Unplugged Subterranean Music Night

Its been a while since I've played a show.

I spent the last six months ensconced somewhat uncomfortably numb in the bleak mid-winter. It was hugely depressing. Hurtling toward 30 at the speed of light and with little or no sunshine on the horizon. I must be a real sucker for seasonal affective disorder.

But then the magic clock ticked at 5:35pm on March 13th and I was risen. Or thirty at least. And that particular melodrama was over. What next?

I took some advice from a well meaning friend late last year after we had organised a rather successful art exhibition. "Go out and make some money, then you'll have all the time in the world for music". I questioned this a little at the time but I took there advice and spent a time pretending that I was Gordon Gekko.

This did in fact make me slightly richer. It also made me quite ruthless, depressed and very fat.

More recently I took the advice of my ex-girlfriend, who quite amazingly still seems to think that there is some value in my BoHo musical mojo. She said I should play some gigs. I agreed and decided to organise one. My whole mindset changed overnight and it felt very good. Now there are a couple of shows that I have on the books that I am promoting and playing at. In August, Who's Next are performing Quadrophenia in Kilburn and The BoHo Scarecrow is supporting and in May, the Unplugged Subterranean Music Night will rock the Constitution Cellar Bar in Camden out.

Its a great line-up. My pal Mikey Cuthbert, he of In The Attic fame (which seems like a lifetime ago now but you can see a bit of it here) will be trekking up from Southend to take a bow. Mikey is an immensely likeable guy with some great stories to tell. He fits right in with the venue and the whole unplugged theme. Plus, I haven't had a pint with him for a while.

We also have Blushing Bones, who Josh Townshend is playing with for this show. I met Josh last year when he was playing with Thunderclap Newman and I was organising The Who Convention at which he played. He's another nice bloke, who has been doing lots of exciting things recently including opening a new studio (http://www.bostonhousestudio.co.uk) and supporting the revitalised Big Country at the Shepherds Bush Empire .

Then there's this BoHo Scarecrow character. Not quite sure what to put in the set. There's part of me that wants to do this new Light Gate opera that I've been working on, or dust off Attack Of The Chevron Action Flasher mini opera for the night...or maybe just play a bunch of songs that seem to work.

What I do know is that quitting smoking has filled me full of energy and I've been out training and its been a revelation. It will be a great night. Brilliant venue down a back street in Camden Town on the canal. The Cellar Bar where the show will be opens onto the tow path and we'll be doing full classic album playbacks. You can tweet me suggestions for which ones you want to hear to @bohoscarecrow.

You can also check out the group page for the facebook group at:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=111029512316338


Hope to see you there on May 20th at the Constitution Pub in Camden. Doors open at 7pm and entry is £3. We will be partying past midnight with the albums getting more classic as the night goes on!

Hope to see you there.

The Mercurial Mr Clark & His Magic Concert Bus

Last week, my friend - the mercurial - Sebastian Clark announced his latest project, The Concert Bus. A sustainable, mobile music venue that will be funded from crowd sourced sponsorship.

You can read about it all here and there's a great video that Seb has put together.

He lives in Seattle now. When I met him, he was here in the UK on tour and was originally from LA. His concept is pretty amazing. Experimental but well thought out.

It got me thinking too. What an amazing opportunity to do something good. Touring across the United States bringing music, a kind of rolling situationism with the destination board marked, "Even Further".

I want a slice of that particular pie and so am going to try and help Seb in some way with the project. Part of this, I hope, will be to take a trip on the bus. Where the journey will take me, I've no idea but I want to see the project happen. I want to participate. I've talked to a few friends about it and not one of them thought that I was crazy. In fact, everyone just said "do it!".

The United States is a most amazing country. If you haven't been there, then you have no idea of what the definition of a "big country" is until you've seen it. I went to Seattle about three years ago - how time flies - and it blew my mind. Islands, volcanos, mountains,sea, lakes and so much land stretching out. I enjoyed playing the gigs that I did there and had been very fortunate that there was someone at the time who believed in me enough to make them happen.

