Adventures in Blogging

A small tourette ... no swearing please!

2011-11-12T13:14:00.001-08:00

We continue our musical adventures at the Stamford Arts Centre in Lincolnshire on Wednesday 21st September. Dave, Peter and I played here one time before with all the traveling Gentlemen in tow. Bob and I called in to see our lovely friend David Suff en route from Jo and the girls. He provided, as usual, deeply interesting conversation and most importantly ... fabulous cake and tea!

Pete was already setting up when Bob and I arrived but it took a little longer for Dave and Homer to get there ... M1 shenanigans as ever. There was a healthy, well turned out crowd for the show ... we care how well our audiences are fairing. A fun night was had, followed by a lovely sleep at our friend’s Diane and Bryan Ansell in East Stoke ... always a joy.

I’ve often wondered what a ride on the Settle to Carlisle train would be like ... and though I still have to wonder, I now know at least, that Settle is a delightful and music loving place ... our next show was at the marvelous Victoria Hall, Settle; a wonderful, old Methodist’s Citadel turned, delightful Arts Centre. It’s now a fab venue in a pretty, well loved town in North Yorkshire. The staff were incredibly helpful and friendly and looked after us brilliantly. It was a joy to play there. Fingers crossed they’ll invite us back.

The following day had us driving back down the country to the Cinnamon Club, Altrincham in Cheshire. Bob and I managed to find a fabulous Gastro pub en route and enjoyed a leisurely, delicious lunch. Unfortunately, Dave and Homer faired far worse ... their car broke down 5 minutes from the hotel in Burnley, where we stayed the night before.They had to wait to be towed to the nearest garage and then again for a replacement vehicle to be delivered. It wasn’t a very promising appraisal of the broken down car either. Ouch! Still it was all sorted out and they made it to the gig with time to spare. We played upstairs in the club room - a great atmosphere and a fabulous gig. There were 2 people though, sat right at the front ... who apparently didn’t enjoy the evening at all. What little applause they were able to muster, was sparse, to say the least and they were up and out of the room before the rest of the crowd - including their enthusiastic friend who obviously dragged them along - had finished clapping at the end of the night. Why do they always sit at the front?! We, and the rest of the audience, had fun none the less.

Our last show, in a row of four, had us traveling north again; this time heading for Barton-on- Humber and a new venue to me: The Ropewalk. Bob and Peter and I were booked into a B&B on the outskirts of town, which unfortunately had many cats - Bob’s allergic! Oops. Should have asked beforehand and forgot - bad wifey! Sorry Bob! Our landlady was very pleasant and our rooms clean and well appointed, if a little on the small side however the animal smell (there were many small, yapping dogs too) that pervaded the downstairs dining room, was overwhelming! I brought Bob’s breakfast up on a tray to spare him the experience and the awful coughing and sneezing that’s brought on by the close proximity of cat ... stuff. Too much information? Hey-ho. The gig was fine and dandy and the venue very interesting ... apparently it’s a quarter of a mile from one end of the building to the other!

Bob and I stayed with Jo, Mike and the girls for a few days making up for lost ag-ooing and cuddles. We love being grandparents ... sorry ... have I mentioned that already!

We traveled south again on Sunday afternoon and headed for a wonderfully sociable evening with Peter Filleul and his lovely wife Sian Wynne. There was a time, many years ago now, when I used to frequent their delightful home but it’s been ages since that treat was possible. It took 2 hours to reach the centre of London and another hour to finally arrive in Sydenham - c’est la vie n’est pas? Mais oui! Pete is an exceptional cook! We loved the delicious food and drink Pete served up and the wonderful company too.

Bob had meetings in London the following day and decided to meet us in Putney later. I whiled away the day with a late entrance and a frenzy of writing before setting off to brave the south circular. Which, miraculously, was empty! Who knew? The Half Moon Putney is a legendary gig and one we’ve all played many times over a large expanse of time - eek! Joining us tonight with his unique electric guitar flare, was gorgeous Peter Emery - another Traveling Gent if ever there was one. It was delightful to share the stage with him again. Much to our surprise the gig was very well attended and the super cool London crowd were incredibly warm and enthusiastic - hurrah! A very, very late night ensued.

With not nearly enough sleep between us, it was a later than usual start to the day. Bob, bless him, had more meetings in town and trained it out to Aldershot where we were playing that night, at the West End Centre - one of my faves. Our delightful friends Martin, Pam, Phil, Pat and Wendy all sat close to the stage and cheered loudly - hurrah for fab friends. I sang Who Knows Where the Time Goes as a birthday pressie for Phil ... I made him blush! We enjoyed Peter Emery’s playing and presence so much the night before, we invited him back for this show too - what a joy!

Bob and I stayed with Martin and Pam and tired though we most certainly were, enjoyed a gorgeous midnight feast back at their place after the show - Phil, Pat and Wendy came too ... so lovely to find great friends around and about a touring route :-)

Getting close to the end of the tour now. The drive down to Torrington in Devon was absolutely wonderful ... it was a perfect day ... warm, bright sunlight and undulating, lush, green, landscapes with just a hint of Autumn in the turning leaves - stunning. When we turned up outside the Plough Arts Centre, I was sure I saw an old friend just walking in but it couldn’t have been. Once inside I realised it really was John Eels! I’ve not seen him for far too long and it was an absolute delight to see him again - he was our soundman for the show! All is well all shall be well. We didn’t have what you could call great ticket sales for this show but we did have a fabulous reaction from the quality crowd who came. It was a great show. We’ll be back ...

And so we reach our last show of the tour. Another breath taking drive through Devon’s wonderful coast roads on an unseasonably, warm, September day. Bob and I ended up in Lyme Regis for lunch and were amazed how many people were sunbathing on the sweeping, stony beach. How fab! Our final show was at The New Forest Arts Centre in New Milton. I’ve played here once before and remembered how well run it was. The technical staff were, to a man ... very young, and very good. All in all, the tour was a great success and we’re already thinking about doing something next year. I’ll keep you posted about our plans, as and when they become more solidified.

Thanks to all of you who managed to come to a show we truly appreciate it!

I started with a stinky head-cold the following day - my timing’s impeccable! I had 10 days off before a couple of rogue solo shows with Rob Cross in October and filled that time in between sneezing and sleeping, adoring our gorgeous, growing, grand daughters ... I’m getting pretty good at it now. We actually had an entire day when we were in charge! Hurrah!

After a day’s rehearsal with gorgeous Roblet Crossington - I love calling him that! - in Cardiff, we made our way to Jagz, a firmly established music venue next to the train station in Ascot. I’ve known about this place for years but this was the first time I’ve been asked perform here. The place has been around for decades but for the past 2 years a lovely man by the name of Graham Steel, who used to run another wonderful venue in Windsor for many, many years, has successfully taken over the running of the music side of things. He's a marvel!

It was great to play a different set of songs hot on the heels of another show and reminded me just how much I love variety. Rob played a few of his great songs from the first Snow in June album,(now available for download!) before the first set and warmed our small but fabulous crowd to a delightful, pliable, heat. It was a wonderful night and we can’t thank Graham nearly enough for his warmth, support and enthusiasm. There’s a very good chance we’ll play there again next year. Hurrah.

Pam, Martin, Pat and Phil came to this show too - hurrah! Bob, Rob and I are always keen to stay at Martin and Pam’s delightful home.There’s always a warm welcome and a fine, party atmosphere to be found. It was a relatively early night - for us. Rob, bless him had to drive back to Cardiff the following day. Bob and I stayed on at Martin and Pam’s for 2 days and indulged in several wonderful Gastro Pub lunches, followed by beautiful, nature walks in late autumnal sunshine - delicious on all counts.

On Saturday night we all went to see Show of Hands! Wow ... they were fab-u-lous, as Craig Revel Horwood might say.

And so we reach Hitchin Folk club on Sunday October 16th. This was always going to be a special show as Maureen Jones, the long running club’s wonderful organiser had only recently come through serious health issues and it was a complete joy to see her looking so radiantly healthy again. Bless you darlin’. It was a lovely show and great to end this latest outing on such a high.

Thanks to everyone who came out to support us ... in either combination ... and hope to see even more of you next year.

As a heads up: I’ve been invited to sing a song from Oliver! on a Radio 3 show, The Verb being recorded live in London and broadcast on December 9th. The show’s based around the wonderful works of Dickens and marks the beginning of a year of celebrating his work - it will be the 200th anniversary of his birth next February. I’m thrilled to be asked and working on a version of Pick a Pocket for the show.

I’ll be back with further adventures as I go. Thanks as ever for stopping by to read my musical meanderings and hope to see you out there again soon.

Much love

Christine xx

2011-11-02T09:58:00.000-07:00

A Trio of Tourettes - September come she will.

It’s been 4 years since Dave Kelly, myself and some fine Travelling Gentlemen took to the musical road. It seemed like a good idea to get back together again but in a smaller, more acoustic version. Cue: Collister, Kelly and Filleul - we’d make a fine Firm of Lawyers n’est pas?

Dave’s regularly asked me to set aside some time for another tour and I finally succumbed to his delightful request. It’s difficult to find exactly the right set of circumstances, where everyone needed is available, so we grabbed the chance to put a run of dates together this September - 2011.

After working out a long list of possible songs long-distance, we finally got together for a week’s worth of rehearsal’s at Dave’s delightful family home near Kingston, the week before the tour began. Fortunately for Dave, Pete and myself, Dave’s youngest son Homer, wasn’t due to start University until October 3rd, so we roped him in to play bass and add his rather lovely, dulcet tones to our collective harmonies. Hurrah ... our trio became a quartet, just like that.

After such a long absence it was hard to remember exactly what it was we used to do. It took ages to whittle down the old songs to a manageable bunch of 10 and we took it upon ourselves to add a further 10 new songs to the mix! Given our gathering years, we found it hard to take on board everything all at once but somehow we managed it. It took a few gigs to find our musical stride but find it we did. We also added to the mix, a few nights with guest appearances at 4 separate shows!Bursting the seams of our 4 piece Trio to five - go figure. We like a challenge.

A Tourette in the making from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We travelled down to Exeter the night before our first date in order to do a live performance and interview with the effervescent Judi Spiers on BBC Radio Devon. We sang Nancy Griffith’s Gulf Coast Highway and a passably raucous version of Chris Smither’s Love Me Like A Man ... not bad for 11.30 on a Wednesday morning - even if I say so myself.

So here they are one by one: Our first date was at the lovely St David’s Hall in South Petherton in Somerset, which someone very kindly reminded me I’ve been playing at for over 25 years! Mm thanks for that! I was in too much of a dither to even remember to Flip the audience that night, let alone any musical interludes but caught the before and after tensions momentarily:

Our next port of call was the Tivoli Theatre in beautiful Wimbourne for lovely promoter Charlie, who has supported all our tours - bless!It was a gorgeous, bright, sunny day. Perfect for enjoying the fabulous countryside thereabouts ... ah touring is a wonderful privilege. Peter Filleul and I travelled together for these first few shows and allowed ourselves a rather lovely late lunch near the theatre. Delicious on all counts.

Our first musical guest joined us for this show and we were very happy to have Richard Brunton on board. He and Pete and I go all the way back to 1986 and The Life’s and Love’s of a She-Devil! He and his lovely wife had that very day spent time with Faye Weldon no less!! She would have come to the show but for a prior family do. Wow. That would have been fabulous. The show was great fun and Richard played brilliantly on half a dozen songs. Thanks Richard - let’s do it again!

With 2 shows under our belt we were getting a little less nervous and a bit more at ease. Look out Wavendon here we come! The Stables is a favourite venue of ours and one of the 2 places our “Live” cd was recorded at, way back in 2006! It was lovely to play there once more. There were friends and family at this particular performance. Bob and I had been apart at this point for 2 weeks. He’d been out on the creative road with young Mr Knowles - who was on this side of the pond for a change, writing up a storm for his next cd, with Steve Chrisanthou. He also performed at the closing ceremonies for the Youth Commonwealth Games, held this year on the Isle of Man. I had a small part to play in co-writing the Anthem for Games with Davy. Sorry I wasn’t able to be there for the opening and closing parties but I know it was a great success. Of course it was great to see Mr Miller again too! he made sure there was some Flip taken - bless!

The next show on our first run out, was at The Mill in Banbury. Hurrah. I love it here. Our techy for the night was Carl and he did a sterling job in accommodating a 5 piece Trio! We swelled our musical ranks with Mr PJ Wright! PJ introduce Pete and I way back in 198. Thereby hangs a tale and without that meeting none of this would be possible - who’d a thunk it all those years ago eh? PJ brought along a plethora of instruments - guitars, pedal steel and harmonica ... playing up a storm on loads of tunes - thank you!

Our next gig and the last of five in a row - was at the Corn Hall in Diss. I misread the information for this show when giving the details to Christy DeHaven for my website and wrote: Diss Cornwall! Oh well my geography leaves a lot to be desired but how many of you know where Ramsey is in relation to Port St Mary? Exactly - more than I’d care to admit no doubt. Anyway ... Corn Hall in Diss - Norfolk - is a fabulous venue and a pretty picturesque place with only one coffee shop open of a Sunday ... no prizes for guessing which chain of caffeine flogging establishments that might be - costa fortune more like. We were treated royally and with great respect by the Hall’s volunteer staff and enjoyed a fairly relaxed performance - practice makes perfect. And then 2 days off to see our glorious twin grand daughters - bless and rapture (They're actually called Isabella and Chiara but Bliss and Rapture sound good too).

I’ll leave you here for now and return with 2 more installments - 4 shows apiece for your further endorsement. Thanks as ever for dropping by. Hope to see you soon.

Much love

Christine xx

2011-08-01T04:12:00.001-07:00

Final installment from our musical shenanigans in May ...

Rob and I set sail ... well we Steam Packety boated it ... to Liverpool on Saturday May 21st and after meeting back up with Bob near the famous Liver Buildings, headed on up to the Lake District. Penny and Paul who run “The Acoustic Tearooms” in Kirkby Stephens, normally include delicious 3 course meals with their concerts but due to an unusually high volume of gigs in April and May, they’d put on a concert-only gig and hoped enough people weren’t music fatigued. With a last minute huge promotional push they managed to fill the place! Hurrah for hard working, conscientious promoters!

The Acoustic Tearooms - now held in the local Masonic Hall in Kirkby Stephen - was one of our first gigs in 2009 so we were very excited to make a return visit, not least because Penny and Paul make us all feel very welcome. We were still able to sample Penny’s delicious homemade food in the form of heart-warming soup before the show and enjoyed homemade cake after - what’s not to like?!

Kirkby Stephen Acoustic Tearooms from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The show was great fun and everyone made us feel very loved ... believe me when I say the feeling’s mutual! The party atmosphere continued back at Penny and Paul’s delightful home above their “Antiques” shop on the High Street. Cake, wine and good company followed us into the wee small hours. Next morning after delightfully strong coffee and a quick look round the shop, Rob drove off in the direction of the Cairngorm mountains and Bob and I made for Gainsborough, Worksop and impending grandparenthood! Our next gig was in Scotland 6 days ahead.

Meanwhile we spent time with Bob’s sister and husband and we all made as many visits as possible to see Jo, Mike and their incubating twins. The level of excitement and anticipation was high to say the least. We even put bets on when the girls would enter the world ... which none of us got right! While we were soaking up the love of family and relishing looming big changes, Rob was lounging by the pool and enjoying quality time alone in the lap of 4 star Hilton Hotel luxury, via the generosity of our mutual friend, Paul Leitch. Paul’s been a fan of mine for many years and over that long stretch has become a dear friend who happens to be in the hotel management business. When we first met, he was manager of The Lamb hotel in Ely and then of The Sun Hotel in Hitchen - which is still home to Hitchen Folk Club, and for the last year or so has been back in his homeland Scotland, where he now runs the smallest Hilton in the world. He very kindly offered to accommodate us for the length of our Scottish tour - so called but which turned out to be 2 gigs ... it wasn’t for the want of trying; originally the plan was to do half a dozen dates but in the end after many emails and phone calls ... and stupidly thwarting circumstances ... it was whittled down to just 2 shows: Strathpeffer on May 29th and Edinburgh on the 30th ... with several days beforehand in Paul’s delightful company, hotel and breath taking countryside included. Life is good n’est pas?

