live Archives - CRAIG WESTWOOD

Playing Live Again

Craig — Mon, 01 Jul 2019 10:07:00 +0000

It’s so nice to be getting out again after so long. I can’t express how much my upper arm injury had limited my goals, and, although I could just switch emphasis and concentrate on other stuff, having to protect the arm really did put a dampener on my enthusiasm.

That said, it’s easy to fall into bad habits. Although the arm has been recovering for a while now, it was easy to tell myself to “protect the arm, protect the arm!” as an excuse to not go back to playing regularly too early.

Anyway – it was time… blow off the cobwebs, and get back out into the unsuspecting world.

My first plan was to aim to play at least once a week… somewhere.

Straight off the bat I have the offer of a gig from Scott Doonican of The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican at the Old School House in Barnsley. Good on yer, mate, and thank you. It’s now been pushed back till January due to a scheduling issue on our original date, but I’m looking forward to it.

Then I literally went onto the Open Mic Finder site (link) and made a list of all the nearby open mics, and made contact by email/facebook.

Next, I contacted a total unknown… A venue known simply as Small Seeds, in Huddersfield. I did wait a few days to get a response from the email, but they were very encouraging. They invite all musicians locally, as well as poets, to come on down and play/read their material at the aptly titled Acoustic Club every Tuesday evening after 9pm.

It’s a lovely spot, very rustic looking stage, and there’s no mics or amplification, so this REALLY IS acoustic only. The nice thing too is they provide an acoustic guitar for those who simply want to turn up and play; and there’s an upright piano there as well if you want to play that too.

Next up I contacted Pete Long, whom I’d met through Andrew when he ran the Acoustic Circus open mics at the Taproom in Batley. He’s moved on from the Taproom, and is now hosting Acoustic Circus open mics once monthly from the West End pub in Gomersal. He also runs another Acoustic Circus Session once a month in St Mary’s Church in Gomersall too.

Pete himself is a really good guitarist and songwriter by the way, just check out VanRay on Spotify or iTunes…

Anyway – as soon as I made contact, Pete offered me a half-hour guest slot at the West End. This kinda threw me in the deep end, but I was glad of it. It blew out the cobwebs and got me thinking about a set again, rather than just the usual two or three odd songs that you get to do at a ‘normal’ open mic.

One thing I have realised though: playing ‘Whispers of Home’ with its drop tuning is a difficult song to put in the set, wherever you put it. I’ve tried retuning the guitar mid-set, and, unless you’re a good raconteur whilst you’re re-tuning, you’re asking a lot of patience from the audience whilst you mess about. The only alternative is to swap guitars. Here’s where my poor old EKO E20 lets me down, as the old Barcus Berry piezo bridge pickup I fitted 25+ years ago really isn’t up to it any more. Feedback from the audience is that it just wasn’t as good sounding as my Taylor 214. So – at some point, to do this justice, I’m going to need to change the E20 for something better, or just get better at re-tuning the 214 mid-set.

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Electric Cabaret

Craig — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 10:14:00 +0000

Despite the injury, the physiotherapy is helping enough for me to continue to do short sets like the 30 minute one at Electric Cabaret at the Old School House, Barnsley, an extension of ‘Cabaret Doonican’, run by the enigmatic Scott Doonican of the Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican. Usually, the night is split to allow four acts to perform a half hour set each, and a donations box provided fro the audience to contribute towards their appreciation of the acts performing, which is divided up at the end.

All I can say is, I’m pleased the set wasn’t any longer. By the end of the last song, my upper arm was extremely painful and stiffening up. But enough moaning… I’m happy I can still play at all!

Very grateful to those who turned up to support me, including my wife Claire, who took some video (coming soon), and Dave Wilde of Wilde Sammon, and grateful too for all the help and encouragement with my set, including Scott, and Marcus, who really does a great job behind the mixing desk, making everyone sound as good as can be, plus a shout out to Amanda (Scott’s other half) for divvying-up the proceeds at the end.

Hope to do another one soon!

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Cabaret Doonican – 2nd Outing

Craig — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 11:22:00 +0000

Thanks to Dave Wilde, of the band ‘Wilde Sammon’, and a good mate, he reminded me about Cabaret Doonican at the Old School House in Barnsley on Thursday, and, despite being full of hay fever at the moment (yuk), I decided I’d dose up on the antihistamines and go on over.

When I arrived, I saw a rather worried Scott Doonican, who told me that despite getting a huge number of acts on my last visit two months ago, for last month’s open mic, the one I couldn’t attend due to a chest infection, only one act turned up. This catastrophic lack of support almost cancelled the show for good, and Scott was under threat that if the show didn’t attract enough performers and punters this week, it’d be the last.

Fortunately I was one of five acts that put on a show, including two bands, Wilde Sammon, and Indecision, and that was enough to let this great little venue keep running live music.

