3 May 2012

Keyboard players! It's all black and white to them! And we've got three of 'em at the Galleon this month: solid JT, quirky Bob and full-of-surprises Mike. Sad to say goodbye to the wonderful Pete Kubryk Townsend who has gone to live in Zurich, but we will be graced by the double bass that knows no fear, as played by my old buddy from the Oreshko Trio, Marcus Vergette. All this for you for free in a wonderful setting with reliable food.

12 Mar 2012

Couple of weeks ago I was in Wales with John james recreating some of the tunes from Sky in my Pie. We did a couple of enjoyable gigs and then videoed, the results of which are on youtube .

This coming Sunday at the Galleon, Fowey I'm joined by the wonderful Djazz Celtica for a lunchtime of Gypsy Swing. I'm hoping they'll bring along the lovely Larry le Gitan and his laid- back style. As for me, I've just dusted off my Gitane guitar and will be grappling with it all week to get my "chops" up to strength. Yes, strength. These guitars take some playing.

Really looking forward to Sunday.

10 Jan 2012

Well. Another year. Another video . Another chance to walk on the sunny side of the street.

 

5 Oct 2011

Bert is gone. Bert Jansch passed on yesterday. Although a contemporary of mine I always regarded him as a true guitar hero. Like many of us Bert was hugely influenced by Davy Graham but he channelled that love into a unique blend of man and guitar, voice and song. I used to say my favourite singers were Billy Holiday, Jimmy Hendrix and Bert Jansch. With Jimi and Bert it was not just about the guitar playing, but the complete , for want of a better word, spirit. Thanks Bert, you did a great job this time round.

9 Jan 2011

Thanks for the nice comments on the Silent Night video, I like it too. The Ghosts of May show has a web page on this site, right here. We should have some dates for you to see it soon, please keep in touch.

1 Jan 2011

A new year and to wish you the best for it I offer a video I filmed here in Cornwall.

3 Dec 2010

If you haven't seen the Ghosts of May show yet please check my schedule in the new year as we are booking dates for Spring in the South West, though we are doing a couple further afield.

Another project I'm involved with is the new Burton Bradstock album of subtly jazzed traditional British songs. So far we've recorded 5 songs, The Ash Grove, Salisbury Plain, The Water Is Wide, Sally in our Alley, and Foggy, Foggy Dew and I'm back up to London in 2 weeks to do a couple more . I was searching for an adjective and thought powerful but settled on persistent. And sharp. I like it!

17 Sept 2010

The Ghosts of May CD is now available at guitarcds.net or from me by email request - pete@peteberryman.com. Check the schedule for the performances with Pauline Sheppard .

