Catch Up..

I'm mindful that I've neglected my blog of late and have made the decision to do my best to use it more.
There are people that follow it as I follow other people's blogs.
I am actually interested in what people are doing whether it's trying to sell their book or stumbling their drunker lezzbot way around the capital.
So, what am I up to?
At the moment I am enjoying the fruits of my new contract and am half way through my six week summer break from my day job.
I have begun plan C which is recording all my songs in the simplest way possible i.e one mic straight in to Logic, press record. No effects, no click track not even any reverb. I love the results!
I've been attending a few open mic and acoustic nights around Hampshire to see what works as regards songs and regarding the set up and success or otherwise of these events.
I have the subject of a new pod-cast developng on this subject so I've also been using these nights for research.
Today (Friday) I shall be carrying on with Plan C. I've recorded 5 songs already so that means only 25 to go. I'm playing at Borders in Southampton tomorrow afternoon so I'm burning some cds to give away there. I MAY record a new podcast as I have enough stuff in my head to talk about.
I will also clean the kitchen floor, do the laundry, wash up, play a little on-line poker and hopefully go to a jam night tonight at The Arts House in Southampton.
We shall see.

Le Weekend

I love weekends. It difficult not to. I have tried to get out of the habiot of wishing the whole week away and just focusing on it (the weekend)

This weekend is going to be a humdinger.

I have organised for a group of musicians (most of whom I have never met) to play at the Winchester Mayfest. They are members of a company I started a year ago call Pure Acoustica. The whole idea is that no amps, microphones or p.a.s are used, it's all TOTALLY acoustic, geddit? We will be playing at the Discovery Centre (yes, it's the library) from 2 until 5 pm. After which I shall be heading off, guitar in hand, to a few pubs where other musu types will be playing traditional folky type music and hopefully joining in.

Those who know me will know my attitude to folk or "fulk" music. But this is different. It's a spontaneous almost improvised, natural kind of music. There will be fiddles and banjos, penny whistles and flutes. OK, I know what you are thinking but the ale will be good!!

My daughter is down for the weekend which is always a delight although she will want to get home in time to watch Eurovision.

What are your weekend plans?

It's been a while

I know it has been a while but I have been a bit busy and have lacked luster and enthusiasm when it come to blogging and pod-casting. It can be hard work keeping all this stuff up. The blog, the pod-casts, the ustream gigs as well as writing and recording and publicizing myself. Sometimes I feel that there is so much to do, it's hard to find somewhere to start.

However.

The summer holidays will soon be upon me and I will have six weeks to produce stuff as well as hitting some waves on my new body-board. 

I'm still as creative as ever. New tunes, new ideas and opportunities flood my mind.

I just get a little worried sometimes that I'm not producing enough actual material and that it's all a bit pointless. We all get like that though, don't we?

DON'T WE?

This will be good though http://www.winmayfest.co.uk/2009/performers.htm

that's me that is!

Sleeve Notes for new Album "Bare Bones"

On listening to the first couple of tracks of Bare Bones I doubt you'll be clicking the iTunes buy button straight away.

The production is basic, to say the least, the vocals are often overwhelmed by the guitar and vice versa. Many of the tracks are short, have untidy endings, lack a "bridge" or "middle eight" or even a chorus!

This is my "back catalogue", my history. Many of these songs were recorded over ten years ago at 3am using one basic microphone and an old Mac. An audio notebook of ideas and inspiration.

But there are songs, oh yes, and that's what I want people to hear. Naive perhaps, basic even.

The alternative would have been to leave them, let them rest on a hard drive until the Mac eventually dies. But then what would have been the point? I still play many of these songs; I will often take parts from songs, a chorus, intro or theme and use them in a new composition.

So these songs are footprints, the tracks of my journey to the here and now.

No vocoders, no auto tune or expensive production or mastering.

Have a listen, you may even remember hearing one for the first time at that gig 8 years ago with that guy you didn't know in that dodgy Soho club you went to just the once to check it out but never returned. Or you may have been round my flat one night after the pub and cajoled me into playing something.

