Saved by John Reynolds MusicCity

Phasey - manager at a legendary  shop

We must have walked ten miles yesterday. We are getting to know Adelaide quite well now. I was desperate  to find a guitar as you can imagine. My first show is on Friday and who knows when our luggage will arrive?

So we visited Harrison's music shop which I found by googling 'classical guitar shop Adelaide'. A very kind man in there rang a friend first of all but had no luck. He then gave me two other possibilities and wrote down the details. The first of these was a couple of blocks north, go diagonally across the big square and head towards the blue building opposite. It was John Reynolds MusicCity.

We hurried along there and when I explained my predicament to Mr John Reynolds he turned to Phasey and said 'I think we can sort him out can't we?' and Phasey said that indeed they could. And they've lent me a guitar!! It's a Katoh and has a spruce top and it is such a welcome sight. Whilst I am still desperately anxious about my missing instrument this act of kindness to a fellow musician makes me feel much much better about everything. And best of all it means I can get on with rehearsing for my shows.

This shop is amazing and if you are a musician - doubly so. If you've never been they're at 175-185 Waymouth Street, Adelaide (or browse online).

Properly equipped and mightily relieved

First, we miss our flight to Adelaide...

On Saturday it was foggy in Dubai. On Sunday afternoon QF8016, operated by Emirates, took off from Gatwick and I was en route to Adelaide via a two hour stopover in Dubai. 'The weather is lovely and clear in Dubai,' the captain remarked, as off we flew. I was well and truly on my way to perform on the Adelaide Festival Fringe.

words fail me

However - when we arrived in Dubai we found that the connecting flight to Adleaide had already left WITHOUT US. A group of about 20 travellers besieged the transit desk to find out what they were going to do about it. We soon realised that the answer was 'not much.'

that is not my bag. That is a hello kitty bag

We whiled away the next three hours chatting and forming a good natured pressure group to make sure that the insouciant people manning the desk did not stop trying to find seats on other planes for us. As these insouciant people suggested nothing and shrugged and deplored the fact that there was only one flight per day to Adelaide (no we DON'T want to wait here 24 hours,' we said), one of our group suggested to them that they could re-route us via Perth or Brisbane. They very slowly began to do just that. By 4 in the morning we were all sorted out and given  food vouchers so that we could spend what remained of the night in the airport. Our flight to Perth left at 10.00 am the next day and the plane was half empty. It was nice to be able to stretch out across a whole row of seats and catch up on some sleep. Twelve hours later we landed in Perth, where it was 3.00 in the morning. We took off for Adelaide at 6.30 am and finally arrived at about Midday. And then we found that our luggage had not come with us!
I was in Adleaide to play the guitar at 5 venues for the Adelaide Fringe and I had not got my guitar. It's like one of those nightmares when you are about to go onstage to play the lead role in Hamlet and you suddenly realise you don't know any of the lines.

Adelaide, here I come...

Just checking the essentials now - packing is an art. I've got the adaptors and some shorts and my music... I've emailed copies of the music to myself so as to be able to print out an emergency sheet in case I lose a bit. I've assembled a billion socks. All odd - I only seem to have three actual pairs. Never mind. What else? I'm taking my squash kit. I've been in touch with South Adelaide Squash Centre, hoping to fix up a few games. It's in Edwardstown - Midera Avenue in case anyone is a member and fancies a game in the next couple of weeks. So look out for me.

Adelaide Fringe - 16 days and counting...

16 days until we fly to Adelaide. The weather here gets ever wetter and more dramatic and the sunshine there gets ever more attractive.

It's very busy on the publicity front with posters and flyers being distributed and one of my five venues has already sold over half its tickets for my show...

I've done some research about how strong my guitar case is. Should I get a titanium one or something? It is very difficult to think of my guitar in the hold all that way without worrying about lifting the lid at the end of the journey to behold a pile of splinters and strings.

I have decided my case will be fine. I have stood  on it and it didn't give or even wobble.

So if anyone from the Adelaide area is reading this, maybe I'll see you at one of my concerts? Do come! For all the details Read on...

It's official - I'm going to Adelaide!

The Adelaide Fringe to be precise.

You can't argue with black and white. There I am listed in the Adelaide Fringe Programme 2014. I've always said it would be nice to miss out some of the dank dark chilly days of the British early Spring and have sunshine instead. Suddenly the arrangements need making.

