#8 A Christmas Carol 2: Scrooge McDuck buys a music venue

There was a small part of me that was worried that I might not really have anything to say in this post. As Christmas gets closer things start to slow down to an eventual halt. If i'm honest that's one thing I do dislike about Christmas. I don't like doing nothing. I've recently learnt to find time to read so i'll probably spend most of Christmas doing that and making a stern effort to punch my writers block square in the face. There's not a whole lot to say about the EP or single yet as even though they are further along than when I wrote my last blog, there's no major "new" developments. The down time does give me a good amount of time to look for gigs however and it was last week that I found the inspiration for this particular blog.......Venues & promoters.

Some of you might have seen the posts going round on social media in which a musician (or creative type) writes a witty letter to a venue owner/promoter arguing/explaining that they should be getting paid for what they do, or a sarcastic analogy as to why they think the amount they've been offered is borderline insulting. Something occurred to me the other day when I was the receiving end of one such insulting offer.

Why do you never see a post or letter from venue owners/promoters to musicians? Is it because they don't need to defend themselves as there's plenty of gullible bands/artists that will take the offer if you say no. Is it because they don't care or don't know that artists feel this way? One of the posts that I've seen breaks down how much it actually costs to go out and gig. Now to be honest I think that one is aimed more at people that might not necessarily have ANY idea about what a musician does. It broke down fuel, rehearsal space rental, instrument care, etc. I'd like to see a similar breakdown for "opening a venue". As the Flight of the Conchords famously once sang "What are your overheads!?". I'm not naive. I know bar staff, sound engineers, door staff etc need paying. Electricity, alcohol, general maintenance and upkeep all require money. I just wonder why it's the musician (from what I can see) who ends up getting the short straw.

To put it into context here's one of the "offers" I got last week. Tickets are sold for £5. Once you gotten 10 people to buy tickets you then get paid £1 per ticket sold to someone that is there to see you. If you're lucky (or well known enough) to bring 50 people then additional sales get you £2 per ticket. If you sell less than 10 tickets you get nothing and may not be invited back. Now bearing in mind that there are 4 other acts (with the same deal) on this particular bill.

I did once say how crap I thought this all was to a promoter once and his argument was that doing it this way meant that the bands make an effort to bring a crowd and the venue isn't empty. Although I can see the point he was trying to make this doesn't create a scene. If you could have a venue that people knew was going to have good live music on certain nights, then you've got a crowd of people that are loyal to your venue instead a crowd of people that will just follow a band around to other places. Imagine if you had a group of loyal customers in every weekend and then you book a band that has got a large following! Oh! It'd be like Christmas! ;-)

It is possible. Chris who works at The Barrelhouse in Totnes has proved it to be true. When you get there you get sorted out with a meal, there's a place for you to stay, and you even get a bit of booze! Then there's the PA. It's epically good. Unless there's some sort of heinous catastrophe, it'll probably be one of the best sounding gigs you'll play in a venue of it's size (150 cap). And then you get paid a reasonable amount! The whole experience is so pleasurable that I look forward to playing there and more importantly I look at Chris as a friend, not "the promoter at the Barrelhouse". The venues i've played in Europe have a similar attitude so why is it that a large number of UK venues don't? You'll be lucky to get a free drink in most places.

Anyway, it's close to Christmas so i'm not going to get too ranty but if anyone that reads this is a promoter or venue owner (or knows one) i'd be interested to hear what your thoughts are. Especially if you're involved in "£1 per ticket sold" type shenanigans.

Finally, I mentioned a while back that I played a song for Elixir Strings when I was at the London Acoustic Guitar show and here it is! This is going to be the title track of the next EP. Feel free to give it a share if you like it.

That's it for now, hope you all have a shplendid festive season and remember.........support your local music scene. It needs your help more than the X-factor does. :-)

Toodles

#7 Lights, camera.....

