Well May was nothing short of chaotic.....concerts abroad, a 68th birthday, recording Desert Island Discs, hundreds of e-mails back and forth across the Atlantic with Jon and Trevor and the start of the first part of the Piano Portraits tour in Bury St Edmunds, which was so enjoyable....
And so into June............
I have been busy doing some musical inserts for a book that we are publishing through HaGaTaS called MY LABRADOR EATS POO, which is a book of delightfully amusing poems based on the observations of Alfie, (the dog’s name), by his owner and author, Charles Garland. The book is due for release in the 2nd week of June and will be available at Wakeman’s Music Emporium and also at Amazon. The audio book will be available in July.
On Saturday the 3rd I am at Bexhill on Sea for the second Piano Portraits show which I’m told has sold out which is great news and then the next day I am at the 1200 seater Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury which still has about 200 tickets left I’m told.
On the 8th, Piano Portraits arrives at the wonderful opera house in Buxton. Again the concert is sold out so the atmosphere should be terrific. I was trying to count back over the years and reckon it’s around my 20th performance at this wonderful Matcham theatre.
Then it’s off to Basingstoke on Saturday 10th. where there are a few tickets left.
On the 11th, Radio 4 are broadcasting my Desert Island Discs...there are a few surprises in there, but I’ll tell you why I chose what I did on the next GORR.
I’ve then got quite a few days in the studio working on the music for both The Rainbow Suite and the Sandringham Suite in preparation for the orchestral and choir parts to be added.
On Thursday 15th I will be live on Good Morning, so it’s clean shirt and best behaviour!....and possibly later that evening live on the Andrew Neill show.
On the 22nd I will be at Cadogan Hall, which is also sold out. I love this hall and have played there twice before and seen many concerts there too. Shame the parking around there is so rubbish though!!
On the 23rd I will be going to see son Adam perform at the Oaksmere in Suffolk. I have been told that he’s nicked most of my stories......he did admit it, so there may be some heckling from row 7!!!!
On Saturday 24th I am at the beautiful Birmingham Town Hall. Not sure about ticket availability but I think there are some available and then the next day it’s off to the Northern College of Music to perform in their concert hall. I’ve never been there before so really looking forward to it.
It’s so mentally busy at the moment that I am trying to keep the odd day off as a day off and hopefully that will mean some nice healthy walks, (yes you heard correctly....nice healthy walks) and also getting to see the kids and the grand-kids.
It is quite an eye opener looking at the diary for the rest of the year as it is choc a bloc until Xmas Eve.........so could be an early night on the 24th ready for Santa !!!
Cheers
Rick