Saturday was a 2 gig day -
The 1st was a jazz duo gig in the day with Andy the Sax - all a bit hurried as the wedding party arrived early but we played for 90mins in a chilly corridor and it seemed to be appreciated.

I had a 1 hour turnaround to cook, eat, change and repack for the evening gig.

Govannen were booked to play at Cottesmore church - wow - 100+ people there, all listening, beautifully lit - Tho we were all a bit tired it went really well. One funny thing was I arrived by mistake at the village hall where I;d thought the gig was only to find everyone dressed as cowboys and Indians - Country & Western A|ppreciation Society. Luckily I remmebered the real venue. We sold 4 CDs, 2 each of Water is Wide and Celtic Fire.

Sandy Denny Anniversary Tribute - at the Troubadour
Vikki Clayton picked me up noonish and drove to London - not a great trip with 2 holdups - but we made it to the Troubadour to rehearse the song all the artists were to play together at the end. I turned out to be the oly one with a chord sheet, and the PA hadn't been set up yet so no keyboards so I had to strum through the song (for the 1st time for me) on Vikkis guitar - whilst sat around the table were Martin Carthy, Linda Thompson, & daughter Kamila Thompson and her band and  Lisa Knapp and Linde Nijland with citternist all following my lead. Weird.
Then a lot of hanging about - I had nice dinner in the cafe above with Martin Carthy who is a nice guy - although are musics are far apart, he is open and interested in things and music generally. In fact everyone was very nice which made the event for me.

Space was cramped as the show oversold, it was hot in the dark historic basement venue, and there wasn't really anywhere to "be". A crowd of devoited Sandy fans - a bit like playing at a shrine or a wake. Our 3 spot set was OK and the live aid finish with everyone was a bit mad but fine - again I was conducting, this time from the keyboard.  I later found a real lack of breathable air (they coudn't have aircon on due to noise) - by the end of the night I was virtually gasping for oxygen. When we got out of there we had to stop at the 1st services for 30mins to BREATHE and walk around.  We got home around 2am.

Glad we did it, and as I said everyone was nice, but it was a 14 hour day to play 4 songs, none of which of our choosing coming after a 2 gig Saturday. Pretty knackered today. I found a review of the gig (no mention)

Chillin today - recovery mode from weekend.
My 2 CDs by Singer Pur arrived (SP are a wonderful 6piece German choral group - one their new album Memento with the final 3 Rihm Passion motets from 2006,  plus some medieval and some Arvo Part. Excellent, esp the Rihm.
The other one was SOS - Save Our Songs - a collection of novel new arrangements of German Folk Songs - I imagine it might be of interest to some German LJers/filkers. Guten Abent Gut Nacht doen as a bossanova is a favourite.

I was sent their groups bank details to pay for the albums. In the UK it still is not possible to tranfer money between banks without a big charge. My bank told me it would cost 20pounds to transfer the money plus I'd need to fill in a form and bring my passport or drivers licence. They eventually told me I'd be better off posting the cash. Innit marvellous? In a digital age?

Anothe rnuts thing - the online storage space I store all the soundclips of my albums for my website has been taken over AGAIN. Meaning? All the links to every track of the 40+ albums I have clips for will have to be remade. Thats over 400 links to fix. I had a go aty some other alternatives including a free space that does widgets but it didnlt look very elegant, plus there was a widget/commerce place Bizmo which looked like a pallava. Will think on it again when I have a brain back.

 Sold a Celtic Fire CD online. :-)

Still a bit tired after the big weekend - still I went into town and bought some Euros to send Singer Pur and a new microphone stand (mine broke on Sat)

Online I looked around some online promotion places. and tried out another online storage space (my free BT one I get with my ISP looked OK then after all the rigmarole of joining it turned out they didnlt allow the sharing of any music - even my own - might have to stay where I am - company buyout linkchange hell and be done with it). It has made me think about how I present myalbums and soundclips on my website. ie If an album has a Payplay widget does it need my own mp3 soundclips?

Tonight - well gosh - I just sold 6 CDs to a guy online out of the blue - there's a job for me tomorrow then. (Kym,  River of Life, Guiding Light, Celtic Fire, Spirit of the Moon, Healing Waters)

In eve I watched Spinal Tap for 1st time in years, still remembered almost every line - saving up the bonus features I haven;t seen b4.

Must get set together for Fri & Sat song gigs - the Fri gig must have easily buskable songs for Andy the Guitar to be able to jam on. Did a little rehearsal of Sunrise and Above My Head from the new album. I find song selection really hard for song gigs these days.