6 May 2009 Recently up to Wales with Wizz and also John James who's getting back into gigging . We played a couple of tracks from " Sky in my Pie "...it's been a while. Thanks to Rob at Islwyn and Tony in Machynlleth ...people that make things happen. Also a big thank you to Graham and all at Wadebridge Acoustic Guitar Club. Wizz's 70th birthday whilst we were on tour memorable for several reasons including an hilarious recorded message from a very convincing Inspector Clouseau [Ralph McTell ] , the inevitable hangover, and a very refreshing MountBermoTimbo- check him out! As they were singing in Padstow on May Day " Unite and unite and let us all unite for summer is a come unto day". Pete.
2 Oct 2008 I've been busy working on the Cornish tunes and doing new arrangements of some I've recorded before. I realise that they come under the classification " Creative Interpretations of Folk Music" [ see Jan Ling: A History of European Folk Music ] unlike the Hungarian fiddlers we met in Szek in Transilvania this summer who play, as they have for centuries, the functional music of village events, traditional tunes unchanged except perhaps by the Gypsy musicians they hold in high regard. More on this later. Pete.
23 Dec 2007 Ho ho ho, yes we've been playing "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas", "White Christmas", " Chet's Nuts Roasting" and all the other, dare I say, chestnuts . I didn't find the time to dig out my oblique arrangements of carols for solo guitar. Oh well, another year. Also not doing the seasonal earner gigs - Xmas and New Year's Eves etc, I've had a busy year and I'm happy to take it easy. My CD has been really well received with lots of positive feedback from yourselves and a couple of sparkling reviews in the press [Acoustic Magazine and Rock and Reel]. I've been away a lot - Italy, Holland, Wales with Wizz, Lakes with Tony O and London with Bridget. The latter gig was very moving, especially for me; we hadn't seen each other let alone play together since the 70s, and this for a rapt audience with a high proportion of enthusiastic and well informed youngsters. There is hope! Or should I say ho ho hope? Which reminds me of a short stay I had in hospital at Christmas time a few years ago : the mood of the ward was lightened somewhat by the arrival in a wheelchair of Father Christmas who had fallen off the back of his "sleigh" whilst distributing gifts and broken his ankle. He was not amused with the inevitable wisecracks as he was lifted into bed by nurses with reindeer headsets. Enjoy the dark days, it'll be lighter dreckly. Pete.
31 Oct 2007 Greetings all [ including the departed, back for Halloween], just back myself from Bristol and a great evening at the Nova Scotia, very friendly and receptive, thank you. First time in a Bristol folk club since c.1970 when I was recording Legendary Me with Wizz. In the 80s we, Blue Ticket, were treated like honorary citizens of the Bristolian music scene with regular gigs at The Albert Inn and The Moon Club amongst others. The latter extraordinary for the sight of ultra- cool hipsters and hip- hop starlets jigging to our Celtic-Latin-afro-jazz-funk fronted by wailing sax and bagpipes and powered by "2 vindaloos" Keith Marshall - a swirling mess of drums, sweat, bulging eyes and pulsating veins. The City Morgue was next door. Handy. Also, Rob Lucas, eternal boybasswonder, nursing teeth after biting into pocketed bread rolls at service station not realising they were purely for display, hard glazed and years old. It got worse, but more recently: Italy, a very pleasant weekend playing at the Slow Food Cheese Festival, the whole town [Bra, near Torino] a whirl of cheese, wine and people, lots of 'em. I did a solo concert but also got to stretch out a bit with Luciano and Massimo playing for punters in the House of Blue. Thanks to Alberto ["Try this wine, finish the bottle(s) ] Farinasso. I got there by train, I recommend it, not least because it's an excuse to stay in Paris on the way, watch France unfurl it's its vast tableau, and meet really interesting people. And just under the surface and possibly around the next bend is Personal Romantic France. I stood outside the Gare de Lyons in the magic Parisian dawn and I could smell the coffee I ordered in that same hour and place in 1966. Actually I dislike flying and find driving to be increasingly gladiatorial . So I replaced my crashed Saxo with a Raleigh Pioneer. .Joy. Pete.