It left me with a taste for it and I want more. I want to see that country and rock it. I want to film it, to breathe it in and to come back to England as a better BoHo Scarecrow. More than anything, I want to actually DO something rather than talk about it.

I have been trying to get all sorts of projects off the ground with mixed success. I have started promoting, which in truth scares the shit out of me but I seem to be quite good at it and have been learning a lot. Each time it gets better but I want to see the big one come off. I think that I could move a long way forward with a trip on the bus with my writing, recording and just learning how to be a real musician again.

So, it could be a short trip, it could be open ended; the best stories always are. As Edward Fox once said in character of Major General Brian Horrocks "Gentlemen, this is a story you will your Grandchildren, and mightly bored they'll be!"

I have a gut instinct that this is going to fly. In fact, I think more than that it is something that will grow into all sorts of different adventures. Whatever part I play in it, even if its only a very small by writing this blog, the Concert Bus will be one of the most happening happenings ever to hit the road.

If you want to donate, please take a look at the link. Seb will send you fantastic things. He'll hate me saying it, but the man is a visionary. I just hope that he knows how to drive a bus.



What do you get if you cross Kurt Schwitters with He-Man? Sebastian.

Cash / Trash ! Lyrics

Ladies and Gentleman, this is what is commonly known as, money....

Here's the intro from the Magic Christian which riffs all over this theme and was directed by the Goon show accolyte, Joe McGrath.



Recently, The BoHo Scarecrow appeared at an event - in cognito - called the Culture Hack Day. At this day, Leila Johnston (@finalbullet) talked about the idea of cash machines being fun. You plonk in your PIN code and BANG! Money.

Earlier today, having failed to buy any wares from the designer cheese counter in Crouch End (see facebook photo stream), I sat down and started to write about a line that entered my head last night, something about "I deserve my cash reward". It sounded like electro in my head. But then, and as these things usually do, it changed and I quickly had a clear song in my head and a set of lyrics called "Cash!/Trash!".

Below you will find two things, one a fragment contextual inspiration and the other
the set of lyrics for the aforementioned song. The Youtube trailer for the Magic Christian features my chums from Thunderclap Newman, a Pete Townshend side project from the early 70s, who had a number one hit with "Something In The Air". I am proud to say that on October 3rd last year, when they played the two day festival I organised...that in the wake of my lost voice, Andy Newman himself did offer me not one, but TWO, Fisherman's Friends. Alas, it failed to cure me and I had to settle for playing guitar with the headlining act on their encore. I played a Lennon Edition Gibson Casino worth more than my father's BMW and managed not to drop it.

BMWs? Expensive Guitars? Money. The most pleasurable experience that I've ever had with money, was getting my cash card for the first time and entering my PIN in the machine. It sounded like a touch tone phone. Like KITT from Knight Rider. Is it possible to combine Ray Kurzweil's concept of singularity with the ATM and a bit of fraud to give me access Mark Zuckerberg's billions?

That would be nice but it'll never beat loved up spooning.



Anyway, here are the lyrics. I'll pick up the guitar in a minute and put it together. Hopefully will have something on youtube quite soon. Its been a while, as I've had the most horrific writers block. Enjoy.


Cash! / Trash !


Its the only game,
that you'll ever play,
where you get to choose,
what the winner gets paid.

CASH! TRASH!
Its just a game, just a game, just a game.
CASH! TRASH!
Its just a game, just a game, just a game.

If I had a penny,
for everytime I've withdrawn cash,
I could have bailed out Barings Bank,
before it crashed.

CASH! TRASH!
Its just a game, just a game, just a game.
CASH! TRASH!
Its just a game, just a game, just a game.

They say "fun is in direct proportion,
to how much you earn".
But you'll stop smiling,
when your overdrafts burned.

C-C-CASH! TRASH!
Kerching, Kerching, Kerching.
C-C-CASH! TRASH!
You win! You win! You win!

