Wednesday 7 February 2024

I finish off a bunch of guitar pins for the merch table…

AFTER a session with one of my regular guitar students in the studio I hit the office and finish off some leather hat patches so Margaret can start getting the sewn onto beanies and caps.

Next, the guitar pins need finished so I can get the fixings on the back with enough time to cure properly..then snaps onto leather bracelets.

After lunch I go out for a walk and stop in to help Betty with some stuff. I carry on up the lochside then back to see FIona and drop off a dog tag I made for her new puppy, Nova. What a beautiful wee thing she is 🙂

In the studio I start organising gear for the trip south and get batteries on charge before running through some of my set list. Quite excited about this run of shows.

After dinner I bother with Mikey while I do a little work on a website for a pal then turn in sometime after midnight….

Tuesday 6 February 2024

I GET straight onto merch production – more guitar earrings, leather cap patches, music note and guitar pendants….

In between times I make up a set list for the upcoming shows then join a legal/touring online session with the Musicians’ Union (MU).

Then it’s back onto the merch and time for a quick walk up the lochside before my late afternoon guitar student arrives.

I have to do a lot of the metal finishing outside – the hand sanding and polishing creates too much dust in the office. It’s bloody freezing but I get a lot of stuff finished…just a couple guitar pins to finish tomorrow…and some leather bracelets needing studs.

Monday 5 February 2024

Tennessee Stud – the closing cover from this week;’s Wildcats’ livestream

MIKEY’s working on a ceiling in a neighbour’s house, Margaret’s got a meeting in Stirling and I kick off the day with a session with a Zoom guitar student.

After the lesson I hit the office. I have a list of merch needing made up for the upcoming shows. I also make up a generic set list for the Newcastle, Barnoldswick, Oxford and Brecon shows.

After lunch I mess around with the ‘new’ song idea I’ve been farting about with for a long time now. At last I feel I’m going somewhere with it. Takes time 😉

After a session with my regular Monday evening guitar student I get straight into a clusterfuck-free livestream…then back to the house for dinner.

Sunday 4 February 2024

A name change… ‘rig rundown’ becomes ‘gear rundown’….find out why…

AFTER breakfast I weight the items I wanna try and sell online – Damage Control Liquid Blues pedal, Line6 wireless guitar system and a Focusrite audio interface, All have bee lying around the studio for years and are surplus to requirements and taking up space. Plus we’re skint!

After weighing them and working out postage I get them listed on Reverb and also on Facebook Marketplace.

A message from a knowledgable pal gives me a heads up that Premier Guitar apparently has trademarked the term ‘rig rundown’ and relentlessly chases down anyone using the term! It seems odd to me that a phrase containing general/common words can be trademarked but I appreciate the tip-off and change the name to ‘gear rundown’. That means I should really change the intro screen too. The edit is quick and easy, but the whole video has to be re-processed and uploaded to Youtube and Facebook for scheduled release on Tuesday – after I’ve previewed it during tomorrow’s (Monday) livestream into my Wildcats Facebook group.

And now the I have over 1000 Youtube subscribers I can add chapter markers to the uploaded video 🙂

Mikey arrives – he’s staying a couple of days while working on some local jobs – and I some sourdough then let it autolyse and spend some time working on a new song idea.

Saturday 3 February 2024

MY efforts to get some more Youtube subscribers via social posts has paid off and we’ve easily smashed the 1000 subscriber threshold that allows me to add chapter markers to my uploaded videos 🙂

But, I realised I left something out of the rig rundown video. After breakfast I hit the studio, film and edit a short section then edit it into the main rig rundown video.

Trying to tidy the studio a little a few weeks ago I found some stuff that I could probably sell…a Damage Control Liquid Blues pedal, a Focusrite USB audio interface and a Line6 Relay G10 guitar wireless system. They’ve been sitting about ever since so I decide to take some photo and get them listed for sale online.

We’re a bit skint too, so I also put some test pressing/commercial vinyl bundles up for sale in the online store.

All that takes up the day then we make our way to Ross Priory further down the lochside for our pal Corinne’s 60th birthday party.

Friday 2 February 2024

MARGARET’S off to Edinburgh to meet Les for a hairdo and lunch…I have a guitar student coming.

I also have a haircut in the village after the guitar lesson. Margaret;s got the car, the buses don’t co-incide time-wise and I won’t have time to walk after the lesson. I could cycle, but it’s crap weather and I don’t wanna go to the hairdresser with helmet hair! Sandy calls to say Margaret had mentioned it and he can give me a lift 🙂

Sandy also offered to come and give me a run home but I politely decline knowing that I could do with the exercise even if it is pishing rain.

I enjoy the walk and listen to another few chapters of Atomic Habits (worth a look!).

When I get home I make a pizza bread pulled pork sandwich then a wood delivery arrives. It’s still pouring so I decide to get it all into the woodshed before it gets soaked. Ooofft.

