Things that go bump in the night...

Crawling up the stairs

It’s Friday at 12.44pm and I am currently sat inside the car with the rain pouring down the windscreen listening to the first finished mixes of part of the new album. It’s a pretty special moment for me, Clive Gregson has done a magnificent job on the tracks. I can’t wait to get into the studio the first week of December to start working on the rest of the tracks. I’m blessed that the guys in the band have been so completely dedicated and on the ball with whole new album. They are all busy at home working out the tracks before we head into pre-production rehersals on the 1st December.

I’ve been on the road since 11am yesterday. It’s my first time on the road without Dom and it’s pretty weird. Yesterday I stopped off at BBC Essex to do a little slot with Steve Scruton for the afternoon before heading onto Great Bardfield for a gig at The High Barn. Dom had told me before I left that I would love this venue and he wasn’t wrong. If you have never been I recommend no matter where you live you head out on the road and go to see a show there. It’s a magnificent 12th century barn that has been completely renovated to a state of the art venue and recording studio. Walking in simply takes your breath away. Channel four have put on some music shows there and you can see why they chose the venue:






Tonight, I head across to Kelvedon to support Boo Hewerdine at The Institute I’m looking forward to the show as it’s a full house sell out, as it should be when Boo is playing in my opinion. But for today I’m on my own, Dom has given me a printed laminated idiots guide to the road (which is required for someone of my disorganised abilities) complete with places of interest along the way and I’m currently in the car park outside a lovely little craft village pondering if the torrential rain will ease up for more than 30 seconds for me to make a dash inside.

Lot’s of great stuff has been happening on the music front. Next week I’m off to Worthing to sign a new exclusive endorsement deal with Blueridge Guitars. I have played a few Blueridges at guitar stalls at the festival and they are fantastic guitars, I’m very excited about picking out some new guitars to work with in the studio and on the road.

My first headline tour to promote the new album is booking up well for the Spring, I’ll be heading out on the road with Lydia on Bass and we’ll be having a album launch bash at Mr Kyps in Poole with the full band before we head off on the trip across the UK. Next Autumn I’ll be in touring in Canada for 3 weeks with hopefully a couple of gigs in the Midwest of the US before heading homeward. So all to play for at this point.

Oh one more point of interest I have to add is that last week I was gigging with Megson in Marlborough. As usual Megson were spectacular and super supportive of me as well as Andrew the promoter. But the really odd thing was a few doors down from the venue was a Georgian house that someone had turned into what can only be described as a full sized dolls house, the picture below is into the front room from the street. See the woman sat at the piano? Well, she is not real, it’s a mannequin. How frightening is that? It’s not a museum, it’s not open to the public and no-one lives there. In addition the high barn in Great Bardfield is apparently haunted by small children…spooky goings on over the last few weeks indeed…

Busy Busy Busy

Today is Wednesday, 4pm. I am sat at home watching the beautiful Autumn sun from the window and feeling so grateful to have a whole day with nothing to do except catch up on

e-mails, blog, and enjoy the world.

To say things have been busy would be a bit of an understatement and as much as I love gigging and performing I am truly grateful that I am not going to see the inside of a Fiat Punto today. Very nice they are Fiat Puntos but they are most definately not designed for gigging musicians, for the following reasons:

1. The boot is not big enough for a guitar in a hard case.

2. The back seat is big enough for a guitar but only after you have wrestled getting the front seat forward, manouvered the front seat so it is wedged into the window and shouted at the car for four minutes.

3. The interior of a Fiat Punto is boring, and if you are a passenger for hours on end there is nothing to look at but grey.

4. The passenger side does not have enough room to do any of the following: stretch legs out, sleep, reach arms up in a yawning fashion, or enough room for my fags, drink, sweets, crisps and book.

5. If for any reason there are more than 2 of you going to the gig, the poor sod on the back seat has to spend the entire journey squashed underneath a guitar, luggage and occasional PA.

Ho hum.

We've had a brilliant few weeks. Dom is working hard on booking up the Spring tour to promote the new album, we've had a great response and loads of great gigs lined up. Clive Gregson has been over and we have re-done some vocal takes in Manchester and the new re-mixed tracks will be going to the labels in October. I've also had some repeat airplay on BBC Radio 2, huge thanks to Mr and Mrs Walker and Aled Jones for playing the tracks.

