Dear all,
Well as you can see the website has been overhauled and looks brand spanking new! Added to which, scarily, you can now comment on these blogs so the public can see. Good lord…I welcome comments it would be great to hear from you (although don’t let it turn into youtube style world war 3 – see previous blog)
and many thanks to those who have emailed in the past and feel free to still do that if you prefer. Many thanks to James and Sublime Media Ltd for such a great site and thanks also to Russ Palmer for the original one which served me very well indeed.
So what’s been happening since my last entry? Quite a bit actually. After the Isle of Wight (did I mention that was a tad muddy?), I had a couple of bits of wonderfully rewarding work starting in London with a performance with Pound in a mental health rehabilitation centre which was great fun as was the next day which I spent at a special school in Staffordshire. Both days were fabulous fun and a reminder of what a powerful communicator music is. Then followed a day in front of a video camera to record a preview interview video for youtube all about the new album. I’ll let you know when it’s uploaded, many thanks to Dennis Harrison for doing a great job on it.
Then it was a return to normal gigging with a return for Walsh and Pound to the Ram Folk Club in Thames Ditton, simply one of the best folk clubs around. It was a fantastic gig as it was the first time and better still, one of the organisers made me a birthday banjo cake! It was my birthday just to clarify he didn’t randomly make me a cake in the shape of a banjo because he liked me or anything…just to clear that up. Anyway it was lovely and so kind. Many thanks Ian. On the subject of cakes, the next day I got my very own Lesley’s cheesecake at Joxer Brady’s. Have I told you about Lesley’s cheesecakes? I’m sure I must have done. It’s always difficult when writing these things to know what I’ve already waffled on about or not but I suppose if I have you can just allow your attention to wander while I explain for the benefit of those that don’t know about them. Or I could check my previous blogs, but I can’t be arsed. So Lesley, one of the regulars at Joxers makes cheesecakes for people’s birthdays and they are heavenly. Mine was dark cholocate, orange and ginger and was like sex on a chocolate base. The gig was also wonderful as ever and thanks to all at Joxers who always make it so.
Then came the experience of a lifetime on Sunday. No nothing to do with trains, those who know me well will know of my passionate love of Graceland, Paul Simon’s album. Well I’d never got to see him before, but on Sunday a dream came true. I saw the man himself perform Graceland with the original Graceland band. It was unbelievable and to top it all on the same bill through the day were Robert Randolph, Punch Brothers and Alison Krauss and Union Station. Musical orgasms were plentiful and I need to thank my wonderful Mum for the best birthday present ever!
So coming up then…I’m fairly local this weekend with gigs at Stafford GPO Club on Friday and the Railway in Norton Bridge on Saturday, the latter a long time favourite of mine. Then after a spot of session work which I’ll tell you about at some point, Walsh and Pound return to Warwick Folk Festival on the Saturday before I head Northeast for a trio of solo gigs at the Sage Gateshead, Durham Gala Theatre and Crook Hall. Marvellous! The best news – the album’s to be released on 3rd September, it’s official! It can already be pre-ordered I believe but feel free to send me an email if you’d rather do things the old fashioned postage way.
So a couple of things to finish off. Firstly, politics. The Labour Party have got right on my tits. As you know I’m not overly pro-the coalition but I am seething with the Labour Party for being so petty and pathetic as to make it difficult for this House of Lords reform to go through. Purely for the sake of causing problems in the coalition, and let’s face it they’re pretty good at doing that for themselves, they’ve vetoed the timing motion which basically means it won’t happen. Pathetic. And to top it all, the firm who were going to keep us safe during the olympics apparently have crucially overlooked the need to actually employ people to do it. Nice.
Finally, you’ve probably read about the Springsteen/McCartney debacle at Hyde Park (those who haven’t they were muted because they breached a resident’s curfew thing). Now don’t get me wrong, there is an element of Springsteen being rather ‘ooh I’m big and therefore I’m going to breach curfews because I can and it makes my ego happy’ but to give the man his due, he plays three hour sets for his fans. It’s not like that TWAT from Guns N Roses who goes on three hours late because he’s a TWAT. My main point here though is about whiny residents. Hyde Park has been staging gigs for decades (1969, Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger clearly off his trolley on multiple things talking about butterflies etc) so if you don’t like living near where gigs happen, don’t live there. Secondly, it happens eight or nine times a year not every week. So get over yourself and don’t be a twat.