Songs '..of grace and wit', The Musician. 'A voice and sentiment to lift you from slumber', Fatea Records. 'This will get in your head', BBC Introducing.
We had an absolute blast with Barn54 at Tom's Tap - though none of us live in Crewe, this always feels like our "home" venue, our local.
Sadly, Tom's Tappers didn't get to hear Sina's beautiful vocals as she's suffering from the flu at the moment and, having hardly been able to walk from being so ill on the morning of this gig, her voice was still gone for showtime. But, as always with professional musicians “the show must go on" as did Sina, if without that voice this time.
Me and Dave from The Blue Yellows were delighted to be asked to join the German duo for their set as well, jamming along seat-of-the-pants style, following Simon's directions. It was so much fun, I love their songs so much!
We've nearly finished our run of shows with them, one last time with them at Artisan Tap (our debut there), but more is already being organised for 2027.
I'm missing my wonderful German friends already.
Simon from Barn54 joined us on drums again for The Stronger You Love - photo by Marina Red
I've learned to at least try never to have any preconceptions as to how good a gig is going to be, but have to admit that the good feelings I had about this one turned out to be more than justified. In spite of considerable difficulties with the sound through soundcheck, Mike (from We Are Nomad) was as ever thoroughly well prepared but had some real issues for a while... But it was all sorted in time for the show.
As if Mike didn't have enough of an event to sort, he and the other 50% of We Are Nomad , Rona were first up, and what a spellbinding and chilled start to a great night they were. We'd specifically asked them to focus more on original material for this one and it was great to hear their own songs including their epic "The Ocean".
Next up were brand new band (this would be their third ever gig), namely youth indie-rockers Contemporary Nightmare I knew front-man Dylan Bugg from both his previous band The Buggs with brother Owain and from the fact that I taught them both guitar when they lived in Cheshire. To say we (I think I can confidently speak for everyone there) were impressed was an understatement. A teen band 3 gigs in are supposed to be really rough, battling with the basics like staying in time, maintaining a solid groove and holding a good melody under the pressure of the public gaze and not wanting to let yourselves down... These things typically take many gigs to begin to master before a band goes on to flourish. These lads definitely have "it" - straight out of the box - hugely enjoyable set.
When it came to my gang The Blue Yellows we felt ready to take some risks on some newer material as well as some old favourites. Everyone seemed to love it.
The night was certainly massively enhanced by such a thorough approach to sound from Mike, a superbly atmospheric light rig provided by Pod (Jason Podmore), plus a dry-ice machine (I think we're supposed to call it "haze" nowadays having been laughed at by a student working in light shows for calling it "dry ice"!). On top of that, many great photos were taken by Tim Lee, Martin Edwards & others many of which will appear over the coming months no doubt (with credits of course) in our socials and so on. On top of all this, the venue itself - Tom's Tap and Brewhouse - well, we just love the place and love playing here. Not only are their beers, ciders and other beverages and food top notch, but like any great places the personalities of the people running the joint really makes a difference and they have really built a community - one with all the right vibes and a real focus on egalitarianism and inclusivity.
I will certainly have missed people out in this something of a thanks-fest post but as ever - the people who really make the difference are you lovely lot who come to the shows. YOU give us the energy, you share the emotions and excitement of making this mad, roller-coaster of feelings that is a live music show; thank you so much!
Me & my gang are delighted to feature (*along with many more) in the new book Railtown Rock by Andy Pennance.
It’s been something of a labour of love for Andy and it covers the music scene in the Crewe and Nantwich area from the early Skiffle groups who gigged there in the 1950s through to the current scene of bands, venues and musicians.
It’s printed by Mpire Press at a cost of £15 +P&P
*Including The Beatles, Dario G, Dr Phibes and the House of the Wax Equations, Tower Struck Down, The Scorpions, Train Set, Snakey Jake & the Dead Skunk Band, Gary B. Goode and The Hot Rots.
13/12/2019 The Blue Yellows at Tom’s Tap and Brew. It was with exceptionally heavy hearts that we gathered in the lovely environs of Tom’s Tap and Brew following the devastating win for the right wing Conservatives; a win for bigotry, for lack of empathy for those in most need and for monetising everything that moves including basic public services, and cutting those that don’t make a direct profit, no matter how important.
Yes, it looks like the nasty party are bedded in for years to come.
It was heartening to know that Jacqui and Sean who run the place feel the same way.
It was a nice crowd, noisy but appreciative, the gang played really well, we drank some of the most gorgeous beers imaginable and met up with some great friends.
Last night I played a fun gig with Rickety Wireless without our usual drummer Dan but instead, my BYs compadre Dave Coomer heroically depping at fairly short notice after one brief run-through.
A fun, Halloween-themed gig at The Brunswick, Crewe.
