It's been quite a fortnight!

On Tuesday the 14th I received a phone call from Birmingham Repertory Theatre asking if I would like to be involved in a piece called "Billy" for their Home Theatre project which was happening on Saturday 18th. "Err, yeah sure!" and so I jumped into three days of rehearsal at the Rep with director Jen Davies.

Home Theatre is a project which brings theatre into the homes of people in Erdington. The Rep invited applications from members of the public to host a performance and then sent theatre makers and writers from The Rep Foundry to meet the hosts and ask them what they would like their piece to be. "Billy" was commissioned by four residents of a retirement home who asked to see a play about a young man leaving Erdington to try and make his way as a singer in London in 1963. They requested three particular songs, some drama, comedy and a love interest. Writer Farrah Chaudhry, taking time out from being a story editor on Coronation Street, went away and created the piece with these ingredients and then Jen and I set about bringing it to life. The process was a lot of fun and the performance felt like a combination of many of the things I've been doing for the past few years with comedy, music, improv, ad libs and a bit of pathos all rolled into one. The piece had five characters so I was using such diverse techniques as a sock puppet, silly voices, a hat and reacting to an off stage voice to try and get all this over. It was a great script and working with Jen was really comfortable and rewarding. Most importantly Phyllis, Iris, Jean and Yvonne, their friends, family and fellow residents enjoyed it. Afterwards we got to have a cup of tea and a chat with them and that was hysterical. All in all a really fun few days.

After finishing at the retirement home it was straight off to the beautiful Lynn Arms in Kings Lynn for a gig. Nice crowd (including some four legged furry punters) who did their best to stop me finishing ("one more song!") meaning I played about two hours altogether before escaping into the night to find food and the B and B. 

On Thursday it was time for a gig I'd been looking forward to playing for a couple of months. I posted recently about Paul Murphy's Songwriter's Cafe (read all about it here) and this week it was my turn to do a set. Also on the bill were English Jones and Vix and her MsChiefs.

One of the many lovely things about Songwriter's Cafe is that artists are invited to have dinner together with hosts and organisers Paul and Valeria before hand, a chance for everyone to catch up and talk about music, gigs and all that sort of thing. Also in attendance was Brum legend, rock DJ and local music and media blogger Robin Valk who had some very interesting observations about Birmingham media coverage. See his blog for more

Readers of this blog will know my affection for this gig and it's magical, romantic ambience. It's one of my favourite places to play and to watch and again Thursday was a really lovely night. English Jones and Vix and her MsChiefs both played very cool sets and Paul closed the night with a virtuosic showcase in improvising songs on the spot, singing about members of the audience and accepting the crowd's subject suggestions of a chocolate addicted caterpillar attempting a singing career. Coincidently Paul had also been involved in Home Theatre, and it was nice to share stories about that. 

The next day I was back at The Rep performing a rehearsed reading for Cucumber Writers. The theme of the night was an office retirement party. I got to share the scene I was involved in with my mate Nadi Kemp-Sayfi which was a lot of fun, and when we weren't talking we were required to remain on stage eating party food looking fed up, both of which I think we managed quite well! 

Saturday saw me return to Bracknell to perform at Artree Live. This is another brilliantly put together gig run by the wonderful Phil. It's takes place at The South Hill Park Arts Centre in the appropriately named but very pleasant Cellar Bar. Phil had faced a panicky afternoon as one of the acts had been forced to drop out but luckily Quiet Wish stepped in. Michael Tuffery opened the night with a charming set with some great songs, and Helghyer headlined with impressive loop pedal excursions and delicate songwriting. 

The audience were lovely and did some excellent singing along during my set. I'd like to thank Jess, Laura, Lizzie and Sian for coming along to the gig and then taking me on a cultural tour of Wokingham afterwards.

I'd heard the very sad news about the passing of Jack Bruce on the car radio during the trip down to the gig and dedicated Break My Heart Blues to him, doing an extended improv bit in his honour. If I'd have had a drummer there I would have had a violent argument with him as a further tribute. 