I am sooo looking forward to the new album coming. Clive sent over the first rough re-mixes last week and they are superb. We are only re-mixing 4 of the tracks already recorded and if all goes according to plan (which to be honest is anyone's guess) we'll all be heading off to a residential studio at the beginning of December to get the album nailed.

I've also reached the end of the festival season, with the last big one being Greenbelt in Cheltenham two weeks ago. I have to say I think it was my favourite of the season (except Glastonbury with Johnnie and Tiggy Walker, of course). It had a lovely vibe and the people were exceptionally friendly and kind. I'm hoping to go back next year with the Makeshift Family Band.

Although one part of me is sorry to see the end of the festivals another part of me is more than happy to be putting the tent away for the winter. As much as Dom and I love camping there is only so much one can cope with and I'm happy to spend the winter near a tap and electricity.

I have been having a few problems with finding my creative mojo recently and some friends of ours have very very kindly given me keys to their house so I can get some space on my own during the day without distractions so I'm hoping that'll do the trick.

Not much else to report really, had some wonderful gigs over the last few weeks including the wonderful Megson in Cambridge and a truly fab gig at the Unicorn Theatre with Reg Meuross. If you haven't managed to listen to Megson or Reg before now I highly recommend you have a listen at:

http://www.megsonmusic.co.uk/

http://www.regmeuross.com/

Over the next few weeks I'll be back at the Tivoli Theatre in Wimborne to support the legend that is Albert Lee and the beginning of October sees the start of my supports with Eilen Jewel , both of which I'm really excited about.

Check out Albert and Eilen here:

http://www.albertlee.co.uk/

http://eilenjewell.com/

Here's a few snaps from over the past few gigs:

Lovely dressing room with Megson, I get very excited about nice dressing rooms especially ones with treats in the fridge and walk in showers.

At the wonderful Unicorn Theatre with Reg Meuross, big thanks to Jay Tilston for the photo.

On stage at Junction 2 Cambridge.

On stage at Greenbelt 09. (I'm the tiny dot in front of the screen!)

Just a little bit nicer.

I'm beginning to notice how horrible we humans have become to each other. Maybe it is just people in the West, or the UK, or Bournemouth, or maybe it has something to do with overpopulated areas but we are all definitely getting seriously arsey. For example, the car, the mighty car, one of mans greatest inventions, the tool which enables us to get to places with relative ease; that allows us to visit our families or friends in places that are not accessible by foot; a machine that when we step into it should make us smile, proudly, that we are making a trip to somewhere, that we are lucky to own such a thing. But instead, in general, I have noticed (correct me if I'm wrong) that a lot of people get in their car with somewhat of a short fuse. We constantly criticise other drivers on the road, shout abuse if they do not "get out of our way" quick enough, or if we don't shout it we mutter it under our breaths which in my opinion is actually worse than shouting it.

Like thus:

I was at the car park at a shopping centre yesterday and the lady in the car ahead was backing out of the space and had just stopped in the middle of the lane. I frowned, cross that she was taking so long. "You could get a bus through there!", I thought. The car behind me beeped. "Why are you beeping at me!!?", I spoke out loud in the car whilst giving the driver behind a foul look out of my back window and shaking my hand to indicate "It isn't me, it's this daft cow in front of me that's causing the hold up". His face was all contorted with anger. "Hurry up" he mouthed at me. "Tw*t", I thought to myself. So everyone is angry, and now in a bad mood. The lady in front finally got her car manoeuvred and drove out of the car park, and me, and about three cars behind me now instantly hated her and thought of her as an idiot.

But wouldn't the world be lovely if it what actually happened was this:

I was at the car park at a shopping centre yesterday and the lady in the car ahead was backing out of the space and had just stopped in the middle of the car park lane. I frowned, concerned whether or not she was OK, after all she could have fainted, or be having difficulty with manouvering her car. The car behind me beeped. "You alright?" he mouthed through the window. I get out of my car, and walk to the car that is blocked the way. "Are you alright?", I ask the lady. "Need any help?". "Yes," she replies "this is my husband's car and I don't normally drive it and I'm having really difficulty reversing it in such a tight space". The man from the car behind me has also gotten out of his car and come to see if the lady is OK. "Oh don't worry" he says "I'll help you get it out" and so he does. The car is moved, the lady is grateful and we feel better as human beings for helping her.