So last time I mentioned that I was going to be off to Cornwall to record a music video. Last weekend we did exactly that. A friend of mine called Lee came up with a great idea for a video for "Shipwrecks". As such whilst we were in the studio recording the new EP we also put down a new version of Shipwrecks to be used in the video. It's a bit bigger than the previous recording I tell thee! Strings and all etc. It seemed a bit pointless to put Shipwrecks on the new EP as it was on the previous one, so Shipwrecks is going to be released as a single at the beginning of next year. We're then looking to release the EP shortly after that.

So how was it? It was awesome. No stress and everything just seemed to go right. When Lee came to me with a location idea I new straight away that fate was sticking it's nose into our business. The location (between Launceston and Tavistock) had a massive influence on Shipwrecks so for Lee (who was unaware of this at the time) to go off and find the "perfect filming location" slap bang in the middle of those two places was ridiculous. The cottage was utterly huge the surrounding area was beautiful. A perfect place to get away from it all. We've all already started planning a return trip. ;-)

Knowing that the next day was going to be a long one, we sorted out room allocations, bought supplies and had a nice meal courtesy of Ben & Paulo before getting an early night. Saturday was indeed a long day. We were up by 8am, moving the furniture around and getting make up done etc. Yes, I did say "getting make up done". It's amazing what an HD camera will show up so you need to be prepared. ;-) We were filming until around 9/10pm. It's mad when you think that all a whole days hard work will be condensed in 4ish minutes of actual footage. We had a little "wrap up" party as the scenes we had to do the next day were all fairly easy and some of the guys would have to leave Sunday night.
Ben, the drunken genius that he is decided that at around 6am he should make sandwiches for everyone so that we all had something to eat when we went to film the beach scenes. He also laid the table in preparation for breakfast (despite nearly missing it). He's nice like that you see. Captain fate wasn't finished with us yet it seemed as on the Sunday we kinda lost track of time filming the last bits at the house and were in danger of losing the light to film the final scene. When we got to the beach we were treated to the most beautiful sunset to see let alone film with. Perfectly timed.

Bude Beach

Big thanks to all the team Lee (director and creative genius), Ian (Photography and visual genius), Sophia (Demon and Flame stick genius), Helen (Evil Ex and Lion King genius), Paulo (Catering and drum genius), Evie (Nice new girl and Make up genius) & Ben (Acting coach and drunken genius) for all their hard work. It was good fun and it couldn't have been done without you. :-)

Keep an eye here or on the Facebook page (www.facebook.com/AaronDouglasMusic) for release news.

In other news my Analogman King of Tone pedal turned up this week. There's a 9/10 month waiting list for these pedals due to demand and the fact that the guy that makes them refuses to go down the "factory produced" road. It's nice knowing that you've bought something that hasn't been put together by a robot. Anyway it sounds epically good so i've finally been able to put my other pedal board together. Roll on the full band practices!

Oof.

Anywho, that's how for now. See ya on the flip side.

Laters

Aaron

#6 Big weekend...

Well.

That was some weekend.

It was my birthday on Friday. And on Saturday. And on Sunday too as it happens. Ever since I became too old to get the latest Optimus Prime as a present i've not made too big a deal of my birthdays and had it not have been for all the gigs i'd booked around it, this year would have been no different.
As a little birthday "warm-up" we went to see Reef at the O2. They were the first "big" band I ever saw live, my old band (Freerider) supported them on their 1st date of their 10year anniversary tour (which is where the beginnings of AlBenAza were formed), and over the years i've ended up having various dealings and random acts of chance involving them. I've supported "StringerBessant" (Gary & Jacks other project), AlBenAza had a gig once were Dom was drumming for us and Reef's current front of house engineer recorded half of my first EP. Anyway, they absolutely smashed it and it awesome to see them again.

