Mark's Blog - Archive 2008

Run run Rudolph, Santa`s coming to town!
Dec 2008

Good Morning to you all,
I hope you will bear with me as i grapple for the new eyeballs that sit in a jar next my bed. You see, i arrived home at 5am after the long drive home from Ripley in North Yorkshire last night to my home in Kent and i am a little jaded.

We have just had three fantastic shows to finish our year. The first one in our beloved Newcastle at the Cluny music venue, where we had such a great night up there with the great Geordie crowd. I think Dennis is the only man in the world who can wind a Geordie up without them taking offence to him. This was followed by a frantic dash after the show into Darlington Central where we always stay with probably the nicest kindest people on the planet. I'm talking of course of dear Gary and Edythe Chapman... Eydthe must be the Nigella Lawson of the North east, with her various culinary delights always prepared for us when arriving. PS, I take great exception the coathangers (GREAVES) remark that whilst you have the Angel of the north in Newcastle, we, NBZ have the Queen of the south in me.

Anyway, Derby, and the Flowerpot, or pisspot as the gaffer calls it was as ever sweltering with atmosphere in a cold and damp town on Friday night and we are indebted to all our friends who come out to see us there and made it yet again a memorable night too. Thanks go out to Sid the front of house Engineer there for doing a remarkable job with difficult acoustic surroundings.

Onwards to Ripley town hall in North Yorkshire where we traditionally always finish our year and one of our great shows of this year with Dan??? (please someone help me with a sirname here) and pls excuse me Dan if you read this, playing keyboards for 3 or 4 songs. Fantastic.

The dust has now settled, its Sunday morning. Gerry has headed back home to Southwest France via Paris and Easy jet from Newcastle, Brendan is busy entertaining any guest he can find in the street and go on endlessly about his wine collection in his cellar. Dennis throws a massive Fort-like bolt across his door and shuts out the entire world and sits around a roaring fire in his home in London with his family, and I sit here with my beloved Captain Beefhearts, Blue jeans and moonbeams, and contemplating going disco dancing tonight in some seedy old club somewhere in nowhere land... Sad old sod that I am.

This just leaves me good people to thank you even more for turning out to see us in what has been a difficult last six months financially for all of us with the credit squeeze etc, and give to you the warmest regards from the band for a happy Christmas and new year.

Ps, now where did i put those flares and stack heels?

God bless you all, Mark, Bren, Den and Gerry xxx

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From the Peaks of the Lake disrict to The Thames via Lyon (a day in a life).
Nov 2008

Hello Folks,

We have been very busy in recent weeks, working on both our forthcoming new studio record and various touring schedules.

We had a real whitey (Pale face through lack of sleep) this weekend, as we headed up to stay with our good friends Tina and Alan in... oh I don’t know?, "Something" Dale in the lake district. Tina and Alan run a smashing Holiday B&B up there as well as farming sheep, so lamb is always on the menu, and, the pub in the tiny village is always open into the night hours for a tipple. This weekend gone was no exception as Mr Greaves, not being the shyest of creatures brought the acoustic guitars into the oldie worldly bar and started bashing out his beloved Bad company and Free tunes aided by Brendan on Bodhran (Irish drum), and Gerry on acoustic guitar too. Now this may all sound great fun but I don't think I saw one movement or tap of the toe from a single sheep farmer in there, Needless to say we all retired to bed after the long drive up from London (7 hours).

Having woken up refreshed we ate gammon for lunch in the splendour of the lake district panorama that is evident from Tina's dining room window. A shower after lunch and it was the hair-raising experience of a 50 or so mile drive to Carlisle along sheer drop mountain roads, where you could lay dead for a month and nobody would ever know.

We arrived at the Carlisle blues festival at tea time and had a real ball with the crowd whilst delivering our set of around 90 minutes.

We now had the awful drive directly after coming off stage back down to London Stansted as we had to play a show Close to Lyon in southern France the following evening and British Airways had cancelled its flight from Heathrow the next afternoon. The only Lyon flight that was available was from Stansted at 7.20 am, so we had to get there for 5.20am. I have never seen Brendan and Dennis so knackered in my life when we boarded the plane. All was not quite over as we had a 1.5 hour transfer the other end to the members only Climax blues club.

Our show there was a real back to basics club affair with our dear French friends roaring us on to a great evening.

Our return to the Hotel was only marred by the fact that the cars could not get up the mountain due to the snow and ice, so at 2am in the morning we had to carry all our stage stuff up the hill by foot in the freezing -7 temperatures.

We thank our wonderful French host and his family for copious amounts of wine and food.

We returned to Stansted the following day exhausted.

Our new record is coming on slowly but surely beside the chilly banks of the river Thames very close to the Thames barrier at Charlton. The studio itself is owned by Glen Tillbrook of Squeeze and Dennis and Glenn have become friends in recent years as they live close by.

