Richard Markham _

13 Feb 2008: still recovering from late nights and excessive beer consumption visiting Moorlandt in his home city of Brussels along with Kristen (part of her European tour!), Vincent B, Isca and Mrs I. Among many highlights of  a great get together was a packed out 3-hour Saturday night gig on the "Hotel Cafe 2008" tour - six artists/friends alternating numbers and helping eachother out, with a very useful house band.  Several of us thought this format might be the shape of things to come for SAB and live performers generally.  Check out the excellent performers (not SAB) - Catherine Feeny, Tom McRae, Greg Laswell, Jim Bianco, Cary Brothers and  best of all Brian Wright.

In the other time we had we also managed a brewery visit (more drink), a jazz club, a city centre sightseeing afternoon and finally a visit to the home of Moorlandt himself; very considerable thanks are due to his family for putting up with a bunch of strange foreigners dropping in!

Above all, huge thanks to Moorlandt himself for his valuable time and warm welcome. He will be a hard act to follow when he comes to the UK, that's for sure!

See a snap of the full party on my photos tab - thanks Chris for allowing me to use it.

4 Feb 2008: after 2 weeks of flu and several more of intensive work, it was great to emerge into the real world again with a night out at Dave Patrick's Sellagig at 229 last night. Ideally I would also have done the 1 Feb show, but my wallet and stamina would not have stood it.

I went along as "assistant" to my good long-time friend Peter Meade, who was to take the "official" still pix, though in the end my role was largely to introduce him to the artists and let him get on with it. He is posting his best pix at http://www.flickr.com/photos/p jmeade/

Dave let us in about 4.30 so Peter could shoot backstage and setup/soundcheck pix and this enabled us both to get to know the artists and (I hope) put them at their ease.  I have to say that without exception everyone I met was warm and friendly and very positive about the Sellaband concept. I also met and chatted with fellow believers Kevin Taverner, Wyando, Dave The Esthameian and Triff. I was as ever much impressed that  Wyando had made it over from Cologne in Germany! We spoke several times and I finally made my own entry in his SAB offline profile (ie book!).

The concert itself started around 7.30 with a short but well-received set from Clem, accompanied by his own acoustic guitar and a clarinet - which made for a different and very interesting sound.  Although I enjoyed Summertime and Just Wanna B Loved immensely, it was the Turkish sounding number with exotic clarinet which really grabbed me!

Cris Tanzi and friends then stole the show for me with a well-judged and beautiful short set.  The low ceiling seemed to suit Cris' voice and relatively quiet material best of all the artists and her pure voice was in top form. She also won the night's style award for me - her neat, elegant dress reflecting her personality as I have picked it up through the SAB site and her songs.

Cris was followed by Rebecka Haak and her band, comprising sisters Marie (cello) and Rebecca (violin) Fransson.  They put on a very professional performance despite less than perfect sound which made it hard to hear the lyrics clearly at all times.  Rebecka also had a very good stage presence, both with her striking makeup and clothes and in the way she engaged with and relaxed her audience. If she was nervous, it didn't show!

Rox Clayton-Scott and her very tight band then gave us a storming selection form her new (and very good) album "What I meant to say". She too had a very warm, confident and upbeat stage presence and constantly acknowledged the band's contribution.  Her considerable experience in front of an audience was a clear asset.  The other nice thing was seeing Dave P have a chance to relax at last, after all the stress of organising and running the night!

The evening finished with Kaitee Page and her band, followed by Julia Marcell. Kaitee injured a finger just before her set, but the show went on and she didn't let it affect her.  Unfortunately, though the songs were great and well sung, the overall effect was marred by the sound - the overall voume was far too high for the low room and the sound engineer struggled to get Kaitee's own violin audible in the mix. In the end much of the detail, which makes the music so engaging on record, was battered into submission.  I was left feeling I would like to see Kaitee again, but in a proper auditorium; hopefully impending fame means won't be too long now!

Julia had to wait till around 10.40 pm to get on stage with her string quartet, but they didn't let the wait show as they gave us around half an hour of mesmerising if sometimes challenging songs.  I recognised Accordion Player and Dancer, amongst others, but some of the material was new to me, including one song where Anna and Patrycja (?) formed a novel rhythm section by clapping their hands against eachother's as in an elaborate playground game. It was highly effective and got everyone's attention!  Also, although again I couldn't make out all of the lyrics due to the sound, I heard enough to gather that two or three of the songs need further investigation for their off-centre themes... The string arrangements and playing were absolutely top drawer - Julia needs to hang on to these guys (well 3 women and one man). I can't wait for the album.

