Work, friends and rock and roll

Well, what a week that was!  The final week of my day job ending with a leaving do last night which left me in a pretty bad mess, but with good people taking care of me, and the real personalities of the people I worked with shining rather than being held back.  I have been lucky in this job, my boss has been kind, supportive, encouraging and brilliant, and will be a lifelong friend. Some of my colleagues have become real friends who I'll stay in touch with and hope to see often.  Others I will forget quite happily.

So, this weekend begins the next chapter.  Today I've been rehearsing, running through songs, playing my 12 and 6 string guitars, fitting second strap buttons on both so I can stand up and play (makes a huge difference to both confidence, and the amount of breath available for singing), and hoping and praying my voice holds up and I can sing through the remnants of my cold.


So, tomorrow I drive to Swansea to join up with my tour partner and amazing friend Ryan James.  We will be playing the Garage, Uplands, Swansea in the evening, and before that some joint rehearsal of the tunes we'll be playing on each other's sets.  Expect some nice percussion on my tunes, and some interesting guitar on his as a result of the collaboration!

This is going to be an amazing show, with support from Rachel Rimmer, a young musician I've not met yet, but clips on you tube and chats on Facebook lead me to believe she's going to be awesome!

Then onwards and upwards to Monday where my day will be made up of chasing venues for the tour, recording and playing for Geoff Pugh in his school studio, a Radio Session for Bristol Community FM then a little acoustic slot at the Mother's Ruin session run by "Howlin' Lord" - a sort of blues playing Johnny Depp look alike!  I am so looking forward to being able to choose where I am, what I do and how I spend my time, but I'm also scared that something will drag me back into the rat race!


I'll write more after the gig, which I know will be amazing, not bigging myself up, I'm just talking about that feeling you get when you're playing in front of people who are there to listen, and you realise they're feeling what you're singing about...there is nothing better!