Christmas has been a pretty hectic time for gigs this year, with a performance on Christmas Day, and 3 on Boxing Day. Still, with them all being at Cliveden House it made for a very special couple of days.
In her regular attire, Cliveden is spectacular, but during Christmas she is even more resplendent in no small part due to the Christmas trees, and general extra decoration throughout the place.
It has been quite busy there this year, and myself and my musical colleagues have worked hard to provide the best quality jazz music possible in our time there. We’ve received a great number of positive comments, and hope to hear back from the business cards that have been handed out.
It’s now time for a quick rest before another clutch of New Year gigs, and then back into some sort of routine!
I wish you all the best for the New Year, and hope to grace a stage alongside, or in front of you sooner rather than later!
Earlier this week I was privileged to be flown with the Rollacoaster guys to the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Tenerife for a gig with a Canadian insurance company.
This is the second time I’ve been lucky enough to be flown abroad for a booking, and as such I was very much looking forward to it, especially since I hadn’t been to Tenerife before.
The weather was fantastic – 27•C and wonderfully sunny – which made the time spent on the beach and by the pool before the gig all the more enjoyable!
Having said that, there are many trials and tribulations a guitarist needs to navigate while in one of these ventures, and the critical one is to do with gear.
Ordinarily, the amp would be hired from a local company, and in this case I turned up expecting a Marshall JCM2000 head and 4×12 cab, and actually got two Fender Twins…! Either amp would have been fine for me, but with uncertainty in what amp will actually be on site when you arrive, you need to be quite clever with your pedal selection so you don’t get caught short, particularly in the overdrive department.
The Fender Twin I used – only one in the end! – was beautiful, and the clean setting was lush as you would expect. The size and volume of the cabinet moved air really effectively, and made for an exciting amp to use.
I had to strip a few pedals from my board and cram them cleverly into my small luggage case, and for this reason I was extremely selective and methodical.
The Fulltone wah, Wampler Ecstasy, Zvex Distortron and Line6 Echo Park all made the grade, and since I wasn’t sure what the power situation would be like at the venue, I used trusty 9V batteries to fix this problem. Only the Line6 drained its initial battery and needing replacing halfway through.
While this got me through the gig, I also like to have a chorus, phaser and additional tuner/buffer/boost/compressor units at my feet. /9 this was a but if a challenge and encouraged me to be creative with the wah especially in moments that needed a bit more interest.
The final piece of the gear puzzle is the guitar (my red Fender Strat with Seymour Duncan Little ’59 in the bridge), and I managed to get this on as hand luggage in my Reunion Blues case. This is a great case. While it is a soft case, it is super sturdy and has a great set of pockets which are well thought-out for accessories and cables etc. I want to try and avoid having it hit the hold of a plane, but from what I’ve seen in promo videos it would probably be ok – it seems to protect guitars well enough when thrown off a two-storey building, so that’s a start!
The gig itself was great fun, but at 2.5hrs straight playing was tough at times, especially since it’s a reading gig. The whole band did great, and the quality of all the other guys really forces you to raise your game. On to the next one!
P.S. Contrary to all the 5* pictures, some work was done!!
I had a lovely gig at the Montcalm Hotel near Marble Arch with Rollacoaster last night. It was a bit cramped on stage, but we put on a good show and the Jewish numbers were fantastic fun! Plus I had a slightly different amp stand to normal… The Blues Junior was probably the comfiest member of the band last night!
Another band I’ve recently started working with is The Red Hot House Band. Based around Milton Keynes, the band is perfectly geared to keeping the party going all night long! There’s an emphasis on fluidity, and nothing is fixed, so if a song is working we may keep the chorus going, or add a solo in, or drop down in feel and build to a climax. It keeps us on our toes, and keeps audiences grooving!
Recently we’ve been having some promo video and photo shoots. The above photo is one of the new promo shots. Check out the video below for some more as well as audio of the band!
Today was quite an exciting day. I received the mixed versions of some recordings that I’d done with one of the function bands I work with. The band is called Floorfillers, and we play quite a few contemporary tunes, as well as Disco and Motown classics. For your delectation I’ve uploaded one of the tunes we did – Chaka Khan’s ‘Ain’t Nobody’. You can listen to it on my homepage, or here.
The recording process of this was quite interesting, since the drums were recorded in one take(!) in a studio in Milton Keynes, and then bass, keys and my guitar were recorded by their respective players in their own homes. After a few emails it all came together back in Milton Keynes where the vocals and BVs were laid down before mixing.
If you need a band for your party, look no further than Floorfillers!
I thought I’d take a little moment to mention one of the singers I have the privilege of working with. Pritee Hurnam is the female singer in Funkify, one of the main function bands I work in. There isn’t anyone else I’ve worked with who is as good as Pritee at getting a group of people to have a good time! I’ve seen static, near empty rooms transformed to heaving discos, and it’s all thanks to Pritee. She has a great knack of involving people in her performance, serenading a gent with ‘Somebody Else’s Guy’, encouraging them to sing ‘9 to 5’, and also copy dance moves to ‘Blame It On The Boogie’. But that’s all the practical stuff involved in being in a party band.
Not only can do she do all that better than anyone else I’ve come across, she’s also a blinding singer. She’s a true pro – I’ve seen the show go on despite her feeling really ill and flu-ed out, and she’s still done a great job! She’s one of the most consistent musicians I know, and directs her band with ease, and a thoughtfulness that shows her mind’s always on the ball. Further evidence of this is proven when she alters a set at a moments notice, depending on the mood of her audience.
She works really hard for the band, and is a cracking musician and performer. I hope you get the chance to see her to her thing soon!
