Greetings pop-pickers, August has vanished, mis-guided dreams of an Indian Summer are here and I am even considering having a haircut.
I genuinely hope the summer has been magical for you and like me, you have discovered some breathtakingly wonderful new music at various festivals,gigs and outdoor shindigs – can I point you in the direction of : Simon Lynge, Stephanie Lambring & Alyssa Bonagurra.
Gigs
The last couple of months have been hectic and at times an adventure – at one point on our car journey home from Norfolk the Sat Nav declared; ” Turn Left ……And……Take The Ferry”…….which sparked complete bewilderment & laughter amongst myself and my co-driver (Mr Ward).
Headlining at The Half Moon (Putney, London) was an honour & a surreal experience. It was lovely to see some people from the London branch of the ‘Cole Stacey Not Quite A Fan Club’ Club and a major challenge to sing ‘Seasons’ as requested from the lovely Blaze via the Facebook Page. Scott and I had the real privilege of being guest performers and judges alongside Tony Taupin (Bernie’s brother) in Boston, Lincolnshire at ‘The Inspire Music Concert’. Wow what a day, big thanks to Rachel & her lovely family for taking such good care of us and a real pleasure to sit alongside Tony Taupin and for all of us to get the chance to see some amazing musical talent. congrats to Andrew Santon for being a deserved winner.
Sidmouth folk festival – a wonderful night outside Dukes, a new stage and by the end there were about 13 of us on stage. A massive thanks to the incredible musicianship and generosity of : John Barlow, Marck Pearlstone, Ryan Marks, Toby Williams, Jeffi Clarke, Terry stacey & Scott Ward. Johnny B Goode anyone?!
Gigs with Ryan and Scott followed quickly in Bristol and we even managed a couple of wonderful nights and my little local public house (The Awliscombe Inn), it’s now my adopted home due to the unbelievable kindness and love of music Roland and the locals show. Norwich included great times with Steve, Jan & Tom from Grapevine , a lovely intimate gig in ‘Olives’ & also The Reedham Riverside Beer Festival (with our old friends from the Lord Nelson).
The Future
And so…This months gigs are listed on the website and beyond that…… I’m really pleased to announce that I will be doing a 3 month Acoustic Tour of the Uk from late Feb – May 2011. These gigs will encompass venues of all shapes and sizes and I will joined at some of them by a few very special guests. The dates are being booked as we speak – if you have a town,city or village that you think a Cole Stacey gig may go down well in then dont hesitate to send myself or Richard and email ; contact AT colestacey.net (replace the AT with @).
To accompany this Tour there will be a limited Edition EP for sale of which there will be more info in the next edition of ‘Cole Stacey’s ever so slightly Boring and rambling Blog’…(very popular with the Insomniacs Society or so I believe).
In the meantime, be happy and healthy and please continue to send me your thoughts, comments and general musings on here,by email and the old book of face. Much Love.
Greetings!!Two years ago when my brother mentioned the idea of me getting a ‘blog’, I’ll be honest I thought he was talking about installing some kind of strange posh Toilet, it turns he was talking about something in no way connected with bathroom related facilities. Before I go any further here’s his blog (he is a teacher mind…and lives in Wales…..but please don’t hold that against him tho…. ( It should be stated that my aim of this was in no way to insult any body connected with teaching or in fact Wales)……….I think i’ll start again!
Greetings! !!This is the first of many (hopefully) blog entries that I will submit exclusively here on my home website where I will try to regale stories from being ‘on the road’ , in the studio and most interestingly; from gigs themselves.
Im going to start with a very brief (I can see the yawns already on some of your faces already) summary of the year that has been, the tour and general….ness. The easiest and most entertaining way to do this is to watch this video!
So as I sit in my front room, the dog asleep next to me, watching the the opening game of the world cup when I should be at least pretending to practice, I wanted to write down my latest thoughts & musings.
Recently I’ve been having much merryment performing in Bristol (don’t get me started on the one way system in that city), Cornwall & Devon. Enjoyed meeting a wonderful photographer Chris Parratt at The Raglan Arms and she has taken some fantabulous pictures, which you can see on this website.
