Don’t touch Kano’s Cold Cuts!!!!!!!!

Smileymic meet The Sugar Hill Gang!

Life is a very random and splendid thing. At around 7.15 pm on the 8th I was walking towards the Custard Factory where the Gigbeth music festival was taking place. I was about to watch some living legends sound check for their show that evening, that in it self was a little strange as we as fans don’t usually get to see our favorite acts prepare for the show, we usually just get the spectacle of the event. So it seems even more random and increasingly splendid that about half an hour later I find myself sat in a room drinking tea with Master Gee, WonderMike, HenDog and DJ T Dynasty of The Sugar Hill Gang. I really wasn’t sure what to say to them, I got introduced by their road manager “Hey this is the guy that does that crazy cover of Rappers Delight” and it kind of went from there. If the conversation ever slowed then my friend Sarah had questions ready to fire at them. We talked about music and how it effects you whether you’re the performer or the audience, we talked about family, about playing shows and about Obama winning the U.S election. I was told to help myself to refreshment and so I did, I then nearly had my fingers torn off by the green-room attendant who informed me that I couldn’t help myself to the array of cold meat as that was for Kano. The Sugar Hill Gang got a taxi to their hotel to rest up for their performance and my friend and I set off down the road to figure out what to do until then, Sarah giggling childishly after I told her I got told off for touching Kano’s meat. As we walked past South Birmingham College I couldn’t help but notice a large group of musicians loading their gear into a couple of cars. One of these people was a tall man dressed in a suit sporting a large beard and colourful hat that did not compliment the ensemble, I realised that I recognised him. The group turned out to be The Destroyers, who I stumbled upon at an all night music event at The Custard Factory the year before. They told us they were on their way to play a gig at the Prince Of Wales in Moseley. We have our answer, an hour later we’re stood at the back of a large marquee listening to the most sublime anarchic folk music you could ever wish for and I feel happy. Once the set finishes I get back in my car and head for Gigbeth to see The Sugar Hill Gang do it old school. They played an amazing set, you could certainly tell that they’d been doing this for a long time, the creme de la creme being left till last as you might expect….Rappers Delight. I drove home replaying the evenings events in my mind wondering how many more random nights like this I might experience and hoping the number runs into hundreds.

Gigbeth Fringe

Gigbeth is an annual music festival held at the Custard Factory in Digbeth Birmingham. The line up is diverse and eclectic ranging from the Guillemots to The Young Knives to Kano to the Sugar Hill Gang and beyond. This years festival saw the very first Gigbeth fringe take place and I had the good fortune to be involved. Consider It Done Music had organised a showcase night for some of the acts they promote including¬†Laura Louise¬†¬†an acoustic artist with an amazing voice and material to match,¬†Mama Matrix¬†a sublime psychedelic folk punk band who inspire you to drink and dance like a fool,¬†Marc Reck¬†a Breakbeat DJ who plays all my favourite kinds of electronic tunage with the right blend of funky soul classics mixed in and my self. I played twice that night, I was trying out a new way of headphone monitoring and although it was a gamble it worked out really well. The crowd seemed to enjoy it and I certainly enjoyed playing. Mama Matrix were something else, I found myself cursing the fact I had to drive that night with all my gear in-tow as their songs just made me want to dance and dancing goes hand in hand with inebriation in my book. I look forward to getting absolutely destroyed to one of their sets and try my best to keep pace. Marc Reck is a thoroughly nice bloke and I look forward to working with him again, he’s a seriously positive person. I’ve been listening to some of his mixes here¬†www.marcreck.com¬†and I like them a lot.

Who’s the daddy!

Some events are just plain fun to do. The Who’s The Daddy snowboard event at the Snowdome in Tamworth turned out to be one of those nights. I got to work with the Touch Of Life dance group again which is always fun. TLC is a street/breakdance crew from Burton On Trent and they are so much fun to work with, as they are mostly made up of kids, cheeky ones at that. It was a quick 25 minute show, I kept it up beat and funky as that made the most of the break dancers and we seemed to go down well.¬†

Now all of my efforts are aiming towards putting on the best show i can at  the Gigbeth festival in Birmingham.

Happenings about to happen

Things are going well. We’ve got the first mixes of studio recorded material up on the web page and all shameless self promoting social network pages. I’m slowly but surely dialing in the new kit. It’s making a lot easier to get good sounds, it’s just a matter of learning how to get the most out of it. I’m looking forward to a gig I have this weekend at a snowboard event as I’ll be re-united with the Touch Of Life breakdance crew from Burton. I’m really looking forward to playing my first show in Birmingham in ages at The Rainbow in Digbeth as part of the Gigbeth Fringe as I’ve always wanted to play that venue. Things are taking shape and I’m loving it!

The Waterfront…

Over half a year ago when I was working on material behind closed doors I had my eyes and ears open for a potential venue to try out my new live set. It had to be far enough away that word wouldn’t get back to people involved in my local scene, not too big and be relaxed enough to let me experiment a little bit. The Waterfront was that venue. I got a feel for what was working and what wasn’t and it gave me enough perspective to see where and in what direction I needed to build. More importantly I got a good reception from the people running the place and the people attending, they gave me an open invitation to play any of their music nights. And so I played as many as I could fit in, at one particular night I was introduced to man who became my agent (John Mostyn) and also acquired a producer willing to work on a studio album. So many positive things have come from playing there that I feel like it’s my stomping ground in a way. So when they asked me to play their end of season party I felt like I owed them a good show. So I got stuck in letting people know about the gig as the party was open to all comers, the way I saw it Kieron (the owner) had done so much to encourage what I’ve been doing I wanted to try my best to get as many people in his venue, spending money at his bar.¬†I did it. I invited so many people and a lot of them came and considering it was my first show in nearly two months with new equipment to test it went really well. We drank and we danced like idiots to many a guilty pleasure fueled by Kierons amazing concoxions well into the a.m. I got to bed at about 5 a.m and got to work on time at 11. Work was fun. I had so many friends come in saying they’d had such a good night, flashbacks occurred,¬†stories were told, people laughed out loud, everyone tired but enthused by the time we had in the little bar by the lake. Thanks Kieron…..

Calm before the storm…

So things have been quiet for me for a while now, I’ve been getting stuck in with the setting up the promotional side of things with the website and the facebook page and getting an iLike account started. I’ve got to say thanks to my good friend Dave Smith for al his help in getting involved in what has turned out to be a blinder of a web site. I’m picking up my new custom made case on Tuesday, this combined with all these other things being in place means I can start rehearsing and start booking shows. The prospect of playing shows in new venues and old fills me with excitement for things to come. I’ll be posting dates for upcoming shows very soon. The first examples of studio recorded material should be on all shameless self promoting networks soon also. Things are gonna get hectic! I can’t wait……..