Hand of Latham

Scott Mckeon had been invited to play in Spain at the guitar festival in Madrid some months ago, however the festival had to be cancelled. This did not rock the spanish promotor at all though, a replacement gig was arranged along with dates in Bilbao and Catalonia.

The Cotton Club - Bilbao

We Drove up from London to Stantead for an early flight and landed in Bilbao, where we were booked to play the Cotton Club. most of the soundcheck was taken up by the sound engineer and one of the promoters associates having a heated discussion about the volume of the band. Eventually it was explained to us that there was a Volume meter that must not exceed 100 or the police would be called! We promised faithfully not to play too loud and we left for some food leaving the engineer happy. I don’t think we managed to play below 107 the whole gig but the engineer seemed happy with that and no one called the law!

5hr train ride to Madrid

The following day involved another early start and a train to Madrid, where we were met by Chris who had set up our previous Spanish tour with Jonny Winter and his assistant Francisco who was to be driving us to Catalonia the following day.

This is the Post Office in Madrid! Mental!

Chris took us to a great place for steak and orderd two kilos of the stuff! I have to say I think it was the best steak I have ever had, Chris knows his steak!

The Show in Madrid was largely made up of people expecting to see the band at the festival, It was a shame that the festival did not happen but we still had a good time in Madrid.

Our final show before we left spain for home was in Catalonia. It was a fun night with a jam session after our set. We agreed to stick around for the jam for a couple of hours before we went back to the hotel. Im glad we did, as we would have missed the Spanish Bon Scott! My only regret is that I did not get a picture of him, he was a bit of a legend!

The Stage @ the Paradiso

I have just got hold of a live clip recorded a couple of weeks ago at one of our shows with George Thorogood in Europe.

This was (I think) taken from the Amsterdam show on the 17th of May 2009.

Currently on tour with Eric Clapton and in the middle of a string of dates at the Albert Hall the Arc Angels (featuring original members Doyle Bramhall II, Charlie Sexton and Chris Layton) used their only day off to play a show at  Bush Hall in London. 

The Scott McKeon band was the opening act that evening. Upon our arrival at Bush Hall the Arc Angels were still sound checking. I don’t know if it was the presence of the Arc Angels or the dramatic look of the room we were about to play but there was a real ‘vibe’ inside. 

Our forty minutes seemed to fly by and it was not long before I found my self amongst the crowd waiting for the Arc Angels to hit the stage. A little after 9.15 they arrived, playing songs from their first album and a few new ones. The Arc Angels show was also a great social event as there were gig goers from all over the country in attendance, including one Jesse Davey of the Hoax. 

Check out the Arc Angles here

Photos by S.Mckeon

The Girl @ Off The Tracks

Thought I would write a few words about the George Thorogood dates the Scott McKeon band opened in Europe recently. George is quite a character, he walked into our dressing room on the first date and announced that there were only two rules. 1. You can play better than me, and 2. But you cant look better than me! We did not see much of him after that, but when we did he informed us of a meeting he had with Jeff Beck after a show and how Jimi Hendrix gave him a pair of sunglasses. I guess some people are entertaining on or off stage.  

Brussels

Our first date with George was in Brussels, this was my first gig in Belgium and I was looking forward to it, the fact that I got stopped for speeding earlier in the day was not going to stop me having a good gig! By the time we got to the venue that was a distant memory and we were all in good spirits.

Paradiso

Bourbon St.

Our second gig led us to Amsterdam and a venue called the Paradiso. This was the second time I have played here, I have fond memories of the first time when we opened for Joe Bonamasssa and it was a real pleasure to be back. After the gig we had time to grab a beer in the bourbon St. Blues bar that I have also played a couple of times with Sean. It was nice to visit the place as a regular punter and enjoy the music.

Our third and final gig was in Eindhoven, at the Effenaar. A first for me! Was a good show, but we did not have time to hang around afterwards as we had a train to catch at 1.30am. But unknown to us at the time we were to be delayed by road works in Belgium and miss our connection. This added another two hours onto the journey, but the dream team assured me they would keep me company for the drive home and not fall asleep.

The Dream Team

Check George out here

Here are a few pictures from a recent gig at the Albert Hall that I played. Scott Mckeon opened up for american guitar player Joe Bonamassa. These pictures were taken during our soundcheck, it was an amazing experience to play such a fantastic venue. I don’t think I will ever forget that one! Was a great night for the crowd as Clapton was a surprise guest. It really kicked off when he walked out on stage to join Joe!

We took some time out from the recording to perform an acoustic show @ Square Records in Dorset. The event was to promote independent record shop day.

The Sean Webster band was asked to host a Musicians drop-in centre at the Northumbria University followed by a show at the Sage Venue in Gateshead.

I have just returned from a couple of gigs with singer song writer James Parker. The Band was made up of an old friend of mine Ash Wilson on guitar, Scott Mckeon on guitar, Bill Mudge ( who I had not worked with before ) on keys, Wayne Proctor on drums and myself on bass duties.

Here are a few pictures from the rehearsals/Soundcheck:

Check James out on Youtube here:

Check James out at www.myspace.com/jamesparker

While down at Scott’s place a call came in for a gig in Paris the next day. so after a quick panic and the transportation of passports sorted out, we all bundled into my car and made out way over the channel. After the gig I bumped into Hugh Coltman who I toured with in May during the Hoax Reunion tour. He lives in Paris and was working in a studio up the road and popped his head round the door. He gave me a copy of his album ’stories from the safe house’. Check him out here: http://www.myspace.com/hughcoltman  The day after the gig we even had time to check out the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre before heading back to the ferry port!