What a year, and how I have let myself down blog wise. In early January 2015, I made a promise to maintain it on a regular basis, of which I have completely and truly failed. Many reasons can be given, but reasonable and justifiable excuses are few and far between. So to all of my 3 blog readers, I apologise now.
January music wise was its usual dead self. No one is interested in going out to shows, and many musicians donāt enjoy gigging either. I got out and did a couple of impromptu open mics to maintain my playing, and confirmed my slot at Glastonbury, but the festival season felt many many moons away from West London during what felt a very cold, bleak and long haul to February; where very little happened either. In March however I was introduced to a very talented young lad in Rhyhan Holder of whom I wrote and recorded a tune with. Rhyhan is only 17 but is a real raw talent and like his label & management, Iām genuinely excited to be involved with him. There are some absolute belting tunes which will at some stage will be released on his debut album, although this will not be for a while.
In May The Mocking Birds recorded the video for āChoose Lifeā. We were lucky to be supported by Piaggio UK and Atom Retro for the video, and were even luckier to have my good pal Chris Watts spend a vast amount of time recording and editing the video, for which as a band we are eternally grateful. We had a great crew helping with the recording all weekend and the end product would be well worth the time and effort.
May also saw the loss of the biggest Blues stars of all, BB KING. Having met BB on one of the occasions when my Dad had the pleasure of interviewing him, it was particularly sad knowing he had passed. I saw him play a number of times, the last being at Glastonbury in 2011. The real highlight was though the show at Bournemouth around 2004, when he signed by guitar backstage before the gig- even though he contractually wasnāt allowed by Gibson to do so. He made a specific point of Ā signing the scratch plate, which I suppose legally was a more difficult thing to prevent. A massive, massive loss to the music world, as reflected with the tributes paid from across the music industry. A proper gentleman as well.Ā
In early June, The Mocking Birds met with a major label whose A&R were incredibly keen on āChoose Lifeā as a track. Whilst the meeting was very much only an introduction between the two parties, it was brilliant to be able to sit down with an Major label and play them some tracks. Meeting an UK A&R who was willing to give us half an hour of his time for us to play a few tunes to was a first for me. Only in America have I been given time by A&Rs to meet and play tracks to before- where the āwho you knowā thing matters a little less.
Glastonbury was bloody chaotic but a great laugh. I think the appearance on Worthy FM on the Wednesday afternoon was probably much Ā more beneficial than playing the two gigs in honesty. The Thursday afternoon gig was better than Sundayās, by which time even walking anywhere had become a chore let alone playing an hour set. Musical highlights of the weekend included Gaz Coombes, Wolf Alice, Caribou, Jamie XX & Ryan Adams. I have already confirmed to be back playing in 2016 at a venue in The Park so thereāll be more on this in the new year.
In the September I just missed out on a job at Warner Brothers Records which was gutting but Iām really hoping itāll be third time lucky next time another opportunity rears its head. Iāve always been keen to work within the business side of the industry as well as the songwriting/musician side, and there are many managers and producers I know of who have successfully worked on both sides simultaneously and made it work.
In October The Mocking Birds released āChoose Lifeā Ā in association with online retailer Atom Retro. We followed this up with a great show at The Silver Bullet later in the month. We played a few more shows before Christmas, notably selling out our hometown show at The Bike Shed as well as supporting The Computers at The Exeter Phoenix/ To everyone who has supported The Mocking Birds this year, a massive thank you. Weāre really hoping to push on in 2016. Our first London show is back at the Bullet on February 5th.
Finally a big thanks to all that made Christmash 2015 an absolute blast. Dan Schamroth, Witterquick, my band consisting of the brilliant Mat Gordon & Lucy Piper, Tom Crowther on the decks and The Cavern. Itās always brilliant to see some old faces from the past, and I hope we can continue over the coming years to make Christmash even more of a success.
I hope yāall have been having a great Christmas. It was brilliant to be back to Devon to catch up with my family and friends. Happy New Year. Ā
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