I am very happy to announce that Chris Pookah’s album, “Behind the Sun” is now printed and ready to post. I have been listening to the finished tracks and they sound all lovely and polished and clean, his voice is velvety and effortless and the arrangements are fabulously understated and allow each song to live in a safe place.

Support a fantastic musician: go to his page and buy the album as a digital download or CD or Vynil – perhaps a T-Shirt? The best would be a booking, anything from a festival or wedding to a House Party.

It really does sound great.

There is a song going around called Mandie and you can buy it!

It began in response to a relationship I had with a lady in Bristol at a time when dance music parties in fields, underground car parks and various other locations were still popular, usually arranged by text message and involving fun and games to mislead the police as to where exactly the ‘rave’ would be happening.

There were good and bad sides to the whole thing; I saw good things and lots of people having fun, I also saw and experienced some of the damage that a life of drug taking (prescription or otherwise) can do to people directly.

There are two Mandie’s involved: one is a very entertaining lady with a big personality and a heart of gold, the other … well, perhaps if you do a little research you will find a couple of other ‘Mandie’s’.

I decided to use this page for posting the song lyric where appropriate so here is Mandie in all her(?) glory.

You can now watch the video and sing along!! 😉

I will be hosting at least one Burns’ Supper this coming January in Aschaffenburg, Bayern which is twinned with Perth in Scotland.

A libertarian, a womaniser, a farmer, tax collector, a man of sensitivity and humanity, ‘Rabbie” was all of these things but most of all, a man of the people.

Haggis, nips n tatties will be served along with a wee brawth to start and a tidy oatcake, cream and jam to finish.

Whiskey will be available for toasting – I will try to keep the number of toasts down to a reasonable limit but there will be water… in separate glasses.

Music will be beautifully delivered by my friend and cohort, Chris Pookah who has a good stock of Burns songs that he has formed to suit his style in a very authentic and genuine way. It’s worth coming just to hear him play a few songs. And of course, a piper!

More news to come on the venues and ticket price. Let me know if you would be interested in a genuine supper to celebrate the birth, life, works and enduring influence of one of the world’s most gifted poets.

This page will grow as I come up with more stuff ready to fill it. Over the last two years I have intermittently recorded on video, still shots and memories in writing the experiences of the last two years. I do not wish to set them in order in particular but merely present them as moment along with the songs from the album where appropriate.

So I will use the posts as I can to promote the music I play and to respect the memory of Katie to whom I made the promise to “live my life without fear”. Easier said than done in this society so here is a picture of how to do it 😉 Thanks to the FRIZZ photographer for capturing this as I was playing last year at Brüderschaft der Fölker on the banks of the river Main in the boutique city that is Aschaffenburg.

I had some long awaited luck in 2016 so along with my wee dog and friend of 17 years, Katie, an adventure began in August. There were some hiccups with the van preparation and some things to tidy before we left Macclesfield, our home of six years, but leave we did.

I say ‘beginning’ on the title for this section but of course it is pretty difficult to actually find the beginning of anything, but it was the beginning of August 😉

Having decided that we were Scotland bound to meet up with Chris in Glasgow before going on to Inverness for the Belladrum Festival, our second stop on the road was at a place called Dunure on the west coast of Scotland near Ayr and facing the south coast of the island of Arran.

This machine became our home for the next two years (it is currently awaiting a ‘decision’) and did us proud. Even traveling later with three inmates this was a good machine.