We were scheduled to play at the after hours event.  Due to a breakdown in communication from all parties, there were no monitors in our tent.  It wasn’t really an issue, but after a wee workaround we got upgraded to the Atrium tent which was a big-top with a massive rig…. AWESOME!!!  There was a good turnout and the gig went really well.  I think we went well passed our allotted time slot but it didn’t seem to bother anyone.  We played a couple of new tracks, Light beams & Emmanuel, which went down great. The night ended with our rendition of Chris Tomlin’s rewrite of Amazing grace.  We were blown away by the response of worship!  The audience and we worshiped our socks off before finishing with Hallelujah.  I made the mistake of having a very nice cup of coffee at the end which kept me up a good while.

Today I had the great privilege of leading worship at the Youth tent.  I must admit I was quite nervous because, although I had led worship before, I hadn’t led at this kind of event with a house worship band.  I chopped and changed my song selection right up to the hour before.  I know some of the guys in the band, Gus Stirrat and Brian Macleod, and they are both awesome and competent musicians.  They gave me advice on the little things I was unsure of, and the rest of the band were just as gifted, helpful, and hospitable during the rehearsal.  I did throw in some upbeat ‘Ho-down’ songs for the end, which is a bit more my style as apposed to tradition worship, and they went down really well with the band.

We did our first section of worship which was just awesome!  There must have been 150 kids in attendance but I got lost within the songs in my own worship.  After a great word from the youth pastor on living after God’s own heart like David, we cut straight into the upbeat Ho-down tracks.  Well, the place went mental!  We were asked to sing amazing grace again, then asked to sing more!  People of all ages were turning up and celebrating in the praise.  Grown-ups and teenagers alike were jumping, dancing, kneeling, running around, completely free in worship in a way I had never been witness to.  We worshiped till nearly 9pm.  I was singing at the after hours tonight too which started at 9:30pm!!  I got to give my testimony and share some of my own music with the same group of kids.  They were so cool and listened.  What a privilege.

My 2nd CLAN experience has been truly wonderful.  I have been so blessed.  Humbled doesn’t even cut it.  To know God has brought me from the man I was 5 years ago to what I had the sheer joy of taking part in today and yesterday is humbling beyond measure.  I got to sing about Jesus last night with my best friends and brothers in Christ last night.  I lost myself in worship tonight with brothers and sisters, many who I have never met, in a way I have never experienced.  CLAN 2011 is already one of the special and treasured moments of my life.

SM.

I was asked if I would like to come and share by a man called Colin Ruddock who is the director of 1nC Promotions (One In Christ). I met him at the first Gospel Rock gig in August which was also in Manchester.

When I first met Colin he spoke at Gospel Rock about an event 1nC Productions was hosting at The Living Room; a popular venue in Manchester frequented by footballers and celebrities. The aim of the night was to showcase Christian music artists as well as showing the Non-Christian community that alcohol is not a necessity when socializing. Colin’s vision was to have an alcohol free event. The Living Room manager was against this as the club needed to make money through selling alcoholic drinks. To cut a long story short, it would appear that on the day of the event the venue had some refurbishment issues and were not allowed to sell alcohol on the premises due to health and safety regulations. What a revelation!!

I got really excited listening to Colin speak about the event and I could see his vision. As a recovering alcoholic, and the numerous alcohol free evenings I have enjoyed,
I really wanted to support the event but was due back in Edinburgh for my own gig the next day. I spoke to Colin after the the Gospel Rock event and told him how much I supported what he was doing. The very least I could do for the event was ask people, via Facebook, to pray for a successful evening.

Colin informed me that the evening was great and absolutely jam packed. I can’t take any credit as I am sure God wanted it to be a great success. The fact he answered prayer testifies to this.

Getting back to the Living Oasis gig today, I got to meet and hear other Christian performers in music and poetry. Their God given talent was absolutely first class! There was also a great crowd at the event. There was also worship spread out through the event which was fantastic. Colin’s vision is to see Christians coming together to meet with God regardless of denomination. It was wonderful to be a part of that, to meet brothers and sisters in Christ that I had never met before, but to recognize that we are family in and through Him. It was a wonderful experience. I was deeply blessed by the speakers, poets, and other musical performances. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my time.

