Lots of exciting stuff happening at the moment!

If you’re out & about in Bristol this Saturday you could do worse than to check out BrisFest in the city centre at around 4pm – I will be “busking for Oxjam” until about 5pm so please come along and show some support – it’s all for charity

I’ve been writing a lot of late and this has resulted in some new solo set pieces and also the development of new band-oriented material as well as some new work underway with the poetry/music collaboration. This is all good as it promises sustainment for these projects that might otherwise appear to be a short-term thing. The band is going through personnel changes at present so it feels good to be writing with the remaining members. We are currently looking for someone to play additional acoustic / electric guitar so if anyone’s interested please drop me a line. Once we’re fully staffed we can get out there gigging again – which is really all we want to do

Another rather excellent gig is coming up for me in Bristol on 14th October too, at The Thunderbolt Shockingly that’s not as far in the future as it sounds, so put it in your diaries… I’ll be supporting JEBO. If you haven’t heard of these fellas look them up on tinternet!  The band has just finished mixing the new album with ex-Island Records producer John Burns (Jethro Tull, Genesis and John Martyn) and Real Worlds Ben Findlay. They are really making waves and it promises to be a top night

Talking of albums, many thanks to those of you who have parted with your hard-earned cash and ordered copies of “You Should Know…” And it’s sooo nice to note such positive feedback I’ve been getting as well! If you haven’t got yourself a copy yet just get yourself over to the STORE page and order one. Might make an ideal early Christmas present for someone You can hear a sneak preview of a few tracks to give you an idea on my myspace page too if it helps…

And to top it all off, I’m chuffed as well to have been nominated for BBC Radio Bristol’s playlist during the month of October! Tracks from the album will soon be hitting the airwaves across the city and I can’t wait …. !!

Well, Venue Magazine have delivered on their promise and provided a review of my album “You Should Know” in their last issue. If you didn’t get to read it, don’t worry you didn’t miss much really. I’m not ungrateful, it’s not bad. And certainly I don’t expect to righteously garner glowing review after glowing review.  Music, afterall, like all art comes down to a matter of taste. I know that I can put on what I think is my best show with my best work and less than half the room may like it. That’s cool – I’ll take that chance just to reach the portion of the audience that do. I guess perhaps I’m perplexed. I have been compared a lot over the years to the likes of Alanis Morisette, Joni Mitchell and Dido. I cannot fathom why. And so predictably I’ve again been confronted with the very un-original comparisons with those same apparitions. For one thing the reviewer seems to feel that You Should Know owes it’s title to an Alanis song .. er, hello? that’s my title track luv! And also it’s meant by way of an introduction – this being a debut album an’ all. Where the hell did Alanis come in?

sigh. .  . well, there’s some meaningful critique in there which I’ll take on board to some extent – this is what I look for in a review, alongside a few helpful sound-bytes if I’m lucky and a bit of PR. Therefore, though I remain genuinely befuddled by the somewhat sweeping comparisons made, I will happily take the following:

“there is an overall quality here that defies nit-picking”

Ta!

I’d be interested to hear from anyone who’s heard me live or on cd / on air who they think I could be likened / compared to. Ideas anyone? Post a comment or send me a message If you agree with Venue – tell me why! If you have other suggestions, these will be happily received! x Bj