Author: Steve

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There ain't nothing like The Dame

Just been listening to Dame David Bowie (was it Smash Hits who christened him that?? I think so… whoever it was, it does seem to fit…) Anyway, been listening to Heathen, his album before the brand new one, released about a year or so ago. And it’s really really good! like, marvellous. What a great thing it is to be in your 50s and still producing great art, carrying yourself with dignity and exercising the kind of creative freedom that Bowie seems to wield.

Anyway, what have I been up to, I hear you ask. Well, I finished that transcription for Total Guitar, though I haven’t heard back from them, so I’m waiting to hear if it’s OK or not…! I’m sure it will be.

Been practicing a lot – got the bug again a few days ago, after a while off from feeling inspired by new solo ideas. I was still enjoying playing the tunes in my set, but wasn’t hearing anything new. Then yesterday, I started to get some more ideas. Can’t wait to get my new bass, which should be here by the end of September… hopefully. As soon as it arrives, I’ll start work on the next solo album.

Hang on! Talk of a next solo album is all too previous, given that ‘For The Love Of Open Spaces’ by Steve Lawson and Theo Travis isn’t out yet. At this moment in time, I’m listening through the extra material for the preorder CD special. IF you remember, last time I released a CD, the extra disc was ‘Lessons Learned From An Aged Feline Pt 1’, which features some of my favourite solo work anywhere – as you can see, this extra disc thing is not just a way of farming out a load of left over rubbish, for us it’s about getting more music out there, making it available and of course creating the incentive for you lovely people to part with your hard-earned crisp ‘n’ folding before the thing is even released. The reasons for this should be fairly obvious – we don’t have an external record company with a bottomless pit of cash. It’s us, doing it for ourselves, like the sisters, so any money we can make back before the thing is even out is a huge help to the cause.

So we release additional CDs, which entice you into buying more stuff, give us the chance to get more music out there, and help to pay the bills. Everyone’s a winner, baby!

So where was I? Ah, yes, the extra tracks for the Lawson/Travis album – these are freakin’ fabulous!! Easily good enough to have made it onto the CD itself. So do make sure that as soon as the new album goes on sale, you get a copy ordered. It’ll be a strictly limited edition…

Advert over. Start of new advert… :o) – I discovered the other day that my CDs are available at www.towerrecords.com and www.hmv.co.uk – just go to either site and search on my name! Wahey, solo bass goes mainstream! I guess the HMV one means that you can also order it from any HMV shop, so please do – it’ll really help with the distrubution of future CDs if you go and get Not Dancing and Conversations there now…

Tonight, I’m off into town to see Cathy Burton play – she’s a fab singer/songwriter, and is at Sound in Leicester Square tonight, on at 9.15 if you fancy it…

The Aged Feline was at the vets again this morning – good news is his weight’s gone up a bit (been going down for months), bad news is, his kidneys are failing a little more… hoping we can fix ‘im up soon… poor darling.

Soundtrack – right now, me and theo. also, David Bowie, ‘Heathen’; Michael Manring, ‘Thonk’; Denison Witmer, ‘Recovered’; Calamateur, ‘Son Of Everyone EP’; Athlete, ‘Vehicles And Animals”; Vigroux/Cury/Rives/Lawson;

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Scenes from Holy Island

Finally got round to looking through some of the photos I took while teaching at the Borders School For Life on Lindisfarne, AKA Holy Island, in Northumberland, so here are a few for your delictation –









Soundtrack – lots of listening to all the stuff I recorded yesterday with BJ Cole, which is sounding marvellous, lots of listening to the new album with Theo, and in between, Athlete, ‘Vehicles And Animals’; Ron Miles, ‘Heaven’.

