Dear all,
After my German adventure, it’s been a quieter time on the gigging front before my tours of Canada and then in November the UK with Indian maestro Suhail Yusuf Khan. However, lots has been happening including a rare wedding gig in St Andrews and on Saturday a double-gig day, firstly at the London Guitar Show in…well London at 1.30 before getting the train back to Stafford and playing at the triumphant re-opening of my dear old local Joxer Brady’s, reopened as The Market Vaults. It was a pretty mighty gig and wonderful that Joxers looks better than ever and has the same wonderful people in there. UFQ have also been rehearsing hard and I am incredibly excited about it. The material is great and varied so I hope many of you will come and see us on our May tour next year.
Before Canada, there are two more gigs over here. First up is a private birthday gig to a couple of hundred people (!) in Staffordshire for the wonderful Andrea who has been to many gigs of mine over the years and is one of the loveliest people you can ever meet. So that’ll be fun and then comes Belbroughton Beer Festival which should also be a belter. Then comes Canada where I’ll be teaming up with top singer Meaghan Blanchard do check her out at http://meaghanblanchard.com/
Now, I’ve heard on the radio a few times lately about One Direction, a boyband of almost outrageous mediocrity who have somehow become world superstars. Indeed, I was compelled to write this particular rant because I just heard about one of them taking part in a charity football match and getting slightly injured (and I mean really slightly, i.e. he fell over) in an accidental collision with a footballer (you know someone with a talent) and thousands of their fans giving said footballer abuse on twitter. These are presumably the same fans who camped overnight for four nights prior to trying to see them at a film premiere about their barely credible rise to stardom. Now, we live in democracy and of course anyone is entitled to their tastes. I also accept that music is not everyone’s first priority and they’re happy just hearing what they hear on the radio and all that. But seriously, are people really now so mind numblingly lacking in thought or effort that they’re prepared to swallow that four (or is it five, not sure?) utterly average singers with precious little charisma and even less writing talent are worth this much fuss over? People might have had this reaction to the Beatles and the Stones but at least they actually had a talent, something interesting! It shouldn’t depress me but it really does.