After a busy summer of gigs & recording I’ve got a couple of amazing dates for your diaries to soften the season’s change…

Monday 3rd October - I’m delighted to be supporting one of Ireland’s most celebrated songwriters Eleanor McEvoy on her UK tour to promote her 9th album “Alone”.  Also billed is Glasgow based gem Maeve O’Boyle.

Venue is Malone’s (Edinburgh) and you can buy tickets here: TICKETS

Doors – 7:30pm – £8

Mon 28th November - I’m supporting (and also playing double-bass for) Alex Cornish in a return to The Bush Hall (London) for a repeat of last year’s stunning full-band with string section gig, only this time there’s a whole new album of songs to from his acclaimed 3rd album No Shore.

Doors 7:30pm – £15 – GET TICKETS HERE

Meanwhile, I’m beavering away on my full length album for planned release early next year.

Hope to see you at a gig soon!

I’ve finally got some of my tunes up on SoundCloud and created a wee player for some of the songs off my debut EP which is released on all digital stores this Thursday!

This’ll be permanently on my MUSIC page but meanwhile – click away and please share on your facebook, twitter etc… if you like.

If any of you fancy a FREE MUSIC FESTIVAL then come down to Peebles in the Scottish Borders this weekend for the inaugural Southern Gatherin’ where I’ll be playing a set at 5pm in The Courthouse.

Over the weekend I’ll also be sitting in on percussion for Ken Barrett (Sat 1pm) and Douglas Kay Band (Sun 7pm)

See you there!

The Edinburgh Festival is upon us and I’m a busy bee with various Fringe gigs playing double-bass for Gecko 3, Alex Cornish and Andi Neate (see the Fringe Guide for details!).

I’ve also got loads of solo gigs over the next few weeks leading up to the official release of my debut EP Eponymoose!  You’ll be able to get this on iTunes and pretty much every digital store from September 1st.

Summer Gigs

• Tuesday 2nd Aug – Acoustic Edinburgh at Medina
• Saturday 6th Aug – Tweedsmuir Music Festival
• Saturday 13th Aug – Fondoo, The Courthouse, Peebles
• Monday 15th Aug – The Lounge, Doublet Bar, Glasgow
• Tuesday 16th Aug – Out of the Bedroom (featured act), Montague Bar, Edinburgh
• Weekend 3/4th Sep – The Southern Gathering Music Festival, Peebles

I use the looper in songs like She Loves Sushi, Quicksand and No Rain and it lets me build up a song bit by bit by recording something like a beat-box rhythm and then making it repeat automatically while I add more layers and play over the top. To see/hear this in action, check me on You Tube here: She Loves Sushi

This hopefully makes my solo gigs sound more interesting than just bloke-with-guitar.

The looper I use now is the Boss RC-50. It’s my 3rd loop pedal and effectively it’s 3 loopers in one so I can create 3 independent loops and use them all at once, any one by itself or any combination of the three which is handy for different sections of a song. I use 2 microphones on stage – the main one is my normal vocal mic (controlled by the sound engineer) and the 2nd one connects straight into the looper. I use an A-B switch on my guitar signal so it either goes straight to the guitar DI box (bypassing the looper) or into the looper when I want to record guitar loops. This means I can record vocal loops while playing the guitar at the same time (without recording the guitar). The looper sends the combined vocal and guitar loops to a second DI box.

In the past I’ve used the Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeller and the Digitech Jam Man.

The Line 6 is a brilliant delay pedal that models classic delays like the Roland Space Echo. As a looper it’s a bit limited as it has a feature that dips the volume of previous loops as you overdub new ones. This can be useful but not for the way I want to use it live. They’ve since brought out the JM4 looper but I’ve not tried this out.

The Jam Man was a great pedal (it’s now discontinued) with XLR mic input and an Undo feature that could be used creatively to bring overdubs in and out but ultimately it’s not as versatile as the RC-50 which is why I’ve moved to that.

So there you are!

Tonight is the last night of the tour with our gig at The Portland Arms, Cambridge.

Just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who’s come to the gigs, everyone who’s bought my CD and finally a huge thanks to Alex Cornish for having me as the support act for every show.

If you haven’t bought Alex’s new album “No Shore” yet, you’re missing out as according to yesterday’s Sunday Times four star review it’s a “beautiful album that has Mercury Prize shortlist wild-card written all over it“!)

Buy it here: http://www.alexcornish.com

As well as playing double-bass for Alex, I’m also playing solo as the support act for every show!

Hope to see you at one of them. Tickets from http://www.alexcornish.com/?page_id=33

JULY 2011
6th – 13th Note, Glasgow
7th – The Caves, Edinburgh
8th – The Cockpit, Leeds
9th – The Stables, Milton Keynes
10th – The Cluny, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
11th – Band on the Wall, Manchester
12th – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
13th – Latest Music Bar, Brighton
14th – The Troubador, London
15th – The Railway, Winchester
16th – Louisiana, Bristol
18th – Portland Arms, Cambridge

After an amazing time at Insider Festival playing with Gecko 3 and Glastonbury with Andi Neate, I’m off to Kelburn Garden Party for a Gecko 3 set tonight followed by my first ever solo gig at a summer festival on Sunday as part of the Unpeeled Sessions.

