The Northumberland Gazette feature’s Shagpile..

The Northumberland Gazette is a weekly newspaper that covers the whole of Northumberland (Hence the name?.. Doh)

I had a phone call from from the Newspaper asking if i would do an interview for their pull-out section  “Northumberland Now” , where they have a column written by James Willoughby called “Band Stand“

I did the interview and it popped up in the Newspaper a few days later entitled   “Shagpile takes music to the 3rd Dimension“

Here’s a copy of the page for those who missed it!!!

Sir Shagalot & his band of Merry-Men

Thanks To Fluffy Forwzy for this!!! The second part is on its way and should be up soon!!

The Adventures of Sir Shagalot and his merry mateys!

Many, many years ago, back when there was great kings and spectacular wizards, were people still feared dragons and evil witches locked beautiful princesses in towers, there lived a brave (though slightly odd) Knight, his name was Sir Shagalot.  Sir Shagalot was the best knight in the court of King Harry.  King Harry was once a very powerful king, unfortunately he got very fond of the drink and of crazy rockin music.  He now spends a lot of his time legless, and he can’t see too well either.
Sir Shagalot roamed around the region of Bedlingalot making sure that all the baddies were caught and all the people had decent music to listen to.  You see Sir Shagalot also played guitar and wrote songs.  He had no time for people who couldn’t play or sing and committed crimes against decent music.  So he would kung fu their medieval asses and go on his merry way.

Sir Shagalot had a trusty steed called Hughhhhbert.  Hughhhhhbert was a great horse.  He loved Sir Shagalot; his heart would pound in his chest as Sir Shagalot mounted him and rode him hard all over the countryside.  Over hedges, through the cooling streams and over the rolling hills.  After a hard day riding he loved to feel Sir Shagalot brush him down.
Every evening in the court there was a party.  Sir Shagalot took to the stage with Hughhhhhhbert the horse, Dazlin the mighty wizard (who loved to rock out of an evening) and Sav the poor kitchen hand belted it out on the pots and pans.  They collectively called themselves “Nicked Arthur”. When “Nicked Arthur” took a break, the jester Stevie entertained everybody.  He did things like drink loads of beer and run around a pole and then run up to the top of a garden around something and back………………most of the time this didn’t go according to plan.  Jester Stevie spent a lot of time on the ground seeing stars and not the stars in the sky.

One day as Sir Shagalot was riding Hughhhbert, his trusty steed; along the Bedlington Common (or the green opposite the pub) he heard this unmerciful caterwauling. Hughhhhhbert got such a fright he dismounted Sir Shagalot.  After Sir Shagalot composed himself and Hughhhhbert stopped shaking they walked, slowly, towards the awful screeching noise.   There behind the bins, which were overflowing with empty beer cans and cider bottles, was the local tramp Higgaziggaaa.  He had found a broken old guitar and clearly was under the impression he could not only play it, but also sing!  Sir Shagalot and Hughhhbert, his trusty steed, glanced at each other and rolled their eyes…………..It was time for some serious Kung Fu………Hughhhhhhbert  moved slowly behind Higgaziggaaa, turned away from him and kicked out with his (rather muscular) hind legs.  He caught Higgaziggaaa on the butt with his hoofs and sent him flying into the air.  As he landed, Sir Shagalot threw his sword, the sword landed right between Higgaziggaaas legs, pinning him to the ground at the crotch of his pants.

With a skill not seen outside of Tibet, Sir Shagalot somersaulted with a double twist thrown in the show off and landed at the side of Higgaziggaaa.  “Think ya can sing do ya?” he shouted at the very confused (though some say this is a permanent state for Higgaziggaaa).  “Aye, I think I rock!” said a very indignant Higgaziggaaa.  Hughhhhhbert fell to ground laughing his head off making strange horsey noises that only Sir Shagalot could understand.  “Listen here, you stinky talentless tramp, if you don’t stop that infernal racket I will make sure you can never talk let alone sing, and I use the word sing very loosely, ever again!”  Higgaziggaaa agreed that he wouldn’t sing again or try to play the guitar; Sir Shagalot freed him by lifting his sword from the ground.  Higgaziggaaa slopped off with the broken guitar (and his torn trousers) trailing between his legs.