Driving to the Cairngorms from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The drive up through the borders and into the stunning Cairngorm National Park is absolutely gorgeous and even grey voluminous cloud cover and drizzling rain couldn’t dampen (pun intended!) our rising spirits the closer we got to Ballater and thesmallest Hilton on the planet. Apart from the delights of socialising with Paul and catching up on each other’s live’s, Rob, Bob and I had time to drive around and explore the delights of some local villages but our favourite experience has to be the local Royal LochnagarDistillery right next door to Balmoral Castle. Rob’s a bit of a whiskey nut and Bob hates the stuff ... I used to like a dram or 6 in my youth but haven’t drunk Scotch for many years, so we were an odd bunch to entertain however we all thoroughly enjoyed the tour and the anecdotes of our very knowledgeable guide. The best bit was the smelling test at the end, where we were asked to sniff a dram close to our noses and then again with the shot glass at chest level; we were informed we would detect the smell of apples ... WE DID! Amazing.

Before we left Paul and his 4 star friendship, Rob and I decided to do an impromtu personal performance in a cosy corner bar tucked away from the general hubub of the other hotel guests ... it’s amazing how quietly we can play when needed. Paul was delighted and we were happy to reciprocate a little and say thank you for his wonderful hospitality. Thanks Paul ... we’ll definitely be back!

Our gig in fabulous Macenzie House,home of Steve and Clancy Square Wheels House Concert production in Strathpeffer,is also home to several lovely cats, Bob couldn’t accompany us due to an allergy, so Rob and I left him watching football in another Hilton near Aviemore - bless. It was only an hour’s drive to the gig from there and we arrived in good time. Our hosts couldn’t have been more welcoming or helpful. We were joined by Rob Ellen, our PA provider for the night and the man most responsible for making anything happen this trip - I’m indebted to his diligence and enthusiasm.

It’s amazing how many people one can squeeze into what looks like a fairly small living room. The atmosphere was brilliant and we both felt very much appreciated. I hope we can make a return trip some other time and maybe string a few more shows together then.

Hello Scotland from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Our last gig of the tour was Edinburgh city centre the following day. We didn’t hold out much hope for a big audience and we weren’t disappointed! A handful of people turned up to the show despite the last minute radio interview I did just prior to sound check ... it was worth a try. Despite the low turn out it was actually a good gig and the guys who turned up were delighted ... ah bless them. Thanks Edinburgh ... we’d like the chance to try again ... please bring a friend next time huh? We said goodbye to our “favourite nephew” Rob and drove down opposite sides of the country to reach our very different destinations - Rob back to Cardiff and Bob and I to Gainsborough once more ... where we waited ... and waited ... and on June 21st at 5.58pm and 6pm respectively, Isabella Roberta 4lbs 3oz and Chiara Anna 6lbs 7oz were finally born.

Little Isabella had problems breathing on her own and after several hours supervision was brought to Leeds St James Neonatal unit with mum and Chiara in another ambulance right behind and dad following in his car behind them ... both sets of grandparents left in Worksop and Gainsborough holding our own breath and silently praying for good news. We all arrived at Jimmy’s the next day to meet our grand children! What joy! Chiara is utterly beautiful and we were given her to hold as soon as we stepped into Jo and Mike’s tiny family room. It was hard giving her back to her mum so we could meet her equally gorgeous sister Isabella in the neonatal unit 2 floors below. Oh bless her little newborn self! She was hooked up to all sorts of monitoring equipment ... poor little mite. Because of her lack of oxygen in the first moments of life, she was undergoing a relatively new medical process whereby her tiny body is kept at a very low temperature for 72 hours with the necessity of being sedated to help her deal with the discomfort;the whole procedure minimises any damage that might have occurred in those first traumatic minutes of her life.

Without going into more detail, I’m delighted to tell you that she is doing brilliantly. As I type she is now 6lb 4oz and Chiara 8lb 4oz! And we are totally besotted with our beautiful grand daughters and our new role in life. We couldn’t be more proud or in awe of Jo and Mike’s love, fortitude, delight and sheer ability in their new roles as super parents! It’s a miracle any of us are here on this planet ... life is wonderful ... it’s a wonderful life!

Since becoming grand parents we’ve also been back to the Island in between cuddles with our lovely girls. I was very happy to take part in The Garden Party as guest backing vocalist alongside Christy DeHaven (who did a fabulous set on the Friday night) and Davy Knowles for Davy Knowles, which was a wonderful and exciting experience for all concerned. At the end of his set before an inevitable encore, he was surprised with a very special presentation by the crew of one of NASA’s space shuttles! Now that was a moment.

It's What You're Made of - rehearsal from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Christy D! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Back to visit the wee ones a week later, we also used the opportunity to visit our marvelous friends Rob and Jo Selbourne at Prebendal Farm for a celebratory birthday bash in honour of their great friends Nick and Sarah ... I won't disclose the giddy heights of their combined years but it was well worth celebrating. With Helen Watson and I in the same place with a plethora of music lovers we were strong armed (OK it didn't take that much persuasion!) into singing a couple of ditties ... in between the bell ringing! Twas a very fun weekend. More birthday parties please.

Musical fun with Heleny Belleny Botson Swotson Watson from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

A couple of weekends later I performed with Rob Cross once more, at Folk in the Barn in Kingston near Canterbury. I’ve tried for a few years to coincide with their diary and this was the only date we were able to come up with unfortunately outside of our May touring schedule but it was well worth the wait. It’s a fantastic venue run by a brilliant woman with a small core of wonderful volunteers who all help to create a great atmosphere. I think I can say with some conviction - we’ll be back!

Folk at the Barn from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

That’s all for now dear reader. Thanks as always for dropping by and perusing my musical musings - I really do appreciate it. Next on the musical horizon is a tour with Dave Kelly and Pete Filleul starting September 14th! There’s a fair amount of song learning to do between now and then and I’m hankering to finish my Art Songs project ... watch this space. Right ... back to more baby cuddles ... watch out girls here comes Grandma! XX

The continuing shenanigans of a springtime tour ... Bristol to the Isle of Man

2011-06-20T02:49:00.000-07:00

When last we met dear reader, I was happily ensconced at my lovely friend Helen Watson’s delightful home in Burnham-on-Crouch. I spent a relaxing few days in her wonderful company and while packing the car ready for my journey to Bristol for the next gig, became enamoured of a brilliant display of bright poppies leaning artfully against the house next door. I couldn’t resist snapping away with my camera to try and capture their beauty, then proceeded to capture Corvax the cat as he posed for me in a warm pool of sunlight at the back of Helen’s fairytale garden, only then did I feel ready to drive westward.

Rob Cross was back in Cardiff in the mean time and met me at the Future Inn, in the centre of Bristol, scene of that night’s show. We were met by the Jazz@The Future Inn’s promoter Ian Storrer, downstairs in the performance area; light from above, screened out by a very complicated but well arranged series of black-out sheets - a weird but effective procedure! Unfortunately Ian had been told that very day, that our show could be the last at the venue due to economic circumstances and the considered opinions of a faceless accountant’s short term business projections. What a shame.

Bob came down from London with Steve Lima - hurrah - and our lovely friend Paul Dodgson - co-writer of Ashlands and author of Famous, the Radio 4 play (ooer missus!) from 2001- also made a much appreciated appearance. Unfortunately it wasn’t the most fun I’ve ever had at a gig ... my daft banter didn’t really hit the mark and I felt a little off kilter with the monitoring system being off to one side ... so I didn’t hear clearly what was being projected through the PA. All excuses I know ... we forged on non-the-less and by the end of the night had a fairly excited audience response - phew! It just felt like hard work at times - hey-ho.

A Smorgasbord of Bristol bits from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We’d arranged to drive to Sandhurst after the show in order to stay with our delightful friend's Martin and Pam Drury - always a joy. In fact we were able to stay with them for the next few nights and had a wonderfully sociable time in their infectiously enthusiastic company. Despite the late hour ... Martin greeted us with open arms and a primed kettle. He and Rob stayed up a while longer chewing the cud and sharing a few wee drams of a highly sort after bottle of Scotch ... their giggling shenanigans helped us drift off to a much needed deep sleep.

The following morning, Bob and I were up earlier than we'd have liked as I’d arranged to meet Helen Watson at Jacqui McShee’s lovely home, an hour from Martin and Pam’s, for our one and only rehearsal for that night’s performance - eek! Julian Lewry, promoter and all round good egg of the Farncombe Music Club, had suggested many months before, that I might like to invite some talented pals to guest with me on a couple of songs, as it would be the last concert at St John’s Church before much needed renovations began and he loved the idea of going out with a bang. He’d already set up for the Guildford Community Vox Choir to be the support for the night and for them to also join Rob and I on our final song in the second set - all very exciting!

Bob, bless him, drove with me to Jacqui’s and then left us to our hurried practice. We were attempting to perform 2 songs we’d recorded for my Songbird album on Fledg’ling records way back in 1999: "Cornfield" - a haunting and wonderfully strange Lal Waterson song, followed by Christine McVie’s beautiful "Songbird". We’d never sung them live - and were a little apprehensive about wether we could pull it off! I think you’ll agree that we did pretty damned well in the end.

Rehearsals before Farncombe from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Bob and I left a little earlier than the girls to get to the venue in time for Rob and I to sound check. Once that was done Helen and Jacqui joined me near the Alter (!) and decided we’d like to perform without microphones ... we simply positioned the 2 vocal mics Rob and I used in order to just boost the overall sound ... so that took no time at all. Then the Guildford Vox Community Choir gathered and we all delighted in their warm-up exercises and then were blown away by the arrangement their lovely Choir Mistress Anna Tabbush had taught them. I had a lump in my throat the first time we tried out our collaboration. What a joy to sing with so many wonderful voices!

And so to the gig ... Farncombe! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

To say we had a wonderful show is a fairly ridiculous understatement ... we had a FABULOUS show and were thrilled by the Choir’s own performance at the beginning of the night and again when Jacqui and Helen joined me for our 2 songs ... everything went amazingly well ... we made a beautiful and moving sound between us and were ridiculously happy we’d pulled it off! So when the Choir took their positions at the end of the second set, immediately after Helen and Jacqui’s appearance, I was already on a high.

"Cornfield" with Jacqui McShee & Helen Watson from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

When all were in place and Rob and I began Guy Garvey’s brilliant One Day Like This ... we were more than ready. The Choir began to sing and I thought I might not be able to carry on as a huge well of tears threatened to undo me but I somehow managed to get on top of my emotional wobble. Rob and I were both fairly taken aback by the wave of euphoria that swept us up at the end of the performance. It was a truly memorable and breath taking experience. The audience went wild! Yes!!! A great BIG heart-felt thank you to the marvelous Guildford Community Vox Choir and their brilliant Choir Mistress Anna Tabbush - hurrah! More of this please.

One Performance like this from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

After our joyous goodbyes with Jacqui, Helen and Julian too, we packed up and headed for Pam and Martin’s where a delicious celebration awaited us ... fab food, chilled champagne, good company and great music made for a wonderously delightful time. Thank you guys we love you too!

I was treated to a wonderful day at Savill Gardens near Virginia Waters in the gorgeous company of Pat and Phil Chappell the following day. Pat works at the award winning Visitor’s centre and absolutely loves her job, so it was a real privilege to be escorted round the beautiful gardens by someone so passionate and knowledgeable. I took a ridiculous amount of photographs, mainly of flourishing foliage, fabulous flowers and ... some beautiful, fluffy baby ducks. Bob and Martin stayed behind to watch football - ah bless.

On Sunday the 15th we said goodbye to Pam, Martin, Phil and Pat, and Bob dropped me off once more at Helen and Clea’s tiny but perfectly formed home in Burnham. He continued north and I settled in with the girls for another sociable couple of days, including an educational visit to Helen’s lovely allotment.

Another Allotment Adventure with Heleny-Welleny-Botson-Swoton-Watson from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Our next concert would be at the Hoy at Anchor Folk Club in Leigh-on-Sea - always a great experience. I had to train it from lovely Burnham and had quite a dizzy making journey but eventually found my way to The Ship where Rob had recently parked.I learnt from the Landlady that he'd taken a walk up the hill so I in turn walked across the railway bridge, thinking I'd catch him on my way back but missed him! We eventually caught up with one another, set up, sound checked and walked the bridge again for a tasty dinner before returning for our show. We had mighty fun that night and were treated to a wonderful response from the sell out crowd. I'm sorry to say that I forgot to Flip on this occasion.

Rob and I were booked on the 3pm Liverpool boat to the Isle of Man the following day and so had a Travelodge near Birmingham booked that night to help us on our way. We arrived at 2.30am - very tired. We left at 11.30 next morning and arrived at the sea terminal for 2pm exactly on time for our journey. Having parked the car at the hotel next to the quay we trundled down the gangway with guitars, stage clothes and cds for the show, to check in for our journey. We both commented on how few cars there were ... and then that there was no boat yet ... funny that. On entering the reception area a young woman looking rather quizzical, came out from the office and asked ... “Can I help you?” ... “yes we’ve come to check in for the boat ...” (der ...) “Which boat would that be?” ... “The 3 O’clock” ( hello!) ... “There isn’t a 3 o’clock boat ” ... “What?!!!” ... “The 3 o’clock boat leaves the Isle of Man and arrives here at 5.30 ... “ “S**t!”. Ok so the internet is a marvellous thing but is a nightmare when booking travel ... I’ve made too many mistakes not to understand that but I really wish it didn’t happen so often. We paid a little extra to get on the 7pm boat to the Island and headed into town for a good meal. All is well all shall be well.

We made it to Douglas for 9.30pm. I stayed with Dave-Why-I-Armstrong and Christy DeHaven for our 3 night sojourn and enjoyed catching up on their various and exciting creative endeavours. On the day of the gig I met up with Svetlana Cameron for the first time - what a delightful woman! She was just hanging her marvellous artwork for her joint exhibition alongside Jim Duggan at the Sayle Gallery, when Christy and I turned up. We brought with us a mastered copy of my song demo inspired by her beautiful drawing “The Morning Light”, so she could have it playing during the exhibition. It was a delightful meeting and bodes well for future connections. Hurrah for extremely talented people!

Our concert at St Ninians was a very exciting affair. For one thing we were the first ever non religious performers to play in this beautiful church and for another we had professional lighting ... I mean PROFESSIONAL LIGHTING! Dave Armstrong had arranged all the technical necessities for the show and had invited a friend of his Justin, to provide good lights for the occasion. Justin took him at his word and brought a HUGE amount of gear to set the atmosphere good and proper. The place looked amazing though it had a disturbing effect on my performance ... I was just so distracted by it all. Hey ho ... the audience absolutely loved the colourful and mesmerising display.

We also had local instrumental duo Strengyn support us and they were simply marvellous. I’d asked Dave and Christy if they could film the whole show and they in turn had asked Simon Rae of Truman Falls to help them out, so we had 3 cameras trained on us and one static camera behind... no pressure there then! Unfortunately Rob and I were less than satisfied with our performance but for reasons we couldn’t fathom - apart from the lights show of course - the audience were ecstatic.

A littler look behind the cassocks at St Ninian's from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

mary rough edit from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

This seems like a good place to leave my musical musings for now but I’ll continue with the last 3 shows - Kirky Stephens, Strathpeffer and Edinburgh with a marvelous few days in Ballater thrown in - as soon as I’ve edited the Flip footage and written up my reports.

Thanks as ever for dropping by and hope to see you with the next instalment soon. I think it only fair to warn you that I’m eagerly waiting to become a Grandma in the next few weeks!! My gorgeous husband’s beautiful daughter Jo, is pregnant with twin girls and they’re due anytime now! I can’t tell you how thrilled we all are but rest assured I’ll be sharing my thoughts and feelings with you here :-) well maybe a few pics here and there?

Take care

Much love

Christine xx

A tour of springtime shenanigans

2011-05-16T08:55:00.000-07:00

Hello one and all! It is a quintessentially English spring day as I tap away on the computer’s keyboard: light with a little cloud threatening to put a dampener on the day, songbirds trilling joyously, blossoms flowering abundantly and fresh green foliage bursting from every nook and cranny - absolutely gorgeous. First of all I should explain that the continuation of my Caribbean Escapades over the new year, will have to now be laid to rest some other time due to an overwhelmingly creative month in Los Angeles before the tour started. To-wit ... unusually for me I’d like to start from here and work my way back to then ... does that make any sense? Perhaps ... but fear not dear reader ... we’ll figure it out together!