After the music ended, about 30 of us (believers, crew and artists) hung around having a relaxed drink until gently ejected by security just after midnight. A really good time having been had by this correspondent.

And finally...  It was great to see Francis (Rodino) and Daniel (Ward-Murphy) again, this time as members of the audience. Both seemed happy and well and were even persuaded to take part in a short backstage portrait sitting!

8 December 2007: it's a wet cold weekend in the UK and I am contending with a stubborn child, who should be working for his exams but won't. Oh dear - Matt you know who you are!  I have comforted myself by trawling the last weeks' new Sellabands and come up with Inger Hansen, Archangelica, Porterhouse, Churchill AC, Grassering and RoadRunner. All for different reasons.  I've booked my attendance at Dave Patrick's 3 Feb Sellagig, which looks like being a great evening. one of my friends has agreed to take some professional photos.

On 9 November 2007, I saw Francis Rodino Band's headlining appearance at the Grand, Clapham. My son Matt had prepared flyers (based on a draft by Utterly B Groovy) and they plus other promotional material were much in evidence when Nick Deaves (fellow believer), Randall Cameron (my brother in law) and I arrived at the venue just after 9 after a couple of warm up pints down the road.

It was a big room, with a raised bar along the back partially screened off by perspex, so you could watch the acts but still hear to some extent!  I had the privilege of buying the great man a pint and getting in a few words before he had to go prepare. He was relaxed and happy, as you would expect. While the stage was being changed for his band, I got the chance to meet Sellabanders BIM (including a nice chat with Tim), John, Mandyleigh Storm, Triff, Adam Sieff and UBG himself (including amateurish - on my part - manlegging).  I missed Isca (languishing at some inferior musical event in Minehead (!)) selling me something.

Francis was on good form despite iffy sound and although the room could have taken more people, the audience more than made up for any gaps with their volume and enthusiasm. Francis and Nick were all over the place (physically) as they worked through an energetic 50-minute set, including one solo acoustic number and culminating (of course) in a storming verson of "Burn".  To my mind Francis could have chatted more, but it looked like the band was under pressure to get through the set by a given time. Nevertheless, he managed to get some good rock'n'roll patter in - including his outrage at being denied wine is his dressing room! - also plenty about his Sellaband achievement (which was also hyped by the MC).  What with Francis' efforts and the various literature lying about, not may could have missed the Sellaband connection.

During the set I heard a couple of songs I didn't know, including one dramatic slow rocker dedicated to his friend Annie - I wouldn't mind knowing what that was and hearing it again.

All in all, a successful and fun night out, in good company. Good luck to Francis and the crew now as they dive into the recording studio to produce that world-beating album!

See my pix of Daniel Ward-Murphy's wonderful Songs from Soho session at

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ rpmarkham/SongsFromSoho02

See the blogs of Isca and others for detailed accounts of the evening.

See my/Isca's pix of Sunsoma's Oxjam 2007 performance at

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/ rpmarkham/SunsomaOxjam2007

Set list was:

Hollow

Wide Asleep

Too Long Now

Yellow (Coldplay cover)

Lines (Acoustic version)

Skin (Acoustic version)

When September Ends (Green Day cover)

When We Know Everything

Summer Sun

Planetary (encore)

and the band was on fine form despite less than fantastic acoustics in the cosy stone barn!

Isca and I travelled together and met the whole band, who were in good form despite a long day setting up and doing the sound for all the support acts (including Mel's brother Ru Oxlade + friends, and young pop/rock outfit Retrofect who were both excellent acts too - I bought Retrofect's album "New York Kiss" and wasn't disappointed).

Sunsoma took to the stage around 10 to a great reception from a decent crowd - many of whom were not seeing them for the first time from the sound of it!  This was the first gig for Lee, the new keyboard player and he looked the part (as you can see from the photos) and fitted in well with the Sunsoma sound.

A couple of the songs were new to me, but I really enjoyed them, despite trying to concentrate on videoing proceedings with Mel's camcorder.

There was a great roar for the band's traditional encore "Planetary" and then it was all over, with another few hours of clearing up and travelling ahead for the band.  However, Mel pronounced the effort well worthwhile - the charity collection target had been met and exceeded with some generous donations. 

The band continues to investigate all avenues to develop and breakthrough and is optimistic that the current lineup will give them a great platform to move ahead.  Watch for developments on SAB in the very near future! And read SUNSOMA's own blog about the evening.