Scott has videoed ‘Ebbs and Flows’ from my set, and some from the other guys too. Link here to Cabaret Doonican’s Facebook page

Any one in the area thinking of playing at an open mic, or just like watching live music, try out Cabaret Doonican… It’s a great setup, with it’s own stage, lighting, and where performers aren’t talked-over during the set (one of my pet hates). And a great Team with Marcus on sound, Scott as Host, and Amanda, who takes a lot of photos on the night. Huge gratitude to the work they put in behind the scenes, making us look and sound good.

Cabaret Doonican is stopping for the Summer break, and resumes first Thursday in September.

Scott’s other event: ‘Electric Cabaret’ is on a Thursday towards the end of the month. I’m booked in to do a set on 30th August (re-scheduled from July because of the World Cup footy). Same Venue.

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Cabaret Doonican – 1st Outing

Craig — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 10:45:00 +0000

Great shot from Cabaret Doonican, April 5th

I’d been meaning to go and join in the open mics at The Old School House in Barnsley for a while, at the invitation of my friend Dave Wilde of ‘Wilde Sammon’, as he and bandmate Chris Sammon are pretty regular visitors there. I’ve attended a couple of charity fundraisers there already, purely as a spectator, and I was really impressed with the stage and the set up.

Cabaret Doonican is hosted every first Thursday of the month, and run by Scott Doonican, a guitarist and singer/performer himself, who literally races around most of the evening making sure the acts are informed of the running order and explaining the set up. This takes place in the back room at Old School House, which has a permanent stage setup with really good lighting and p.a..

For Cabaret Doonican there are tables arranged for acts and visitors to sit and watch, a bar open in a room at the side which keeps bar noise away from the stage. Talking during the performances is discouraged, out of respect to the performers, and if someone is talking too loudly, they’ll politely be asked to go into the other (main) bar away from the music. Result! There’s nothing worse than playing to a bar full of people who really aren’t interested, or watching the faces of an audience who want to listen to you but can’t hear much because of the noise of others. Either way, this set up gets rid of the disinterested.

As there were so many acts crammed into the evening, I was asked to perform just three songs, all I must say went down really well. A couple of the other performers came across to me afterwards to say how much they enjoyed my set. It was so nice to feel welcomed.

Scott’s wife (Amanda) was taking photos of all the performances and took some cracking shots of my set, one of which I’m using here, and on social media right now… Very grateful for the share!

All in all a great evening, and a fabulous venue for performers of all genres wanting a polite, respectful and encouraging audience. I definitely will be going back again!

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Open Mics

Craig — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 18:34:00 +0000

These have been such a great way of building confidence, that I would recommend open mics to anyone wanting to get into performing their own material. I’ve been very fortunate to have the support of Andrew organising a great many of these.

Just lately these have been once a week at least, having at least a half-hour slot (and sometimes a whole hour) at the Dandy Lion in Heckmondwike. It’s got a great atmosphere there, and the audience are pretty polite most of the time, and will listen, and not just talk or shout over you (not that playing over a loud chatty audience isn’t a good learning experience in itself!).

The news this week is that the Dandy Lion Acoustic Sessions are maybe coming to a close, and that would be a shame. I’ve been looking forward to Monday nights. That’s been quite a change from the pre-stage nerves I used to get, not so long ago.

There’s still a once-a-month session at the Cross Keys in Liversedge to look forward to. But it looks like I need to go and seek out a few more to attend…

I’ll keep you posted.

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Acoustic Circus Session

Craig — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 17:08:00 +0000

Nice pic from Andrew’s perspective… Me with Purple Hair!

Acoustic Circus Session is the title of the Open Mic event run regularly at the Taproom in Batley. Hosted by guitarist and singer Pete Long, the Taproom is a great little venue with nice acoustics which will hold about 80 when full. I was impressed with the sound quality when listening to the other acts singing and performing, though I had a couple of issues on the last bit of my second set when a dirty volume ‘pot’ on the P.A. started to crackle out. I just soldiered on and kept playing while Pete did his best to sort things out, which was done fairly quickly, but it definitely needs a clean up for next time.

Feedback from Andrew was very good. He was pleased with the way which I coped, even with the technical issues, and he had no complaints with my playing or my confidence on stage. I have a couple of things to work on in terms of the dynamics of one or two of the songs, which we can work on over the next few weeks. But as we’re coming to the end of our contract, I am now mindful of the fact that we still have 5 songs to complete, mix and master by April.

Lots to do. Watch this space…

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Open Mic at ‘The Hop’

Craig — Tue, 19 Jul 2016 08:25:00 +0000

I’m so pleased to say that despite the initial nerves, my section went very well, I think. I fluffed my words a couple of times and my mic usage was a bit erratic, but I don’t think it mattered too much. The Hop was quite empty (I guess Monday night isn’t going to be as packed out as a Friday or Saturday), so really I was just singing to my guests, Claire, Ken and Pat, plus the other artists that 360 manage and their guests. So – it was a lovely informal evening, not too much pressure, and chance to build up my confidence and improve technique on a live rig.