He's got more money than you,
his skies are always blue,
But you don't need a PIN Code,
to make sweet love or screw.
But he's got more money than you,
he's got more money than you.

Its such an easy game,
that anyone can play,
You'll earn yourself bonus points,
if you get your Balance On Display.

CASH! TRASH!
Kerching, kerching, kerching.
CASH! TRASH!
You win! You win! You win!

At the Corner Bank,
and the High Street Arcade,
Its the Post-War answer,
to the Piggy Bank Raid.

CASH! TRASH!
Its just a game, just a game, just a game.
CASH! TRASH!
Its just a game, just a game, just a game.


The BoHo Scarecrow

Long Live Rock

I had a long and very deep sleep earlier this afternoon. It was so good to catch up on some rest. The past few weeks has been absolutely flat out and a few days ago, I started to come down with something nasty.

All hands to the pumps at the moment. The Who Convention 2010 is taking off and hitting London next weekend. Sounds terrifyingly exciting, doesn't it! I met up earlier in the week with the Chief Executive of the Teenage Cancer Trust and Angie Jenkison who recently organised The Whodlums show up in Newcastle for the charity. They were very supportive and have taken a few headaches away from me.

I have some time to really focus on this event over the next few days without kamikaze late nights sandwiched by long days at work. This is good and will really help me stay sane.

We are well set. There will still be hiccups along the way but I think that we are going to deliver a great weekend. People are coming in from around the world for this show. Its crazy, but it says something about rock n roll and its ability to bring people together. The thing is, "convention" is such a geeky title for it. I could have sexed it up - I always loved the title they had in the states of Wholapalaza - but in the end, a convention it is and a convention it shall be.

There won't be much rest for me until a week or so.

Aside from The Who Convention, I am also helping organise London's Biggest Pop Up Art Exhibition at 210 Pentonville Road for the Cross My Art Exhibition. The Private View is this Thursday. It came about very quickly, I linked up Art & Escape Gallery, who have masterly put together this show in a very short space of time with the building, which we have got for free. I maybe could have stepped away from it there but it was too much of an opportunity not get more involved with. I decided that I wanted to learn how to do an art exhibition. I'm not very keen on his stuff but we've got Damian Hirst's work there.

You see, all of this is experimental for me. Its all lessons. All learning. I would explode if I didn't push myself out into these places. I need to know how to do it. Its very important for what comes next with The BoHo Scarecrow and The Light Gate opera.

I better go now. Much to do. Long live rock!

The Dead Tide

SITTING here, about three weeks to go until Convention day, I am in a strange mood.

A friend of mine once said to me that we are tied to the memories of the past and that over a period of time we process things. Part of this is how we diffuse past trauma through the on coming wake of life.

I must be going through something like this at the moment. I feel quite distracted. Panicked, even. I know why this is happening. Two years ago, I was in Seattle. What a huge trip that was and how terribly burned I was when I came back from it all. I was in a relationship that collapsed and all these things that I had been building my life up on for months disintegrated in a matter of days.

It really was the most traumatic of experiences. I am slap bang in the middle of the second anniversary of this fall. So, I found this time of year, last year tough and at the moment I seem to be going through a relapse.

The timing is appalling, as right now I need to working on all things Who Convention orientated. It seems to be stripping me of my confidence, just as I need to be on top form.

If I remember correctly, this time last year I performed my mini opera in London's Regent's Park to close the Treehouse Gallery.

So, I am little sketchy at the moment. I just need a little bit of Rocky style tenacity to make it through the next few weeks and the fortitude to dig a bit deeper in the discipline stakes at the moment.


Its tricky. Very tricky. I have stuck my neck out with this whole thing. It was never going to be easy but it gets harder when my head gets clouded. This seems to happen every few months. I have to question what it is that I am actually doing with my life and find out how I get to where I really want to get to. I absolutely detest mediocrity, particularly in myself.

Anyway, here goes...we are approaching the line.