So ... a short but varied tour, once again with Rob Cross, began last week on the outskirts of Sheffield at the Beehive Folk Club. This delightful place has been running many, long and successful years and is organised by a very lovely man in the shape of Peter Garrett. When we arrived and started setting up so did the nearby Campanologists! They rang their - varyingly tuned - bells for a very long time but thankfully stopped by the time Rob and I stepped up to perform.

Considering we haven’t done a gig for over 6 months it was great. We’d had several stints of rehearsals in Cardiff beforehand and re-jigged the set so as to make it more interesting for us if no one else. Rob - bless him - learnt a brand new song I wrote with Mike Slamer in Santa Clarita a few short weeks ago: “Skin and Bones” and is going down remarkably well. Plus we’ve re-learnt a couple of songs from a while back to keep us on our toes.

The Beehive audience were delightful: attentive yet rowdy in all the right places. We did have a few technical hitches entirely of our own doing ... well not entirely but there aren’t many shows where the audience accidentally unplugs the loop station before the second half! Oops. Or was it deliberate?:-) It was great to see a few friendly faces too ... especially Chris Howarth whose unmistakable laugh warms the cockles of this performers heart. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to Flip the ecstatic response at the end of the night (was that because we’d finished?) thankfully, tho' Bob used his little Flip camera to capture a few moments which I’m happy to share with you here:

Saints alive it's the Beehive! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Bob’s sister Chris who normally resides in New Zealand, is over visiting family and friends and was able to come to the show also ... an honour for me to have her there. Hurrah.

After the gig Rob stayed with Peter and his lovely wife, while Bob and I went back to Chris’s temporary place in Gainsborough a 30 minute drive away. The daft thing about all of that was that Jo and Mike - Bob’s daughter and her husband - live 5 minutes from the venue. Hey-ho.

The following day we had to drive to the Lake District - which of course is never a chore, even though it was a very grey, overcast day, the greenery and loveliness of the area could not be hidden. Though the venue itself:Water Yeat’s Village Hall Water Yeat’s Village Hall, has been around for 80 years, having concerts there is a relatively new venture. John Willis and his delightful wife Maggie certainly know how to make a travelling performer very welcome and also how to promote a gig ... given this is a new experience for them both they do a brilliant job.

They don’t sell tickets up front and the audience brings their own beverages ... many of them in wicker baskets; they’d managed to get a real buzz going about our show and when it came down to it, had to turn away 15 basket laden people. Wow ... more of this please. Obviously no one likes turning someone away but having a hall full with expectant punters is a joy.

Water Yeat Village I from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We had an exceptionally good gig with a few mishaps mostly due to my ridiculous lack of memory - the most memorable (oxymoronic pun intended) was when I completely forgot some chords and Rob - bless him - had to put my fingers in the right place before we could continue. It’s not going to get any better either I suppose? My memory that is not the shows ... A fabulous time was had by all despite my varying lapses ... we definitely would love to play here again soon. Maybe next May? We’re working on it.

Water Yeat Village Hall take 2 from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

I’m now in Burnham-on-Crouch once more, with gorgeous Helen Watson for a couple of days R&R. We also need to brush up on a couple accappella songs we recorded in 1999 with Jacqui McShee, as all three of us are attempting to perform them live (something we’ve never done!) on Friday - May 13th Gulp. It will be wonderful I’m sure. Flip footage guaranteed!

So as promised, I’ll now regale you with tales of my recent visit to Santa Monica ... well I’ll try to explain why I was feeling so creative at the very least. Before I left the Isle of Man I had a very interesting conversation with local, talented artist Juan Moore about an idea he had last year. He explained to me that he decided to approach the local Arts Council for a grant and knew he had to have an original idea to get their attention. He came up with creating art pieces for various unusual exhibition sites: the first was at a wonderful Fish Restaurant “Tanrogan” and all his works included images of fish. The second was in a pub ... all artwork drink related and the third he called a “Gighibition”. He invited 5 local singer songwriters to submit 4 or 5 of their songs and then Juan painted original pieces inspired by each writer’s work. Then ... he exhibited the paintings while the bands/performers performed the songs in the same space ... a “Gighibition” .What a fab idea huh?

So I decided to reverse the idea and look at artworks by artists living or coming from the Isle of Man and writing songs inspired by their images. There are 2 websites I used for this purpose: The Sayle Gallery and Artworkx of Mann .Each has a plethora of very talented visual artists and I was VERY inspired! Who knew? Given the visual focus, I found myself tuning into a very rich seam of lyrical and musical ideas. I used my trusty program Logic on the computer to create musical landscapes and draped my intuited lyrics across the sounds. I do of course see the the irony of doing all this while thousands of miles away in sunny California.

The very first song I attempted was using Svetlana Cameron’s brilliant drawing “The Morning Light” which is now in an exhibition at the Sayle Gallery till the end of May. I emailed Svetlana to explain what I’d done and on hearing the song she immediately suggested using the demo I’d created, alongside the original drawing at the exhibition. I can’t tell you how utterly thrilled I am at this sudden and unexpected collaboration with this extremely talented young artist; in fact we’re both very happy about it. As illustration to what I'm trying to explain here is Svetlana's beautiful drawing and the song I was inspired to write:

Morning light - new mix by cc.sings

I’ve so far written 7 songs using 7 different artist’s work and had positive feedback from all of them. I’d like to have another stint at writing more and then perhaps selecting the best of the crop and putting them together - possibly with images of each piece? - on a cd and then one day touring the whole thing complete with projections of the artwork so I can talk about the artist and how I came to the songs? It’s an idea ... I’ve certainly enjoyed the process and learning more about art in general. Hurrah for motivating ideas and the courage to have a go!

I also finished writing 2 songs with Mike Slamer this time round, one of which Rob and I are now performing on tour. It’s always a joy to work with Mike. I did one other strange little musical piece inspired by an email from Mike’s wife Susan. She’s a music supervisor at Sony TV in Los Angeles and has suggested my songs on occasion for various tv shows ... as yet no takers but you never know. Anyway she emailed to ask if I had a song that would work for one of her shows. She described the scene which included the main character losing everything, including 2 of her sons dying and being found out by the police for murdering a man for stealing some of her drugs! Sue said ... I’m sure you’ve got something that would work ...? Er ... not that I could think of but I did no more than create something then and there. I had no idea I could be so responsively creative. As far as I’m aware my experiment isn’t being used but I’m so glad I had the opportunity to have a go ... who knows what else might show up?

We met and socialised with many of our lovely friends in LA and I indulged in as many Kia Miller Yoga sessions as I could fit in while I was there. Her style and enthusiastic teaching are so inspiring ... I’m now yoga-ing daily and loving the feeling it brings. I highly recommend it!

I'll leave it here for now and hope to up date with more gigs and touring adventures very soon. Thanks as ever for stopping by ... if you manage to make it to a show please do come and say hello.

Take care ... much love

Christine xx :-)

2011-03-10T03:53:00.000-08:00

Caribbean cruising ... part II: All at sea ...

Christmas day was spent gently sailing further away from Bonaire and on toward Jamaica, with nothing but sunshine and silky sea water in between. We booked ourselves a rather strange and wonderful 9am Christmas Day treat ... a Rasul steam. I won’t go into any great detail but needless to say it was hot, sweaty and yet ... sweet smelling and thoroughly delightful. It ended with us clinking fully charged champagne glasses .. chin-chin.

I’ve not mentioned the overwhelming culinary options on board Ventura but will endeavour to give you a flavour (pun intended!) of what was on offer. We were designated a dining room: The Saffron Restaurant, for dinner each night at the early sitting of 6.30pm and discovered this entailed sitting down to eat with 6 complete strangers - apparently it’s part of the “cruise experience”. When Bob found out what the scoop was, he was heard to say… “ I’ve been talking to strangers all bloody year I don’t want to have do that on holiday as well!” ... fair enough. So we marched over to the - very pleasant and endlessly patient - Maitre’d and requested a table for 2. After a little negotiation (we played the Honeymoon card) we were reassigned to a small table in The Bay tree Restaurant at the back of the ship on the deck 7. Phew.

We loved our little corner of the restaurant. We were sat right at the back near the deep-set bow windows and took it in turns to look out at the twinkling lights of passing Islands or into the restaurant itself. People watching is always fascinating of course. Though we had our own little table, we were sat very close to a lovely Caribbean couple who now live in London. They more often than not ate elsewhere but always showed up on the formal nights dressed beautifully. Along from them was a larger round table with 4 couples plonked together in a random cruise style ... 2 of them jumped table the very first night. Oh the intrigue! Of the remaining six, two were widowed sisters from the Wirral and one of them was VERY deaf ... I SAID DEAF! Bless her but she had no idea just how LOUD she was SHOUTING ... though fairly annoying at times - it was hard to hear ourselves think - after a while it was just funny ... she was also highly opinionated which made for some fabulously raised eyebrows around the listening catchment area ... most of the restaurant it seemed.

A snippet of Montego Bay from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Our next port of call - on Boxing Day - was Montego Bay, Jamaica. Now Bob’s been to Jamaica many times: BC (before Christine) and has lots of fabulous family memories from those visits so we didn’t have any urgency to get off and explore. The Ship was docked a fair way out of town and there was nothing of note at the port side (we checked it out ... there really was nothing) so we continued to unwind onboard and make the most of a relatively empty vessel. It was heavenly warm this day and whileing away several hours on the top deck, basking in the delicious warm sunshine, reading books and playing cards was all we wanted to do - so that's what we did - simples. Setting sail that evening was wonderful ... the sky a bright, deep gold and black canvas.

The following day we were to anchor off the shores of Gran Cayman and be shuttled to the shore by tender, however ... the weather had changed a fair bit over night and the sea was simply too choppy for the little sea craft ready to tender us across to the Island and so we had to turn around and go slooow towards Cozumel Mexico and my birthday!

Yes dear reader it was my 49th birthday on December 28th 2010 and I found myself alongside Cozumel Island. We were anchored alongside several other large cruise ships from various countries all of us marvelling at the bright sparkling turquoise waters and sharing an intermittent Mexican sun. I went ashore alone ... as is my want sometimes and let Bob gorge on a glut of sky sports football - bless him! Actually he said he had a headache but I knew what was really going on.

The little port-side retail therapy village was actually very pleasant and I had a lovely time sauntering around soaking up the colourful atmosphere. I bumped into 2 other passengers we’d talked to at gatwick when we thought we might be stranded ... Mike and Sven ... who insisted on buying me a birthday drink - I had a Mexican beer, they had margaritas. We shared a platter of nibbles and laughed raucously at our collective flamboyant natures. Twas fun. They wanted more margaritas than this 49 year old can even contemplate, so I left them to their 3rd (!) and I wended my way back to my footie-mad husband. When I got back to our little cabin, a card and a plate of chocolates awaited me... from the Captain no less! Ooer missus ...

Birthday meandering in Cozumel - Mexico from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

That evening instead of dining at Bay Tree we booked ourselves into The White Room - a Marco Pierre White restaurant no less. Ooh la-la ... tres posh nosh. This up-market eatery cost an extra £20 each (plus drinks) and was actually worth it. I’m sure it would have cost an arm and a leg at a similar land-locked extablishment. When they found out it was my birthday (I told them) they brought me a large peice of chocolate cake ... unfortunately we’d already ordered our sweet and so the cake went uneaten ... it lay in our fridge a few days, before being unceremoniously binned. What a waste ...

It took 2 days to get to our next port ... the marvelous, the wonderful, the unforgettable ... New Orleans! We sailed up the majestic Mississippi river in the dark, on December 29th and docked early morning on the 30th. It took till 4pm before we cleared immigration and customs - argh! The whole thing was a mess. We were given numbers and called in groups and stood in line and bla, bla, bla ... in the end the authorities ran out of time and staff, so that when we went through to get our passports stamped, they’d dispensed with finger prints and photos, making a mockery of the entire sorry process! Hey ho. We wandered into the French Quarter and forgot about the stupid charade and soaked up the fog and steam of this marvelous city. Deep breaths everyone and - ahh.

We had the luxury of several days here and wandered back that first evening when our land legs refused to carry us any further. We were aboard by 7pm and in bed by 10pm - poor ickle pooped-out cruisers that we were. Bright and early next day we were up and off as soon as could be. This was also a turn around day for some of our fellow passengers. 300 new sailing compatriots boarded the ship replacing 400 out going holiday sailors. It was funny to see gaggles of newbies looking lost and confused at every deck level. Smugness is not a state I'm that familiar with - I'm unsure about most things a lot of the time - but the taste was sweet the few moments it lasted.

Bob and I have both been to New Orleans many times before but that didn’t detract from the palpable excitement of this delightful place.We’ve always been there in spring or summer when the climate can be stiflingly hot and muggy and the resultant street smells overwhelming to say the least. So being here in the middle of winter was a treat. It was grey and overcast but strangely warm.

We both love Cafe Du Monde which is situated slap bang in the middle of the French Quarter. We made our way through the crowded streets for their famous cafe au lait and beignets - a deep-fried doughnut mixture that comes in curled up squares and covered in icing sugar ... delicious! By the time we got to the cafe there was a huge line of people patiently waiting their turn to squeeze into the place. Not wanting to be static for too long, we walked on whistfully and passed them all and with it, the chance to savour the sweet, crispy delights of a well cooked batter mix. However ... Bob noticed a few people exiting the small side room onto the street several feet away from the main entrance, leaving the door wide open and a table in the corner empty! Before I could act on my embarrassment, he was in like flinn and there we were sitting inside and almost instantly being served by a sweet older Korean woman who just lurved our accent. When in doubt? Go with the flow I say.

New Orleans I from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We spent the next few hours walking the beignets off and luxuriating in the wonderful street entertainment, churches, shops and bars. It was a fabulous way to end the year.

New Orleans take II from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We decided to stay on board for the evening festivities as we didn’t relish the thought of being squashed in the revelling, no doubt, drunken, heaving, crowds ... even on the delightful and inspiring streets of New Orleans. Perhaps it’s simply an age thing. We had fun on board, dressing up for the occasion. I even wore a white feather boa, bought from the French Quarter Market that day - hurrah. Somehow, despite our wanting to see the fireworks over the Mississippi river at midnight, we fell asleep before the bewitching hour and missed the whole thing. C’est la vie. Happy new year everyone!

This is as good a lace as any to end this episode. Thanks as ever for stopping by to peruse my cruise notes ... there are possibly 2 more instalments yet - hang on in there!

I hope to see you here again in a couple of weeks, by which time I'll be ensconced once more in the heart of Santa Monica, Los Angeles - never a dull moment n'est pas?

Take care till then.

Much love

Christine XX ;-)

2011-02-23T08:10:00.000-08:00

Blogging for Christmas

In December, 2010, Bob and I had the fortunate task of choosing where we would spend Christmas which also served as our official Honeymoon. We each had criterion to stick to ... absolutely no cruises (me) and definitely no longer than 16 days (Bob). So that’ll be a 28 day Caribbean Cruise then! I won’t bore you with the details of how this came about but will say in our defense, that we know a bargain when we see one.

First of all though, we had to leave the Isle of Man, visit Jo and Mike for a pre Christmas hug and also beat the snow storms blitzing the UK the week we flew out to our cruise starting point, Barbados.

Boxing clever - or so we thought - we drove very carefully down to Gatwick airport, 24 hours before we needed to, in order to beat the first blizzard sent to try us. That done and feeling rather smug, we endeavoured to deliver our car to the long stay parking lot of our choice, the day before our flight, as originally intended. What should have been a quick and simple 20 minute trip, turned into a 4 and a half hour snow-filled saga!

Having felt the chilling wrath of the snow Gods once, we decided to circumvent another icy trial, by leaving our hotel valiantly early the morning of our flight. It actually took no time at all to arrive at the departure level at North Terminal, though the ground was severely iced over. Our intrepid taxi driver crept and crunched along the eerily quiet roads to drop us off at 5.30am - our flight wasn’t due to leave till 10.30am! We really didn’t want to take any chances.

