Officiano Metropolis, Livorno IT

Oh dear, one of those nights tonight. I'm sleeping at the owners house half an hour away by car and he can't leave until the bar closes. It's 1.30 and more people keep coming in. I could be here a while... whisky time. If I'm going to stay I might as well drink the best stuff they have.

It was another quiet show but I get paid the same regardless so I'm  not complaining. Looking forward to done time off. It's been a long week.

Livorno is by the sea. Just so you know.

Another day of motion tomorrow. Up and to the car and to the train and to the plane and to the metro and to the taxi and walk to the door.

Firenze

I didn't realize Firenze was Florence until today. I've changed trains
here twice and never ventured out of the station, but this time I had
a poke around, albeit a brief one, bags and all prohibiting a full
scale assault.

The Frog Cafe, Noveller IT

Italian car repairs. Andrea from the cafe drove me to the train
station thus morning. I stayed in his house last night above the cafe.
I prefer houses or band apartments because I can make my porridge in
the morning. Cold continental hotel breakfasts really don't agree with
me. I've tried forcing my way into the kitchen and commandeering a
saucepan but they often put up a struggle.

A nice easy show last night. But it was very quiet. Monday. Normally I
avoid it but they paid so I came. I can play for an hour on autopilot
now. I was more background music, so I just practice new songs and
play for myself.

The first week is not good to play in Italy anyway. Because people get
their salaries at the end of the first week, so people are waiting for
their money. January on the whole is quite sparse. I did alright but
next year I'll wait until February before hitting the road. I only
have nine shows in February now unfortunately, because France and
Spain really didn't come through. Now I come to the time I am actually
pleased to have the time off. More time to do booking and work on songs.

My to do list includes:
- Memorise more of my songs and covers for the set (dropping a few
known songs in helps connect more with the audience)
- Booking of course. Fill in the gaps for Canada and the US and start
with Scandinavia in July.
- Get my songs and dates up on all those shitty little websites like
Last.fm, ilike, spotify, etc. A plague on their houses. The little
time stealers. The internet makes this life possible but asks for its
pound of flesh.
- Get some dry cleaning done
- Go swimming. My only exercise has been carrying my bag up and
downstairs

Subscribers?

Dear fan(s),
This is the discussion going on among the music people.... would you guys pay €1 a month to part of the Foundation or is selling music a debt duck?

"Imagine that you had a membership option. So no more free music on your page, maybe a few free tracks. But become a member of The Jack Stafford Foundation and get: free music. All they can eat. All year around, all releases. They pay 1 euro pr. month. You make a flyer announcing that, people just put a automatic pay in for 1 euro and they keep their password to free music. It’s a fun model, imagined that it worked and you got 1000 members. That would be insane. I would become a member, anyone who would like to buy 1 track on itunes, then he’ll be better of becoming a member you know. Even for 3 months or what ever people want, but I think, 1 euro is nothing and if you play so many shows, maybe there is a few fans who would support the madness. And even a few hundred euros pr month would make the wheel spin." Anders Meisner, Epitaph

"The recorded music business must switch to subscription, it's its only hope of economic survival.

The iTunes Store is killing the music business. Sure, it provides a legal alternative to theft/copyright infringement, but the economics make no sense. Because instead of spending $10-$20 for an album, people are now purchasing $1.29 tracks. And it takes many $1.29 tracks to reach the equivalent of an album. Essentially ten. So, you're asking the public to make ten purchases instead of one. Get it? Can you imagine someone saying yes ten times in a row? Imagine buying the White Album a la carte. How many people do you think would have purchased "Revolution 9"? But we did, as part of an album, there were no singles from the White Album, and therefore we know "Revolution 9", because oftentimes we were just too lazy to jump up and lift the needle past it, and we ended up hearing it, it's in our DNA, like the rest of those album tracks.

But it makes no sense to complain that people should buy albums instead of singles, you're pissing in the wind, the Internet has unbundled the album. That doesn't mean you can't try to get people to buy as many of your tracks as possible, it just means that the concept of paying once for ten tracks is something that no one has to do, and almost no one wants to do.

