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Photos: Gary Williams
24th December 2006
My last day in Prague this year .. not sure when I'll be able to update my site or even access the internet as I'll be in England for the next 9 days.
So thanks for following my blog this year, if you've come to gigs in England or
The Czech Republic, thanks too for being there. I hope that your year has been as much fun as mine has, and that next year will be as good, if not better for you.
It just remains for me to pack then leave the flat for the airport at about 3pm.
Sending my love and best wishes to you all. Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!!
Jamie xxx
17th December 2006
I'm typing this, sat at my laptop, in the living room of my new flat, looking out of the window at my view of pan tiled roofs and in the distance but very visible St Vitus Cathedral and Prague Castle. If I were to stand up and look to the right, I'd be able to see another historical landmark, the Charles Bridge.
At night the view is even more stunning. The move was tiring especially as I hadn't completely packed and I had a gig in the evening. So I was double knackered that night. But not so tired that I didn't go upstairs to the top floor for a glass of wine or two. A neighbour, the Deputy Head of Mission at the British Embassy, was having a leaving party. He's not moving on .. just moving to a more domestic situation as his wife and kids are coming out to join him.
The panoramic view of Prague at night from his flat, is almost indescribably beautiful.
Slept badly, and had to seriously shake my bones in the morning to prepare myself for a live radio broadcast. The sound check for which I was late for .. oops.
Věra, Lenka and I played 3 songs live and were very well received by the packed theatre audience. I played ok .. but forgot some of the words to a song I've been singing for years (how/why does that happen??) Busy week up ahead.. working every day then flying to England on Sunday 24th.
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15 December 2006
OK ... you have to understand that I have been frantic,, flat-out, beyond really busy, rushing around like a blue arsed fly to use the fairly colourful if archaic vernacular.
You also have to understand that, since my last update on October 8th, I have had 11 days off. That's correct 11!
11 days in 66 .. by the 23rd, it will be 11 days off in 75 .. and people still ask me if I have a day job. I'm knackered!
Mostly I try to subvert the urge to shout at them .. and mostly it works, but if I'm feeling a tad testy .. a mite vitriolic .. they receive the full extent of my ire.
So what's been going on I hear you ask ...
Well ..... lemme see (checks diary)
In early October , I had some real concern over a long-term problem I have with my left hand. I felt almost constant pain in it. Especially first thing in the morning.
I was recommended to, and went to see a Russian guy who two musicians I know here had used. He's an "alternative practitioner" (I was told he was a doctor .. turns out he isn't) who spoke almost no English, but luckily for me a colleague of his was in the room and explained that I had "classic arthritis". he followed this blow up with " you should have come to see me 10 years ago".
I was understandably, very seriously concerned.
He said that he would begin treatment the following week, and within one month of two treatments a week he'd know if my condition was salvageable.
Not content with his diagnosis, I sought a second opinion from the world of conventional medicine, which involved a whole range of blood tests an x-ray and two visits to a specialist.
To give the Russian (Lev .. his name means Lion... in truth he's a big bear of a man) credit, his treatment of basting my hand in a solution of very hot .. almost
unbearably so .. paraffin wax and dead sea mud brought me almost immediate relief. After coating my hand with the mixture, he then wrapped it first in a plastic bag (very scientific I thought) and then in a big towel.
Twenty minutes later, he peeled the wax and mud off my hand, and strenuously manipulated my finger joints in a manner that would have pleased Torquemada himself. My hand felt so much better the following morning. Further treatments brought similar relief too. So repeat when necessary is the way forward here.
On the conventional side, despite very obvious swelling in the finger joints of my left hand, the x-ray failed to show any signs of osteo-arthritis, and the blood tests were negative for any signs of rheumatoid arthritis. So it would seem I am in the clear. In a follow up appointment, the specialist told me that 50 hours or so guitar playing a month for the past 6 months was taking it's toll on my body.
Play less he says! Take a holiday he says .. I'll be doing one of those two things.
Add to that the fact that I've been playing guitar for over 35 years, and it's easy to understand why this condition has occurred.
Apparently, the knobbly bits around my joints are extra sinovial tissue that have "grown" to meet the needs on my very busy fingers. Sinovial fluid is the stuff between your joints that lubricates the movement of the joints.
Thanks are due to Raymond and Sue (my brother in law and sister) for all their help with this and support during what was a stressful time for me. I want to be playing guitar when I'm 80 or older, and was really concerned that if this had turned out to be arthritis, that a career change might have been on the horizon. What else .. well I had an Alexander Technique lesson to help me rethink my posture when playing .. it's pretty terrible, I stoop and round my back and shoulders. Some of the stuff I knew, but it was fun and quite enlightening.
Given spare time I'll have some more.
I had a gig in a village called Odry na Veseli .. a return after almost two years.
It was a little club, packed to the rafters. The gig was a real success I sold loads of cds and made some new friends. I stayed close to Olomouc an historical Czech town and the day after the gig (a Saturday) I went with a friend Jimmy .. real name Vratislav .. for a tour of the town. Very pretty it is too. Some fabulous old buildings, it's also a University town.