Cream are one of my favourite bands and were a huge influence on The Bleak, the band I was in during my late teens and early twenties. Jack was an awesome, powerful bass player as well as a great vocalist and unique songwriter. I'm spending today listening to his music.

Today is a day off after the first run of performances of The Mandrake Root in Stratford-upon-Avon. The show has been going well and we've been getting good feedback. It's a contemporary adaptation of Machiavelli's La Mandragola. It's a satirical, absurdist farce with fair amounts of swearing and naughtiness. The play is the debut performance in FRED Theatre's brand new venue, Fred's Shed, which is located in the beer garden of The Rose and Crown on Sheep Street. 

We reconvene for the final run of shows on Thursday and the last performance will be on Sunday night. More details available here 

This week I'll also start rehearsing for The Importance of Being Earnest in which I play Lane and Merriman (the two witty butlers.) This is another FRED production and again will be performed in Fred's Shed. 

On Wednesday I'll be the featured artist at Lymington Folk Club down in the New Forest. It's my first visit there and I'm really looking forward to it. 

Tour Stories

I'm having lots of fun out on tour. I've played at Royston Folk Club where I met some brilliant acts including Daria Kulesh, The Foxglove Trio and Jackson Creek Band.

The next night I returned to The Albatros sailing ship in Wells-next-the-Sea. Lovely to see Captain Ton again and as always a lovely boisterous crowd! 

I supported the excellent Jenna Witts at Ely Folk Club. Jenna has recently returned from what sounds to have been an amazing trip across America. She writes really lovely songs and has a great voice. Her dad was wearing an Eric Clapton Tshirt and it turned out he had seen me play in the Forum Live of the LG Arena before the Clapton gig there last May. Small world! 

Last night I played at the Shoal Hill Tavern in Cannock for the first time, and I'm just on my way out to play at a a private birthday party in Sutton Coldfield.

On Thursday night my song One of those Guys was played on the excellent Troubadour Show broadcast from New Jeresey. Catch up with it on the website  

http://www.troubadourshow.com/

Heckmondwike and Beverley Folk Festival

What a great weekend of gigs! On Friday night I returned to the Crown of Lights music night in Heckmondwike. This time around it was band night and I was booked to play an acoustic set in between each act. The audience were lovely and did some great singing along and it was good fun to see the very talented bands playing.

On Sunday I had a set at Beverley Folk Festival in the Moonbeams tent. This was brilliant and I'm very grateful to Leila for booking me. The marquee was more or less full as I played and the crowd were very responsive and again indulged me in some excellent singing.

Dogfinger Steve in the Moonbeams Marquee

I enjoyed some brilliant acts at the festival, particular mentions have to go to Coco and the Butterfields, Barcode Zebra and Emily Moulton who were very cool in their own ways.

Stratford and Ebrington Arms

Since my last blog post I've played gigs at Bamboodle in Stratford-upon-Avon and the Ebrington Arms near Chipping Camden. Both gigs were in posh pub/restaurant venues and lots of fun. The Ebrington arms were good enough to put me up for the night in a rather swish room as well as feeding me (dinner and breakfast!)

At the Ebrington I had possibly my cheekiest song request/bribe to date and was happy to oblige...

It's five chords actually but who's keeping score? After the gig I had fun chatting to Paris the barmaid about acting and the life of a touring musician (she's a former actor and tour manager for a punk band in Canada.) We were joined by a lovely and fairly "merry" young couple who had spent the day at a friends wedding and turned out to be very knowledgeable  about some really interesting musicians. Shame they had missed my set really!

