Stressed and blessed...

Friday 19th June 2006

The events of the last 48 hours have begared belief.
At 2 points on Wednesday I thought that the planned mini tour in Croatia and Slovenja were not going to happen. The lack of a vehicle to get 5 people to the airport until 5pm that day (I praise and worship Nelly and Commercial Garage in Narberth!) and then another total f*#°k up which cannot actually be mentionned for legal reasons made for the most stressful start to a tour in my touring history.

But oh wonder of wonders and delight of delights, last night we took to the stage in Gala Hala, Ljubliana, Slovenia and had a sweet, inspirational, musical, uplifting and generally top experience. Thanks to all who came and supported.
Fell happily into bed at about 2 this morning having had 4 hours sleep in 48 hours. Am typing this direct in the lovely Gala Hala band room as the rest of the crew snore in the background!

We are the champions again...

Saturday 13th May 2006

I don't love Raffa Benitez and Peter Crouch.
I do love Stephen Gerrard, Sammi Hyypia, Jan Arno Riise (sorry for spellings!) and Liverpool Football club.
I have a soft spot for West Ham now (something I thought I'd never ever say!).
WHAT a cup final, what a rollercaoster of emotions, what a RESULT!!!
2 texts I got from fellow fans sum it up:
˝Never EVER say die! We said to Jake (my cousins 2 year old) we'd let off party poppers for every Liverpool goal... the place looks like a ticker tape parade went pas. F*#°k me I'm buzzing˝.
˝I have just cum real hard...again! LFC have the finals in operatic stylee always!˝

Speak out

Tuesday 9th May 2006

Not blogged for a while as life´s felt like there couldn't possibly be room or time, which is a daft head state to be in because there always is but once you start to get a backlog of what you think you want to say in your head you feel that you don't have time but if you just post something quickly as I'm doing now and get back on it then you're in the zone again. Clear? Well that made sense in my had.

Anyway the thing that's forced me to speak out is the selection of the England squad for the world cup. I love and support Liverpool football club but how the hell is Peter Crouch selected over the likes of Wright-Phillips, Harewood and Bent???!!!
And as for the fact that calamity James is in the squad - does Sven never learn, how many cock ups does a goalie have to make before he's chucked out?
And is Owen Hargreaves Sven's bastard love child and due to some mad blackmail plot he has to be selected to play for England?
I can't believe it.

Number 1!

Sunday 19th March 2006

The Versionist download chart came out today and 'Heart of Dub' is at number 1. Maximum thanks and respect to all the dub download crew.

I really wanted to sing a song about music a couple of years ago and talked to Colin about what I wanted the lyrics to express. I went off to Tesco and came back to to a song called "Magic". It's been through several incarnations and the latest one (tune number 2 off the new album ) is now available dubwise onVersionist.

Decided I'm going to make a series of podcasts about the story of tunes. It's taken a long time for the solo project to properly gel and therefore some of the tunes have gone through several different styles/phases with different musicians having different takes on them. Fascinating to me and hopefully the world at large!

First new tune available...

Sunday 5th March 2006

Just put the first dub of the first mix of the first tune from the "Molara Meet's Dubmerge" album on Versionist.
Very exciting - firstly to have new music out there and secondly to feel like my solo project is really starting to bear fruit.
:-)

Free!

Sunday 1st January 2006

I love those days like Christmas Day and New Years Day when you know that the world is sort of shut down and nobody's plotting to send you an evil bill - the world is in free fall slow motion and it's peaceful like no other days (I appreciate this is my subjective and idiosyncratic world view).

Anyway to cut a long story short I received an email from DJ Perch which illustrated to me how different our perspectives on our personal and working relationships were, and as a result of this I decided to quit Zion Train. Much as I love performing live, going through the motions of something which originated in the heart at another time with other people was becoming hollow. To continue doing it just for the money would not reflect the spirit of what I do, and the vibe of the audience versus the vibe of the people I was working with wasn't enough to sustain the desire to be involved.
Zion Train for me was music originated by Cod, mixed by Perch and performed live by at least Perch and myself (and ideally a brass section), so for me Zion Train is no more – whatever continues using that name will be something new and different.

Tune of the day

If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out

by Cat Stevens
This is going to be the last "Tune of the Day". I think I'm going to do a feature in my "Music" section called i&itunes (my iPod is called "i&iPod" so all essential listening will be covered there and I'll do a centralised round up of top listening:-)

Back on the outside...

Sunday 27th November 2005

Big D’s birthday so off ten pin bowling tonight – in Milford Haven. Sound incongruous?
We have been snowed in since Friday so should be looking forward to seeing the outside world, but in fact it’s much nicer to have an excuse not to have to interact with it! (For a few days anyway).

We all had Horlicks for breakfast today. I loved it as a child with the lumps it used to form but nowadays it has a special agent (probably some hideous chemical) that makes it mix smooth. Bring back the old style. And Horlicks tablets while we’re at it.

Colin has suggested I am a gay man inside a woman’s body. He could be right.

Tune of the day

Blitzkrieg Bop

by The Ramones