On a very rare Saturday night off, I saw James Brown at the T-Mobile Arena in Prague. Despite some adverse criticism I'd heard before the gig, it was really good. The band are amazing and he stayed on stage the entire length of the performance .. close to 2 hrs. He'd occasionally sit behind a Korg keyboard and stab at a few chords .. in reality he was probably having a breather (he's 70-ish now) but he never left the stage .. ran the whole gig after an overthetop introduction by his erstwhile MC Donny Ray.
He played most of the hits .. "Living in America", "Papas Got A Brand New Bag"
"I Feel Good.. I Got You", "Mans World" et al. Good light show great backup singing .. the packed house lapped it up.
There were two support bands .. one a latino funk big band who were very, very good and very energetic, and a woeful Czech band who couldn't decide whether they were Jamiroquai or Pink Floyd, and ended up being neither.
My guess is that manager either knew or was the promoter. Totally out of place , with no sound check and a singer who "sang" allegedly in English. No presence at all, shoe gazing solos. A real mess.
The weird thing was, that the band were quite obviously good players, they just had no idea how to put it together no material and were charisma free. This is sadly an all too familiar characteristic of some bands here.
Brimful of musicianship .. better players than I'll ever be, but with NO idea how to put on a show, patently poor material, and some idea that if the singer attempts a fake mid-atlantic accent when he/she sings that'll somehow pass for cool.
No No No. This will NOT do.
In November Stoney and Silv .. friends from Devon visited. So in addition to doing
27 gigs that month, I was also tour guide for 5 days too!
It was great to see them. I know them from the heady days when I regularly played at Keith Floyds' place in Tuckenhay Devon, about 15 years ago. Did the usual sights .. introduced them to some fab Czech food ... Nakladany Hermelin, and goulash with dumplings, washed down with a glass of Pilsner Urquell.
We did our TV show in November.It was recorded at studios in Brno the Republics' second city. Originally the show was to be 1 hour live, and an interview with both Věra and I .. this eventually, through the magic of television, was whittled down to 3 songs and an interview with Vera. So I wasn't best pleased.
The excuse they gave for not interviewing me, was that no-one in the building spoke English .. what utter bollocks!
It was screened last week, and despite the fact that didn't feel I played very well, it sounded fine (according to Věras' husband Jarda who mixed the sound) and I didn't look to much like a fat lad pulling ludicrous faces and sticking my tongue out when I concentrate. The best bit was that of the three songs featured in the broadcast, I wrote the music to all of them. So stuff yer interview, I'll take the royalties!
I did some live shows with Věra and the band too, including one in a delightful art deco theatre in Branik, South Prague .. we (Věra and I) are doing 1 hour live on the radio this Saturday .. try here for a live feed. I'm not totally sure it will work.
It was my Dads' birthday on 30th November .. he's 82!
He wants to go to PC World with me when I'm back in England .. he's thinking about upgrading his computer .. what a guy. Love him to bits.
On the subject of computers,in the busiest period of my working life thus far, I have also been creating a website for an English musician friend of mine. His name is Steve Simpson, and the url is :- www.stevesimpsonmusic.com
Very well known both in the London area and internationally, Steve and I have been mates for a number of years. I'm a great admirer of his talent. He's played with loads of people over the years. Ronnie Lane, Eric Bibb, Meal Ticket (I still have an album of theirs on vinyl ... somewhere).
It's a site not dissimilar to mine, straightforward, easy to navigate, and quick to load. I've never been a great believer in complicated websites that can be as much anything a shop front for the web designer.
I'm moving today (15th). Again!! The second time in four months.
My money-grabbing, two-faced, toe-rag of a landlord wants me to pay him 50,000 kc, to sign a document that I need as part of my residency application.
A document that most other landlords would willingly sign free of charge. I haven't told him yet .. it'll be a nice surprise for him. Oaf!
To give you an idea of how much 50,000 kc is, it would take an above average month for me to earn that kind of money. He thinks English .. ergo .. gullible and minted. I think, Czech, stupid, devious, shortsighted and greedy.
The up side of all of this is, that I'm moving to the Mala Strana (Left Bank) one street away from the river .. I can see the Charles Bridge from my bedroom window and Prague Castle from my living room ... ha .. stick yer flat .. I was tired of playing the game of "dodge the pile of dog shit" on my way to the tram stop.
Footnote ...
The Czechs love animals .. especially dogs. There are over 65,000 registered dogs in Prague .. a city of just over 1 million people. What they haven't quite sussed yet is the whole idea that cleaning up after your dog is YOUR responsibility.
You can't expect the pooch to oblige. There are no bad dogs .. just bad owners!
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8th October 2006
This past month has absolutely flown by. Had a great if tiring time in England .. despite lots of driving not enough sleep .. the gigs were great.
Beer Festival weekend at The Lion is ALWAYS fun .. and this year was no exception.
Barnsley Bitter and Hook Norton Hooky were particular favourites of mine.
The guvnor Don re-booked us (Whitey and I) again for next year. Looks like becoming a permanent date for us.
1 Paradise Road was well attended. Good to see Julie and her gang there as well as Tim and Sandy Renton. Tim plays guitar with blues band 3am.
He's written and recorded a song called "Red Hot and Blue in the Paradise Bar".