1 Sept 2007 Hello! Just returned from Bude Jazz Festival where I played with Tony and Marcus plus, on one concert, with John Hallam on reeds. What a tremendous musician he is. I also saw John with Geoff Barnhardt's English Band and in the space of one song he took us from aching tenderness to full-on exhilaration. We, the Tony Oreshko Trio, recorded live with John at Keswick in May and that CD is available from oreshko.co.uk. My new cd " The Return" is getting me some very good feedback and I'm now waiting for the press reviews. My page for it is still building but you can buy it online from guitarcds.net or buy downloads at kesson.com. You can hear clips on both sites. If you prefer you can email me at pete@peteberryman.com for details of postal sales. It's been a busy year so far, I had a great trip to Italy thanks to my old friend Luciano Caserta [Newquay 1970s- he played with the infamous Barney Potter. Barney, like Diz [Disley], stars in many extraordinary anecdotes]. Lu fixed me some gigs and I also played with him and his colleague Massimo Zemolin, a fine guitarist. Luciano traced me through my website [modern technology can be your friend! Well....] as did Gianpaolo and Stefano who have all my recorded works and presented a radio show with them and on which I played live. Thanks chaps. More recently CD promotion was the excuse to visit my Dutch "brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews" friends old and new - I've still got the hangover. Pete.
30 July 2007 A very good weekend. The launch of my CD went well and was enhanced by a DVD slideshow of pics going way back, touching and amusing. My thanks to Pat Skinner for helping with that at very short notice. . Friday night Michael [ Chapman ] and I had a great gig at St.Austell Brewery's Visitor Centre, really good venue, and Saturday saw us at Michael's annual concert at the Count House, Botallack- a bit of a reunion with John the Fish and Mick Bennett. Then back to the Galleon yesterday with Keith and JT, a very good gig. " The Return" will be available soon online from guitarcds.net or by mail from my website . Pete .
28 Dec .2006. Hello and welcome, been a bit lazy lately but the show must go on! Actually, I feel lazy because I'm on a 3 week break from teaching guitar but the gigs do go on including a surprise gig with my old buddy Stu Porter (www.myspace.com/shinybluecrow ), an inspired and versatile harmonica player, and Chris Hawkins, a robust guitarist. This was two nights ago in Cadgwith on the Lizard- the place was heaving! I think I've recovered now and might dare to play with them again. The recording.... I've been out and about searching for a good acoustic space in which to RE-RECORD the whole CD and we did some samples on the haunted stairway in the old house at the St.Austell Arts Centre. When we listened later we couldnt resist playing it backwards in case there might be a satanic message. All we got was Lord Byron singing the George Formby songbook in Greek. Which brings us to the weather. Its mild, thanks to the central heating, and as I look out of my window the sky is inky [it's night] and the orangeade street lights splash onto the spiders web of phone and power lines that frame the redundant festive displays that flicker through the black lattice of dancing branches, suggesting that there is a wind. Pete, St.Blazey.
4th.Nov.2006. Hello and welcome, What a lovely day, blue sky and cold feet. George says its 80 degrees in Florida and he's only wearing shorts. I prefer variety. Talking of which George will be helping us with a discography and photo-bio [ from spotty schoolboy with guitar to My Generation Who support gig to Folk Cottage, Highcliffe Hotel, Amsterdam, Monrovia, Abidjan, Oran, Christiania, Paris, Malekula, Sydney, Woodstock and St. Austell; and a right cast of characters!]. So please keep in touch, dont be too shy to email, it's good to hear from you. For example, Ron from Belfast recalled his wife [then girlfriend] holding my coat when I was on stage at the Folk Cottage in 1960s. SWEET! Of course there were dodgy moments, although these can seem humorous with hindsight , like the angry anti-imperialist mob that tried to lynch us as we sang the Hallelujah Chorus to the words "coca cola, coca cola, coca co-o-o-o-la" whilst tap-dancing in Blida, Algeria. Check out fine acoustic player troubleclef [not the band of same name] though you may also find him as a link from Davey Graham's clips. Davey's early clips are gems. And finally, my award for bravery to Mike and Kate Westbrook and the Village Band for a haunting setting of William Blake and a song portraying the Internet as a fairgroud attraction. Brilliant.
Pete.St.Blazey.
