performance - The Bicycle Shop, Norwich

This was the scene that greeted me at The Bicycle Shop in Norwich this evening, for the gig with Tim O-T. A lovely friendly pub oozing character...much better than a soulless 'Spoons or Youngs.

Our set went down well: next stop The Cricketers on Wednesday 10th! Local friends, come down and support us please, it will mean an awful lot to see you there!

performance news

UPCOMING GIGS!

I am delighted to confirm I will be playing 3 dates on Tim OT's tour with Grace Petrie! See his page for the full tour dates - these are the ones I am joining him on:

Sunday 7th December: Norwich - The Bicycle Shop
Wednesday 10th December: Kingston - The Cricketers
Thursday 11th December: Leicester - The Cookie

Kingston tickets on sale now, at £5 + 50p booking fee, here:

http://www.wegottickets.com/event/298706

Norwich & Leicester tickets are £5 on the door.

Please come and support these very talented singer-songwriters, hope to see you there!

performance news

STOP PRESS!

Nothing more needs to be said. Tim has waited for quite some time to play with one of his idols... and now tomorrow we are.

THURSDAY 20TH NOVEMBER, New Slang - Kingston (McCluskys), 4 Bishops Hall, Thames St, Kingston, KT1 1QN, tickets £10 (see website)

TIM OT
Excited to announce that I'm opening up for Frank Turner tomorrow night at New Slang - Kingston - I think some tickets are still left (http://www.banquetrecords.com/NS201114)

performance - open mic, Bar XLR, Epsom

STOP PRESS.

TONIGHT I am playing at the open mic night at Bar XLR in EPSOM. The event starts at 8pm, and everyone gets 15 minutes just like at The Cricketers. I know it's stupidly late notice so I am sure you all have plans, but if you don't, seeing you there will be marvellous.

performance news

THIS SATURDAY 1ST NOVEMBER, I am performing with Tim O-T at The Cricketers. We would be very pleased to see loads of you there! £2 on the door with all proceeds to charity.

performance news

I am pleased to confirm that I am opening for Maria Ahearn & Paul Ryan at Brave New World, Surbiton, on the 19th, free entry, come down and have a drink with us!

And even better, Tim O-T and I are confirmed to play on Saturday at Something Else In The Dean festival, Gloucester, GL14 1JU. We are on stage at midday. Tickets for this 500 capacity event reportedly sold out last year...yikes!

statistics & performance news

A little statistics fix for my followers: since I last posted mid-July, I have played a total of 52 songs at 9 events (7 at The Cricketers, Kingston, 1 at the Raynes Park Tavern, and 1 at the International Youth Arts Festival) - and a gentle reminder that I will be playing at The Joiners in Southampton on September 9th with the superb Tim O-T: we are supporting the one and only GET CAPE. WEAR CAPE. FLY. Tickets for this show are sold out but I have more exciting news of a further appearance from us towards the end of the month. Watch this space!

auditions - vocalist

I am in the process of auditioning for a new vocalist...a difficult task as there are many highly talented ones out there. At the moment this is taking the shape of informal rehearsals, but who knows where it could lead? Paid gigs, wedding work, fame... make yourself known to me if this is something you are interested in! I'm particularly wanting to hear from those who can sing in other languages and can easily grasp wildly different styles.

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

Super Sunday at The Cricketers! The set was:

1. Jamie Gray - Fantasia (excerpts from Iridescence Fantasia)
2. Jamie Gray - Someone to Love
3. Queen - It's a Hard Life

See y'all at the Rose Theatre tomorrow! Be there or...um...don't.

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

Super night at The Cricketers! A squeeze to fit us all in but we got there, and the set was:

1. Jamie Gray - Fantasia (excerpts from Iridescence Fantasia)
2. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
3. The Beatles - When I'm Sixty-Four

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

Another super night at The Cricketers! The set was:

1. Felix Mendelssohn - Lied Ohne Worte (Song Without Words), Op. 19 No. 4
2. Jamie Gray - Beseechingly
3. Elvis Presley - Can't Help Falling In Love With You
4. Queen - Don't Stop Me Now

Thanks to Ben Henderson on cajon for pieces 2-4!

Extra thanks to Thom Worth for manning the mixer tonight and making my keyboard sound bloody fantastic -)

See y'all next week!

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

A fantastic open mic tonight with excellent singalongs and audience participation... I would expect nothing less at The Cricketers! My set was:

1. Jamie Gray - Someone to Love
2. Muse - Ruled By Secrecy
3. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

And then to round the night off...

