midland only’ ticket which means you travel on the rather long but cheap service as opposed to the short but expensive one. I turned up for the 0956…which was cancelled. The next one was at 1056 and thankfully I was not on a tight schedule for the appointment so I made the short trip home and came back for the 1056…which was cancelled. Because Virgin are gits, they wouldn’t let London Midland customers on (perish the thought that the train system was there for customers eh?) and London Midland are crap enough to have two trains cancelled I had to go to Birmingham and then Birmingham to London thus running really rather late.
Then came the hilarious incident. It’s always a little startling to look out of the stationary train window to see the driver crawling underneath the train. An announcement came over the speaker – ‘apologies for the delay to this service but we have just run over a tent’. Marvellous. Fortunately the delay was brief and I executed a masterclass of not dithering in London and was there less than an hour.
So anyway, to finish I should probably do that whole ‘how was 2015’ thing. Well it was busy! Two new albums, hundreds of gigs, a ridiculous amount of miles and precious little sleep! Trips to Canada, Norway, France, Belgium, Denmark, USA and Germany were all highly enjoyable and both my solo album and the UFQ album were very well received. Next year sees more crazy touring including my return to New Zealand and Canada. It’s a mad life and sometimes, I’m not going to lie, I long for one that involves less travel, more time in one place and a tad more predictability. But then I do a gig in some far flung place, people smile (one hopes anyway…), I play music and feel tickety boo and think I have the best job in the world. I am therefore a musician. Could be worse.
Merry Christmas everyone,
Danjo