I’ve decided to focus mostly on the positives for this post - the things I achieved and am proud of. It’s been a challenging year in so many ways - but more than anything it’s made me realise just how lucky I am. My levels of gratitude for who I am, my position in life, my upbringing, my relationships - they’ve never been so high.
Anyway - onwards!
koko - music direction and drums
The year kicked off with a belter of a debut show with KOKO, the band for whom I put the live show together at the back end of 2019. The show sold out, and I’m happy to say it went without a hitch. The show was at The Waiting Rooms, Stoke Newington.
USA ROAD TRIP
Just after the show, off Lauren and I headed for a two week road trip around California! We stayed with my good friend and native Californian Dave who, along with his family, did an incredible job of hosting us and making us feel super welcome - firstly we stayed in Oakland, thereafter heading up to Calistoga, near Napa, to get some Californian country air and drink an awful lot of wine.
Lauren and I standing above the town of Calistoga - a beautiful, quaint Californian town with a quiet hustle and bustle made up of mostly locals.
Dave and I, a few pints of trendy IPA in.
February brought a smattering of shows, including this ULTIMATUM wedding performance - another happy couple and another highly stressful 12 hours of driving to Lancashire, loading in, gigging, loading out and arriving home at 3am before jumping on a flight to Bucharest at 6am to join Declan J Donovan on tour. Massive thanks to Shane Benson for coving the first few shows of this tour and doing a smashing job!
BACK ON TOUR WITH DECLAN J DONOVAN
Before the world turned upside-down and all live music disappeared for the duration of the year (It’s currently Jan 3rd 2021 and we still have no sign of it returning), I actually managed to get some touring in. Heading back out with Declan J Donovan, we firstly traveled around Europe on a tour support slot for Alice Merton, and subsequently had a stint on the UK on a headline tour. Watching the news unfold during the latter half of the UK stint (early March) was a extremely strange feeling - as close to the feeling of an impending apocolypse as I wish to get in my lifetime.
Scott, Declan and I having a little pre-gig cuddle in Birmingham.
Tour manager Bibes, who insisted we visit the Pig Museum in Stuttgart. An experience I do not regret. Since all live music work disappeared he’s created an amazing hot sauce company South London Sauce Company - check it out!
31st Birthday!
More or less the day after we returned from tour, the first Lockdown was announced. Basically meaning no going outside whatsoever except for exercise. So, here’s me having a lovely birthday stare-out-of-the-window! And what a lovely stare it was. Suffice to say Lauren did her best to give me a nice 31st - supplying me with beer and laughs as I tried to stifle a sense of utter bewilderment at the situation.
After a couple of weeks of being in the same room 99% of the time, and feeling as close to loosing it as I ever have, I discovered that the studio space I use in Brockley, South London, was able to be used under lockdown rules (counting as a workspace). Having this space enabled me to crack on with my first major release as a solo artist - CASSICUS, and with the help of absolute legend Ben Hammond at York’s Reel Recording Studio I had a terrific debut with my tune Torn, picking up some lovely junky blog coverage and bagging some BBC Introducing airplay.
The screen I stared at from around April to the end of the year!
Recording drums for the second CASSICUS release soon to be hitting the airways!
I spent most of summer honing my writing and recording craft, investing in my set up and enjoyed bringing in some emerging artists to my studio to collaborate and begin building a showreel as a songwriter / producer - I’m looking forward to developing this side of my career more in 2021.
Family Time
It came as a welcome bit of respite to have a small family gathering in celebration of my Uncle’s 70th over the summer!
Black Lives Matter
As the virus has reached every corner of the globe, the Black Lives Matter movement was gathering pace, and it was without hesitation that we headed out to join the protest. Weighing up whether or not to attend was an extremely difficult decision, but one I am comfortable was absolutely the right thing to do. Racism was showing no signs of waiting for COVID-19 to be over.
over to berlin
I was delighted when a two performances with KOKO were confirmed to be happening in Germany, one at Reeperbahn in Hamburg (big thanks to the drumming / MD legend Mike Park for doing an immaculate job in covering me for this!), and the latter for the TV show Culture Cast in Berlin. Flying there was an unsettling experience, as much as I had missed the buzz of flying to shows, as I sat on the flight, face mask on, all of around 20 people were my company on a plane made to carry hundreds.
Suffice to say, the experience was VISA-free; my heart breaks that we musicians now find ourselves in uncharted territory as a result of Brexit. Massive uncertainty remains as to the viability of touring for emerging artists. My freedom of movement has been stollen from me and I’m still struggling to come to terms with it - doubtless I never really will. Brexit is the biggest heist ever conducted in the UK.