The next 12 hours (yes that’s right - 12!) were a veritable roller coaster of nail biting excitement, the sort we can all do without. Part of the high drama was due to an enormous amount of snow enveloping Gatwick in a relatively short amount of time which left a heavy, white, sparkly blanket over the entire airport and surrounding area. Easy-jet and BA immediately cancelled all flights for the next 48 hours. Our Thompson charter flight, transporting only P&O cruise goers, held out till the very last possible moment . We were finally called to board the plane at 3.30pm. Our captain kindly informed us that the crew were nearing their legal limit of the maximum hours they could work. He also told us that they are allowed a discretionary extra, unspecified, extension which they had all agreed to use. A loud spontaneous "Hurrah!" went up from the packed plane. He then told us the absolute maximum time remaining would take us to 4.30 - it was then 4pm. We went very quiet for the next ... little while. After being doused in industrial quantities of deicer (the plane ... not us personally) we pulled away from our Gate on the 6th attempt and finally came free of the frozen stand and took to the still snow-clouded skies. And in real, by now hysterical excitement, headed for Barbados and all things Caribbean. The time? 5.10pm! Eek.

Blizzards to blistering Barbados from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Our first glimpse of Ventura, the ship that would become our floating living quarters for the next 4 weeks, was utterly jaw dropping. Towering above everything around it, for what seemed like miles, Ventura dominated the skyline of Bridgetown, capital and well worn cruise port of Barbados. Checking in to board the ship, was a chaotic, cheerful and mercifully quick affair. After finding our stateroom at the back, port side of the ship on the top accommodation deck, we marveled at the heat of the night and our new temporary home. Exhausted but relieved and happy to be there at all ...we fell into a deep and dreamless sleep.

At one point in the middle of the night, now in full sailing motion en route to St Lucia, I woke to the gentle sway of our moving colossus and couldn’t resist a peek out over the balcony. Still warm and muggy, the black night was studded with twinkling stars and the calm sea looked glossy and inviting in the moonlight - a beautiful dream-like experience. Sigh.

The following morning however was definitely not the most fun we’ve ever had. There were apparently 3498 other passengers aboard Ventura as well as 1500 or so staff; one of my negative assumptions about cruising was simply that - too many people in a confined space with no way to escape! I think everyone tried to have breakfast at the same time and in the same place that first morning - that’s what it felt like. We had to elbow past people - they started it! - in order to get to the self-serve buffet and fight to find a seat. I was NOT happy. The thought of being on a floating Butlin’s style holiday camp did not thrill me ... I know what I’m talking about ... I used to be a Red Coat!

Our breakfast ordeal over and safe and alone in our little haven of a cabin once more, we began to relax. Still feeling somewhat discombobulated by our journey there, we decided to spend the day onboard and forgo the pleasures of St Lucia - it was grey and drizzling which helped cement the decision. So while most of our fellow cruise goers left the comfort and safety of the ship, we were free to roam and investigate it’s many and varied rooms, decks and facilities.

We made our way to the gym area on the top deck overlooking the lush green cruise port of St Lucia. We don’t normally go in for gym-like regimens but for some reason, probably the wonderful views, we managed to spend time there every day - exercising and everything. We also found the Thermal suite - Lordy! - which housed a beautiful mosaic-tiled steam room complete with fountain and cold water sinks, plus a dry heat room where the tiled seating, perfectly sculpted to a reclining position, were wonderfully heated to a high degree - sweating obligatory. Then ... outside the hot rooms were a line of, once again, tiled beds mildly heated for a fabulously relaxing lie-down. What’s not to like? This became our daily ritual ... 40 minutes in the gym followed by an hour in the Thermal suite ... ah yes cruising is delightful!

Happy Island Hopping from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

After St Lucia we stopped in Antigua which has a rather vibrant, colourful and smelly port town, an unprepossessing introduction to the Caribbean for me. The people however were warm and friendly with beautiful bright smiles. Tortola was our next Island call and showed us a sweeter smelling and calmer side to a Caribbean cruise port. Hilly, lush and tranquil with far fewer people in the town centre then we expected, our short saunter was most enjoyable. Our great friends Diane and Bryan Ansell, used to live here. So Bob text to let them know we were on their old stomping ground and offered to pay off any outstanding bar bills they may have left! Diane text back straight away to say she’d love some curry powder from the Sunny Caribbee Herb & Spice Co, though she doubted we’d be able to find it. As he stopped to read her reply ... we were stood right outside!

Toodleloo to tiny Tortola from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We had fun in Aruba, chatting to a delightful woman visiting family for Christmas; she now lives on nearby sister Dutch Antilles Island Bonaire, our next stop and told us about the famous flamingos and beautiful lakes there, she insisted we go see. The busy cruise port is basically in shopping over-drive which we managed to dodge quite well apart from the Bob-the-Fish swimming shorts ... Bob couldn’t resist! It was also stiflingly hot!

Adorable Aruba from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Bonaire is a quiet, rural, diver’s paradise where flamingos and lizards abound. We took a $10 taxi ride with 8 other passengers around the Island which took all of 90 minutes. Our driver, a lovely local woman originally from Holland, gave us great value for money with her many witty and informative comments. Due to the heavy rainfall of late, the lake that usually holds the majority of flamingos, was closed to the public. Most of the roadways were water-logged; she drove us to 2 alternative lakes to see the beautiful sight but the flaming red birds were far, far away (think Father Ted!) and not easy to spot.

Beautiful Bonaire from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Each morning about 7am we woke in a new port and every evening around 6pm we pushed off from wherever we’d anchored for the day, to sail the gentle night waves, ever onward to our next exotic Caribbean Island. It became an hypnotic, mesmerizing routine - which we got used to it frighteningly quickly.

We spent Christmas day "at sea" ... out on the open waves gently rocking from side to side ... it was delightful. I trust you all enjoyed your Christmas wherever you were. I'll leave it here for now and come back in a week or so with a little more.

Thanks as ever for stopping by to read my muddled meanderings ... it's very much appreciated.

Take care ... see you soon.

Much love

Christine xx

2011-01-27T15:11:00.000-08:00

Summer shennanigans! A late blog of sorts …

I wrote this Blog in September in the vain hope I'd have something online before I went on tour with Rob Cross ... obviously the phrase to emphasise here is "in vain"! So these musings on my summer sojourn in sunny California lay dormant in my virtual draft drawer. Not wanting to waste my efforts and to give me a little breathing time before organising my flip and thoughts on our recent Caribbean Christmas cruise, I thought I'd publish what I have here and add a few extra bits to keep you satisfied. I can dream can't I?

Here's what I wrote way back then - hope you enjoy:

Before I set off for all things of a touring nature, I thought it prudent to put a short summer blog together and to perhaps whet your appetitie for what's to come over the next few months? I will of course be blogging the length and breadth of the tour with footage of our stange and wonderful travels as well as documenting each gig. If you manage to make it to a show (Oct 13^th – Nov 21st) – and I sincerely hope you do! - I may ask you to be a cameraman/woman for the duration of at least one song … it's an idea I'm working on! (All published now and here for your perusal below this Blog).

Anyway … this summer … August 1st 2010 to be precise … I landed in Los Angeles once again and was met by my fabulous friend and co-writer Mike Slamer. I stayed with him and Susan – his equally fabulous wife - for the first few nights of my 7 week stay, ostensibly getting over the long-haul flight and readying myself for a week of relaxation with them and several other mutual friends, at Lake Mead near Las Vegas!

It's Ok … I know I'm ridiculously lucky … really I do! They and another family: Jeff and Nelly Neben and their 3 gorgeous children – Jake, Hannah and Danni … had invited me on one of their annual summer jaunts … they took pity on me knowing I'd be on my own for a couple of weeks before Bob turned up in California. Bless! They're all deligthful human beings and I love everyone of them!

Unfortunately for Sue, due to some silly work shennanigans … she had to forgoe the first couple of days of her vacation, which meant Mike and I had to drive from their home in Santa Clartia to the Lake shore in Nevada … just less than 300 miles! … without her … :-(

The trip itself was relatively easy … for me ... Mike however drove the whole way … towing a 30 foot boat! Didn't seem to bother him … until maybe 20 miles short of our destination when he realised he'd left the boat keys back in Santa Clarita! Doh! We drove up to the lake – which is stunning btw … and went in search of possible spare key options, which turned out to be quite simple and easy to recitfy. Hurrah.

The next part of the plan was going great too … Mike positioned the trailer, truck and boat in alignment and asked me to back everything into the water … while he got onto the boat, ready to ride her round to the slip. I managed to back into the water no problem but … Mike couldn't turn the engine over … the battery, much to his surprise, was absolutely flat. So he gesticulated for me to pull forward … which I did … eventually.

Turns out that … when I kindly offered to clean the boat, before we left … in my eagerness to do a good job ... I'd managed to push EVERY switch possible to the ON position and drained the whole system! OMG! I felt such an idiot. Mike, bless him, was a complete gentleman about it and simply drove out to buy a new (expensive!) battery and … an hour later … we were back in the same position but this time everything went as it should and we were out on the lake in no time at all heading to meet our friends who'd arrived the day before.

This was my first time in this stunning location and I was blown away by the stark beauty of the landscape and the incredible heat – it was 107F when we turned up! Jeff and Nelly along with their great friends and neighbours, Marcello and Lola … had found a beach to anchor for the evening and were intent on having a barbque when we rolled up to join them. I was quite speechless … the light, warmth, deligthful company and delicious food were all amazing … and I so wanted to share it all … with Bob – ah. Maybe next time?

The next few days rolled by with lightening speed. Sue flew into Las vegas a couple of nights later and joined us for the weekend which was just wonderful.

They've all been here before and had perfect weather for boating … flat calm, glass-like waters … but this time, there were some mighty blustery winds which made for some bumpy rides. This only added to the excitement for me but I neither had to steer a boat nor keep children happy and content. It was also blisteringly hot on a couple of days; I loved being able to just drop into the cool waters of the lake. We even swam near the great Hoover Dam!

One particularly blustery day we decided to give the lake a miss and drove nto the local town – Boulder City, to check out other boats and keep out of the wind for a few hours but once we'd seen all there was to see and figured the worst was over, we thought we'd all go out together on Mike and Sue's boat for a little ride. On our way back from said ride, Mike noticed a funny noise coming from his engine, so he steered towards the nearest marina and just as we nudged inside the tyre barrier, the engine conked out completely! There was a moment of silence followed by a few minutes of hilarious laughter … followed by many more minutes of trying to call for help via the radio set onboard … but no one would answer us!

Lake Mead I from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Eventually a lovely couple on their way back from a day on the lake, sailed up to help us and towed the boat – with us all still onboard - to the petrol pump which by this time was closed! What followed was a 4 hour farce of great fun and frollicks which left myself, Sue, Nelly and her 2 delightful daughters, Hanah and Danni, playing silly games on board our stranded boat, while Mike and Jeff endeavoured to get back to a car, drive to the marina we were starnded at and bring us all back to the hotel! Turned out we'd simply run out of petrol and Mike and Jeff returned to get Mike's boat very early the following morning … filled up and came back to home port so-to-speak ready for our last day of fun on the lake. Never a dull moment!

Lake Mead II from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

And that was only the beginning of my trip! We drove back to Santa Clarita on Aug 9^th and on August 10^th Sue dropped me off at the apartment Bob and I had rented for the summer, in Santa Monica. I loved this little flat in it's perfect location.

There were many more adventures over the summer but briefly here's what it consisted of: meeting friends from far off times, going to Yogaworks on Main Street to get thoroughly immersed in Kundalni Yoga with Kia Miller (she's simply amazing!), meeting up with new babys who are now my surrogate nephews – well only one baby and his name is Avery Richmond Pleeter and he is absolutely gorgeous! Having various repastes with such luminaries as: Tracy Strann, Sam Epstein, Gary stewart, Helene Muddiman, Kelly Ann Ford, Richard Thompson and Nigel Rush … walking along the beach between Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach and … driving back up to Las vegas to be with Bob and to catch a couple of CBR shows this time in a double bill with Nora Jones no less. Experiencing the absolutely amazing Cirque De Soleil Beatles show “Love” wow … and erm ... writing several songs along the way … mostly on my own but on occasion in the company of Mike Slamer or Helen Muddiman this time round ... plus a couple of days out in the desert at Palm Springs with Bob for a little R&R after the CBR tour ... Phew! I feel quite dizzy just thinking about it.

Palm Springs and things to celebrate from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

At the very end of our trip we drove up to the Sonoma Valley wine region to be with our lovely friends Jon and Diane who had THE most gorgeous wedding at the prestious BR Cohn Vineyard. It was a truly inspiring event and we thoroughly enjoyed the whole weekend. We stayed at a wonderfully eccentric B&B –Relais Du Soleil - complete with fabulous wild artwork by sort after artist Bryan Tedrick. We made fast friends with our delightful host Tim who was endlessly kind and generous and made us several delicious breakfasts … we'll definitely be back in fact I want to do a gig there … it's a magical place!

This is where my original Blog attempt ended but there's one other little event I'd like to share with you here and that's Dave Armstrong's 50th birthday celebrations. Lucky for us it all took place a week after the tour and so we were on the Island to make the most of the weekend. Dave - bless him, hadn't a clue! Christy D did an absolutely brilliant job of organising it all and amazingly kept it from Dave ... her advice to anyone thinking of having a surprise party for someone? DON'T DO IT! It was a weekend of wonderful friendship, frivolity and fun ... when can we do it again?!

Dave's BIG day! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

My Caribbean adventures will be Blogged over the next few weeks/months ... I'll try to keep them to bite-sized, easily digestible and tasty morsels. I can but try.

Take care and thanks as ever for stopping by to peruse my musings.

Much love

Christine XX ;-)

Autumnal tour Blog III ...

2010-12-08T01:32:00.000-08:00

A trio Before the last three...

When last we met Bob and I were just leaving Welsh Wales ... we called in to see Diane and Bryan Ansell once more and then had a few delightful days with Jo and Mike before picking back up with the tour and our only house concert this tour. I knew it would be fabulous, as Helen Watson had raved about the place and the people and how much she enjoyed playing at Vanya and Graham’s wonderful home on the Staffordshire moors. She wasn’t wrong. They made us feel not just at home but as if we were part of their family - a truly delightful experience. Graham is the cook of the house and provided us with a scrumptious fish pie after sound check ... oh yes I think we’ll be back!

Beautiful Biddulph from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The following morning Vanya gave us the tour of the “Reindeer Hut” ... wow!

Staffordshire Moors Reindeer Hut! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Bob took our car and drove off to Heathrow where he’d be flying to Dubai the next day - ah bless. Rob and I left in Rob’s thankfully fixed Kia and made our way to New Cut Arts in Halesworth Suffolk - twas a very long way!

I’ve played here once before ... a few years ago now and remembered the place well. We had a delightful crowd attend and enjoyed fabulous food before the show - hurrah. Rob wooed the audience with a short set before our first half. The whole evening was a joy! Thanks Halesworth.

New Cut Arts Halesworth from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We’d arranged to stay at Martin and Pam Dury’s once more which meant a rather long drive after the show ... we expected it to take 2 and half to three hours. It actually took 3 hours 40 minutes! The junction with the A12 and the M25 was closed - with no forewarning . After following diversion signs, 20 minutes later we ended up back at the same junction! Argh! Not much fun when you’re already tired. C’est la vie.

We had a good, long, lie-in and headed for Marlborough mid afternoon arriving with plenty of time to roam the very Christmassy streets and enjoy the lovely atmosphere of the town. It was the first time we felt truly cold ... breath misty in the chilled air.

I was convinced I knew where the venue was but found out otherwise when the place I thought it was at, was firmly and clearly closed. So from being early, we fast approached being very late - eek! Eventually, after several panicked phone calls and asking a number of unsuspecting passersby ... we found it! Phew.

Andrew Bumphrey is a very successful Architect in the area and also happens to be a delightful promoter of, mostly acoustic music. He also doubles as sound man and artist liaison. All of which he does brilliantly. His lovely wife provided us all with delicious food before the show: nourishing beef stew and the crispiest baked spuds ever! Yum.

We were supported this evening by singer songwriter Steve Skaithe who worked with a fabulous female multi instrumentalist ... they worked beautifully together and went down well with the sell-out crowd! Yay. It’s always a thrill to play to a packed house. there were a number of friendly faces in the audience again which added to the excitement: Rob and Jo Selbourne from Prebendal, Phil and Pat Chappell, as well as Martin and Pam Dury. Bless them all! I hope it’s not too long before we can come back and do it again!

Marvelous Marlborough from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Rob drove off back to Cardiff while I got a lift back to Martin and Pam’s where we enjoyed yet more party food and another late, late night. We were all invited back to Phil and Pat’s for brunch on Sunday ... gorgeous ... followed by a wonderful walk in the woods nearby where we spied a fair few possible lovely homes for Rob for when he’s rich and famous!

