The ‘I Made The BBC’ 2008 World Tour
I started a new ‘job’ in January (still with the same company but doing a different gig now).
The job will require a bit of travel which is now something I won’t mind. When I first started working for this company, 14 years ago, it was a lot harder to travel and leave the babies at home. I think I must have visited Spain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, France, UK, Mexico, several states in the USA.
I’m going to use the opportunity this time to play gigs in every city I visit. I haven’t quite worked out the logistics of it but it’s got to be a bit of a laugh.
Next week I’m in Milan for some meetings and the people I’m meeting have an interest in playing music and have promised to find me somewhere to play and to loan me a guitar. If I do it I’ll video it (as I will any other shows I can do).
In April I should be ready for the Japan leg of the tour and there’s an outside chance I’ll take in the Czech Republic before then. In July I plan to gatecrash the village fete while we’re on holiday. Hopefully they’ve forgotten about my performance there last year …
In time for Christmas I’ll release my World Tour 2008 DVD.
MySpace: http://myspace.com/imadethebbc
You Know My Name
now it appears so will someone else.
I received a letter from the ‘Irish Blood Transfusion Service’ today advising me that my personal details (name, date of birth, address and telephone numbers along with donation details) were on a laptop that was stolen in New York.
http://www.enn.ie/article/10123932.html
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2008/0220/1203371241270.html
http://colmsmyth.blogspot.com/2008/02/preventing-companies-taking-risks-with.html
http://www.tomrafteryit.net/you-can-never-rely-on-encryption
http://obriend.info/2008/02/21/more-thoughts-on-the-ibts-data-breach
I don’t know whether to laugh, cry or kill the fucker who signed the letter.
More on this to come. I’m not pleased.
I’ve got EuroSong Fever Ted
http://www.youtube.com/v/3vs3Cr8sifw&rel=1
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirks/2008/02/06/turkey_puppet _bids_for_eurovision_role/5425/
http://news.id.msn.com/entertainment/article.aspx?cp-documen tid=1260539
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/06/musicnews.music
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23174888-13762,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7261164.stm
A puppet will represent Ireland in this year’s Eurovision song contest, TV viewers decided last night.
Children’s favourite Dustin The Turkey was plucked out as the best of six finalists, sparking a mixture of cheers and booing at the decision.
They decided the cult figure’s performance of ‘Irelande Douze Pointe’ – a parody of Eurovision – would be the one to ruffle some feathers at the song contest in May.
Dustin, one of Ireland’s leading stars since he joined ‘The Den’ with fellow puppets Zig and Zag in the 1990, swept all before him when he performed live.
The bird is no stranger to being in the limelight having recorded six albums and performed a host of comical duets with artists such as Bob Geldof, Chris De Burgh, Ronnie Drew, Dervla Kirwan and the late Joe Dolan.
After a number of years in the wilderness, Dustin The Turkey said he has decided to return to the recording studio in an effort to restore Ireland’s position as the high kings Of Eurovision.
Darren Smith and Simon Fine – composed the track with Dustin – previously collaborated on ‘Crazy Turkey’ from Dustin’s bestselling album ‘Bling When Your Minging’.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirks/2008/02/06/turkey_puppet _bids_for_eurovision_role/5425/
http://news.id.msn.com/entertainment/article.aspx?cp-documen tid=1260539
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/06/musicnews.music
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23174888-13762,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7261164.stm
A puppet will represent Ireland in this year’s Eurovision song contest, TV viewers decided last night.
Children’s favourite Dustin The Turkey was plucked out as the best of six finalists, sparking a mixture of cheers and booing at the decision.
They decided the cult figure’s performance of ‘Irelande Douze Pointe’ – a parody of Eurovision – would be the one to ruffle some feathers at the song contest in May.
Dustin, one of Ireland’s leading stars since he joined ‘The Den’ with fellow puppets Zig and Zag in the 1990, swept all before him when he performed live.
The bird is no stranger to being in the limelight having recorded six albums and performed a host of comical duets with artists such as Bob Geldof, Chris De Burgh, Ronnie Drew, Dervla Kirwan and the late Joe Dolan.
After a number of years in the wilderness, Dustin The Turkey said he has decided to return to the recording studio in an effort to restore Ireland’s position as the high kings Of Eurovision.
Darren Smith and Simon Fine – composed the track with Dustin – previously collaborated on ‘Crazy Turkey’ from Dustin’s bestselling album ‘Bling When Your Minging’.
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirks/2008/02/06/turkey_puppet _bids_for_eurovision_role/5425/
http://news.id.msn.com/entertainment/article.aspx?cp-documen tid=1260539
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/06/musicnews.music
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,23174888-13762,00.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7261164.stm
A puppet will represent Ireland in this year’s Eurovision song contest, TV viewers decided last night.
Children’s favourite Dustin The Turkey was plucked out as the best of six finalists, sparking a mixture of cheers and booing at the decision.
They decided the cult figure’s performance of ‘Irelande Douze Pointe’ – a parody of Eurovision – would be the one to ruffle some feathers at the song contest in May.
Dustin, one of Ireland’s leading stars since he joined ‘The Den’ with fellow puppets Zig and Zag in the 1990, swept all before him when he performed live.
The bird is no stranger to being in the limelight having recorded six albums and performed a host of comical duets with artists such as Bob Geldof, Chris De Burgh, Ronnie Drew, Dervla Kirwan and the late Joe Dolan.