Or, of course, you may be listening for the first time in which case, don't judge too harshly as what you are listening to are just the "Bare Bones"

See what I did there?

Original artwork is by my good friend Charles Olsen

Podcast no 7

This week, amongst other things, I rant about buying a fridge at Comets, play some fantastic music by Matt Stevens and Simon Javens, a new advert for those great folk at Hayward Guitars in Winchester, talk a little about Pure Acoustica and launch the very first "Twitter News"

Podcast number 6

After many failed, drunken attempts last night I have finally recorded and edited Podcast number 6 of Is This Thing On. 

People I mentioned were, in no particular order Matt Blake, Matt Stevens, Bete' deJour, Watch With Mothers, Joe Potter, Joe Woodham, 

Pure Acoustica, Red Stripe (Neil Drinkwater), Emmy-Lee, Twitter, Louch Manouche and Charles "Charlie" Olsen

All of whom are fantastic and wonderful. You should click on their name and find out all about them immediately.

As I said I will try to record another by next sunday at the latest.

I'm also planning a blog entitled "Why it's all still Thatcher's Fault" that should be ready by February. A non musical political rant. Bet you can't wait eh?

Pure Acoustic

So last Friday I thought I'd try something new. I really enjoyed the whole Froggies bar experience from the week before. I did email the Frog about playing there again but methinks I may have been a bit too pricey for him. He's probably found a cheap covers merchant by now but I'm not bitter. 

But I digress 

I decided that for the gig at The Eclipse I would play totally acoustic, no amp and no mic. Just me, a stool and a guitar. Despite it being only 6.30 there was a fair share of drunk types about as well as some BLIND DRUNK people staggering about. 

It was fantastic, the feeling of just sitting in the middle of this pub "naked" was one of the most liberating feelings I've ever had and I've had a few. The sense of freedom was overwhelming . Yes, people did speak when I was playing and I fell into that same "adding to the atmosphere of the place" feeling that I had experienced the week before but the reaction after each song was just amazing. During the second half hour one of the afore mentioned drunks hovered in front of me agog. He had the look of a young kestrel, head still and eyes fixed whilst his body gyrated trying to steady itself against the torrents of alcohol pulsating through his system. Now normally this would have been a little disconcerting. You never know what your average drunk will do. Will he (why is it always a he, I despair of my gender sometimes I really do) get nasty, friendly, emotional or just vomit over you and pass out? The thing is is that one feels a little trapped, guitar plugged in and mic and stand holding one in. But this feeling that at any time I could just get up and run gave me the kind of confidence usually reserved for super-heroes. So I turned and looked at him, he was about 3 feet away carefully (kind of) balanced on a table, and sang "How Can it be Wrong When it Feels so Right?" straight at him with feeling and passion. 

I doubt if he would have remembered much about that night, seriously he was so wasted that he fell into a table later and pretty much passed out. I wanted him to wake up in the morning, try and piece the night before together and then remember this big guy with a guitar singing love songs to him. Nevertheless it was a great evening culminating with food and wine and good company

I'm at Chaplins in sunny Boscombe on Sunday and possibly shooting a promo video if I can get my act together.

Lighting up Winchester!

Yes, Lighting up Winchester. That's what I have been doing this week and it's been quite jolly!

On Thursday I played at The Slug and Lettuce. It's one of those big airy bar chains. I needed to bring my own amps and stuff so it was a little tricky as I only have my Bass rig. Nevertheless I managed to cobble something together. Last night I played La Place and Froggies Bar, a very small French bar with an eatery upstairs.

These gigs are a bit different as they are not music venues, they're restaurants.

Now when I play music venues and I'm pouring out my soul I want the audience to shut the fuck up and listen, if/when they don't i tend to get a little techy. I have developed a few tricks to quieten them, generally I tend to play quieter and sing a little lower, that normally does the trick. But these restaurants are a different kettle of fish. Folk are there to eat not to have some bod spill his soul over their sole (geddit?) So I have approached these gig with a different attitude. It's been interesting, very interesting.