I am going to start my own personal campaign to just try and be less arsey and more concerned with my fellow man from now on.

I guess the reason for my thinking like this over the last few days has been the arrival of Clive Gregson, to stay with me for four days and help me work on my songs . Clive is going to be producing the new album and I am amazed and indebted to him for his help. After all, we are not friends from way back, he does not owe me any favours, he has his own hugely successful career as a songwriter and performer. But he came all the way to my house just to spend some time with me to help me work on my songs because he believes I am a good songwriter and that I can have a successful career of my own. He didn't make me feel bad because I don't know all the chords names, or that I can't figure out what key we were in, he didn't use language I didn't understand. He simply got on my level and helped me. Now that, in my opinion, is being a nice person.

So I'm really excited about getting down to work on the new album. We are looking to record in early December with the new band line up. I had my first gig with the band last Thursday and I loved it. As nerve racking as it was it was a great comfort to be able to look to my left or right and see another person on the stage and share the moment with them. It's going to be an exciting six months and I'm gonna work my arse off to make it as good as I possibly can.

Special thanks to Andy, Aimee, Simon and Lydia for being part of my Makeshift Family Band.

Cream Teas and Tipis

"Have we got everything Dom?" I shout as we pile out of the house to spend a week on the road living in a tent. "Yes" he replies. "Are you sure?" I reply "Because we forgot the pillows and the mugs for the Isle of Wight Festival and had to drink coffee out of bowls and sleep with towels under our heads". "I'm sure." he says firmly.

So, off we pootle on Monday morning for our first gig of the week, Polperro Festival, Cornwall. We arrive in blazing sunshine to a teeny weeny National Trust campsite which was picture perfect and only 3 other people camping in the field and a complete bargain at £8 per night. So we unload the boot and pitch up the tent. Outer tent up? check. Inner tent up? check. Kettle on? check. Air mattress inflated? check. "erm..Dom?" I ask quietly "Where's the duvet and pillows?". Brrrr....it was a cold night.

Still the gig in Polperro was wonderful and I'm looking forward to going back next year. Polperro, if you have never been is a beautiful, truly breathtakingly beautiful fishing village. After being looked after wonderfully by the Crumplehorn Inn, we spent Tuesday morning eating a delicious cream tea by the harbour. Perhaps, the main reason for my love of Polperro has come from the fact that they don't put small rabbit poo's into their scones. Scones should be plain in my opinion without any fancy dried fruit products shoved into the mix and that's exactly what they do in Polperro, delicious plain scones, plenty of clotted cream and some gorgeous strawberry conserve.
Truly British and truly delicious. Yum.

The campsite, Polperro

Polperro, Cornwall

Tuesday was a meander to BBC Radio Bristol and after a quick stop to buy a duvet and pillows I arrived just in time for my interview with Andy Howard. Andy does a great show called "Morning Glory" on BBC Radio Bristol and I always love chatting with him. He's a very funny man, and often you can steal small momento's from the studio such as the odd BBC pen and dirty mug without him even noticing. Lovely. So onto the campsite just outside Bristol for our last night of relative quietness. We arrived in the roasting heat and when Dom asked where we should pitch the tent I quickly insisted we should camp in the shade by the river. In my defence this seemed to be a good idea at the time. However, I had forgotten that river banks are called river banks because they bank towards the river. We awoke at 6am to find that we were actually sleeping on top of each other as the entire tent and matress had slid toward the water. Up we packed and off to Glastonbury for an adventure lickedy split.

The joys of having artists tickets for Glasto became apparent from the minute we arrived. Thousands of cars were queued up to get on site but thankfully for us we had a "blue route" pass which meant we could access the site without that much queueing at all. I felt really bad for everyone else as they must have been roasting in the queue, and goodness what they had to do if they needed a little wee wee. Not good at all. The absolutely greatest thing about playing at Glastonbury without any doubt whatsoever was the use of an artists luggage taxi. We called production on arrival and John tootled up in his 4x4, piled our stuff in and dropped us right at our pitch. Now that in my opinion is star treatment.