The Friday was my actual birthday and a few friends and I went to a venue called the Stag & Hounds to watch the Plymouth based band Moriarty. Having lived in Plymouth before Bristol, I know Matt (the drummer) but i'd not yet seen them. Annoyingly every time they'd played Bristol, i'd either be giggin myself or working away. It was nice to finally catch them and played a corker of a set with some banging riffs. if you get a chance to see them, do it.

Despite trying to take it easy, shots may have become involved so when I woke up the next morning I can't say I felt 100%. After composing myself I drove down to Totnes to support Dizraeli & The Small Gods at a sold out Barrelhouse. It was great to be back down that way as the Barrelhouse is a great venue and I got to catch up with some friends as well. The gig was awesome too. I'm my own worst critic but that was probably the first gig i've done where I was really happy with how I sang. I'd been listening to the Dizraeli & The Small Gods album on repeat all week and I have to say seeing them live is a must. The album is great, but there's definitely and added layer of awesomeness when it's right in front of you.

Sold out!

The next afternoon(!) I drove back to Bristol to play the Shakespeare for the Totterdown arts trail. The arts trail is basically a load of artists displaying their art in venues and house in the Totterdown area. I got back just in time to catch The Montgomerys who were awesome and another band i'd been meaning to see but just not got round to. Considering by this point my hangover had developed quite nicely and Ben the bar manager had greeted me with a shot of sambuca & tabasco, I managed to get through the set and I dare say I felt like I sang better than I had done the previous night. The night was completed by the Lewis Creaven Band. Seriously, these guys can play. Lewis is probably one of, if not the best guitarist i've ever seen in real life. Get them in your life. :-)

So that was my birthday weekend. Thanks to everyone that came to the shows, bought me drinks, and sent me messages. I'll now be hibernating for a few months. ;-)

EP news! We are in the latter stages now! We should be starting the mixdowns this week and then it's just mastering and artwork to go. Whoop whoop!

Finally, we're off to Launceston at the end of this week to film the video for a single. Quite excited about that so i'll let you know how that goes next time around.

Laters

Aaron

P.S. Moriarty won "Best Video" at the South West Music awards on Friday night. Check it out below.

#5 Best laid plans.....

I was hoping to write this blog very shortly after the last one so (again) apologies for this one being so late. I’m currently putting plans together to make this a more regular thing. For those of you that are reading these then thanks for bearing with it!

Since the last blog the gigs have slowed down a bit whilst I focus on recording the EP and earning enough money to live through the January slump in work. I’ve not had as many gigs however the few I’ve had have been corkers. The biggest of them was this years London Acoustic guitar show. The one last year was a real step up for me as that’s where I attained a number of the endorsements I now have. This year was full on. I walked into the Kensington Olympia and within 5 mins I was playing on the Elixir stand, minutes after that I was playing in the Acoustic café. I ended up playing about 4-5 times over the whole weekend, in between that I was catching up with Martin & Markus from Lakewood (who were over from Germany), Logarhythm, Elixir, and Acoustic magazine. I did a little video interview with Mr Chris Woods

and a “looping lesson” for Elixir so that might be on their website soon. I'm not going to lie, I wasn't entirely prepared and it's not something i've ever done before so i'm fairly certain i'm going to look like a right plonker. ;-)  My parents also came up to surprise me again. I met a guy called Darren at the show last year and he was at this years show also and he tweeted me saying how nice my parents were and how proud of me they are. I don’t say it enough but I really wouldn't be able to do any of this if it wasn't for their support so there’s a “thanks” going out to them now & always. I got to catch up with the guys from Hudson Taylor again which was cool, and I met Scott Matthews and Tom Crouch (Gabrielle Aplins guitarist). It’s great to meet all these guys and finding them so down to earth and friendly especially given the levels they're at and hearing that the music industry is supposed to be full of a-holes!