This week looks set to be exciting;
Monday night I'm performing some rehearsed readings of new plays at Birmingham Rep

Wednesday night I'm playing a solo set at Tilt Blues Bar in Nottingham

Thursday night I'm supporting Big Wolf Band at Roadhouse, Birmingham (plus playing guitar with the band for a few songs)

Friday night is the next script read thorough for Tell Me About Your Ex

Saturday night I'm with Foghorn improv at the Spreadeagle in Croydon

BBC Radio Nottingham

Massive thanks to Alan Clifford of BBC Radio Nottingham for giving me plenty of time for a chat and some songs live on air yesterday. You can hear us on the iplayer from about 1 hour 20 minutes in.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01yzpk2

Crossroads, Glee and King Alfred's Head

I played three brilliant and varied gigs last week. First up I returned to Crossroads Blues Club to play the featured set. Crossroads takes place at The Tower of Song in Cotteridge, Birmingham and is something of a home from home. When I first started gigging I was an avid attendee of the monthly jam night at the crossroads and did a lot of learning (and stealing) from the players there. I don't get to visit so often now and it's always a great occasion to get down there again.

The night began with an open mic session featuring many of my favourite crossroads regulars as well as some new faces. Musicians were playing in various combinations from solo to formed-on-the-spot bands and as usual the music was of a very high quality. 

I started my set solo acoustic playing originals and blues tinged covers. It felt really good to do some new songs for the first time, particularly as many of the regular audience members have seen me play a fair few times now. 

For the last half an hour or so I invited some friends up to join me and I finished the night with an electric set playing some loud rock and roll and blues. Noticing the time at 11.15 I said goodnight, but wasn't getting away that easy and was called back up to carry on! 

Friday's gig at the Glee Club in Birmingham city centre was a rather more intimate and reflective event. I was supporting Lotte Mullan in the studio space. The gig was very well attended and it was lovely that some of my cast mates from The Mother were able to come along. I played a 30 minute set of mostly original songs. The audience were very nice and gave me their full attention, joining in with a little bit of banter and singing along (quietly but the effort was appreciated) when requested. After a short break Lotte played a lovely set of songs. I really enjoy her writing style and the way she uses her voice, and watching her chatting to her fans after the gig shows how much time she has for the people supporting her music. After the gig some friends and I ended up in a bar which was playing very very loud salsa music. It was an exceptionally warm May evening and as we sat outside we could almost kid ourselves we were holidaying somewhere Mediterranean. 

On Saturday I travelled to Wantage near Oxford to open up for Canadian band Cherry Suede at a benefit event for CDH UK, a charity supporting families of babies with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia. I'm going to post more information about CDH UK soon but what was really shocking from talking to organiser Megan was how little known the condition is, especially as it affects 1 in 2500 babies.  

The gig it's self was taking place in the beer garden of King Alfred's Head (Wantage being the birthplace of King Alfred the Great in 849.) I played a 40 minute set and after a short break (during which I helped draw winning tickets for the raffle...exciting!) Randy and Randy of Cherry Suede performed a brilliant set that had everyone up dancing. The night was loads of fun and it was great to catch up with Cherry Suede and their tour manager Jude. I'm very pleased to have met Megan and found out about the amazing work of CDH UK. 

Cool Cats and Bad Wolves

Last Friday I returned to Cool Cat's Cafe in Camberwell, London. This was my second visit after playing there in December.

I caught the train from Birmingham International and spent the journey there reading Lenoard Rossiter, Character Driven by Guy Adams. Rossiter achieved the rare feat of becoming associated with two iconic but very different sitcom characters. He was also well know for a series of funny TV adverts for Cinzano which co-starred Joan Collins. I was aware of his acclaimed performance in Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui because we studied the play for A Level Theatre Studies but I hadn't know the details of his many years in repertory theatre (including at Wolverhampton Grand) before slowly establishing a reputation as a gifted comic actor on stage and television. It was very interesting to read how he abandoned a career in insurance to go professional at the age of 27 (!) and approached his roles with the self assured but modest skill and diligence of someone who had developed his abilities over many years. He was a perfectionist and has been described as difficult but it would seem this was simply because he expected the same skill and professionalism from his colleagues. The book was very readable if a little fawning and there was next to no details of his private life which is either very tasteful and respectful of Rossiter and his family or a little boring, I'm not quite sure.