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Updating the site

Did a bit of a site update yesterday and today – firstly I added a Paypal feature for selling CDs (and sold a load within minutes of it going live!), and then added a new MP3 from the new album with Theo Travis, called ‘For The Love Of Open Spaces’. The album is sounding so good, I’m really excited about it. The track in question is called ‘Uncle Bernie’ and I’ve taken a four and a half minute excerpt from the middle, just to whet your appetite for the rest of the album… I’ll change it in a week for another clip… :o) Had lots of good feedback already, so feel free to go and have a listen.

Been an interesting day chez stevie – the small person managed to spill tea all over her imac keyboard, which out of protest stopped working for a number of hours. much time was spent researching replacement keyboards and shops open on sunday. By about half an hour ago though, almost all the keys are back working, presumably as they dry out… hopefully by tomorrow morning it’ll all be back to normal.

Still, it was great fun dismantling the keyboard and washing all the keys individually!

soundtrackSigur Ros (can’t remember how to spell the title), Pierce Pettis, ‘State Of Grace’, Francis Dunnery, ‘Man’ – Francis is playing in London tonight, The Cheat has gone, and I was going to go with him, but never got round to it…

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(In)Discipline

In the middle of an interesting musical challenge. Am currently in the process of transcribing, and learning so I can record, a bass solo piece by someone else, for a UK guitar magazine. Normally, when I learn a piece, I’m asked to inject some of myself into the process – people tend not to ask looping fretless 6 string bassists to play generic parts, funnily enough – but this time, my job is to sound as much like the original as I can. How bizarre does this feel? very bizarre indeed. It’s not that it’s particularly difficult (bit’s of the tune are tricky, but not of it is actually ‘hard’), it’s just that it feels… alien! My tendency is to reinterpret the piece, make it more ‘me’. Not allowed this time.

Anyway, it’s all good discipline. I’ve got a couple of weeks to do it in, which should be fine, even with all my teaching in between, and finishing off the album with theo…

talking of which, Theo came round this morning to make sure the mix/eq on all the tracks was where we wanted it to be. So I reinstalled my fixed harddrive, which is working marvellously (God bless Ted!)

So we tweaked some of the EQ, I added a tube amp simulator to one of the bass tracks, and we listened. And we liked what we heard. And got all animated about how much we’re looking forward to releasing the album. Which should be available for preorder in the next couple of weeks. I’ll be putting another MP3 on the site before too long… maybe later on today. Watch this space.

Soundtrack – last night, top banana radio was back on air – paul’s v. fine show. other than that, Talk Talk, ‘Spirit Of Eden’ (on of the world’s perfect albums) and lots of the track that I’m doing for that guitar mag I mentioned above.

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A Scary Day For The Aged Feline

I was woken up rather abruptly this morning (OK, this afternoon) but a rather frantic banging and rustling noise from the room next door. Turned out to be The Aged Feline, trapped under a huge pot plant that had fallen over, and having some sort of fit/seizure. It was very scary, and it was hard to tell whether he’d been poisoned by eating some of the plant, or was having a fit that had caused him to crash into the plant, or whether it was stress-induced from finding himself trapped.

I rescued him from under the plant, and it still took about 5 mins for him to stop convulsing, at which point I rang the vets and the small person, to sort out what to do. By this time, The Aged Feline was back on his feet, albeit rather gingerly whilst wobbling round, but he’d certainly stopped shaking.

The vet asked to see him straight away, so I got dressed and took him up there. He seemed to have some signs of concussion, so was given an injection to sort that out, which made him puke, poor thing.

So the rest of the day has been about convalescing the poor chap – lots of cuddles, food on demand, peace and quiet.

Soundtrack – Denison Witmer, ‘Recovered’; Elan, ‘Hush’; lots of improv stuff from my french quartet.

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Greenbelt Pt 2

So where were we? ah yes, Sunday. Met up with Patrick Wood, and gave him the passes for him and his family, then wen to the sunday morning communion service – 15,000 people taking the Eucharist is no mean feat, but it went without a hitch… oh, except the PA cutting out 10 minutes from the end.