Scott Matthews & myself

If you pick up a copy of this months "Acoustic" magazine, you'll find a few nice words about me in their review of the show. Thanks chaps. :-)

Other gigs worthy of note in the last few months have been the Little Apple Cyder Festival just outside Newquay. It was organised by a good friend and old band mate and I he did a ruddy good job of it. I can see heaps of potential with that one. Also similarly, Bicton Fest (put together in part by Adam Isaac) is another that I can see getting bigger and better. The main stage is in front of a massive lake which is at the bottom of a hill so it’s kind of like a natural amphitheatre. Beautiful. I also supported Ryan Keen, twice. The first time was at the Barrelhouse in Totnes which was amazing and it was great to see the Barrelhouse absolutely jammed full of people. The second time was in good ‘ole Bristol at The Fleece. Ryan had a tour support called Gavin James with him for that one and he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. And what a voice that man has. To be fair the pair of them are just really nice guys, and bloody talented. I was gutted I couldn't stick around after the show for longer as I had to fly to Newcastle very early the next morning. Ryan and Gavin have both just released an album (Room for light) and an EP (Remember me) respectively. Go get them. J

So at the end of the last blog I said that I’d be talking about advertising this time around. As you may know I’m endorsed by Logarhythm and they recently ran a campaign that featured their artists in magazines. My creative genius friend Ian “King of Pixels” Skriczka came up with a great idea for a photo with me levitating with the Prolog stomper. He’s a bit of a whizz is Ian and the photo came out really well and as such was featured in the September issue of Guitarist magazine as well as the August & September issues of Acoustic magazine. Check it out below.

Speaking of endorsements I’ve now been added to the Lakewood Guitars official artists list which I’m mega chuffed with as other names on that list are Dave Matthews and Thom Yorke! Other than their guitars being great the Lakewood guys are super nice so it’s a real honour to be included in what they're doing. I’m also very pleased to announce that I’m endorsing Heistercamp straps. These guitar straps are hand made to order, are uber comfortable, and tough as nails. I can’t see myself needing a replacement one of these unless I’m attacked by a Wolverine on stage…..I fact I could probably beat said Wolverine with the strap to save myself.

Finally, I’m now endorsed by G7th capos too! They've got a whole heap of different capos including partial ones so looking forward to trying them bad boys out with regards to new songs.

Speaking of new songs I’m also hoping that I can  actually get back to doing some writing as I finally caught up with and completed Breaking Bad. ;-) That was some TV show……up there with The Wire. (Family Guy joke) In all seriousness though, I did really enjoy that program.

Righto, that's how for now. Next Thursday I shall be off to watch Reef at the O2, and then the Friday is my day of birth so may have a few cheeky shandies. ;-)
For anyone that is in Totnes Saturday after next, i'll be supporting Dizraeli & The Smalls Gods at the Barrelhouse. Should be a cracker of a gig so pop your heads in if you're about. Then finally on the Sunday i'll be back in Bristol playing at The Shakespeare in Totterdown.

I'll let you know how it all goes in 2 weeks. So that'll be the 18th. Pinky promise. :-)

Till then, toodles.

Aaron

P.S. Hudson Taylor recently released their 3rd EP titled "Osea". This is my favourite track from it, check them out yo.

#4 To those who wait....

Aye up, hope you're all well and you've managed to get in some of the glorious sunshine (whilst it lasted that is!). This entry is going to cover arguably the biggest and most famous festival on this planet. Glastonbury. This year was my 3rd year at the festival and I have to say that this particular one was far and away the best one of the 3. In fact i'd almost go as far to say that it was one of the best weekends ever! Here's why.