We got accredited at production and had a little swank around the backstage bar and went off to have a look at the stage I would be playing on, on Friday. My first thought was "eeekkk...this tent is HUGE..I'm gonna get lost in here", so we quickly left before I got freaked out too much a went for wander around the festival. I say this as though it was a short stroll but for those of you who have never been to Glastonbury, it is enormous. It takes a least an hour to walk from one side of the site to the other and that's only if you don't get caught up in any crowds. It is like no other festival on earth and explaining it seems futile, but if I had to I guess for me it's like how the world would be if creative people were left to their own devices. The sculptures, stalls, stages, shows, circus, cinema, theatre are truly awesome, the whole festival is truly awesome.

So quickly 11pm arrived and we made the great hike up to Worthy FM which is the radio station set up especially for Glastonbury Festival. I was doing a live half hour gig on their "midnight on the wireless" show. Funnily enough it was at midnight. It was a great station and the gig was around a lovely warm camp fire and I just sat on a sofa and sang into the mic. Beautiful. I even got a coffee in a real china mug.

'Midnight at the Wireless', Worthy FM, Glastonbury

Friday was the big day of the gig and after a fairly early night I was pretty confident about the whole thing. Until that is, I realised that I was the only person playing solo and I had to follow an 11 piece ska band. Now that's daunting. So 543589380 cigarettes later backstage I was up. Not so bad when I was up there, other than just as I was going to do some slow stuff the main stage opposite started so I could barely hear myself sing. Still, I knew that would be a risk and the sound guys were awesome. I got through it alive which is the main thing.

Then slam blam on Saturday morning we get a text message asking if I wanted to do a private gig with Johnnie Walker from Radio 2. Hmmmm...let me consider this....err.... yay! So a hike up to the Tipi Field and next thing you know Johnnie Walker is recording the gig in a tipi. I have to say I looked terrible, and this was bad news, if you have the opportunity to meet a

famous Radio 2 DJ you really want to be looking a least semi-decent. Bearing in mind I hadn't had a shower for 4 days and had been living in a tent for nearly a week things were not looking good. My hair by this point was not far from dreadlocks, and despite washing regularly in a bucket of hot soapy water I'm not entirely sure I didn't smell slightly of gorgonzola. Still I played and walked away thinking....how cool was that? and also...I've got to find some way of washing my hair.

So, Monday morning comes and I am awoken by Dom shaking me and muttering something about Radio 2 and the breakfast show. I tell him that I hate his guts for waking me up and there had a better be a good reason such as a) the tent is on fire b) there are free donuts outside or c) I am about to be played on the "Wake Up to Wogan" show. Sure enough it was option c. So as I'm sitting on the camping toilet doing me doo dah's my mum calls shouting that I'm on the radio and holds her phone to the speaker so I can hear.

Best moment of my life? Sitting on a fire bucket fashioned into a camping toilet, doing me doo dah's and listening to myself on radio 2 for the first time.

Glastonbury? Brilliant.

me, Johnnie Walker and Dom in a teepee at Glastonbury.

Ellie (with broken heel), me, Hannah and Tiggy Walker (who is the nicest woman in the wholest widest world)

Testing out tents.

Life is a fascinating thing. One minute your tootling down the river in your little boat, eating a purbeck ice cream and daydreaming and the next you've hit some grade two rapids, the ice cream is down your front and although slighty scared your also strangely exhiliated. That's exactly how things have been over the last 2 weeks.

On the down side my crohns disease has been completely debilitating, have felt close to death, and generally a bit like a dog turd. In addition to this after over £2k having been spent on the new album, including weeks of acquiring commerical licences for album artwork and designing and re-designing the sleeve we have decided for now, to shelve the new album until next spring!

On the upside, we have shelved the new album because a new producer has (fingers crossed) come on board to assist with the album. We are planning on a whole re-record of the album in a live recording situation some time later in the year and then do a full commerical release in the spring. This is very very exciting and still at very preliminary stages but with any luck it'll all come together like a prize winning women's institute victoria sponge.

So much exciting stuff has happened that I'm going to list it out, this a completely self indulgent exercise just so I can see it for myself;

1. Today I signed contracts with a brilliant LA licencing house. My licence deal is exclusive for the US and Canada and on both sides we are very optimisic for the future.

