the dave update

Les Miserables, London 27 years it’s been on the stage in...

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 09:58:34 -0500

Les Miserables, London

27 years it’s been on the stage in London, and I wait until the week the movie comes out to go and see it

Merry Christmas!

Mon, 24 Dec 2012 07:47:00 -0500

Welcome to the Tumblr that I have kept over the last year. This is sort of a ‘mini-blog’ which I have used to keep track of trips I’ve taken (work and otherwise), bands I have seen and other events and activities from the last 12 months.

There is not always a story to tell with each, and with some of the bands that I have posted I have included a link to one of their tracks in case you are interested to hear more. If I can share some of the experiences that I have been lucky enough to have while living in the London and travelling beyond then I hope you enjoy.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful and safe Christmas and New Year!

Dave

Jools Holland, Royal Albert Hall, London For those of you that...

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 12:12:00 -0500

Jools Holland, Royal Albert Hall, London

For those of you that don’t know Jools Holland, he is the presenter of a lond-standing live music show on BBC called ‘Later…with Jools Holland’, and also one of the most phenomenally talented jazz/boogie-woogie pianists you will ever see. Often playing with the guests on his show (Paul McCartney, Elton John, you name it), he also performs live with his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, each member as talented as he.

For this sold-out show at the Royal Albert Hall he also brought out a few special guests, including KT Tunstall and Roland Gift (from Fine Young Cannibals), with whom he did a crowd-rousing rendition of ‘Good Thing’.

Though not the highest quality recording, this should give you some idea of what this guy is like on the piano: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgB6LSDCH70

Alanis Morisette, The O2, London

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 12:08:54 -0500

Alanis Morisette, The O2, London

Scotland Ahead of the All Blacks test at Murrayfield I took a...

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 13:49:00 -0500

Scotland

Ahead of the All Blacks test at Murrayfield I took a few extra days off work, headed up to Scotland, picked up a rental car and set about finding the Loch Ness Monstor and where James Bond lived. I found neither, though I did spend some time touring the Highlands including seeing Urquhart and Eilean Donan Castles (above) and Loch Ness. Out of my busy schedule I even managed to stop by a couple of distilleries, including a tour of Glenmorangie, before heading back into Edinburgh.

With the test being held on Armistace Day (which serves as the memorial day in the UK) the Minute Silence was held, and broken by the Lone Piper playing on the roof of Murrayfield. A full Scottish band played ‘Flower of Scotland’, sung by every native member of the crowd, including Sir Chris Hoy who was wheeling his gold medals around the stadium before delivering the match ball.

Anna’s trip to London Look who I found at Heathrow! As a...

Sun, 28 Oct 2012 08:56:00 -0400

Anna’s trip to London

Look who I found at Heathrow! As a surprise add on to their end of their US trip Matt bought Anna to London with her only finding out as she was handed her boarding pass when they left New York. Although I had to spend most of the week they were here in Barcelona we still spent a couple of days together eating, drinking, shopping, sightseeing, Boris-Bike riding, and even managed to sneak in dinner at Dinner by Heston. Great to see you Sister!

Barcelona, Spain

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 14:08:00 -0400

Barcelona, Spain

Slash, Brixton Academy, London That is confetti from the...

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 17:33:00 -0400

Slash, Brixton Academy, London

That is confetti from the Confetti Canon you can see (and which I am still finding pieces of strewn throughout my bedroom) from the finale song ‘Paradise City’. Though largely touring his new album with Miles Kennedy, Slash also played Guns’ ‘Mr Brownstone’ and ‘Sweet Child of Mine’, and I almost wet myself with excitement!

Kenya and Tanzania I’ve written a more lengthy entry on my...

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 13:06:00 -0400

Kenya and Tanzania

I’ve written a more lengthy entry on my trip to Kenya and Tanzania, which you can read here: tripdavisor.blogspot.co.uk

Edinburgh Festival, St Andrews and Go-Ape, Scotland My first...

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 13:01:00 -0400

Wendy, Andrew, Paula and I at Go-Ape

St Andrews Old Course

Edinburgh Festival, St Andrews and Go-Ape, Scotland

My first proper trip to Edinburgh (and in fact to Scotland) was for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. This sits along side the more formal and cultural Edinburgh Festival (which hosts the Edinburgh Tattoo) and is made up of all manner of comedians, musical acts, theater groups, plays, magicians and buskers performing in the theaters and streets of Edinburgh for the month of August.

