no sooner had I announced my last gig in town that the news reaches me of former spice person geri halliwell’s quitting music.
I wasn’t aware that she was in the biz in the first place….
(cue cymbals)
trying to wake up properly and focus on the day’s tasks. I’ve had a bad cold for a few days, luckily I seem to have missed the pre-winter virus that’s been going around, but I’m not feeling my usual self nonetheless.
it’s amazing how so many ‘nonsensical’ words have now become ubiquitous, no? yahoo, google, blog, widget, podcast and all the rest. our kids will grow up with these as the norm. am I getting old? don’t answer that, please.
I’m ramping back a lot of my regular activities, I just feel pulled in so many directions. I hate when people ask what it is that I ‘do’. currently, in no particular order, I’m:
writing and recording songs for a new album;
compiling tracks for a retrospective of older releases;
trying to learn how to use all the features on my digital recorder;
working with chris turner on finishing the blues pirates album;
booking artists and handling publicity for two pubs;
rehearsing and performing with my own band;
performing solo and duo gigs around the area;
running my web and graphics business, with regular and new clients every week;
filling in on the odd day at the guitar store;
looking at cafes and restaurants for sale and lease;
working up my skill set in the kitchen for the anticipated above;
trying to exercise daily to keep my heart working properly;
getting out to support other artists shows, such as the pop tarts, muso’s jam and the gringo sessions;
managing my various online pursuits, such as this blog, myspace, youtube and ifoods, plus the various podcasts and forums I subscribe to;
managing the myspace pages for the blues pirates, sneakers, big rock records and the bald rock pub;
getting caught up in the food channel’s reruns of gordon ramsay and marco pierre white;
and somehow finding time to enjoy dinners with the gypsy gal.
sounds like a lot when I read it, but it’s probably just average. I’m sure that most of you have similarly hectic lives. in fact, as I’ve been writing this, my phone has gone half a dozen times in regard to some of the above.
somewhere along the way, these newfangled gadgets, contraptions, widgets (oops) and all were supposed to save time and make our lives easier and stress-free, weren’t they? what happened? as a culture, when presented with idle time, we seem to fill it with twice as much activity as before. ella fitzgerald once sang “give me the simple life”, and weren’t that the truth?
I’ve really grown disenchanted with the local music scene. between the fooderies and the sunday sessions, I’ve spent the past four years trying to provide a platform for talented, original singer-songwriters and musicians to be seen and appreciated. and it’s just not finding anywhere near the support that I’d hoped for. in a city of four million people, you’d think that there would be a core group hungry for quality music in a pleasant environment. it baffles the shit outta me. perhaps if I’d been booking sports heroes or reality tv stars, we’d probably had something.
and people often ask why so many north american and uk artists don’t bother touring down here.
this sunday the 4th, I’ll be with the band at the bald rock in balmain. it’ll be my final show under my own name for a while. I’m not retiring exactly, just stepping back into the shadows. if you can make the show, great. hope you enjoy it. if you can, well, I understand. you’re probably tied up working out how to use that new widget.
that’s the title of the final album from pete wells. we had a posthumous launch at the bridge hotel on thursday night. I did the opening set solo, then joined chris turner’s band for the final set after angry anderson & guests. my setlist, for those interested:
maybe not soon (cc)
come on in my kitchen (robert johnson)
for the turnstiles ( neil young)
she knew elvis (cc)
some things never change (pete wells/lucy desoto)
the wind cries mary (jimi hendrix)
please don’t lose me (cc)
the night was enjoyable, I had a ball playing and got to catch up with a bunch of old friends, but as usual, the pettiness and ‘pop star’ behaviour of some of the artists stole a little integrity away from the evening. although I knew going into the night that it was to be one of my final live shows for the time being. the band and I are on at the baldy next sunday, that’ll wrap up things for me for this chapter.
the next chapter is slowly taking form. the gypsy gal & I looked into a couple of potential avenues over the holiday weekend here, and the search will continue thru the week, but I feel we’ll have made our decision very soon. yes folks, as some of you have surmised, it does involve food, and it requires us to move away from my beloved lil’ peninsula. but the time has come, the older I grow, the better I seem to be at recognising when the streetlights are about to change. at least I certainly hope so.
it’s a sunday here, the sun’s returned, so the windows are open again. the usual cacophony of the jazz band at the club next door mixed with the neighbour gal ‘rehearsing’ again defies all sonic sensibility. fortunately, I have the allman brothers’ live version of melissa to retain my sanity.
I know that I haven’t been posting much. I also know that I haven’t been sending gig list newsletters. I know because I’m the guy that usually does that. thanks to those of you for pointing that out. heh.
