The “Sorry, It’s Been Ages” Mega-Blog…
Hello folks,
Sorry, It’s Been Ages…
I know. I haven’t posted anything for such a long time. But I haven’t forgotten about you all. I promise!
I have been meaning to tell you all about what I’ve been up to recently but keep getting side-tracked with various projects along the way. Those of you that follow my (deluge of) updates on Twitter or Facebook will no doubt be fully aware of all that’s been going on recently. I’ll try to keep it fairly succinct (yeah, right!)…
Where do I start? Well, at the beginning of June Katy and I ventured over to her hometown in Jersey to play five shows at the Blue Note Bar. We played as a trio and brought pianist Alex Hutton along with us from London. The Blue Note is a great little music venue right in the centre of St. Helier. We played two sets of mostly standards to packed audiences every night. In fact we had to turn away about thirty punters on the last night! The week was a resounding success and we’re looking at going back soon for a repeat performance. We had such a great time in Jersey and it was great to play five nights in the same venue. Big thanks are due to everyone who helped make the week such a success; Jack, Ronni & Dave, Noel and Thomas. We got some great photos too, I may well publish a few more in another post.
Keep an eye on my MySpace page for upcoming dates with Kate Eden in London…
A few months before the Jersey trip we went into the studio to record a five-track EP called Lean Baby. I’ve literally just started a page on Last.fm where you can now listen to the tracks. Once again, Kate’s band features Alex Hutton on piano, me on bass and drummer Josh Morrison. What are you waiting for? Go and have a listen…
The touring with Clare Teal and Lea DeLaria has been storming ahead over the last few months. I’m presuming you all saw the little video I posted here last time from the Queen Elizabeth Hall? If you didn’t, you can find it Here. I’ve been up and down the country with both bands (I wound up playing at the Hull Truck Theatre twice in one month!) and have done an awful lot of driving. This has once again taken it’s toll on the bass-mobile and another small fortune has been spent keeping the poor thing on the road…
Some highlights? Let me see… The last two ‘Wall To Wall’ shows with Lea at the Pizza Express Dean Street have been fantastic. In May we played the Gershwin songbook with Ian Shaw and a couple of weeks ago we did songs from the movies with Clare Martin. It was one of the best shows yet. Next month we’re reuniting The Dirty Martinis to play some serious 50’s lounge.. you’ve got to come along to this one. We’ve got Simon Allen and Gabriel Garrick in the band. Tuesday July 21st at the Pizza Express.. stick it in your diaries!
We’ve just got back from two gigs with Clare last week, in Stockton-on-Tees and Loughborough. The tour has been going great. We’re still promoting our new live album Clare Teal Live At Ebeneezer Chapel, which is now definitely available on Clare’s website Here. We’re off to play the Bansko International Jazz Festival in Bulgaria in August. So expect a little write-up afterwards on the blog…
The last couple of weeks have been rather exciting too. The wonderful new album from The Duckworth Lewis Method was released in the UK on Monday. Neil and Thomas asked me to come to play in the band alongside Tim Weller from TDC and guitarist Tosh Flood from Pugwash. The album has already caused quite a storm in the press and made album of the week on Absolute radio last week. We played the album launch show last night at The Oval. The whole event was sponsored by The Times, who gave away 150 pairs of tickets in an online competition. Plus we had all the journalists of course. Even the torrential rainstorm didn’t stop folks from turning out to see us play the entire album from start to finish (!), as well as a couple of old favourites in the encore. Had a great time.
We’ll be playing a little in-store show at Rough Trade East London on Monday 13th, and then we’re off to play Latitude next Friday. I’m not sure what’s going to happen after that, but do keep an eye on their website (and of course my MySpace page!) for any future dates. Who knows, there might even be a tour! Let’s hope so. In the meantime, go out and buy the album. It’s ever so good…
There’s also some gigs with Duke Special on the horizon. The seven-piece lineup from the Irish tour last year will be playing Peter’s DukeBox Festival in Belfast on 29th August and Greenbelt on the 30th. There should be a couple of other dates too in August/September (hopefully including something in London) so once again, keep your eyes peeled and you ears to the ground. I’m also going to be playing for Mother Courage and her Children at The National Theatre with the Duke boys in the autumn. Peter has been commissioned to write the score and is beavering away on the songs right now. There’s a little more info on the National Theatre’s website…
Ah.. busy days! Pretty sure I’m meant to be learning some songs for somebody right now. Might have to leave you for now folks. Thanks once again to all of you subscribers out there…
See you soon I hope.