We have done around 10 backing tracks already with Gerry flying in from France to lay down the Bass, Brendan of course has added percussion, drums and bongos already with Dennis adding some nice guitar parts too. I have put a couple of harmonica things on too, so the project is starting to take some kind of shape already.

What i think i can say is that i believe it will end up being unlike anything we have done before, so I think it will raise a few eyebrows, we will see.
We hope to have around a March release folks, but please don’t hold this against me as I could well be wrong, although we are certainly pushing for an early release.

Just for the train spotters out there, Dennis is using Gibson 335 guitars, Fender Stratocaster and Avalon and Tanglewood acoustic 6 and 12 strings through a Marshall custom modded built head, and a Jessie Hoffs hand wired 30 watt combo. Gerry his Musicman Bass guitar straight into the desk, Brendan, his trusty Sonor drum kit, and me with Dannecker, Hohner and Lee askar harmonicas through an Astatic JT 30c microphone and acoustic harmonica through an AKG microphone.

Amongst working song titles at the moment are...

Hit the Ground running
You
Mechanic Man
Eye candy
Fair weather friends
Love supreme

Ok, folks, I’m not telling you any more so there.

Love from the band as always,
Mark Feltham.

--

From Rotherham to Belgrade and Rome and home.
June 2008

Hello folks, both Dennis and Brendan had been moaning how down beat my blog has been and that I have got to be more upbeat and happy. I cant write to you like a school teacher, so I told them to just leave me alone and write to you through my eyes the way I see it. Enough said.

Our festivals really are well underway now and we kicked of in Rommerskirchen, Germany on May 31st. It was a lovely setting there in like a courtyard (outdoor) with a blues museum attached. Dennis had actually been asked many months previous to contribute his thoughts on his blues guitar heroes to the archive of the museum and it was all very impressive to see our guitarist in such company.

The next morning very early we had an 11am show 350 km away in Saarbrucken and was met with a fascinating old classic motor show in the next square to where our outdoor stage was. I can remember it being very hot and to be honest it felt really odd to be finished at 1pm, job done. We sat afterwards with huge steins of German ale and hot-dogs in the afternoon Sun chatting to the huge crowd that had turned out to see us on this lovely hilltop location over looking the city below. At this point I must thank our dear friend and possibly biggest fan of them all, Mr Manfred Maus and his lovely wife Silvia for helping us with our merchandising etc in Germany, Thank you to you both.

It was then home and the short FLY-Be flight to Douglas, Isle of man and the TT races and indeed air displays and motor bike engines roaring up and down the promenade that rattled the hotel windows late into the night. We played two nights there in like a 70`s type of disco, with our mates Status Quo playing just 800 metres up the road.

We flew back to Luton and straight up to Stratford on Avon for our Cox’s yard show and the delightful countryside hotel who’s name sadly escapes my memory at the moment, but it brought back memories of a happier time in my life, so we wont dwell on this or the gaffer will fine me. I think the band are fed up with me right now in my life as I must confess I have had a major personal upheaval and they have been incredibly supportive in getting me motivated again to play. I thank them dearly.

Ok, onwards and upwards and the new RUDIS blues club in Rotherham, a town where I cant recall ever having been before; I dare say someone out there will say I was there in 78 or so??

Anyway, RUDIS blues club was a complete shock to me for as I went down the stairs I was confronted with a magnificent new club; very similar to the clubs we played in the US. Rudi has done a fantastic job in bringing blues artists into the town and we all thought that the club was up there amongst the best in Europe.

We had a great show there and thank the lovely welcome we received too.
Right, back down the motorway and the brilliant Maltings show in St Albans, and our acoustic show. We always love it in there and it has a nice intimate atmosphere to boot.

Next day we were up early again and out to Imola in Italy and the central town square Imola blues festival. We had a real ball as we asked Andy J Forest from new Orleans and guitarist Roberto Formignani from the Italian band THE BLUESMEN to join us for a couple of songs, and a slash look-alike who also got up with us for a tune. It was one of those rare moments when everything you strive for as a professional musician comes together. Fantastic.

We were tired by this time and decided to not return to London but to stay on for two days as our Milan show was only a couple of days away and quite frankly we are sick and tired of being barged around by young cocky backpackers at Stansted airport.

We stayed in a lovely small family hotel near to lake Garda and the town of Simeone. The hotel had a pool and apart from one German couple we had the pool to ourselves all day. I can remember the four of us going down for a swim the first day sucking our stomachs in and resembling four bottles of milk.

It was not to last as we headed into Milan central park and our evening outdoor concert. This show was the one show where everything went wrong. Dennis had and amp blow up on him into the second song or so, the spare back up amp also blew up after 50 minutes into the show. Nothing could be done, the appreciative audience had to reluctantly see us walk away into the Milan night time darkness and head back to the hotel. This was completely beyond our control as it was a one in a million event.
We came home then out to Elversham in Norway and a hotel blues festival, I can remember trying to get some afternoon sleep in the miserable weather and rain that trickled down the hotel window but it was impossible as other bands were on and my room was 50 metres from the stage. We were cold and damp on-stage that night and if I'm honest I was pleased to get into bed and sleep.