Anyway That followed by another trip to Martyn Joseph’s songwriter thingie, The Rising, featuring Cathy Burton, Denison Witmer and Pierce Pettis – another fantastic sesh, and Martyn played a song or two of his own which was a treat – he’s kind of Greenbelt’s unofficial troubadour, and plays a full gig most years, often with fun special guests like Tom Robinson or Steve Knightly. This year, he just did The Rising.

After the Rising, it was back to Cheatsville, AKA The Performance Cafe, for an afternoon of astoundingly good acoustic music – Stephenson and Samuel (Stocki with Sam Hill), Ben Okafor, Old Solar and Denison Witmer all one after the other! Even though the programme was put together by Evil Harv, and it pains me to say this – it was fantastic.

The evening’s music began with Brian Houston in The Performance Cafe, then Cathy Burton rocking out on the mainstage (bit of a shock for those who’d only seen her in The Rising, especially the QOTSA cover!), and back then the catching the last train to cheatsville to see Pierce Pettis and my other join fave gig of the weekend (along with Cleveland Watkiss) Duke Special, AKA Pete Wilson (not the former govenor of California). I’ve known Pete for years, heard him as The Booley House, and just Booley, but Duke Special is a whole other level – beautiful songwriting, outstanding performance, and Greenbelts own Hobbit, Chip Bailey on drums and percussion, playing perfectly, dramatically, sensitively. A genius pairing, playing oustanding music, with the occasional backing track on minidisc, but with a replica gramaphone there to make it less rubbish! A truly awe-inspiring performance – they are on tour loads, so check the website to see them when they come near you.

Monday and we’re into the home straight. It’s also the day when stevie-thoughts momentarily turned to work, as Patrick Wood and I had a gig in Cheatsville in the morning, and an improv workshop in the afternoon. The gig went very well, was equal parts mellow ambient and dissonant scariness, lots of fun for us, and a very positive reaction from the audience. The rest of the afternoon involved listening to Peter Tatchell (fascinating and no doubt hugely disappointing the representatives of the national press that were there due to the total lack of sensational material – Peter was friendly, charming, and laid out his thoughts on human rights in great detail, and there wasn’t really much for anyone to disagree with), then off to hear Anita Roddick speak about trade (oh, it was Trade Justice day, in partnership with Christian Aid), then back to the performance cafe to hear Nick Harper (Catherine Street Team – you were right, he’s a genius and a very nice bloke), Cathy Burton (minus rock posturing this time), then off to sort out stuff for the improv seminar, which went well, and over ran by half an hour.

The day finished with The Polyphonic Spree (good but not my bag) followed by Billy Bragg, who was so breath-takingly wonderful it was almost contrived. Almost too good – all that he said and sang was great (except some new song called ‘no power without accountability’ that was turd-on-toast). Finished off with ‘waiting for the great leap forwards’ into ‘a new england’ and an accapela encore of the old hymn jerusalem. A real spine tingling moment.

All in all, one of the best Greenbelts ever. Great music, great speakers, great atmosphere, great weather, great food, great campaining stuff, great friends. All good, and because I was playing music less than usual, I was able to spend loads of time with The Small Person, which was a treat I’ve not had at Greenbelt for many a year, and the thing that pushed it into the top 3 greenbelts ever for me. I’ve been going to Greenbelt since 1990, and only missed 91 and 96 since then. lots of great greenbelt memories, and this weekend swelled the stash of marvellous moments. It’s truly the finest weekend of the year.

soundtrack to follow in next post…

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Greenbelt 2003

Just got back from Greenbelt – ostensibly a Christian Arts festival, but with a strong focus on justice issues, and some seriously great music and seminar speakers.

