Levenshulme Festival & a chance to wander.

Photo by Tony Gribbon (copyright tonygribbon.co.uk)
Yes it was VERY cold!

I'm a confirmed country bumpkin but oddly this gives me a child-like glee and excitement when I hit the bright lights of the big city, gasping in awe at every turn at the hustle, colour (i.e. not just greens and browns), the fact that you can buy more than just milk and sugar in the shops and the immense socio-cultural diversity it brings together. This being an afternoon gig, I had the chance to go for a wander, albeit in the exceptionally cold, sleepless, a little hungover and increasingly feverish state I found myself in (so I didn't get far!). Levenshulme turned out to be an delightfully friendly place by the way by the way. Lovely.  I also got to see some great acts including Zacc Rogers and Tracey Browne.

A Gorgeously sunny day but the 1st really cold snap of the winter.

Some very cool busking, 50 meters behind me, others joined in on djembes.

Want to get signed? Why, why, why???

Photo by Dorota.

I continue to be amazed at the number of bands and artists who are desperate, yes actually desperate to be signed to a record label. There was a time not that long ago when to have a record deal was the only way you could possibly even dream about recording any of your music and getting it "out there". Now I can understand that there might be some good record deals to be had by organisations which will actually nurture you, promote you and allow you to develop your art over a reasonable period and give you masses of exposure, but I'm sure these are very few and far between. On top of this is the fact that any of you reading this I'm sure are quite capable of setting up your own record label, taking on some bands and trying to make money out of them one way or another (but what's in it for the artist?).  Surely, unless the dream-deal comes along.. the way forward must be "self-signed", "DIY", call it what you will. It may mean lots of hard work promoting, poster-designing, website management, distributing, constructing, shmoozing, hustling and so on, but at least you don't have to sign away your musical direction/image/soul away to the man. Here's a glimpse into the BYs factory, putting some CD copies of All these things right now together. Thanks for the photo Dorota x

T-time

We have a few T-shirts of a new design based on the EP cover. Some good friends of the band make things so much easier by offering to take on jobs that would eat hugely into what little time we have left after writing, rehearsing, day jobs, promoting -oh and blog... in a self-signed, independent band... in this case our mate Tim sorted these. Thanks Tim!

New Toy.

I bought this recently from Gear4Music.com and as recommended by Neil from United Breaks. It helps me create very beautiful reverb sounds and dramatic looping effects. Coming to my solo gigs soon...

Talking of gigs;

Oct 27th - Levenshulm Festival, Manchester

October 28th - Boxjam Festival, Crewe (with The BlueYellows)

November 8th - The Grapes, Stafford (with The BlueYellows)

November 10th - Cafe Yes, Blythe Bridge

(full details via the widget on the right- get clicking)

The naming of the parts

Us guitar players like to give our favourite planks names. I decided a few weeks ago to call my vintage Tokai Strat 'Il Pirata' or 'The Pirate' as inspired by some of the antics of The Blue Yellows & friends, partly the colour and partly because of this guy, one of my heroes, albeit a troubled anti hero. Marco RIP.

This should be pretty exciting - and it's our 3rd Birthday.

The Band at Boxjam, Coming soon.

Please see boxjam.co.uk for full details of this exciting festival in Crewe (opposite the railway station).