The Beautiful North.

Saturday, Sept 5th, 2015

The King's Arms
Back-street wonderfulness.

On Saturday I headed for Salford to play Paul Heaton's (The Beautiful South/Housemartins) venue, the King's Arms for the annual music and comedy festival.

It was nearly a disaster for me actually thanks only to my own stupidity, having walked from Piccadilly station to the place I was convinced the venue was. For some reason I was wrong, very wrong.

With phone battery and access to google maps fading, I found myself running around various parts of Manchester & Salford before bearing's were finally got again, with the help of a few people I frantically asked.

With a very sweaty half hour to spare, I set up and tried to relax in a really lively, almost boisterous atmosphere. I could not have asked for a more wonderful audience, as soon as I started playing the chatting stopped, they listened, they 'whopped' excitedly during my solo-y bits, and cheered and applauded generously at the end. A wonderful, music-loving, fun-loving, giving bunch of people up for a great time,  if ever there was.
The most eclectic, fantastic talent in every corner of the place, upstairs and down and a great atmosphere all round. 
What - more - could - you - possibly - want!?!
Thank you Salford!

All Jammed out at the Food Fest.

Friday, September 4th 2015

As with last year's gig here, drummer (not to mention producer/percussionist/all-round brilliant muso) Dan and myself had just one rehearsal together before attempting to nail it on the night, and he's just so damned good that's all he needs. 

Thanks to Liz from stage-sponsors Redshift Radio for this pic.

There were many moments when neither of us probably new quite how we were going to end a song, or do the middle eight or something, but we somehow managed to jam it out and it all seemed to go well, especially once the crowd had a few more glasses or prosecco or gorgeous real ales from the yummy Lymestone and Hafod breweries, stall's of which were handily close to the stage. Well, it would've been rude not to..

I got there in time to see Oli Ng's second set, Oli's a very talented musician and one to watch, as well as doing a lot of solo work he leads The Eyres and is also currently touring with Tom Seals. Look out for him, and them.

It was great fun, and with Dan's use of the full drum kit and a grittier-than-usual sound with my new axe Red Severn through my amazing little Laney Ironheart IRT-Pulse, it almost felt and sounded like a band gig rather than an acoustic duo. Great fun, not diminished by dancing minions, ninja turtles, lots of friendly faces in the crowd (Including Thea Gilmore - so no pressure..). The lovely and very well fed crowd became gradually more up for it as the night wore on more drinks went down. Thanks to all of you!

Rocking the 355(ish) copy, 'Red Severn'
Thanks to talented songsmith Tim Lee for the pic.

Home is where the Heart is - Nantwich Marina Open Day.

@JonnieGitAhhr playing at Nantwich Marina right now with sexy new guitar! If you're around get down! pic.twitter.com/Sdo3KlIqnk

— Tim Lee - Songwriter (@timleesongs) August 22, 2015

Another summer weekend of 2015, another gig by lovely hosts Redshift Radio, plus Jasper, Liz from Redshift's doggie, was celibrating a full year on the planet. Hopefully many more happy, tail-waggie years to come! 

Once again the always brilliant Tim Lee was playing as was Mr Tom Riddle who performed earlier but I unfortunately missed.

This could hardly have been more of a 'home' gig for me except as luck would have it, I am currently staying a whole 2 train rides away, never mind, at least the day was hot and sunny, before the traditional English summer evening monsoon which is going on now as I type! I am personally a big fan of thunder and lightning and heavy rain so no complains from me!

Big thanks to Nantwich Marina !

Tim Lee - always brilliant
unlike my photo, sorry Tim.

Next  gigs;

Sept' 4th - Nantwich Food and Drink Festival with Dan Logan 7-9pm
Sept 5th - The Kings Arms Festival, Salford (5pm) Ticket's HERE.
Sept 26th - with The Blue Yellows at Alderley & Wilmslow Beer & Wine Festival (5pm)
Sept 13th - The Free Love Club, Birmingham.
Oct 14th - TBA!
Oct 18th - TBA!

As you can see, there are some gigs awaiting announcement for Autumn that I cannot go into details of yet, so keep an eye on the gig list on the right hand side of this page (or my facebook, or my twitter, if you can).
Cheers,
J. :)

Plan, promote, prepare and PRACTICE.

#viewfromthekit in rehearsal today for my gig playing for Jon Tarplee at @nantwichfoodies . Sounding sweet! pic.twitter.com/8CZ4XR5VyV

— Daniel J. Logan (@theDanielJLogan) August 19, 2015

 A little gap between gigs for a self-managed muso' means time to plan, promote, prepare and practice, among numerous other things.

One of the things on the list is a rehearsal with go-to percussionist (not to mention producer), Dan Logan. Dan has recorded & performed with the great and the good including Thea Gilmore, Jackie Trent, Rod Clements & Mike Herron as well as performing live on Radio 2 a number of times and  playing major festivals (including headling Cropredy with Thea).

So Dan and I have a couple of gigs booked as a duet, the second of which I'll be able to announce shortly, but the Nantwich Food Festival comes first on September the 4th, shortly followed by my gig at The King's Arms Festival, Salford the following day - tickets available HERE.

Rehearsal was great fun (I hope for Dan too, even though he'd been playing all day) and it was first opportunity for me to play 'Red Severn' in anger. She is my newly purchased Vintage guitar, based on classic guitars like the semi-acoustic Gibsons, but having tried out a few semi-acoustics at Salop Music Centre, this was, to my fingers and ears, the best in my budget. Vintage do very fine copies of classic instruments and Salop Music Centre is a really big music store with helpful, no-nonsense staff, plus a cornucopia of wonderful sound-making stuff that will remind any musician that as long as such a place exists, they will never be rich, as there will always be that coveted instrument just out of your price range that you really need in your life. Playing music is a kind of real wealth that money can't buy anyway.

'Red Severn' from Salop Music Centre.

A Garden of Music and Words.

Sunday, August 9th 2015

I think this photo by host Martin, captures the relaxed atmosphere well.
L-R Tim Lee, Emma & Simon from The Blue Yellows before we played.

House parties are something both me and the band would love to do much more of, but this was very special by any standards. A garden party hosted by Martin & Elaine. Not only music fans, but the aforementioned Martin (Butterworth) is himself an accomplished musician and you can hear his amazing project Cheshire Plane, here. 

Delicious home made food and craft beers were provided and a wonderful, friendly atmosphere from all the fantastic musicians and poets mentioned in Martin's poster, below.

Just wonderful!

The Blue Yellows L-R Simon, Dave, myself and Em
Thanks to Martin again for the photo.

A bit of a break now for me after a good spate of summer festival gigs. When I say break what I mean by that really is booking winter shows and 2016 festivals, band rehearsals for Autumn 2015 gigs, practicing with Dan Logan for our food festival show, reporting gigs to the PRS, sorting new designs for fliers, badges, websites, social media, songwriting and guitar-practice of course, planning and a lot more besides (though I am getting away for 2 days), oh and involvement with a new video for one of my songs, yes!

My live Autumn Festival gigs start on September 4th (check to the right-hand side of this site for the gig-list confirmed so far).

See you around!