This brings me to the point of this blog. Last night our church had the monthly Soul Cafe event. Soul Cafe is a monthly held at my church, Abbeyhill Baptist in Edinburgh, where people can come together and enjoy fellowship and a time of praise and worship with our Worship Team. If I’m being honest I would have to acknowledge that Soul Cafe numbers have dwindled but we do recognize that we have a core attendance. There have been recent meetings with Soul Cafe members, my Pastor, and Worship leaders, as they want to see Soul Cafe grow and bless others in Edinburgh as it has blessed us.

Last night a close friend couldn’t have put it any better when he said, “I don’t know about you, but there isn’t much that the world has to offer me at the weekend. I want to be here with brothers and sisters in Christ. I want to be here in the presence of God. I want to be filled with His spirit. I want to be here with my family doing what I love the most; praising God!” This struck me to the core. My good friend was right! There is no other place I want to be other than with my family in Christ worshiping the Lord my God! My friend continued to reveal what had been right there in front of us that we had failed to see.

“There are over 200 churches in Edinburgh and I doubt many of them will be hosting a similar event on a Friday night. Think of all the Christians sitting in their house watching the TV when they could be here worshiping with us. We need to reach out and tell our brothers and sisters that they can come here after a long week and be revived and refreshed.” I don’t quote my friend word for word but you get the idea. We are taking steps to reach out to our brothers and sisters. We aim to come together as a body and worship and to testify to God’s goodness. We believe that through this we will see God move in a mighty way, take the good news of Jesus into our communities, and it is then we will see a mighty revival happen before our eyes.

Revival was a topic of point today. Indeed, on a number of occasions different speakers spoke proactively about God moving in Manchester, which they would see renamed Godchester. They spoke of the mighty revivals in the past including the Western Isles, Wales, and Ireland.

My family are from the Isle of Lewis. It was great to hear how passionate these speakers were when they retold the tales of revival on there. People on Lewis were waking up in the night with such a conviction of SIN that they got up, got dressed, and then proceeded to take themselves to the police station to confess. The police officers didn’t know what to do with the crowd of people that had gathered in the night so they called the church minister. Amazing.

I am very excited at the moment. I can feel it in my bones that God is about to do something enormous and at a scale that it can only be of God!

The last thing I’d like to share is about prayer. I saw a man today called James speak about prayer. He said a couple of things which quite literally left me feeling inspired.

No man is greater than his prayer life:

This was incredible! I suddenly felt very very small. How often do I put my own life before my prayer? How many times has God answered my prayers when I am in need and yet I still fail to do it as regularly as I should? Why is it that the little things in my life take precedence over my time with God? Why do I constantly forget to recognize that through prayer God and I can be closer in every way? I do not exaggerate when I tell you that my prayer life is now at the top of my priorities!

Prayer is always visible to God even when invisible to others:

I might not have worded that correctly, but I will try and explain. The most common times of prayer, for myself, are either with my family, meetings, at church, gigs, etc. I will admit that I pray more with other people than I do on my own. While all this is great, I can’t help but feel how much I would benefit from more 1 on 1 time with God, on my own, speaking right from the heart. This is also now on my list of priorities.

Though today was a face paced day of travel over the border and back, I really was blessed. I should be arriving back in Glasgow in about an hour and then home to my family. Tomorrow I will be in Glasgow for a night of praise with Origin Scotland. I’ve never played the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow. I’m getting to sing a couple of my songs. Really looking forward to it.

I also played at Bellevue Chapel last Saturday.  Bellevue Chapel has lost a family member as the Pastor’s wife had recently passed away.  Her vision was to open the church doors to the community as well as reaching out and meeting the community’s needs.  That particular night saw the church doors open at 10:30pm and I sang and told my story until midnight.  There was some great interest from people coming home from the bars and pubs.  I spoke with the Pastor afterwards and he was very kind and encouraging.  It broke my heart to see how much he missed his wife.  It was, however, great to know that we were seeing her vision come to light.  Again, it was a great privilege.