After a number of years in the wilderness, Dustin The Turkey said he has decided to return to the recording studio in an effort to restore Ireland’s position as the high kings Of Eurovision.
Darren Smith and Simon Fine – composed the track with Dustin – previously collaborated on ‘Crazy Turkey’ from Dustin’s bestselling album ‘Bling When Your Minging’.
Give Ireland Back To The Irish
Stoned ex-Beatles aren’t the only ones confused about our recent history.
http://www.youtube.com/v/ZQJrovKgrTw&rel=1
On with the show
Last week I got to do a little bit of Mellotron-stuff with the Pugwash crew. Aided and abetted by Mr. Neil ‘Divine Comedy’ Hannon.
I brought my video cameras with me and over the weekend made this for a bit of a laugh. Seems they like it and it’ll be used for TV 
This song was originally written and recorded by the Idle Race for their debut album in 1968 ‘The Birthday Party’
ladies and gentlepeople I give you the Pugwash ‘On With The Show’
http://www.youtube.com/v/I4PUmRL65vE&rel=1
So is this technology working ?
So I have a new ‘phone…
Carlsberg don’t do "last day at the office" but if they did …
If it’s New Years Eve it must be Jools Holland Hootenanny
This is just an excuse to embed some clips courtesy of the BBC.
Another Year Over A New One Just Begun
2007
Now that I’ve started using Windows Live Writer I’m more inclined to add photos to the blog.
Here is a summary of 2007 in photos. (Hey it could be worse, I could have done it ‘through the medium of mime’).
If you click on any of the photos you’ll get a larger higher-resolution version.
Happy New Year to you. See you in 2008.
| … did I mention how much fun Bore Place was ? I did ? | By May I was spending whole evenings writing.
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Finally a gig on my own with my own songs. 6 months later my only thought is that my songs are better now and I want to get out there and perform these new songs.
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| In 2007 I felt older so much older than today. I attended my first 50th birthday party. My brother-in-law turned 50 and fortunately he’s still a big kid. | Heather’s birthday – candles, friends and fun.
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Baby Craig arrived and my sister is a grandmother ! | |
| Our baby grew up and started secondary school in September. | She might be growing up fast but Alison still loves ice cream just like every other little girl. | ||
| Valerie’s father is now in a nursing home and while he finds most things difficult to remember he’s still the patient gentle man he has always been. | Ben started playing guitar this year. With any luck he’s starting out on a lifelong relationship with music. | ||
| Ben saw a TV show about Eric Morecambe and sought out these glasses the following day ! | Christmas dinner wouldn’t be the same if Heather didn’t decorate my head with the contents of the Christmas Crackers | You know this was the first Halloween Pumpkin I ever made ? Pumpkins are a fairly recent arrival to Irish shores. | |
| We had the holiday of our lives this year. | Even Ben got over his nervousness around water… | Dive ! | |
| Walking with our French friends | |||
| Harry D. Catt arrived on our doorstep in mid-September and adopted us. | |||
| Simple Kid played Whelans but my hearing was screwed and I had to leave after 3 songs. | I saw Paul McCartney at the Roundhouse in London for 25 quid ! That’s me on the right only feet from the stage. | Thomas Dolby came to Dublin ! I never thought I’d see this guy perform live. What a gig. | |
| Alison… | Ben… | Heather… | |
And so this is Christmas and what have you done ?
2007 was a learning year for me, it was a good year for me.
This blog posting will be self-indulgent and me me me me me.
Since last Christmas I regained my confidence and, through Tom Robinson’s ‘Stand & Deliver: Finding Your Voice’ weekend, I performed and wrote songs for the first time in many many years. I spent this summer playing open mics around Dublin. Thanks Tom, Sue & Nick. I wrote about this back in April. My demo’ing of songs for my album has stalled a little but that’s ok. I know I’ll get back into it in a few days. I’m too busy living to worry.
I experienced mid-life career meltdown at a well known software multinational which left me in a bad place in late 2006. I was lost professionally, spiritually and creatively. I’m fortunate to have some good friends in that office and they helped me. I put a lot of time and work into self-examination and development. 2 days ago I was offered a new job in the company that gives me a reason to turn-up for work in the mornings. For the first time in many years I’m looking forward to going back to work in the new year. My self-esteem was at an all time low. The professional help I received for about 2 months gave me the information and tools I needed to understand myself and what made me happy.
Was it a mid-life crisis ? Fucked if I know. What I do know is that I’m happier now and less-stressed than I have been for over 10 years. Writing music will do that for you. Being recognised and treated as an adult professional will go a long way too !
Today is Thursday. Tomorrow I’m ‘working from home’ and will be getting ready for the weekend. Our kids don’t know that we’ve booked 2 rooms in the Four Seasons Hotel Dublin for this Saturday night. We’re going to spend Saturday relaxing in their pool… well I’ll be reading and listening to my iPod. Val will be doing the whole relaxation and getting-hair-done thing. While we have a grown-up dinner and some drinks that night the kids can order room-service and watch movies.
Next week it’s Christmas. In Ireland everything shuts down for the week between Christmas Eve and New Years Day. This year will be no different I’m sure.
When I return to ‘work’ in January I will have demo’d some more songs for my album, I will have written some new songs and might even have developed a couple of the songs I’ve started. I will be returning to a new job which should keep my mind busy between 9 and 5 which is more than has been happening for some years.
One of my un-finished songs goes ‘I don’t need a namebadge to know who I am’
I still believe that.
blue eyed dressed for every situation 