"It's Christmas Time..."

 Here finally is what some of my recent posts have been about, the folk at Alsager Music Festival asked me & some of the other artists who have played the festival to take part in a new version of the famous Band Aid song "Do They Know It's Christmas (Feed the World) " this time to raise funds for the wonderful local hospice, Dougie Mac.

The single will be out on Dec 5th but the video is out now:

Back to the Tap

18-11-22

A gig at Tom's Tap was among a string of gigs that were among the 1st that we preemptively cancelled when it was becoming clear just how serious Covid was turning out to be not long before the 1st lockdown was announced, so it felt especially good to be back at this absolute gem of a brewery come comedy & music venue. With We Are Nomad's Mike on Sound and our good friend Tim Lee opening with an engaging performance of his emotive songs, it was set for a great night. Lovely to see good friends and new friends, thanks to all for coming along on such a dark and drissley night. 

Thanks to Tim for the great photos on top of the great songs. 

Tim Lee was in great form

A Time to Mime

It's probably still a bit too early for details, but having recorded the track a few weeks ago (see post on 09/10/2022), myself & Dave from The Blue Yellows joined many others for a video shoot which I believe will first be seen in a couple of weeks... 

I was a bit early so sat on
this bench with a sandwich & 
can of supermarket 
espresso 

Dave always makes a good entrance

A Nastee Night

A rare (these days) solo performance from me to play The Songwriter Sessions for the Opening Night of The Words & Music Festival

I had the pleasure of playing and also introducing special guests, top producer/Songwriter Nigel Stonier and barnstorming new folksters Nastee Chapel. 

Photos by Chris Davies

A sound bite

 09/10/2022 

A trip to Soundbites Studio to record for a special project - more of which later in the year. 

Alsager ON FIRE!

Alsager Music Festival 17th July 2022

*Updated 22/07/22

At risk of using not one but two overused words in this opening sentence, Alsager this year saw the start of a period of unprecedented levels of smothering heat opressing our usually fresh sumer weather, though I guess we will have to try to get used to this more and more as it becomes the "new normal". My train to the event was change to a rail-replacement bus due to a trackside fire (having gone through such a fire only on Friday on my train to rehearsals) Thank goodness for a strong breeze though to make things much more pleasant though.

Thank goodness too for the as-aways brilliant organisation, great sound which once again came from Mikey of Soundbites Creative on the desk but most of all to all of you who came along and sang along. You were just great, and gave us a fab time - thank you! x 

*Also - there was a frantic ant nest right beneath /around my pedalboard. 

*The Buggs joined us for "No Tobacco" after opening the day brilliantly earlier. 

Photos by Tim Lee

Middlewich 22 - What a Blast!

18th and 19th June 2022 (updated 21st June to include video footage) 

If you see my previous post you can see that for this and a variety of other logistical reasons we were feeling fairly under-rehearsed for the two hour gigs we were scheduled to perform across the weekend.

 The Middlewich Folks & Boat Festival was back after a Covid-induced absence of two years and was now actually better than ever, with acts including Cast, Gruff Rhys, The Waterboys, Boo Radleys and more. Founding festival organiser Lizzie was back at the Helm in collaboration with the local council and I'm sure played a huge part in making this the best one yet, 30 years on from the 1st event.

Under-rehearsed though we were, we've now reached the stage where we know each other so well musically, we can not only take risks but jam-out songs successfully with gusto and with a sort of free-flowing, exhilarating vibrancy even though we might not know them brilliantly well yet, as was the case with the live debut for  "The Stronger You Love", newish songs in terms of playing live like "Bella" and "new" cover "Closing Time".

In a complete reversal of what I'd expected, the Saturday gig was much busier (in spite of a slightly more out-of-town venue) than I expected and the Sunday one seemed to be more "hangover day" with a very small but nevertheless responsive audience.

The gang played absolutely brilliantly and it was a joy to see so many old friends and as meet lots of new people who seem to have enjoyed it all.

Thanks X

Photo: Stephanie Burgess

Audience member Ruby danced and joined us on tambourine at one gig!
Photo: Tim Lee

Photo: Tim Lee

Photo: Tim Lee

Photo: Time Lee

Photo: Tim Lee

Sorry, back soon.

Posted on June 3rd

 

Festival Season

 A couple of things coming up.

I also worked on this recent release... 

Electric Dreams

 Working on something electronic 

Beeb-Oh

 Roughly coinciding with The Blue Yellows coming out of hibernation to start rehearsing 2022 shows, it was nice to get some airplay & nice comments on the BB of C.

Three is the magic number.

Jose Left, me on the right (from youtube - Boxing Day tracking)

It feels like my life in music is currently much less exhausting than usual but that’s actually because I’m still not doing much in the way of live music and rehearsing, both of which demand a lot of physical and emotional energy, considerable travel and lots of humping heavy equipment around. So it’s easy to feel that I’m not doing much at present.

The truth is though I’ve currently got three recording projects on the go; José continues with his next EP for which I am contributing some composition co-wrtiting, lyrics, vocals and guitar. A previous collaborator Jase (Jason Louth - see a previous co-write “When this Flower Opens” in my back catalogue for instance) has also asked me to write & record vocals for him. 

I’m also producing and experimenting with what will hopefully become the next Kitten Jynx releases (& the first that will have widespread availability beyond some Bandcamp loops). This is electronic music that might fit somewhere in between ambient, trance and EDM though to be honest I’m a bit out of my depth here in terms of knowledge (but not enjoyment) so my approach here is one of exploring production possibilities and having fun with it, which I hope will reflect in the finished tracks. All of course fitting in with working with lots of music students of various species.

Blue Yellows rehearsals are booked along with our 1st festival appearance or two of 2022 so normal, exhausting but exciting service will soon be resumed!

Future Kitten Jynx sounds?