So, inherently, we're selling less music, and making less money.

Who do we want to blame? Apple, the customer? That makes no sense, as stated previously Apple is providing an alternative, and without customers you've got no business. The key is to get more cash from each individual consumer, so in the aggregate, we end up with a lot of money.

The classic example is cable bundling. You cannot buy your cable channels a la carte. You must buy them in tiers. Which drives you nuts. Why am I paying for something I'm never going to watch? But economically, it makes sense. For if the channels were unbundled, the cable system wouldn't be able to make enough money, so it would have to raise the price of each individual channel substantially, to the point where you'd be paying just as much. According to this article in the "New Yorker", at most you'd be saving thirty five cents. And you'd give up the ability to surf all those extra channels, and possibly find something interesting.

That's what we want people to do. Surf the music and find something interesting. That was the old album paradigm. Since you paid four or six or ten bucks for the LP (the price went up with inflation), you listened to it, and found out you liked cuts other than the hits, to the point you wanted to see the act live, to hear it perform all these songs, and bought the next album not worrying about a hit, because you were a fan of the band.

I hope these days can return. But we've got to switch the game in the interim. We've got to make people fans of music!

Yes, instead of paying ten bucks for an album, you pay ten bucks for music. And technology allows everybody access, so instead of charging our good customers more, we charge everybody one low flat fee, kind of like cable television, the provider doesn't care if you watch all day long or not at all, it's the same price.

And speaking of price, we can argue whether ten bucks is appropriate, we can argue price all day long, but we can't argue paradigm. The key to survival is charging everybody something. Not breaking it down by track, but providing the whole smorgasbord for a single price.

Now the Spotify trick is to get you hooked for free, then upsell you. That's a good concept, works in sampling across all wares. Don't think it's about giving music away for free, it's ultimately about getting a chance to convert many people. It's just like a retail store. The first key is getting traffic, then, once people are in the store, you do your best to close them. Hell, sometimes you do giveaways just to get them in!

Not that Spotify is the only solution. But the labels must see they need to drive subscriptions, or lose the bundling war. That site allowing you to get tracks for experiencing ads? That's economic death. As is Apple's concept of letting you stream the tracks you own via the cloud. If either of these take hold, the odds of subscription winning go down, and you want them to go up, because the pool is so much larger.

Don't see this as a music problem. Don't see this as a value problem. See this as an economic problem. How do we get the most money? Certainly not by selling tracks. Definitely by selling low-priced subscriptions.

Furthermore, if the music is streamed (with thousands of tracks on your hand-held in case you're out of range, Spotify provides this today), there's no issue of someone stealing everything and then disconnecting. What's there to steal? People believe YouTube clips will live in the cloud forever, very few people save them to disk. We have to migrate music to this same sphere.

Please read this article about bundling. It will make the concept clear to you. The cable companies and content providers are tempting unbundling by fighting their silly wars in public. We have the reverse problem in music. Our content has been unbundled. Only by bundling it again can the industry regain health.

www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2010/01/25/100125ta_talk_surowiecki


--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/"

Exwide, Pisa IT

Pisa is bright and sunny! A shock after the snow of yesterday. Only a few hours through the mountains and it's all changed. A touch of sun and it feels much more like Italy. Straight to the tower first for the obligatory photo. Otherwise the same routine > check in at the hotel > sound check > eat a curry > play > sleep.

The other acts last night were Italian dadaist (punk-folk meets gypsy-rock). All painted clothes and body paint. Not for the purists, but lots of singalong parts and the locals lapped it up.

Pisa is very medieval. Narrow streets and back alleys. Cool in the summer but dark in the winter. I think I'd have a much stronger sense of being in Italy if the weather was warmer. As it is it doesn't have that zing in the air. The people are subdued.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
Tonight I play back near Reggio Emilia where I just came from - back into the snow - then tomorrow I'm back where I am today, near Pisa. Really yoyoing. The last show came in late so it's an add-on. I don't mind too much, because I sleep on the train and I have a eurorail ticket so it doesn't cost anything. If I was driving it would be a different story.

