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!