I've always had a "thing" about Glastonbury. When I was a kid (and to a small degree now) I didn't like getting dirty. For me Glastonbury was always a proper "dirty" festival. As far as I was concerned it was always rainy and muddy. As such I decided that the first time I went to Glastonbury would be when I was playing it. This was in part a form of goal I was setting for myself, but mostly childishly thinking that I could turn up in a helicopter and have my own private toilet etc. ;-) 4 years ago I was asked to sound engineer on the street performer stages around the circus and theatre area. Realising that i'd made little effort to achieve my "dream" of playing, this felt like a close second and took it. Despite the weather being utterly gorgeous all weekend, I hated it. The hours we ended up doing were twice that of what we were told we'd be doing. I ended up seeing 2 bands over the whole weekend. Needless to say I was very grateful to be offered work as part of the stage crew for the Acoustic stage the next year. That year was way more laid back and having a better idea of the scale of the festival allowed me to be better equipped mentally in my approach to watching bands whilst also having a job to do. This year I was offered the position of team leader for one of the Acoustic stage crews. So point 1 of it being an awesome weekend: I was given a position of responsibility, I didn't screw it up and nobody died on my watch. Thumbs up then.

Delegating.

The other benefit from working on the Acoustic stage is that there were a number of acts performing on that stage that i'm a fan of that I got to meet and see/hear up close. One of the best performances I saw all weekend came from Mr Matt Corby. The guy has the most incredible voice, his band are amazing, plus he's a lovely chap. Obviously I hate him then...... ;-)

Legend

Other acts that I watched on the Acoustic stage were KT Tunstall, Steve Winwood, and Hudson Taylor. I'd been given a heads up by Janna (my new Glastonbury fwiend) about Hudson Taylor as i'd not heard of them. They were awesome, bought both EP's as soon as I got home. I was lucky enough to meet Harry from the band in the backstage bar after my gig there and it turned out he'd seen my set! He said he really liked it and there was a drunken conversation about supporting them in Bristol so may just have to give him a subtle reminder of this at the London Acoustic Guitar Show next month. ;-) There was another act performing on my stage that caused me the greatest amount of grief I had over the whole weekend. I really really wanted to see Glen Hansard however it transpired that he was playing at the same time as Lucy Rose (on the Avalon Stage). I'd seen Lucy at Dot to Dot festival and i'd not seen Glen without The Frames yet. Damn you Glastonbury clashes, inevitable as they may be, they still hurt. In the end I decided to go to the Avalon stage and see Lucy Rose. And super chuffed that I did too as I watched her from the side of stage and met her and the band afterwards!

I don't tend to get star struck around people as I think we're all the same. No one person is any more important than the next (unless they've got super powers or something..). Despite this I did feel like some sort of school boy with a crush when I met her. "Like I used to" was my favourite album of last year, so getting to hear some of my favourite tracks from it live as well as her new stuff was awesome. Then to top it off she's utterly adorable. I try not to outstay my welcome with things like that so after I got a picture taken with her and the band (also lovely people) and a little chat I left her to it. Before she left the compound she actually made the effort to say goodbye to me. She didn't have to and I wouldn't have thought any less of her had she not have so that was nice........................I don't mind saying I think I fancy her a little bit. ;-)

What a babe. :-)

This year also marked my first performance at Glastonbury. I played in the backstage bar of the Acoustic stage and although it was quite a short set it went down really well so fingers crossed same again next year!

Other things worthy of note, despite Glastonbury Festival being the 3rd biggest population centre in the South west of england when it's on (allegedly) you should never underestimate how easy it is to bump into people you've not arranged to see there. Within the first hour on me being there i'd bumped into about 7 people i've not seen in ages and whom I didn't even realise were going to be there. Similarly you should also never underestimate how difficult it can be to find someone you've actually arranged to meet up with! I should also give a shout out to Mr Ruarri Joseph. I've only met him a few times (from hanging around in Cornwall, my old band pal Albert being his guitarist, and my bass player Harry being his drummer), but he seems like a nice fellow and it was really nice to see him get a standing ovation from a full Avalon Cafe and to find out he had a TV slot on the BBC the next day.

I could probably go on about Glastonbury for the next couple of blog posts however I don't want to rub it in for anyone that wanted to go but couldn't. If it's any consolation to those of you that relates to then count yourself lucky you didn't have to drag this lot across a bunch of hilly fields for about an hour and a half.