Train travel is definitely the future for me. I wish I'd thought of this before I planned my 16 week /20,000km US roadtrip. I only now checked America's Amtrak and it's pretty well-covered (see map). I couldn't play the smaller towns but that wouldn't matter. It's too late for this year because I have a lot of dates fixed already, but next year I will take more time and do the train.

The coming weeks
I've finalised my travel plans for the ipcoming weeks. I wasn't sure whether more Italian shows might come in but they haven't so I'm off to Madrid on Wednesday. I wanted to take the sleeper train from Milan to Barcelona and then the train down, but even with my eurorail ticket, it's still twice the price for just a bed in a sleeper carriage. (They should really change the tax system to reflect the true cost). Then in two weeks I will fly from Barcelona to Paris rather than the train, as it's 1 hour instead of 10 (min.) and only €60 with easyjet. Ridiculous! So I have almost two weeks in Spain staying with friends, and only two shows. It will be nice to settle down a bit. It's been a hectic week buzzing around Italy.

On the whole, the language barrier was too much for the Italian audiences. It was fine in Austria and Switzerland. But will probably be worse in France and Spain.

Weather report

Woke up to a foot of snow in Parma this morning. Slept in a hostel
again. Own room in a new place, but hostels are not starred. The
breakfast was run by a little Napoleon who fussed over his domain. All
the drinks were out of machines, the croissants could hold open doors
and the breakfast was recycled cardboard.

The dinner lastnight was very nice. The Booker emailed ahead to get
pizza off the menu. It was a nice rice dish instead.

Caffee Letterario, Parma IT

A noisy restaurant. Tough long shows, especially when the crowd
doesn't understand a word you're saying. Parma is nice though.

La Salumeria del Rock, Arceto IT

- Surprise!
She was right. It was a surprise. We'd met in Amsterdam a few months ago and had a brief thing. I said she was welcome to join me on the road anytime, not thinking she would take me up on the offer, or would at least give me some warning. But no, here she was in  Reggio Emilia's crowded train station.
- I had to be in Pisa for a photo and saw that you were playing there so I thought I'd surprise you.
She came from Greece, she had a zest for knowledge. She studied sculpture, art and Butoh dance.
- I thought I'd come and see what life is like on the road.
She was disappointed. After three days of long train rides, long waits to play in small clubs, and me, someone who prefers to be on their own, to put it mildly, she flew back to Greece. It wasn't the romantic adventure she'd had in mind.

Lego Cafè, Cesena IT

The last of the crowd in Cesana.

Another day another show.

Pao, San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy

I’m at the Italian seaside. In January. Who plans these things? It’s raining which I’m pleased about. I’ve been carrying a heavy fisherman-sized umbrella around in my guitar case and now I have the satisfaction of using it.

San Beneditto is very charming. More palm trees than I’ve ever seen in my life. In the summer it’s the No. 1 Italian tourist destination but now it is all boarded up. The only beach bar still open is Pao, owned by Paolo. He’s been a fantastic host and it was a trip to eat with an Italian George Clooney doppelganger. I had a day-off today due to a cancellation and him and his girlfriend showed me around. Italians are rarely short on personality.

In the winter there is only one place each night with something going on. Tuesday’s is the live music in Pao. Wednesday’s is Dochs (docks) the sailor hangout and drag queen bar. They were miming which always is disappointing. I like my drag queens to give a full show. I didn’t ask what they do on a Thursday. I leave it to your imagination. (Back to lookalikes, there was a guy in Dochs who was the spitting image of Mickey Rourke. He was a fashion designer for brands like Vivian Westwood. I think he liked me).

The show went well. People only turned up at 12 o’clock. Few understood what I was singing about but they appreciated the sentiment.