Now usually once Sir Shagalot and Hughhhbert have Kung Fu’d someone’s butt they slope off and that’s the end of it, but not in this case.   At 5am, just as the sun was rising the next morning, and as most the court of King Harry were still sleeping off the effects of the previous night festivities, the usual music by “Nicked Arthur” and crazy antics of Jester Stevie, there was a sudden and truly horrendous wailing noise.  The mighty wizard Dazlin awoke with a start, “good grief, what on earth is that terrible din”, he said.  He jumped out of bed and with a snap of his fingers his pjs changed into his wizardry clothes, you know what I mean, the usual long cloak with star and moons on it etc. Just as he was about to run out the door he noticed the back on someone’s head poking out from under his bed clothes, he scratched his head and realised he had obviously drank way too many test tubes the night before, there was no time to find out who it was now, he needed to find Sir Shagalot!

At the same time Sir Shagalot was woken by the noise, his head was pounding, “damn Stevie the Jester and his drinking games”, he muttered as he stumbled out of bed blurry eyed and fell over Hughhbert , his trusty steed, who always slept in Sir Shagalot’s room.  “ffs Hughhhbert, move yer arse”, he yelled.  “Right, because I am so easy to trip over, that’s what you get for not listening to me. I told you not to have that last drink”, Hughhhbert retorted.

“Oh so you think it was that LAST drink that did it?  It couldn’t have been the 2 dozen I had before that no?  Honestly Hughhbert sometimes I worry about your mental stability”, said Sir Shagalot.

“MY mental stability? You are the one having a conversation with a horse, a horse that YOU tripped over too I might add”, replied Hughhbert.
Just has Sir Shagalot turned to answer Hughhbert there was aloud knock on the door, “Sir Shagalot, get off whoever you are on and sort of this god awful racket”. Dazlin had reached Sir Shagalot’s room and was banging on the door.

“I’m coming, give me a sec”, shouted Sir Shagalot.

“A sec?” replied Dazlin, “god love that poor girl you are with.  No wonder they call you Shagalot, if it only takes you a second, youth certainly is wasted on the young”.
Sir Shagalot answered the door to Dazlin, half in and half out of his trousers.  “There is nobody here but Hughhbert”, he told Dazlin.
“Mhmm”, Dazlin replied, with a knowing look in his eye. Hughhhbert who had gotten to his feet, umm I mean his hooves, cocked his ears at Dazlin’s “mhmm” and glanced dreamily in Sir Shagalot’s direction.

Sir Shagalot decided to ignore Dazlin’s, knowing look, he had a thumping headache, he was about to die of thirst and there was an inhuman noise coming from somewhere.  “Ok, where is the noise coming from, cos whoever it is I am gonna kill them”, he asked Dazlin.
Just as Dazlin, opened his mouth there was a knock at the door, it had a pretty decent rhythm to it too.  “Come in Sav”, both Dazlin and Sir Shagalot called.
Sav bust into the room, he was red in the face and breathing heavily, he clearly had run a great distance. “I’ve just come from the Kings quarters, you know in the west wing of the castle; anyway, as I was taking the dirty dishes from his royal highness’s room I noticed something out of the window.  Higgaziggaaa, you know that smelly, good for nothing?, he is sitting on the wall just over the moat, I think he must be in pain, or dying or something, cos he is the one making the terrible noise”, panted Sav.

“I don’t believe it!”, Sir Shagalot said in his best Victor Meldrew voice, “myself and Hughhhbert, my trusty steed did some medieval kung fu on his butt only the other day, he agreed not to sing again.”

“Ahhh, the time has now come”, said Dazlin mysteriously.

“Come for what?”, asked Sav, who loved nothing more than a good mystery.

“Sit down and I will tell you about the legend of The Plectrum in the Stone”, said Dazlin.

The mighty wizard Dazlin told them about how legend had it that there would be someone who would be so convinced that they could sing and play music like to other that a test would have to be performed in order to prove who was gifted musically and who was no good at all.  The great kings of Geordieland got together and summonsed their most powerful wizards and sorcerers to join forces to ensure that a full proof test would be put in place to stop seriously non-talented individual from subjecting people to their awful music until they are completely and irreversibly deafened! So they decided after many beers and much vodka to place a golden Plectrum in a stone, only the truly gifted would be able to free the Plec from its hold.  The ok(ish) musicians would be able to pull it out part of the way and the completely useless feckers wouldn’t be able to budge it at all.

“There is nothing for it, we are going to have to get all the musicians to pull at the Plec to see what happens”, said Dazlin.

“I know what I would like to pull at”, said Hughhhbert under his breath, while looking at Sir Shagalot.

“I would like to know who was pulling at my…..nevermind”, said Dazlin.