There was also a gig this evening at Danderhall; a village just on the cuff of Edinburgh.  It was a nice, quiet, and intimate gig.  Met some really nice people.  It is such a joy to tell people about Jesus!   I don’t consider myself a preacher or an evangelist.  I can only tell people what’s true in my life.  Christ is very real to me!  I couldn’t imagine life without Him!

Last night I got to lead worship, amongst some other activities, at our friend’s 25th Wedding Anniversary.  It was a fantastic evening of celebration.  The incredible thing about this family is that, although they have only been Christians for 4 years, you would never know they were so young in their walk because they are completely devoted to the Lord in every aspect of their lives.  Mum, Dad, and 2 kids are all such beautiful inspirations!  What a great thing it is to know that God saved my life and that I have brothers and sisters in Christ!  It is simply amazing:  Amazing Grace!

There are many things I love about Berlin.  The public transport is brilliant.  Considering I had been awake all night, as I had to leave at 4am to get my 6am flight, I didn’t think I’d have much bother traveling to my friends flat in Kopenick.  I was wrong. Unfortunately there were works being done on the S Bahn rain lines between the main circle line and my destination Kopenick.  I had to get replacement buses.  By the time I got to my friends flat I was exhausted.  I had 2 hours of sleep before leaving for the WABE in the centre of Berlin; the venue for the 2010 Troubadour final.

I got to the WABE without too much difficulty.  It was great to see the host of the Troubadour competition, Mckinley Black, and her team.  As always they were very welcoming and friendly.  Mckinley asked me if I’d be interested in singing with her during her opening performance.  I was honoured!  Unfortunately, my sleep deprived brain couldn’t remember the words, the chords, or work out a harmony part.  It wasn’t going to work out.  I did play some guitar in a higher  postition which worked really well.  Our performance was great fun and well received by the audience.

I really enjoyed the competition as I was under no pressure this year.  All the acts were great and, I must admit, there was very little between them.  It took the judges over an hour to decide.  You can see the results here.  I played a couple of tracks; Caught in the river (premier performance) and EMI.  I went down really well and managed to sell all my CDs bar a few EPs.

I had posted a small box of albums in the hope they would arrive in Berlin and save me extra baggage on the flight.  They hadn’t arrived and I only managed to take 10 albums and a handful of EPs.  I was very encouraged though by the sales.

I must have drunk my weight in Red Bull in order to stay awake.  I was soooooo tired!  I wanted to stay out and party but, alas, my age and my state of mind had caught up with me.  I returned home to bed and slept until noon the next day.

The Saturday consisted of laziness and ice-cream.  I did a bit of window shopping in Kopenick’s shopping centre.  I then went to see a friend play at the Friei University of Berlin.  It was an open day at the University in honour of Science.  My friend Nika did really well and even played a couple of tracks with her friends band.  Unfortunately, because of the transport problems it took 2 and a half hours to get there and the same time to get home.  I was exhausted by the evening.

The next morning I once again traveled across Berlin city centre as I attended the International Baptist Church of Berlin for their midday English service.  What a wonderful and welcoming church.  The Pastor asked any guests to lift their hands and we were presented with a New Testament and a prayer card which I filled in.  After the Service I enjoyed some great food and fellowship with other members of the congregation.

I had just enough time to get home, shower, practice for 30 minutes, before heading out to Art Gerecht where I was to play an evening concert.  I had played Art Gerecht the previous year.  Unfortunately it the venue address had changed and I got lost on the way.  I did get there in the end with 15 minutes to spare.   My friends who were putting me up for a couple of days came to the gig, as did friends from the Troubadour final. My friend Nika and her sister were also in attendance.