A walk on the wildside from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Later on Martin and Pam dropped me off near Heathrow to pick up the car where Bob had left it a few days previously ... complicated? Too much information? Ho-hum. I got back to their lovely home one last time and enjoyed a delicious Sunday roast, complete with their gorgeous company - I am blessed! They have been without doubt, the most accommodating and generous hosts - to say I am grateful just doesn’t cover it. Thanks guys you’re the best!

I’ll be back with the final 3 shows in a week or 2 and to wish you all a happy Christmas xx

Take care till then ... try and keep wrapped up warm against this freezing weather and thanks as ever for dropping by.

Much love

Christine xx

2010-11-25T14:19:00.000-08:00

Petersfield to Putney with a few either side.

Before I tell the tales of this portion of the tour I wanted to share a rather lovely video of Rob and I performing our version of the classic song “Summertime”, filmed at the Peel Centenary Hall on the Isle of Man by Dave (why I) Armstrong and Christy (stunningly gorgeous!) DeHaven from Running Media. Thanks to Christy for the edit... if only she could make me look 20 years younger:

Summertime? But it's winter! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

It’s been a particularly adventuresome couple of weeks with many highlights and a few testing low points ... especially for Rob. We began on a low point which actually had some highlights within it ... not least the resilience Rob managed to muster during a very trying journey. But first ...

I left the Isle of Man on Wednesday morning on the 8.45 Heysham boat. I had a fairly long drive ahead of me once we’d reached the adjacent Isle - as we Islanders like to call the UK - and at one point I felt I might actually fall asleep! So I pulled off at a service station on the M6 and had a sweet fruity drink and my first coffee in over 4 months. I only drank half of it but the combination seemed to do the trick and I made it safely to Pam and Martin Dury’s lovely home in Sandhurst by 6pm.

We had a particularly lovely evening with Phil and Pat Chappell and included a fabulous form of dining that neither Phil, Pat nor myself had experienced before. It’s a Swiss style of cuisine called Racklet ... named after the type of cheese involved - it’s Swiss ... cheese is obligatory. Whatever it was it was delicious and great fun too.

Anyone for Racklet? from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

And so to the beginning of our next run of shows and Rob’s first vehicular challenge. After his dice with Friday traffic-jam hell en route to Bury during our first flurry of shows, he was becoming adept at timing his travels to and from Cardiff but there are some things you just can’t control.

He called on Thursday morning to let me know he was leaving Cardiff and would be able to pick me up to take us both to Petersfield and the rather late addition to the tour at the Square Brewery Pub.

An hour later he called again. “this is my calm voice ...” he calmly told me. Mm ... never a good sign. First of all he explained that he’d had to come off the M4 at Bristol due to a car on fire and then his own car promptly broke down! “Just call the AA” I said in a mild aunty-ish manner. “I’m not in the AA ...” he sheepishly replied ... doh!

Anyway, to cut a very long and anxious making story short ... he joined the AA; the AA man turned up and the car started first time! He said it was an electrical fault and he couldn’t fix it on the roadside but it might not happen again so Rob soldiered on. The car broke down 4 more times. He eventually left his car at a service station near Warminster and got on a train. His train was due to arrive in Fareham - 30 mins drive from the gig - at 8pm which meant I’d have to start without him - eek! His train was 40 minutes late.

He finally arrived as I was finishing the first half - I cheered! Pam and Martin Dury were absolute Angels driving to Fareham, waiting for Rob to arrive and ferrying him to the venue - bless you both. Turned out to be an exciting night. All’s well that ends well. Not a show I’ll forget in a hurry. Poor Rob ... bless him too. Petersfield were very understanding and enthusiastic ... a delightful and much appreciated combination. Thanks.

Patient Petersfield from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The saga continued the following day. We had to leave earlier than either of us would have liked - a long-lie in would have been lovely, however we had to go back to Warminster and get Rob’s poor old car to a garage in Mere - the closest Kia dealership - drop it off, which we managed to do easily enough and then drive on to Brighton for that night’s show ... just a minor detour.

We accomplished it all but not without a little more stress. It was Bonfire night ... Lewes, very close to Brighton don’t-you-know, has the UK’s largest Fireworks display and the entire world descended on the Brighton/Hove/Lewes environs and so our 2 hour journey turned into a 4 and a half hour drive from Hell! Argh!

Luckily we both have a fair amount of patience and arrived only slightly ruffled but ready for one of the quickest sound checks yet. The Brighton Folk and Blues club were very accommodating. We did our best, tired though we were and managed a reasonable level of energy and focus, all-things-considered. Phew.

Brilliant Brighton from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Lucky for us we were staying with Martin and Pam after each of these shows and it made everything much more palatable. They always waited up for us and had food and drink at the ready whatever time of the night/early morning we arrived on their doorstep. They are without fail, always delightful and generous ... Rob and I felt very blessed in deed.

Our next port of call was the fabulous Acoustic Routes club in Cambridge run by lovely Bernard ... scene of our final show last tour - ah. Chris Howarth and his lovely lady friend Vanessa, graced us with their presence - Chris’s 5th gig of the tour! And Rob did a wonderful set before our first half - all was right in the world.

There were many friendly faces in the audience, in fact it was a sell out crowd -
hurrah! Everyone was fantastically enthusiastic and loved the show and weren’t afraid to let us know. One minor occurrence means I won’t be able to use the audience flip footage I took that night, as someone objected to the experience very much ... I promised I wouldn’t use it ... it’s really just a bit of fun but if anyone feels that badly about anything then I have to respect those feelings. My apologies to anyone who would have liked to have seen the fun and frolics. Rob and I both loved the experience.

Acoustic Routes Cambridge from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Back to Martin and Pam’s once more ... our home from home on the road. Sweet dreams all round.

Our next show was in London, the last of 4 in a row. I’ve not played the Half Moon Putney for 4 or 5 years and it’s been a favourite venue since 1985! Gulp. There were a fair few Facebook friends who turned up to this gig ... lovely to see them all ... and one in particular took some very lovely photos. Thanks to Pete for these great shots.

Half Moon Putney from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Pam and Martin came along - their 4th gig - and very kindly drove Rob back to their place afterwards and took him to a train station the following morning very early ... still in limbo with his car saga ... in order for him to get back to Cardiff in time to start rehearsals with Jonathan Powell. Rob’s now in this very talented Welsh singer songwriter’s band. We’re all very excited for him and this great opportunity. I’m fair bristling with pride for my favourite surrogate nephew. You’ll all definitely hear a great deal more about Jonathan’s new cd: The Flight and Other Stories, due for release in the new year.

I drove to Heathrow after the Half Moon and checked in to a rather lovely hotel to sleep and await Bob’s return from South America (!) very early the following morning. Bless. He crept into the room around 7am and promptly fell asleep - ah. We woke several hours later and drove off to Cardigan Bay to meet with Rob and Jo Selbourne, our lovely friends from Prebendal Farm, who were enjoying a well earned rest in the Welsh countryside.

We got lost several times but finally found their wonderful hide away retreat, literally built into the cliffside over-looking Cardigan Bay and the Irish Sea! We arrived as it was getting dark and didn’t really appreciate the location at that time but were, of course delighted to see our friends. A delicious meal and great company lulled us into a wonderful sense of peace and relaxation. We slept soundly.

The following morning when I walked into the kitchen my breath was taken away by the amazing panoramic view that met me! The front half of the house is basically open-plan with 4 huge picture windows giving the most stunning views. I’ll let the little video and a spattering of photos tell the tale:

Wild Welsh wanderings and a mad yet perfectly formed dwelling from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The tour is now over and it’s time to write the rest of our adventures for you. I’ll end this piece here and catch up with you all again in a couple of weeks with the final part. It’s been absolutely amazing and I’ve just loved being back on the road again. Thanks to all who came to a show and for you dear Blogger reader for stopping by.

See you in a few weeks.

Much love

Christine XX

2010-11-04T06:23:00.000-07:00

The tour continues ... with a little R’n’R in between xx

We last left you as our 6th gig of the tour finished and I drove off into the night with the delightful Ms Watson. I spent a wonderful few days in her and Clea’s company in their tiny wee cottage in Burnham-on-Crouch. There was sunshine, showers, blustery winds and so much more ... with oodles of scrumptious food, wine, deep restorative sleep and a great deal of laughter ... the perfect combination in fact. One day, Helen and I went off to Maldon in search of garlic bulbs for planting - though we came back empty handed, a jolly good time was had none the less.

A Jolly Day out with Helen Watson from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

On my way back up the country I stopped off at East Stoke to stay with the Ansell family and met up with Bob along the way! Yay. After a wonderful evening in Diane and Bryan’s beautiful home, Bob and I drove further up the country to my next gig at the Bury Met, a fabulous venue I’ve played in many and various guises, including: Gregson/Collister, Daphne’s Flight, Hell Bent Heaven Bound, solo and with Howard Lees and Rory McFarlane as well as Dave Kelly and the Travelling Gentlemen ... so I knew what I was coming to. However ... I’ve never quite experienced the place with the same level of excitement (anxiety!) as this night.

For starters we ‘d been bumped up to the big room from the cozier basement space - in and of itself something to celebrate - plus there would be a number of lovely friends and family attending ... some from as far off as Los Angeles and some long lost family from my dad’s side as well as my dear and very wonderful friend Lynda Turner ... so I was PRIMED! Bob and I arrived at the venue at 5pm as arranged. As we turned into the parking space Rob called to say he was stuck in traffic and would be with us around 6.15pm ... no problem at all ... doors were at 7.40, plenty of time.

I got set up and sound checked and sorted Mr Ben’s patch for the evening and greeted several of my guests as the clock ticked merrily away. At 7.15pm ... Rob called to say ... you might have to start without me!! Eek! Bless him ... he was trying not to panic ... as was I! We had several contingency plans up our sleeves and I was about to hit the stage on my own at 8.10pm when he called to say he’d be there in 5 minutes! So we held off until he arrived ... looking pale and wan ... we plied him with hot tea and the promise of food at half time. He basically plugged in and we played! He’d left Cardiff at 12.30!! Oh bless his large cotton socks!

We had to shuffle a few songs around so that we ended up not using the loop station at all in the first half ... Mary was without the layered vocals at the end but was just fine for all that. It turned out to be a great gig ... the audience had been kept up to date with what was going on and were patience personified. My friends from LA were mightily impressed and my cousins, uncle and their partners were lovely and delighted to be reunited. All is well all shall be well.

Bury well Met from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Bob and I had the luxury of staying in a Spa Hotel for the next 2 nights ... close to my lovely friend Lynda, who came by on Saturday to have dinner with us. The food was excellent and the company even more so. It’s one of the delightful off shoots of being on the road ... catching up with the ones we love. xx

Sunday was Hitchin Folk club ... another favourite venue full of favourite people too. The club’s been going for 40 plus years and run for the most part by Maureen Jones and her lovely husband Keiron. Maureen has been under some serious health issues over the past year and is now on a waiting list for a liver transplant ... I know she would have loved to be there for our show but was in hospital having some essential tlc ... we send her much love on a regular basis! You could add yours too ... it all helps!

Keiron, bless him had been into London to see Maureen and was a tad later than normal setting up the PA but very happy that Maureen was perkier than she had been for some weeks, if not months - brilliant! We shared in his positivity!

More dear old friends turned up to this gig: Paul Leitch came all the way down from Scotland, Julie, Chris Howarth - who notched up his 3rd show this tour - and Steve Lima - hurrah! A fun filled and smooth running show with ecstatic responses was just what the doctor ordered!

Happily in Hitchn from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

I dropped Bob off at Luton airport on Monday morning - he caught a bus to Heathrow and flew off to LA on Tuesday ... ah bless. And I headed back to Burnham-on-Crouch and the delectable company of Helen and Clea once more. Helen and I had threatened to write together but found the allotment much more enticing! We did actually finish a song we started way back in February - when I was still a single girl ;-) ... there’s hope for us yet.

Helen's alottment heaven I from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Helen's heavenly alottment II from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Several days, a chicken and leek pie and hot chili later ... and it was time for gig number 9 at Great Bardfield and the fabulous High Barn. Though the audience were small in number they more than made up for it in enthusiasm and banter. The space itself is so wonderful it wouldn’t matter if it were empty ... I’d still have enjoyed it. Chris Howarth ... bless his great big generous heart ... made it gig number 4 in one tour! I really must have a T shirt made for him.

High Barn Great Bradfield from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Rob and I drove off into the night and 2 hours later walked back into the Ansell household ... it was very late and we were very grateful that Bryan stayed up to let us in ... we slept soundly! Diane and Bryan are so easy to be around and offer such warmth and sustenance that it was hard to get back in our cars and drive off the following day!

We made our separate ways to Liverpool docks and to us, the familiar sight, sound and motion of an Isle of Man Seacat Ferry, which eventually took us to Douglas. There had been serious storms all day and though the wind had died down considerably by the time we got onboard ... the captain decided to leave an hour later than scheduled ... just in case!

The first hour or so were easy peasy lemon squeasy but once out in the open Irish sea, we really started to rock! So I put my coat over my head and my ipod on loud to drown out any ho heaving ... if you know what I mean? It did the trick. We were an hour and 20 minutes late arriving but still intact ... always a good thing I find. Phew.

I actually had a lie-in the following day and woke almost refreshed and ready for our big gig at the Centenary Centre in Peel - yippee! We found out only a couple of days before that we’d be able to attempt a livestream broadcast of the entire show!

The Centenary Centreis a very special place run with volunteer help and generous donations to improve it constantly. This time round there was a theatre style bar and raked seating plus a roomier dressing room ... all brilliant!

After sound check Rob and I treated ourselves to a truly scrumptious dinner at Tyni ... a wonderful new bistro down by the marina - DELICIOUS!

The show got off to a shaky start as our special guests “Strengyn” were unable to perform due to the fact that Paul - one half of the genius duo - met with a very strange accident between a motorbike and a football! Luckily all were relatively well but not well enough to play that night. Get well soon and definitely see you both next time! We did however have the delightful presence of 19 year old Alanna Mclean, daughter of Dave and Lizzie - 2 gorgeous people I adore - who sang 3 blues songs brilliantly! Thanks Alanna ... and Dave for stonking piano accompaniment!

Rob and I were both a bit nervous knowing there would be cameras on us - Dave and Christy filmed the whole event as well as having a static camera broadcasting our every move out onto the ethereal airwaves of the interweb! Eek!

Peel Centenary Centre Isle of Man from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Regardless of our anxieties we threw ourselves into the night and basked in the warmth of the tumultuous applause of a standing ovation at the end of the performance ... wow ... thanks Peel! And the world ... there were only a few technical difficulties during the first half which were all sorted by the second set and we had people watching in Los Angeles, the UK and other parts of the Island -amazing!

I love a rainy day ;-) from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

With only a few days of leisure before the next run of dates I somehow managed to fit in a 7 year old’s birthday party, lunch with mum and dad, an osteopath session and a hairdresser’s appointment for a hair colour top-up plus a vibrant girlie dinner with chili, wine and a weepy film! Phew ... I’ll be glad to get out on the road again for a bit of a rest!

Jamie's birthday fireworks! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Hope to see you at a gig or 3 in the next few weeks and I’ll try to keep you up to date with all that’s going on!

Thanks as ever for dropping by ... see you again soon.

Much love

Christine XX ;-)

A life on the gigging road

2010-10-26T01:48:00.000-07:00

Autumnal touring Adventures part I

Bob and I flew back from our summer sojourn in LA on September 28th and on the 29th Rob Cross and I started our final flurry of rehearsals on the Isle of Man ... me fully jet-lagged and not much use to anyone! Our starting date - October 13th - loomed large and I was soon hurtling down the M5 towards Cardiff to have our very last rehearsal near Rob’s home in Canton on the 12th. All went as well as it could, given the absence of the energetic push and excitement of a real live audience - our fingers were still very firmly crossed all the same!

Though Bob was already on the road with CBR, he managed to wangle it so that he could come to the first show at the The West End Centre in Aldershot - yay! There were many dear friends at that first gig, including some of the staff, in particular Barney and Julie, who have been there since I first started playing this fabulous gig, 10 years or more and it made us feel so much less up-tight than we might have been. I’m always worried I haven’t got enough songs to fill both 45 minute slots and so waffled a great deal desperately trying to remember all the daft stories I wanted to share ... the first set apparently stretched to an hour! Oops.

Aldershot West End Centre - numero uno! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

All in all we were both relieved to have the first show under our belts, with a seemingly ecstatic crowd cheering us along all the way. Phew ... think we got away with that one!?

