New full band show at The Robin 2

Delighted to be heading back to The Robin 2 in Bilston for a full band show. Excellent support acts on too in Dominic Malin, Jess Silk and Raphaella Kornarskis!

It could well be my only full band show this year, and we are hoping to play some new material, so make sure you don't miss it!

Another new live video!

I'm trying to make an effort to record and upload more 'content' (Christ I hate that word). I doubt anyone would want to see a video of me just talking about my day and pretending a million exciting things are happening right now with my music, so it's taking the form of more live videos from cool gigs I'm playing this summer. Here's another from Banstock, a festival quite literally a stones throw from my house (if my aim was better).

Hope you like it :)

(Disclaimer: It's not that I'm not doing anything with music, quite the opposite, I just get a bit jaded by supposed 'music industry experts' constantly pushing that you need to be doing Facebook Live videos every time you cook your tea or pack up your car for a gig. I'm busy with gigs, with merchandise making for myself and other people and general musical work. I post about it on various social media platforms on a semi regular basis. I'm just not going to video everything I do for the internet.)

New Live Video

Check out the new live video of 'Used to be my Hero' live from Lechlade festival  (25/5/18). It's a cool festival and you should check it out :)

Halfway through this song Buddy ran up to the stage and stole my drink! I'm being forever upstaged by him nowadays!

Another cool fact; because the headliner for the stage I was playing on never showed up, I technically headlined my first ever music festival stage on Friday night. It's a technicality, but it's still cool!

Brand new live video.

Check out the live video of 'The Day That I Was Meant to Die' from Codfest 7. If you want to see the band in action, get your tickets for our upcoming show at The Robin 2 with The Arrangements, Alex Vann and Dominic Malin here.

Tour write up

So yesterday I finished my November tour. I've really enjoyed the whole experience and I thought I would write some of my thoughts and stats about the tour down here, just in case you're interested.

In total I travelled over 800 miles during the three weeks I was on tour. I played 10 gigs (11 if you count a private party) and sold 35 copies of my new album. Though I've not costed it exactly, I'm pretty sure I about broke even, which is cool for a first outing, especially as most of the gigs were unpaid.

As always, some gigs were more enjoyable than others, though I think I enjoyed all of them in their own ways. Heading into the tour I was least optimistic about the two nights that were open mic rather than booked shows, but they actually turned out to be some of the best of the tour. It helps that both Worley's in Stourport and The Market Vaults in Stafford are great venues that really try hard to support original music, and also that they have both promised me booked gigs going forward. Worley's also stream all of their gigs and open mic acts on Facebook Live, which is something I see a lot but hadn't experienced before. The video of my set there has been watched over 1100 times since then, which is crazy but really cool. I think the live streaming thing is something I definitely need to look into more in the future.

It was great to get the opportunity to play with some old friends too, and the beauty of booking your own tour through your friends is that they can come and play too! Massive thanks to Tone Tanner, Huffy, Dan Hartland, Bleeding Hearts, Dave Busby and The Pale Aliens for sorting gigs for me and playing. It's always a pleasure to see all of you play and spend some time with you. Thanks also to Roots Music, The Musician's Union and Pistol Pete Wearn for booking gigs for me too. I promise I'll come back to The Market Vaults when you're actually there to host Pete!

So to round up, I think the whole thing was a success. Yes I drove a lot (though the podcast 'I Only Listen to The Mountain Goats' has helped with that a lot), I did get woefully lost in Nottingham - huge thanks to Ben Benson from the MU for rescuing me - and I did only just break even, but as an exercise is playing to new people further afield I think it was worthwhile. After all, there are now 35 more people that have listened (I hope) to my new album, and if they tell all their friends about it then they will soon be flying out the door!

I wait patiently by the post box ;)

See you soon (like in Leicester next weekend, for a tour never really ends does it?)

Sam.

Album Launch!

I'm so VERY excited to announce that my new album 'As I Live and Breathe' is being launched on the 23rd of July, and I've got an awesome gig lined up to kick it all off! Supported by two of my favourite acts (and some of my favourite people!), I'll be playing at The Crown Joules in Codsall as part of my ongoing songwriter's nights there. There is even talk of me having a band with me, so it should be a very special night indeed!