Among the acts we saw was Michael Winslow, ‘Jones’ (the sound effects guy) from the Police Academy movies, and an Irish comedian called Neil Delamere who struggled to make many jokes out of what I do for a job (I was sitting in the front row). The joke was on him though when I knew the answer to “What is the symbol for the Royal New Zealand Air Force?”, and then back on me as he pointed out that it is a bird that cannot fly.

Over the long weekend we also went ‘Ape’ (a tree-top high wire course) and played mini-golf on the Old Course at St Andrews, which is open to the public on Sundays.

London 2012 I remember distinctly when the Olympics were given...

Sun, 12 Aug 2012 13:46:00 -0400

London 2012

I remember distinctly when the Olympics were given to London, as I was living in the States with a group of Britons, and it was exactly one day before everyone began complaining that London couldn’t host the Olympics.

Despite this, despite all the negative press, escalating budgets and security issues the city did an amazing job at preparing for an hosting this games. Everyone had been worked into such a frenzy about how busy it was going to be the locals must have abandoned London all together (I’ve never had such quiet tube trip), much to the dismay of West End retailers, the poor things having to go from trading in one the busiest retail area in the world, to the being slightly less busy for 2 weeks.

Nevertheless, London couldn’t have done a better job at hosting these games.

For the opening ceremony some friends and I went to a concert they organised in Hyde Park to coincide with the event. There were acts from all 4 countries in the British Isles (Paulo Nutini from Scotland - apparently -, Duran Duran from England, Stereophonics from Wales and Snow Patrol from Northern Ireland), who they had timed around the ceremony itself which was played on big screeens around the park We even were treated to a fly past from the Red Arrows on their way Olympic Stadium.

Tickets to the games themselves weren’t the easiest to come by, though we’re available if you didn’t have your heart set on the big events. I was lucky enough to get to a swimming heat with Michael Phelps (we didn’t go together, he was competing) which meant I could spend the morning wandering around Olympic Park, eating McDonalds and drinking Coke. Through work I was able to take some clients to see Woman’s Volleyball (calm down - indoor volleyball), a sport that’s home to the tallest women I have ever seen in my life; a ‘woman’ that plays for Russia who is over 7 feet tall.

The ‘street’ events (road race, marathon etc) were all free to attend, some we were able to head back to Hyde Park to so support the girls in the Women’s Triathlon in which Andrea Hewitt was competing. We also went out to Eton Dorney for the Canoe Sprint on the last Friday and saw Lisa Carrington in here K1 heats (for which she eventually won gold). By this time the weather had finally come good, and the day at Eton was one of the warmest of the year. When we arrived at Windsor Station and were queuing for the busses to the venue the Stationmaster, who had been one of the torch bearers, had bought his torch down every day for tourist have their picture with it. They are incredibly light, and easy to steal. Kidding! They’re actually quite heavy.

Eddie Vedder, Hammersmith Apollo, London This show was the...

Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:29:00 -0400

Eddie Vedder, Hammersmith Apollo, London

This show was the London stop for Eddie Vedder’s solo tour of his album of ukelele songs, called “Ukelele Songs”, and is the perfect example of why London is the best place to see artists like this. Never are they ‘just another show’.

Glen Hansard opened (Irish singer, songwriter, actor and checked shirt-wearer), then Eddie entered into a set of his solo tracks and covers most of which, surprisingly, weren’t played on a ukelele. Half way through the first encore he announced that he was going to bring on someone who he ‘discovered was also in London’ to play a few songs. On casually strolls Neil Finn, well familiar to what I suspect was a largely antipodean audience and he and Eddie played Hunters and Collectors’ ‘Throw Your Arms Around Me’.

If that weren’t enough, midway through his encore a roadie approached Eddie after one of his songs and whispered something in his hear. Eddie then ran of stage, and returned with none other than Roger Daltry, who quickly proclaimed to the audience “I only came for a beer”. Together they sung two songs, including The Who’s “Naked Eye”, which truly showed what a talent they both are and Roger’s incredible and highly underrated voice. The show was closed by Neil and son Elroy Finn returning to the stage with Glen to play “Hard Sun” with Eddie and the rest of the band. What an honor and a pleasure to have been there.

