Sorry this month’s GORR is late, but I’ve got lots of good excuses which include …”overworked”, “computer crashing”, grumbling appendix” and National Express, (who I quite rightly blame for most things).
The golf day at Burhill for Sparks on the 6th of this month was a tremendous success and raised in excess of £46,000 which goes directly to a research department at Great Ormond Street, a hospital very close to my heart as they are currently treating my little one year old granddaughter Taja.
I played only my fifth game of the year and as was to be expected, I started off very badly before collapsing altogether. I lost numerous balls, 2 clubs and my temper, but amazingly did not finish last.
The evening gala dinner was fabulous with entertainment from the comedian Aaron James, a very funny set from Steve Womack, (if you haven’t seen this guy, don’t miss the opportunity, he’s amazing) and Bobby Davro who always supports this event had everybody in stitches. Music came form the great Earl Grey Band and I sat in with them playing ‘60’s rock and roll all night until we were all too tired to carry on!
I was in fact, so disenchanted with my abysmal golf, (I have quite truthfully dropped down to Tiger Woods level, without the publicity), that I decided to play again in the Comedian’s Golf Society day at Canons Brook Golf Club in Harlow.
I actually started off brilliantly.
But it didn’t last long.
I’m going to try again next week!
August is very much a month of building up and preparing new ventures and by the end of the month the new radio studio will be up and running as radio is seemingly playing a big part in life at the moment with Planet Rock and also my new show which starts on Radio Nova in Dublin on September 5th. I’m also making lots of programmes via Hagatas, a new production company, which will be producing all kinds of programmes for radio stations literally all over the world …..well those that speak English anyway!
On Thursday 12th, The English Rock Ensemble all meet up with me in Leamington Spa for a few hours of rehearsal, joke telling and generally insulting each other and the following day, on the 13th …yes Friday 13th, we’ll be performing at The Assembly at Leamington Spa at 6.30 for a couple of hours, warming up for the Cropredy Festival the following day.
I love “warm ups” as they are often the best shows that happen because the pressure is not so full on, you play even more music and everybody seems to play well and for a lot longer!
I’ve also got a lot of filming to do for Vintage Television, the new television channel that launches on September 1st. Also on board are Paul Gambaccini, Kid Jensen and Lesley-Ann Jones to name but a few.
More information on the Vintage Television website.
On the writing side of things, I’m continuing with my column for Classic Rock Magazine, which I really enjoy doing and work continues on the third of the Grumpy books which hopefully will be out early next year. It’s tentatively entitled “Even More Adventures from a Grumpy Old Rockstar”.
Much of the month will be spent in the studio with Erik Jordan recording music in time for the Anderson / Wakeman tour which starts in October. Jon and I will be recording up to 8 news songs for the album, plus some of the YES stuff that we’ll be doing on the tour and the album should be ready to be on sale at the shows. The concerts will also be filmed for a DVD which will be released in time for Xmas.
In case you’re wondering how we are going to record with Jon in California and me being in Norfolk, well the simple answer is that I will be preparing all the back tracks here and then sending the files to Jon who will be recording the vocals using his mobile system whilst out doing some solo shows in America. The files then get sent back to me for Erik to mix, they then go off to Voiceprint for mastering, and Bob’s Your Uncle, as they say, and miraculously, finished product should appear at the first show in Cambridge in October!
….well that’s the plan anyway!
See you next month !
Cheers,
Rick