March 1st 2019 - The Blue Yellows 'Kitchen Sessions' release Show. If you're an unhealthy combination of worrier and control freak, then the many months of build up to meeting all the deadlines on the way to the successfully release of an album on time are a prolonged struggle comprising of garnering various people, software programmes, organisations, materials, third parties and so on... all against the relentless progress of time, any one thing threatening to cause a postponement of release-day and therefore scuppering months of promotional drip-feeds, press packs sent to music press, photography, conventional press releases and so on. Such a delay would then either end up being one of many months so that it can promoted properly again, or resulting in a bit of a non-event. So it's a real sense of contented release I find myself in now, knowing The Blue Yellows can go back to being a gigging band again. Easy! 😉 What a lovely night you lot gave us at Tom's Tap and Brewhouse though, much of the talk afterwards while signing albums and so on, was how the young duo The Bugs owned that stage and played so well, these comments coming from a very knowledgable 'music-crowd' that really know their stuff. Pretty amazing for youngsters Owain and Dylan still at primary school! Tim Lee, the brilliant singer-songwriter, friend and producer of the new tracks on this album, provided a similarly pitch-perfect tone for the night with his honest, emotionally and texturally rich songs. The audience was full of familiar faces from near and far, many coming from Manchester as it worked out, and from further afield, some really good friends too, the only problem at an event like this is really having hardly any free moments to speak much. To those of you there, thanks for giving us such a great night and sharing the happiness, contentment, new tunes and sense of... release. This is a set-list pic from Tim's own blog-post on this event which you can read, in full HERE.
Joined for the finale by Tim and The Buggs, photo by Rob Collins.
You can now get to the new album on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer or whichever is your favourite streaming or download site, or order the limited edition CD, before they go, below!
December 7th, 2018 *What could possibly go wrong, as they say!!? Well.. *The previous venue owner mistakenly deleted the event (which she was still tagged into- my fault d'oh) meaning that 50 or so folk who said were going or interested were informed the event was cancelled... *At the end of one song, the 'dramatic ending' involved me falling into the guitar rack and symbols behind me!
Other than that it was a lovely night playing for Rickety Wireless, Sean and Jacqui at Tom's Tap and Brewhouse were great hosts who were friendly and really looked after us. Thanks to all who survived the cancellation notice and came along!
Because of the working environment of a brewery,
and the stage being immediately in front of the big, brewing casks, a
lot of the general, malty crud from the floor had trasfered onto
my effects pedals, warrenting a good clean the next day.
Today I was out with the gang, The Blue Yellows playing amid the historic railway paraphernalia of Crewe Heritage Centre for Rock and Rails Festival. It was a struggle to get into the set for a while as we had a few sound issues that are sometimes inevitable at such events, but it was a good chance to practice some new songs on those who made it along.
Today we were in traditional 'national dress' The 'knotted hankey' being in jokey support of the UK for tonight's Eurovision Song contest, myself and Dave from the band having appeared in a crazy Eurovision-themed version of The Doorstep Mixtape on the radio, two nights beforehand, with Dave sporting the infamous head-gear.
The BYs Rhythm Section not messing about. Thanks to Tim Lee for the photo.
Don't laugh, you'll all be wearing them by next summer.
Thanks to Martin Butterworth for this photo!
Thanks to Tim Lee for the photo.
Em somehow managed to look good in hers... not fair!
Thanks to Tim Lee for the photo.
Friday, April 6th 2018 (*updated 08/04/18 to include link to live review)
Last night I was out with The Blue Yellows playing long set with new songs. As we have, of late, been focusing on recording, we were under-rehearsed in terms of live performances of new songs and in some cases, any rehearsal at all of some of the longer-standing tunes in the set. Nevertheless, although our set may not have been technically perfect, we were definitely 'in the zone' as far as artistic expression, emotion and spirit are concerned, playing an absolute blinder from what I could tell. The lovely crowd packed into the bijou but gorgeous (with equally gorgeous beers and gins) Offbeat Brewery. I dedicated a couple of songs to my good friend Alex an amazing tour de force of a character. She and her lovely doggie died in a horrible boat fire earlier in the year. Thanks to everyone who made it along, you gave us a great night, and lovely to see so many old faces, and enthusiastic new ones!
Update 11/11/2017 We understand that The Box venue has been sold with the plan to demolish it and replace with a multi-story car park... tragic and infuriating news.
