Berndette, sorry about the cardiff gig, we were so sorry to hear about the closure of the Point venue. We will try and re-schedule another gig in Wales, it does seem to get left out a lot, but if you can suggest a few suitable venues, we’ll see what we can do. Graham, as for my last ever UK tour, you have a flair for the dramatic. It’s good to keep people guessing, including myself…
The two weeks in the UK seemed to gallop by. Friendly audiences, lovely venues and we were made to feel very welcome everywhere we went, with hot meals and wi-fi a plenty. We only had one near miss on the motorway and I scrumped my own bag of Fisherman’s Friends, as I found them too delicious to share. Brian Grace is garnering his own fan base who appreciate his beautiful guitar playing and Gentry Morris sold many cds and collected many email addresses. Thank you to JJ, my tour manager who kept it all together.
People in Maidstone, if you are offered a green and pink fatface bag containing straighteners, ankle boots, a pretty dress, lots of make-up and an i-pod for a knock down price, try to resist because those will be my stolen goods, which some arse ran off with from the Zebra. I hope he ran straight into the path of an oncoming large vehicle but the world is not always that just. Thanks to the staff there and to the lovely sound engineer Dan who were entirely sympathetic and passed on cctv images to the Maidstone police. Police were extremely helpful and refrained from commenting on my extreme stupidity on leaving my bag unattended in the first place. They also did not say “well, we’ll do our best, but it’s highly unlikely you will ever see your beclazone inhaler again”. I appreciated their restraint and efficiency.
Other interesting parts of the tour in a non-musical capacity was meeting Stuart Mangan. I had heard of Stuart before meeting him in London through Mick Donegan, who has been trialling a MyTobii eye gaze system with Stuart. I spent a couple of hours with him, Gags Towey and a gentleman from the Rugby Union. They talked sport and I drank tea and ate some very good chocolate biscuits. Stuart is a seriously impressive and very charming man and you can find out more about him by visiting www.stuartmangan.org
London is always a beautiful city for me and I spent an hour in the sunshine outside the British Museum with Andy B before touring the city’s Boots Chemists. Andy kindly visited six with me before I tracked down what I wanted. A true friend. And a bafta nominee. Which meant he was able to take us to the Bafta Club just down the road from the Pigalle and buy us a very civilized drink after the gig. The chairs are comfortable, there is no loud music and everyone there managed to combine an aura of extreme ordinariness with a hidden depths, still waters kind of a vibe. Loved it.
We are going back to Scotland to do a Highland Fling tour at some stage over the summer and we’re hoping that the lovely Yvonne Lyons will be able to join us. Beautiful voice and songs and you can listen to her music at www.yvonnelyonmusic.com
So please make sure you join the mailing list to be kept up to date. There will be more dates in the UK throughout the year.
meanwhile, the summer term begins next week, so it’s back to the books.
people who dent other people’s cars and then drive off without leaving a telephone number. You know who you are, you stinker…
Juliet Turner performs “Vampire” at Telford’s Warehouse, ChesterJuliet Turner – \"Vampire\"
Tuesday 17th
St Patricks Night Special
Supporting Mary Coughlan
The Pigalle Club
215 Piccadilly
London
W1J 9HN
Reservations: 0800 988 5470
reservations@vpmg.net
General enquiries call: 0800 988 5470
AFTER 6PM CALL 020 7734 8142
Some new travel experiences. I haven’t taken the ferry in years, but we travelled Stena Line to Stranraer on Sat morning and it was fabulous and cheap and if you are a musician with four guitars, three bags, 600 cds and Gentry Morris in tow, then it is the only way to travel. I hate travelling by air but I also discovered that Aer Lingus will let you book a seat for your instrument (unlike Ryanair), and this is cheaper than putting it in the hold (30 euro each way). So Gentry and myself are flying home accompanied by Mr Guitar, Mrs Guitar, Miss and Master Guitar. I am not sure how we are going to get the seatbelts around their middles but it’s cheap.
Glasgow (King Tuts) was the kick off gig and it went so well. A very big crowd turned up, which was great because we hadn’t played in Glasgow in two and a half years. Yvonne Lyon, an old friend of mine from my year living in Glasgow, opened the show with her husband D.L. and her voice is beautiful. We used to busk together on Buchannan St. The last time I played King Tuts, K.T. Tunstall supported me and she went on to do quite well, so hopefully the same thing will happen for Yvonne and Gentry, who also went down a storm.
In order to stave off boredom on tour, we have taken up the Fisherman’s Friend Challenge. We all have one packet of Fisherman’s Friends Lozenges which we purchased in a old- fashioned sweetie shop in Berwick-Upon-Tweed. The challenge is to ask people we meet at gigs “would you like a Fisherman’s Friend?”. The person who manages to get rid of the entire bag by the end of the tour wins. It’s the small things that keep you sane on tour…
Thanks to Celtic Music Radio and Ross MacFadyen who made “People Have Names” their album of the week and have been playing lots of songs. To hear the interview we did with Ross with some live tracks you can check it out. www.canstream.co.uk/celticmusic
more posts later, wifi allowing.
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