Month: May 2010

Having a good time so far. We have two more gigs then its time to go home. One tonight at the Cafe De La Paix which is just on the square here in Mazamet. Tonights gig is the joker in the pack as its not a place that normally has music, in fact its more like the French equivalent of a sports bar, and also has a very young crowd so goodness knows what they will think of it we hope. I think all the driving and stuff has caught up with me now as I am a bit knocked out. We has BBQ last night which went well but also meant much wine was consumed… Tommorows gig is a bit of a hippy joint http://www.myspace.com/antramis around here>> Lavalette, Midi-Pyrénées

In latrec

I am having a very nice time down here in France,our first couple of gigs went pretty well.
The first was at the Auberge du Balestie which had a great view of the Pyrenees from the car park, you tend not to get that sort of thing in St Albans Lots of ex pats there plus a fair smattering of French folk, and a very nice drive there and back over the Black Mountains.

This Saturday we played at the L’Pot Ethique which is a place in town, a sort of co-op with organic beer & stuff and we got a very good crowd, this time much more of a French contingent and it was very well received and for the first time on a duo gig we put in Great Balls of Fire which was a good opportunity for some karate piano. They also did some fab veggie food too for the visiting artist LOL.

The guy who is getting us the gigs was very happy with our performance and we could be looking at some good stuff in Europe later this year.

Its very hot today, just come back from a stroll around the town, with hardly a soul about. We will be doing a bit more site-seeing during the week as our next gig is Friday and is in a local bar here. Then another one on the other side of the Mountains on Saturday. I could easily get used to this sort of life style, I think.

When I feel very depressed, or maybe a better way of saying: when I am very depressed, I can handle very little stress. I am irritable. Very small things can make me snap completely, and this is very hard to handle for the people around me.

I passed by the field of a sluggard by the vinyard of a man with no sense and low it was all overgrown with thornes and the ground was covered with nettles and its stone wall was broken down then I saw and considered it I looked and received instruction

A little sleep a little slumber a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will come apon you like a robber.

A Pink Hippo says: I had quite a fun weekend;

Saturday May 8th was a great night at the Blues Room in St Albans backing the rather good >> Earl Jackson which was basically a Rock & Roll night. We did an opening Elephant Shelf set and get Earl up to keep the folks rocking till about 12:30 so another 3 hour set fueled only by 2 pints  of draft Guinness. A great bunch of people there and I think they really enjoyed it, and they were up and dancing right till the end. We also had a guest appearance from Rollo Marquee a very good blues harp player who will be playing at the Blues Room soon too.

Sunday May 9th of to ST FM in Burnham Essex to do a live to air set with Elephant Shelf .

We did four songs, with an interview with the band sandwiched in-between.  We were on the Sunday night show with Veteran Essex musician, journalist and broadcaster Tim Aves ‘Blues is back’ show.

We met Tim previously when he played with the shelf at the Blues Room. Tim  is a very well-known, award-winning figure on the national UK blues scene, as a performer, writer and event organiser.He sings and plays harmonica and guitar and spent 17 years on the road, clocking up more than 3,000 gigs across the UK and continental Europe in the 1980s and 1990s with legendary Essex rhythm’n’blues band AUTOMATIC SLIM, who shared stages with a huge range of major artistes, including Status Quo and Dr Feelgood. He later spent a further 13 years fronting the highly-regarded (but sadly, now disbanded) Texas blues outfit, THE ROCKIN’ ARMADILLOS (The band also featured Saint FM Rock Show co-host Paul Lester on drums and Gasbags co-presenter Jane English on vocals.)
We enjoyed the experience and we hope to be back down in Burnham on Crouch in the not too distant future . The live sound was mixed by Pete Crisp who engineers at the St Peters Studio and who also gave us a copy of the tracks that went to air.  Then another Real Ale and a Veggie burger, and off home to London.