These trolleys are rubbish.

Finally here's some EP news. We're going into the studio next week to start it! Fingers crossed it'll all be tracked and recorded by the end of next week. Here's a little question actually. What do you think of purely digital distribution i.e just downloads instead of CD's? Anyone still buying hard copies? Feel free to answer in the comments etc.

At the moment the title for the EP is "A lot to answer for". And here's an acoustic version of the song that was recorded during a photoshoot at the Birdcage in Bristol. 

Hope you like it (if you do give it a "share" please!). Next time, we'll talk about a subject close to the heart of the late Bill Hicks. Advertising. ;-)

Till then, toodleoo.

P.S. Whilst typing this I've been listening to "Eavesdrop" from the new Civil Wars Album on repeat. What a tune! Check it out. :-)

#3 What a Mess(e)!

So the last blog established that there were a few rubbish moments over the last few months. HOWEVER! It certainly was not all bad. I'll try and catch up to where I am now so I won't blabber on too much detail about everything that's happened for the constant fear of turning this into a dissertation. :-)

In April I attended Musikmesse in Frankfurt. For those that don't know, Musikmesse is basically a massive music trade fair. And when I say massive I mean MASSIVE. Pretty much every company that makes anything to do with music or musical instruments attends this show. I was lucky enough to play on the Lakewood, Elixir and Logarhythm stands and what an amazing experience it was too.

Yamaha had the entire right hand building to themselves!

Unfortunately the side effects from the medication I was on (see blog 2) had just taken hold whilst I was on the trip so i'll be honest, I did not feel 100%. The gig I played on the Lakewood stand was amazing/petrifying and although I didn't feel like I played anywhere close to my best the Lakewood guys (some of the nicest people you'll ever meet might I add) and the crowd seemed to enjoy it. I even sold some CD's! ;-)
I also got to meet Jonathan Kluth and Wallis Bird whom are fellow Lakewood players. And it's from them that I think I took the biggest influence for my own performances.

When I first started playing guitar I taught myself not to make silly faces or move around too much as I didn't want to look stupid. Now i'm older I don't care. Also I realised that holding that back was also preventing the performance from ever being a just process of playing the correct notes in the correct order, at the correct time. Watching Jonathan and Wallis play with such energy and passion made me take a good look at what I do. Don't get me wrong it's not like i'd play like the guys below but there's always room for improvement eh!? ;-)

The Elixir stand was another amazing experience. My first ever silent gig. The Elixir stand was in the same hall as most of the electric guitars and amps etc so try to imagine hundreds of guitar shops in one place all with people playing.......loud. To avoid joining the volume war Elixir put together a system so that everyone was on headphones. A cunning plan and pretty essential for being heard in such a loud environment. Again I met some lovely people on the stand and I got a chance to hang out with the Elixir guys after the show which was very funny indeed.

I should probably mention that Frankfurt is a beautiful city too! I got a chance to take a little walk down the river and take a few pics. Definitely want to go back and play some gigs there!

That's how for now, next up is Glastonbury, adverts, and the new EP.

Toodles.
:-)

#2 Radio Silence.....

First of all I'd like to apologise in the mahoosive delay in writing this blog. For reasons I'm actually going to tell you, the last few months have been quite chaotic. I don't want to bombard you with a dissertation so I'm going to keep this particular one short.

I work freelance as a Sound Engineer for a "day job" when I'm not trying to make a living as a musician. As such I often find my life swings between having no work where I have plenty of time to gig/write songs etc, but having rod all money or working my toosh off having loads of money but hardly looking at my guitar! The last few months have been the latter. Now don't get me wrong, this has been great in most ways. As a freelancer living in a new city it can be hard to find work so when it starts picking up, the constant worry with regards to paying rent and feeding yourself (temporarily at least) subsides. As such I'm planning to get into a studio and record the next EP very soon (as I can now afford it!).