Calm Before The Storm

I have about twenty days until it all happens. At the moment I am packing in as much as I can into The Who Convention 2010. Its looking really good. What a journey! This has been nine months of my life.

What is it?


A two day celebration of The Who in London with the ultimate goal of raising more than ten thousand pounds for the Teenage Cancer Trust and the Meg Fox Kids Educational Trust. Saturday is at the Good Ship in Kilburn and the main day, October 3rd is at Dingwalls in Camden.

Who will be there?

Bands include Who's Next, Who's Best, Who Are You?, The Beatbrothers, The BoHo Scarecrow (me), The Dukes Jetty, Thunderclap Newman and The Wholigans.

I spoke a couple of weeks ago with Keith Moon's mum and the Moons should be there in force. Also, Thunderclap Newman have Josh Townshend on guitar, and there will be quite a few other special guests.

Why?

The Who are The BoHo Scarecrow's favourite band. I was master of ceremonies at the legendary 2006 event. Nothing has happened since then, because all the organisers from that one have done their bit. I took this on in January. I'll tell you why.

I briefly hooked up with someone who was doing a couple of days a week for a cancer charity. At the time, I was still struggling badly with a failed relationship that was too recent. I woke up one day and thought, "fuck this...I'm going to inject some positive karma into the economy." Most of all, I wanted to do something for my friend Meg who died a couple of years ago. Aside from being a massive Who fan, she was a spectacularly positive personality, but tragically left four kids with no college fund and terrible American medical bills. If you come along to the event and have a good time, please don't thank me...thank Meg!

What next?

So, The BoHo Scarecrow. What is this? Where is it going? Why has it been distracted?

The Who Convention 2010 is a test for The BoHo Scarecrow. It is an experiment. It is hard, it has been immensely challenging but the lessons learned will pave the way for a variety of BoHo Scarecrow projects into the future.

The models are changing. The world of music and the arts has become unrecognisable. This is not an issue to BoHo Scarecrow, as it was never a part of the models that were in place beforehand. The BoHo Scarecrow has not yet even scratched the surface of experimentation.

This is not a new type of art form. This is a new form of interaction. This is the development of the experience, to facilitate accessibility, engagement and legacy of the creative experience.

The BoHo Scarecrow believes in popular/public art and the creation of a model in which a multiplicity of practitioners and audiences can co-exist. The notion of the self-existing artist is a fallacy. All artists are dependent upon audience. Otherwise the art does not exist.

The BoHo Scarecrow is interested in developing new works that cling and reach simultaneously.

After this project, The BoHo Scarecrow will complete The Light Gate: An Opera. The BoHo Scarecrow is dependent upon its audience to realise this in performance and will deliver a crowd sourcing experiment to realise these goals.

Your friend,


The BoHo Scarcrow

Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky

I have just had some sad news about a friend of mine, who for the moment, we shall call 'Syd'.

Syd is dead. I remember dancing with Syd in the underground caverns of night club when I was at University. When they played Break On Through by the Doors, Syd literally did try to break on through and clawed at the white bricks in the walls. It was a magnificent moment.

Syd had the courage to speak his mind and often did. Syd was a mystery. He was my rival. He was a legend in his own particular duck pond. He was brilliant. A bright diamond. He could have been very brilliant but I don't know if he ever managed to end up delivering on it all. Syd was charismatic. Truly. Syd was my friend. He could inspire and frustrate me in equal measure.

He was one of the few people who knew my friend John, who died six years ago around this time. I've actually been trying to cut a video version of the song that I wrote for John over the last couple of days. I remember being able to speak with Syd when John died. He understood it. He really did.

So, its a sad day. I'm quite numb from it all. It hasn't sunk in. I have no idea how I feel. I am listening to Pink Floyd. It seems so appropriate, as my Syd always seemed to have a quasi spiritual link with the soul of Syd Barrett and everything associated with the idea crazy diamonds who shine too brightly then get extinguished. I question my own mortality. I see myself make leaps and bounds, wondering what is missed between each step.

Shine on, Syd, shine on...I will be remembering you.