“Ok, so where would we find this Plectrum and stone then? “, asked Sir Shagalot who was getting impatient now.

“Ah, well, that’s the biggest problem; it’s in the middle of the Yadontwannagointhere Forest, just passed the Dragons den, next to the fiery hell hole.  So you would have to be very careful.  Oh and I almost forgot there is also the sharp thorny bushes to contend with, only the kiss from one who truly loves you will save you from its poison if you are pricked. So who is up for the challenge?” Dazlin asked.

Sir Shagalot, Hughhhbert, his trusty steed, and Sav looked from one to the other and said in unison “I am”.

“Marvellous chaps, now we just need Stevie the Jester and we can be on our way, has anybody seen him?” Dazlin asked.

“The last time I saw him was at about 2am going into your room”, replied Sav.

Dazlin went bright red in the face, and mumbled something about Stevie the jester returning a book on tricks to him.  Why couldn’t he remember what he got up to last night?  And just who exactly was in his bed when he left? And who will prove to be the most talented musician in all of Geordieland? And will Sav ever get out of the kitchen?  Will Sir Shagalot ever actually get a shag?

To be continued…………………………………….

Time for a Change!!

Just a quick one to tell you of some changes!

My Homepage .. www.shagpile.org … is going through some big changes.  Its been up for a while now and has had Three full makeovers but I decided its time for another..

The whole visual side of the site will be completely different but im going to try and keep the content as close as possible to the original site…

Heres a screen shot of the main structure and layout of the site and its mainly based around one photo which was taken by Darren Turner Photography… Thanks to Dazlin for this and the rest of the great shots he got for me!!

and heres a list of the main changes to the site itself…

* The visual design has been completely changed.

* The Cover Version section of music , Tabs section and the Guestbook have now been completely removed from the page.

* The New Mailing list sign up box , supplied by Fanbridge , has now been added to the Contact Page.

* Theres now a link in the menu straight to my Blog for all the news updates.. like this one..

* Gig-listings page has also been added as part of the main page and will include online gigs as well.

* Easy To Read album will also be available direct from the website and there will be some free tracks to download as tasters too.

* Downloadable Wallpapers and promo stuff will be added to the Fotos section of the site.

… all in all I am hoping this is all gona make the website a lot more exciting on the eyes as the colours in the old scheme were really gloomy and hopefully also make it more accesible and easier to navigate..

I am hoping to have it completed by the end of this week and any comments on the new site are appreciated!!

Shagga!!!

Gigs Gone Forever….

I was trying to recall all the gigs that have dissapeared allready this year and couldnt think of hardly any… so….. I decided to have a look about and make a list of the gigs gone by this year already!! I havent included the online stuff .. apart from one which was the Clear Blue Skies special!! Not bad for it only been the beginning of June huh??

GIGS GONE BY SO FAR ….. 2009

JANUARY

7TH JAN    -    HOKO 10 ( STOLEN TOM )
10TH JAN    -    THE QUAY (STOLEN TOM )
16TH JAN    -    THE STEAMBOAT  (STOLEN TOM )
24TH JAN    -    THE BRICK CLUB
25TH JAN    -    BUBBLES
31ST JAN    -    BUBBLES  (STOLEN TOM )

FEBRUARY

7TH FEB    -    DOG & PARROT  (STOLEN TOM )
13TH FEB    -    ONLINE SPECIAL WITH CBS
20TH FEB    -    HAIRY LEMON
21ST FEB    -    SNOOTY FOX, WAKEFIELD
21ST FEB    -    SNOOTY FOX, WAKEFIELD  (STOLEN TOM )
22ND FEB    -    BUBBLES
26TH FEB    -    TRILLIANS  (STOLEN TOM )
28TH FEB    -    THE FARRIERS

MARCH

4TH MAR    -    STEAMBOAT
22ND MAR    -    BEBSIDE INN  (STOLEN TOM )
29TH MAR    -    BUBBLES WITH ROD CLEMENTS OF LINDISFARNE

APRIL

3RD APRIL    -    TROJAN ROOMS  (STOLEN TOM )
5TH APRIL    -    BLUEBELL,AMBLE
5TH APRIL    -    ASHINGTON CENTRAL  (STOLEN TOM )
10TH APRIL    -    THE ISABELLA
11TH APRIL    -    BERESFORD ARMS
13TH APRIL    -    THE SMUGGLERS
13TH APRIL    -    WASHINGTON ART CENTRE
23RD APRIL    -    THE QUAY  (STOLEN TOM )
25TH APRIL    -    THE CLAYTON  (STOLEN TOM )

