The Cycle Junction Return.

July 31st 2014.

Me in the foreground - Dan snuck into the corner!
Many thanks to Julie Bacon for this photo.

Some places do it so right!

If every town had a couple of places run by people with the same attitude as Mike and his family at The Cycle Junction, I have no doubt whatsoever that a culture of live, original music would be thriving. 

Some of the typical problems facing artists today are that all too many venues expect them to play as a sort of privilege, free entertainment for them but resulting in significantly increased bar-sales, with complete disregard to the many hours of work that go into that one performance let alone the countless hours in total that have lead to it. I think you, dear reader, might well be very surprised how little even household-name artists go out for, making a living yes but many are probably making a lot less than say a junior manager in an organisation - the love of, passion for and ultimately the undeniable compulsion to write, make and perform music is far greater than those to earn an easy, steady income for the musician, as with other types of artist. I'll stop moaning about this now but if this issue interests you, it's worth having a read here.

Back to the super-positive, and as I say the Cycle-Junction folk do it so right! Yet another sold-out show and as a headliner on my previous appearance here,  it was my turn to support this time as per another cool policy of the place. Once again Dan played percussion for me, bringing quite a large kit which he incredibly managed to wedge into a corner of the tiny space available, we were supporting the stupendously entertaining Baxter. As an opener, owner Mike as half of the duo KwalaParla with Ryan, played some of their engaging tunes, beautifully played and you can download them for free via the link below! The audience, as always here, listened intently, did lots of spirited joining in and were just bloomin lovely!

If you were there and are reading this, thank you so much! You are what makes all the effort that goes into this so worthwhile! xxx

Check out the hugely entertaining, brilliant vocals of Baxter HERE.

Free downloads and more from KwarlaPara here...

A Tour De Force!

The audience seemed to love the show, here are some of them in the interval enjoying a hot drink or cold beer.

Like most or more likely all independent musician's, I've had my fair share of promoters, organisers and venues who treat the musician or band as a cheap (or even free) way to make money, perhaps through beer sales, without giving much time or effort over to trying to make make a success of the night, leaving that side of things entirely to the musician's involved. I'm delighted to say that this event was event was the polar opposite of any of that. Mike Willacy who runs The Cycle Junction bike shop near Sandbach is clearly as nuts about music as he is about bikes. An enthusiasm which clearly had an impact on the success of this sell-out event.

The 2012 live music act means that small venues, or would-be venues, are now able to host live music events without too much bother. (The M.U. have some fab advice and downloadable kit HERE for those who run cafes, pubs, village halls or any other potential venue that could host a live-music show). Now, I have read some criticism of the act, including the view that this will encourage more pubs to have bands on in any particular area meaning that the potential available audience for live music in that area would be more dispersed, making things worse for musicians, venues and punters (in terms of atmosphere in the latter case). I would hope though that the act will mean more potential venues will consider it. It was certainly a huge success in this case, and honestly the best gig I have ever done in a bike shop ;)

In this case it was the stunning vocal talent of Hayley Strangelove who was in a more supportive role on this occasion, and I will return the favour on the evening of July 31st when I support both Hayley and Paul Senior in the guise of Baxter. 

For the full run-down of ace talents appearing at these shop-sessions,have a look over HERE. 

Thanks to Mike & his team for the videos below. Now, I must dust off my Pinarello!

Other blogs about this event;

Read The Cycle Junction's own blog HERE.
Read Grateful Fred's blog HERE.

Hayley and Paul, 'back-stage' and back soon as "Baxter".