In other news, I see that the iPad is official. I will have to get one in the interests of weight. My laptop is a brick. I will wait for the second generation though which will have a data connection, and try to get a contract for worldwide connection. It’s a real chore chunking around the bars, bags and all. Bowing clumsily through the door (the guitar bag adds two feet to my height), I shuffle around the corners, laptop held high, trying to detect a precious connection while the whole bar goes quiet. It’s one of the aspects of life on the road that I could most do without.

The other most problematic aspect of travelling is the food. It tastes fabulous in Italy of course. Unfortunately it seems to be restricted to pizza, pasta, pizza, pasta, pizza, pasta, cheese, pizza, pasta, cheese, cheese and cheese. One has to wonder where they get their nutrients. At least now I know everyone has a beeday. The mixture comes out like treacle. A spatula would be more use than toilet paper. Without regular bullets of espresso I don’t think you could get it through the system.

Tea comes with free cake.

It is certainly something to see an Italian drink a coffee. The whole process, from paying at one end of the bar, to drinking it another, is accomplished in under 60 seconds. A thimble-full of coffee is quaffed in an instant and they’re on their way. For a laidback, slow-moving society it is the last thing you’d expect. The Americano option, developed for those brought up on tea, was not even available in the village bar when I went up into the mountains with Paolo to see a printer he was working with.

Starbucks insidious ways hold no attraction here and there are no places you don’t see people walking around with ¼ gallon cups of warm milk with a shot of coffee in them. If only McDonalds had met with a similar fate. Unfortunately, they seem to approve. Which brings me full-cycle, so to speak, to my digestion.

The strain on my processor has been such that it almost evacuated with delight upon hearing the news that their was an Indian restaurant opposite the station in Accura. With its promise of hearty lentils and soothing rice we all breathed a sigh of relief. The digestive spices and calming herbs have been refined in their most agreeable mixture over thousands of years. No celebrity chef with an art degree deciding that vinegar, caramel and frozen mango are good for the palette, and to hell with the stomach.

Moving on, there are two more areas of difficulty,  namely getting enough sleep (as this is my priority above all else and I’m willing to be late rather than sacrifice time, I usually do alright) and alcohol. I spend every night in a bar and as soon as I walk in I’m offered a drink. Whenever I respond by saying that I am already perfectly well hydrated, I’m met with a puzzled look and the inarguable retort :”But you drink for free”.

If the initial wave of hospitality can be ridden, then the lubricant is often resorted to as the purposeless hours after the soundcheck and dinner, and before the show, drag on interminably.

Finally, to squeeze my spleen of its remaining sediment. The final area of grit is conversation. Having a conversation is very much like making love. Clumsy, quickly repetitive and easy to blame the other person when it’s not going well.

My sanity is becoming severely affected. I look forward with dread to the predictable hail of questions that will come with every new introduction. Because I am the act… and foreign…  and doing something they’d like to do… and with a story to tell… they will always reel off the same ten questions in the exact same order, no matter which country I’m in.

Just as I often try to think of ways to improve my live act, I have been devoting some time to thinking of ways to turn this negative in a positive. I believe there is no such thing as a bad audience, only a bad performer. Every exchange between two unique human beings who’ve never met before should be as equally unique.

Tactics to improve them currently before the committee, include answering every question with a question or giving entirely fictional accounts of my life. A more right wing idea is to explain my predicament to prospective parties and agree to a question-free conversation, with a €5 fine everytime an accidental question rears its head.

The coming week... Italy

Off to Italy today. The first show is there tomorrow. Everyone keeps asking me where I'm going exactly so here's a map.

26 Jan 2010 20:00	Pao	San Benedetto del tronto
28 Jan 2010 20:00	Lego Cafè	Cesena
29 Jan 2010 20:00	La Salumeria del Rock	scandiano
30 Jan 2010 20:00	Caffee’ Letteratio di Parma	Parma
31 Jan 2010 20:00	Exwide	Pisa
1 Feb 2010 20:00	LaTanaDelleRane	Reggio Emilia
2 Feb 2010 20:00	Officina Metropolis	Livorno

Orta Bar, Ljubljana Slovenia

It turns out that weekends are quiet in Ljubljana. Students and the workers leave town, so Saturday night, even in the big venue I played in, was dead quiet. The small audience did the best they could though. We worked together. I got offered another show in Graz (in Celje I got one in Maribour, so it all leads to something else).