MAY

1ST MAY    -    THE SUN INN, MORPETH
2ND MAY    -    ROCK THE BARN  (STOLEN TOM )
4TH MAY    -    BUBBLES  (STOLEN TOM )
10TH MAY    -    THE SCHOONER, SEAHOUSES
15TH MAY    -    THE ISABELLA
17TH MAY    -    BUBBLES WITH GREG GRIFFINS OF PROUD MARY
23RD MAY    -    THE QUAY  (STOLEN TOM )
29TH MAY    -    THE STEAMBOAT  (STOLEN TOM )
30TH MAY    -    HE NEW INN, LONG FRAMLINGTON

Lionheart Radio Interview and Live Session.

Lionheart Radio is a community run radio station that broadcasts from Alnwick in Northumberland and I landed an interview and also to play some live tracks of mine on there on the 2nd June via Derek from Acoustic Magic.

I turned up around 6:30pm on the Tuesday night with guitar in hand not really knowing what to expect as far as radio interviews go. After trailing up 3 or 4 flights of stairs I finally found my way to the reception of Lionheart Radio.. only to be told by the lovely gal on reception “you look out of breath .. didn’t you see the lift?” .. good job I had a little time before Paul turned up for his show to catch my breath back ..hahaha .. The receptionist also gave me a look at there stats and stuff on there computer which was cool and told me a bit of info about the station ….

Then Paul turned up … Paul Shucksmith has a show on there every Tuesday at 7:00pm and has been featuring the players from Acoustic magic on a monthly basis and theres been some great live music involved.. he’s definitely worth listening in for and I cant wait to hear the upcoming shows..

Paul went into the studio after splashing out the cups of Tea and I followed him in not long after with guitar in hand and a handful of CD’s. That’s when the nerves kicked in slightly .. we didn’t really have any preperation before hand and in between the song he told me that he doesn’t really plan out the show and likes it to just go along unplanned.. which I thought was a bit strange at first but the guy obviously knows what he is doing and once we got on air together he instantly makes you feel as if you’ve known him your whole life… and the show just all dropped into place from my point of view.. Paul instantly makes you feel relaxed and does a hell of a job at Lionheart. Top Fella!!!!!

Before I knew it the show had passed over 2 Hours of been on air .. I managed to play quite a few live tracks on air and also some tracks off the cd’s I took along. We had a heap of people emailing in and asking questions and asking for requests which really made the night that extra bit special.

So from shaggy the radio star!! Thanks for all the support from all who listened in and the show is repeated this Monday coming at 10pm incase you missed it…. And for those of you who did miss it , without a good excuse…. SHAMMMMMME ON YOU!!!

Don’t forget to check out Paul’s upcoming shows and drop in at the website to say hi….

www.lionheartradio.com

Thanks again!! Shaggy!

Follow up to the big 3 ohhh!!! part deux!!

What a Weekend.

YOHOOOOO!! What a weekend its been and its took me till Tuesday to feel even remotely normal!!

To kick it off we were at the Isabella as part of the Bellacoustic night and the party for my 30th Birthday (although it wasn’t till Sunday). The night kicked off with Ickle Daryl Burns opening up with his set and went on till closing time through out all the players.

First of all thanks to all the players who gave there time to play … Daryl Burns, Clear Blue Skies, Micky Oliver, Hague, William West and the rest of Stolen Tom, which includes Sav playing the drums on Harrys Hat miced up… Hahha what a belta! We also had a SPECIAL GUEST appearance from Milinda doing her thing to La Bamba hahahhaha!! No Microphone Needed!!

Also thanks for everyone who came down for a beer and wished me happy birthday for Sunday… The missus and everyone else who helped organise it all as well… Paul & Kay from the Isabella for letting us take over the bar for the night…. all the people that bought me pressies!! (WEHEYY!!.. finally got an Acoustic Magic Clock!!) and anyone else who was hanging about listening to the music!! I Had a great night and it was a hell of a turnout. CHEEERS!!!

ME.. Blowin my cake across the pub!!!

After That we all piled back to my house for a party till the daylight started popping through in the morning.. and all the drink was gone.. The birds were singing away when half the people left and I  couldn’t move and was crashed out on the floor!!

Saturday daytime was a dead day literally and I felt like Sav was still playing that helmet as a drum .. apart from it was on my head this time .. OWWW!!!

