This has been quite a year, both musically and on many other fronts.
An early highlight was recording an interview with Jim Glennie, founder member of James. I’ve know Jim and Tim Booth since the early days of James four decades ago and these are highly creative hard working musicians. The conversations with both of them have been quite fascinating and reconfirmed many of my suspicions about “The music business” Crucially they are extremely focused and have always demonstrated a great attitude towards others.
This video was shot by Mal Williamson, who is now my go to guy for all video filming and editing.
Sylvie Simmons on “The Music Business”
Another highlight of the year was recording the podcast with world class music journalist Sylvie Simmons. I’ve been reading her articles for decades and she is an exceptional writer and terrific person. She also has a history of interviewing countless brilliant artists including Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Lou Reed, Frank Zappa, Elvis Costello and of course Leonard Cohen.
The Towse connection – “West Coast meets West Yorkshire”
After two years of working on tracks with Towse I finally got to meet Grace Fellows in Leeds. This was quite surreal as we’d mostly only communicated by messenger during covid. We did a photo shoot with Karen Turner for the album “All is fine ’til the world goes pop” and shot some promo video with Mal Williamson.
We also shot a brilliant promo for “Maybe” again by Mal Williamson
The 3rd Music for the Head & Heart Showcase
The live highlight of the year was hosting the Music for The Head and Heart showcase headlined by the brilliant Jon Gomm with support from “The Heartache” and “Towse” This was a great evening of music at its very best. Jon is a mind blowing entertainer and the audience loved him.
“You had a 4% Chance of Mortality” – the unexpected health crash…
During the MHH set I felt I was going down with flu, but didn’t realise until after, I was actually getting covid for the first time. I played the set, but felt really off and was pleased to have remained conscious for the evening. That wasn’t the end of health issues as in November I ended up in casualty with a temperature spike and was later told I had ‘a 4% chance of pegging it” Fortunately I had excellent medical care and now have a plan to prevent any such occurrences. I am reminded of a classic Mike Tyson quote – “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face” In other words such occurrences really provoke some useful reflections… I’m not a fan of posting such scenarios online as some people in my view “play the victim” to get attention, but this was a real gamechanger in stopping me in my tracks and a good reminder to take care of personal health and to value all those who work in the NHS.
That said, I don’t have time to be ill as I have too much to do! I also don’t have time for anyone who bemoans the benefits of modern medicine and the idiot covid deniers, who are a whole new level of stupid.
Special thanks to all of the following folks
Special thanks to all the following people who have been a great support both musically and in many other ways – Daz in the Hat, Nick Field, Shelly Morgan, Andy Coote for radio promotion, Neil Atkinson for PR, Karen Turner for great photos, Mal Williamson for superb filming and editing, Sarah Patrick for graphics, all the terrific musicians who played on the album including Laurent Zeller, Michael Ross, Emily Mercer, Agi, Dave Bowie Jnr, Josh Burnell, Fergus Quill, Howi Taylor, Towse, Corwin Zekley, Rich Ferdi. For live outings Alex Eden, Fergus Quill, Rich Ferdi and Towse for showcase support. For brilliant studio work Carl Rosamond, Jen Geering for great social media work for Green Eyed Records and for my wife Sue who is my true North Star in all matters
Wishing everyone a very cool yule
Nick Cody