First of all, sincere apologies for the late posting of this GORR - totally my fault. It is indeed my second effort as the first one is sitting on my PC which I forgot to send so am rewriting on the laptop at the Edinburgh Festival, and so that seems like a good place to start the GORR report.
I arrived on Monday with the first show the following night. The Assembly Halls is a lovely venue and perfect for the one man show. Great stage crew, great organisation and loads of friends to continually bump into …Nicholas Parsons, Ian Lavender, Peter Straker, Ian Rankin to name but a few.
2 shows completed of the 12 and it does seem strange just doing one hour which in prog terms, is about the length of a good introduction!
Moving on to the Journey concerts for 2014 and beyond, all the new added dates are listed here on the website and I’m really pleased to announce that a third of all tickets have already gone which is fantastic considering we are still 9 months away from the first show.
The production is already being worked on and I’ve worked out that I will need the equivalent of almost 4 months of solid work with Guy Protheroe, Erik Jordan and all the participants before the first note has even been played. It’s far and away the most ambitious and complicated production I’ve ever been involved with, but with such a great team around me I am confident it will surpass all my wildest dreams.
The English Rock Ensemble has been enlarged by one …..Vocalists Ashley Holt and Hayley Sanderson. Bass – Matt Pegg, guitars – Dave Colquhoun, drums – Tony Fernandez….and me on lots of keyboards. The narrator will be Peter Egan who did such a wonderful job on the new recording. Roger Dean graphics everywhere plus the orchestra and choir. The live show will last just over 2 hours with an interval and hardly a moment to breathe for anyone!
There are currently offers coming in from North America, South America, Japan and Australia and Europe for the show, so with a bit of good fortune it could be quite an adventure.
Moving to television, I’ve already got my filming dates for the new series of Watchdog, which I love doing. I never know what the subject is until the day which makes it even more fun and fresh to do.
One disappointment for me was the fact that we were unable to get the two shows at Gloucester and Cheltenham filmed and recorded for posterity. I was even more disappointed after the shows had happened as they were so much fun and the feedback was tremendous.
I have been giving it quite a lot of thought and am going to try and see if it’s possible to recreate the same shows just one more time in order to film them as I have now found a company who are keen to do it for me.
Obviously it would have to fit in with the orchestra and choir’s respective diaries and also that of the band and of course Guy Protheroe. Then there’s the problem of finding a suitable venue and some sponsorship too. It will certainly need to be put to bed by the end of the month if it’s going to happen. Fingers crossed as it would make a lovely Xmassy event.
I am pleased to announce that my music publishing is now with IMAGEM who I am really looking forward to working with. Great people with a great passion for music. I have also signed a deal with Esoteric records for the repackaging and release of much of many of the recordings I had ownership off and these will be available world-wide early next year.
We are also extremely close to finalising the official release of the Journey album which will of course feature the new, as yet unseen, artwork by Roger Dean. We hope that it will be available by early October.
Well that’s about it for August. Loads of updates in the next GORR and thanks again for all your support and enjoy the summer.Cheers,
Rick