Based ... loosely on two of the gigs that I play, .. he first saw me in Prague over a year ago. In the words of the 3am website:-
"Red Hot and Blue at the Paradise Bar written after two gigs, one in Prague and one in Richmond by Jamie Marshall and quietly dedicated to this marvelous singer/songwriter". What an honour ..I have eventually found time to listen to the song. Enjoyed it Tim thanks .. very Maggie Bell-esque vocal performance.
The gig in the Dales was really well attended too. I arrived at twilight on the day of a lunar eclipse. Just as I drove over the top of the Dales the moon came into view .. hanging in mid air over a valley like a hot air balloon. The stars weren't out and the sun had yet to sink .. it was such an amazing sight. The beauty of nature.
Had some fantastic food in Skipton too. A great Lamb Pasanda at The Aagrah and the best fish and chips I have ever had at a restaurant called Bizzies. Lamb is hard to find here .. the Czechs eat a lot of Pork and Chicken but apart from Goulash little beef and hardly any Lamb so a lamb curry was a special treat for me.
Almost forgot .. I played a wedding in Sheffield too. The couple, Paul and Valerie had heard me playing in Marquis de Sade .. and Paul was so moved by my performance that he proposed to Valerie there and then (I'm joking about the ME bit, but not the proposal) and asked me to play at the wedding reception. I have never eaten so many yummy profiteroles in my life!
Jeez ... ANOTHER food reference.
I spent 12 days in England and returned to Prague to a stack of gigs .. in fact from the 13th to the 30th I had 3 days off! Good to be so busy, but a pain being knackered all the time.. too many late nights (4am to bed too often).
I have applied for permanent residency here.
I will be busy recording with Vera next year, as well as touring with her in the
run-up to Xmas. Věra wants to record "Just Enough Of A Moon" as a single, and also to record an album of duets .. and sing in English too. So I could be looking at another 18 months or more of work with her.
Applications for residency are handled by the "foreigners police", and I had to trek out to some dull concrete building at 7am (getting up at 6!!) in order to present my documents. I was accompanied by a representative of a company who deals with this kind of work.
I figured I'd be better off spending some of my hard earned getting a native speaker who was used to the process.
Wise choice. Given that this is the "Foreigners" Police, there is a distinct lack of signs throughout the building in any language other than Czech! I would have had no idea where to queue or what to do. Thankfully it didn't take as long as I thought it might and within 2 hours I was on my way back to bed. I have to wait for up to 60 days for my documents to be processed and approved.
To accompany the documents I was required to supply 2 passport photos. I had these taken in one of those machines the like of which you'd find in Woolies or the bus station. "Photo-Me" booths. Do they ever take a decent photo?? Or is it that I'm not exactly model material. Either way I ended up looking terrible.
The company should have been called "Photo-Me and make me look like a cross between the village idiot and a child sex offender". To make matters worse, on the day I had the pix taken, I had had a bit of a hair clipper malfunction so I ended up being almost totally shaven headed .. not a pretty sight!
Did I hear someone say Uncle Fester?
I had two gigs in one day at the same venue with Věra last month.
The venue was a big pub in a village close to the town of Jihlava. When we arrived my heart sank .. "what have we come to"? I thought.
Věra assured me that it was a cracking gig, that she'd done it in the past, and had always been well received.. and that's exactly how it turned out.
We played to 2 full houses of at least 200 people some of whom had travelled from far and wide to be at the gig. Numbers wise, the context is, that this is a country of 10 million people .. to play to 400 of them, as a paying audience is a very good result.
The audiences we're very warm and welcoming as were the organisers.
They loved that I spoke Czech to them . with some English for the younger people, and were astonished when I sang in Czech. My attempts were spontaneously applauded!!
The beer was 16kc a half litre (about 40p) the cheapest I've bought in a long while the average price in Prague being around 30-35 kc.. It would have been rude not to have at least a couple :) .... so I did accompanied by an expat friend John Nuttall, who works in Jihlava.
We (Věra, Jarda - her hubby, Lenka - her sister who sang BVs, and I) stayed overnight in a really comfortable hotel in a town close by and drove back to Prague the following day. Another very busy month in October .. hopefully I'll try and keep up with this blog rather than write it in one sitting a month after the event. That's how I begin every month, but my lack of time seems to hijack the process.
Still having trouble with Czech Telecom too .. no adsl and I've been in my flat 2 months. bugger bugger. I asked if they had a customer service manager .. the operator said no .. why does that NOT surprise me.
Since 2001 CT have lost one million customers .. a tad careless I'd say. Given that there are 10 million people here .. say there is one landline for every 3 people .. by this reckoning that means they've lost one third of their customers!
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1st September 2006
Two bits of brill news ... my stepdaughter Jess got 10 GCSEs none of them lower than a B grade .. fantastic stuff Jess .. I'm sooo proud of you. I phoned her up and she was at the Reading Rock Festival!
My niece Abi gave birth to her first child yesterday.
Mum and daughter are both doing fine... so that makes me a Great Uncle now. Eeek. I shall grow a long beard and take on a Dickensian bearing .. or not perhaps. :)
Congrats Abi and Paul .. will catch up with you this week. BTW my sis (Granny Johnson!!) sent me a txt .. the baby is called Ella and she weighed in at
6lbs 12oz.
