With the visit of Canadian band The Lewinskies, I was lucky enough to be part of a group of musicians taking part in their tour of North West England. It was a great experience to play in a number of very different venues to the standard pubs and bars that I am used to. I have found that it is more interesting acoustically and visually to play gigs in different venues as it is hard to really recreate a pub gig experience on a video.
Norley
This was a challenging evening! The first gig of the mini tour was in the village hall of the lovely suburban town of Norley, situated between Manchester and Liverpool. It was a bill of 3 bands; John Reed, The Lewinskies and myself and it was the first time in a long while that I had set up a PA and done the sound myself…
To be on the safe side, we allowed extra time for the set up but it was a fairly stressful experience adapting the presets that had been created in an acoustically treated practice room to fit with the school gym vibe that I was getting from the hall!
The hall filled up pretty rapidly once we opened the doors and the night was an overwhelming success!
Radio Sessions
I also took part in a live radio session from Levenshulme library as a part of the “Summer Of Lev” festival which included songs and stories from Sam Jefferson and John Reed as well as the Lewinskies. It was a strange experience playing a live set just for a radio show but in a way it felt a lot like playing at home (asides from the microphones pointing at me of course…)
I had also invited along an artist friend of mine, Sean Parry, who documented the performances by creating pencil drawings in realtime!
Todmorden Church
The final gig of the tour was at a familiar venue, the Todmorden Unitarian Church. The church itself is on top of a hill overlooking the town and has the most beautiful acoustics inside. I had played here last year (followed by a further impromptu performance at an open mic night on the way back to the car), but this time, I was planning something special.
I normally play solo with just me and a guitar but I felt that a venue like this deserved something a bit more haunting 😉
I debuted, two songs from the album I have been working towards and for both of them, I was delighted to perform with Emma Perry and Kate Ferris who are experts in creating harmonies, which was exactly what I wanted to achieve. We played the songs “Mountain” and “Blink Of An Eye” and especially during the latter, I had one of those moments in music where you just know that something special is happening and I am so grateful that it was being recorded!