Hard Rock Calling, Hyde Park Every summer in London Hyde Park...

Sun, 15 Jul 2012 17:14:00 -0400

Hard Rock Calling, Hyde Park

Every summer in London Hyde Park plays host to a season of outdoor concerts, typically closed with Hard Rock calling. This is a 3 day ‘festival’ which is usually headlined by some of the biggest touring bands in the world. I say ‘festival’ as it differs from a typical UK festival in two key areas. One, there are far fewer hippies. Two, you buy tickets to the individual days and it is in Central London, meaning that you can go home for a hot shower, a cup of tea and a dry nights sleep (easy!) at the end of each show.

Since 2009, I’ve seen Dave Matthews Band, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and Paul McCartney at these shows. This year the newly reformed Soundgarden headlined Friday night, and in a night not to be left out of the British summer we’d been enjoying, it absolutely chucked it down. In pouring rain the techs battled with sound issues for the first few tracks, though thankfully by the time they started hitting their stride with the big tracks they had this sorted and we could enjoy the night (albeit sopping wet).

On Sunday night the headliner was Paul Simon, who had brought with him Ladysmith Black Mumbazo to play Graceland in its entirety for the 25th anniversary. By some miracle, the rain had stopped, the sun came out the woodchips they’d laid down to deal with the wet ground began to stink a little less. Before he got into Graceland, Paul played a few of his Simon and Garfunkel hits, incl The Boxer and 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, though the absolute highlight was his solo acoustic version of Sounds of Silence. Another artist who is still amazing live decades after they first became popular.

Isle of Mud Wight Festival 2012 The English go absolutely...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:14:00 -0400

Isle of ~~Mud~~ Wight Festival 2012

The English go absolutely bananas for festivals, which given their weather and quality of camping equipment is really not advisable. Having seen on TV what Glastonbury was like on a good year I’d firmly refused to put ‘Go to a festival’ on my bucket list, yet the pull of seeing Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Pearl Jam and Bruce Springsteen at the Isle of Wight was too much to bear. Even more surprising was that I managed to convince 5 people to come with me.

Disaster struck as we arrived in Portsmouth (as it does for so many). The traffic to get onto the ferry was terrible, caused (we later discovered) by the fact that they were unable to offload vehicles at the other end due to the congestion there. While on the ferry at 10pm, as we neared the Isle we discovered the reason for this was that due to the recent bout of inclement weather (in England of all places!) the carparks for the festival were in such bad condition that cars had been backed up since early that afternoon unable to get in nor move anywhere else on the island. We drove onto the island at around 11, onto surprisingly empty roads, and drove for around 500m before we hit the back of the queue.

It took us 10 hours to make a journey of 2.5 miles - a trip which according to Google Earth only takes 40 minutes. On foot!). With no sleep all night, a tummy half-full of hotcross buns and Pringles and two dead cell phones I was in surprisingly good spirits as there was finally a break in the traffic. They’d opened another fields for cars and we were on the move.

When a cop directed me down the wrong road, and 20 mins later I was back were I started at midnight the night before I almost had a conniption fit, threw my toys and swam home.

When I had to put my tent up in Gail-force winds and two inches of mud I almost cried.

When I was standing in the rain singing ‘Learning to Fly’ with Tom Petty and 50,000 other heartbreakers, all was finally right with the world.

The festival itself was amazing. Though a with smaller crowd on the Friday night Elbow and Tom Petty both blew the audience away, bringing everyone’s spirits back up after the day we’d all been through. The next day Pearl Jam headlined. I consider myself particularly lucky to have seen Pearl Jam 5 times now, and it pains me to admit that this wasn’t their best. The set list was amiss, and I’m sure the weather and conditions didnt help my mood while they were playing. Though the next day the sun came out (thankfully), as did Tinie Tempah (unfortunately) and we had had the sense to wander to the pub for a decent-ish meal and to wash our hands and faces with hot water before Bruce Springsteen. As legendary as Bruce is (he is still the artist that has more closet fans than anyone I know of - people who you’ll never hear listen to a Bruce Springsteen track in their lives, yet gladly shell out £150 to see him from 500 yards away) the 1st highlight of the afternoon was seeing Noel Gallagher leading the crowd in ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ which he barely had to sing a word of. In fact, he played almost all of High Flying Birds, info my favourite albums of the year.

The second highlight of the afternoon was getting my a** off the Isle of Wight.