Art Gerecht is a lovely venue with an acoustic stage.  I didn’t use an amp or mic.  It was an interesting experience .  My voice was really tired after a few songs.  Mckinley black was also in attendance which was super!  They passed the hat and I made a few bob.  It was the perfect end to a great weekend.

Tiredness had caught up with me on the way back to Kopenick with my hosts.  I had a good sleep before returning to Scotland on the 9am flight.  I am already looking forward to returning to Berlin later in the year.

It’s a strange one.  When I drank I had no problem accepting cash or  could have been quite comfortable taking payment of some kind.  Now?  While I know I need to eat and support my family I still feel very uncomfortable accepting money for telling people the truth.  Bizarre!  I don’t have a problem asking to sell my CDs.  I think because it an actual product, if you get my meaning.

The other strange, yet wonderful, thing is that word is starting to spread by word of mouth and recommendation.  Gigs have been flying in to the point that I’m mixing up months and forgetting various bits and bobs.  I have remedied this by use of a Google Calendar between my wife, manager, and friends.  I’m really looking forward to the summer.  I’ve got some great gigs booked.  There’s even talk of a road-trip down to sunny Wales for a week to do some gigs.

More Recently I played at Barley Viewforth church last Sunday.  It’s a huge church here in Edinburgh.  It’s the kind of building that left me feeling awestruck when I stood on the stage.  It was an incredible night.  Although I was quite nervous, which seems to happen more when I’m talking, and full of mistakes, I was very well received.  The Minister, Rev. Sam Torrens, thanked me after I’d given my testimony and played some songs.  Then he read a Psalm for me; Psalm 40.  Now I’ll be honest.  I don’t know my Bible cover to cover so what I was about to here blew me out my socks!  I nearly broke down!  It was my life, or indeed my testimony, described back to me!  He read as follows:

Psalm 40: 1-3 (NIV)

¹ I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.

² He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.

³ He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.

I can’t find the words to describe what this meant to me.   I will say that I am going to put it to my own music.  Hallelujah!

S.

It was at Carrubers Christian Centre in Edinburgh; a beautiful church on the Royal Mile. It was set out like a cafe with dimmed lights and a warm homely feeling which was really nice and ambient. The quality of the sound in the venue was brilliant and the staff there were absolutely fantastic.

I was supporting American guitarist, and all round nice guy, Trace Bundy aka the Acoustic Ninja. Now I’ve supported a few good folk in the past but what did it for me was Trace’s wonderful personality as well as his abilities as a musician. He really was pretty cool bashing out some Metallica classics using a guitar app on his iPhone to playing tracks with 5 capos, a loop machine, and some quality percussion on his Macpherson guitar.

I got some great feedback from both Trace and the crowd so I was really pleased the way the gig went.

I also enjoyed the fact my wife and son were there, as were my friends. I’m glad I get to take James, my son, to various gigs and let him hear music other than the weekly dose of the x-factor. I’m not allowed to watch it in my house anymore as I get very upset about the whole thing.

Getting back to the point, it was a great start to promoting the album which will be out in January.

I have attached a youTube video of Trace. He’s a clever bloke so he is.

Unfortunately, I was unable to make the first day of the festival as my wife was due to have the first pregnancy scan.  All I can say is that everything seems to be in order and we are very excited about the baby.  So, Dave Biddulph and I drove the 6 hour drive down to Spratton on the Saturday.  I was scheduled to do a workshop for the kids but was unable to make it on time.  We did make it on time for the live performance of my good mate’s Brawth.  There was a good turnout in the Fringe tent and the bad weather was dragging people away from the main stage.  The DJ Buddha was on the sound desk.  He seemed very happy to be there even though it wasn’t his usual desk and he’d learnt how to use it that week.

It was great to catch up with various people and friends from the AFC and MySpace.  Musicians and fans alike had made their way to the event.  It was as much a gathering of love for each other as it was for music.  Stefan Picard and the Germans had made the long trip in their oober bus.  I think there was more beer in the bus’s cargo hold than the ale and cider tent provided by the festival.