22nd Sept 2006. Hello and welcome. I usually start with the weather so here goes. The morning started with a clear blue sky with just a hint of cloud freckles, a cup of black tea and a lacklustre performance of guitar warm up exercises followed by a more heartening visit to a couple of my good old 1970s compositions, Gaigudaida and Malekula, both recorded on my Dutch album, produced and played on by Peter Schon with some of Holland's finest including Fred Leeflang, Nanning Van Der Hoop and Ad Van Der Horst. This was deemed too eclectic for release yet managed to end up as soundtrack for a notorious soft porn movie "Yab Yum Op Stelten". If anyone has a copy I would be interested to see it (purely for professional reasons). The "Hammond" sound on Gaigudaida was courtesy of Jan Akkerman's Lesley cabinet which was in the studio at the time. A tenuous link there with the great man. Actually I recorded with him and Thys Van Leer on "No Count Boy", a single by Tamalone (Michiel Buijen). Jan played drums! Anyway the sky was blue, as it was in the Sottish Highlands when we were there in August. What grandeur,what beauty. My first visit except for one peak I revisited. Dick Gaughan, Playing at the Ceilhi Centre in Ullapool. This man of the people would hate my reference to status but he's as powerful and passionate as ever. Ullapool's a good place as a base for a visit and has its own impressive guitar festival (ullapoolgutarfestival.com). The Clearances, Culloden, Glencoe and...The Ness River Rhythm Kings every Tuesday at Nico's Bar, Glenmhor Hotel, Inverness. Thanks chaps for letting me sit in. Nice to hear different tunes and arrangements. SUPPORT LIVE MUSIC. C'MON. PLENTY OF TIME TO STAY HOME WITH YOUR FEET UP WHEN YOU'RE CLOGLESS. Meanwhile here its now progressing through Mackerel sky to autumn duvet, the still air of earlier is now fidgeting and teasing the trees. Rumour has it (TV) that a hurricane remnant is headed this way. Probably from Florida. That might explain why George hasn't updated my performance schedule!.
Pete. St.Blazey.
29th July 06. Hello and welcome, it's raining [!] for the first time since my last newsletter, or that's how it feels. Even the boy racers are zooming around on camels. Actually, camels would probably better suit the real Cornish temperament-somewhere up ahead there's an oasis, in my case the completion of my CD. Nearly there.  Some news for Bridget St. John fans: September sees the re-issue of "Jumblequeen" and October/November a UK tour. I accompanied Bridget in the 70s and one of the tracks we recorded is a bonus track on the CD. It will be great to see her. Closer to home, played last night at the Union Inn, Saltash, a jazz and blues stronghold , surprising perhaps considering the union jack paintjob that's highly visible from a train window on Brunel's mighty Tamar Bridge. An idyllic setting with many swans, the gentle lapping of wavelets on yacht hulls and...a prat showing off on a jetski.  So, The Union, with Gary and Alan, exemplars of experience tempered by dissipation ,blues and funk grandees, pitted Precision and hammered hickory. These guys should have Engish Heritage status, although around here Cornish nationalists would be spraypainting St. Piran flags on them.  We've been very fortunate lately with cultural top-ups. The Jerusalem String Quartet playing Shostakovich, the Lord Chamberlains Men with A Midsummer Night's Dream, the  R.S.C. with Canterbury Tales [in St.Austell of all places], and Dr. John's exquisite and faultless funk... I feel privileged. But above all, from Rio and Bahia , the wonderful Joyce and her Brazillian maestros.
Pete, St.Blazey.
26 June 2006. Hello and welcome. If you've visited us before you'll know that things develop slowly here but they do develop. Here in Cornwall we call it "dreckly" ie "directly", or, as they say in Mexico, and possibly in Florida where George our webmeister lives, "manana". Today its grey and wet (much needed)after a long spell of sunshine-great for those outdoor gigs like the Sunday afternoons I do with JT in the garden at the Crown, and like last Saturday's brilliant clan gathering on the hillside overlooking Mevagissey harbour in celebration of Marie and Sophie's exchange of vows. We played the afternoon and were joined by Mick Bennett (ex COB and Noah's Roadshow) for two of his songs and a new poem. Spiky or mellow ,Mick still flows. Ralph (McTell) was gracious about my un-gracious quote of Streets of London and very entertaining in his  guide to the night sky for his grandson. This in the glow of the fire and to the jiggy pulse of the Sex Slaves From Hell-a great fun band.     
Pete, St.Blazey.