At the Slug, people were eating, occasionally glancing over at me in the corner and clapping every now and then. I played ok, not fantastic but that was because I was deliberately holding back. I played about an hour, all quietly, not too intrusive but you'd know I was there.

Last night however, I tried something new.

It's a small bar with about 20 people, many of them your actual French, very animated and loud. Very loud. I put myself into the mindset of a struggling tortured artist playing in a bar in the 30s and sang my soul out. Plenty of singing off the mic, using my highest vocal register a' la Monsieur Buckley (I'll speak more of that at a later date). I blocked out everyone and just concentrated on playing, straight from the soul, not competing against the Gallic hubbub but adding to it. I hadn't thought that people had actually heard me , but they had. They applauded enthusiastically after every tune. Some even recognised my cover of Mojo Pin. I may be playing there again on a regular basis but we shall see? Vivre La France!

Next Friday I am going to experiment further. I'm playing in a tiny pub The Eclipse. I'v decided to dispense with any amplification. No amps, no mics just me and guitar.

I like taking a few risks. I'll let you know how I get on eh?

I haven't told you about the Edge of the Wedge gig I did yet have I?

Another time....

By the by I have developed a widget for this blog. It's just a little bit of code. You can paste it into many little places so feel free to share (please?) I have also made it into a Facebook application but I'm not a geek right?

The Candle Club!

At last I can say that I have played The Candle Club !

This is a great club based at the Back of The Talking Heads pub in Portswood Southampton.

I have been checking it out for a few months but, for reasons I will tell you later, had not played.

the idea is that you turn up and book a 10 minute slot, hang around until that time, then play. There are a set of traffic lights to the left of the stage. They stay on green for 7 minutes, then 2 on amber. When they switch to red you stop playing. The stage is huge, the place is a bit of a barn, the p.a. is top class as is the lighting. The audience is great and will get bigger when the uni students return. The atmosphere is very very friendly and professional. There are a few regulars that come along every week, I think. One of which is Kim Tecno who I missed last week but have seen before. A performance poet of the stoned, pissed off, reflective kind. His ranty observational funny verses are complemented by what I can only describe as "kick ass techno" which he plays himself on a small silver keyboard. His shambling disorganised persona is original and very funny. I highly suspect that this is not an "act" and he is like this. I bloody hope so!

"So why haven't you played before?" I hear you ask.

You'd forgotten that bit hadn't you? Do try and pay a little attention!

I think it was a mixture of confidence (lack thereof) actually it was just confidence. 

The act of turning up asking "Please sir, can I play?" was just a bit scary.

It's just ridiculous I know, I've done so many gigs played to hundreds but this "please" was just stopping me. I had been putting of playing for months but had finally ditched that weedy little wanky voice in my head and just thought "Fuck it!" and did it.

I now swagger, yes swagger, now that I've done it. It may sound like a small thing to you and it wasn't a huge thing for me but big enough for me to think of it as a fear faced and defeated. 

I did play well, if you give a tinker's cuss, and I sang like a dirty angel. Just two tunes; How Do You Sleep (with the new very high notes!) and All I Think About Is You (which I am in the process of recording and will be releasing as a single....kind of)

I will be there tomorrow, oh yes.....

I did a bad bad thing.....

I have a confession to make.

In a moment of weakness, I have entered a competition....

To make it worse it has “Unsigned” in the title.

Yes, yes I know but it looked so pretty and Jo Whiley is involved!!

It’s the “Orange Unsigned Act” competition, Mrs Nick and I sat and watched it last year, it was part of our Sunday mornings dammit! This year they are opening it up to singer/songwriters. I may rant later about That tag!

The prize being, I feel as ashamed as Fern Britain munching a hob nob, a record contract a fucking record contract!!

I don’t even want a fucking record contract, honest I don’t.

