Richard’s open air gigs at the Drawingroom in Chesham are great. There’s plenty of wine and Richard serves everyone a mean chilli.
This time we’re doing a full band acoustic set. There are loads of dogs in the audience who whimper occasionally (as if they’re really enjoying a particular emotional moment of the song). I love gigs like this.
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Introducing the Hammond to Leeds festival. Little Fish headlined the BBC Introducing stage and we had a great gig, mostly because of the super-friendly crowd. ;)
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What organ? ;)
Backstage at the Little Fish in-store gig at Rapture in Witney. Remember CDs?!
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I was reading Danny Barnes’ great blog post How To Make A Living Playing Music (which I recommend you read at least once a month if you’re serious about being a musician) and I picked up on the part where he talks about hiring sidemen:
you may not want to hire sidemen that get too worked up about money, it can be hard to make these folks happy. also when it comes to hiring musicians, you may have to live with them at arm’s length for a long time and be involved with them about emotional issues like money and life problems and stuff. you may want a person that’s easy to get along with even if they are a little less sharp musically. of course getting both is best, but if you have to take one or the other, take the one you get along with a little better.
It’s good advice, certainly, but that’s not what struck me. It was his use of the word sideman. Not session musician or band member. Sideman. I stopped and thought, “That’s me. I’m a sideman.”
A sideman sounds like someone who takes a certain pride in their job. A craftsperson who combines technical skill and musicianship with a willingness to play the supporting rôle, an enabler, a catalyst, a facilitator. I like the sound of that. As a Hammondista, that’s pretty much what I do musically too. I play parts that support and enhance the performance of the star players.
On the way to a recording session with Jont a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about how it’s important to accept yourself for what you are instead of always comparing yourself to others. I’m always thinking about how relatively crap I am as an artist (I can barely sing, I write silly songs, I rarely push myself to get gigs or record anything) and I ignore my ability to walk into a studio and create technically accomplished, sensitive and original piano and Hammond parts for a dozen songs I’ve barely heard before without blinking. I need to remember that I’m actually a pretty good sideman, and that it doesn’t matter that I’m not a good singer or violinist or astronaut or whatever.
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