Pizza slices, cold beers, brownies, lemon drizzle cake and chilled rosé - the perfect classical guitar concert!

The scene at Wimborne St Giles as the concert draws to a close. The wine bottles are empty now; I've come back on for my encore and outside the midsummer evening is glowing. See that plate covered with foil? There were some homemade pizza slices left after the interval and people were stocking up with extra pieces to take home. I confess that there are two such plates in my dressing room (the back kitchen); one with pizza and the other with cake. It was a truly delightful concert experience. Allowing people to bring their own wine and beer is an inspired idea and selling delicious homemade snacks in the interval makes it into a real party. What a great place. That spectacular tapestry you can see on the wall behind me depicts the village, including the cows, black Labradors and hens. You see a bit more detail in the shot below.

 

Jonathan Prag at the Edinburgh Fringe - Tickets now on sale

Great excitement - word has come that tickets have gone on sale for this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Buy Tickets to Jonathan Prag Classical Guitar

Classical Guitar and bananas in Otley and Halifax

The acoustic at Otley Courthouse Theatre is just right. It actually was a courthouse and there is a

dressing room, Square Chapel Theatre

sweet spot on stage which is exactly where the judge used to sit. Glen, my expert technician, showed me and it was extraordinary - if I moved my chair a few inches back  the difference was amazing. There were some nice photos done of me playing during the concert (and also of me pretending to be locked up - playing my guitar in one of the police cells, three of which have been preserved upstairs).
In Halifax the Square Chapel is very impressive in size and has a lofty wide space flooded with light from enormous windows. It's a beautiful building and one of the only square chapels ever built. I needed my amp in there but I didn't turn it up to 11. The sound was really warm and just a bit of amplification was all it needed. Great audiences in both venues and lovely house managers and teams of stewards and technicians. I wish I still had the photos. This phone picture of me tuning up just before going on is the only one I've got though because the camera bag was nicked out of the car in literally one minute - the minute before we went back out to the car to get it after we'd brought most of the stuff in. They bashed the passenger window in and took the camera and my bananas.

We had been going to stay the night after the gig and were planning to get a curry first at Ziggy's Spice House, which is the best Indian restaurant in Halifax apparently. But with no passenger window and only the car to keep the stuff in we had to drive home instead. As there were no bananas to sustain us we had to eat Big Macs and chips and wrap our heads up to combat the very blustery draught. Never mind - there's always next year. And we'd had a superb curry in Red Pepper - a lovely place in Otley, so we'll live.

Gigs in Yorkshire

I'm off to Yorkshire. First I have a gig to do on the South coast tomorrow and then I aim to drive part of the way to Otley and stop over somewhere halfway up, Northampton-ish let's say, have a good sleep and a nice big breakfast on Friday morning

The guitar is ready

and finish the drive on Friday so I can arrive in good condition. The guitar is all ready - I put new strings on a few days ago and they are well played in now.
Otley looks like a beautiful town and Otley Courthouse theatre, where I'll be performing, looks awesome. We're lucky to have friends in the area so will be driving to their house after the gig - after the highly necessary curry that is. I don't think I can drive all the way to Otley, perform a concert and then not go out and have a curry.  I've been investigating local breweries in that area too...  there is the vital question of which local brews to sample.

Sampling the local brews is pretty much an obligation I think

I've got Saturday off - during which I will get the chance to see my friends and maybe do a bit of ale sampling and as it's the Holmefirth  festival of Folk I'll be visiting that. I'll definitely be going to hear Michael J Tinker playing at 4.30 pm - I am just assuming I'll be able to find him -  I'm not sure where it is but he's on at The Red Deer. The Gerry McNeice Band is on as well - And on Sunday I'll still be there and if you're in the area come and listen to Sarah Horn and James Cudworth - great musicians -  performing outside Hervey's, from around 2pm. I've just got time to sample some ale (modest pre-gig amount) and hear some music before it's off to my own gig - to play some Bartok and Bach and flamenco and Villa Lobos and all the rest of my programme in Halifax.
I'm performing there at Square Chapel Arts Centre and I notice that just above me in the what's on list is what looks like a very nice beer festival which I will have missed. Ah well - I'm sure I shall have had some very good local brews by then.

Back to King's Lynn and the 2013 Festival Fringe



Brilliant statue not far from my venue in King's Lynn

The King's Lynn Festival brochure is out now and the online version has gone live also. I’m listed in  ‘events, walks and tours’ and am honoured to share the list with some delightful things e.g. the poetically named walk: Algarkirk to Whaplode by way of Bicker & Pinchbeck. There are some lovely things on: - As You Like It in the courtyard at Holkham Hall, for example and tea dances and musical coffee mornings. Scroll down the list and you will find me between the Boughton Jazz Picnic and the West End Wendies! See picture below of me playing last year in this gorgeous church.
Tickets for this year are already selling well I’m delighted to hear. The Box office number is 02380 560945 if you want to book your tickets in advance or you can just turn up and get your ticket on the door. Do visit the Festival website to browse, but in case you didn't have time my programme entry says:

Jonathan Prag Classical Guitar, All Saints Church, King’s Lynn

 21 July 3pm £7 (£5.00 concessions)

Back following 2012’s Festival success in King’s Lynn. Superb playing includes Lauro, Barrios, Satie. ‘…gripping performance...held the entire audience’s rapt attention.’ (Lothian Life)

Organised by All Saints Church.

All Saints Church King's Lynn

A gig at St Mary's Stadium

I played at St Mary's Stadium last night - the first time I've ever been to it. I was playing the guitar I hasten to add and this was a grand function and nothing to do with football. Barry Cryer was there. He came up to me at the end and said how much he had enjoyed listening to me play. In today's  Guardian Simon Hoggart, reporting on the annual Oldie of the Year lunch in his Simon Hoggart's Week column says the same thing - 'Barry Cryer was there...' and then goes on to say that Barry is hard of hearing. Hmm. On balance I am still pleased.

This is the Ted Bates statue outside.

Happy New Year!

The evil lemon of doom

I hope 2013 will be a contented and productive year for you all. I would like the same for myself but there is a delay - partly self inflicted. Foolishly I chose to slice a lemon by resting it on the edge of the sink (I know... I know...) and I sliced my finger right where the pressure goes whenever I have to hold down many many chords. And then, after actually commenting to someone on how pleased I was with the current condition of my right thumb nail I caught it in the badminton net (guitarists have to play raquet sports as everyone knows) and two thirds of it snapped off. But never mind. I am sure that once I have got clear of January and it's physical inconveniences I shall be fine.
Exciting things are coming up - it's my concert at South Hill Park Arts Centre on February 8th and meanwhile I am busy putting together the programme for this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe which, if all goes to plan, will get its preview at the King's Lynn Festival in July. I had a very successful concert there last year and am looking forward to returning to play again. It was a most rewarding experience and of course it is a lovely area to visit in any case.
Also - astonishingly - I am currently at number 1 in the local Reverbnation classical charts. Thank you to all the people who have liked /fanned/visited my pages or commented.