Lots of online stuff to be done and, after lighting the fire, I elect to do it from the laptop in the house. I nip outside to start production of a few bits of merch for next week’s shows.

I’d like to add chapter markers to the rig rundown video I’m posting on YouTube to go live next week…but realise you need over 1000 subscribers to access that kind of functionality. I’m not hat far off that number of subscribers so do few social media posts asking folks to subscribe so I can enhance future video posts.

It’s blowing a hooley again when I venture outside to fire ups eh pizza oven for tonight’s BBQ pulled pork pizzas. I brave the elements tho’ and we enjoy pizza and a film…

Thursday 1 February 2024

Finally get the ‘rig rundown’ video finished – I’ll show it in the Wildcats’ livestream on Monday then make it ‘public’ on my Youtube channel.

OFF to the school in Balloch first thing. I have a good session with the kids and let them know I’m not around next week ‘cos of the gigs down south.

After lunch I hit the studio and finish off the ‘rig rundown’ video. I’ll wait ’til after Monday’s Wildcats livestream on Facebook then make it public on YouTube,..although YOU can see it above 😉

The doctor calls. We have a dilemma with our annual travel insurance policy which is up for renewal. My diverticular disease has to be declared but the question ‘have you been hospitalised with the condition’…mmm…not an easy one. My hospital visits are always caused by non-stop, ongoing vomitting…at some point during my admission my bloods and resulting scans indicate a diverticularitis flare up..which somehow always makes it’s way onto be discharge papers as beaming a presenting cause of admission. Funny, then, how every doctor, specialist or consultant has always fiercely denied any connection between the vomitting and divertularitis flare ups! I have never had any presenting symptoms of diverticularitis when going to the hospital…just the vomiting and delirium.

I need the doc’s advice on how to answer. Unfortunately lately he says the records are the records and most likely the insurers will take them to be gospel…ah well, worth an ask…I do manage to persuade him to refer me for an ultrasound to see if we can get to the bottom of the vomitting thing. HE reckons the CT scans etc would have shown any gall bladder issues, but a few folks including a radiologist fan who’s followed my hospitalisations on Facebook have told me that a ultrasound could show up issues missed by the fancier CT scans….

Margaret speaks to the insurer who seems to understand the situation and, after consulting the powers that be, gives a much more favourable quote. Phew!

After all that run through the release and promotion plan put together for a pal and message him to see how the ‘tasks’ are going. After a bit more work it’s time to wander along to Betty’s for dinner…

Wednesday 31 January 2024

A still from the upcoming ‘rig rundown’ video…

AFTER my morning guitar student has left I hit the studio.

First job of the day is to speak to journalists and radio folks in and around Oxford to try and get some exposure for the upcoming show at Port Mahon (10 February).

I also phone round the BBC stations in the upcoming gig areas to see if I can set up some interviews and/or acoustic sessions.

Next job is filming some more stuff for the ‘rig rundown’ video I’ve been working on. There’s some b-roll and cutaways to shoot then I start putting together a rough edit.

Mikey’s arrives just as I’m heading off to the village to pick up a prescription, he’s finishing off a job at our neighbours’ place but first Margaret;s going up to Rowardennan with him to see another potential job.

Back home I do some more editing and get the majority of the production done, I have a couple more sequences to drop in and then title and end sequences….

Tuesday 30 January 2024

Good to get out for another paddle..the calm before the storm!

UP at a decent time for breakfast and to get ready for a paddle…Fiona’s coming up so we can go out before it gets too windy.

Despite the cold we have a grand paddle and get back just before the wind really picks up. Coffee and hot cross buns while we warm up.

In the studio I get on with the press/media stuff for the upcoming shows and speak to a few journalists and media contacts then get busy with all the video rushes form yesterday’s ‘rig rundown’ filming,. There’s a load of stuff to trawl through!

Monday 29 January 2024

Soul of a Man from my Wildcats’ livestream…turns out an appropriate choice!

UP early to get my sourdough in the oven…then prepare for a paddle. It’s been three weeks since I’ve been on the loch. Plus. it gets me out the house when the sourdough come out the oven and has to cool for an hour before I’m ‘allowed’ to eat it!

The loch’s flat calm and Ii do. livestream to promote the upcoming shows. I’m not out long so I have time for a shower and breakfast before my first Zoom guitar student of the day.

After the session do some other online promo and get some news releases written for the upcoming shows before heading back to the house to try and fix a downpipe and have lunch.

Back in the studio I have another bash at filming for a ‘rig rundown’ before an afternoon guitar student arrives.

I manage to get a little more filming done before another Zoom guitar session then my weekly livestream into the Wildcats’ Facebook group. In between times I hear that I;ve been nominated in two categories of the UK Blues Awards – acoustic act of the year and traditional blues artist of the year. If I make the shortlist to he finals of either category there’s be a public vote….

Margaret’s got dinner ready when I get back to the house then we head along for a dink with Betty and her family to celebrate her birthday.

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