I was sorry I didn’t get to see Acoustic Butterfly perform on the Friday night headline spot.  I heard they rocked the place though; they played 3 songs, as you do, then did a bit of a ‘Ramones’ and rattled of the rest of their set in a oner.  The crowd loved it, were dancing, and demanded a 25 minute encore from the band.  I was lucky enough to get a copy of their new CD.  It really is a fantastic work of music!

Both Dave and I had a great time chilling to the music on the Saturday evening.  Stefan Picard, Roman, Michael, Klaus Peter, and the rest of the German contingent took to the stage (as did the mighty pOOkah) for the headline slot on the Saturday.  There were quite a few problems with the sound which took a while to sort; some bad cables and the huge size of Stefan’s band, not to mention everyone in the audience coming up to Rick and telling him what to do, made for a difficult job.  It took a bit of time but he got there and the boy did good.  Stefan and the guys were brilliant and we were up dancing and swinging to the great music they always provide.

There was an after dark jam session in the German tent. the rain was so bad that we couldn’t be bothered getting back out to the beer tent where the official jam was taking place.  There was a good mix of great music, chocolate, and our own versions of Halleluia being sang out from this crammed tent.  It must have sounded wonderful to the other campers.

Unfortunately the rain continues to thrash down on Spratton, and, somebody decided to leave a bloody generator running beside my tent.  It was not good!!  I tried to sleep with the sound of torrential rain and a petrol motor in my ear.  I must have gotten about 2 or 3 hours.

The next morning we were greeted with some lovely sunshine.  The wind was blustery and the chance of rain was always hanging over the festival.  Secretly I wanted it to rain when we were on stage so that the crowd would come in out of the bad weather.  The actual festival itself was a real pleasure to attend.  It was very family friendly with loads to do for the kids, very reasonable prices for both food and drink, and animals were running around enjoying the very relaxed vibe that we all felt.  The music kicked off again.  I spent most of the day n the Fringe tent enjoying the live performances from friends like Matt Stevens, Sammon, Maria Hall, and the very talented Volume Brothers.

Our drummer, Si Walker, made the long drive south with Andy Lowe (the guy who is recording our first album).  Like a true warrior Si was ready for the gig.  We took to the stage about 8:30pm.  I had missed the previous year as I had been in Egypt.  There was a cheers when I was announced and as I walked onto the stage it hit me that there was indeed an air of expectation for my performance.  After all, we were the final Fringe stage act of the festival.  I did a wee sound check with my own version of hit the road jack (Ray Charles) and, although I got through it ok, my bloody D string exploded. So, it was a quick string change as Dave and Si took the attention away from my bad luck.  This was to be the first time many of my mate’s had heard my music with the band and for many more it was the first time they had heard me live.

We kicked off our set with Soul Searching; a bold and ass kicking song that really woke up the crowd after my fiddling about with strings and tuning.  We then cooled down and played more folky songs.  The set went as follows:

1. Soul Searching
2. Circles
3. Man in the Cold
4. Alcoholic Synonymous
5. Grace
6. Breaking out
7. Disco in the Sky
8. 2112
9. Alone in the Dark
10. Rattle
11. Animals
12. Goodbye EMI

ENCORE

• How blue can you get?
• Soul Searching

We had people up dancing when we got to Grace as we had reworked it as a soul number; very Stevie Wonder Superstitious.  And they kept going with Breaking out, it was very cool.

As the Germans had to go soon as their bus was leaving I played Disco in the sky as Stefan Picard expressed his enjoyment of the song.  I don’t think they were expecting the band to come in as late as they did in the song, but it rocked and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  After that we played 2112 and then a wee solo by myself; Alone in the dark.  You couldn’t hear a pin drop in the place. it was wonderful!

The time had come to move it up a gear.  The guys and I had arranged some songs to get a really rocky sound without using electric instruments.  Although there is going to be electric instruments in the album recordings we did it acoustic on the night.  We played Rattle, a new track called Animals, and finished with Goodbye EMI.  Brilliant!  The place was rocking at the end of it.