Three fun gigs with Věra especially the Cesky Krumlov and Sobotka ones.
Did I mention that we're doing a one hour TV in November to be aired on the main Ceska Televize Channel.
This is an increasingly unusual thing for Czech TV .. it's gone down the soap/reality TV route so live music is a rarity. Great opportunity! Considers dieting.
My new flat is getting to be somewhere like home,.. still boxes and chaos but it's definitely taking shape I like the neighbourhood, grungier vibe to it than where I was .. some great ethnic shops and easier access to the City centre.
Marquis may not be closing after all .. seems the guy who owns the building, and wants to construct an hotel on the site, hasn't got the funding he needs. Bit of an oversight on that front eh Honza!
I'm off to England today leaving in about 4 hours .. see you at one of the gigs I hope.
15th August 2006
Lots been happening... mostly good .. my birthday (how old???).. which was fun... loads of work .. almost Mediterranean weather ... 4 days on the trot it was 31C in my bedroom at 6pm .. discovered the subtle delights of Georgian (the State not the epoch) Brandy .. liked it so much I bought 6 bottles to spread the word .. very smooth and has a Baileys like scent to it .. 250kc (about £6) a bottle for the 5 yr old stuff ....did my gig in Arnhem which was fab.. the rain held off for my set .. yippee .. also that w/e did some recording too in Amsterdam at the studio of a friend...played at a mates wedding in a Chateau just outside Prague ... amazing place .. baking hot day.. stayed overnight ... played a gig a Cowboys for a lingerie company ..tough it was ..God Bless Hungarian lingerie models ..got stung on the tongue by a wasp (lurking as it was in my glass of red wine .. it was late and I didn't spot it .. it saw me tho .. intense pain .. luckily it didn't swell up!
Managed to buy some Zirtec at an all night pharmacy... did two gigs at a jazz Club with my band ... serious musos these ... learned of the imminent closure of Marquis ... it's being turned into an Hotel .. just what prague needs .. met two of the Olympic Gold Medal ice hockey players from Nagano and got stuck into a bottle of Taittinger with them ... even played the occasional tune ..
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Petr Svoboda defected when attending the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships in 1984. Aged 17, he had participated in the championships in the former West Germany as a part of the Czechoslovak team, and after playing one game, he defected to the West. That spring, he was selected fifth overall in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft by the Montreal Canadiens. Throughout his NHL career he played for the Canadiens, Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers and Tampa Bay Lightning and was the first Czech to play over 1,000 games in the National Hockey League. He proudly boasted that he'd NEVER lost to any Russian team in his entire career. Has broken most of the bones in his body .. including his neck !!.. now lives in LA. Currently playing for the Detroit Red Wings, Robert Lang has played the 2001-2002 season and part of the 2002-2003 season for the Washington Capitals, and has previously played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Boston Bruins, and the Los Angeles Kings. He was drafted by Los Angeles in 1990. His best season to date was the 2000-2001 season when he had 80 points. During the 2003-04 season, he had led the NHL in scoring at the time of his trade from Washington to Detroit, but shortly thereafter he was sidelined with a broken rib, and yielded the lead in scoring to eventual NHL MVP Martin St. Louis of the Tampa Bay Lightning. He was named the top Czech player of the season... thanks Wikipedia.
I'm doing this in a rush because I'm moving today .. from the flat I've been in for 2 years to a different part of town.I'm even looking to buy here. The moving van is due in about an hour and a half .. I still have the finishing touches to apply.
So no high speed internet for 3 weeks .. back to the hamster on the wheel approach that is GPRS .. Moving van due in under an hour now .. still stuff to do.
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Midsummer Day 2006
Time really is flying, I seem hardly able to keep up with posting my news here. More tour gigs with Věra and the band as well as my regulars .. it's great getting to see the Republic even if it is from a tour bus. Some real highlights along the way too.
In Trebic we stayed in the old Jewish Quarter which was very picturesque and architecturally unusual. I took loads of photos. Whilst I was there I visited the Jewish cemetery too.
It was a baking hot day and the walk was a distance of a mile or so uphill.
Eventually I reached a place of real tranquility.
In the cemetery I saw a monument the like of which I'd never seen before.
It was to the Jewish soldiers that died in the First World War, fighting for the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the same side as the Germans.
Twenty years later, a whole different picture was being painted in Europe.
In Karlovy Vary, we played to 900 people. Up to this point, the average house we played to was about 350.Our gig was part of a month long arts festival.
I really like this town .. it's a very famous spa resort that, over the years, has been visited by, amongst others, Beethoven, Mozart (who used to live there), Casanova, Goethe, Schiller, Dvorak and many wealthy members of the Russian aristocracy.
The Russians first visited in the 1700s and have been returning ever since.
In todays KV, the Russians own a great deal of property in the town.
Most of the restaurants cafes and hotels have signs or menus in Russian .. there's an amazing Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St Peter and Paul, an imposing statue of Karl Marx and even a Russian consulate in the town. Some of the diplomats come to my shows at The Hotel Imperial, a gig I do every couple of months.
Almost 40% of the land surrounding KV is wooded hillside, and I have been back twice since for some "get out of the city" r and r. There are lookout towers around the town and the views are breathtaking. A cable car is the easy way up .. the walk is fantastic though .. for the record, I walked up and cablecar'd down.