I arrived at Euston with a few hours to kill before needing to go to the venue so caught the tube to London Bridge. I strolled onto the bridge to have a look at the river and paused to take in Tower Bridge, HMS Belfast and from the other side St Paul's and that funny bridge that trains go over. I still love seeing all this "London stuff" when I visit, but this time cut my sightseeing a bit short because it was raining and I was cold. I had a stroll through Borough Market which made me very hungry but I saved myself for the meal I was promised at Cool Cats'. I had a look at The Golden Hinde and was surprised to see a sign advertising that folk gigs are held on it once a month. I made a mental note to check that out on the internet later. Which reminds me...

I walked past Shakespeare's Globe and thought about how little I could remember of the one and only time I've been in there. This was on a school trip, and from what I can recall my main conclusion was how uncomfortable it would probably be to actually sit and watch anything there. It feels as if we went on loads of school trips to London but it was probably only a couple. Whilst the details of the trip to The Globe are hazy visits to West End theatres to watch things like An Inspector Calls and The Woman in Black are much more vivid. One memory that is unlikely to fade is that of seeing a classmate mistake a member of the Household Cavalry (sans horse) for a guardsman who wouldn't be allowed to move. He threw his chewing gum at the soldier's beautifully polished breastplate as it shone in the summer sunshine, perhaps as a satirical statement at the absurdity of the traditions of pomp and circumstance of the British military and establishment, perhaps just because he was a bit of a teenage twat. How quickly his bravado was shattered when the soldier drew his beautifully polished sword and walked towards him...

Next was a brief look round the Tate Modern and an encounter with a well known comedy actor/writer/presenter in the gents. Not the best place to meet celebrities so I decided not to let on that I recognised him. He reciprocated although there is a slim chance he wasn't pretending. After a coffee and some more of the Rossiter book in not exactly friendly little cafe I jumped onto the tube to Elephant and Castle and was relieved to remember where to find the stop needed to catch the bus for the short journey to the venue.

Once at Cool Cat's I had a chat with the wonderful guys there, Toby and Roger, and was introduced to Mark Abis who was also playing. I had a very interesting conversation about music and gigging with Mark while tucking into my much anticipated burger (it was worth demurring from the food on offer at Borough Market.) Turns out Mark had one of his lovely songs covered by Emiliana Torrini. I enjoyed hearing about the background to that.



I had asked to play first to give me time to get back to Euston for the last train back to Birmingham and so after an introduction from Toby I started playing at about 9pm. On my last visit the place had been really busy and as there was just me on the bill I played two 45 minute sets. On that occasion the set started off like a restaurant gig with people chatting and listening in now and then. By the end of the night it was a bit more of a party atmosphere with requests and singing along, as well as a birthday cake for one of the patrons. This time around there was a few less people in attendance but a much more chilled and listening vibe. It felt as if everyone was really paying attention to what I was doing, there was some nice banter and after I had finished my set I was thrilled to make the first hard copy sales of the new album.

London based singer songwriter James Wing who I met last summer on the Ray Davies songwriting course made it along to the gig and it was cool to catch up with him and chat about his new album which is nearing completion. After hearing most of Mark's set I jumped on the bus and then back onto the tube which got me to Euston just in time for the train back.

The following night my friends Big Wolf Band were playing at The White Horse in Harborne. This was their last performance featuring Mick Jeynes, the excellent bass player who played on many of the tracks on my album and also at several gigs with the The Robert Lane Band. Mick is an incredibly committed and professional musician and plays with many highly regarded Birmingham bands. He also has a new role and extra responsibility in his day job and so he has taken the difficult decision to leave Big Wolf Band, as they are going from strength to strength and their gig schedule gets ever busier.  A friend and I went for dinner in Harborne then headed over to the gig. As we arrived outside the venue she noticed there was a fight going inside the pub (me being not so sensitive to such subtle clues as people standing around outside calling the police and shouting "leave him!") It all looked quite serious but I was pretty sure that the band would be alright because they would be playing in the back of the pub, so musicians and fighters would be mutually out of each others' sight. The pressing concern was how we would get into the gig as even if we fancied ambling past the violence there was now quite a crowd of people blocking the door. We spotted some people heading down the side of the pub and I remembered that the smoking area led to another entrance, so we went that way and found the band rocking away blissfully untroubled.

