Poster boy!

I was amazed last night by Facebook lighting up over a poster created to advertise one of my gigs in Brazil. The reason was because the designer of the poster had captured the spirit of the whole tour before it has even started. I must say, the quality of the posters created so far has been really high and there was only one I was a little disappointed with and that was because it showed a picture of me with Colin and Simon. I thought that would be miss-leading, making the Brazilian public think they were getting the original line up, and in person I would have appeared to have aged suddenly.
Nonetheless as I say, the posters have been good and I have included in this post the one that has caused such a stir. I now already have a lot of Brazilian 'Friends' on Facebook and everyone appeared to be knocked out by Lyn Nimtz's poster.

To be honest, I am not surprised because to me the poster is full of action, it declares that the gig will be exciting and it carries a picture of me as I am right now and as I will be appearing when I finally get to Brazil

Perfect!

New day, new shades!

I got my new rock 'n' roll shades today. These are to replace my old ones which I could barely see anything through as the prescription was so old and the frames were originally bought for 30p on a boot sale. They were a fine old (antique in fact) National Heath model but were threatening to bust apart.

So now I got some modern equivalents (although the frames cost considerably more than 30p) which I hope will keep me cool for a good many years

Let the good times roll!

I was living in a New Town!

I have just realised that I am focusing so much on the Brazilian trip that I haven't given much thought to my solo appearance at Harlow's Square this Saturday night 8th Feb. Not just because I am playing a solo acoustic set, which I am growing more and more fond of for playing my songs but also the headliner is The Members, A band I have loved for years but never seen. Also we share a creative connection, in 1981 (I think), I took their song Solitary Confinement and adapted it to be Living With Unemployment. It has been a firm favourite in the Neurotics set from then to this day. I don't think that we could do a set without playing it, the audience wouldn't allow it. Like all fantastic songs it can be done in a variety of ways and it still sounds great. I intend to do my first acoustic rendition (in England) on Sat and then we will all get to hear the original later on in the evening.

Perfect!

Flight of fancy!

Just chose the seats I will occupy on my flights to and from Brazil, four flights in all.

 I had a hell of a time deciding. A window seat is great for looking out at the stratosphere and is it is good for sleeping but hell for getting to the toilet when the two people between you and the loo are both asleep. An aisle seat is great for getting to the loo whenever you want, but lousy for sleeping because you have to move every time the other two want to relieve themselves and the constant toing and froing of other passengers.

 I ended up choosing a mixture of both just to keep life variable. I chose random 'cause that’s the kind of guy I am!

Bad vibes in a good mood.

It's a day for chasing up people that were meant to have got back to me by now, I have some things need to get resolved and I am running out of days I will be around to handle them.

I don’t know about you but I am sick to death of people not getting back to me, I hate chasing people, I realise that sometimes things happen which makes it difficult for a person to respond when they said they would but often it is the same old tired excuses, I mean the amount of time people have said "Sorry I didn't know you had rung me/text'd me I was having problems with my phone/voicemail yesterday, I lost all my voicemails/texts". And the thing is, all the people who say this seem to have IPhone. Of all the years I have had a mobile I have never had problems receiving and keeping texts or phone calls but then again I have never had an IPhone.

Personally, I think that a lot of people have trouble with the amount of connections they have and the amount of people vying to make contact through the person's phone, information overload man! But also the lying and the lame excuses infuriates me, be honest to me about why I couldn't get hold of you, tell me you can't do the thing you promised you would, better still, don't promise to do something you knew you could never do.
How about this simple approach, text back or leave a message saying you are' up to your neck in it', that you can't do that thing or talk at the moment but will get back to you tomorrow/next couple of days etc. It doesn't take long to acknowledge.

It's simply about time management and managing peoples expectation and honesty, not bullshit, I can't be dealing with bullshit.

I am actually in a good mood but the above always irritates me.

If I didn't have something to be anxious about I'd be worried!

Beginning to look like I have most of what I need for my trip. Next on the agenda is to see just how much I can pack into a suitcase and still be within my weight limit. I am taking as much merchandise as I can to be able to supplement my stay in Brazil. There is a very strong feeling of unreality to this, almost like a dream, a dream come true? A dream state? I wish times like this could be carefree, left to just get excited to where I am going but there is always the anxiety about whether I have remembered everything, losing my passport on the way to the check in, that I end up on the wrong plane and end up in the Russian tundra or such like ridiculous scenario.

But hey, I am a Neurotic, if I didn't have something to be anxious about I'd be worried!



  

Training for Brazil 2014 - Don't dream it, be it!

I did intend to write something yesterday (which I sadly didn't manage) but I just wore myself ragged trying to get everything done (which I did, happily) but I had no on screen time. On top of a million other things I won't bore you with, I also had to fit in an acoustic rehearsal for my solo appearance supporting the Members at the Square on Sat Feb 8th and playing through all the songs I will perform in Brazil on electric guitar. They are both very different sets so they both need time spent on them. I have not played in the Neurotics for two years or more now so I have to train my back to support my electric guitar, my wrists to handle playing a fret board lower down. I have been doing a lot of work sitting at my PC for the last eight months so I have to bring my overall fitness up, hence lots of cycling and walking. It's my version of training for the World Cup or the Olympics, getting my shit together basically for Brazil.