My question to you (it may well turn out to be rhetorical) regards numbers of people at gigs. Everywhere I go, every promoter I speak to says that crowd numbers are really down, CD sales are down & it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get people out to see live music. Especially new music. This is not helped by venue after venue ‘playing safe’ and booking the same old Tribute Bands on Fri,Sat & Sun nights…but do we blame them?In a recession venues are losing the fight for survival all the time so they want to guarantee getting people through the door.
However there is simply so much fantastic talent out there in this country (let alone touring artists from America and Canada) that if given the chance, would draw crowds in every night, of that I am certain. But how do we get numbers back in venues paying to see this quality live music?Ticket price reduction would be my first suggestion, I have done gigs where I am the headline act and the promoter is charging £9 and there is no local support act, now I have a lot of faith in myself but £9?…..in the middle of Winter…..in the middle of nowhere…….well I’m sorry but not every acoustic act can do a ‘show of Hands’ and make tickets £16 and draw a crowd…..and frankly nor should they be asked too.
In a day and age where online promotion is so important, we (as artists) perhaps forget the power of word of mouth – someone sees a great new artist live, tells his friends, next time they are playing they go and watch and take their friends etc etc. So as a performer I have a responsibility to put on a show that grabs people, says ‘listen to this’ and ‘ignore the football screen for one night and come and watch me play’………it’s too easy to do what lots of venues do and ‘play safe’ by playing the same old songs in the same old style with the dull self indulgent verses and the uninspiring 3 chord chorus………………which reminds me, did I mention my new song…!
In News Hot off the…. whatever the thing is that makes news hot….an oven?….or maybe a blowtorch?……I’m going to be playing at Glastonbury for the first time, in the Pleasure Island Marquee, I will report all goings on in the next blog.
Scott, my musical partner in crime…he has a hot tub in his garden dont you know (that’s not a euphemism)…. and I, have many duo gigs coming up as well and if you happen to be in the facbook side of town then check out our page here
I would like to make this as interactive as poss so get in touch, send comments, emails, questions, jokes, musical recommendations etc and in return I promise to make my blog much more interesting in future! You can follow me on twitter here
I should mention a special gig at Bridport Arts centre on June 25th where I will be supporting Flossie Malavialle – she recently supported Show of Hands & Fairport Convention on their Uk tours and is not to be missed…..the drive from Glastonbury to Bridport in rush hour is one I am less looking forward to though!
Cole’s song ‘If You’ (taken from An EP 2) has been included on the new ‘Fatea’ Showcase CD alongside some sensational other artistes. The Winter Sessions compilation can be downloaded here along with all the track listings and artwork.
We are delighted to announce that Cole will be supporting the sensational Cara Dillon on 7th Feb in Hailsham . Full details for the gig can be found here on Spyboy’s website . Tickets will sell out very fast so book now to avoid disappointment .
A new track can be downloaded for free when you sign up to Cole’s mailing list - ’Sometimes It’s Love’ is a track taken from the forthcoming debut album from Cole Stacey and this free download is a recording taken from a live radio interview on Exeter Fm. Cole was ‘Artist of the week’ earlier in the year and went in for an hour long chat and acoustic session on James Santer’s brilliant show ‘Exeter select. You can listen to Exeter Fm on 107.3 fm or online . Exeter Fm have very kindly allowed this song to be downloaded and Cole would like to take this opportunity to thank them personally and in particular James Santer for all their continuing support.
COLE IS EXETER FM’s ‘ARTIST OF THE WEEK’, THE FIRST OF 2009. HE WIIL BE PLAYING AND CHATTING ABOUT HIS INFLUENCES TO JAMES SANTER LIVE ON AIR ON TUESDAY 6TH JAN .
On 27th September Cole popped down to the BBC Broadcasting house in Plymouth to perform at their open day. He gave an interview on the James Watts show and a performance of ‘Note To Self’.
Cole Stacey on 
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