For some reason a lot of the pub/cafe/bar venues that are incredibly supportive of musicians tend to have fairly impractical spaces in which to host them, while venues that have an abundance of space couldn't care less about having live music. The White Horse is a pretty classic example of the first category as it has a very long narrow bar with a performance space tucked round the back. My companion and I perched on some stools crammed next to the toilets and took in the scene. The place was full which meant that whilst the whole room could hear the band only a relative handful could watch them properly with a few more sitting at the bar and craning their necks to catch a glimpse. The gig hadn't long started but already there was quite a buzz in the room, and Big Wolf were steadily building on it with originals written by guitarist Jon and some blues and rock covers. It is sometimes a strange thing to see people who are friends performing and being so bloody good.  I get the same feeling when watching a lot of musicians and actors who are friends that I've performed with in the past...have a really shared a stage with them?

Jon invited me up to jam with the band and I used his spare guitar and amp as he led us through a couple of blues covers. Everything seemed to be going well until another scuffle broke out. This time it was a bit closer to where we all were but still far enough away not to be too much of a worry. We were playing with one eye on the fight and eventually the audience sat in front of us caught on and were also watching the fracas.  As is often the case with this kind of thing it was pretty hard to tell what was actually going on and the two guys involved seemed to be doing a lot whilst simultaneously doing nothing. Sensibly and cool as anything Jon just kept on soloing until it all calmed down then sang the last verse and brought the song to an end.

Jon passed the mic to me and I kicked off a blues tune called Matchbox that I like to play as a jam song. About halfway through, with people now actually dancing in the small space in front of the band, the bar man was asking us to stop playing as the fight had carried on and got pretty serious. During this enforced break it transpired that the fight was probably something to do with the blues match that had been played earlier that day. The guys in the band said they had played there several times and never seen any trouble before and it didn't feel like the regular punters were very impressed with it all so I think it was an unfortunate one off. We started up again and I sang Leave My Kitten Alone then left the band to carry on with their set. It was drummer Andy's birthday and there was on stage presentations of gifts to him and Mick. The night just got better and better with another good mate Gaz Barham joining the band for some Cream and Rolling Stones songs. Whilst it was a little bittersweet due to Mick's sad but understandable departure from the band I'm very glad to have been a part of the night.

The power of 12 Bar Blues

I've been teaching guitar lessons for a few years now. I teach people with a range of abilities and playing experience and I've given to lessons to students with ages ranging from 4 to over 80.

One of my favourite lessons is when I teach some basic music theory which students can use to help them understand how chord sequences work and how to work out the chords to some songs by ear. They can also use these ideas in their own songwriting.

My starting point for this is to teach them how to play a chord sequence that is fundamental to popular music, the 12 bar blues. As it's name suggests it is a vital ingredient to blues music but it has also been used in rock and roll, country, reggae, pop, soul and just about any style you could think of. Adapted versions of the basic 12 bar blues have been developed which means it's influence spreads ever further from it's original blues beginnings. Despite being well used in countless songs the original chord sequence still turns up in much more modern sounding songs, as we shall see. The best part of teaching this lesson is seeing how amazed people are when they learn they can play thousands of very famous songs with the same chord sequence. It also reminds me how much I love this music!

