A gig in east London

Troyganic Bar

Laadeez and gen'men...

Undaunted by the slings and arrows of outrageous whatevs, the old singer has pursued his goal of a regular venue in his new environs aaand...

Hopper/Trowbridge
Thursday 26th March
9.00 pm
Troyganic
@troyganic
132 Kingsland Road E2 8DP 

Be there or... well, you know.

(And, and, and... there are other gigs in the offing in the groovy East End. For it is spoken that the prospecting efforts of the righteous will bear fruit. Watch this space.)

People's Park Tavern

The gig at the People's Park Tavern that was due to happen on Tuesday 3rd March won't be happening.

They've had a change of management and are super busy dealing with all sorts of things so we won't be playing there for the moment.

Perhaps the new manager will want to have us.

I'm still looking for venues to play regular gigs in near my very cool new locality.

Watch this space.

What's happening

1) I can't log in to my website to update it. Don't know why.


2) Tonight I'm going - at M'Lady Angelika's behest - to visit The Loughton Folk Club . And I might even sing a song if Jim lets me.


3) I'll be playing at The People's Park Tavern on Tuesday 3rd March in duo form with Leigh Trowbridge III of that ilk. If John likes us - or even if he doesn't but his regulars do and therefore turn out to listen - I'm hoping that this might develop into a monthly or fortnightly gig.


It'll be fun because it'll be me and the Trow doing our Hopper/Trowbridge thing. You know, two guitars, two voices, maybe the odd egg and mandolin... We recorded our first CD, What's A Boy To Do? in 2005. Ten flippin' years ago. Heck. We might even sing the odd cover or two at the end of the evening.


4) The Annual Fans' Gig will take place as ever in Bromley . From 8.30, be there or be square.


5) I will be playing in Kernen in Germany.


Once upon a time I played the Wee Folk Club in Edinburgh and Paddy Bort (see earlier postings) offered me the chance to play at the Phoenix Folk Club in Lauffen in the Neckar valley near Stuttgart. This lead to me meeting Norma Huss of the folk band Clarsach . She introduced me to Paule Zeyner of the same band and three of us have played together more than once since then. Now Uschi, Paule's wife, has booked me the gig in a wine cellar in Kernen.


That's how it goes. I love being a muso.

I've been on the move...

You see, when I left my apartment to travel to Gothenburg, I was also leaving my apartment for good.


I've moved from my home of 14 years to live in east London. Funky, ethnically mixed, creative, historic, trendy, poor, dirty, exciting, arty, youthful east London. You can peruse it here.


In the meantime I've spent some time sojourning, in-between-dwellings, with m'lady Angelika (thanks A) and then moved into my new place near Cambridge Heath station just south of the Regent's Canal near Victoria Park and just 20 minutes from Oxford Circus. It's cool, that's what it is.


Since then I've been busy moving in, organising, changing addresses, hosting house-warming dinners... you know, those things you do when you move: finding a doctor, finding a safe place to park my motorcycle, finding a good butcher, a fishmonger, a bakery, a decent grocers...


What I haven't had time for (it always gets left 'til last) is this blog, booking gigs, writing songs and such. But I have played a couple of times.


GERMANY
I played at the wonderful Phoenix Folk Club in Lauffen (near Stuttgart) and, that same weekend, the very charming Winnenden Folk Club run by Walter Erhardt and friends. Two great nights, two great events. Two warm and welcoming audiences. Paule Zehyer and Norma Huss of Clarsach were, once again, my accomplished accompanists - thanks as ever to them.


SCOTLAND
I played at one of my favourite places, The Wee Folk Club as guest of the magnificently bearded Paddy Bort and, while I was north of the border, popped in to do a session for Celtic Music Radio and Alan Burke as part of the Celtic Connections Festival Fringe (as I've just dubbed it). My cuz, Ian helped me out with that one - you know, shook an egg, sang a harmony. (In fact I was back up in Glasgow the following weekend with Trowbridge and McFarlane playing for CMR again in a different guise!)