Ok, cards on the table. I am a middle aged white male. I write songs, good songs. I play guitar, pretty well ok pretty fucking well. I sing, I have been told I have a great voice, I KNOW I have a great voice, if I didn’t I wouldn’t be able to stand up in front of a room full of strangers and perform. The only way I will ever bother the charts is if someone else sings one of my songs. I’m very ok with that as the idea of fame and celebrity appals me. I DO want to make a living out of music don’t get me wrong, but on my terms. I want to write for other people, play on people’s songs, and produce other people. I do not want a record contract so it is pure folly to enter the competition.

However

However, what I did think was that it wouldn’t do me any harm to get a little publicity. If I made it through to the TV stage I may sell a few cds, perhaps get asked to do a session or two, get some nice paid gigs, so don’t judge me as harshly as I do.

It all seamed so simple, create a little profile, load up some songs, get through the voting stage, audition and then THEN appear on television TELEVISION I TELLS YA!!!

Here, my dears, is the rub.

Here is where everything is stacked in the teen bands favour although the website, nay Jo Whiley herself, is very keen to include singer songwriters.

This is how it SHOULD work. Punters, that is you dear dear people, go on to my page on the Orange Unsigned webpage and vote for me, in an easy and stress free way. Click on a little box or sum such. Then, all the votes are counted up and the ones that have the most go through to the next round. Yeah?

No.

Before Peter Punter can do anything he has to create a profile of his own.

To expedite this he has to supply his email address to where a confirmation email is sent. He then has to activate his profile by clicking on the link in the email.

With me so far?

Next, he browses some of the 600 or so acts on the website. He can go straight to mine but no body is going to do that unless they know me.

Once he finds an artist that he likes he then selects of their tunes and clicks on a button that adds that track to his “mixtape”.

Yes “mixtape”

Punters as well as acts build up a mixtape of different artists and the artists that appear in the majority of mixtapes would seam to make it through to the next round.

Innovative?

Clever?

Well

What I have found is that there are many punters types with their mixtapes but they all tend to feature one artist i.e. the band that they are in.

Acts like me, there are many, don’t generally have hoards of fans/friends that are web savvy enough to jump through the hoops one has to jump through to be able to vote on this shit heap of a site. Most of my friends don’t have myspace, read blogs (bastards!), and subscribe to anything other than the local newspaper every week. They don’t like giving their email addresses (if they even have one and even if they do never check them, bastards!) for fear of some anonymous hacker stealing their soul. So the chances of me registering more than one vote (thanks Mrs Nick) are pretty slim to nothing.

I will post a linky badge thing so you can go and have a look but I won’t blame you if you don’t bother, honest I won’t

And I promise I won’t do anything so foolish again…..honest…

Get Out Of London!!

Seriously, if you’re an artist trying to garner any kind of success then get out GET OUT!!.

 

Let me start at the beginning. Assume that you are a singer/songwriter type. You want to play in a nice place, sell cds to strangers, get people you don’t know to come to your other gigs and possibly have sex with beautiful women.

 

My experience is that unless you have connections you will play empty dives in the middle of housing estates, obscure expensive bars no one goes to,  acoustic nights in noisy bars that empty as the previous acts and their many friends depart after their “stint”.

For this London rock en Roll experience you will be paid fuck all.

“Promoters” of such events will not publicise you nor will anyone ANYONE wander in hungry for live original music except drunks and junkies who wouldn’t get served anywhere else.

 

You will not sell any cds and beautiful women will definitely not lay you. 

 

So my advice would be get out of London.

Come and play out here in the country.

Come and play at great places like Chaplins in Boscombe.

Lovely, enthusiastic women like Fiona will great you, shake you by the hand and be pleased to see you.

James the pianist and sometime sound guy will make a point of coming over and asking what you need and offer you a free drink.

Other performers will be talented and passionate and friendly, swapping places to play and being generally “chummy”

Ok, you won’t get paid as it is a free venue but you will play to a respectful, appreciative and enthusiastic audience that you didn’t have to bring yourself.

You will get your photograph taken and even a video of your songs to be put on the venue website.

Hopefully they will ask you back to play a longer set eh Fi?