We had finished our set but the crowd wanted more so on we came to do a couple of more songs.  We had pretty much run out of stuff to play but we did have a wee blues cover up our sleeves; BB Kings ‘How Blue can you get’.  I saw Acoustic Butterfly’s Craig Ralston in the crowd with his guitar.  “You’ve got a guitar.  Get up here!”  I said over the mic.  Once we got him up we started the blues.  Craig made it sound sweet with some great riffs and licks.  We smacked into double time and the crowd was bouncing.  Once we had finished we ended our set with our opener – Soul Searching.  Craig and I played this at the Hidden Lane a couple of months earlier so I knew he would make it sound sweet.  Dave and Si went off on a few tangents and we played a different version of the song.  The crowd went bananas, I got inspired, and we started to really have some fun!  There was audience participation with some singing, people were hitting the dancefloor from all sides, and we just went for it!  It was possibly the greatest musical experience I have had to date!

When I came off stage I lay on the ground and relished the emotions running through me.  But I had to get up as people were coming towards the stage and asking for autographs.  I’m still not used to that.  The first ladies were apparently members of the main stage acts committee and said they were going to try get us on the main stage next year.  Then a lady asked me to sign her T-shirt, and another her belly!?!  It was all very rock and roll albeit a bit strange.

The response from everyone was overwhelming!  I really appreciated it.  We said goodbye to Dave as he had to make the long drive up that night.  The rest of us hit the beer tent where everyone was having a jam.  I was shattered!  Someone had heard my complaint about the generator and it was off.  So I had an ok sleep; the best you can expect from camping.

The next morning we made the long drive up to Scotland, this time with my mate’s Si and Andy.  I really am going to have to learn how to drive as I’ve been given lifts everywhere.

All in all, a bloody amazing festival!  Here’s to SFF 2010, and a big cheers to all the Spratton boys for making us very very welcome.

 The one drawback with the competition is that Exeter is miles away, well past London, which means I will have to fly to Cardiff and then get a train to Exeter. I’m not worried though, I’m really looking forward to the competition. At the moment I’m just looking forward to chilling out and enjoying some time with my wife and son.

After dragging my poor pregnant wife out of the comfort of our bed yesterday morning at 4am, we got to Edinburgh airport in great time for our journey.  My wife is fantastic at sorting stuff out.  She booked my ticket and made sure my guitar was going in the cargo hold.  There was another band getting on the flight, and their drummer must have planned on taking his snare drum on board as hand luggage.  the case was too big for the hand luggage measure only by an inch or smaller so he had to pay for it.  It turned out that it was £15 per Kg.  The total came to something like £165.  the look on his face was not good at all!!I felt really bad when I walked passed and handed my guitar into the baggage place.

The one bad thing about flying to Berlin from Edinburgh is that the departure gate is one of the last two in the airport.  After being searched to within an inch of your human rights by airport security (although I must admin I do like the feeling of latex) you have to walk 15 minutes to the gate.  This is when you see all the obese suffering Scottish exercise as if their life depended on it.  Think stampede with walruses.  Albeit a tad flustered I was on the plain and on the way to Berlin.

There was a few crowds of 30 something gentlemen on the flight who were away for what must have been a stagg doo or a pissup.  I hate that their sense of common decency and manner escapes them fresh after a few pre-flight pints in the airport. It reminds me of the irish coffees I used to have which would hide the fact I’d been drinking, but I was never as loud mouthed.  I was a secret drunk by day.

I made good use of my ipod and Handel’s Dixit Dominus and eventually fell asleep.  Upon arrival in Germany and the very prompt pickup of my guitar I hit the S Bahn (Trains to you and me).  I arrived in Köpenick and found my way to Kim Nixon and her husband Matthais’s flat but not before stopping at a little kebab stall on the main high street.  This place makes the greatest kebab I have ever had!  If you ever go to Köpenick it’s just across the street from McDonalds.  after a delicious Doner I went to Kim and Matthais’s flat.  Once again they offered to put me up for my stay in Berlin.  They have made e very welcome and I’ve had great fun visiting them.