I could stay here a few more days quite happily. It's a small, easy-going, walkable town. I met some very nice people through couch-surfing and have had thorough tours. I opted for a hotel for the last two nights just to have some quiet time to do booking. I'm doing Canada in May today. It's a weight that hangs on me - the trouble with doing everything is that you're always missing something. A good show means a late night which means less booking. The conflict. The ebb and flow of energy, and the power lost in the transition. Etc.
- - - - -
Roc was one of the guys who insisted on a guided tour. He always takes all the couchsurfers to a bookshop with a girl working there who he worships from afar. It has a few anarchistic tooms and he produces Slovenia's student magazine dedicated to the same course. I decided to put him out of his misery and invited the girl to the show as my guest, so he could get to know her.

However, he was thrown into a deep sweat by the prospect and come the moment of truth, he didn't come. I was left on my own to entertain her and her friend after the show. We went to Metelkova, an old army barracks that had been squatted and turned into a commune. The crowd was either very young or very old with few inbetween.

We wandered in and out of makeshift bars and clubs across the grounds. A drink in each and the night soon wore on. The pretty little object of Roc's affections seemed to becoming affectionate to me and the moral dilemma, the cruelest of the seven dilemmas, presented itself. In a sudden fit of what I later took to be my conscience, though it could have been indigestion, came to my mind. I made my excuses and stumbled back to the hotel.

Stepping into the elevator I noticed an advert for a nightclub in the basement. My hand hovered over the buttons. Up to slumber or down to sin. Still grumbling from the opportunity lost I chose down.

The elevator opened on to a huge ballroom with loud music, red velvet curtains and plush fittings. A classic nightclub scene except for the lack of people. I looked around finally to round on a group of three blond girls sitting alone at the bar. The knowledge that it was too good to be true only dampened my enthusiasm slightly.

- The girls drink champagne
The bartender said, in a husky voice. I bet they do.
- You have to ask them for the price
Cursing my luck, I rolled into the elevator and away from temptation.

Celje Slovenia

This is Kosta who organised my show here in his hometown. I met him in
Germany last year where we were both touring. He's a great character.
He was in one of Slovenia's biggest bands in the 70s, then he ran the
biggest nightclub, now he builds guitars for the top Slovenian acts.
Lots of tales to tell.

The show went well. A nice crowd battled through the snow. I stayed in
the hostel and visited Kosta in his workshop in the afternoon.

The Flying Pig, Vienna AU

Another one on the list of strange places I've played. Up until three
years ago it was a whorehouse run by the Croatian Mafia. They sold
guns and drugs and during the war the rival gang heads would meet
there and settle disputes. There's even a cell in the basement.

It's now a bar run by Paul, an English guy, and for the first year and
a half he was open the Austrian police still had the place under 24hr
surveillance from an empty flat across the road.

He still can't get a music licence so doesn't have many live shows.
They have to be acoustic and can't be listed, but for a Tuesday night
it was a fair-sized crowd. He gets acts over from England and has had
people like Frank Turner in, so my stuff went down well.

Paul also plays in a mod band and they've been in the charts here, and
I can get a gig supporting them next time I'm back. They've supported
Paul Weller five times.

It seems that quite a few countries have a mod-influenced band who
support Paul Weller when he's in town. In The Netherlands there were
my friends in Supersub, and in Spain I know there's a guy called
Cooper. It must be strange to be Paul Weller, the Modfather,
travelling around. And reminds you what an iconic period the early 60s
was.

Cafe Carina, Vienna AU

I played at Graham Freespirit's birthday party under one of the subway stations. It was more like Hamburg than Vienna. Rough and ready. A noisy crowd. Just did half an hour. Went round the Belvedere in the daytime. Got my fill of art in these few days that's for sure.

