| 21/07/02-Back from a 10-day excursion to the Italian island of Elba. Spectacular! What can I say? It's good to be back in London. I'm hoping to concentrate more on writing and getting a band going. I'm looking forward to the full-band show with Grace on Thursday. I think we're going under the name Dan Bolero and Grace (Grazia) Solero. Much focusing to do. 06/07/02-Grace and I headlined the Dublin Castle in Camden last Thursday. It was rockin'. We did more recording at SAE with Oscar and Andrew in an all-night marathon recording binge, but it was worth it. We did "Blue Circle" and "Lucky One", a bit of a "Four Months in 2000" revival, don't you think? We're taking a few weeks off from shows to do our summertime duty of lying on the beach in Italy. I'll have to reacquaint myself with the concept of a 24-hour period that doesn't include any rain. When we come back, we'll strike the pavement and meet and greet industry people and play them our music. Happy summer to y'all. 17/06/02-Grace and I did a surprise gig at the 12 Bar tonight. We got in five songs to close out the night: Lucky One, Blue Circle, Happy Mistake, Howdy Hank and Surfer Girl. Yesterday, we played the Rock Garden. We were between a melancholy guy with a guitar and a girl band. The girl band had a lyric that went, "Should of known better, should of known good, should of had your parties in my neighborhood." I guess now I'm a part of pop history being on the same bill. We played Bar Risa on Friday night and met two cool bands, Majika and Airglow. The full band show at the Studio Club is in less than 2 months so I better get my band together. The sun has finally come out in London and I am smiling. 13/06/02-The 12 Bar show last Saturday night was very cool. We played with Ragbone and John Devlin and and Ragbone's bass player, Ross, gave us a gig at the Colour Bar in Camden next Saturday. Gigs, gigs, gigs! Yeehaw! I was in the studio this week recording "Blue Circle" with Oscar in the engineering seat. The song will be his final project for his recording studio course. It's a very clean studio and we're gonna finish recording next week. It's strangely refreshing to be back in a studio. Five shows in the next eight days. 05/06/02-I write tonight, the very same night that I met Mr. Willie Nelson. It wasn't in any cool, random manner like my friend, Tom, who spent one warm summer night in the Yosemite Valley playing guitar around the campfire with Billy Idol, but it was still pretty cool. I saw his show at the Royal Albert Hall and experienced just how long he can play for without any breaks. After the show, he signed autographs for all those who waited. I'm not much for autograph hunting, but this was Willie Nelson. He's a very polite and genuine guy; a real class act, that Willie. While the big jubilee pop concert was going on last night, I was doing my show down at the Roadhouse. The crowd was really into it and inundated me with requests. Very cool night. Then I checked out the firework show from my spot over the Thames River. It was regalific. Friday's show at the Kashmir Klub was a success and Grace's debut at the club. We play 12 Bar this Saturday, so you should come if you want to and can. 27/05/02-There has been a lot of busking recently; so much so that I couldn't update this page sooner. Grace and I have been gathering up the gigs quickly in the past week or so. We have a show tomorrow in Camden at the Fusilier & Firkin and then we play a couple songs at the Kashmir Klub this Friday night. Hopefully, Anne the violinist can play at one or both of these shows. She's heading back to Finland on Sunday. Our loss, Finland's gain. I started a weekly cover spot at the Roadhouse in Covent Garden tonight. It's a very big place with great sound and friendly staff. And heck: it pays. The Jubilee Weekend promises the involve me running all around London nonstop. 13/05/02-Grace and I played a show at the 12 Bar Club on Wednesday, with people tuning in for the webcast from Los Angeles to San Francisco. Nick the bassist is back from Cambodia so hopefully we'll play music this week along with Grace and Oscar. I also started jamming with Niko this past week. We have a shared love for the Association's "Along Comes Mary" and sounded really good playing on each other's songs. Good ol' London. 03/05/02-A successful show at Bar Risa last Friday may have secured a spot in a Sicilian music festival in August. More news as it develops... 25/04/02-I have some shows coming up. I'm co-starring with Grace in high energy acoustic frenzy. I have a bunch of new song ideas and need to find time to finish 'em. I just need to take advantage of the loverly spring weather and go to the park with guitar and notebook in hand. With the assistence of weekend busking, I'm making more than I'm spending. So hopefully I'll be in London for a while yet. 08/04/02-I continue running around playing music. I just played at Whistlebinkies in Stirling Saturday night and now I'm in Edinburgh preparing some songs for tomorrow night at the Black Bull. Grace and I did some interesting recordings with Tom's 8-track at the Cecil Sharp House. Anne played some violin on a couple songs too. My new favorite thing is playing upright bass. Grace and I did the open mic at the Royal Exchange in Camden and acquired 2 gigs in the next few weeks. Still trying to get some weekly cover spots... 29/03/02- This week I performed almost every night. It was quite a go. Friday night at the Kashmir Klub, I had people singing along to "Rodeo in San Gregorio". I did a couple numbers at a bluegrass show at the Cecil Sharp House in Camden on Saturday and found my "in" into the British bluegrass scene. Sunday night, I played at the Ruskin House down in Croydon and the crowd did a great job singing along to "Happy Easter to You", Monday, I had my third show at the 12 Bar Club and played a more mellow set (No Rodeo?!). I also had Grace come up and play her song, "Happy Mistake", Unai from Spain sang his poem borrowing a Grandaddy melody along with Silvio Rodriguez's "Ojala", and Anne playing a stunning violin part to "She Forgot About Me". Wednesday night, Grace and I performed Bjork's "Isobel" at the Ion Bar and last night I was back at Deco Bar riling the folks up with Tom. The practice with Grace, Oscar and Nick ranged from punk to jazz and had some great moments. Tonight, I'm going down to the Brixton Academy to see the Strokes with Oscar. 22/03/02-I've been playing a lot of music this week. I've played with 3 bands and might play with another soon. Grace and I have been working both acoustically and with a full band. She's from Italy and has a great voice. On Sunday, we played with Oscar (from Sweden) on drums and Nick (originally from Singapore) on bass. It was rocking for a first time out and we're playing again this Sunday. I met up with another band today and moments ago met a guy at the bus stop whose band just lost their guitarist today. It's crazy how many musicians are here. I've also been practicing a song with Anne, the Finnish violinist, called "She Forgot About Me". So a lot of great music going on. Hopefully the weekly cover spots will happen soon and I'll have some money coming in. It's great to have so many talented musicians to play with, if not a bit overwhelming. To boot, I have shows coming up in the next few days. |