So I had a wee nap to catch up on my sleep and then I headed out in the early evening to get to the WABE; the venue where the final was being hosted. After getting there a wee bit late I did my soundcheck and met up with the other finalists and Mckinley Black; the host of the Troubadour.  Once again the Troubadour team made me feel right at home with their witty banter and friendly nature.  They were all geat fun and very accommodating.

Upstairs in the back, where the artists were fed and watered, we had food provided by one of the event sponsors.  I was delighted to see an Indian Banquet of vegetable and chicken curry.  It was Heaven!!  Not only that, at the back of the room where the drinks stood were two bowls of mini chupa chup lollie pops.  Indian and chupa chups are my biggest vices after ice-cream so I didn’t think there was anything wrong with eating about 40.

It wasn’t long before the place started to fill up with local music lovers.  Mckinley made it aware that the WABE was a stage  for performers who don’t really get the chance to perform and it was kindly offered for us to use for the final.  You can find out more info here.  The place was packed and most probably in excess of 400, the maximum capacity.

I was on 5th of 6th.  I was happy about this as I could spend most of the time worrying about the performance and not the result.  I had no expectations of winning the final.  I had been runner-up in the semi-final and I was up against some great performers, native musicians, and full bands.  So, I had made up my mind not to play in competition mode and enjoy it for the great privilege it was.

I was to play 2 songs, as everyone was, for the audience to vote on.  The audience voted on their ballot papers who they thought was the best act ordered 1 – 6.  That was only 1 third of the decision as there were also 2 judges from Radio 1, Berlin (NOT THE BBC).  I played alone in the dark to start with as I wanted to show my songwriting ability to not only the judges but aclaimed singer/songwriter Brett Perkins, who was listening in the audience.  For my second track I played Grace as I thought it was more of a song than EMI.  EMI is great for rocking out but I wanted to share the music I spent a long time on.  It went down brilliantly and I was blown away by the responce from the crowd.

After all the acts there was a good break while everyone voted and had a drink.  I met up with some of the audience who were very complimentary, kind, and encouraging.  It was very overwhelming.  If nothing else, regardless of the result, I was so happy that I got to experience my performance.  It was a dream come true.   I even met people who had befriended me on myspace and come to the gig especially to see me.  It was a wonderful feeling.

Mckinley gathered us all up and anounced the winners upstairs.  As before, 3rd place got to play 1 more song on stage, 2nd place got 2, and the winner got to play 3.  It was very exciting.  In thrird place was local lad Dagalexus Dux, in second was another local talent Am OK.  Mckinley then turned and said, “…and in first place is Steph!!”  This took me aback big time.  When everyone started clapping I had to hide my face in my hat.  I couldn’t believe it.  I was so overwhelmed that I had to go in the next room and chill.  I texted my wife and mates with, “I WON!!” and they promtly called me back.  It was fantastic.

With a few other things and performances it was time for me to go on stage and play my 3 songs.  I played Soul Searching, 2112, and Human condition.  After I played I got a standing ovation.  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing!  I had to do everything not to start crying but I couldn’t help it.  I was so overwhelmed.

Mckinley came on and gave me my prizes:

1. 1000 Euro
2. 1 week at a Brett Perkins Songwriting retreat
3. A E900 Sennheiser Mic
4. 1 year subscription to Song Quarters

This really was generous.  Mckinley asked me to play an encore.  So I finished with Goodbye EMI.  It was the perfect end to a perfect gig.  The crowd were grateful as was I for them, and the compliments and thanks I got outside really meant a lot to me.

Even though I was invited to go out celebrating I coudn’t as It had been a long long day.   I got a taxi back to Kim and Mathias’s flat and crashed.

Saturday came and I spent a bit of time in the morning with Matthais moving some furniture for someone, then I had a quiet day to myself shopping, getting my ear peirced twice, eating ice-cream, kebabs, and all things indulgent.

I got back early the next day to my loving wife.  It had been a greatweekend and an experience I will treasure forever.