The day after the gig I went sightseeing in the town and stumbled across a film crew working on the forthcoming "Casino Royale" Bond film. The Casino exterior is what used to be the Kaiserbad spa. I had a chat with a "geezer spark" (gentleman electrician) from London who was sad he missed the gig. "I laav a bit o live mewsic".
Věra and I (together with Věras sister Lenka - singing harmony vocals) did a 90 long radio show in Ostrava in the very east of the Republic.
It's a big coal and steel town .. Mittal has factories here. I was reminded of photos I've seen of Sheffield in the 1960s. Perhaps not as grimy, but a pretty bleak industrial landscape. Ostrava was once a very prosperous town in the days of Communism, principally because the miners were paid twice and sometimes three times more than the average national wage, It now has a worn out tired look and feel. One legacy of it's mining past, was an old pithead and winding house in front of a dreary block of flats we passed on our way out.
The radio show was a concert with an audience of around 150 people. The first hour was broadcast live and the last 30 minutes was archived for later transmission.
Doing live radio and TV is always a bit scary for me. Studios are fairly unforgiving, often sonically very dead spaces which give you, the performer, nothing back.
My concentration level is always high trying desperately not to stuff up and equally hard to remember the arrangements! Especially when we play the Czech versions of songs of mine ("I'm not waiting for you" and "Until I hear it from you " being two examples) that I've played and sung forever. With me singing harmony and not lead vocal.
The show went really well. OK .. I made a couple of mistakes .. daft ones mostly. I'm still not a totally confident lead guitar player! It's coming though .. working with Grahame for as long as I have, a very high standard has been set.
On the subject of cracking lead guitar players, I took myself and a couple of mates off to see the Johnny Rosenberg Trio .. a Dutch Gypsy Jazz group keeping the spirit of my favourite player, Django Reinhardt, very much alive.
Jaw droppingly brilliant, the solo guitar player Reppi Corvers was endlessly inventive and a really joyful, spirited player.
Band leader Johnny Rosenberg (nephew of the great Stochelo Rosenberg) is a killer rhythm guitarist and bass guitar player Barthia Egtberts holds all of it together.
The gig at Reduta jazz club, was part of a week long Gypsy music festival being held in Prague. Being the busy bee I am this was the only show I could go to.
Reduta is a 7-nights-a-week venue possibly best known for the appearance of Bill (eatin' ain't cheatin') Clinton on Saxophone during a visit to see former President Vaclav Havel. The Rosenberg gig was sold out and for me was one of the best 10 I've witnessed in my life.
The audience warmed to the trio very quickly, and from the smiles on the faces of the band,it was obvious that they were having great fun. It was also encouraging to see that they were trying to broaden the scope of of the Gypsy Jazz canon .. by featuring arrangements of songs by Carlos Santana ("Moonflower") and Stevie Wonder ("I Wish").
Hung out with Johnny and Reppi in the bar after the gig, talked about the forthcoming World Cup and agreed that we didn't care who won it as long as it wasn't Germany ... got to bed faaar to late after being pursued by a scuzzy looking hooker who watched me get off the night tram.
Thank you madam and good night .. she seemed more than a little offended when I told her that if I was ever going to PAY for sex I'd aim a lot higher than the likes of her. Truth is she was probably only trying to suss me out to see if I was drunk enough to be taken in by her "come and get me big boy" routine long enough for her to riffle my pocket and nick my wallet and phone. You lose .. minger.
What else .. ???
Well ... we drove through the birthplace of Uberpsych Sigmund Freud (also home to the improbably named truck accessory manufacturer Pony Fantasy .. Google THAT one boys and girls) on the way to Ostrava .. and the town where Semtex is made (close to Pardubice) en route to another gig .. had a show cancelled because Věra had bronchitis .. had a fab (legit .. i.e. non executive relief) massage in Frantiskovy Lasne (spa town FULL of Germans).. in the Hotel where we staying .. took the water there too .. there's a fable that if a woman can't conceive, one lingering touch of the todger of the statue of an infant named Frantisěk and they'll be up the duff faster than you can say " I don't believe in crap like this" .. played at the wedding of two friends Alena (Czech girl waitress at Red Hot) and Eric (American bloke from Columbus Ohio) in the back of beyond in Moravia.. driven there by her brother in a Volkswagen MPV he thought was a rocket sled ..
I'm writing this and all the above in England.
I return to Prague today after 12 days of Blighty. Didn't see all the people I wanted to for which I apologise, but I wanted some ME time too after such a busy schedule over the past three months. My gig plans were curtailed by World Cup (slight groan) so instead of doing the six gigs I had originally planned and booked,, I did three. Huge thanks as ever to those of you who turned up to support Grahame and I.
Had a beer, Sichuan food and Eds' diner milkshake night with friends, watched some crap TV .. mostly Jeremy Kyle show .. went to a charity literary evening, a fund raiser for the medical foundation for the victims of torture, and heard five writers including Kate Adie and Michael Frayn read from their favourite novels.
The evening was compered by John McCarthy himself a torture victim during the time he was held captive by Islamic Jihad in Beirut. Went to The Lion pub quiz and despite my sterling efforts (my head is crammed full of trivia) we came "second".
