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.

Rick, a.k.a. DJ Buddha, had some good news for me a few weeks back.  It turns out he entered me into another competition a while back in Acoustic Magazine.  To cut a long story short, I had made the final 10 and was invited to play live in Exeter at the Phoenix Theatre.  After driving, flying to Cardiff, then the Train to Exeter in probably the hottest heat I’ve experienced this year, I spent much of the day in my B&B room in my underwear watching the tennis.  It was far too hot to do anything.  I stayed in Exeter for the night and made my way to the Phoenix for 9:45am in the morning.

I met some wonderful people there, who were also participating, and the staff from Acoustic Magazine were very welcoming and nice all round.  The sound was brilliant and we got to play in the Theatre.  I got to go on 2nd as I had to get back to Edinburgh by plane in the afternoon.  It went really well and I enjoyed the set I played.  Longest way I’ve went to play 2 songs.

I met a cool band called, wait for it…Troubadour; a 2 piece from Blackpool who were very good.  And a nice lass called Jo who was only 5′ and had cool dreads.  It was a pity I had to leave as I enjoyed the acts I saw and I felt very priviliged to be a part of the day.

We did get these very cool ‘Goody Bags’ with a couple of magazines, Strings, Peg Winder, a Breed Love calendar, and a years subscription to Acoustic Guitar Mag.  Brilliant!!    I was also informed that I would be getting some exposure in an upcoming Acoustic Magazine.  All in all it’s very exciting.

If by some chance I actually win I get a Breed Love acoustic guitar (which are stunningly beautiful!) some recording equipment, and a set at the Beautiful Days festival!!  That would be very cool.  I should find out on Monday.

Saying that I was happy to get to the final and play.  It was another huge confidence boost and everyone was so kind about my performance.  Just to take part and be invited was a dream come true.

So, it’s full steam ahead with the completion of the album.  I’ll keep you posted with any news.

I’ve been terribly ill of late and unable to apply myself to anything.  I’ve made it along to gigs, and that’s been keeping me going, but the rest of the time I’m a bit of a zombie.  I already suffer from depression and anxiety, brought on by years of alcohol abuse, which is controlled with medication, but I developed a mighty pain in my crown jewels last August.  Thinking the worst I went to get it checked out at my Doctors.  At first the gave me antibiotics for an infection called epididymitis.  That didn’t work and it was getting much worse, so they sent me for an ultra-sound.   I went and got the KY Jelly smeared all over me (very weird sensation!) and it turned out I had varicose veins in my scrotum and that they could explain the pain I was suffering.  It’s also known as varicocele.  The great thing was I didn’t have anything life threatening.  The bad news, it wasn’t considered an emergency so I had to  wait until April to get an operation to fix it.  Also known as a Varicocele embolision.  This is where they  put a big wire in through your groin, travel up your veins to your stomach, then down towards the testicles.  They then place platinum coils in the varicose vein to block it and stop the blood flow causing the swelling.

All was going well until the told me they could only do one side.  This was due to not having the appropriate catheter.  I’m going back in next week where they will go in from the vein in my neck as they will have the equipment then.

I have been on very strong pain killers for quite a while now and, as they do relieve me from being very sore, they make me quite drowsy.  The problem is I can’t do anything while I’m sore.  All I want to do is crash out in my bed.  The other option is to take the pain killers and be a zombie.  Because of this my work-flow has been hit hard, I’ve lost actual work, I’ve had to cancel gigs, and my college work has been effected.

With that pretty much hitting me all the time, I was in the bath a couple of weeks ago and my right ear suddenly went deaf.  Again I went to the Doctors and they are making me wait for 2 weeks until they drain it.  I’ve been given ear drops which I’ve been using.  It’s been very weird and difficult to sing and play gigs, or do menial tasks, with only one working ear.

The whole experience has left my depression levels a bit low as it’s all left me feeling drained.  But I suppose things could be worse.

The good news is I’m still gigging.  My music has been keeping me going.  I was in Germany again in April for the semi-final of the Troubadour competition.  I came second which secured me a place in the final on the 12th of June.  I was put up by Kim Nixon, who was runner up to me in the first round.  I really love Germany and Berlin has so much history and culture.  The German people, are quite  simply, wonderful.

I have also been able to continue with my album, albeit rather slowly.  My college, JEVC, has been refurbished big time and it has had a whopping amount of cash spent on their recording studio.  Apparently its better that the BBC’s studio.  It really was amazing.  I have been allowed to go into the studio so that the students have someone to record with a bit of experience.  I think we will be doing another album in there after the summer.

Back in January I had the great privilege of writing and contributing to an album of original Christian music for Origin Scotland.  I wrote 3 songs for the album and two of my close friends both contributed equally.  The album has band, choir, and orchestral instruments in the tracks.  We spent a week recording on the Isle of Mull at a fantastic Studio run by the Scottish charity An Airde.  It’s been a bit of a struggle for the Sound Engineer Ewan Mcrae but it’s finally done, and we should be getting the finished CD in the next week.  I am really looking forward to it.

