Day of The Demo

Here's a demo of a new track, called Very Own Way. It's a quick video job, so the odd word or chord might be a bit fluffed. By the way my slightly glazed and not quite focusing eyes are not due to a drug habbit, but my lack of contact lenses and intense vanity regrading wearing glasses on video.

Culture in Brum

My exploration of cultural things in my home city started on the afternoon of Sunday the 8th of August when I visited the Ikon Gallery. I was rather taken with the exhibition currently on at the Ikon, This Could Happen To You: Ikon in the 1970s, a collection of art work from the decade that the Ikon grew from a glass kiosk in the bullring to a shop front in the Palisades.

I've never been to the Ikon before, in fact my only association with the place in the past is limited to an unsuccessful job application as a student. I liked the gallery a lot, it was a good size for some laid back art looking at. On the way to the Ikon I also popped my head inside the gallery at the ICC which currently has some paintings by Bob Dylan. This gallery is a lot of fun because the paintings are for sale, and so you can see how much people spend on this sort of thing .

Next up I strolled through the city centre and was surprised and impressed to see three great busking acts, including a lovely jazz guitarist and a gypsy jazz Django Reinhardt type trio. I noticed that The Staffordshire Hoard was once again on display at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. The large crowds that flocked to the hoard when it was on temporary display shortly after it was found have happily gone and I was able to enjoy the unbelievably delicate and beautiful pieces in relative solitude. Like everyone I was very impressed with the intricate work that had gone into the hoard, and it made me smile to see some pieces had little signs by them explaining cheerfully that no one is really sure what they are.


I finished off my cultural Sunday with a visit to the Yardbird Jazz Club, where my friend Brains for Breakfast was playing a set at The Free Love Club. Mr Breakfast played a great set and the two of us had a good time enjoying the many wonderful acts that played and meeting some cool people.

So Brum impressed me on this occasion, and I recommend each of the places I visited. I'll be back to each of them because one of the great things about all of them is that they constantly have new exhibits and work to share.

Spaghetti Gazetti

Some promo for the Tower of Song gig

Something fishy

Ever heard of the tunatheday website?

Every day they feature a new artist as their Catch of the day and today it's my turn..

It's a nice site, with an active community sharing music and opinions. Go along to the site and have a look, and leave and comment if you feel so inclined

StoryJohn

My track Pessimistic Me has been featured on the excellent StoryJohn podcast, episode 46.

It's a wonderful monthly show featuring story telling, music, techy reviews and all sorts of things, have a listen!

So, I've got some more gigs together with the band I formed back in May for a "one off" gig in Bridgnorth.

Except that it's not quite the same band. Ken Stratford, the wonderful Double Bassist who can be heard on Pessimistic Me and seen in the videos from the said Bridgnorth gig, will be away for a few months. So I've recruited another musician I've met through playing at the fantastic Crossroads Blues Club, Mick Jeynes to join us on electric bass.

I meet up with Mick this week to play him the tracks we will be doing, and teach him the bass parts for my originals. This was fine, as far as the tracks I know the bass parts for. You see the thing is that I played bass on three of the tracks from Twenty Two, whilst the remaining two feature Matty on electric bass and Ken as mentioned above. Now, I know more or less what they played, because I wrote the songs and was sitting right next to them as we came up with and put the parts down, but I have trouble remembering what I myself did yesterday, let alone what someone else did months ago. Plus the fact Ken's part was played on an instrument I can't even play...

And to add another layer to the fun, I had to sit and actually work out what I myself had played on the tracks I played bass on. Like I did when I taught them to Ken, and didn't think to write them down for reference later.

So this time I not only gave Mick chord sheets, but hand written (and beautiful) bass tabs like this one, with instructions to be as free as he likes and keep what he thinks is good. Because things are never finished are they? They keep changing and I don't want to get all these great musicians on board and not have them put ideas forward.

Friday 3rd September 2010
Robert Lane returns to the Tower of Song. This time the local singer songwriter will introduce his brand new band, featuring the talents of Matty Pinfield on Drums, Simon Davies on Keys and Mick on Bass. A regular Crossroads Blues Club attendee, Robert has recently performed at The ForumLive area of The LG Arena, Birmingham, before concerts by Mark Knopfler and John Mayer. He formed the new band for a one of gig in Bridgnorth, and had so much fun he’s decided to get them together again at his favourite venue.

The band will be playing Robert’s originals as well as a whole host of Blues covers and tracks by some of Robert’s biggest influences. Robert will be supported by the excellent Becky Rose, Worcester based Singer Songwriter and Pianist. As on the previous two occasions, there will be no door entry but the hat will be passed around during the interval. It all kicks of at 9pm