First things first – thanks to Toby for giving back my WordPress blog after some no-life in Indonesia hacked into it. I have upgraded my version of WP and got a new password so I hope there will not be a repeat of this.
Busy time week ahead of me – today I’m off to Cernosice just outside Prague to rehearse with Vera and the band P.R.S.T for our forthcoming tour which starts in March and continues for another two months .. something like 15 gigs in total .. all of them Concert Hall venues which will be good. Monday is my 6th anniversary of being in Prague and I am celebrating in two ways … first by playing to two groups of school children which will be a blast, then in the evening having beer and curry with the GOM (Grumpy Old Men) despite being neither grumpy nor old.
Curry at the wonderfully quirky Himalaya restaurant (more like a takeaway place with two plastic tables and four garden chairs) with food cooked by a young Bangladeshi. Beer will be taken in Privni Pivni Tramvaj a former tram drivers refreshment hut at the end of the 11 tram line .. amazing range of micro and small brewery beers. And there was me stopping drinking beer in February. I was introduced to it by my friend Chris who despite being a Man Utd fan is still a decent bloke . we went there just before Xmas and I drank some amazing 19 degree (7.9 a.b.v) Xmas beer brewed by the monks in Strahov monastery. The only place it’s available in Prague outside the monastery is in this little gem of a bar.
Tuesday I do my TV show Na Plovarna … Bez Plavek .. this time with Vera as a guest. We’ll do a song together but I have no idea what yet. Maybe we’ll discuss this today. Shooting has moved to another studio now .. smaller and for me at least not a ritzy as the casino but I’m still very happy to be part of the show. Gigs on TV are hard to come by here and I am the only non-Czech or Slovak muso I know who plays regularly on television in this country .. which is really something.
Wednesday and Thursday I have gigs at Red Hot plus my buddy Simon arrives from Holland for a few days. Friday I have brunch with my friend Gerd Kohler from Bonn in Germany .. and a gig at Esse .. then Saturday Dani and I play once again at Jazz Dock. I will also be seeing friends from London who are in town this coming weekend.
So my no beer pledge will take a very serious test (which it will fail gloriously)
Shot in High Definition this 8 minute clip features me playing live and solo in a Prague music club.
It is a condensed version of a gig I played in July of this year. I’m very happy with it.
shot by my friend Jimmy on his phone cam, there is a hi-def video of highlights of the the same show in the editing suite right now.
It will be posted to youtube very soon.
I was asked about a month ago to be the “house musician” on a TV talk show broadcast on digital in both the Czech and Slovak Republics.
The TV station is called public.tv
The offer came out of nowhere really .. the producer had seen me play, loved what I did, and called a mutual friend whose premises we are using as a studio and bingo.
The first show was aired this week on September 8th (my parents wedding anniversary co-incidentally) and can be found by clicking this link you will need to download the silverlight player to see it.
Soon as I get copies on DVD I will rip them and put them here.
There are also some photos posted here for shows 1 and 2 and here for shows 3 and 4
and below are a few samples
some really good news on the song writing front, I am collaborating with a long term friend and fellow muso singer/songwriter Clive Gregson .. hopefully this will lead to a new recording for me that’s the plan at least.
We have one song already finished .. news updates as they arrive. This might be a long process as Clive is so busy putting his studio together but I hope that with this and other collaborations a new album will be forthcoming.
The concert starts at 9:30pm and I will be performing my own critically acclaimed songs entirely acoustically .. no amp .. no mic just me and my Lowden.
Tickets are 150kc, and will be on sale from Prague Fringe agents, and on the door on the night. Student discounts are I believe available too.
My nephew Tom (who I have mentioned before on this blog) is at Cambridge University doing a Masters Degree in Fluid Dynamics (whatever that is) funded by BP.
Not content with being “superbright geek-boy” he’s also a brill musician (Clarinet Saxophone bit of Piano and Guitar) a good singer and a fab human being .. and he’s just been offered a fully funded PhD at Birmingham Uni in something I probably can’t even get my head around.
I took this photo in the Ladies toilet backstage at a Vera gig recently.
The toilet paper was the duffest, greyest, most recycled cheap-ass stuff anyone can imagine .. you could probably buy 500 rolls of it for the cost of the padlock.
Even more bizarrely there was another roll of it unfettered in anyway on the window sill close by.
