Last night we completed the launch for “Tales of Dark and Light” We were delighted to play at The Constitutional in Farsley Leeds. This is a great venue and it was a joy to play to such an appreciative listening audience.
Nicky Bray provided an excellent support slot with some terrific songs that the audience really enjoyed. At 9 pm the 7 piece Caravan of Dreams swung into action which then was joined by the superb Jon Burr on “Slow News Day” and “Grey Skies’. Jon is an exceptional harmonica player and did not disappoint. Both Laurent Zeller and Jed Bevington played violin, with Fergus Quill on double bass, Rich Ferdi on percussion, Agi on vocals and Chris Smith on keys. Its like playing with “The East Street Band” this is a powerful ensemble and the audience loved these songs.
It is an honor and a privilege to play with such superb musicians and I played five different instruments during the set – tenor ukulele, 5 string baritone, Gregor Nowak guitarelle, Waterloo acoustic and Moses custom strat. This was the first time I had played acoustic and electric guitars with the full band and I loved it. The Moses sounded very Neil Young on a new unrecorded song “Hold that thought” and the unrecorded “All Kinds of Crazy” which I did as a trio with Agi and Laurent. We finished the set with all eight of us “What you gonna do?” This was a magical night and we played in total for 90 minutes which included Rich, Laurent, Fergus and Jed playing a couple of great jazz standards.
There were lots of moving parts and the band was brilliant. Carl Rosamond made sure the sound was perfect and it was great to have a proper sound check and set length rather than the usual “OK, 5 minutes for a line check and then you are on” nonsense. These days I increasingly prefer smaller acoustically great venues both to play in and as an audience member. I’m already planning 2020 as well as completing a series of other Caravan gigs in the UK. The music is far more diverse and its really liberating to be playing a wide range of instruments. Its also far more challenging, but a huge amount of fun!