So a new year begins, and I will admit I approach it with considerable apprehension. 2024 was filled with some really great concerts, but much that I had planned for the year failed to materialise and left me musically very frustrated, but I am sincerely hoping that 2025 may see some of these disappointments come to fruition.
2024 was a difficult year health-wise and this has continued right up to and throughout Xmas. In fact, Rachel and I felt so rotten during the festive season, that we cancelled Xmas! Not like me at all.
On a plus side, the Yuletide tour with Adam and Mollie was huge fun. Musically it was a great mixture of as many kinds of music as we could throw in and as the virus hit me hard, Mollie and Adam became my carers! Along with Clive who drive us around as part of the team plus Erik and Wil, we got through with only the minimum of coughing, sputtering and sneezing although there was one particular show where I dripped considerable contents of my nose onto the Nautilus keyboard which did not help the playing at all, or indeed, the keyboard itself!
It was lovely that I got to see 8 of my 24 grandchildren, who came to see Grandpa Grumpy play… Arthur, Melody, Skyla, Taja, Kai, Finnlay, Harry and Dylan all made it to shows and I was so proud to see them. The remaining 5 were either too young or unable to attend, but perhaps next year or the year after… (if I can keep going).
I am writing these ramblings whilst sitting in my office on New Year's Eve pondering on what 2025 might bring, or fail to bring as the case may be.
January is going to be a planning month for sure, but I want to try and make sure that any plans that are made actually come to fruition and as such I plan to make a few changes as to how my musical life is run for the next 12 months.
I also have numerous unfinished recordings that need sorting, (6 at the last count), most of which ended up on the shelf during Covid which was instrumental in destroying so much, plus 2 new projects, one piano and one ERE prog rock, that came close to fruition in 2024 but fell short of the required finance needed and so held them back as they need to be done properly to the highest standard, or not at all.
I no longer have a working studio and so that desperately needs addressing and I have a plan so by summer I could be back in business with any luck.
On a positive note, my podcast launches at the end of January and will run fortnightly. I also want to work on RWTV as well and my children's projects.
To these ends I have a meeting with my management in the second week of January which will hopefully start opening the right doors. This is coupled with probably the most important finance meeting with the accountants I have had for some time.
There are also meetings lined up with the company that are now administering my new publishing, and I will also be discussing starting a new record label as at least then I can try and make things happen and have some control. January also brings the joy of various trips to the eye hospital and also the dentist, (the joys of ageing), but on the fun side, I am doing a sportsman's charity lunch in Sheffield on Sunday 19th and the day before have been invited by my footballing friend Tony Currie to the game at Bramall Lane as his guest.
2025 has to be a creative year for me. I need to create and 2024 was a let down as far as creativity was concerned. To this end I have creative lunches already in place with both Sir Tim Rice and Alfie Boe and these excite me.
As regards the charities I love, they are all fighting hard for their respective causes and I am hoping to make two trips associated with both saving Strays and Animals Asia in 2025. One to Vietnam to do a concert for the Moon Bears… (actually to the Moon Bears as the audience), and also a trip to Bosnia to visit the saving Strays dog sanctuary there.
Just a little insight into the first quarter of 2025, I have 3 days at Trading Boundaries on the 6th, 7th and 8th of February with the keyboards and more silly anecdotes: then the Slapstick festival in Bristol on the 14th and 15th and then on the 26th it's off to Italy.
Once again, thanks for all your support and encouragement. It's what fuels me, always has done and always will and a final thanks to Wayne here at the website who looks after all the social media that I still fail to understand!
Happy New Year from me, Rachel, Mum-in-Law, Cobweb, GT, MuMu, Puff and Luxsy. (Sadly we lost Teaser at age 20 at the beginning of December who we'd had from 6 month as a kitten).
Cheers Rick