We arrived Friday afternoon, pitched our tent (oh yes, proper camping), and went to watch Eden Burning (reunion gig – their final gig was infront of 10,000 people at Greenbelt 97, and they reformed for a one off this weekend to celebrate this being the 30th year of Greenbelt), then saw Pierce Pettis, Iain Archer, Juliet Turner, Boo Hewerdine with Rob Jackson, Kate Rusby and Old Solar – all marvellous, and a great start to the weekend, in fact, too much great stuff to take it all in, and I missed a lot of artists that I’d have to catch in other venues over the weekend. Watching that many amazing gigs in one evening does make you a bit blase about the genius on offer, but any one of the acts listed about would be worth driving 50 miles to see on an ordinary evening – Pierce I’ve seen lots of times before, and played with in Reading earlier this year, Iain Archer has been getting better and better over the decade that I’ve been watching him play (new album out in a few months, which promises to be a blinder), Juliet is another singer I’ve been familiar with for a long time and have got both her albums, Boo Hewerdine I was more familar with as a songwriter than a singer, but he was marvellous and Rob Jackson who was guesting on guitar is a solo looper that I’d had contact with before, and showed himself to be equally adept providing gorgeous pedal steel-esque guitar parts to Boo’s finely crafted songs.

Kate Rusby’s gig was a particular treat as she had Ewan Vernal on bass – former Deacon Blue bassist, and one of my earliest and biggest bass influences (check out the bass/voice tracks ‘Orphans’ and ‘Trampoline’ by Deacon Blue for a taste of his genius)…

Old Solar are old faves, and old friends, and played a very fine set.

Saturday began with a Dave Andrews seminar – Dave is an radical activist/speaker from Australia, and regular speaker at Greenbelt, this time expounding on the notion that we’re in the new dark ages with the financial and governmental institutions in the west providing a heavily protected fortress for the extravagance of the world’s rich to the exclusion of the poor, who are battled in a feudalistic way to protect the already disproportionately huge share of the world’s wealth that those of us in the so called developed world have. His answer was to look to St Francis for a model – Francis having been an aristocrat who gave up his wealth to work with the poor. He wasn’t a politician, and didn’t set out to change the world, just to live right. As Schumacher put is ‘think global, act local’… all great stuff…

after Dave, it was off to a Mike Riddell seminar – Mike’s an author from New Zealand, and another Greenbelt fave, talking about artistic integrity and freedom – nothing new but very encouraging and helpful nonetheless.

Next up, Martyn Joseph’s songwriter’s circle event, The Rising – lots of great songwriters playing their songs and discussing them. What a treat to see MJ, Juliet Turner, Pierce Pettis and Brian Houston talking about their songs and playing together. Amazing stuff.

Other gigs – Elan (very good), Juliet Turner and Pierce Pettis (genius, obviously), Cleveland Watkiss (with Orphy Robinson on Vibes) – outstanding, joint best gig of the weekend, Calamatuer (marvellous) and Denison Witmer (another new discovery for me this weekend – fantastic singer/songwriter from Philadelphia).

But as always, Greenbelt is about people – meeting up with loads – hundreds – of friends, meeting loads of people I deeply admire, amazing musicians, great speakers, writers, actors, and just really nice people that I aspire to be like. Spent lots of time between gigs drinking apple tea in the tiny tea tent and enjoying the gorgeous weather.

..and tomorrow I’ll tell you about Sunday and Monday!

(and in case you’re interested, the virus email count for over the weekend was in excess of 650!!!)

Soundtrack – right now, the first mixes of the tracks I recorded with the quartet on my most recent trip to France – more on that when I’ve heard them some more. Before that, Denison Witmer, ‘Recovered’ and Jaco Pastorius, ‘Jaco Pastorius’.

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Eno, He Knows

Brian Eno – long been one of the most important minds in the world of music, has in the last year or so come to prominence as a vital, fresh and insightful political writer and thinker too (no doubt he’s been all those things for decades, but it’s now he’s been given a voice.)

His latest journalistic contribution to the discussions about the way the world is heading is on the guardian website – click here to read it. very good indeed.

also worth investigating is Eno’s project, The Clock Of The Long Now. Fascinating stuff

We need more Enos, in music and politics.

current virus count for today – over 250!! Come on, get it together…

Soundtrack – right now, Whole Wheat Radio, before that, Stevie Wonder, ‘Songs In The Key Of Life’; The Bears, ‘Live’; Dexter Gordon, ‘Ballads’.

