EdFringe, Monday, Day off

No main show on Monday – the venue was already booked up when we got our run booked in.

So much of the day was spent flyering and postering on the Royal Mile, and TSP and I went to see Amy Lame’s ‘Mama Cass Family Singers’ – an intriguing and very original show about Amy’s life as a child star. TSP and I were talking about it for the rest of the day, which in a city on the verge of collapse under the weight of shows here, is a very good thing.

After a great show, some not so great news – The ginger fairly aged feline has taken ill again – not good signs at all, so TSP has this morning (tuesday) hot-footed it (or perhaps hot-railed) back to London. The thought that he may well be gone before I get home is one I’m trying not to dwell on – got to be chipper and smiley on the fringe. It’s a slightly odd feeling not having a show that I can feed such information into. If I was doing a solo show, there’d be a whole bit about the cats in it by now… No way to tie that in with this show – I mean, we do do ‘Lovecats’, but Julie’s already got a great intro into that…

So anyway, TSP and I made our first – and last together for this year – trip to the magical veggie goodness world of Henderson’s last night. If you’re at the fest, go to Henderson’s. OK, it’s a bit more spendy than Subway or McFilth, but it’s all properly cooked veggie, mainly organic loveliness. Well worth a treat if you’re audience is in double figures.

so today, with TSP back to London, we’re down one on the flyering team. It’s possible that my mum is coming to visit, so that’ll help (she’s v. good with flyering).

Failing that, tell your friends, or come along yourself!

TheNewStandard.co.uk

First night success!

We had two gigs yesterday – the first was a 20 minute set at the Fringe opening party. I did this last year where it was a bit of a pointless waste of time given that I was on straight after a Stones tribute band… not the best of Stevie warm-ups, I’m sure you’ll agree…

Still, this year we were told the band before us were a cappella as I mentioned…. were they shite! Four singers with massive fog-horn voices and a rhythm section doing vegas stylee cabaret stuff. Great.

Anyway, we played, a few people watched and really enjoyed it, so that’s good. More worthwhile than last year methinks.

The rest of the day was flyering and postering. Got back to the venue after the opening party gig, and friends started arrived – the oh so lovely G and J, our delicious hosts from last year, and Simon who organised the gigs with Duncan Senyatso last year at Greenbelt.

The balls up was that the gig before us wasn’t due to finish til 11! which is when we were due to start. Then they overran… fuggin’ jazz nonsense. So we got on as quick as we could, while they packed up slowly and chatted to friends. Started about 25-30 minutes late, but the audience (my biggest opening night crowd at the fest yet) stuck around and were very appreciative. We played pretty well – only a couple of mistakes that no-one but us would have noticed. So apart from the jazz-induced lateness, a very fine night.

No proper gig today – instead we’re doing the Midnight Carousel, a cabaret club, which’ll be great fun. :o)

Opening night tonight…

It’s Sunday, and we start at the Fringe tonight. Before that, it’s a day of flyering, soundchecking, playing at the Fringe opening party (those of you with amazing memories or stalking tendencies will remember that I did it last year, and it was a bit of a waste of time cos I was on straight after a Rolling Stones tribute band, but this year, I’ve found out who’s on before us, and it’s an a cappella quartet, so no worries about being Rocked off the stage there then! :o)

Then after the show tonight we’re supposed to be doing a late night cabaret thing, but haven’t been given a time… given that the show in question goes on into the early hours, it’d be nice to know when we’re supposed to play!

Anyway, better get dressed and get out onto the streets of the town, flyers and posters in hand and meet our unsuspecting public. If you’re coming to the show, please come and say hello!

thenewstandard.co.uk

Fringe underway.. :o)

We’ve arrived in Edinburgh… well, right now I’m in Berwick on Tweed, but I’ve been up in Edinburgh for the last three days, putting up posters, arranging extra gigs, and saw my first show last night – Stephen Daltry in Ludwig’s Van – a one man light comedy show about classical music. Like Gerard Hoffnung, which is no bad thing in my book, always loved Hoffnung’s stuff. Anyway, much fun, worth going to see, particularly if you know a little about classical music.

Other than that, Julie and I have tramped all over Edinburgh putting up posters in windows, shop doorways, loos, restaurant walls – anywhere with a space and the permission to put them up! Today, flyering starts with a vengeance – out of the Royal Mile convincing people that ours is the show they just can’t afford to miss (which shouldn’t be too hard, as, let’s face it, it’s true).

