Here’s a belated report of my York, Liverpool and Brighton gigs from October. The story of my tour of Germany will follow in January. I haven’t been to York for decades but I remember it as a lovely medieval town, which indeed it is. I wandered round trying to find the tourist office for a map but to no avail since there were no sings. I teamed up with a couple from Essex who were also milling around and together we managed to find it. It is not called Tourist Office but Visit York – yeah, right.
The gig was in the basement of Sotano, an Italian restaurant and very cosy it was, too. I played my songs which went down well and at the end joined a young blues band on the harmonica. I don’t know their names but they were really cookin’. It’s good to know that youngsters still love listening to and playing the blues. I will post a video of them and of my songs, in due course. Liverpool was great, as always. I played at the Cavern Pub at the famous Ian Prowse Monday Club Open Mic evening. My daughter Stella came with me, she played her songs as well. This was the second time I was there and the place was packed just like last time. Great musicians and an amazing poet from Birkenhead – I don’t know his name. He recited two poems from memory: ‘The Raven’ and ‘The Ghost of Edgar Allen Poe’.
Twenty minutes, without stopping or loosing his thread –stupendous effort, two wonderful poems. All the artists were brilliant, only original material was allowed. The coup de grace was the stalwart Barry Jones who performed his song ‘Where’s The Fu***ng Sausage?’ like he has done every Monday for the last 10 years or so. Hilarious song, check it out on YouTube. The following day we did our pilgrimage to Strawberry Field, a Salvation Army building. John Lennon played in the surrounding fields and that inspired him to write Strawberry Fields Forever. Now it is major tourist attraction, but very tastefully done, lots to see with a wonderful garden. When the manager saw my guitar she asked me to play and I happily obliged. After all, I was playing on hallowed grounds! The last stop before my German tour was the Ironworks Studios in Brighton. It’s a very modern culture hub and has got a stage for music events. It had great atmos and again, there were very good musicians present. My songs went down well, so much so that a lady came up to me to say that she’d like to play my songs on her digital radio station in Brighton called Your Digital Network – we’ll see what happens. That’s it, folks. All that remains is to wish you all a very Happy New Year, mainly good health and contentment. Au revoir!
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