Walk up tickets still available so if you fancy some festival action, you know where to go!

UK tour with Alex Cornish begins next week!  Tickets and details on www.alexcornish.com

A string of lovely gigs in the pipeline – starting tonight where Woosh Entertainments are launching a regular showcase of original music in new venue The One Below.

I’m supporting Edinburgh supergroup The Elements – details on my gigs page but I’m on about 8:30pm

Only £5

June kicks off with 2 very special gigs – 1st June at Edinburgh’s prestigious Secret CDs event where I’m part of an all-Northern Ireland line-up!

June 2nd takes me to Kirkcaldy where I’m very chuffed to be headlining the Acoustic Music in Fife showcase at Eddie’s Bar.

July brings me to a wee slot at one of Scotland’s finest small festivals (The Kelburn Garden Party) and then I’m very excited to be confirmed as the support act for Alex Cornish‘s UK tour in July (as well as playing double-bass for the man himself).

Tour dates and tickets available HERE

On top of all this, I’m running the Edinburgh Marathon this Sunday for SADS UK.

If you’d like to support, my charity giving page is HERE

See you at a gig soon!

Tour Dates:

Thu 24th March – The Royal Hotel, Penicuik

Fri 25th March – The Old Bridge Inn, Aviemore

Sat 26th March – Kintail Lodge, Glenshiel

Sun 27th March – Hootananny, Inverness

Mon 28th March – Bond No. 9, Edinburgh

We are 3 solo artists but will be touring as a collaborative band with some instrument swapping and lots of lush backing vocals so we’re pretty excited about it.  We’ve also recorded a wee sampler CD which will be for sale at the gigs so hopefully you can make one of them!

Be sure to check out Donna & Stu‘s music online!

Full details on the Gigs Page

Pic: Donna Maciocia, Stu Goodall and yours truly!

Photo by Nem Sarton

I’m very chuffed to have been invited to play in session at Leith FM on the Noise Up show hosted by Graeme Scott.

If you’re in signal range in Edinburgh then I’m on between 12pm and 2pm on 98.8 FM, otherwise you can listen online here:

http://www.leithfm.co.uk/listen/

It may even be on webcam here:

http://www.leithfm.co.uk/webcam/cam.php

In other news, I played at a lovely gig on Feb 10th hosted by Corner Sessions and photographer Gav Brown posted some great pics and 3 video clips from the gig on my facebook page.

I’m guilty of dragging my heels on the EP Launch but it will definitely be this Spring – I’m guessing April – I’ll let you know the actual date when I have it confirmed but I’ve managed to get my head around PayPal so if you’d like to buy into my folly of hand-making 200 pre-release copies of my debut EP then please indulge here:

Track Listing:

Also, I’ve been beavering away on some new material and have started a collaborative project with a couple of incredibly talented Edinburgh-based songwriters – Donna Maciocia and Stu Goodall and we’re planning a Scottish tour at the end of March!  Dates to be confirmed next week – check my Gigs Page for details so far!

We’ll be using the collective name: Ma Good Body (see what we did there?)

Here’s how the stage at The Bush Hall looked just before I went on – such a lovely venue:

Massive Thanks to everyone who came out to the gigs in Edinburgh, Cambridge & London and for all the kind words about my set and about my DEBUT EP!

Yep – the EP is finally finished, but not officially released yet. Apparently the way to do it is to try and get some reviews and then officially launch it amidst a fanfare of trumpets and facebook adverts. I’ll be getting it on iTunes and other online retailers but that will take at least 6 weeks so I’m planning Feb 2011 for an official launch date.

The pre-release hand-made limited edition version is available at gigs until then and through this website shortly!

Talking of gigs, I’ve got a few really nice ones in December to wrap up the year:

I’m opening up the last Acoustic Edinburgh of 2010 on Tue 7th, then I’m very excited to have been invited to play a special edition of Eddy’s Acoustic Night in Kirkcaldy which is being recorded live for Celtic Radio.

Facebook event HERE & here’s the blurb:

“Eddy’s has organised a special night for your regular host Vivienne as a thank you for helping to provide a regular platform for local musicians. The night will be hosted by Celtic Radio Glasgow Presenter Mary K Burke and will include some of the regular open mic artists who have supported the evening all year. Also invited to join the evening are guest artists Edinburgh based band ‘Jake Cogan & The Liberty Roses‘, Glasgow band ‘Clova‘ and ‘Paul Gilbody‘ who has worked alongside the likes of KT Tunstall, Horse, Karine Polwart, The Skids and Andi Neate. Mary K Burke, a presenter of Celtic Radio Glasgow and previous Eddy’s guest, will also be performing alongside William Patterson A wonderful evening of live acoustic music to celebrate what has been a brilliant year with many talented musicians coming through the door at Eddy’s. The night is being recorded live by Celtic Radio and will be transmitted on Mary K Burke’s show soon after. Hope you can make it – starts at eight !”

Last gig of the year will be at Nobles Bar in Edinburgh for another of the regular showcase night hosted by award-winning tunesmith Andy Tucker.

All details on my Gigs Page!