Hitting the South West and North West...

Well, I'm settling in in Devon. Hold on, quick weather report... it has stopped raining. No... no, it's started again. Sorry to build up my hopes.

Delighted to say I went to my first Devon jazz jam last week at The White Hart in Bideford. An excellent night and an excellent band - Ian Turner on bass, Mark Heyward on drums and Tony Oreshko on guitar. A great sound and a top crowd there to enjoy the music. Even more excellent that I got to sing a few tunes with the band. Very nice too. I'm going along again tonight and hope to be there every Friday I'm around as there are going to be about five different bands playing in rotation to host the jam. Nice.

Big news - my first gig at Wigan Jazz Club has just been confirmed. It's on Sunday 27th May 12.30 - 15.30 and will feature outstanding guitarist Mike Walker. Check out his rather gorgeous website www.mike-walker.co.uk . There will also be a welcome reunion with the Gavin Barras trio who I played with in Manchester last year. Full details are on the gigs page.

Also new on the gig front, four dates at a new jazz venue, Jazzsong Cafe in Blackpool - 1st/2nd April and 17th/18th April. Each date will feature four one hour sets to accompany guests as they munch their way from brunch, through lunch to afternoon tea, then from an early dinner through to a last night cap. Again, look at the gigs page for details.

Watch this space for more gigs - I'll post them as soon as they materialise. I'm hoping to get some new photos done soon to brighten up the website. Any requests for any other website amendments? Always on the look out for perky ideas.

That's it. Time for one last weather check. Oh, it's raining.

Rx

I'm still here...honest

and it's still raining. I'm sure there was some mention last year of lack of rain, drought, never drinking again and all that. Well we're going for a bit of a record in the South West. Not just spitting, not just drizzling, but real, proper rain. Torrential rain. Rain that soaks you right through to your undies type rain. Are you getting my drift here? I have a lovely new rainproof coat which has an excellent wire sort of arrangement in the hood that makes the hood stick out over your face so the rain doesn't drip in your eyes. God, however, has obviously taken this on as a challenge by making the rain horizontal and going for my legs and shoes. My beloved pair of Puma trainers - the sort of mucky beige ones with the blue swirl on the side which you might have seen me wearing once or twice - has been on the kitchen window sill, stuffed with newspaper, for the past six days drying out from a precarious new year's eve walk around Baggy Point in a Force 10 gale. Can you imagine how hard it's been working out what to put on my feet the last few days? Those trainers just jump on as I walk towards the front door.

Anyway, I'm just about getting around to working out where I can launch myself on the South West Jazz Scene. It shouldn't be too long now. Plus it looks like I will be up in Blackpool in April which would be great. Hopefully I can tag a few other North West gigs on to the same visit. Watch this space

Other than that not much to report. Did I mention the rain? I ran back from the beach a couple of days ago. Yes, ran. I need to do a bit of post Christmas body reengineering in the weight loss department. Hey, what's new? I've found that once I work up speed, my skin/flesh/flab - call it what you will - seems to start to resonate all by itself which sort of helps me maintain momentum. It must be a bit like being on one of those vibrating platform things that all you need to do is stand on and it vibrates your weight off. I looked them up on the internet and found they're a snip at just over £6,000. Unfortunatelyy that tips it just out of my price range...fnar. It does appeal - just standing still and having a machine shake your weight off. Slight issue in that it might encourage my long lost heart condition to join in. Possibly not the best way to start the year.

Anyway, keep in touch and I'll be popping up for a bit of a sing somewhere near you soon.

Happy New Year.

Rx