 We need to see about accommodation and car hire and flights and visas and check the passport is not going to be out of date come the day...
I'm practising with great focus and determination so as to do Adelaide proud. I'm practising another from Vincent Lindsey-Clark's Fiesta Americana, called Vuelo de la Mariposa - a gorgeous piece with delicate cascades of harmonics and some quite fiendish arpeggios. Hence the Australian butterflies. (The one on the right has a cool name - the Ulysses butterfly).
I shall be appearing for one performance in each of five different venues across the two weekends of the Fringe. My first venue, on February 28th, is a quite extraordinary place in its own right - the Migration Museum at 82 Kintore Avenue. After that I drive to Auburn in the Clare Valley (a famous wine region - hurrah) to perform at HATS Courthouse Cultural Centre on March 1st - a great chance to see more of the area and quite possibly sample some wine! Mind you there might not be time. The next day I'm on at Trinity Sessions in Clarence Park so it's a drive back to Adelaide. Then we have a week to do some sightseeing before it's time to drive to McLaren Vale - another famous wine growing region! The venue there, on March 7th, is The Singing Gallery. Then back to Adelaide and the final show, on March 9th,  which is in the State Dining Room at Ayers House which is like a big National Trust place and the oldest such building in South Australia. It is all very exciting and I can't wait.

 

Halloween Classical Guitar at Southampton's Medieval Wool House

pre-show rehearsal - Halloween at The Wool House

Pumpkins, witches and wine were all in evidence last night  and the wonderful people at the Wool House even made cups of tea and coffee for those who preferred, once the audience began arriving. And what a great audience it was - lots of friends came along and also lots of new people plus one surprise...

Also in the audience that night...

 

 ...I am still coming to terms with finding out, at the interval, that sitting in the audience was Vincent Lindsay-Clark. I am pretty much speechless with the honour of it. I found out he was  there when he came up to me in the interval. I had already played Salsa Roja', the



Interval time, jolly audience - spectacular building

 
                                                                                                                                               
third movement of his extraordinary and brilliant  Suite,  Fiesta Americana, commissioned from Vincent by world famous Paraguayan guitarist, Berta Rojas. (Berta gave it its world premiere in Whitchurch back in February - a night, and a concert, to remember!) and I have been working hard at the piece ever since. It was very well received in Edinburgh but by constantly practising I have got into it even more since then. Vincent kindly said that I had made a good job of it and even more kindly, he acknowledged that it is a tricky piece to play. I am very pleased to have received his encouragement, expressed with such wit and such an acute appreciation. Playing the classical guitar is frightening at the best of times and I am always aware of being close to some kind of edge when I am playing so it was only right that such an extra frisson should have happened on Halloween. And on behalf of the audience and of myself I would like to say a huge THANK YOU! to Element Arts and The Wool House Project for making last night such a magical evening. If you missed it, you can hear a bit of the concert HERE


A big thank you to the impressive people at Element Arts for creating such a lovely venue.

 

 

 

Autumn in Edinburgh - Guitar and Squash

Thistle Street, Edinburgh

Super audience on Friday night at the Waverley Sports Club for my concert. The room is lovely, with one wall a panoramic window overlooking the tennis courts. There are comfy sofas and with the curtains pulled and snazzy lighting effects it make a brilliant venue. Thank you to Dave Ferguson for organising it, to the great volunteers who dispensed pizza during the interval and after, and to that lovely audience for coming  and making it such a convivial and rewarding occasion. Someone requested Recuerdos del L'Alhambra as an encore (which is not a piece I was expecting to play) and I am pleased with how that went. It is the piece I use as a barometer of how I'm progressing with my levels of technique and control, so to me it has connotations of 'a test'. It is  interesting to be asked to perform it - I found that unexpected things had happened to the way I play it. There's a big difference to how you play when you are practising - even when you try to do a 'test performance' - and how you play when an audience is listening. I had a wonderful time. I wish I'd thought to organise a photo or two to share but I didn't.
The squash is slightly more tragic however. I have pulled a muscle or twisted a ligament or whatever and the calf pain from that means I haven't been able to play until today. Today I am going to have a go (if the team needs me) so wish me luck. (Good luck, me). I am sure that the pleasant evening I spent last night out and about in Edinburgh will have helped!