Writing a blog isn't particularly time consuming so I can imagine you might be wondering how I could have been too busy to write one in 4 months. This brings me to the other 'element' in my life that up until very recently had been preventing me from writing this.

For a few years now I've had an occasional problem with cramping in my hand when I play guitar. Last year I had such a severe occurrence of it that I couldn't finish the gig that I was at and I couldn't play guitar for a week. Needless to say at this point I decided to get it looked at and to cut a long story short, we (and by we I mean a doctor I've seen) think it could be "Musicians Dystonia". There isn't a cure however it can be managed and as such I was prescribed some medication whilst they conducted further tests. To start with everything was great, my hand felt much better whilst I was playing and I dare say I actually improved! About 5/6 weeks in though I started experiencing some alarming side effects. Severe anxiety, paranoia, memory loss, a constant dry mouth, loss of mental alertness and eventually an inability to concentrate that was so bad that I couldn't drive.

Bleurgh!

The knock on effects of this managed to infiltrate every facet of my life. It was the busiest period of work I've had since going freelance and yet I felt like I was incapable of doing my own job because of the anxiety and paranoia. The worst part however was the effect it had on my music and creativity. It erased it entirely. At it's peak I sat in my garden staring at my guitar completely unable to play it. It would take me ages just to type a text let alone a blog! The whole situation has been incredibly sobering and thought provoking for sure. Lots to put into lyrical content make no mistake. :-)

I don't want this to be a 'negative' blog so I'm very pleased to say that I can off the medication and am now much better, hence this even being written.

The last few months haven't been all work, and side effects either, so next week I'll inform you of all the awesome things that have been happening of late.

Till then, laters. :-)

#1 Up to speed.

Hello and welcome! For those that don't already know my name is Aaron Douglas and i'm a Singer-Songwriter. This blog will keep you up to date with things that are going on in my musical world. 

If you're reading this on the website then you can ignore this bit but if this is something you've just stumbled across then feel free to go to my website (www.AaronDouglasMusic.co.uk) for a little bit of my history.

So the last 6/7 months have been fairly bonkers. I moved from Plymouth to Bristol last July and since then things have been mad. This first blog hopefully will bring you up to speed with what's been happening. It all started with the release of my first solo EP "Weapons Free".

You can find it on Bandcamp, iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon

A week later I played at the London Acoustic Guitar show.

I was lucky enough to play on the Acoustic cafe stage during the show and as a result came home with some great endorsements as well as meeting a lot of cool people. As it stands i'm currently endorsed by Elixir, Logarythm, Diago, Protection Racket, and Bare Knuckle Pickups. I'm a big fan of all these companies so i'm truly honoured that they are happy to be associated with me! :-) 


    

      

Also I should also mention the manufacturer of my guitar, Lakewood. They've been awesome supporting me over the last few months so massive props to them and also for making such a sweet guitar!

In other news i've been putting a band together with Garry Kroll and Harry Harding. Splendid fellows and awesome musicians to boot. I'm very much looking forward to some shows as rehearsals are sounding spiffing if I do say so myself. :-)

To end last year off I did an interview for the January issue of Acoustic Magazine. 

Not going to lie, it's pretty surreal seeing yourself in a magazine. Not that i'm complaining. For reasons I won't go into most of 2011 and all of 2010 were rubbish. So to end last year on such a high was amazing. There's a lot of other stuff in the pipeline which i'll anounce as they're confirmed (don't want to jinx them!).

Finally, i've gotten myself into a band in Bristol called Beyond Rivers. They've got some ruddy good songs so i'm pleased as punch that they don't seem to mind me hitting drums all over them. Check it out.

And so endeth the first blog. Ummm....so....how did I do? Sorry it's not been more than a few statements of fact but now the first one is out the way hopefully these will get better......and funnier..........and better looking.......

Laters

Aaron