Dear all,
We’re in November. How is that even possible? Anyway, I write to you after a cracking UFQ gig in Birmingham last night at the MAC. The band was formed and is 3/4 based in Birmingham too so it was something of a hometown gig and the crowd gave us a great night. This followed a damn good night up in Ormskirk as well at Edge Hill Arts Centre. Prior to that we had a great turnout at Huntingdon Hall in Worcester which was also much fun and a, yes dash it, another wonderful gig at Colchester Arts Centre. The tour has really been a joy and we’ve been thrilled to play to full houses. I should also add the Noodle Bar in Colchester – just wow. In between Worcester and Colchester we headed to Bedford and played a rare band wedding gig for Tom’s sister Kate and despite a band load of illness we had a good time and it was a lovely wedding.
So coming up – the UFQ tour finishes next weekend in Brockweir and May Hill in Gloucestershire so some rural settings to finish off a cracking month and a bit of gigging and being a spanner (see last paragraph). Before then, a couple of Live Music Now gigs beckon at a special needs school and a care home then it’s into the studio to FINISH OFF MY ALBUM!!! I’m quite excited about that.
Then on November 9th Meaghan Blanchard arrives from Canada for our tour after a cracking time out in her country last year. The dates are:
12/11 – Gatehouse Theatre, Stafford
http://www.staffordgatehousetheatre.co.uk/calendar/2014-11-12
13/11 – Cecil Sharp House, London
http://www.cecilsharphouse.org/component/content/article/21-shared/shared-events/1789-dan-walsh-meaghan-blanchard-kizzy-crawford-tim-chaisso
14/11 – Spring Bank Arts Centre, New Mills, Peak District
http://www.seetickets.com/event/dan-walsh-and-meaghan-blanchard/spring-bank-arts/813632
15/11 – AFO Conference (not public)
16/11 – Old Cinema Launderette, Durham
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/279651
17/11 – House Concert, Edinburgh
email – https://www.danwalshbanjo.co.uk/dan-walsh
18/11 – Kitchen Garden Cafe, Birmingham
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/281113
21/11 – Maverick Events, The Moonshine, Easton
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/event/meaghan-blanchard-and-dan-walsh-tickets/137097
Do come and see us, should be a cracking tour! And so to my breathtaking moments of stupidity in recent times. I was rather hoping I’d only have one of these to tell you about but yesterday decreed otherwise. Firstly, let’s start with the keys episode. After the UFQ gig in Colchester we stayed at a hotel in Braintree it being on our way back to Birmingham (and then for me obviously Stafford). We found the hotel (after a rather tiresome time getting an explanation from the receptionist at the other one as to where the one we wanted was despite them both having the same postcode) and settled down to a few drinks. I even had a bottle opener handy on my keyring to open a couple of cheeky bottles of beer. That was lucky wasn’t it? What wasn’t so lucky was leaving said keyring on the bedside table in the hotel room it containing my house and car keys. Even less lucky was not realising this unfortunate fact until being an hour and a half north of the hotel travelling in someone else’s car en route to where my car is in Birmingham where I don’t live. Yes that wasn’t so lucky.
Then yesterday I blundered once more. I was in the dressing room in Birmingham and paid a visit to the toilet. The light didn’t come on so I concluded that this was not one of those rather pointless automatic lighting systems that go out when you’re sitting on the loo. I saw a cord hanging from the ceiling and concluded this must be the light switch. Well, it didn’t come on so I thought my goodness I’m simply going to have to relieve myself in the dark. This I did, and I might add it all sounded like I did so accurately, and then was astonished to come back to the dressing room to find three members of staff practically bursting through the door saying an alarm had gone off in the toilet. Ah, that would be what that cord was for then.