It was a genuine honour to play this event, the inaugural International Festival in Crewe, as it showcased some fine examples of dance, poetry and music with eclectic, international flavours. I was not sure how all this would go down so it was lovely to see the Crewe locals sitting down in the sun and taking this all in and enjoying. It was touching for me to see the Jacklin Frets Orchestra perform so beautifully with their assorted mandolins, guitars and other fretted instruments. This is a group I played in at times as a youngster, having been taught guitarfor a while by the wonderful Brian Jacklin himself. Anyone who ever met or was taught by Brian would never forget him, a wonderful, warm, big-hearted man and an amazing character with a tenacious love of music and teaching. Other notables that I managed to see and really enjoy were Magenta Dancer, her performances were mesmeric, spiritual and breathtaking. Wonderful stuff! The Jamaican via Liverpool poet, storyteller and consciousness-raiser Levi Tafari roused the crown, young and old, in fact he could hardly leave the stage due to a crowd of older children demanding his autograph before he left!
Viva Flamenco! Several people have commented to me that a touch of Flamenco has seeped into my playing style, I think this can only have come from being surrounded by Spanish students, many from Andalusia for a few summers in a row, bringing with them lots of what sounds to me what I would call "Europop" but with some hints of traditional Spanish styles weaving through it. I hope I never forget a group of Spanish students performing Flamenco dancing in their traditional outfits, it was the first time I was really moved by watching dance in the same kind of"blown-away", transformative, spiritually-heightening way that music always does.
Something that was particularly wonderful was the music created by Amiruddin on Sarangi, Hanifji on Tabla and Adrian on Saxaphone (sorry, not sure of full names or links). As Adrian said in introducing the musicians, the Sarangi is "the sound of India", a fantastic fretted, stringed instrument played with a bow. Combined with the glooping percussive sounds of the tabla and with a jazz orientated saxophone giving making it a fusion of classical Indian sounds with more Jazzy Western (albeit in fact via Afro-Caribbean origins of course) fusion of styles. Amazing.
I often feel like the outsider at events, brandishing my own style of sound-art, bending the rules of song-structure and playing styles, in a background of conventional Indie or rock but for once I felt like the middle-of-road guy with these eclectic offerings. I really hope this festival goes from strength to strength as it really has the makings of something special.
Thanks to Hayley Strangelove for this photo of me.
Levi Tafari, a really chaming guy. He got the crowd going!
Incredible music from L-R Adrian, Hanifji and Amiruddin.
Mike & Rona AKA We.Are. Nomad
who played beautifully & kindly sorted the sound for everyone.
I agreed to play a community do on this summery day in Crewe's Victorian Queen's Park. It was the brainchild of Creative Crewe and included lovely music from festival regulars The Green Smoke Hokum Band, and Darren Poyzer plus performances and PA-provision and sound engineering courtesy of that lovely acoustic folk-prog duo We Are Nomad. The sun also agreed to come out, as stated in it's contract!
The tiny confines of a great little music pub, The Nag's Head in Crewe mean you have to be careful how you move about on stage, but it was well worth it for a close-up and personal night where some in the audience became a Blue Yellow for several songs after we handed out a load of percussive shakers and the like. Great atmosphere, thanks to everyone who created that for us! Tim Lee did a superb job in support, you really should do yourself a favour and check this superb songsmith out. Tim's set; Love is Cruel Alisha Diagram of a Heart One Missed Call Tracks of my Tears (Smokey Robinson cover) Prettiest Green Eyes Ride on the Breeze This is a Lie (The Cure cover) Whats in a Word? I'm Just Gonna be me She's a Drug Sophie Draw. BlueYellows set; Cry Cry Kill Love Limpet The Owl & the Willow Minute in the Sun Beachcombing Big Low Copper Moon Jolene (Dolly Parton cover) Where the Sky meets the Sea Killing Me Feels like Sunshine Farmer John (Don Harris & Dewey Terry cover - inspired by Neil Young & Crazy Horse's version). No Tobacco, No Jesus These Boots are made for Walkin' (Lee Hazelwood cover). Injury of the evening; A split lip when dancing in front of the stage resulted in my mic punching straight into my face. Quote of the evening 1 (just for fun, I'm sure Russ Abbott is a lovely guy); Someone - "Oh what an atmosphere!", me - "perhaps we should cover that?" Simon - "Russ Abbott?!?!", me - "To be fair he's the only entertainer of his generation who hasn't turned out to be a paedo", Simon "yet". Quote of the evening 2. Me (talking to girl wanted to know when we are playing in future) "Would you like to go on our email mailing-list?" - "I haven't got an email address" - "are you on facebook?" - "no" - "have you got access to the internet?" - "no" - "We'll send a pigeon".
We returned to Sqaure One, Crewe this time in full band mode and with some new material. There's also a little blog post about the night by our sound-peeps, The Angry Badgers right here.
Set List No Tobacco No Jesus, Love Limpet, The Owl & The Willow, Back in the Real World, Jolene, Beachcombing, Killing Me, New Song (not yet named), Cry Cry Kill, Galleries, Lazy Sunday Afternoon, You Want My Head, Feels Like Sunshine, Farmer John, Just Like Nero, Humankind, These Boots Were Made For Walking, (Encore) No Tobacco No Jesus (extended).