Open Doors have also asked if I’d play at the annual Christian festival Frenzy on their stage.  I’ve got the Origin band coming with me to promote and sell some of their CDs.  My good pal Jodi Anne Thomson is coming to sing too and the guys in the band are going to back her songs.  It’s going to be a cracking show.

So all is not lost.  The summer festivals are looming as is the completion of my first album.  I’m really looking forward to getting better, travelling, and writing new material.  Things can always be worse.  I remember where I was  over 3 years ago and realise that I am very lucky to be here.  So I persevere in my struggles and rejoice in my sufferings.  I have a feeling that the horizon yields great tidings.

This is a little later than I wanted to write.  I’ve been oober busy with recording, designing, college, weddings, and rehearsals.  But now that  I have some free time at 01:56am in the morning, I thought I should update my blog.  The Troubadour gig was fantastic.  The venue was the very cool Schlotts Jazz Bar in Berlin.  It’s a proper underground, through back streets venue with a classy look, great staff, and a great soundman.  We arrived, after a great day doing touristy things in Berlin, and the the very cool Mckinley Black.  It was straight to work with the sound check.  I asked for my customary chair as bar stools restrict my foot stamping.  It turned out it wasn’t a problem though.  Mckinley and her team made it very clear they wanted us to be as comfortable as possible and they certainly did.

We met the other musicians that were performing that night.  All of them were very cool and had their own style that, in my opinion, really made the night what it was.

We went for a bite to eat at the ever reliable Subway and came back for our ‘briefing’.  The show was split to let each performer play 2 songs.  After that the audience would vote and place in order who they thought were best from 1-6.  Third place would get to play 1 more song, second 2, and third 3.  When it was my turn to play I was very well introduced and then I played Disco in the Sky and Goodbye EMI.  It went really well and I won the evening.  It was a very flattering experience.  To have an audience like your music is great.

I normally have a thing about competitions as I think they drive a wedge between performers.  But on this occasion, and this really isn’t because I won, everybody was very congratulatory and supportive.  I’m just glad we could get together and enjoy live music.

So Joaquin came 3rd, Kim Nixon Second, and I got to play 3 songs, actually 4 as I got an encore.  We had a great night and are looking forward to visiting Germany for the 4rth time in less than a year.  I’m hoping to do a few more gigs while I’m there and really enjoy the wonderful country that Germany is.

For More information on the Troubadour click here.

The time has finally come! After a very nice trip to Berlin and winning the first round (one of them) of the Troubadour, it became clear that I was the only person there without a CD for sale. So…when I go back in April it was advised to have a wee something to help get gigs or whatever. So The DJ Buddha (Legend, Founder of the AFC, and my manager) and I got to work when I got back on recording a 5 track EP. It’s a taste of what’s to come when we release the an album later in the summer – Circles.

All tracks were recorded in a live setting, as in, we recorded them as if at a gig. So the vocals and guitars went down together. It was great fun. You can have a listen here and if you fancy…follw the links to Soundclick.com and buy it.

 

 I never travel well as I can’t seem to sleep.  I was a real mess when we got here, in fact I can’t remember much about earlier.  We travelled from the airport by Train (Germany has one of the best rail networks I have ever experienced!) to our hotel.  

We got these Welcome Berlin travel and discount cards.  For 16 Euro we now have unlimited access to buses, trains, underground, and I think trams too, for 48 hours.  We also have a very cool booklet with lots of tourist info on the city and discounts on tours, attractions, resteraunts etc.  All in all it’s fantastic and a must have if you come here.

We had a much needed nap at the Hotel we are staying at and then ventured out into the city centre which was buzzing with life and pzazz.  There was the BKs and the McDs and our choice of nosh KFC.  But there was loads of cool buildings, skate shops, and an old church which still has some severe scarring from what must have been the 2nd World War.  We then got greedy and endulged in a 12 box of Dunkin Dohnuts….mmmmm Dohnuts, and now we’re burning off the suger with 100 words a second at DD’s handy internet facilities.

All in all a good start.  Not very German mind you with the American fast food and suger fixes, but we are going touristy tomorrow and checking out the Berlin Wall, The famous Berlin Zoo, and of course…the gig at the Troubadour in the evening.  Until then…

There were some great Jamming moments and some cracking performances from the likes of Carleko, Brown, and Lew Bear, and despite a few guitar issues (Which were my fault from the attempt at setting up my guitar earlier in the day…Sorry Rick!), the gig went really well.  Hopefully we’ve generated a bit of a buzz for the Spratton Folk Festival this summer.

It really was a great experience to have my nearest and dearest and my mates singing along to my songs in full voice.  The crowd were very receptive and grateful for the music.  It was a gratifying experience.  I felt especially good when Lew said, “You know, I think we’re starting to create a music scene here and the locals are enjoying it!” 

That’s what it’s all about people!  It’s all about the music and the enjoyment and participation of the gig from both the artist and the audience!  Brilliant. 

Roll on Spratton Folk Festival 2009!