I haven’t really been in much of a mood to post anything, sorry. a few changes lie ahead, I’ll return shortly.
and look after each other, okay?
congrats to jane and miko who were married yesterday. at the recepetion, I got called up to play a couple of songs - natch the first choice was the nick lowe classic, I knew the bride when she used to rock n roll.
well, I did….
more winds of change entering the autumn air. another door may be about to open, it would seem. cryptic? puzzling? rhetoric? more, as they say…. after the break.
check out nerve’s list of the top 50 comedic sketches. video clips provided or linked for most.
so who can’t use a good chuckle?
rain on the rooftop and skylight. I love that sound. I can imagine all the folks from the markets scurrying away under the deluge. it looked pretty well packed when I walked by this morning to pick up calamari and chips from the seafood joint up the road.
normall, I’d prefer to make that kind of thing from scratch, but, 1) my stovetop has died and the agents haven’t been too swift at locating a replacement, and b) after last night’s intended “let’s catch the afternoon session at the welcome for an hour or so” turned into a marathon winding up at closing time at the baldy with a table full of shot glasses, frankly I wasn’t intending to trust myself with any sharp objects.
but I did manage to make a spicy tartare sauce for the calamari, so some of my cuisinary integrity was spared.
the jazz band at the club next door’s blasting an instrumental version of pink floyd’s “money” that seems to work, oddly enough.
I’m doing a solo spot at the dry dock’s new thursday sessions this week, drop in if you’re so inclined. haven’t played a solo gig in a while, I’m looking forward to it.
thanks to mrs fluffy for dropping me some video footage of my birthday gig last year. there’s some good band performances there and the sound is pretty good quality, but as the baldy is so small, most of the screen is blocked by punters, passers by and various bored staff, so i dunno if I’ll post any of it.
I’ve also been going thru old videos with various hillbilly moon performances on bert newton, ernie & denise and other long-gone aussie daytime television from 1994 or so. now, that will be posted soon.
I love tinpot dictators. the antics of third-world tyrants such as saddam hussein, ayatollah khomeni, muammar kaddafi and margaret thatcher have provided us all with years of amusement and distraction from more mundane matters, like the u.s. military buildup. fox would do far better sending film crews out there for ‘real’ reality tv.
of course, having to eke out an existence under these guys is horrific etc, I’m not being insensitive but please indulge this bit of lighthearted rambling. there’s a point later.
my latest fave is hugo “call me chairman” chavez of venezuela. this assclown’s sad efforts to turn this once beautiful country into russia circa 1900 must rate up there with the best attempts at desperately holding power since, well, since johnny howard.
so I was most amused to read today that the venezuelan government regulators have taken the simpsons off the air, as they deem the content of the show to be a “potentially bad influence on children”.
if that ain’t funny enough, they’ve replaced it with…. wait for it…. old reruns of baywatch.
so now venezuelan kids can now be spared the clever antics of bart and homer, and can instead enjoy their quasi-communistic lifestyle while watching pam anderson’s surgically-enhanced bosoms bouncing up and down in slow-motion as she runs across a sundrenched beach in the democratic western world.
honestly, the chasers couldn’t have come up with a better gag.
with the arrival of cooler weather and a bit o’ rain, could autumn finally be here? I kinda like the winter months, probably sounds odd considering what country I’ve chosen to live in, but I find I get more writing done during the dark days.
and I’m long overdue.
did an inventory of the latest demos, seems I have more then enough for a new album. although I’m probably only 2/3rds there, as far as tracks go that I’m happy with. I’ll get something else new up on myspace later in the week.
last sunday’s gig at the baldy pub with the band was a delight. we actually managed to squeeze in a rehearsal prior, so it was a more relaxed and enjoyable set. as much as I enjoy playing some of the new tunes with the boys, I’m still pretty certain that the new album will be largely acoustic and stripped-back.
yes, that “other” album… still haven’t decided who to send it to for mastering, it’ll be a tricky job. but I’m content to wait until I get this next group o’ tunes together first. it’s only been a decade, what’s a few more months, eh?
yeah, I know, I say that every year…
… I don’t post enough.
it’s true. I always think of interesting, witty, poetic things to post about when wandering about the streets, but when I’m back in front of these infernal screens, I’m faced with email, work, phone messages and… just go blank.
thanks to stewart for asking me to be the featured speaker at the april western fringe songwriter’s workshop. I hope I didn’t scare anyone too badly, but I don’t believe in sugarcoating the realities of this harsh biz for the sake of encouraging hopeful artists to walk into the maze with unrealistic expectations.
blame shows like idol partly for that. for breeding the attitude, along with the instant gratification bubble of western society that makes kids think, “hey, my uncle spent years learning his instrument then a decade playing in shitty bars before they got their first break, but I can go on this game show and be somebody tomorrow!”
on a more positive note, I was fooling around with my webcam yesterday and shot a quickie vid, it’s up on the myspace page, along with youtube.
I’m rehearsing with the band tonight, finally. three months into the new residency, it’s about time, no? there’ll most likely be someone filming at sunday’s show which may find its way onto the net. I’ll let y’all know.
oh, and it’s april fools day. go have some fun. play a prank or three. I have.
the world’s a hard place, as ron sexsmith is currently singing in the background, so go make someone smile.