On the night time we went over to Sunderland , The Independent to see the Stephen Fretwell gig ive been waiting on for months… and it was another cracking night although I struggled to face a drink. Got some cracking photos though for the Nocturnal Images website and had a canny chinese meal while we waited on the doors opening…

Then it was Sunday and I am now officially 30 ..  hahhaha … good thing or bad thing?? Well have to wait and see I guess … I was gigging at Bubbles in Ashington with The Acoustic Magic Team supporting Greg Griffins of the band Proud Mary who has been on tour with Neil Young. Canny eh??

Again another cracking night and it ended with Greg taking to the stage. What a voice on the guy .. and a brilliant set .. look forward to catching him again some time and I’m gona pester him to take his part in the All Acoustic page too.. so il let you know how that goes!!

I Finished off the night by necking as many test tubes as I could get my hands on , which michelle at that point decided to stick them on her hands and do her edward scissor hands impression and I managed to stroll in at 3:30am blotto!! … and then I spent the whole day lying around on Monday!! Pleased I put in the holiday from work … as there was no chance I could have made it!! Like someone else from work who didn’t manage to get there…hahahha.. *cough * shelly *cough * ..

Once again thanks again to all who made the weekend what it was!!

Cheers Big Ears!! Shaggy!!!

Update!! The Big 3 OOOHHHHH!!!

Well the 2nd album “Easy To Read” has being going well .. and im now working on a few tracks to kick off the 3rd.. I have one recorded and a few i’ve been playing around with so hopefully that should be here in the middle of the year sometime! Ive also added the new mailing list which is managed by Fanbridge for regular email updates about happenings in the world of Shagpile. You can find this on the contact page of www.shagpile.org.

Ive also added a Giglistings page for my Online Gigs in the world of Secondlife to the homepage as well so you can now check for upcoming secondlife gigs .. for all you SL peeps!! Ive also added them to my giglistings on the myspace page aswell.

Ive got some great gigs coming up too as part of the Acoustic Magic Team this year supporting some great artists.. The first being Greg Griffin of the band “Proud Mary” on the 17th May , another is Chris Helme who was the voice of “The seahorses & The Yards” and a great one which I cant wait for is Mark Morris of “The Bluetones” which is gona be fantastic! The Marc Morris one will be @ The Steamboat in Blyth.. If anyone is wanting tickets for any of the gigs just contact me by email… These are all happening this year.

Also il be having my 30th Birthday bash at the Isabella on the 15th of may and theres gona be loadsa live music for the Bellacoustic night Special.. including Hague, Daryl Burns, Snatchbag , Clear Blue Skies, William West, Micky Oliver and myself… so drag ya butts down and sing Happy Birthday TO SHAGGY!!!!

WEHEEYYY!!!!!!!!! Well they reckon life starts at 30.. il tell you my verdict after the weekend.hahahhaa

Cya for now .. Shaggy!

Rod Clements @ Bubbles

Another great new gig to get under my belt this week. Rod Clements was one of the original members from the band Lindisfarne and for those of you who dont know who they are then youre probably either too young or youve been locked in the basement by your dodgy father who only feeds you on a sunday!!

Me and my beard!!

Anyways.. Derek from Acoustic Magic managed to sort this out for me and got us the gig supporting Rod Clements at Bubbles in Ashington…what a belta and it was amazing to share the stage with such a Legend!!!!

The running order was Clear Blue Skies, Hague, Myself and then the Fabulous Rod Clements who blew me away with his fingerstyle and slide guitar playing. Having already had a listen on his myspace I didnt really no what to expect from him playing solo but was pleasently surprised .. Damn he can play!!!!!!!

Hague

The night went great and Hague pulled a new song out the bag especially..  and also his Tightrope Walking song ,which was the last one he wrote I believe, is slowly becoming my favourite of his set!!

Clear Blue Skies had there usual mental banter about them while standing on one leg…. and Derek gave me a shot glass with a straw in it while I was on stage which…. turned out to be lager??? hahahha…  oh and it was also Hairys birthday so he got the dedication of Land Down Under on the night..

We also got the chance to get our photos taking at the end of the show with Rod and thanks to Terry T-Shirt for doing all the photography on the night once again!!

Hahaha Check out the finger!!

Hairy with his belly out!!

All in all another great gig for Acoustic Magic which keeps on going from strength to strength..

So to all the Acoustic Magic team , Rod Clements and Hairy for his birthday!!!

WEYHEEEEEEEY!!!!!

Mini-Tour and DVD

WHAT A WEEKEND??