It’s nice also to see how well the others are doing: Zoe, Carla and Harry were also singing last night, and they clearly seemed more confident than I was. I elected to go first as I thought that it would be better to do my little set, and not prolong the nerves any longer than necessary. It’s nice that we all perform in very different genres and therefore don’t have to be competitive in any way. We are all there to develop our skills, build stage confidence and build our repertoire.

With the first one behind me, I think I’ve finally laid the ghosts of past stage disasters to rest. I’m very grateful to Ken and Pat (and Claire of course) for coming to support me, and of course to Andrew for being my backing and lead guitarist. Ken has video-ed the set, (pics are taken from the video) which I may or may not put up at some point. I’m very highly critical watching stuff back like this, and there’s certainly room for improvement. To me, the sound at a live gig is never as good as when you were there – even for the pro performers, and you watch it back and you think: “Blimey, I didn’t realise he was singing flat there on the night…” But that’s the downside of recording with a phone, and not directly from the stage mixer. Perhaps next time we can do this, and see what we really sound like…

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Performance Session 3

Craig — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 02:08:00 +0000

I’m now into session 3 of performance coaching. Andrew has been giving me tips on how to make my songs more dynamic on stage, and today he introduced mic technique as well. I have been practicing at home over the last week or so with an unplugged mic on stand, to learn to be comfortable with it there, but Andrew has even covered where to put your feet, and how to move to and from the mic during the performance.

I was sure once I saw the mics at The Hop, that they were Shure SM58’s, and today confirmed it. They are, after all, the world’s most “bomb proof” microphone for quality sound and robustness combined, and often the stage mic of preference. Today one of them was used for me to get positioning and posture right.

I currently have a set-list of three songs, namely: Chasing it Down, Watching the Rain and (Don’t Hurry) Slow Down, and I have been busy practicing these for the last three weeks. We’ve discussed me doing some cover songs, but I’m really not so keen, as I have so many of my own songs to choose from. I did play a couple of possible covers to Andrew three weeks back in session 1, so they can remain as reserves for now, while I concentrate on perfecting the current set. This set is to build upon over time, so we can choose to include the later if need be.

Along with this, I have just been given access to The Songwriting School course for recording. This, I hope, will smooth some of the gaps in my knowledge on recording technique, and help me mix my home studio tracks better, as I really want to be able to record and present my tracks, songs and instrumentals alike, in as professional a quality as possible. Looking at the syllabus, some of the topics covered are already familiar to me, but my hope is that the depth of material covered will be greater than my present knowledge. The next few weeks will decide, I guess.

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Performance Session 1

Craig — Thu, 26 May 2016 23:43:00 +0000

Held at Andrew’s house on Tuesday, we went through a few songs that I felt I could work on in order to play live and rebuild my stage confidence. I played a few verses of my songs tha I’d like to perform live, as well as a couple of covers, to get ‘established’ so to speak. We discussed my last disastrous gig, and then hopefully this can be put to bed, where I hope the old anxieties won’t resurface.

Andrew is offering to accompany me for these open mic events, for as long as I need it. I must say this is encouraging. I am seeing the supportive side of 360AD now, and I’m looking forward to our future sessions.

On returning home, I have put together some song sheets with chords for Andrew to learn for our next session in two week’s time.

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Open Mic Night

Craig — Tue, 24 May 2016 18:58:00 +0000

This was held last night at Wakefield’s The Hop, a lovely little venue situated quite near to Westgate station and Wakefield’s Theatre and Opera House. Here I’ve got to meet quite a few of the Artists currently on the 360 Programme, or at least the more local ones, some at least coming from as far as Manchester and Nottingham.

Here a great many of the pieces about 360AD have come into place, I feel. It’s nice to have met the other artists and I see that group support that they have, and the support that Matthew and Andrew give them too. It was nice to see people who had been with 360AD for just a few months, and also see some who have been with them for a few years too, and see the level of confidence and professionalism even from those who have only been there a short time.

I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to be involved in the live scene, and this really because I have severe hang-ups about my last stage performance: albeit some 30 years ago it was a club audition that went quite horrendously wrong. To cut a long story short – and it is still hard for me to talk about it (though a bit easier to write…), I ended up completely freezing on stage on my final song, without any memory for chords or words, and just had to end the show there. Needless to say that it happened in front of a load of local talent scouts, and it was the worst way to end a potential career as a club player. Past history.

Anyway – I was just there to spectate last night. I admit I was quite tempted to get up and do something, but I don’t feel personally prepared enough yet to perform, and I reckon this will ease the more I practice and the more the songs become “muscle-memory”.

My conclusion: wow – what a great bunch of performers! Such talent and such a diversity of styles and genres. I said to Andrew and Matthew at the end, how much I feel that I’m in awesome company, and feeling quite humbled and slightly unworthy right now. I hope I can escape the rabbit-in-the-headlights syndrome when it comes to my turn…

So…. practice, practice, practice…

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