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Who's got the virus???

OK, someone with my address in their address book has picked up some worm/virus deal, and I’ve just had to download and delete 60 (yes, SIXTY) virus emails – Norton has caught eachone, and quarantined it, but it takes ages…

With the way the internet is now, if you haven’t got Virus checking software on your PC (I think Mac users are pretty much exempt from this), you are a freakin liability. Seriously, it doesn’t cost much to buy Norton or McAffee, and arguments about virus software companies propogating viruses to boost business aside, they do a great job, you have to keep them up to date, and it makes life easier for everyone.

Might I suggest that if you have my address in your address book, and DON’T have virus checking software, you remove it, and only email me through the website, deleting the email from your sent items box when you’ve sent it? Really, if this is what I get from one person being infected, if I had 10 people with my address infected with this worm, I’d be spending two hours a day fending off virus emails, and I really don’t have the time.

Pleeeeeze, get Norton or something, update your system now, and stop being a burden on everyone else. If you have got up to date virus software, we salute you – hurrah!

Soundtrack – Cara Dillon, ‘Cara Dillon’; Janis Joplin, ‘Pearl’.

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You Call That Hot???

….London’s heatwave, described below, suddenly didn’t seem quite so amazing when I stepped off the ‘plane at Verona Brescia airport, and into a furnace. Now THAT’S hot!

What a marvellous time I’ve had for the last few days – great music, great people, great food, great weather.

The solo gig was at the Rivolta Art Restaurant (or something like that – not sure what the official name was) – a marvellous place in Rivotella, on the banks of Garda Lake. The gig was outside the front of the restaurant, so I had people who’d come just to listen, people who’d come to eat at the restaurant and people who were just walking by (which kind of reflects the healthy attitude to the arts that seems to be pretty widespread in that part of Italy, but that may just be the very groovy people I was spending my time with) – anyway, the gig went really well, despite a bizarre introduction from a slightly crap clowning troupe who decided to do a 10 minute show about 20 feet from where I was playing! Time to take a break… sold a pile of CDs, and paved the way for quite a few more shows in that part of Italy.

The next three days involved lots of recording – duo with fab guitar user/abuser, Luca Formentini, quartet with Luca and a rhythm section of Gianni Sabbioni and Frank Moreno, and trio with Luca and Moreno. The duo and Quartet were very good, Trio was good, but I think due to the kind of sound we’d go with the quartet, we slipped all too easily into trying the same thing, and in the quartet lineup I’d not been playing much in the way off basslines, leaving that to Gianni, so the trio was a little empty sounding when attempting the same thing…

Anyway, it was all good, got tonnes of stuff recorded.

Sunday night was spent at a marvellous Italian family birthday celebration, and due to my total lack of Italian linguistic skills (Ciao, Gracia, and a bunch of musical terms is about as far as it go at the moment, but I’ll be learning more soon… ;o) I ended up talking in French to a marvellous Italian artist called Albano Morandi. All in all, a great way to spend a Sunday night in Italy.

So I’m home now, glad to be back with the small person and aged feline. Time to get ready for Greenbelt next weekend, and to get back into finishing the work off on the album with Theo…

Soundtrack – now it’s Janis Joplin, ‘I Got Dem Ole Kosmic Blues Again Mama’, before that Sigur Ros, ‘Agaetis Byrium’; David Bowie, ‘Heathen’; in Italy, Bruce Cockburn, ‘You’ve Never Seen Everything’; Mark Knopfler, ‘The Ragpickers Dream’; Fripp/Sylvian, ‘Damage’; The Cure, ‘Disintigration’; The The, ‘The Naked Self’; David Sylvian, ‘Gone To Earth’; Bill Withers, ‘Best Of’.

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