Since Thursday its been a hell of a ride..  in 4 days ive done 5 gigs and recorded two DVD’s and partyed like an animal!!

It all started on Thursday night up at the Schooner Inn in Seahouses with an acoustic magic Busker night with a prize for the best artist of the night.. so me , flinty and gazza had a drive up , I did the set and won £50.00 prize money…Weeehooooo!!! What a cracker!This place is a great little venue and they love the live music… cant wait to get back there ..

Then Friday I was gigging up at Alnwick at The Hairy Lemon which turned out to be a great night .. there always seems to be a great atmosphere in there too even if there isnt too many in…. and the sound was done by Hague and sounded great on the night… there was also a killer balloon kicking about attacking everyone and liked having its photo took.. as it seems to be in nearly every photo.. check them out below!!hahahhaa

Then the DVD recording Gigs .. on Saturday morning we set off for Wakefield with the band (Stolen Tom) to record a live gig DVD and also a Solo Shagpile Acoustic gig too at the Snooty Fox,  so off we went with loadsa geordies in tow to invade Wakefield…..

We cracked open the beers in the car and got down there some time after 1:00pm , had a few beers in andy’s hotel and then nipped down to check in at the Graziers for more beers, until the Tom Bus pulled up with the rest of the band ….. the van showed up stickered up with Tom posters selotaped to the van,no expense spared.. hahahhahaha!! Good Job Flinto!!

We had some bait and more beer then headed down to the snooty fox to load in and get sound checked with the band, where we met Malc the owner and sound guy and all round great fella.. who loves his strange bottle of black alcoholic death stuff that burns a hole in your heart when you drink it.. hahahah..

Then onto the gigs.. I did a solo acoustic set first which then onto Hague, followed by Clear Blue Skies which both did brilliant sets..

Heres a video of “Bargirl” from my acoustic set…..

Then onto the Band gig …”Stolen Tom”…  We kicked off with “Like Hell” as usual and everything went great even though we had been on the drink since 1:00pm , hahahaha… The DVD’s turned out great and was one of our best gigs away to date..loadsa mad antics going on ,harry bumstead managed to control himself for the whole night although he didnt come home and when we returned to the bar to get the gear in the morning he was asleep on a bar table,oh and thanks to Andy for not letting me get any sleep what so ever by trashing the Hotel… Im sure the band is supposed to do that not the fans????

Anyways , after getting back at 4:00pm on sunday afternoon and vomiting all over the place I managed to drag my ass to Bubbles for the final gig and had a canny night although it had to be the hardest gig ive ever played and was pleased when it was all over.. and i could stop trying to keep myself from vomiting on the crowd..hahahaha

Theres a few more pics at the end of the blog from the weekend and check out youtube for some of the videos to come.. especially keep an eye out for the “singing” on the bus on the way home when i get it up on there….. such a special moment thanks to sav and higgymeister…..hahahahhaha!!

Big Thanks to all the nuttas who travelled down with us,turned up at any of the gigs, Malc for the brilliant job on the whole night at the snooty fox and walkin us back to our hotels at 4am and also everyone who tuned in on the worldwide web to watch it live…..  and a special massive  thanks to Derek from Clear Blue Skies who made most of this possible!!

Until next time.. Chow 4 Now.. Shaggy!!

Easy To Read & Fawm.org

Two updates this time around!

1.Easy To Read

The new album “Easy To Read” has now been released to most online digital distibution stores online from the 1/2/2009 such as iTunes,Napster,eMusic,Rhapsody and others, and as from today the Free download section has been taken down from www.shagpile.org.

The album was downloaded 146 Times in throughout January and big thanks to all who grabbed the download and sent in your comments and reviews on the album.

2.Fawm.org

Last year I took part in a great website called fawm.org which stands for February Artist Writing Month and this is where a lot of my tracks came from for my first album.. basically tou have the whole of february to try and write 14 songs and add them to there website where others review and check out your music and was a bundle of fun … They dont really care if you make the full 14 or not and its more about participating in the challenge and meeting more songwriters along the way!

I managed 11 last year and have signed up again for this years although it doesn’t look like il get near the 14 with upcoming gigs this month and other things happening but even if you manage to push out a couple of songs its worth it ..

So ive managed to squeeze the basics of 2 together upto now and hopefully get time to work on them between gigs on weekends.. so if you get a chance check out the massive online community at www.fawm.org

Until the next update .. Shaggys signing out to blow the manflu out of his nose!