Hi everyone

It's been months since my last "mutterings" and lots has been happening  so I thought it was about time I put fingertip to keypad and let anyone who is interested have a little insight into the world that is 'My World'…..

So hands up those who are interested?

Oh ok, cool… If you'd both like to step this way….

And gaze upon A Blog Full Of Secrets.....

My acoustic album, WOOD & WIRE, came out to much acclaim and fanfare back in May (there was parties, knighthoods and everything!). It sneaked into the top 5 Billion on it's first week of release before sales peaked with a record breaking 6 units been shifted at a recent gig in Whitby!

People seem to like it (well, I've had none returned yet!) and apparently the 'WIRE' disc makes an extremely effective coaster. Which is always handy…

The good news for all you coaster lovers out there is my new 'band' project, 'RIVERSEA', are about to release their debut 'demo' CD in a few weeks (Or, if you're reading this after mid-October, IT'S OUT NOW!!!) 'The Acoustic EP' contains five 'demo' tunes of songs that will eventually appear on RIVERSEA's 'proper' debut album next year.

The main reason for this limited edition release (only 100 copies are been made!) is that RIVERSEA are set to make their live debut with a support slot for prog-rockers THE REASONING (who have just released a great new album called DARK ANGEL) at The Robin 2 in Bilston.

(Yeah, yeah, I know that the three of us actually played together for the first time at the WOOD & WIRE launch party but, as it was just on acoustics, I'm not counting that one…. So there!)

Again it's just the three of us doing the gig, although this time Q will be playing electric guitar so it's got a little bit of 'umph' to it. So the crowd are gonna have to imagine what the bass and drums should be doing. It's quite a slow set, too, which is going to make it a challenge to keep the audience's attention for 40 minutes… But we're up for the challenge. At the end of the day, the songs will have to stand up for themselves, so we've got to have confidence in them….

Gulp….

Do I have confidence in them?

Yeah, I do… I think the RIVERSEA stuff is the most mature and well-structured material I've ever been involved in. Not every one is going to like it but that's true of every band everywhere (Look, I've never understood how anyone can love THE SMITHS or REM and look at how many albums they've sold! And what do I know anyway?! I've got RICHARD MARX albums!!)

So I'll be interested to see how we do at the support slot. Hopefully we'll sell a few CDs and make a few new 'fans' who will go on to follow the band throughout 2009 and beyond….

Look at me been so optimistic! Next I'll be talking about world tours and DVDs! Although I can already see the idea for a DVD forming in our tiny, collective little brains…

But back to the 'Demo EP': It should be available from mid-October from my homepage and RIVERSEA's page www.myspace.com/riverseamusic . It's only 4 quid too, which is nice. And all proceeds go towards funding the recording of the album (and feeding the dog!)

It was whilst browsing the RIVERSEA myspace page that a guy called David Rohl stumbled across a tune called 'Out Of An Ancient World' (a tune from the demo EP, fact fans!). He liked what he heard and left a message saying so. Brendan was so chuffed, as David is a big keyboarding hero of his.

Now, some of you may not have heard of David Rohl (I hadn't, I have to confess) but, it turns out, he is an accomplished musician/songwriter from THE MANDALABAND, a top producer in his own right (producing such bands as 10cc, Godley & Crème), a best selling author and expert in the field of Egyptology and all things 'Ancient World' (you can see why he might check out the aforementioned tune, cant you?). He's even presented documentaries for Channel 4 and led expeditions in search of the real location of the biblical Eden (I kid you not… Google his name… It's crazy!)

So anyway, to cut a long(ish) story short, David wrote to me via myspace a few months ago and asked me if I'd be interested in singing on his new album MANDALBAND III…! The guy who sang on the last album was only Justin Haywood! Yeah, him out of THE MOODY BLUES! And now I was been given the opportunity to sing on the follow up! 'Would I be interested'? Is a pig's arse pork!?

(You know, as a vegetarian myself, I shouldn't really be saying stuff like that!)

This sounded like a great opportunity and an amazingly huge compliment. This guy has produced and worked with some of the top musicians and singers in the world and he wants little old 'me' to sing on his own stuff because he thinks I've got a 'fantastic voice'?! That is, without doubt, the biggest compliment I've ever been given and I don't think David will ever know how much it's meant to me to receive it.

Playing the pubs/clubs for 26 years without really 'getting anywhere' could sap the soul of even the most hardened musician and I'd be lying if I said that I've never had moments when I've felt like an absolute failure. Sometimes I think I'm either stupid or brave to have not given up by now.

So receiving David's praise is no small thing for me and a much needed confidence boost.

Although I am VERY critical of my own stuff…I always hear mistakes 10 ten times louder than anything else and very rarely do I think I've done a 'great gig' (although don't tell anyone I said that… It was meant to be a secret)…. but I've also always believed that I'm slowly, but surely, improving: that each new album is a step up, that I'm growing (in more ways than one!) as a singer and 'live' performer. I do still believe I'm becoming 'better at what I do' ('cos how awful would it be to feel you were getting 'worse??! I dread that day!)

And I LOVE singing and playing live and I'm extremely lucky and blessed to have a job where I get applauded for what I do (And how many jobs are they like that?). It may mean, at the 'level' I perform at, that I don't earn 'enough' money to have holidays and 'fancy stuff', but it also means that I sing for a living… I get paid to sing… And people smile at me and clap and sing along and everyone has a good night…How cool is that?

And I LOVE been in the studio and been creative. I get to express myself and bare my soul, to be honest. I think those moments when I'm in 'the zone' and my voice is working and everything is 'right'… those true moments of pure creation… are rewards in themselves. That's what I sing for… And I really cant wait to have those moments with David on THE MANDALBAND stuff.

It's a very scary, but also very exciting, thought to be vocally produced by a guy of David's standing. Scary because what if he just says… "No, it's not really working… You're just not as good as I thought you would be!" That'd destroy me. But he won't say that… Will he??!

Gulp

So, back to the plot… David and I have been exchanging emails and the nitty gritty of it is that, in January, my partner Tamsin and I are going over to David's house/studio in Spain for a week to record the vocals :o)

In our seven years as a couple Tam and I have never actually been abroad together (our biggest 'holiday' has been two days in the Lake District!) so to say we are 'right excited' would be like saying "BLINK was an OK episode of DOCTOR WHO"! In other words, a MASSIVE understatement!

I'll be in the studio for 3 of the days but in my 'days off' we've been promised by David some 'travelling' (who knows, when we come back, we may have discovered Atlantis!)

So it's all happening, isn't it? AND I haven't even mentioned my ongoing; time travelling, spiritually transcendental novel 'ETERNAL' yet! Which, in fact, none other than David Rohl himself has been reading and, apparently, enjoying… It makes me laugh to think with all his Real knowledge of the Ancient World and True history that he's reading me with my 'DOCTOR WHO discovers the Truth of existence' ramberlings! What must he think of me? He must really think I'm a right nutter!!

And who's to say he's wrong? There's definitely 'something of the Nutter' about me (especially on a Friday!). And it has been said by more than one mad scientist that I'm a Dalek short of a full battalion...

And that I'm fat…

But that's a story for my next blog…. "The Diet of Destiny"

Later, Dudes