2. I have not only been asked to play at Glastonbury Festival but today I was also offered the chance to play a live half hour session on Glasto Festival/Worthy FM. The radio station is broadcast throughout the festival and I will be playing on the "wireless at midnight" sessions. These are broadcast from the farmhouse at Glastonbury festival from an intimate stage set up for the show, suprisingly, at midnight. Despite the predictions for a monsoon over the Glastonbury weekend I am still confident with a pair of Cath Kidston wellies and some carefully chosen waterproofs it will be lovely.

3. Dom's done a brilliant job on the gigs front and I am really looking forward to all of them. Especially being back at the wonderful Abbingdon Unicorn Theatre with Steve Tilston on Friday, and with Karine Polwart on the great boat/venue Thekla. Oh, I mustn't forget the very special show with Megson in September.

4. I am also doing a number of dates with Eilen Jewel on her tour of the UK later in the year, which will be very special indeed as I am currently addicted to listening to her fabulous album.

Phew, how much fun is all that? Anyway, I must go and pack for tomorrow we are off to stay with a friend to try out our new tent. We have decided to play it safe and do a test run in the tent before the isle of wight festival at the weekend. This is mainly because I bought it for £30 from a man at the car boot sale. The fact he protested for so long that it is "absolutely fine and pukka" has made me think that in fact, it is probably not and I fear we shall erect it tomorrow evening to find it only has one pole, no ground sheet and half a dead rabbit in it.

Wish me luck.

Here she comes....

Hurray, finally after 9 long months (ironically) the album is at the final stages. Artwork is just being polished off and the mastering is awaiting collection, then off they pop in a jiffy bag to the printers. phew.

I am beginning to regret undertaking the artwork task myself. Not because I think it looks like my 17 month old nephew has drawn the sleeve but because there is just too much choice when it comes to design. I have designed, scrapped, redesigned, scrapped, ummed, ahhed, scratched my head, screamed profanities at my PC screen, and finally settled on something completely different than what I had in mind in the first place. I was eventually rescued by a brilliant photographic artist called Karin Demeyer who is based in Quebec, Canada. Karin had taken an excellent shot from the pier at Coney Island, New York and it had all the things I was looking for. The blues were perfectly hazy, the seagull glided beautifully across the sky in a slightly mournful manner and the buildings in the distance gave a hard working edge to the photo. Thus, the album sleeve was born. Karin was thankfully really lenient with me about the commercial licence costs and I'm truly grateful for the steal of a price she let me have it for. So far this album has cost a small fortune and I only hope I can sell enough to make my money back, even just a little.

So here's a sneek preview of Karin's picture "Last Exit to Brooklyn" which has formed the basis for the album sleeve:

Fab hey? I love it. She's a clever girl.

Next up was printing decisions I knew I wanted to be as eco friendly as possible but at the same time giving people a decent sleeve to own. No-one is going to want to part with a tenner in exchange for some cruddy old CD-R in a old piece of bog roll. So I went on a mission to find a decent printer that wasn't ridiculously overpriced. Wewow fit the bill perfectly, the wowwallet I'm using as the sleeve is printed on recycled paper, soya based inks, no plastic parts whatsoever and looks lovely. I'm going for an 8 page insert booklet with all the lyrics and credits in it and they can do all this on recycled stock as well. Yep, was definitely more pricey than a bog standard jewel case or digipak but I'm pleased.

The worst thing about doing the artwork myself is that I am totally responsible for it. If I paid a designer £500 for the design and it came out with a typo or back to front or the pages in the booklet were the wrong way round I would have someone to go and shout out, demand a refund and generally be cross with. As it turns out it's only me, if I've buggered up the design it's my own fault.

Still, one thing is for sure, I've been on a serious learning curve with Photoshop and I'm pretty confident I could do some freelance graphic design in the future. Hmm.... actually let's see how this comes out first!

Now the title, this all along has been an issue. I couldn't decide on a name, I mailed out asking for suggestions and Mark Stanley came back with "This won't hurt". I loved it and was a working title all through the project but when it came to design of the sleeve it just didn't fit. So I've gone with one of the song titles "10ft of steel". Sorry Mark, great title, your still in the credits.

So this is it, 9 months of tears, sleepless nights, mixing, sore fingers, arguments, smiles, laughter and fantastic moments it's nearly here. Sometimes I think I won't even be able to open the box when the album gets delivered it more nerve racking than my GCSE results. In fact, those results were fairly crap so I'm not even gonna think about that.

