Firstly, apologies that the August update is a little bit late. I've been travelling a lot lately (mostly Germany) and what with one thing and another I haven't had a chance to put pen to paper (not literally!).
Anyway, August was the month for Roadshows. I ended up headlining a Red Dragon in Cardiff, Fox FM at Silverstone, GWR in Luton, Key 103's Mardi Gras in Manchester ( more about that fiasco later) and the Radio City Roadshow in Liverpool. I have to say that It was fantastic seeing so many familiar faces at the Roadshows - how do you always manage to get right to the front of the stage? It's impressive, I'll give you all that...
I guess I should explain about the Mardi Gras in Manchester (much as I want to forget it), as my set was a complete disaster. The way the Roadshows work is that all the groups perform to backing tracks as there is no way that the event organisers can set up everyone's equipment so that you can play a fully live set as there is only 5 minutes changeover between artists. Anyway, to cut a long story short, for the first time ever, my backing track jumped and skipped all over the place because of a technical fault. Every time the track stopped, I tried to sing only to be interrupted by the sound technician trying to start the track again. This happened about 5 times and I have never been so embarrassed in my life. I apologise to all of you who made the effort to come and see me - what a nightmare!!!! Oh yeah, and cheers to all the newspapers who decided to make fun of me the next day saying that I can't sing live (nice!!!!!) If any journalists are in any doubt about my singing abilities they are welcome to come and see me for a one to one performance. Luckily, the City FM Roadshow which I did right afterwards was fantastic and the crowd were brilliant - there is a God!!
In the middle of August I went off to film the video for 'For All That You Want' in Marlborough, England. I usually find shooting videos pretty boring but this one was top! The story is that a bunch of friends discover a deserted house whilst out on a walk that's full of old fairground equipment. We all start messing about with the equipment (what a hardship!) and then we stumble upon the Dodgem Cars. Apparently, I smile more in this video that in any other and I can tell you now that it's all down to the bumper cars. I love the Dodgems - in fact, the director couldn't keep me away from them - and all in all I had a brilliant day out which was a turn-up for the books.
The other two exciting things that happened in August were going over to Amsterdam for a few days and the delivery of some new equipment for my studio at home. Firstly I'll talk about Amsterdam. I had to pick a place that I love so that the holiday programme could film me there. Well, it was tough choosing between Amsterdam and Venice, which are two of my favourite cities, but Amsterdam won the day. Basically when you watch 'Holiday Heaven', I'll be surprised if you see me doing anything other than eating because every corner that I turned led to one of my favourite restaurants (funny that!!). Mind you , the film crew made me cycle around the canals too and it was probably a good thing because I definitely needed the exercise. We love Amsterdam!!
Lastly, but no means least, when I returned home, my new Euphonix studio equipment had arrive and I'm afraid to say that this event eclipsed everything else that happened during August. It is true to say that I was in seventh heaven as the new centre section for my mixing desk was being installed (sad, but true) and without sounding like a studio bore, I just love anything that enables me to produce better records. Luckily, my management company left me, undisturbed, for a few days so that I could familiarise myself with the new desk and as I hate reading instruction manuals, it probably takes me longer than average to bear.
Anyhow, you'll be pleased to know that I have been inspired enough to write and demo six new songs already and as that's what this job is all about it can't be bad.
In fact, If you don't mind, I've got a couple of hours spare now so I'll just nip back into the studio, but I'll come out again before my September update's due, I promise!! Actually, I'm going to have to, because with the release of 'For All That You Want' looming I'm going to have a lot of promo to do...
You can read all the entries of the
Diary here
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