Life can be so much easier when you've had enough. When you're saturated by humanity and truly tired of its dogma. You can behave with a carefree freedom normally the preserve of the rich or the mentally handicapped, dispensing with all the normal protocols.

For example, we'll get a taxi back to your place.
- Sorry? We've only just met
It's that kind of thinking that has held back mankinds development.
- I don't think so.

She had a small apartment and even smaller bed.
- What are you doing?
The only way to sleep in a single bed is to top-and-tail.
- This isn't very romantic.
Some people have said my feet are my best feature.

We spent the next few days wandering around Vienna. Both with that holiday feeling, when we weren't really on holiday. The only downside was her small bed.

Day off, Vienna AU

The best city so far by far. I've cone to the Leopold museum to see
some Klimt up close. Truly stunning.

Thinking more about the need for a story, I've decided to play every
European country this year. Not just the 21 member states member
states but the 50 that are categorised as Europe. I was planning on
playing most of them anyway, but this means a little more effort
playing the smaller ones. Vatican City for example, will be a tricky
one.

I'm staying with a very nice couchsurfing host, Alexander, who's
letting me stay for three or four days. It's nice to be settled.

Triebwerk, Wien Neustadt AU

First show of the year for the club. The only one this month. And they
normally book punk so it was very nice of them to have me. The booker
liked my story. Reminds me that it's always good to have a story.

A local (Ella pictured) opened up and we sang the encore together. I'm
adding a few more touches to the show like that, singalongs, whistles
and bells. Got to keep their attention. I've tried the loop pedal in
soundchecks but it seems to be malfunctioning.

There were a few more talkers in the audience than the other nights.
I'm getting better at picking on them. It's just like being a stand-
up, you have to instill a sense of fear in an audience or they won't
respect you.

The venue put me up in the towns hostel. This big old building in the
middle of the park. I was the only person there and it gave me the
willies.

Roda, Steyr AU

Strange to come to a town in a country I've never been to and see my face all over town.

The crowd were good again. I'm almost sold out I'd CDs. Boxes are being posted to cities along the route but I missed the pickup in Zurich.

I slept in a room backstage above the venue and three times throughout the night drunk guys came in to crash in the other bunks. I was ticked off by the end.

But I did get up early and had a nice look around the town. Steyr is very pretty, medieval. And everyone at the venue was very friendly - even doing my washing for me. The hospitality has been tremendous.

Weekender, Innsbruk CH

Sometimes I think being British helps with the booking, but yesterday I was certain of it. The venue was a shrine to Britpop. All Vespas and Union Jacks.

A big place - an old steel factory. Surreal to come to Austria for the first time and find a British venue.

Even the toilets were Rock and Roll.

I didn't get to see much of Innsbruk. In and out. But it has towering mountains all around and funny to see people carrying their skis around, even in the supermarket.

The rail way

On the train for real now (before I'd only been city-hopping in
Switzerland) and it's very nice I can tell you. My US work permit
meant that I could buy the Eurorail ticket from the States so it was
cheaper, and first class, go figure. The trains are pretty comfortable.
I can't believe I was originally going to drive it all. Through the
snow and ice. Getting into a cold car everyday. Worrying about where
to park it, and if it's going to get towed, ticketted or broken into.
As well as all the hours of concentration driving. I've toured Germany
before by car (and even campervan) and when I think how uncomfortable
and problematic that was (crashing the campervan and taking a car that
had Dutch summer tyres into East Germany stand out in the memory) I
curse those decisions. Never again. Europe is for the train.
I just found out that Canada would also work by train, but it's too
late as I already have shows planned and a car booked. Next year.

While the Austrian trains have Panorama carriages. And my guitar gets a first class seat. He likes it here. 

The Cult Bar, St. Gallen CH

My audience in St. Gallen. Quite quiet but it is Wednesday. They were
generous and I'll come back on a busier night. I have to play the
quiet days of the week as well when touring.
I have to confess to being a bit tired. Working all day on the
computer booking, then travelling and playing a show until late drains
the batteries. The booking is going well though. I couldn't tell you
the name of the bar I'll be playing in on Saturday but I know exactly
where I'll be in six months. That's where my heads at.

