No-man is an island…..

on stage with no-man (photo: Charlotte Kinson)

I recently played again with no-man, in a very enjoyable outing to Leamington Spa! These rather few and far between gigs may, hopefully, become more frequent as the band all seemed keen to do more. Mostly the limiting factor is Steven Wilson’s availability, due to his busy touring schedule as a solo artist and with Porcupine Tree.

You can read a review of the gig here.

2011 has been a strange and difficult year, with the death of my father in September – after a 5 month fight with cancer – dominating everything: It’s only when you lose someone close to you that you really appreciate how much they meant. It’s only now that I’m beginning to regain some sort of perceived control over my life once again, but there’s a lot of things I’m well behind with – projects, paperwork, promotion and more…….

At the end of this month I’m off to Poland again to give workshops for a week, followed quickly by two courses for Benslow Music Trust in Hitchin – a Quartet course and an improvisation course. There are concerts during both courses, so please see my concert diary for details. (currently having trouble with the typeface on the concert calendar – yet another thing to try to sort out!)

In January we’ll be moving house from Wyton to Brington in Cambridgeshire: Only about 15 miles, but any house move takes a lot of work. Bring on the cardboard boxes!

Once we’re settled in the new house I’ll be trying to bring some neglected projects to the fore: A new solo CD called “The Persistence of Vision”; a collaborative project with no-man vocalist Tim Bowness; new solo looped violin repertoire ideas. I’ll also be guest conducting the Oxford Sinfonia in late January, and continuing my conducting work with Ely Sinfonia in Ely Cathedral in March.

It’s going to be busy!

No-Man

Friday saw me playing with the band No-Man in their first live gig for 15 years, and my first gig with a ‘rock’ band.

L to R: Mike Bearpark, Steven Wilson, Pete Morgan, Tim Bowness, Andy Booker, Steve Bingham, Stephen Bennett (photo: Lisa Smith)

Bush Hall, in West London, was full to capacity, plus recording engineer and film crew (the gig was being recorded for a live CD and DVD film).

(photo: Lisa Smith)

(photo: Chris Bingham)

The first song in the set was the haunting ‘Only Rain’, vocals and violin alone, and starting with a minute or so of solo violin live loops: 400 fans, some of whom had waited 15 years since they last heard the band live, eager to hear their heroes Tim Bowness and Steve Wilson perform – and the first thing they get is me! I have to admit to being a little nervous….

But all started well, and at the end of the evening I don’t think that any of the fans were disappointed:

A mixture of songs from old and new albums made for an interesting and varied set. I await the live CD and DVD with interest, but meanwhile we’re off to Europe on Tuesday for repeat performances in Holland and Germany. There are more photos from the London gig here.

Email news arrived yesterday of the release, by Bohemian Productions, in collaboration with Sony, of their Jeff Beck tribute CD – entitled ‘El Becko’ (was that a groan I heard?) – to which I contributed a cover of the song ‘Scatterbrain’. I hope to have some copies of the CD available on the shop soon, but the track will also appear on my ‘Ascension’ solo CD (when I get it finished!).