4. Fountains of Wayne - Stacy's Mom (with Rob Winterbourne on cajon and Patrick Craig on vocals!)

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

I got a middle-to-late time slot for this week's open mic, and decided to push some of my original material instead of being predictable by recycling covers. The set was:

1. Jamie Gray - Fantasia
2. Edvard Grieg - Småtrold (Puck, from A Midsummer Night's Dream), Op. 71 No. 3
3. Jamie Gray - Moonlit Beach (world premiere!)

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

An abridged set, though I'm not sure why as there weren't excessive numbers of performers down tonight and some of the later performers got their 3 songs. Mysterious. Anyhow, the set was:

1. Katie Melua - Learnin' the Blues
2. The Beatles-  When I'm Sixty-Four

SoundCloud

I'm not exactly sure why it has taken me so long to pull my finger out, but at long last I can proudly say I have a SoundCloud presence. Feedback and constructive criticism of the pieces put up is always welcome as it will only help me improve.

Listen here

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

I decided to go for a classical cover at The Cricketers this week, to mix things up a bit. The set was:

1. Jamie Gray - Fantasia
2. Reinhold Glière - Prelude Op. 43 No. 1
3. The Killers - Mr Brightside

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

After the fiasco that was last week, I was determined to return with a belting set. So that's exactly what we did. The set was:

1. Jimmy Eat World - The Middle
2. Jamie Gray - Fantasia
3. Green Day - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

An unusual one, this. The ridiculously confident genius that is Will Hosken managed to get the pair of us a one hour slot on Saturday evening via The Cricketers management, but when we turned up the pub was extremely quiet. We tried our best to get things going with an energetic starting set of songs but to no avail, and bowed to the inevitable. The abridged set, with Will performing on vocals throughout, was:

1. Bryan Adams - Summer of '69
2. Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars (Will solo)
3. The Killers - Mr Brightside

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

I do get the feeling I play Queen at these nights far too much. Time for something a bit different tonight. Due to sheer volume of performers, everyone's set was cut by a song. The set was:

1. Elton John - Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues
2. Muse - Ruled By Secrecy

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

Queen double header cover alert! The set was:

1. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
2. Queen - Don't Stop Me Now
3. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

performance - open mic, Brave New World, Surbiton

I didn't arrive in time at The Cricketers tonight to get on the performer's list tonight, so travelled a short distance up the road to the Brave New World instead...it was very quiet there indeed. The set was:

1. Randy Newman - You've Got a Friend In Me
2. James - She's a Star
3. Green Day - Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

Mixing up the covers at this week's open mic. The set was:

1. Queen - Don't Stop Me Now
2. Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
3. Elvis Presley - Can't Help Falling In Love With You

performance - open mic, The Cricketers, Kingston

Managed to sneak in an extra song tonight! After the end of the second song I asked the audience for a vote on which crowd pleaser they would rather hear to finish my set - the consensus was: "both!"

1. Nat King Cole - L.O.V.E.
2. Randy Newman - You've Got a Friend In Me
3. The Killers - Mr Brightside
4. Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody

composition - string piece

Genuinely sorry for the lack of updates on this blog. I will definitely try and exploit the potential of the blog a bit more in future - it's not always easy finding time to fit everything in. I'm sure a lot of readers can empathise with that!

I am working on a piece for strings at the moment, particuarly concentrating on viola and violin. (ie. the more melodic end of a string orchestra.) I do think a lot of music I hear on radio and in the charts nowadays is very bass heavy, so this is a deliberate move away from having an overly rambunctious double bass or cello part.

For those who wish to know the detail, there are two main albums that have inspired the thinking behind this piece. The first is actually a set of piano pieces - Philip Glass's Metamorphosis. The main thing that struck me about this, and in fact all minimalism, is how themes and motifs are slowly revealed through the repetition of texture and shading. The second is Madeleine Peyroux's The Blue Room, another excellent 'crossover' (what an awful word) from the American. In this album there is a palpable sense of shedding her staple diet of Billie Holiday's back catalogue and learning how to find her own voice in the overall canon of performers. The two tracks that really stuck in my head on this album were Bird on a Wire and Desperados Under the Eaves, both of which feature quite dramatic use of strings at various points. In the latter, a nod to the late American singer-songwriter Warren Zevon, the humming motif is reprised several times across various instruments before fading out to just the strings. It's obviously carefully orchestrated, a great moment. We all know strings are now overused and cliche, appearing in everything from Pop Idol to Disney films. It's my main aim to capture this kind of delicacy and elegance in my piece and remove some of the 'cheesiness' label.