Some sad things too. A girlfriend of mine Jane Berryman lost her fight against liver cancer. A dynamic woman with a zest for life, I first met her years ago in Totnes, Devon when I used to play at Keith Floyds' in Tuckenhay. God bless.
I also read of the death of Howard Evans, musician, trade unionist (Assistant General Secretary of the Musicians Union) and all round good egg. He was in The Home Service, a band with a uniquely English sound, fronted by John Tams and whose members included Jon Davie and Graeme Taylor both of whom I used to gig with. Howard was a giant of a musician and as Tams wrote in an obit in The Musician magazine, a great bloke to have in your corner in a fight. Full of great stories, and with an infectious laugh. Both of them, far too young to die.
Carpe diem vita brevis. Oh almost forgot ... I'm having singing lessons again .. with Opera singer Hana Peckova .. I want to work on the high end of my range .. she's got me singing a Bb in full voice .. never done that before.
Having breakfast ... tea and buttered granary toast .. then off to run a few errands before I catch my flight. Back to five gigs in as many days from Wednesday..
Take care .. J xx
back to top
April 11th 2006
The tour continues apace. Věra and I did a duo gig in a "Country" pub in Kladno about 25 miles north of Prague .. not so much roaring fire and real ale, more a "yeehah" and bootlace tie kind of place.
It reminded me a bit of playing the Jazz Cafe in Camden with Grahame and Hank Wangford .. a Mean Country sponsored event .. ages ago. Some bloke turned up looking like the outlaw Josey Wales complete with replica gun and whip!
I ought to be able to resist the temptation to say "get a life you sad git" .. but I DO find it hard.
The Kladno (think Rotherham) gig had been sold out for about 6 weeks before, and was in fact oversold. Great audience .. they laughed at my bad Czech .. which I've started to make a virtue of, and were really into what we did. Most amazingly though, they we're asked by the management to NOT SMOKE during the gig. None of my doing, but I was absolutely delighted.
You, dear reader, have no idea what a rarity this is .. not me being delighted, that happens loads, but a Czech audience NOT smoking.
Those intent on shortening their lives and the lives of those around them, can buy a packet of 20 fags here for around 60p .. they are a local brand and are probably dreadful but 60p fer gawd's sake. You can also buy fags in packets of 40!
I shudder to think how much smoking related disease costs the Czech health service. There are Czechs who don't smoke, but we're talking tiny minority. Hardly appear on the radar.
At the end of March we did three gigs back to back in the South West of the Republic .. I found out about the "back to back" part of the trip on my way to the first show. The tour manager had forgotten to let me know.
THANKS.
No razor, bath towel, toothpaste, toothbrush, spare socks or knickers, charger for my mobile, nothing to read or music to listen to etc etc etc .. NOT HAPPY.
Washed my socks and undies in the sink every night, borrowed a T-shirt, bought all the toiletries I needed plus a new towel and I was back in business.
If slightly less better off to the tune of about £40.
The first gig was in a small town called Klatovy .. beautiful square and church but essentially one horse. It took me all of 40 minutes to wander around it the morning after the show. It was raining and I had another 4 hours and 20 minutes to fill.
Not THAT long ... IF I 'd brought a book with me I'd have gone back to the hotel and read. But then I thought we were coming back the same night.
What to do .. er..
I know ... I'll wander round the town again .. getting wetter and colder.
Great idea Jamie !
I came across the local fishing tackle shop (big sport here especially in the South West of the country where there are many lakes .. carp is a national delicacy) .. the first I've ever encountered that doubled as a sex shop.
I can see their thinking .." well we get guys in here for the fishing tackle .. and hey, guys like to watch a bit of porn .. so let's open a sex shop rent some porno vids too, a 2 for 1 kinda thing".
Right!!
Had an overpriced steak for lunch went back to the hotel for a post prandial
kip-ette and waited to be called.
Off to Strakonice. Home of the Jawa motorbike for anyone who remembers them .. two-stroke .. noisy .. prone to rust. Don't know if they're even made anymore. In the pre Soviet era the were apparently decent machines .. but that all went by the board in the early 50s.
Gig was OK .. hotel pretty dreadful, German satellite TV and way too hot.
Bought a new shirt in the town .. very nice. Pink stripy thing with bits of blue in it too .. no don't laugh you'd have to see it really.. looks great .. honest. Pink is a very good colour on me.
Walking through the town I came across a boarded up large 4 story shop that had fallen into disrepair. Looked like 1920s-ish cubist architecture, very impressive in it's day I imagine .. it was called Novy Svět (New World) .. if only I had my camera .. but then I thought we were coming back .. did I mention that ?? Double bugger.
The third and final gig was in Tábor a town close to Česky Budějovice, home of the world famous Budvar beer. Not to be confused with the bats p!ss the Americans bought the recipe for.
Fabulous theatre, friendly helpful staff .. an almost full house 400 or so people .. for me the best gig of the three. I did the gig in my new shirt .. Mr Hotpants if you don't mind.The band played really well too lots of musical banter between the players, and there was the added bonus that I'd be sleeping in my own bed that night too! Hallelujah!