I hope to see you there, but if you can't make it, the album will be available on many online retailers and streaming sites (iTunes, Spotify etc.) from the day afterwards. You will also be able to buy a CD copy directly from my website.

3 gigs, 3 counties

This week I've got three gig in three different counties! Does that count as a tour??!!!

I'll be hosting the open mic night at The Clarendon in Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton on Thursday from 8:30. From there it's on to Village Coffee in Codsall for my resident fortnightly gig on Saturday and then another open mic hosting job on Sunday at The Crown in Bridgnorth. The last one is a bit up in the air at the moment because of management changes so make sure you come down while you still can!

a quieter week

A quieter week this week. Open mic tonight was good fun (thanks to Matt Dooner and Faye Bagley for coming down to play) and I'll be back at Village Coffee in Codsall on Saturday for my usual residency gig.

I spent some time setting up the studio at home today and have almost got everything working and how I want it, so hopefully I can get working on the new album shortly. It's embarrassing how long it's taking me to be honest, the project file is labelled 'new album 2014'!

So, I better get to it then!

a weekend of festivals!

 

Another mega exciting week!

Tuesday is open mic at The Wharf. If any of my muso friends fancy it I can give you a lift, so why not come down and play some tunes? Depending on what time I finish I might head over to the songwriters' night at The White Lion too.

Saturday sees me return to one of my favourite gigs from last year, Music in the Valley at Habberley Valley Nature Reserve for Kidderminster Arts Festival. It's a cool 'semi' unplugged gig out in a clearing at the nature reserve, so bring a blanket to sit on a enjoy it :)

Two gigs on Sunday! First it's a morning trip to The Legendary Llangollen Faery Festival (Kayla has already bought Buddy's faery wings in preparation!) before heading back to The Crown, Codsall for my first gig there since it re-opened. Im hoping to put on some music sessions there in the coming months similar to the sessions at The Fox & Anchor, so it would be great to see you there showing your support :)

See you in the week :)

 

Sam.

Gigs this week!

 

Another really great week or gigs coming up this week! Three old favourites and a brand new and exciting one!

Firstly it's open mic at The Wharf on Tuesday from 8. Everyone is welcome to come down and sing, play, dance, tell knock-knock jokes. Whatever you like really! Last week was really cool because, even though I was the only one playing, I met a couple from Scotland who really liked my music, bought some CDs (and a T shirt!) and asked me to go and play at a festival in Bathgate!

On Friday I'm going on an adventure over to Stourport to support Bleeding Hearts at Worleys at The Swan from 7. Check out the stage, it looks amazing!

Saturday I'll be chilling out after Friday's antics with an afternoon session at Village Coffee, Bar & Kitchen from 2. I've started squeezing a couple of my own tunes into my set there, and haven't been kicked off yet!

Then on Sunday I'm hosting a superb line up at The Fox and Anchor including Dan Hartland, Alex Vann and Lauren Macmillan. It's always an honour to be able to book myself onto a line up with such talented musicians, and Sunday is going to be a perfect example of that.

It would be great to see you somewhere along the way :)

 

Sam.

Live streamed gig!

Tonight I''m playing a live streamed gig at The Songwriter's Cafe, The Tree House in Kings Norton. You can listen to the whole show online here from 8:30pm. Let me know if you get chance to listen in and how you think it went!

One day to go!

If you aren't excited for tomorrow night's gig yet, this should get you in the mood!

The Crown

As I'm returning once more to The Crown at Codsall tonight to host a new open mic night there, I thought it might be nice to write a blog about my history with the place. If you are interested in my past gigs, you can check the list I made on my website here. It's not 100%, but it's a close as I could get it.

The Crown has always had the reputation as the 'young person's pub' in Codsall, with The Bull being reserved for the older folk and The Station more for the beer connoisseurs. Growing up I never remember it being open, as it also had a reputation for housing certain shady characters and not many landlords stayed there too long.