The next morning we were back to Oslo's Guardemoen airport and off again for the 90 min internal flight up to Bodo in the Arctic Circle. As we made the final approach the captain said that air traffic was holding us up as there was an air show going on at the airport. We finally touched down and walked across the tarmac with the thunderous roar of fighter jets above at low level. Fantastic experience.

As you know by now, we frequently have a long onward journey onto the town etc of the show, but not this time, for in fact the concert was to take place in the arrivals hall of the airport.

We entertained some amazing Norwegian champion ballroom dancers into the small hours, and I can remember one nice moment where Brendan and I sat in the dressing room after the show at 1am looking at the mountains in perfect daylight sunshine. Wonderful!

I must take this opportunity to thank our wonderful Norwegian agent Mr Kjell Inga for his belief and support over many years of working together. Ps thank you Oslo airport for the 38 pounds bill for four drinks, strewth!
Home and back to the hotly debated terminal five at Heathrow... well, we thought it was magnificent, calm clean and quiet, and out on the BA flight to Serbia and her capital, Belgrade. We played atop of a hillside looking down over the city and her evening splendour shimmering out like the crown jewels. We were in the company of some of the best blues musicians in Serbia, Hungary and Russia and I must say that I don’t think in all the many years I have been around the world playing, that I have ever been made to feel so welcome by so many people. The Serbs are a tough people but with big hearts. Thank you Serbia for allowing us into your hearts.
I’m almost finished, but Brendan wanted me to make the point that the two last two shows were in the great wine growing areas of the world, the first being in the Bourgogne region of France where we played alongside the ANIMALS in an old castle grounds, and our final show in the Montepuciano region in Italy where we all got bitten by Italian mosqitionis, ha!

We flew home from the absolutely packed Rome airport on Sunday, and with your permission I'm going to make a cup of tea now and sit out on my balcony and give my index finger a rest. Its 12 midday, I started the blog at 8.45,
Goodbye and God bless you all, Mark Feltham.

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Chucks back in town!
April, 2008

Hello all, I'm sorry for yet again a late blog, and to be honest, I have no excuses except to say that I just couldn't get motivated or indeed inspired to share with you our adventures.

Our year started with a back breaking German and Swiss tour that gave us very few days off throughout the whole of January, Gerry and I fell ill midway through with attacks of benign positional vertigo that waxed and waned throughout January and right up to yesterday when I didn't know the ceiling from the floor when getting out of bed in the morning.
We had brief trips out to Slovenia and Milan as well as going back to the old Bluesiana club in Velden Austria last month too.

It was also nice to go out to Feurtuventura two weeks ago to play a festival, but not nice to come home after the 100 club show in London to grab only three hours sleep and charge back to Heathrow to catch the red-eye out to the Canary islands via Madrid the next morning.

I think in all honesty, the highlight of the twelve weeks since I last wrote had to be the Chuck Berry show at the 100 club two weeks ago. I know for a fact that it was especially important to Dennis as the Gibson 335 guitar that Dens mum and dad bought him in around 1977 was directly linked to Chuck Berry as he is one of Den’s heroes. So it was especially poignant that we be opening for Chuck and that Den’s Gibson be there on-stage gleaming out through the stage lights and steam of this great club.

I know that Dennis was eager to get a photo of Chuck (now in his eighties) and himself, but we now learn that the great man was very tired as he was in the middle of a string of European dates so rushed back very quickly to his hotel suite in Central London.

Brendan's daughters continue to attract record company interest as the Slumming angels (myspace) and I don’t think it will be very long before we are supporting them. Dennis' son Sonny continues to turn heads with his rare and raw talent as a young drummer to be, my son Louis can’t make his mind up if he wants to suck and blow a harmonica, sing, or play a guitar, he tells me that "girls don’t fancy a harmonica player dad", but they love the guitarist in a band, so with that I have advised him to buy a harmonica harness, sing and play at the same time, and that way you can’t fail son.

We have a little downtime at the moment so I have been continuing to decorate my apartment, I have spent £120 on matchpots alone as I'm a perfectionist, but a perfectionist who cannot make a bloody decision, therefore the wall is still not painted.

Brendan is busy in the Studio with his girls, Dennis has been pressurising me into yet more slavery, one example being the "Pull over there please driver, I'm hungry" comment when acting as his chauffeur last week after arriving back into Heathrow.

Gerry continues to lose his home to some type of termite infestation in Tours, France. Tut, tut, tut!

I trust this has brought you more or less up to date 13 April, and hope that you are all well and happy.

We would like to thank all our old road crew who were there at the Mick Jagger centre, Dartford, and are all incidentally all near millionaires now, and of course all our families and girlfriends etc... well... families.

God bless you all, Felts x

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