Been busy doing bar gigs too .. my total for March, I played 26 gigs and did 2 rehearsals .. and people still ask me what I do during the day!
Real variety too ..from 400 people in a concert environment to 20 in a restaurant in 24 hours.
Such is Life!!
Thanks for the Licorice Allsorts L xx.
March 17th 2006
The band gigs at U Maleho Glena were fabulous. Great players .. really good atmosphere .. the second night was sold out by mid-afternoon!
I hadn't even met the keyboard player until the first rehearsal. It turns out he teaches one of my favourite young keyboard players here Ondrej Pivec.
Jirka is a really creative guy, helped a load with arrangement ideas.
The soprano sax in particular tonally worked like a dream. Rosta is such a great musician. A friend asked me "where did you find Branford Marsalis in Prague"!!
We're hoping to repeat the magic sometime in April or May depending upon the availability of all the musos.
Vera's tour started on Tuesday of this week in Liberec a town about 70 miles north of Prague. Vera and I had two radio interviews to do before the gig at the Kulturni Dum (Culture House.. ok I know .. JM .. kulcha) which was really well attended.
For Veras' show we play two sets and I have a five song cameo set before the break when I perform three songs solo and two with the band. We've played three shows so far and all of them have been well attended and received.
"Just wait 'til we get to Vegas".
The travelling is OK too .. this is a fairly small country and whilst the roads aren't always UK A road standard, they're also not overly busy. There is still a problem with snow though outside the bigger towns and cities and that can impede progress but mostly it's been a breeze.
Our gig in Nachod last night was in a really sumptuous old theatre .. great sound and the best we've played as a band out of all the gigs so far. I'm taking loads of pix so I'll find a way of including some of them at some point.
The night before our Nachod gig we stayed over night in Nova Paka in an Hotel.
Ever seen the film "The Shining"? .. This place hadn't been refurbed for probably
25 years .. a wonderfully bad taste collision of glass, lino, ornate plastic flower displays, really awful prints, purple curtains and neon lighting. I even had black and white TV in my room. We were the only people in the Hotel .. all six of us.
The bed was comfy enough .. but Beata the keyboard player thought we all ran the risk of being eaten by wolves if we strayed too far from reception.
"Heeeeere's Johnny".
Monday sees the launch party for Veras' CD. It will be held in a groovy little club in Andel (And-yell .. literally Angel) and Vera, Tomas, the bass player, and I will play a short 4 song set on the night. Busy weekend ahead for me .. three gigs .. six in all this week .. complain .. me?? Naah! One final note Happy St Pattys' Day to all my Irish friends .. and final final note to
Sue .. Happy Birthday for tomorrow.Damn .. I forgot to mention the live Breakfast TV thingy. Well .. I got to bed at about 2:30 after my gig at Marquis, only to wake at 3:20 knowing that I had to get up early (does that ever happen to you?) .. went back to sleep until 5:30 had a quick shower ... looked out of my bedroom window and there was the cab waiting to take me to the studio.
Pretty miserable day weather wise, I arrived at the studio at about 6:30 .. signed some release from in Czech (God knows what it entitles them to!!) and went to make up. Twenty seconds later after a light dusting of powder (hardly worth the effort really) we went on set to sound check.
TV studios are weird places .. this one was so dead acoustically Vera (stood next to me) could barely hear my guitar. No matter how loud you sing, the room gives you nothing back. Yet you don't want to oversing because you're miked up!
We played two songs .. both of them reworkings of two of my songs
(Until I Hear It From You and I'm Not Waiting) sung in Czechlish. Very good they were too. Then, in what seemed like no time at all, I was back in the cab and heading for home and bed! "Dobro Noc"(Good night) the driver quipped as I got out of the taxi!
Style note ... I did the TV show in sunglasses .. my eyes were so red and piggy due to lack of sleep, I wasn't going to take the chance of scaring housewives and children .. I looked a bit like a shaven headed Jose Feliciano .. a "friend" remarked. Thanks!
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February 25th 2006
It's been cold here ... the coldest winter for 50 years. So cold in fact that the Prague English language weekly newspaper the Prague Post, ran a story a couple of weeks ago about how the penguins at Prague Zoo were moved indoors by their keepers because of the record low temperatures. In the east of the Republic close to the Polish border, it went down as low as -30. Yikes.
Sorry I've been so tardy with the diary page. There has been lots happening both here in Prague and in London, and I've not had a huge amount of spare time .. and of course the longer I left it, the more difficult it became and the more news I had ..
So ... cutting to the chase, Veras' record is now finished and in the shops.
Overall, I'm really pleased with it, although there were a couple of "artistic" decisions I opposed that Vera over-ruled me on. It is after all her record.
There were also a few last minute hiccups.. in particular, the record had to be re-mastered because the first attempt was not at all reflective of the sound we remembered mixing.
Job done at the second attempt. The album title (translated) is "I Believe In My Dreams" which is the title of the Czech lyric rewrite of my song
"Until I Hear It From You", and the first single will be "Ze tu staval dum" a song I co-wrote (my music and Czech lyric).
There are 12 tracks on the album including a bonus track which is a Czechlish version of "Until I Hear It From You".To her credit Vera (pronounce her name Viera as in Patrick, NOT Vera as in Duckworth) sings in both Czech and English. Muggins only manages English!!
