Just got back from one of my first ever festival sets... A little tired, a little sunburnt but very content with playing somewhere new to some lovely new faces! For one reason and another, it'd been a bit of a rollercoaster week so by the Saturday I was more than ready for a bit of festival fun! I'd been asked to play by two wonderful people - Keren & Francis Hayden who run the amaaazing Nunney Acoustic Cafe nr. Frome. Today they were on tour at Calnefest with their own tent/stage and yummy homemade food outlet. The layout of the festival was such that the sound being produced by the young, hard rock bands on the main stage drifted through the flaps of the Acoustic Cafe tent and made for some interesting juxtapositions of sound! Nonetheless, each artist had an appreciative audience who were able to enjoy the more folk/acoustic acts of the day whilst feasting on the finest homemade curry, cakes and quiches and supping on local ciders and ales! I followed a great folk band 'Bateleurs' and the wonderful young songstress Lauren Castle. Hopefully I came across well; having to battle over the other noise at times meant I was being a bit more forceful in my delivery but people were still listening and clapping and smiling so I reckon it must've been palatable!! It was really nice to catch up with some of the audience afterwards who shared kind words and stories, and I was then free to fill up on some more of Keren's amazing culinary creations and watch the mega talented Beth Monk rock the house (well, field.... well OK, tent in a field)... Any free slots for next year Keren?! Photo credit: Rod Scarth Photography
0 Comments
People are amazing. In my cynical mind I am still sure that some of you are very good at acting enthusiastically when you come to see me! To be honest, I'll never get my head around why my own friends and family still seem happy to pay to see me at gigs despite seeing me countless times, but on the other hand, I'm so so grateful that they do so! Was lucky enough to be able to 'curate' another local acts night at The Louisiana which I was allowed to headline. Gave me the opportunity to round up another clutch of mega talented musicians that I am also proud to call friends. For those of you that came, hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as we all did!
Ben Cooling kicked it all off in style with his mod-influenced acoustic swagger, cannot hear enough of the man! Adam Britton kept the momentum with an amazing set showcasing his awesome voice (sublime falsetto!) - really looking forward to hearing more of his original material in time. The beautious Harry Gould delivered a textbook lesson in 'singer-songwriter' awesomeness; All the talent and best bits of all the current crop of "boys with guitars" wrapped up in one lovely man package! Joe Probert, as always, continued to astonish with his ridiculous skills with the guitar and mic as incurred my unending jealousy at his ability to write such amazing acoustic-pop tunes for fun. ...And I had to follow all that lot! :S Thanks to my incredible peeps (acting enthusiatically or not) along with the lovely support of others that stayed on from previous acts, I had one of my favourite ever gigs. Again. The Louisiana never fails to create the 'Living Room' atmosphere that makes any gig an intimate and 'sparks-in-the-air' affair. Played a couple of new songs on the evening which seemed to go down well; a cover of 'I Will Fall' (From 'Nashville' TV show) to "promote" my new covers EP, a new original song I wrote for my mum 'Made Us Gold' and even a sneaky touch of Daft Punk's 'Get Lucky'! It was unofficially my birthday and I could have had no better present than to have the listening ears and singing voices of the unexpectedly sizeable crowd. I was kind of hoping that enough people would have been indoctorinated with the chorus to 'Cliches' by now that some might join in - which pretty much everyone did... cue: biggest grin ever; but it was the participation during 'Undiluted' and 'Across The Sky' which honestly and truly brought a lump to my throat. Never thought I'd ever have that moment of hearing a room of people singing my songs, and even if I never do again, this night was enough. Thanks, you. *Peter Katz - "Carried Away" Photo credit: Joe Probert |
L A T E S T N E W S
|