Not long after I first started hosting open mic nights it was re-opened after a number of years of closure and re-branded as 'Butler's Bar & Bistro'. I think it was around the summer of 2008. I played a few gigs in there both solo for restaurant visitors and open mic nights during the week, which went ok. Unfortunately the venture didn't last long, and possibly suffering from its previous reputation, it closed once more.

This seemed to revive interest in the pub though, and soon a new landlord was in place, a guy named Charles. I once again approached him regarding the idea of monthly open mic nights, and right from the first one it seemed like we were on to something.

Those nights at The Crown were some of the most popular I've ever hosted, and brought through acts that are both close friends and excellent musicians to this day. The most memorable night I had in there featured a touring act at the time, a guy named Kev Fox, who brought his band and a support act down from Manchester to play after contacting me on Myspace (I think that tells you how long ago it was!). There were over 100 people in the back room there that night to watch the performers! Kev now lives and gigs in Poland, and is doing quite well for himself I believe.

But he isn't the only one to have benefited from the exposure and practice that those nights gave people. Under a Banner, The Ratigans and even my current band The Replicas all cut there teeth there, as well as many, many solo artists who still gig today.

But all good things must come to an end, and after a fall out with the brewery over funding, Charles left. The pub once again closed for a while, re-opening briefly a few times, only to close up again soon after. It wasn't until Jim & Anne-Marie took over in 2012 that I finally got the opportunity to go back to a venue that I always felt I had a little bit of unfinished business with. The new open mic nights there started quite well, though a weekly slot there, while good for people's knowledge of the night, really stopped us from managing to put on anything like the shows of the scale of the previous regime. Then suddenly, just two months after starting, the landlords got promoted to a bigger pub in Wednesfield and took me and my nights with them. The Crown closed again, and I moved my weekly night to The Albion in Wednesfield, with little success.

However, Anne-Marie and Jim are now back at The Crown, and my journey starts again tonight at 8:30 in that very place. I'm excited about it, I must admit. It looks like they may want a monthly night again in the new year, which suits me down to the ground. I just hope that, with some hard work and a little bit of luck, I can get it back to where it was over five years ago.

Now that makes me feel old!

Codfest 4

Codfest kind of deserves a blog post all to itself, so here goes...

For the uninitiated, Codfest is the yearly festival that I help to organise along with a small group of my family and friends. Naturally, the musical side of things falls to me, which includes booking the line up for two stages and running those stages both technically and organizationally as well as performing myself and doing other bits and bobs as and when I'm needed. I think its fair to say it's the longest working day of my year, but also one of the most enjoyable.

This year's Codfest was no exception. With over 600 people in attendance, the crowd was great the whole day, and the talent on show was superb. Its great to be able to showcase the talents of my friends (and also nice to sneak myself and my band onto a bill with such great musicians!) and just generally great to be involved in such a friendly and fun event. It really is life affirming!

I must say a HUGE thank you to my good friend Tim Douglas, who came down to run sound for us, and even bought a stupendously nice mixing desk for the main stage (I'll only drop the name of it if Behringer agree to give me a free one for the advertising, ha!). If you ever need a freelance sound engineer, I can't recommend him highly enough :)

The festival was superb, and it also kicked off a run of a Replicas gig every Saturday night throughout September, which I just know is going to be fun. I know I say it a lot, but I really do love my job!

To Darlaston we ride.

I'm just home from visiting a new open mic night and I've realised it's been ages since I wrote a blog, so lets put that right!

Tonight was really good fun. The open mic was run by a good friend of mine, David Young (www.facebook.com/davidyoungmusic), who is an awesome musician and songwriter in his own right, but it seems he can also put on a really good night to boot. The audience was friendly, the acts were good and I sold some cds! It's always a nice feeling when I go off to an open mic and come back with more money than I spent getting there!

It's not all about the money of course, and I think I made a few friends and fans tonight too. Its great to get the chance to go to someone else's open mic, meet new people and show my support for others who enjoy playing live as much as I do. The abundance of Frank Turner t-shirts present was a nice surprise too. Who says that kids today have no music taste!

That's it from me for now. If I write too much I'll have nothing left for my next post! I'm travelling to Lincolnshire on Friday for Seaside Fest, so hopefully I'll be able to post something about that :)

See you soon,

Sam.