Gig in Glasgow on Thursday was a tough one – at such short notice, it was a sparsely populated affair. The bar itself wasn’t, just the bit where we were playing, but the people who watched seemed to really enjoy it, and a few said they were coming to Edinburgh to see it again, which was nice.

So tomorrow, Sunday, we’ve got a tech rehearsal in the afternoon, the Fringe opening party early evening, and then gig #1 at 11pm. It’s two for one on tickets tomorrow night, so if you’re in Edinburgh, come down, bring a friend, and enjoy!

click here to buy tickets!
and here to hear the MP3s and read about the show!

photos I hadn't seen before…

Just found three photos taken at NAMM in January –

good memories. It’s amazing how far the Looperlative has come since NAMM – I was just using the prototype pre-release software then, and it’s now on 1.07 – every update is free to download, and always will be, and more and more ideas are being added every month.

More recycle bookings…

Been busy over the last couple of weeks lining up the musicians for the new few RC gigs – lots of the people have had on my wish-list for ages are now booked! Yay!

August 23rdSebastian Rochford, Andy Hamill and me. This is a bit of a dream line-up. Seb’s one of my favourite drummers I’ve ever played with. We did one gig together in Brighton a couple of years ago, and he listened so well to the loop stuff, and played beautifully. An immensely creative chap, and Mercury Prize nominee last year, no less! He’s in Polar Bear and Acoustic LadyLand and plays with lots of people in the F-IRE collective.

And Andy Hamill. As well as officially being of the nicest people in jazz ever, Andy’s also one of my favourite double bassists anywhere. If you’ve heard either of Theo’s last couple of albums, he’s the low end on there, but has also played with 4 Hero, Carleen Anderson, Shea Seger, Theo Travis, Mark Murphy, Nitin Sawhney, Chris Bowden, Boris Grebenshikov, Cara Dillon, Tracey Thorn, Kylie Minogue, Ben Castle, Ursula Rucker and Harry Hill!

I’ve been wanting to try a trio with drums and double bass for ages, and feel so lucky that the first time I get to try it is with two musicians of this kind of quality. Wow.

And then, as if that wasn’t enough, on Sept 20th, we’ve got saxophonist Jason Yarde, one of the most celebrated young british jazzers of recent times. An outstanding performer, composer, improvisor – a really really interesting musician, who will add something completely new to the RC vibe, for sure. Another huge talent.

And with Jason and I, making a very welcome return, Leo Abrahams – currently out on the road playing guitar for Roxy Music, is also Brian Eno’s guitar monkey, and has worked with Imogen Heap, Nik Kershaw, Ed Harcourt, Paul Simon and a host of other great people. He was excellent last time, he’ll be just as great this time.

And at the moment, it looks like October is going to be BJ Cole and Ingrid Laubrock joining me. How lucky am I? Yay!

Some very successful Recycling

Well, last night’s Recycle Collective gig was an absolute blinder! For starters, it was the biggest crowd we had so far (more than 80, possibly 90…), the air conditioning was just perfect after the sweatiness of London these last few weeks, and then there was the music…

I started off with a solo set – I sat down to play and realised that all my song-remembering space in my head was full of the New Standard tunes, and I wasn’t sure I could remember my own stuff! But thankfully they all went really well – definitely the best solo set I’ve played at the RC. Finished off the set with a lovely and slightly shorter than the album version of ‘One Step’ with Julie. Fab first set, well done me!

Then came The New Standard Edinburgh set – as y’all know, we’ve rehearsed long and hard for this, and it all went off without a glitch… well, without a noticeable glitch. Small screw up on the play out to the last tune, but I rescued it, and I v. much doubt anyone but Julie noticed. Julie sang beautifully, and the audience loved it. What fun!

And Set three started with two solo pieces by Cleveland Watkiss – the first a baroque counterpoint thing that was just sublime, and the second a dub/drum ‘n’ bass/gospel thing that was equally amazing. Two fine trio improvs finished off the evening, and everyone went away happy, Julie and I both sold lots of CDs (Cleveland is his usual style didn’t bring any merch).

I think Edinburgh’s going to be magique.

If you were there, please write a review, and post it in the comments here, or over in the forum – thanks for coming!

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