St. Gallen is the wood carving capital of Switzerland

You think they'd have given him more warning...

Bosch Bar, Zurich CH

Before the big run. A three kilometer sledge ride through the woods
with Imre, the guy I'm staying with and his friend Ulia. We took the
train up the mountain after dinner and took about an hour to get down.
It was a blast.

Zurich is an easy city to get along with. We like each other a lot.
The show went really well. It's the second time I've played the city
and it clicks with the people here. The Bosch bar is run by volunteers
every Monday night in an old warehouse and only gets going at 12
o'clock. It was thick snow but still a good turnout.

I'm staying with Imre again tonight. Two nights in the same place on
tour feels like a week. Time moves so slowly, in a good way. The days
are full and fattened. I'm taking it all in.

Fassbeisz, Schaffhuesen CH

Hanging out with the boys in the ornate town of Schaffhausen, 2
minutes from Switzerland. A nice little bar. Not many out for a Sunday
but we entertained each other. I thought it was in a fancy restaurant
but that parts closed Sunday. I had to make do with the bar snacks...
food is one of the highlights of the day so that was a shame. The B&B
was nice, run by a couple, also musos.

Henk Langeveld

I'm very sad to hear about the death of Henk Langeveld. He was a sweet guy and a staple of the Amsterdam music scene. Long may he sketch in peace.
www.henklangeveld.nl

Escapees

Nomad articles catch my eye
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2010/jan/09/nomads-working-travelling-world?page=all

Day off, Basel

A beautiful city. You can walk from the West part in France, across
the middle in Swtizerland, up to Germany in the North in about an hour.

I'm staying with Anthony and Nina who I know from Amsterdam. They've
been great hosts. Anthony cooked a smoked Aubergine curry for dinner.

Gare de Lion, Wil, Switzerland

Off again at last. I'm looking forward to a great year. 200 shows is the plan. Switzerland is a great place to start. I have my Eurorail pass and it's stress-free without a car I can tell you.

It's picture-postcard stuff here. Everything is super-perfect and pristine. Excellent quality. But uber-expensive. The shows pay well and as long as I don't buy anything I should be fine.

I was in Zurich yesterday and that's all watch shop and chocolate boxes and bankers offloading their bonuses and inflating everything. €5 for the cheapest of coffee. Everything is twice the price.

I'm all set for the travelling though. Honed my bags down to the bare essentials. It takes quite some thought I can tell you and my little luxuries (smoking jacket, slippers, etc.) had to stay behind. I still have too much. The fruit and the sleeping bag will have to go.

- - - - -
The show itself went well. I made the usual mistake of trying too many new things in my enthusiastic mood: new songs from the holidays, loop pedal, getting people onstage to sing along on one (no-one would), getting the crowd to sing along on another (half did). It was a nice venue. Good crowd and I sold quite a few CDs. Bodes well for the coming Swiss dates. All is well.

Photos

Just got some nice photos from a shoot I did with Judith Dekker in the Nieuwe Anita in December just before my last show of the year. She has a really nice Hasselblad camera. You can tell the difference from digital. Check out the rest here

On the road again

Getting ready for the first shows. It will be good to be back on the road. I had a lovely Christmas and New Year. Hope yours was too

