Nonetheless, some die hard friends and fans had made the way down to Camden, and the mood to rock far out weighed the untimely downer.
Proud was host not only to some fine musicians on the night, but also to some industry promoters, the time to strike was upon us. I got a whisper about the event that would be taking place on the night and made sure that my presence was felt. I scrambled together some CD's demoing some tracks from the (soon to be independently released) album The Light in The Darkness and some cool little badges. Like most musician I am terrible at the whole self-promotion side of things (the main reason we get into the arts in general, a lack of people skills - like I can't really chat shit very well. I can do banter with close friends, but cold calling and smoozing- not so good), so I like to speak with actions instead of words. Well, I gave a few to some of the bands I thought were cool on the night and put the packages out on tables and they kept being picked up. Part of me thought that other bands were just nicking them because it is such a great idea, but another part of me hoped they were going to people who thought they'd like a listen or liked what they heard and would tell their friends about the hippest blues guitarist in North London.
The package in question.
With The Sundanze Kid crew in toe, we took up in the stable, ready to spread the good word. Ian had sorted the sound with a quick line check and was interested in the loop pedal. I kicked of the set with Burning Lungs - a bit of slide to set the mood. I have some footage of it, I just need to rotate it so you don't break your neck trying to check me out! The set went well, you should have been there - so I'll be light on the details of it. People liked it though - some people really liked it and were transfixed. It wasn't quite the toe tapping wild break of dawn barn dance vibe that I was hoping for, but I was still turning heads and getting folks to stop in their tracks, stop mid-conversation to give me a chance. I think that's note worthy in today's society. Keeping the blues art form is important to me. Not necessarily in a traditional sense but in essence. There is a lot of competition from all media types so I'll take these small gestures as victories. To those newbies, I hope you enjoyed it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8mMabtuJck
One thing I know that definately got people listening was the loop - well I just hope it's because of what I was doing with it and not just the magic of one person making so much noise - ya know!?!
That's it for the gigs this year. Maybe I'll slip into a small house party around new years and make some sounds there - and if so, watch out for the footage. Thanks for all the support this year and I can't wait to get the album to you and know your thoughts about it in the new year.
The reflective quality of a badge makes it hard to photograph.