So, for the future; there are interesting things on the horizon. There's the Fans' Gig in Bromley on 7th March, another gig in Germany on 13th of the same month and I'm looking for a venue to play a regular bar/café gig near where I'm living. Any ideas?

Happy return to Gothenburg

I'm coming to play in Gothenburg again. And this fact makes me very happy.


I'm going to be gigging HERE on Friday 24th October from 20.00hrs and I'm going to be HERE on Saturday 25th October from 21.00hrs.


We'll be four on stage - me and three Swedes. Guitars, voices, basses, percussions, songs, choruses, stories, love, loss, anger, despair, optimism and a smile.


Come! You know I'd like to see you.


xx

The Looking For... tour ends at Lütt Matten

Now, here's a thing: a singer might want to become part of the fabric of a venue, yes? Well, I have. At Lütt Matten the proprietor, Rainer, decorates his ceiling with the posters of (I like to think his most impressive) former artists. And I'm there! Part of the fabric...

Anyway, Lütt Matten is a rabbit that gets killed and eaten by a fox and a crow as told in a folk story-song in the Platt Deutsch dialect. (Stick with this blog, you'll never want for small talk on a first date.)

Only a short drive from the previous night's gig, we turned up to this fine Musikantenkneipe (Musician's pub) run by friendly host Rainer Martens in quiet mood knowing this was the end of our short tour. Truth to tell, I was tiring. Five gigs in five days with the driving that goes with it is heavy going. I needed beer.

Rainer was not to spend the evening with us as he had to visit his girlfriend near Hamburg as she was poorly (hope she's better, R!) but Beata was on the bar and she looked after us royally - you always know it's going to go well when the host(ess) takes the trouble to find out about you and then gives you the big build-up. Ellen and Bert were our best fans (Ellen likes the Irish and has a shamrock tattoo to prove it & Bert bought us a whiskey by way of encouragement). We played well, the audience stayed for the full evening - including another impromptu acoustic post-gig session - and a good time was had by all.

Ian, seeing that his big cousin was waning after a full-on six days, dug in to help give the evening some extra zip. Now that's what you need from your side man - good on you cuz. This is a partnership that is finding its way.

Great hosts, great bar, great evening.

Now, we just have 12 hours to drive tomorrow...

Cafe Instinkt: More than your normal gig

Cafe Instinkt: the coffee bar in Die Klinik Nordfriesland

 

Our penultimate gig on the Looking For... tour was in a less than usual venue - a bar in an oncology after-care rehabilitation hospital. My second visit. Ian's first.

Perhaps it's that Thomas (our host) and his audience have a different perspective, but the vibe here has a calm welcome that makes it special. It's somehow relaxing to be in this place and that gives it a pleasant shift in mood from the hurly-burly of most of our other venues.

I had prepared two sets before we set off; one for the bar-gigs and one for the concerts. Some of the more delicate material won't stand up to the demands of an audience that hasn't necessarily arrived specifically to sit quietly and listen. However, my cuz and I decided that we'd settled in to the bar-gig set rather comfortably and decided to stay with it with just a couple of tweaks to include some of my solo material and to tailor the running-time to Thomas's requirements.

The quality of the sound in the room was very crisp and it made the performing experience, to my ear at least, quite a pleasure. I always enjoy a bright room in which I can clearly hear what I'm playing and after an intro by the host we played our best gig of the trip so far to our largest audience. Ian was on top form, settling in to his less accustomed role of accompanist, but also beginning to relish the brief spot in which he features his own material. He was great. And he managed to accommodate a couple of my occasional musical trips off-piste - always a pre-requisite aptitude in any of my musical partners.

I thought I performed well, too - apart from a couple of lapses in memory the possibility of which always seems to lurk in the background when I sing. Hey, ho. But Naked was strong, the solo songs went down well and Jeffrey and Robert and I - that oldest of reliables - garnered a very powerful response.

And we sold some CDs, and we made some money, and Thomas puts his performers up in a luxurious thatched-cottage-style hotel, and we're staying here for two days, and we're going to walk the beach and chill for the day before our next and final gig nearby at Lütt Matten ...