We stayed with our dear friends Pam and Martin Dury, who of course came along to the show and had a fabulous party-spread laid out on their dining table when we got back to their delightful abode. The clink of champagne flutes could be heard ricocheting around Sandhurst - which might have had the men in the Officers club worried for a short while ... ? OK maybe not. We were celebrating not only the success of our first night, but also to Bob and I having had our nuptial adventures in February - ah. Such sweet, sweet people! We all slept soundly!

Bob had to train it back to Londinium the following morning, while Rob and I checked and re-checked our packing before heading towards Devon and Otterton Mill. This would be Rob’s first time ever in Devon ... or Deverrn ... as he insisted upon calling it! Bless.

Caroline ad Simon Spiller took over Otterton Mill and all it’s wonderful attachments: bakery, cafe, restaurant, art gallery and shop ... a few short years ago and in the first 6 months had to deal with a devastating flood which had the whole place closed for a month! According to the insurance loss adjusters it should have been 3 months! To say they worked very hard to get the place up and running again, is a ridiculous understatement! The place is now back to it’s enchanting best, if you ever get the chance to visit you must; it’s a truly wonderful experience! the food is EXCELLENT!

Otterton Mill devon aka gig number 2! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Apart from a few little technical difficulties, the show went pretty smoothly. I even had stories specifically connected to the venue which I generously “shared” ... much to the hilarity of the “sold-out” crowd! Did I tell you it was a sold out show?! It was a fairly lengthy drive back to Cardiff and the “Manx Embassy” ... where we were to sleep the next couple of nights - bless Rob’s stamina (or should that be youth?)for driving the whole way!

Third up in our run of six shows (sack your agent I hear you cry ... that’ll be me then!), is delightfully quirky Prema Arts Centre in Uley Gloucester. I’ve played here once before ... none of us can remember exactly when ... 4/5/6 years ago? it was great to perform here again. I love this place. It has the feel of some eccentric’s batty home but also feels strangely modern with it’s vibrant artwork and vivid decor ... definitely up my straza!

This was also the first night Rob had chance to sing a few of his own songs as an opening set - he was delightful of course!

Our friendly sound man Mark, was also the barman ... actually he was the barman who’d been on a course to do sound - there is a difference you know - anyway he was very patient with us ... with me to be fair. The performance space is a hexagonal room with lots of hard surface areas and the sound kept befuddling me! Is there such a word? Obviously ... coz the spellcheck fairy hasn’t tapped me on the shoulder! It was all fine in the end though both Rob and I struggled to hear the all important loop shenannigans through a couple of the songs ... no one else noticed thankfully.

Prema Arts Centre Uley ... gig 3! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

A much shorter ride back to the embassy this night and time for a little night cap too ... ah.

And onto gig number 4! I’d been mildly worried about my throat holding out over a run of 6 nights after an absence of 18 months but so far ... no signs of fatigue at all - amazing! All that yoga and hot water drinking have done me the world of good! Hurrah.

I love The Mill in Banbury and have played here countless times over the 20 odd years I’ve been gigging there! The staff here are particularly wonderful and always happy to help make everything just right - which it was! Life is good. Roblet did another gorgeous opening set much to the delight of the well turned out audience. It was lovely to see a number of great friends at half time too. Chris Howarth notched up his second gig so far this tour and my lovely friends Ann and Brian James were there with a number of CC virgins! yay. One guy brought along 12 CC virgins for musical sacrifice! Wow.

The Mill Banbury ... number 4 from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

This night we drove back to be with Pam and Martin near Sandhurst again and though we insisted they NOT feed us when we turned up at 1am ... the cheese, pate and biscuits found themselves on the table amongst the rare old Scottish Whiskeys that dotted the tablecloth. They’re very naughty people! That’s why we love them so.

The following morning was rather nerve wracking as I’d been asked to perform a very important ceremony at Mr and Mrs Squidney’s (aka Phil and Pat Chappell’s) adorable home in Crowthorne. As part of our enticement, Pat had promised us a delicious brunch ... which did not disappoint! Man that woman can cook!

Rather than try and explain this wonderfully surreal experience, I’ll let the short video do the explaining for me - enjoy! We certainly did.

A funny thing happened on the way to Bournemouth - a ceremonious experience from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Bournemouth Folk Club was one of the venues Rob and I played last time round and we both looked forward to performing there again. We arrived early in order for Rob to get some contact lens stuff only to find he’d left his all-important prescription back in Cardiff - doh!

Roblet once again did a beautiful set before the first half and had the crowd eating out of his hand by the end of the first song. Bless! It was a scatty night of remembered and not remembered anecdotes and songs but all in all it was a wonderful experience and we left happy and ready for our, by now expected, scotch night cap! We love Pam and Martin!

The Stage Bournemouth - gig 5 of 6! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

And so to the last of our first run of 6 exciting shows. But before we got toColchester Folk Club at the wonderful Arts Centre, I had a songwriting workshop to attend to! Gulp! I never do these things but it seemed churlish not to accept the invitation when it came from Tim Pells at the Colchester Institute. I would be staying with Helen Watson for the next few days so I sneakily asked her to come along for support - which thankfully she did!

Standing in front of a class of 18 and 20 year olds is a very daunting thing, especially when you’re not used to it! I had an hour and a half to talk about my process of writing ... without performing anything, as I opted to “save” my voice for the show. I did have my trusty Apple Mac with me to play a number of choice songs as examples of what I was talking about. Helen interjected several times at very appropriate times getting me out of a couple of verbal cul-de-sacs! Phew! She had some fabulous observations to share. I think the budding songwriters of Colchester were truly inspired! Thanks Tim for the opportunity!

And so onto the Arts Centre which is cleverly tucked inside an old church. Rob was already set up and ready to go when Helen and I turned up and once sound check was done - very quickly - we all traipsed off in search of “proper” food. Which we found in a smart but reasonably priced Italian Restaurant on the high street. Delicious.

Feeling satisfied and nourished we were both ready, willing and able to get on with the last of our run of 6. Rob once more set the scene for a great night and we took the fabulously responsive crowd by storm! Phew ... thank you Colchester ... you were great!

Colchester - gig 6 of 6!! whoop whoop ;-) from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

I’ll be back with the next batch of show blogs in a week or so ... it’s all going brilliantly so far ... Friday traffic jams on the M6 not withstanding ... you’ll definitely hear about that in the next installment!

Thanks for dropping by as ever ... hope to see you out there very soon!

Much love

Christine XX

2010-10-11T21:49:00.000-07:00

The final harmonious trio of gorgeous gigs:

After Marlborough and my lazy Sunday with the Dury’s I revved myself up again to meet Bob at Heathrow. He’d been on a whistle-stop tour of Abu Dhabi with CBR which would be the last of his exhausting travels this year - bless. We enjoyed a couple of days unwinding with Jo and Mike near Worksop ... always a delight.

The Black Swan in York is yet another BBC radio 2 Folk Club of the year winner and rightly so. The club has been successfully run for many years by Roland Walls who has a bevvy of wonderful helpers who keep the club running smoothly. Due to health challenges - now thankfully overcome - Roland wasn’t able to make our show but his presence was very much felt.

Bob and I decided to drive to York early and have a wander round it’s gorgeous streets. It was a particularly cold day and not a lot of wandering was done but we still appreciated the brilliant atmosphere.

Rob drove up to meet us exactly on time! Hurrah for small mercies. We sound checked quickly and ate heartily in the pub downstairs and were well and truly ready for our performance. When it was time to step up and do our thing, we had to squeeze ourselves into the fabulously full upstairs room where it all takes place. Rob was pleasantly surprised to see his music teacher from the Isle of Man in the crowd! It didn’t put him off his stride at all. I thoroughly enjoyed this show which was full of wit and sparkling banter ... the audience not me! It was a great show and I know the feeling was mutual. Thank you York.

Yummy York! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We drove back to Jo and Mike’s and somehow managed to get into the house without waking them - phew! The Rock is one of my favourite shows, run by some of my favourite organisers: Rob and Jan Shaw. I was truly thrilled by the large crowd that turned up and enthused excitedly all night! Hurrah. One of my favourite moments from the whole tour happened at the end of “We Spoke Today” ... captured for all to hear by Bob ... hurrah!

Rocking at the ROCK I from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Rocking at the Rock II from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The following day should have been a truly epic drive up to St Andrews in Scotland and a gig at Inn at Lathones, run by David Mundell, who used to run the fabulous Beinn Inn for many fruitful years. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond our collective control, the show was postponed and we’re now looking to try again in May next year - I have my fingers firmly crossed this will definitely happen. My humble apologies to anyone who bought a ticket and my thanks for their understanding when we weren’t able to deliver.

Feeling fairly refreshed after an unexpected day off we were more than ready for our final show of this tour - ah. We enjoyed a delicious, late Sunday lunch with Jo and Mike at a restaurant en route to Halifax and not too far from their lovely home. It felt like a party in many ways ... a celebration! Hurrah.

The Square Chapel Arts Centre is a wonderful venue I’ve only played once before. Our sound man for the night was a delightful - very young - man of 17, Jo who did a truly wonderful job. Chris Howarth made it his 6th gig of the tour and winner of (as yet to be ordered!) tour T shirt! He’s such a sweetheart and it’s always a joy to hear his infectious guffaw radiating out from the audience. Bless you darlin’.

A Fond farewell from Halifax from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

It was a great show to go out on. It just went far too quickly! The whole tour did really. Rob Cross was a wonderful accompanist in so very many ways not least musically of course. We’re hoping to put a run of shows together for May next year, including a week in Scotland towards the end of the month. If any of you have ideas for venues/clubs to approach please feel free to email me with suggestions: ccollisterATmac.com.

Thank you, as ever, for taking the time to view my Blog and thanks to anyone who managed to get to a gig ... I can’t do any of this without your support ... I truly appreciate it.

BTW ... Bob and I are finally going on our Honeymoon next week. Our criterion were: absolutely no cruises (me) and definitely no longer than 14 days (Bob). So that’ll be a 28 day Caribbean Cruise then! OMG! Given neither of us wanted this type of holiday we’re both ridiculously excited about it. Rest assured I will Blog about our experiences when we reluctantly return in January. HURRAH!

Have a fabulous Christmas and a happy and healthy new year and hope to see you all again in 2011.

Take care.

Much love

Christine Collister Miller XX ;-)

2010-09-03T21:05:00.000-07:00

High lights of spring in Santa Monica, the Isle of Man and Meltdown!

As promised I'm back with a few more memories from our spring trip, though I've decided to cut back on the enormous amount of information I gathered at that time as … quite frankly … you really don't need to know it all! So here are a few more high-lights and anecdotes:

Our first week or so in the States were taken up traveling to Vancouver, Portland and Seattle as we followed Corinne and the band on their first flurry of shows supporting The Sea. For those first handful of dates, she had a young all male acappella band from South Africa opening each show – Overtone. Their enthusiasm and openness, not to mention their raw talent … made them many new friends and converts. The story of how they came to be in America in the first place is an interesting one: Overtone were first noticed by Dina Eastwood, none other than Clint Eastwood's gorgeous wife. Mr Eastwood was so impressed that he decided to use them on the sound track to his wonderfully inspirational movie, Invictus which he filmed in South Africa last year. Dina was so enthused by the boys that she offered to help manage the band to get a foothold into the North American market.

Dina and Bob got along like a house on fire – of course! When we returned to LA and Corinne and the band carried on touring further afield, Overtone had their own gig at the Hotel Cafe in West Hollywood. Bob and I and several of our friends went along to show our support. Little did we know at the time that Dina's other half would also be attending! Eek! Not only that but sat in the dark recesses of the dimly lit venue sat Mr Morgen Freeman!! Though I managed a little Flip footage of the boys strutting their musical stuff, it was far too dark to capture Mr Freeman or Mr Eastwood – I tried! In the throng of excitement at the end of Overtone's wonderful performance, Helene Muddiman (an extremely talented - and recently nominated for an Ivor Novello award! - film composer and also I'm delighted to say, new bosom buddy) and I, literally bumped into Morgan Freeman as he was leaving – honest guv! Helene, being much more up front and unfazed by this exciting experience, immediately shook his hand, thrust a copy of her film score "Skin" into his outstretched palm and introduced us both! My tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth and I'm sorry to say all I could get out was a very girly giggle! He was amazingly calm and collected and genuinely happy to meet us – no really! I think playing God and Nelson Mandela has had a very positive effect on him!

Overtone rock the Hotel Cafe LA! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

As we moved ever closer to the exit, the seething mass of humanity that is a gig-going audience, swept us along, right into the path of Clint Eastwood's smiling face … and just at that,moment as-if-by-magic, Dina turned up … and introduced us – just like that! Wow. He too was all twinkly-eyed smiles and understanding and I was quite over-awed. I did have the foresight to give Dina several of my cds as we were leaving, with no real thought to the notion that Clint himself might actually hear them! And in my utter excitement to tell Bob who we'd just met, I called Mr Freeman ... Norman! Then several days after these momentous meetings, Bob and I received emails from Dina saying that they were both listening to one of my cds and that Clint was soaking it all up! OMG! They both like my voice – I'm stunned into humble silence … ;-)

At the first CBR show in LA hosted by KCRW (as blogged in my last installment - see below) I met some rather wonderful women who produce shows themselves on KCRW: Ariana Morgenstern – a passionate, musical mover and shaker and long term broadcaster/producer of Morning becomes Eclectic and Liz MacDonald one of the regular producers who contributes enormously to the general running of this highly successful college radio station. Both extended an invitation to witness a live broadcast of Morning Becomes Eclectic – one of their long standing and most influential shows. I looked at their list of up and coming performers and picked out what looked like the most interesting to me while I was there.

The first session I went to was for Pepi Ginsberg and her wonderfully eclectic and fabulously energetic band. Interesting heart-felt songs sung and played with real passion and fire. I loved her! And several weeks later Josh Rouse … subtle and sweet and utterly mesmerising, I could have watched and listen to him and his super talented band all day! It was a real privilege to be in such close quarters with both these connected and creative musicians. Thanks go out to both Ariana and Liz.

For some of the trip Bob flew off to the east coast to catch up with Corinne's tour which left me free to explore Santa Monica itself and do a little writing. I had several sessions with Mike Slamer, in which we wrote a couple of short songs for tv libraries he's involved with. I loved the experience and hope to do more before I leave this time as well. We also managed to finish a song we'd been working on over the past 18 months! It's called: "Edge of the World" and We both love it … I'm hoping to include it, along with 2 other songs we've written together on the next tour cd.Whenever Bob was back from his touring duties we'd stroll along Santa Monica promenade just to see what we could see and sometimes it was quite a lot!

It was a wild and windy day in Santa Monica ... from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Another highlight for me this time round was the discovery of Yogaworks – a fabulous yoga studio right round the corner from where we were staying. I went along to a Kundalini session one afternoon and came out a complete convert! It is truly amazing and I can't get enough of it. The fact that the teacher, Kia Miller, is stunningly gorgeous and radiates pure joy with her wonderful smiling presence … probably has something to do with it. I've spoken to a number of other yoga enthusiasts about my experiences and some of them really dislike the chanting, breath of fire and singing that are the backbone of a Kundalini practice but for me – obviously! - it's perfect.

I'd also learned about a gig Richard Thompson was doing at the Rhino Records pop-up store – a charity fund raising event run over a month long period, during which many notable artists were performing. I offered my oohing and aahing services and was taken up! Richard and Nancy – RT's lovely wife – also took Bob and I out for lunch at Shutters on the beach in Santa Monica as a celebration of our nuptials. It was a delightful and much appreciated gift.

After our little soiree at Rhino, RT asked if I was available to take part in one of the fabulous shows he'd put together for Meltdown at the South Bank in June … wow! Yes I am! And so I was invited to sing half a dozen songs on the Six Strings night, along side such guitar playing luminaries as: James Burton, Martin Simpson,Nokie Edwards, Dennis Coffey, John Etheridge and of course Richard Thompson himself! And the “house band” consisted of my pal and brilliant bass player, Rory McFarlane (standing in for Jerry Scheff who was ill – bless them both!), an amazing young drummer, Jay Bellerose, fabulous percussion from Debra Dobkin and the incomparable Danny Thompson on double bass! To say I was thrilled is a ridiculous understatement. I was, of course, very excited about the prospect and then … completely daunted when the song titles kept coming in … really you want me to sing that?! Wow.

