Hope your all had a wicked cool Bank holiday weekend.
I'm currently having a chill at Grand Chapel studios http://www.grandchapelstudios.co.uk after a pretty hectic couple of weeks festivaling, #pickledownunder planning, and chugging up, down, and round the country.
While I'm stationary for a bit I figured I'd better do a blog out before I leave it too long and can't remember whats gone down yesterday let alone a week or so ago.
So with the help of Zebby #studiodog here's whats gone on.
Zebby
Since T.O.M.I.E Ive been a bit all over the joint.
After dropping the boys back home to nurse their post VW festival heads, I made my way for a meet with the guys at Grand Chapel about doing some recording in June, to get a load more tunes down for you guys, a one day a month live session, and a fund raising gig in August for #apickledownunder.
After dropping the boys back home to nurse their post VW festival heads, I made my way for a meet with the guys at Grand Chapel about doing some recording in June, to get a load more tunes down for you guys, a one day a month live session, and a fund raising gig in August for #apickledownunder.
Check out Abi's video of her One day a month session filmed by our friend Nick Kent of http://nickkentphotography.com
This wonderful place has become some what of a haven for me in recent weeks and I have made a couple of outstanding friends.
There will be a very limited number of tickets for the fundraiser gig at Grand Chapel 'Prayers for a Pickle down under' but I'll keep you posted on all that Jazz.
The weekend commencing the 8th was a bit different for this time of year, gig packed but all in pubs dotted about.
For the last few months I've been hosting a night on the final Friday of every month at The Crown and Anchor in Chiswick http://www.crownandanchorchiswick.co.uk called #originalacoustics.
Its a night where myself and a few of my friends come down and share our original tunes with the good people of Chiswick, with a few covers thrown in there for good form, then the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Friday will be me or another artist all night.
This will be happening Friday coming so be sure to get involved!
Any way, plug done, thats where I was Friday May 8th.
Saturday took me to play in Watford for the first time at a joint called the Prince George.
Sunday was a real chilled one in West Ealing at the Duke of Kent, bang tidy roast, food generally served up here with a lot of the produce coming straight from the pub garden.
We like that!
#apickledownunder 1st fundraiser:
Wednesday Luke and I rocked up to the Insomnia warehouse to do the first fundraiser for the Oz project. A live streamed gig from the van to you cats at home, powered by stageit.com
I'd like to thank all of you that logged in to watch or listen for your support and I hope you enjoyed the experience of seeing me behave uncomfortably in front of a camera.
I believe we raised around £85 this time round, thats a good 300 odd miles down, We are certainly chipping away!
The next Stageit gig is going down on September 16th so get your tickets now and tell all ya chums.
Vanjamboree to Dubs at the Park:
The weekend of the 15th of May means Vanjamboree, still one of my firm favourite veedub shows to play, although one of the most challenging as the party always seems to go on well in to the morning and the ale flows freely whether you want it or not.
We didn't roll up till gone dark and Vision Tech Beats were in full swing. With little point in attempting to set up in the black of night trying to find a power supply, we opted for parking Pickle in the middle of the field and having a play through the busking amp before people headed back to their vans.
In the Morning we got our spot and got ourselves set up leaving Luke to cook breakfast, maybe not the best idea.
Give Luke a knife, he plays pirate.
Drew, meaning business
Luke shut it, I'm trying to sing.
Spence Gilroy, too cool for school.
It was a super chilled Saturday and big thanks to Jack (Spencers lad) for running round with the camera and grabbing the shots.
Night snuck in and after Vision tech had succeeded in making everyone bounce we got stuck in and it was fuuuun!
Here are a few shots from before and after the madness.
Drew and Joe (Spencers other lad, and one of the coolest little dudes I've come across)
Jack's the guy with the board.
A clip of Drew playing fleetwood macs 'Landslide'
The whole jolly continued through till about 5am, at which point it only seemed wise to get as packed down and loaded up as possible before grabbing a couple of hours and hitting the road down to Bracknell for Dubs at the Park.
Pete and all the gang at Vanjamboree, legends as always. sorry we couldn't stick around for the Sunday as well.
Now this when I realised for that attempting two festivals in one weekend is some what optimistic. especially when they're opposite ends of the country and you have a set at 13:00
Needless to say I was a tad late (not helped by running out of fuel on the M25)
This was my first year at Dubs at the Park and its a really cool vibe. Its a one dayer set at Easthampstead Park, put on by the London Thames Valley Volkswagen club with a big BBQ traders, Live music, and plenty of tasty dubs to check out.
Although I was meant to be on their acoustic stage at 13:00 it turned out a little more like 14:15 and I must thank Wayne and the guys for switching sets round.
After the palaver of getting there It was just the right show to chill me out and continue to have an awesome day.
Back on the road:
Next show was due to be Carry on Dubbin up Wigan, Manchester way so I took to the road again and started making my way north.
I made a plan to call in on Mario and the guys at MV Engineering https://www.facebook.com/mvengineering in Telford, The team are going to be helping me get the van ready for 'A Pickle Down Under', and then I'd check out some places in the Shropshire area over the next couple of days.
By the time I got to Telford MV had already closed, but I though not to worry I find a quiet spot for tonight and swing by in the morning.
I'd noticed signs for a place called 'Ironbridge Gorge' and thought well that sounds pretty fantastic, must be worth a look, and it was only down the road.
Yea turned out it was well worth a look, a really beautiful little town just outside Telford built on the river Severn that is recognised as the birthplace of the industrial revolution.
Originally known as the Severn Gorge, it now takes it name from its amazing Iron bridge constructed in 1779 to connect the towns of Broseley and Madeley.