For the most simple 12 Bar Blues we need just three chords. For a very brief explanation of how we find these chords I explain how the major scale is made up of seven notes. For example the notes that make the C Major scale are;

C D E F G A B
(in the case of C Major these just happen to be all the white notes on a piano)

If we give each note a number to represent where it comes in the scale we end up with;

C D E  F G  A  B
1  2  3  4  5  6  7

12 bar blues uses major chords based on the 1st, 4th and 5th notes of the scale. In the case of C major these would be C, F and G. Below is the chord sequence for 12 bar blues in the key of C Major. Each chord is played for one bar (4 beats.)

C	C	C	C
F	F	C	C
G	F	C	C

Here's the table again but instead of the name of the chord I've used its number in the scale, represented by Roman Numerals because that looks nice.

I	I	I	I
IV	IV	I	I
V	IV	I	I

The cool thing is that we can take the same formula and play 12 bar blues in any key. The notes of the D Major scale are D E F# G A B C# so the I is D, IV is G and V is A. The 12 bar blues in D would look like this;

D	D	D	D
G	G	D	D
A	G	D	D

Here are some songs that use the 12 bar sequence. Although they are in different keys, styles and tempos you might start to spot that the have the same feel. The big give away is the last line of the sequence where we get 1 bar of the V chord, then 1 bar of the IV and then finally two bars of I before it starts again. In many blues and rock and roll songs we get an extra hint from the vocal because the lyric is in a AAB form, meaning first line is sung over the four bars of the I, then repeted over the two bars of IV and two bars of I before finally a pay off line is sung over the run down from V, IV to I.

Here's Big Joe Turner singing the original, blues version of Shake, Rattle and Roll.  The song is in the key of Eb. (Start counting the 12 bar from where the vocal comes in, ignore the four bar instrumental intro)



Here's the same song in a rock and roll version by Bill Haley, this time in the key of F (with cleaner lyrics.) Again ignore the intro and start counting from where the vocal starts.



Sometimes we don't get the extra "clue" of having the first line of the lyric repeated but we can still hear the same 12 bar sequence. Here's Jerry Lee Lewis playing a 12 bar in C;



See what I mean? Maybe not but if we could sit and play through the chord sequence together perhaps that would help.  Anyway here are some more songs from different decades, in different styles, keys and tempos which all use this basic 12 bar blues format. Sometimes we have an intro before the 12 bar starts, sometimes it's straight in. We may get different endings and stuff but the main idea is always the 12 bar chord sequence.

This one sounds different because we have the stops in the first four bars but if you count along you will find that it's still just four bars of I etc... Little Richard in C;


Here's Paolo Nutini in a much more recent outing with a 12 bar in D major. It's straight in after the drum into and it lasts for the whole song, verse and chorus.


Reggae you say? Still just a 12 bar in E.



Some more for your consideration;
Kansas City Wilbert Harrison C#
Meet Me In The Morning Bob Dylan E

Ball And Biscuit The White Strips E

Folsom Prison Blues Johnny Cash F
Tutti Frutti Little Richard F
Green Onions Booker T and the MGs F
Walkin Blues Eric Clapton G
Matchbox Carl Perkins A
Dizzy Miss Lizzy Beatles A

Let's Stick Together Bryan Ferry A

Goin Up The Country Canned Heat A#

 

Lotte Mullan support at The Glee Club, Birmingham

I'm thrilled to announce that I will be supporting Lotte Mullan at The Glee Club in Birmingham on Friday the 16th of May! Lotte is a very inspiring independent musician, keeps an interesting and readable blog and most importantly writes really wonderful songs.

New stuff on the website

I've updated the website and added some new stuff, so have a look around and let me know what you think.

There are new pictures in the gallery, a dedicated video page and a new page called "media" where you can hear my live sessions on BBC WM introducing and BBC Nottingham.

I'm adding gig dates all the time, so make sure you keep on eye on the listings...

BBC WM Introducing live session and interview

Last week I visited the BBC WM studios to record four live songs and an interview for the Introducing show presented by Brett Birks and Louise Brierley. You can hear the show on the iplayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01vgqhr my live songs and interview are in the first hour of the two hour show.