Before the Queen Elizabeth Hall beckoned … back on the Isle of Man ... I was asked to take part in a strange but thoroughly enjoyable gig on a boat, destined to roll around Douglas bay for a few bouncy hours … anyone easily seasick look away now?! I joined Anna Goldsmith, Christy Dehaven, Simon Rae and Paul Teare – aka Truman Falls, plus Dave Armstrong (bass) and Mark Brabbs (cajon)- my Manx musical ship mates for the event. Here take a look:

Beginners to the Boat please! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Anna G Mark B Christy D

For Meltdown I was required to be ready for rehearsals the day before the show – Sunday June 13th – which meant leaving the Island towards the end of TT week! This proved a difficult task due to the enormous amount of bikers moving on and off the Island and meant that we had to leave later than we wanted and also required us to stay in Liverpool over night before taking a train on Sunday morning which landed us at the South Bank with rehearsals well under way! Regardless of the mess up in time, everything went really well and it was wonderful to witness great player after great player take to the stage! A privilege to say the least.

Six String meltdown! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Ed Haber 'n' Rory McFarlane, John Etheridge and Debra Dobkin - yay!

Hello Mary Lou, I'm a Steam Roller baby! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The day of the gig itself was incredibly long and stuffed full of great musical moments and a lot of laughter. It included a full day of rehearsals prior to the concert itself – for which I had to quickly learn 3 new songs! - which only added to the general state of energetic nervousness associated with being totally challenged! But the ultimate reward was being a part of the most amazing show I've experienced in a very long time. To start the event rolling,Albert White and Beverly "Guitar" Watkins took to the stage and proceeded to wow the capacity crowd with their utter charm and fabulous musicianship. After Albert's delightful opening 20 minute set, he introduced Ms Watkins as a “72 year old cancer survivor”! She was sassy, sexy, soulful and absolutely wonderful! We are not worthy!

Albert White and Beverly "guitar" Watkins - ROCK! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

I have tried to capture the essence of the day with these few short videos and hope you get a taste of the wonderful experience. Enjoy!

Nokie me 'n'James! everyone! me, RT, Dennis Coffie 'n' Nokie

me and Simon Tassano sound man in so many ways! ;-)

I truly hope I get the chance to collaborate on many more such fabulous artists on other great musical extravaganzas. There's nothing quite like it!

Jesse Thompson BJ Cole Martin Simpson! ;-)
OK that's your lot for now. I still have loads of great moments to share with you before the tour starts in October so keep your eyes peeled for the next installment and make sure you check out the gig list and get your selves down to a show in the autumn! Hurrah.

Take care and hope to see you out there very soon.

With much love

Mrs Christine Collister Miller XX

2010-08-17T16:43:00.000-07:00

Nuptial Blogging and other adventures

It's hard to believe eight months of this year have already flown by. I really need to get a grip!Look, here's proof of New year Kiwi fireworks and snow ... and a little daftness:

New Year ... better late than never right?! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

For those of you with the time and inclination there are various photos I took of the Isle of Man in Winter here

The cornucopia of adventures I am able to share with you this Blogging session is overwhelmingly bountiful! It might be that we separate the adventuresome nature of my life into easily digestible nuggets but I have to start somewhere and where best to begin than on a high point.

The most fun filled and exciting adventure of my life – so far – happened on February 13th at Gretna Green, where Bob and I finally took the plunge and tied the knot! Jo and Mike – now my step-daughter and son-in-law!- were our only guests and witnesses. We stayed at a favourite place of ours in Troutbeck near Windermere in the Lake District, an hour away from Gretna - The Queens Head - where we enjoyed amazing hospitality, sumptuous accommodation and fabulous food. A few weeks before our great big nuptial adventure, the country had been gripped by a snowstorm frenzy and many roads, villages and towns were seriously cut-off and though much of the seriousness had lessened, we wondered if we'd be able to a) get to the hotel at all and then b) drive to Gretna and back without being snowed under!

Thankfully everything went even better than planned and it was a joyous and delightful occasion. Lucky for us Jo and Mike did a brilliant job of capturing the whole event in a mass of lovely photos and Flip video which I am very happy to share here with you. Don't worry … you don't have to watch HOURS of it just a modestly edited version which lasts all of 10 minutes – I promise it will make you laugh out loud … really! ;-)

Bob and Christine's great big Nuptial adventure! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

You can view photos here

At the same time as planning our small but perfectly formed nuptials, Bob's wonderful artist Corinne Bailey Rae was launching her second and truly masterful album “The Sea”. So Bob was ridiculously busy right up to the event itself and immediately after. It all added to the excitement and was our excuse to “honeymoon” in Paris where CBR and her band were performing for promotional purposes in the city centre the following Tuesday afternoon.

We flew to Paris on Sunday evening Feb 14th (oh hang on isn't that Valentine's day?!) and stayed near The Champs Elysee. Though I managed to get food poisoning that night and felt less than wonderful the following day we still had a marvelous time. I made a valiant effort and rallied late Monday afternoon, so we braved the vagaries of the ridiculously complicated Metro system and the bitter bone-numbing cold, to view the Eiffel tower ... well that was our intention. The queues were far too long to stay out in the freezing temperatures the length of time it would take to actually get in a lift, so we carried on walking and ended up at the Louvre which was just shutting as we arrived!

Tuesday was glorious and though still cold, was a much lovelier day. We viewed Notre Dame in the morning and meandered through beautiful Parisienne streets to finally meet up with CBR at her appearance in a city centre music store. We were met with a flurry of applause and congratulations from herself, band members and the crew. Ah.

Gay Paris - a brief Honymoon for the newly weds! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Bob and I returned to the UK in style on board Eurostar and managed to get a great deal including a 3 course meal in first class - oo la la! Oh we know how to do things right. The whole experience, from the Lake District to Gretna Green to Paris and back was truly wonderful, memorable and joyously lovely. We are blessed!

Corinne's album was receiving amazing reviews around the globe and there were many trips to the USA, Europe and the UK purely promoting the album's release which Bob was often a part of. So I didn't see my husband (ha, ha, ha!) very much the first month of our marriage. We've made up for it since! Once the bulk of promotional tv/radio/etc was done, work began on touring proper … and so to the first few CBR shows which I was privileged to see.

Leeds was March 27th and a wholly exciting affair with a full house totally enraptured by Corinne's beautiful and mesmerising performance. At one point a guy shouted from the back … I think I have to change my opinion of you … you might be a genius!We don't know what his opinion had been before that comment of course but I agree with him! This album is full of genius moments of inspiration.

We skipped the gig in Edinburgh to spend a day with our lovely friends Diane and Bryan Ansell so we could celebrate our nuptials once again,in high style at their beautiful home, before catching up with CBR in Leamington Spa.

From there we flew to LA and took up honeymooning where Paris left off … but this time no food poisoning! I think I'll stop this first batch of memories with the first CBR show in LA; a wonderful concert for KCRW in a fabulous old Church called Vibiana in Downtown Los Angeles.

CBR at Vibiana downtown LA for KCRW from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

I'll continue with our amazing American adventures very soon … watch this space! It's still possible to watch the full KCRW internet broadcast here - well worth it!

Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again in a week or so with more musings on my fairytale life ;-)

Much love

Mrs Christine Collister Miller XX ;-)

Let's talk about walkabouts … Ozzy Wanderings …

2010-05-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

Antipodean Adventures ...

Keeping up with my retro nature, I'm only now writing about my time in Australia and New Zealand … at the end of 2009. You couldn't accuse me of being speedy when it comes to my Blogging life! Hey ho and here we go:

Bob and I flew out to Australia together on October 15th – ah – and spent the first 4 or 5 days at the very first One WorldMusexpo Asia Pacific conference and Festival in Perth. It was a wonderful experience and a great opportunity to meet musicians,writers, producers and performers alongside promoters and business people alike, all in one great big user friendly and very well organised place, situated in the heart of this delightful and bustling city.

Famous songwriters and fervant rock stars ... in the making?! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Davy Knowlesand Back Door Slam were invited to play at several stages over the weekend and made – as I'm sure you've all come to expect – a great impression. Bob was also asked to take part in one of the many and never less than interesting, business panels as a guest speaker. I was so proud!!! He was great … and more than kept his own in some pretty illustrious company!

Musexpo Perth 2009 from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The weather was unseasonably SCORCHIO over the weekend and made for some interesting lethargicly jet-lagged moments … none of which I can relate but believe me they were very strange at the time!

Late night rock and roll - Davy K rocks the kazbar ... well ... ;-) from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Bob left to continue his ever productive managerial life, organising the run-up to Corinne's second album launch and Davy's onward musical march on the world. Which left me – in between writing and editing – to visit my brother Paul and his gorgeous family. A rare and unmissable experience! Mum and dad flew out a few days after Bob left and the 3 of us settled down to some serious familial catching up!

Perth and friends ... from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Sadly, Rebecca my sister-in-law, had to fly back to the Isle of Man for her father's funeral just as we all arrived. Her dad was Clinton Ford of Music Hall fame … and a huge influence on his children's lives and is of course, very sadly missed. It meant that for the first 10 days or so of our stay we became an essential part of family life, taking Poppy and Oscar to and from school each day while Paul got on with training to become a Policeman!

To mark their Grandad's passing, on the day of his funeral, we all went down to the local beach about the time of the ceremony taking place back on the Isle of Man and Poppy, Oscar and their older brother Bailey took a few moments on their own to think about him. As a symbol of their goodbyes, they each threw flowers into the Ocean. It was a beautifully simple and very poignant experience.

Hanging out with Poppy and Oscar was an absolute delight. We had a great time at the cinema … mum and dad enjoying the amazing 3D effects of the brilliant Pixar animation “Up!” for the first time … me, Poppy and Oscar for the 2nd! Hurrah!We had a few days out too …shell collecting on the beach and a wonderful evening at the wonderful Gingin Observatory about 50 kilometres outside of Perth where we were able to view ridiculously distant Galaxies through the various assembled huge telescopes, made available for visitors like ourselves to use … a truly awe inspiring experience! We also saw on numerous occasions, kangaroos, koalas and any number of colourful bird-life … along the way.

Once Rebecca was back and family life returned to some kind of normalcy, mum, dad and myself went for a weeks adventures a couple of hundred miles further south of Perth, in what we thought was the Margaret River region. Let me explain: my mum's name is Margaret and she had wanted to visit the wine region of her namesake ever since their first visit to Perth 3 years previously. So I … being the helpful daughter … searched the internet for places to stay in the Margaret River area. This took quite some time but eventually we all agreed on a delightful looking 2 bed wrap around verandah type cottage in it's own grounds. Lovely! Just before we left I thought I'd better get directions so we wouldn't get lost trying to find it, only to realise that our home for the next 7 days was in fact … 100 miles away from where we thought we were going to stay! Oops!

As it turned out we were exactly where we'd have the most fun and memorable experience … and we all loved our little house with it's own huge pond full of black swans, ibis, ducks and kookaburras. Not to mention the big black angus beef cattle that roamed freely about the place.We were staying in the grounds Diamond Tree Farm Stay, Pemberton Western Australia.

A slow train to nowhere for no reason ... none needed! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We visited several vineyards on our trip, including Lost Lakesand Silkwood both serving delicious food too.We also discovered many a vertiginous gum tree plus, we got to “walk in the sky” in the Valley of the Giants; take a trip on an old train through beautiful forests and had a wild time getting lost in another forest looking for a walk-through gum tree! All in all a handful of wonderful adventures.

Valley of the GIANTS!!!! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The second night in our little cottage we had a power cut which lasted till mid morning the following day and proved an interesting event to say the least. For one thing (many actually!) the entire water system used by the place was totally dependent on electrical pumps … so once the electricity went off we had no water! Eek! We had plenty of bottled water (and wine) to drink but no water to wash … ourselves or dishes … or to flush the one and only loo ...you can imagine I'm sure!

Lucky for us the farm manager Bruce (yes really) was a sweetheart and tried to make the situation as bearable as possible.The electricity board fixed the break pretty quickly all things considered. What made the event all the more exciting was the fact that we had to drive 5 miles to get a phone signal, which meant getting in touch with the owners - who were thousands of miles away in Victoria anyway - to alert them to the situation, was a mini adventure in and of itself! All was well in the end and it only added to the general excitement of our visit. There a several video clips to illustrate our experiences. My favourite one is of the immense thunder storm on our last night. Enjoy.

Dioamond Tree Farm - there's a storm a comin' from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Four-legged, furry friends ... and a few pouches ... from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Back in Perth we resumed our fun-filled family excursions with the kids and Paul and Rebecca but all too soon our time together came to an end. On December 1st Mum and Dad flew back to the Isle of Man and I flew onto Melbourne” Victoria where I met up with my lovely friend Terry Crockett – originally from the UK - who now lives an hour or so outside of Melbourne only 7 minutes from The Great Ocean Road. Terry has lived in Australia for over 40 years and somehow has hardly a trace of an Ozzy accent. She's amazing!

I spent a wonderful few days in her energising company and was treated to several fabulous Bush Walks, complete with her excellent Bird Watching skills and expertise alonside wild Koala spotting! All brilliant and exhillerating experiences and I hope to repeat them all as soon as humanly possible.

I caught the train back to Melbourneto meet with a very dear friend from Canada Angela Hryniuk, who was getting married to her long time beau Steven Seaton in Noosa on the east coast, a few hours north of Brisbanewhere they now live, the following week. Turns out I was her “best woman”! Yeh.

Angela's mum and brother had flown out from Canada to Melbourne the week before her ceremony, in order to go to a very special convention there: Council for a Parliament of the World's religions. Both Angela and Michael her brother, live spiritually well-informed lives – she's a practising Tibetan Bhuddist, qualified to teach meditation and a fully honoured Celebrant able to legally marry people of all faiths; while Michael works within the Christian community, also teaching, writing and leading weekends in contemplation and meditation. They're all together an amazing family.

We had a wonderful few days reconnecting and catching up on each others lives before flying on to Brisbane and the exciting run-up to Angela and Steve's nuptials!While in Brisbane I took full advantage of the situation, basically enjoying the hospitality and generosity of my friends in their gorgeous home in the suburbs of Brisbane.

I drove off to Noosa a day ahead of the wedding party and thoroughly enjoyed the drive up the Gold Coast. Noosa itself is a lovely one street tourist resort with beautiful beaches and warm, crystal blue waters (complete with sharks!!) and any number of great restaurants and up market shops to indulge in. I had a great room in a small hotel at the end Hastings Street overlooking the river – blissful.

There was of course a rehearsal of the, personally designed, wedding ceremony in Hidden Grove just off the beach, the day before the BIG day, when the wind was so forceful we thought everything might simply blow away! Thankfully, when it came down to it, there wasn't a breath of wind and the usually scorching heat was at a delightfully warm simmer. Rehearsal was followed by the rehearsal dinner of course … an amazing feast at the most exquisite Thai Style restaurant I've ever experienced, in it's own beautiful gardens centred round a small but perfectly formed lake.

The day of the wedding itself was spent in girlie excitement as Angela was pampered and prepared. She looked absolutely stunning and I had fun capturing it all on camera. Angela and Steven had asked me to sing a lovely Eric Bibb song as part of the ceremony … Dance Me To The End of Love … so I had to put my camera down and be in the moment. It was all beautiful and quite lovely.

A few days later it was time for me to fly off to New Zealand and the final leg of my Antipodean adventure and more importantly … meet back up with Bob … yeh! Dec 16th had me getting up at 4am in order to get to the airport … 3 and a half hours drive down the coast … and onto Aukland where Bob and I were happily reunited. We'd been apart for 2 whole months! It was sooo good to see him. Bless!

We'd not stayed in Aukland before so decided rather than head straight for Mount Maunganui and the pre-Christmas family frenzy … we'd acclimatise ourselves there and have a good look around. We loved it! Got a great deal online at a 4 star Hotel right in the centre of the city and explored every which way we could. Watching Avatar in 3D, going to the top of the Sky Towerwas amazing and wandering the wonderful halls of the City Museum were all high-lights. Plus we managed to find some great places to eat … always a joy!

Mount Maunganui and all things family was – as ever -fabulous. We feel right at home there these days. Indulging in walks round the mount, sessions at the Hot Pools, massages, great food, family connections and a while lotta fun. We are surely blessed!!

