In the first quarter of 2011, 12 music albums that I have been involved in were released in different markets around the world. This has garnered a certain interest in my social circle at home but has not really made any other difference to my life, lifestyle or income.
So I’m walking through Greenwich village. Bleecker Street, once heart of the East Coast counter-culture. Once home to beatniks and hippies.
Well. here’s a date to mark in the journal. I get married today. Isobel and myself will exchange our vows at 2 pm this afternoon.
Date: 29th March 2011
Where: Ronnie Scott’s, Soho, London
Artist: Ron Carter’s Golden Striker Trio
I grew up in a coal mining town in Yorkshire. Descendant of a long line of coal miners. In 1979 / 80 or thereabouts, I would have been playing Subbuteo on my Mum’s kitchen table with my friend, Andrew Spence. He’d always be Barnsley, I’d always be Leeds. At the side of the pitch on a chair, I’d have a cassette player set up where I would force Andrew to listen to my taste in music. Around that time it would be Sad Cafe’s “Facades” album. He didn’t rate it. That year he got me into John Foxx, Gary Numan, David Bowie. I got him into precisely nothing. Last time, I was in Barnsley, I called in on him as a a surprise. I looked through his cd racks. I spotted “Aja” by Steely Dan which was one of the albums I would have recommended back in the day. He just said he’d got it because he’d read about it in the music press but he couldn’t see what all the fuss was about.
We packed up our tour bus and we toured the local schools. Having stolen the name “The Shakespearience” from a long-forgotten tourist project in Stratford-Upon-Avon, I produced a two-hour presentation of the highlights of “Romeo and Juliet”, “Merchant of Venice” and “Macbeth”, complete with narration to explain the full story. Largely directed by Richard Evans but with input from the whole acting company, we produced a truly collaborative venture which we performed to audiences aged from 9-15. Our largest round of applause (and standing ovation) came from a crowd of 220 fifteen year olds so we must have done something right.
It seems like only the other day that I was talking about the variety of roles that life throws up for me and here comes another unusual experience.
I have a fairly varied professional life. I get to write, I get to work in the music industry, I get to front a charity and help people who are in need. Each day can be different.
What did you do this week, Darren?
It’s one of the questions I get asked most often but with the least predictable answers……..
Judie Tzuke UK tour
Martletts Hall, Burgess Hill and elsewhere
October 8th 2010 (tour 1/10-18/10)