Gig wise I've had a great run of shows. An absolutely highlight over the last month has to be The Unicorn Theatre in Abingdon. I've played some pretty amazing venues and last summer when I played on the tall ship Kaskelot I thought it could not be topped, until I went here. Honest to God I have never been anywhere so beautiful in all my life. The theatre is inside a 13th century monastery in the most serene gardens with a river running through it. The air of the place immediately puts you at ease and Dom and I had a lovely afternoon drinking coffee in the shade of the willow trees. Hang on I'm gonna try and find a photo so you can see what I mean...wait on....

cool found some....

This is the outside of the theatre.

The long galley.

The stage.

It's amazing eh? Seriously if your reading this and love live music I cannot recommend highly enough taking a drive to Abingdon for a gig here. Pam and co work very hard at putting on quality acts from all over the world and I am confident that every single show here is brilliant. Check out more here: www.music-at-the-unicorn.com

Anyway I'm blabbering, I'm off to finish the new song I'm writing. Now that album two is out the way, I nearly have enough material for album three! Keep an eye on www.myspace.com/loubrownmusic coz I'm gonna add up some new album tracks and live recordings over the next couple of days.

Lou

xx

The Greatest Sandwiches in the World

(originally posted March 22nd)

I love being on the road, I love the fact that this morning I’m in Roslington, Derbyshire and tonight I’ll be in Reading supporting Jez Lowe. Last night I was supporting the wonderful John Lester in The Madhouse and can I just mention a huge thanks to Mr and Mrs Big Al for putting us up last night, and to Claire for the greatest “green room” food I’ve ever had (including chicken and homemade stuffing sandwiches in the freshest grain bread and homemeade cakes, winner). Yesterday was a near perfect day, I woke up to blazing sunshine. Had a breakfast of local produce with my parents in the brilliant Boscanova Café and then jumped into the car for the drive up. We listened to a selection of brilliant songs that I had mixed together as a birthday present for my dad including “Come up and see me”, “My Girl” and “Sitting on the dock of the bay”. Fab.

So, news? There is plenty, our absolutely winner is that we got the confirmation for my set at Glastonbury Festival this week which is very exciting. We’ve done really well with festivals for this season and so far I’ll be playing at Glastonbury, Tenby Folk Festival, Polperro and Americana International, we’re still waiting for a confirm on some others which I’ll get up on the website and myspace as soon as we know. It’ll be a big chunk of the summer on the road, living in a tent, washing in freezing cold showers and constant re-inflation of the air mattress. If anyone happens to know someone that would hire us out their campervan for a week in the summer I would REALLY appreciate it!! I looked into hiring one from a company, they want £600 a week, that’s ridiculous I could book myself into a hotel every night for a week and it would be cheaper than that AND I’d have a toilet the disposed of my bodilies into a drain without assistance from me.

The album is sounding good, we’ve entered the last stage of mastering and I’ve started the design work on the album sleeve. We’ve got a photo shoot on Sunday with everyone that played on the album which should be fun (15 of us!) I’ll get the pics up as soon as we get them.

www.loubrownmusic.com will have a whole new look over the next couple of weeks. I’ve redesigned the site, although I designed the existing one and quite like it, it doesn’t really match the feel of the new album so I’m tinkering again!

I’ve had a breakthrough on the creative front, I haven’t managed to write much (well any) new material since I got back from touring the states last year but I’ve thankfully written 3 new songs in two days.

Somebody absolutely lovely asked Dom if I was going to bring out a songbook at any point as they loved my lyrics which was a beautiful compliment, so I’ll end this blog with some lyrics from one of the new songs.

My wish for today is that everyone has time in the sun and smiles at loved ones lots.

Lou xx

Dancing With You....

You tell me stories of the house we used to live in,
How the roof is hanging concave from the weight of the life we were living,

You tell me how they bend and how they sway,
But I’m not sure that walls should move that way,
Not convinced we’ll fit inside this space, like we used to,
When I was dancing with you

You tell me how the door is hanging low now,
How it’s slower to open and groans at the sight of your face,
And windows that look like tears from the cries our eyes should be making,
Isn’t it strange how the cracks, reveal our age?

You tell me how they bend and how they sway,
But I’m not sure that walls should move that way,
Not convinced we’ll fit inside this space, like we used to,
When I was dancing with you

When I was dancing with you x 8.