I hope this post finds you all well
It's that time of the year again . 2011 was a great year and full of suprises . I had no tour planned but all of a sudden found myself back in Ireland which is always a treat. As a bonus I got to play at United Islands Festival in Prague(Praha). Prague is in the Czech Republic and is an amazing city with lots of little music hide-aways hidden from the tourist traps and filled with warm friendly locals. Some of the Musicians I played with at the Festival were amazing and I hope to return. Freiburg in Germany I also went to and got to play with the "best little band in the world" called Pony und Klyde. Freddy and Charly (friederike & Lena) are great musicians and we did a double bill in a little place that the owner opened especially for us, it was very hot I remember. Like summer here.
Fund-raiser
I recently played a fund-raiser for the Southport special school and they raised well over enough funds for what they needed to do. It was a real mixed bag of talent, Myself doing whatever it is, Kathleen Proctor-Moore and Charles Cooper doing opera/pop/celtic crossover singing. Alison Ahearn singing country/rock and Chris Harvey with some Jazz and easy listening.
Highlights for the last couple years were
Playing for John Spillane.
Being Involved in Cloughjordan Festival.
Playing guitar with Jim 'kimo' West.
seeing Michael Fix play again.
United Island Festival -Prague.
Freiburg-Germany.
Christchurch Cathedral - Waterford.
sneaking in a couple gigs at unplugged in the Basement.
Hanging out with Stephen Housden.
Drinking coffee in a little local Czech cafe.
Sneaking a tune or two in after Sunas.
and I'm sure there is more....
Keep an eye out in 2012 in Australia.
Guitarist Richard Gilewitz is returning, Mick McHugh is supporting the legend Ralph McTell on his tour and hopefully you will see me again too. Google away and find info on this!! I'll be in Tassie in January at the Cygnet folk festival and also doing some local work with the council here. also playing at my Friends CD Launch at Mandala Arts Mermaind beach Fri 13th. "Leopold's Treat" That Should be a great night. Pierre Bensusan is also returning to Australia.
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I've updated my website and it's slowly getting filled with content and new info as the weeks go by.
Electric Guitar.
Just recently I've revisited my electric guitar.
I spent a few hours soldering new parts in to get the lovely lady up and running again. She's sounds sweet and have been playing a little with a local jam/ethereal/rock/everything band.
Acoustic Guitar.
My Main guitar, the Maton 808 had been playing up a little. I have some local friends here who are great guitar repairers. However, With a little coaxing though I decided to give someone in Brisbane a look at my guitar. Chris Melville a Luthier in Brisbane who has made guitars for Tony McManus, Tommy Emmanuel and many more totally changed my guitar into a performance wonder instrument. It has been tonally changed through some nifty work on the insides( I've been sworn to secrecy), Stainless steel frets. bone nut and saddle. It's a totally new instrument in plain clothed disguise. I highly recommend Chris to anyone who is a real fussy bugger. There are only a hand full of high-end luthiers like this in Australia. Karen Schaupp the classical guitarist recently borrowed one of his masterpieces for a show with Katie Noonan
~ Melville Guitars ~ in case you are interested.
Happy Christmas everyone, Especially my dear friends in UK,Ireland, Czech Republic, Germany, Colombia, Canada, Holland and USA.
And a tip of the hat to my Aussie pals too ( I hope I havn't missed anyone)