Though having thoroughly enjoyed some amazing bands, and being able to tick a UK festival of my list, the 11 hour traffic jam, overflowing port-a-loos (literally), the sea of mud and the leaky tent syndrome have meant it will be a cold day in hell before I go to another one. But we’ll just have to see who they have headlining next year….

Incubus, Brixton Academy, London

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:08:06 -0400

Incubus, Brixton Academy, London

British Grand Prix, Silverstone, UK

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 19:07:01 -0400

British Grand Prix, Silverstone, UK

KISS, The Forum, London The thing you need to know is that my...

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:03:00 -0400

KISS, The Forum, London

The thing you need to know is that my mate Chris may be the biggest Kiss fan there is. He even went on the ‘Kiss Kruise’ in the Caribbean last year. So surprisingly it took until their third trips to London for him to finally get me along to one of their shows, a sort of charity-type-thing they do every now and then for Help for Heroes. Given his passion for the band and his skill as a salesman (i.e. bullsh*t) artist Chris has also managed to get to know the bands manager, Doc McGhee. Doc is something of a legend in the recording industry, a very American Danny De Vito type who managed the likes of Bon Jovi and Mötley Crüe during their hay-day (he also managed Hootie and the Blowfish - his REAL claim to fame - and still does their lead singer Darius Rucker. Chris found himself playing golf with them both in Dublin last year and in the cab home got a chorus of ‘Only Wanna Be With You’ from him as they were discussing NFL. Apparently the ‘dolphins’ that ‘make him cry’ are the Miami Dolphins). Knowing we were going to the concert Chris text Doc to let him know he was going to be there. When we got to the venue Doc had left us both all-access passes, which to be honest didn’t allow us to access all that much, but I did get to meet Doc and we could wear our tickets around our necks.

After the show, we got back in touch with Doc to see he was around for a beer (to thank him for the tickets, not to schmooze with the band - obviously), who told us that our tickets would also get us into the band’s after-party at the Playboy Club in Mayfair (it’s classy like, not at all like I expected). So not only did we get tickets on lanyards, but drank for free all night in Mayfair and met the lead guitarist and drummer of the self-styled greatest band in the world.

Oh, and the show was good too.

Hugh Laurie, Hammersmith Apollo, London It might come as a...

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 04:25:00 -0400

Hugh Laurie, Hammersmith Apollo, London

It might come as a surprise to many the Hugh Laurie (of ‘House’ fame) had one of the most successful and highest selling albums of last year. With a show that was as much a comedy night as it was a concert Hugh and his band showed what an immensely talented group they are.

Wimbledon 2012 I’ve been lucky enough to go to Wimbledon...

Thu, 28 Jun 2012 14:56:00 -0400

Wimbledon 2012

I’ve been lucky enough to go to Wimbledon each year that I have lived in London, thanks to a good friend of mine Adam who works for British Tennis and has ready access to tickets. Wimbledon tickets remain among the most difficult for the general public to procure, and every year people camp in long queues in Wimbledon Park (which is just around the corner from home) in the hope to get even general ground tickets, which exclude access to the ‘show’ courts. This is what I mean by lucky.

This year Chris (of Kiss fame) and I had tickets to Centre Court for the 2nd rounds, which was my first time on centre and a guaranteed chance to see the top seeds. Wimbledon this year was plagued by terrible weather, yet that day was the nicest of the tournament with sunshine all day. The downside of this was the the Pimms was just too easy to drink, and at £8 a pop we paid for the pleasure.

On Centre Court for the second round were Andy Murray, Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal. The first two won fairly easily, which is exactly the way I expected Nadal’s match to go. Chris had to leave before the match, and going into the first set I assumed that Nadal was going to tear this Rossi guy apart, and I was tired, so I went home.

It was only that I got home, and heard the enormous cheer go up from through my open bedroom window that I discovered Nadal had been knocked out in one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history. Well done David. Well done.

Eric Bibb, Shepherds Bush Empire, London Eric Bibb is a...

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 17:44:00 -0400

Eric Bibb, Shepherds Bush Empire, London

Eric Bibb is a little-known American blues musician that I was introduced to last year and have been addicted to ever since, and this year was lucky enough to see him live in a small theatre during the London Blues and Jazz Festival (which also brought Hugh Laurie to town).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ChRFHVT8W4