The town boomed during the Industrial period as the raw materials used to make Iron, Porcelain, and tiles were easily mined and then transported with ease given the width of the Severn. Its Iron Bridge was the first like it in the world and a monument to the Industry that began there.
Bit of history for ya, and if your in the area definitely go and visit.
After pottering about Ironbridge for the morning I left for MV.
Mario and I spent a lot of the afternoon putting together a list of parts to get across to VW Heritage and an action plan to get Pickle ready for the trip in between the festivals.
Mario and I spent a lot of the afternoon putting together a list of parts to get across to VW Heritage and an action plan to get Pickle ready for the trip in between the festivals.
So I've now purchased a new sliding door to replace the piece of crap thats currently on her, made up mostly of filler, we've booked in for a couple of intensive weeks in July for the Body work and I'm gonna get started on the suspension and lifting with my man Felix at Essex Park Motors.
After topping up the coolant and gear box oil I set of again to visit Shrewsbury.
Shrewsbury's a great town with a really vibing little music scene, there's something on somewhere every night and there's a pub on every corner, we like this.
Its a historic market town on the river severn with over 660 listed buildings and much of its medieval street plan unaltered.
I Parked just out of town, 10+ hours for £2.80 also very pleasing, and took a short walk in to see what the crack was with open mic and shiz.
I found a little pub called the Wheat Sheaf that coincidently had an open mic on that eve and they very kindly gave me a leaflet advertising everything that was going down over the next month.
I ended up playing there and then heading to the other side of town to a place called The Waterfront Bar with an open mic hosted by an artist called Andy O'Brien, an awesome friendly bloke, check his page out here https://www.facebook.com/pages/ANDY-OBRIEN-LIVE-AND-ACOUSTIC/222428009444 it was a quiet one but a lovely bunch down there.
I ended up having such a cool night that I stayed another day to do some busking and visit another open mic in the evening just outside town at a pub called the Old Dolphin.
The nights hosted by a lovely dude, Richard Benjamin and is a night of all kinds of performers and a really supportive audience that love to sing along, great place.
I also met a gent called Paul Henshaw https://www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-Henshaw-Music/132359153479559?fref=ts told me of a friend, a shrewsbury busker, songwriter, and poet, Ben Bebbington who was viciously attacked and died as a result in September 2012.
His Sisters have started a campaign to change the way people think about the homeless and as part of this campaign released one of Bens songs 'Alone in the crowd, my mate and me'
The following link is an itv news report on the campaign.
Please support #BensSong
Carry on Dubbin:
After a grand couple of days exploring Shrewsbury it was off on the road again to get to Wigan for Carry on Dubbin, a new show for me.
Originally I was due to be playing Volkswagger show this weekend but after that cancelling I was stoked to be asked by Cathrin and the Carry on Dubbin team to come play.
I rolled in pretty early on the Friday to get set up and settled, and was allocated a nice little spot between some rugby posts, staging us nicely.
It took a while for the festival ground to get buzzing as it was very overcast and the air full of constant drizzle, not Ideal, luckily I had a tarp Spence had given me and the carry on team helped me erect a shelter using Pickles rack and the rugby poles.
When the rain finally subsided I thought I'll do a few tunes to let people know I'm here and that I'll be playing again later... a few tunes turned in to quite a lot of tunes. Always the way play a few, people come over at the last song, play a few more, more people come over for the last song, and the next thing you know you've been playing an hour or so.
As the eve drew in it dried up and the festival buzzed. I played through the evening on and off and Drew and his band mate Ben rocked up impressively late but we kept the night going with unplugged sing songs round the fire fuelled predominately by my new mate Martin 'Houseless, not Homeless' https://www.youtube.com/user/mooey65
Saturday was roasting hot so I thought we'll ditch the tarp and take to the roof.
We were joined by Owen Bolton, a young singer songwriter from the Wigan area in a great place and only 14.
Check out Owens Facebook Page here https://www.facebook.com/owenboltonuk/timeline
Thanks for playing Bro!
We were also joined by Charlie Sherliker, a super talented dude that jumped in with guitar on a bunch of songs he's never heard before and added a very tidy flavour.
Charlie Jamming on the rack with Drew.
Hope to see him popping up for a mesh at some more shows later in the season. Follow him on twitter here https://twitter.com/chazterdog
Peace Charlie!
A snippet of Drew and Ben doing Green eyes.
And thats how Carry on Dubbin Panned out for the rest of the Saturday, late in to the night until I took myself off to bed leaving Drew and the gang to entertain.
I did learn that morning in the pissing rain that no matter how goolooed I am, I must pack down and cover up my gear so it as speakers and heavy rain don't get on.
And now?
No festivals this weekend so knuckling down with #apickledownunder stuff.Got my passport back from renewal so time to look at visa applications.
I swung by to see Nick earlier to check in on how the Pickle Down Under Advert for the website is coming on and we're looking good.
Gotta go pick up the new sliding door from Essex in the next few days.
Drew, Luke, Josh and I will be sharing some tunes down at The Crown and Anchor in Chiswick again on Friday eve for the #originalacoustics night so please come along for the jolly.
http://www.crownandanchorchiswick.co.uk
My next VW festival is Dubs Mania, Weston Park so I hope to see some of you there. Just ordered some cool new baseball shirts, and posters that should all hopefully be ready for the show too.
Dudes, cheers very much for reading and all your support so far.
Oh and here's the second of my Infuse Insession at Grand Chapel Studios 'Silver Linining' Hope you like.
One Love x