Both versions of "Hear It" feature the Dobro playing of Lubos Novotny who is brilliant .. as good a player as I've heard, and so easy to work with. Veras record company Popron .. a large indie label .. are really happy with the results too. They love the way it sounds and new direction it takes her music in. So much so, that they have offered to manufacture and distribute 1000 copies of my album "HereAfter" in the Czech Republic .. just in time for the tour !
So everybody is happy.
Follow this link to the Popron site to see my album. There are clips of all the tracks too.
I've had new artwork done for "HereAfter" to bring the cover picture more up to date
(in layman's terms to reflect the fact that I have my head almost shaved now!!). Thanks are due to my mate Dan England for his help with this. Not the head shaving, I do that myself .. the artwork.
Popron have just acquired the rights to the Katie Melua record here .. a real coup for them ahead of the majors.
Vera and I did an hour live on Country Radio here earlier in the month.
It turned out really well, a good mix of music, chat and humour. My friend Petr Zapletal did a bit of simultaneous translation (I'm still struggling with Czech .. I seem to speak it only to taxi drivers and in shops).
We played 9 songs in all of which 2 were me playing my stuff solo. The head of the radio station commented that it was the best live session they'd ever broadcast. I had a number of texts from people who listened to it .. including one from a friend in England who'd be listening on the internet.
There's a live breakfast TV appearance scheduled for March 9th. Singing live at 7:30am .. OMG! I've got a gig the previous night too.. I'm going to look soooo attractive on 3 hours sleep!! For any Czech readers, the broadcast is on TV Nova.
The tour to support the CD begins on March 14th in Liberec. As well as doing the live show, we're also doing two radio interviews that day too.
Gigs in England have been going well, I'd like to single out the last Lion gig for special mention. It's always such a pleasure to play there.
Thanks again to all of you who made the effort to come to attend.
It's so gratifying to have such a loyal group of supporters some of whom have been coming to my gigs for 20 years. Makes me feel VERY humble.
Grahame played like a demon that night too .. to think we get money for this ..it's wonderful. Thank you Whitey, you're a constant inspiration.
Thanks also to Barbara T for her performance help .. very useful stuff.
I've been monitoring the Calcutta Cup match at Murrayfield while typing this .. seems once again England snatch defeat from the jaws of victory .. come on Robbo this won't do. There's no way we'll retain the World Cup with performances like this one. Rule #1 hold on to the ball. Rule #2 don't give stupid penalties away.
Rule #3 don't hand the initiative to the opposition by losing players to the sin bin.
January 20th 2006
Happy New Year .. yeah OK it's a little after the event .Sorry. I seem to have trouble finding spare time these days.
I spent Xmas and New Year in England .. had a fab time apart from a throat virus and conjunctivitis. The virus only gave up the ghost a couple of days ago. I had it for close on 4 weeks. Luckily I had no gigs in England so was able to save my voice.
I did sing in the New Year at my old local The Lion in Teddington. Seems the dj hired for the night only had Chas and Dave's "cockerny kneesup - tastic" version of Auld Lang Syne. Don the Landlord (Aussie) was pretty livid, and he expressed his displeasure in that uniquely Australian way. Trooper that I am I offered to sing in 2006 .. he was made up! After the pub went to friends drank (circumspectly) played poker (very badly) and was handed a guitar at about 3:30 and commanded to sing. Bed at 5:30.
I went to Xmas Eve Midnight Mass too. My friend Emma (a professional soprano) was singing in the choir at St Brides Church in Fleet Street London. A wonderful Christopher Wren building, it survived The Great Fire and The Blitz (despite being hit by The Luftwaffe) and for 500 years, has been the spiritual home of printing & the media. Really fab choir and a moving service .. not really the churchy type I s'pose that's the legacy of Catholicism. Emma can be hear shortly-ish singing on the soundtrack of the forthcoming film of the book "The Da Vinci Code".
Drove up to my folks on Xmas Day and spent most of my time there during my stay. Amazing turkey dinner cooked by my elder sister Maggi. I was also given the news that I am to be a great-uncle! My niece Abbi is "with child" (topical biblical reference) I'm delighted for her and Paul .. no idea what being a great uncle involves tho. Will check google for a job description.
Any road ... it's been mighty cold in Prague down to -12 on some nights ... snowing too. I woke yesterday to find the heating in my flat not working and no hot water! Sorted pretty promptly tho .. which pleased me.
I've been gigging like mad .. 17 this month including a trip to London .. in fact I'm at the airport now typing this on my laptop ... flash (or possibly sad) git.
A first for me today .. at the airport check in I was approached by a Benedictine Nun who came up to me and said "Hello Father" .. I looked at her quizzically ... "are you Benedictine" she said .. " er .. no English" says I. "Oh I am sorry I thought I recognised you" ... " I thought you were one of our Fathers"
Two ecclesiastical references in one posting. Unheard of until now. Think of me on the 23rd of January .. it will be 25 years since I gave up my career job (marketing ... since you ask) to follow a much more preferable if slightly more precarious existence. I won't get all maudlin and retrospective on you .. suffice to say it's been a blast!!
Take Care.