Monday 18 July 2011

Bite the Mountain Tour halfway mark

Me, Ichi, Rozi Plain, This is the Kit have been swirling about playing in the south of England on the Bite the Mountain Tour to mark the release of my new album, and to have fun hanging out and playing together again. I've been having such a lovely time with tooting brass, percussion and steelpan on my songs by all the pals above plus Kano on saxaphone and Andy Skellam on guitar. All has been super dooper but if I had to say what sticks out then the highlights sofar have been The album launch part 1 - King's Head in Crouch End, where the whole of Tristram added parts without even needing much of a rehearsal, and Ichi's set at Cafe Oto was tip top, he pulled out suprises even for me (and I've seen him 100's of times) - it was the perfect antidote to my nerves.

Now just over the halfway mark, off to Oxford in a few hours with Wig Smith to play at Modern Art Oxford and Truck festival.

Here's our tour so far in a few pictures


Before we set of to play shows Ichi was busy building new instruments in the attic, including new and improved stilts that double up as double bass



Meanwhile I was nervously unwrapping and listening to my album that plopped onto the doormat




Me, Ichi, This is the Kit, Rozi Plain and Whalebone Polly all had sets at the cosy Watts Festival in beautiful Devon



bed of bails




haybail fun







The arrival of Andy Skellam, preparing to drive into deeper Devon


After Watts festival we met up and camped for a night with the bicycle tour gang led by Jesse Morningstar. Most of the gang were from France in a band who's name I can't remember at the moment, but who I loved. A shame we couldn't manage it this year but determined to join them on bikes next year, toot toot, pip pip



We camped on Sean's (ex Moonflowers) farm in Seaton, and were treated to his salad leaves and hedgerow delights, thank you Sean



Ichi at Miss Peapods, Falmouth



Me and Kate of This is the Kit, Miss Peapods



Kano's drawing at the Cube, Bristol


side of the stage, The Cube, drawing to raise donations for the Tsunami appeal


The Cube


Ichi's set at cafe Oto, one of my highlights


dad's cake decorated by me, sister Betsy and Ichi


In April we planted Japanese gobo seeds in my mum's veg patch and low and behold they grew big and strong


and delicious



































Tuesday 5 July 2011

O WIND


My brother George is designing Kites for ships for his PHD. Imagine how brilliant it would be to see the seas dotted with huge kites pulling ships. Another friend writes a blog on environmental issues and has written about these kites here http://jamesmapope.wordpress.com/