07/1   Gare de Lion, Wil, Switzerland
09/1   House concert, Basel, Switzerland*
10/1   Fassbeiz, Schaffhausen, Switzerland
11/1   Bosch Bar, Zurich, Switzerland
13/1   Cult Bar, St. Gallen, Switzerland
14/1   Weekender, Innsbruck, Austria
15/1   Röda, Steyr, Austria
16/1   Triebwerk, Wiener Neustadt, Austria
18/1   Cafe Carina, Vienna, Austria
19/1   The Flying Pig, Vienna, Austria
21/1   House concert, Budapest, Hungary*
22/1   TBC, Celje, Slovenia
23/1   Ort Bar, Ljubljana, Slovenia
26/1       Pao Long beach, San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy
28/1       Lego Cafè, Cesena, Italy
29/1       La Salumeria del Rock, Arceto, Italy
30/1       Caffee' Letteratio, Parma, Italy
31/1    Leninrad Cafe, Pisa, Italy
01/2   La Tana Delle Rane, Reggio Emilia, Italy
07/2   TBC, Barcelona, Spain
10/2   TBC, Madrid, Spain
12/2   TBC, Seville, Spain
16/2   TBC, Paris, France
21/2    Dimensione, Winterthur, Switzerland
24/2    Café le Ve, Vevey, Switzerland
25/2    La Catrina, Zürich, Switzerland
26/2   Musig Bistrot, Bern, Switzerland
03/3    Steinbruch, Duisburg, Germany
04/3    Quiet Man, Bonn, Germany
05/3    Prinz Willy, Kiel, Germany
06/3    Freundlich & Kompetent, Hamburg, Germany
07/3    House concert, Kassel, Germany*
08/3    House concert, Eindhoven, The Netherlands*

*For information email houseconcert@thejackstaffordfoundation.com
Follow updated schedule at www.thejackstaffordfoundation.com

Final thoughts

I'm taking a break from the blog over the holidays. Being Jack
Stafford is a full-time job and the blogging can be a bit of a chore.

I'll start again with the first show in Switzerland on 7th January.

I'm at the airport waiting for my flight back to England and the folks
for a week, luckily the flight hasn't been cancelled. After that in in
Vopenhagem for New Year.

2009 has been a real landmark year for me. After 10 years in Holland,
numerous projects, countless adventures, innumerable undertakings...
You get the idea, I've finally set myself free from all my trappings
and commitments and become a full-time travelling musician.

No record company put their money behind me, no booker decided to work
for ne, no one else put their faith in me or gave me a boost. I
realised if I was waiting around for someone else I'd be waiting a
long time.

I hope that's a little beacon of encouragement for anyone else
bemoaning their situation or lack of luck. The roads are already there.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

De Nieuwe Anita, Amsterdam

A great end to the year. It was really packed in the Anita and a nice
attentive crowd.

I'm coming down with a slight cold now. 5 months on the road and this
is the first time. The stresses and strains of your hometown are far
greater than any on the road. It reminds me what a relief it is to be
travelling.

T-Rexmas

It's finished!

Thermos, Amsterdam NL

Trudged through the snow to play in Thermos, a former gay sauna. It was a very nice underground party. Really steaming. Too much fun to take photos. I got invited to play again on Sunday for the art-festival's closing party so come check it out. Kerkstraat 58-60 from 6pm. I just keep getting more shows. I never played this much in Amsterdam when I lived here.

Pageturner Festival - Pakhuis Wilhelmina, Amsterdam NL

Playing in my underwear to spice it up, but Bas stole the show.

It's a nice monthly festival. One song each. Lots of good artists.

Delicatessen, Amsterdam NL

To overcome the problem of playing a brand new song, I had the audience sing-a-long.

Art Amsterdam & Vredebruke The Hague

Dinner on the last train back to Amsterdam.

Had two shows tonight. Man I'm ready for a rest soon. I'm so bored of
the songs I have. Only four more shows to go this year then two weeks
off.

They went well tonight though. I can blast them out. The art gallery
opening was quite rowdy but a few tuned in. The second in The Hague
was a lot quieter. I played after a stoner rock duo.

Cafe Camelot, Nijmegen NL

Christmas is creeping in with the frost on the ground and the
decorations growing like mold. After all the Halloween crap, then the
thanksgiving rituals, Christmas is just another carnival to endure.
The crowd were rowdy and inattentive last night. If I was dressed as
an elf with tinsel round my tackle I may have been able to distract
them momentarily from their deep and fascinating discussions, but I
couldn't be arsed.