You may take a beautiful woman home.

You may even be already married to them!

 

 

 

By the way, if you continue to thrash that dead horse that is ‘The Londin”you may as well busk, you’d play to more people possibly sell a few cds. You might even get laid!

I think I like this....

So there I was driving along the M27 navigating my way to The Edge Acoustic Club in Portsmouth and i was thinking "Why am I doing this?" "I could be sitting at home relaxing" I think that I am basically lazy, those who know me a chuckling I am sure as this is no news to them.

I've done this loads of times before in London. You make the effort to find the place, spend an age trying to park (if you actually find the dump!) stand around until the often surely yes SURLY pa dude deigns to grunt at you, you argue about where in the lineup you will play, eventually you plugin and address the assembled unwashed who totally ignore your heartfelt efforts. Having finished more gruffness from the now pissed pa dude who scoffs at your ridiculous request for some money and send you off feeling used and abused.

But not at The Edge. Having found the place (it's easy) I managed to park in the road opposite and walk the 50 feet or so to the Edge of the Wedge, it was right next to The Wedgewood Rooms. A lovely bright, airy bar. i got there a bit early but was soon joined by Aide (sorry if I've spelt that wrong) a nice chap who set up the P.A. in about 5 minutes, asked me when I fancied playing and then offered me a beer! I declined as drinking before I play has always been disastrous for me but nonetheless...

I decided to go on second, around 9.30 I think.

I haven't mentioned this but this was my first gig in years that Mrs Nick was not present at. She was away somewhere on a work thing, somewhere.

Our friend Lisa turned up sunny and full of beans as always. She's very close to celebrity status at the BBC now and in time I will have to link to her but I digress. 

I had to play all my loud bluesy numbers as there  was some kind of death metal band playing at The Wedgewood Rooms next door and there was a little, well a lot of thumping bleeding through the door. Anyhoo, it was all good! The sound was great, Aide gave me nice foldback (steady!) and the crowd were attentive and appreciative. I had a chat with a few of them afterwards and I appear to have gone down well.

Aide offered me another beer but as I was driving I declined and then gave me the princely sum of £10!!! I know this may seem to be a paltry sum to some of you dear readers but as some of you artists out there will verify money for acoustic live gigs of this type can be very rare especially for a London boy like myself.

So well done Beefy (he's the promoter) and Aide and the Edge of the Wedge. Thanks for restoring my faith in humanity and whetting my appetite for playing live.

Portsmouth Multi Cultural Festival...... Ole'

I did though. It was the Portsmouth Multi Cultural Festival.

I played it today at around 1pm.
I guessed it was a council run thing, it had that feel even before I got there.
It had no website, that was my first clue.
I was billed as "Nick Tam Spanish Guitarist" Not the best of starts. "It says that on your website" said Junior in his high visability vest. "I sent you a cd" said I "There wasn't any Spanish guitar on that". He obviously hadn't heard the cd or checked out my website that well. I do play Spanish guitar, it's a guitar made in Spain and I do strum some Flamencoesque type doodles but I'm no Paco Penia.
Anyhoo, I was told I would be on around 1.40 but in the end I went on at 1.00 and played for around 30 minutes. As per the sound on stage was great but out front I was told the guitar was to quiet. That's the thing with these non muso type events. I mean how hard is it? One vocal mic and a guitar with a pick up. Two faders, work it out.
I was quite popular with a small group of young mums, one of them kissed my hand later congratulating me on my wonderful voice, bless. Actually I did go down quite well despite my quiet guitar. 
As soon as I came off I was wisked away by the media, eXpress FM, Portsmouth's local radio station to be interviewed by the Country Music presenter. " I also run this website" he said as he thrust some bumf into my hand, something to do with relatives on-line? " I also run a English School in South America!" he enthused. Ok, I get it, this isn't all you do.
After a couple of obvious "What kind of music do you play?" type questions I was brushed away in favour of a lady dog trainer with her alsation to talk about training for your pouch. I left them a few cd's, although I should have kept one for the hand kisser.