Have you ever?

Have you ever bought a book for a bit of a joke in a second hand bookshop in Tenby, South Wales...

...and actually found it to be very well put together, with some nice hand drawn cartoons and exercises that you might just find useful for helping people understand how a bit of music theory works?

Here's some rather nice words from Rob Langley-Swain, Markerting Communictaions Manager at The LG Arena;

Rob entered the LG Arena's first ever talent competition using facebook as an audition mechanism.

There was very fierce competition with more than 40 very talented singer/songwriters entering. These performers included recording artists signed to international labels, and one who had even written a top ten hit for singer Daniel Merriwether.

Rob's audition video struck the right chord with the panel of judges and he was selected as one of the top 8 and asked to come and perform at the arena.

Rob took part on our Singer/songwriter stage in the forumLIVE at the LG Arena prior to Eric Clapton and John Mayer's main stage performances in May and went down really well with the crowd!

We've no doubt he'll be invited back when we do something similar in the future!!!!

Stripped Down

On Tuesday the 15th of June I'm hosting the third Stripped Down evening at The Tower of Song.

I played in the open mic slot of last week's event, and the gig had a really nice feel so I'm very much looking forward to tomorrow. As it's such a new night it's all about building momentum at the moment, so it would be wonderful to see as many faces down there as possible.

As well as an open mic session which will feature Reece Page and comedy from Lee Goodall, there will be featured slots from myself and hopefully some or all of The Young Runaways. Any musicians/comedians/story tellers/poets who want an open mic slot, feel free to come down and I'll try and fit everyone in.

It all kicks off at 8.45pm, and it is free entry. Here's the address

The Tower of Song

107 Pershore Road South

Cotteridge

BIRMINGHAM

B30 3JX

It seems I've become a bit slow at putting info on here, and this is already over a week old, but never mind.

Last Friday I performed at The Black Boy Inn, Bridgnorth. The gaffer of the pub wanted a band for the night, so I formed one with the best musicians I know. Two practices later, and away we go with or first number, a cover of "Matchbox"

More videos to follow soon..

LG Arena, Mark Knopfler and John Mayer

I've got so much to tell you!

First of all there was the LG Arena gigs, where I performed before concerts by Mark Knopfler and John Mayer.

The gigs had come about after a Facebook competition held by The LG Arena to find the best singer songwriters to perform in The ForumLive area of the arena where the concert goers hang out and get their drinks and snacks before going through to the main arena. Over forty musicians applied by uploading videos to a Facebook Event Page which were then judged by a panel made up of important types at the arena. Seven Singer Songwriters were chosen to perform across three nights.

My first night was on Sunday May 23rd, performing to the seven thousand people waiting to see the amazing Mark Knopfler. I played three 20 minutes sets on that first night, and then had the privilege of seeing the legend at work.

The following night I performed two sets before the John Mayer concert which three thousand people attended. Seeing this concert from the VIP area was a particular treat because I've been wanting to see him perform for a long time, and he was fantastic.

Both evenings were great fun and the audiences were incredibly receptive to the unexpected and unknown musicians performing before the concerts, so thanks very much to everyone who was there. A massive thank you to the organisers and judges at The LG for picking me and looking after me so well.

Thanks to Mark Woodward for taking these photos.