Unfortunately ... due to technical cock-ups and the fragility of external hard drives all data has been lost from our lovely Christmas Kiwi excursions ... I'm still trying to recapture my photos and flip clips but so far no joy ... ho hum. They are still delightful memories of course but a little harder to "share" with you all.

Thanks as ever for your fortitude, patience and forgiveness! All very much appreciated. I will endeavour to be a bit quicker off the mark with my next installment which will include a little nuptial experience of my own! Promise!!!

Much love, peace and joy!

Christine Collister Miller ;-) XX

Better late than never ... summer shennanigans!

2010-01-18T08:29:00.000-08:00

Better late than never?

Dear Blog reader … my humble apologies for being so tardy in getting this particular batch of memories up and running. I have only my innate laziness and various “life” distractions to excuse my inaction these past few months but hope that you will forgive me and continue with your unstinting support? That said … let's waste no more time in useless, inconsequential banter and fall head-first into the melting pot of worldy adventures I've been privileged to undergo since my last entry!

Before Bob and I flew off to Washington DC in July we were happy to go bike riding one Sunday afternoon with our friends Dave and Christy. They … regularly bike ride … we … do not! So Bob and I hired bikes for the day and followed in their more experienced wake. There's a wonderful track that follows what used to be a railway line from the east coast of the Island straight through to the west and we went as far as St John's, a few miles short of Peel and what would have been the end of the line. All in all about a 17 mile round trip. From nought to 17 miles in one day? Not the best idea we've ever had but … it was mighty good fun!

A jolly ride out ... adventures in cycling! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Just before flying off to the States for the summer, Dave and Christy were working on a special commemorative DVD for the local Government here on the Isle of Man. It was to celebrate the Bee Gees acceptance of being made Freemen of the Borough of Douglas. For those of you who don't know, Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb were all born on the Isle of Man. Oh yes they were! For some reason, beyond my comprehension, Dave and Christy both thought I was the ideal person to present the program - I humbly picked up the gauntlet! The dvd is now finished and ready for purchase should you my lovely reader feel curious enough to buy, here is the link to the website:Bee Gees commemorative Dvd.

A walk in the sunshine ... a dvd in the making ... from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Let us move swiftly on from the gentle, rolling countryside of the Isle of Man, to the bustling metropolis that is Washigton DC. The idea was to spend the summer in LA via a little east coast jaunt that allowed us to take in a couple of Back Door Slam gigs before settling in the sunshine of northern California.We were excited to see Davy and his new line-up who were on tour supporting the brand new rock super group Chicken Foot. We wanted to get a taste of things to come before they moved out to the west coast later in the tour. So Bob carefully studied the tour dates and came up with the idea of starting in Washington where – according to his information – they were to play the day after our arrival. Only … the date had been rearranged and they were now playing in Cleveland – a good 5 hour drive away! - 2 days after our arrival! Ha!It gave us the opportunity to play at being proper tourists … which was in fact wonderful:

Washington DC ... weeee from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The drive to Cleveland was easy-peasy lemon squeazy.

On our way to Cleveland ... from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The gig the following day was sensational. The new band definitely ROCK! And we loved the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
… I now have many new and interesting ideas for my next show!Can you guess what inspired me the most? ...

Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame ... & BDS of course! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

And so, onto New York, New York. We had a few days here which allowed me to wander off and do my own thing. Which consisted mainly of window shopping (well I went inside just to keep cool!) no purchases were made during the making of this Blog! It was ridiculously hot and humid which made for some very interesting al fresco smells. The air was so thick you could chew it!

New York, New York .. so good they smelt it twice! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

And of course the reason for being here at this time … Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam!

Star Gazing in New York ... BDS ROCK! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

And so we flew across the great expanse that is America and found ourselves, once again in Los Angeles. I don't care what people say … I love it!

La, la land and some of it's charms ... from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Famous McCabes Guitar Shop Santa Monica ... from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Grooving at the Grove ... from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The Getty Museum ... wow! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

About half way through our stay, we drove up to see Davy
and the boys again, still on tour with Chicken Foot, at Lake Tahoe
Nevada. It's a fair old schlepp from LA so we decided to go via Death Valley
– something we've been planning to do for ages – stop over night – at Stove Pipe Wells!
- and drive on the next day. When we left Hollywood it was a very pleasant 80F. Several hours later, driving ever downward into the Valley itself, the temperature gauge in the car started going up and up! It was 112F by the time we arrived at out Motel! It was like being wrapped in cling film and instantly baked! Amazing.The highest temperature that day was at the aptly named Furnace Creek at a whopping 117F! Phew what a scorcher!

We'd been reliably informed that one thing we HAD TO DO, was get up ridiculously early to watch the sun rise over Zabriskie Point
(which I kept calling Zabrinskie!Doh.)So we woke at some un-Godly pre-dawn hour, in order to get there before the sun had fully risen. Amazingly there was a full moon that night and it was swinging low over the hills as we set off – beautiful.

The whole experience was utterly breath-taking. The changing light over the strange and moon-like landscape was simply wonderful. I couldn't stop snapping away with my camera. Everywhere I turned was another “must-have” picture. Bob … apparently inspired by the location … asked me to marry him!!!!! I said YES!!!! Hurrah.

A momentous time at Death Valley! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

After all the excitement of Death Valley it was a relatively calm and sedate drive up to Lake Tahoe. That was until we decided to follow our “Lady-of-the Dashboard” along a “short-cut” route halfway there. It became clear after about 10 or 15 minutes that this was actually an imagined (on her part!) alternative route and we were properly lost for about an hour! At one point there was NO ROAD at all, just the cracked bed of a dry river and a few stones.Talk about adventure. Luckily the road re-appeared several miles later and we were dropped back on the same road we'd started on an hour earlier … only a few miles further up. So much for short cuts!

Lake Tahoe couldn't have been a more different experience to Death Valley.It's 6 or 7 thousand feet above sea level in an Alpine Mountain range . The lake itself is immense and surrounded by lush green pine forests and a good 30F degrees cooler. We stayed at one of the many Casino Hotels in the area who were hosts to Chicken Foot and Davy K. The gig was set up in a massive car park to the side of the hotel which was cordoned off for a series of summer concerts. The boys went on in what was left of the days light and played as the sun was going down. The atmosphere was truly electric and the crowd, as-they-say, went wild! It was a great gig. Quite a day all in all!

Lake Tahoe and BDS!! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The band had their own head-lining gig at Slim's
in San Francisco the following day a mere 3 hours away by car. There were major bridge works on what would have been our most obvious route into the city and so our drive was a little more circuitous than expected but we managed to get to the venue on time … the band, bless them, were a little late! It was a very important gig for them, as the The Times Culture Magazine
had arranged to fly one of their regular writers, Paul Sexton
over from the UK to do a special feature on Davy and the band! Paul was more than happy to hang out at the gig and soak up the wonderful atmosphere before the boys and their Bus finally turned up to do a very quick sound check. My favourite part of the night was being invited on stage to sing backing vocals on a couple of songs – I was a rock chick for a few minutes – yeh!

Are we going to San Francisco? from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The drive back to LA is always delightful when you take Route 1 down the coast road past, Nepenthe
and Big Sur
. It was getting quite late as we approached Santa Barbara
and feeling more than a little tired, we decided to stay the night. I was driving and had been stuck behind a line of particularly slow vehicles at this point, when I'd had enough! So I put my foot down and sped past them. 30 seconds later I spotted flashing blue lights in the rear-view mirror and was told - in no uncertain terms! - to pull over! Eek! I was SO apologetic, that the incredibly stern Policeman, who stood legs akimbo, hands on hips as he “questioned” me, was more than a little puzzled and it wasn't just my accent.When he came back from checking out my Isle of Man
driving license he basically told me off and informed me that the speed limit in “this country” is 70 miles an hour … keep to it! OK officer I will … thank you! Phew! I was so wound up by the experience I hardly slept a wink.

A couple of weekends later Bob and I were invited to stay with our good friend Christine Hansen
. We'd met her together in 2007 when she was part of the organisation that promoted the Nelson Mandela concert in Johannesburg which Corinne was invited to perform at. Christine, originally from New York, was then living in LA and had recently moved out to live in Ojai California
, a beautiful place an hour and a half north of where we were staying in west Hollywood. We jumped at the chance.

Driving up the driveway to the Mansion Christine's little house was a part of, was such a thrill! The main house, which belongs to a close friend of Christine's, is in the beautiful style of a Mexican Hacienda and we both fell in love with not only the house but it's absolutely fantastic location. High up on a mountain ridge over looking the small town of Ojai, we were on a level with Eagles as they flew by – breath-taking!

The entire weekend was like a fairytale, including going to a “Pirate's Weekend” convention down at beautiful lake Casitas. An eye-popping experience if ever I've had one! We also enjoyed local rich, gastronomic delights, deep tissue massage and a midnight dip in the hot spa pool. Too much information?! It was all a total joy. Christine is the perfect hostess … witty, vivacious, generous and inspirational! It's a weekend we'll never forget. I hope it's not the last time we get to sample the high life in this most beautiful of places with our lovely friend.

Oh hi it's Ojai! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Towards the end of our summer stay in Hollywood, Davy and the band were set to play their last couple of gigs on this particular leg of their almost continuous tour. The last night of the Chicken Foot extravaganza took place at The Gibson Theatre Universal City on a stupidly hot Sunday evening. The support band for this particular gig had been set months in advance which meant the band weren't allowed to play; Davy, talented boy that he is, did a blinding solo set which went down a storm. Of course he'd rather have played with the band but sometimes these things are set to thwart us. He was awesome!

Bob and I got to the venue late afternoon in time to be at sound check and took the opportunity to wander the strange and surreal streets that make up Universal City
.

Davy K with Chicken Foot @Gibson Amphitheatre LA from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

A couple of nights later the whole band played atThe Mint
, a newly revived gig on the outskirts of Hollywood. This small venue is camp as camp can be and a great place to watch a show. There were loads of friends and fans who came down for the gig and none were disappointed. I was thrilled to be invited to sing again, this time alongside Peter Frampton
too! Yeh … the Framptonettes are alive and kicking (we sorely missed Christy D
though!)! There was a palpable wave of excitement as Peter was announced on stage. Davy and he - and the entire audience - grinned from ear to ear the entire time they played! It was quite something to behold.

Me, Davy K and Peter F at The Mint! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We left our pals in Los Angeles at the end of September and made our way back to the Isle of Man and this side of the pond. We had a short 2 week turn around before heading off to Australia and all things Antipodean … all to be revealed in the next installment!

Blog on the run prt III ... the last installment ...

2009-08-05T07:50:00.000-07:00

The final five and ... a few bits in between

I always feel somewhat in awe of time when the end of a tour is looming… where did all that excitement and expectation go? Why has it all stopped? When can I do it all again? So much thought and energy goes into the preparation and performance then once the final bow has been taken … it’s as if it never happened … and yet … there are flip charts that say otherwise! Come with me and I’ll prove that it wasn’t just a figment of my imagination.

The Processed Pea was the last gig I Blogged about and it was, if you remember, a strange and wonderful affair. There then followed 2 delightful days of rest in the old market town of Hitchin Herts, with our lovely friend Paul Leitch. I spent a fair amount of that time Blogging myself into a Filp-ing frenzy – the results of which took a further 2 weeks to post. Not enough internet-connection is my excuse … oh yeh and the little matter of five further gigs!

Bob and Rob actually got out to Wembley to see Oasis! But after a morning of Oxford Street schlepping I was in no fit state and waved them off as I trundled back to Hitchin and an early night. Though they had a high old time, they also had several VERY frustrating security guard experiences, which I did not envy. Ah bless.

So Friday July 10th quickly arrived and after a spot of lunch in Hitchin’s bustling town centre we left for Crouch End – not a difficult journey. Poor Bob though, had a painful back problem compounded by his Wembley Arena run around and so I sent him back to rest … he got as far as the car park but his pronounced limp (that’s: L.I.M.P – limp!) brought out the mother hen in me and I shooed him back to our room. Bless.

The Kalamazoo Club is another old favourite of mine. The sound engineer, Peter has been there many years and is always helpful and mercifully quick in setting up and getting a great sound – thanks Peter - which left Rob and I plenty of time to eat! Not always a good thing before a gig. This was another culinary experience – not as good as some but better than we expected and funny too.

I was delighted to see Peter Emery from the Travelling Gentlemen in the crowd and to hear, once again, the unforgettable laughter of our lovely friend Chris Howarth … this was his 3rd gig of the tour. Yeh! It was also great to meet a fellow Manxie at the end of the night: Rob Heeney… a successful comedian no less… this is his local gig – lucky man. He and Rob got on brilliantly and addresses were exchanged. It was a lively show with a fair amount of audience interaction and a fabulously generous response. Thank you Kalamzoo – we love you too!

A spot of luncheon in Hitchin. from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Now normally when touring there are certain things one tries to avoid – one of them is working in London one night and Carlisle the next. But that’s what we did and I have no one but myself to blame. The thing is, when someone like Jil Bark says that’s the only night she could put on a gig, it’s plain stupid to say no.

Bob was feeling a bit better on Saturday and was happy to sit in the back of the car for 5 hours. The time went relatively quickly and for some reason I did the whole drive … you get so far and somehow want to finish what you started … well that’s how it felt at the time.

I’ve known Jil Bark a long time now and 3 years ago she and her partner Ishka moved into a large terraced house in Wigton, just outside Carlisle. I remember them both telling me about a shared dream they had at the time, to run a little Bistro with concerts at the weekends. I had no idea just how close those dreams were to coming true. It’s taken a ridiculous amount of hard work and much planning and negotiation but soon … they’ll be developing the basement of their gorgeous home, into a 45 seater Bistro-style restaurant and holding concerts in the same space on a regular basis. Hurrah.

For the last 18 months they’ve been running monthly house concerts in their lovely, large, front room as a steppingstone toward their final goal and have amassed an enviable mailing list of very satisfied customers – from far and wide. At half time … they serve delicious food. It’s brilliant!

This gig in particular was VERY HOT. Talk about free sauna. Rob and I were the last official house concert – an honour. In the next few months the builders will be in to renovate the basement area and in the New Year … fingers crossed … they’ll be ready to open their fabulous new place – The Monkey Tree . We wish them huge success. We had an absolute ball in their wonderful home and fabulous company. We’re hoping for a return gig at the new grown-up venue.

London to Wigton ... a gig too far? Never! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Because I’d managed to book a gig all the way back in Hitchin on Sunday – yes really - London/Carlise/Hitchin – we had little time to socialise, though we’d love to have done, we had to get back on the road relatively early the following day and drive ourselves right back to Hitchin. Yeh … we love being on the road. Rob did the lion’s share of the drive this time … phew.

Hitchin Folk club won the prestigious Radio 2 Folk music award for best Folk club in 2005. It’s been running for over 40 years.In fact last time I played here was to celebrate that achievement. For much of that time it’s been held in the ballroom of the Sun Inn – where Paul Lietch has been the manager for the last 3 years. Maureen and Keiron Jones are the club’s wonderful organizers and they do a brilliant job - I also know that they truly appreciate Paul’s huge passion for music. It’s a great combination.

It was quite late in the day when we arrived to set up our
Carlsbro PA and we were all more than a bit hungry but I wanted the gear up and running so I knew everything was OK before rushing off to eat … with Rob’s amazing patience, it was all sorted out and we sat down together with Maureen and Keiron exhausted but fairly happy. Rob did a short but perfectly formed set of his own songs before I joined him on stage. It was great to see friends we hadn’t seen in some time who managed to make it to the show … Steve Lima and Ted Kelly, and some more we’d only seen recently and were equally happy to see again … Pam and Martin Drury and of course … Chris Howarth, notching up a fab 4th gig this evening. Oh how sweet it is to be loved.

Back unto Hitchin once more dear frineds ... from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

On Monday July 13th we packed up our stuff and set off for the last time from The Sun Inn … we had a fabulous time settled within it’s hospitable walls … many, many thanks to Paul – you’re a star. We were in convoy for these last few gigs and set off for Birmingham where we were invited to stay with one of Rob’s long time friends, Aaron - a fellow Manxie! Aaron works for the ICC and is a brilliant sound engineer which came in handy for our last show. We spent a delightful night in his new gorgeous flat and ate royally at a local Indian restaurant called “Deolali”.

Our penultimate gig was at Biddulph Town Hall, organized by Eric Cox who’s been putting on acoustic shows in the area for more years than either of us would care to admit. I’ve always played at the club before and was pleasantly surprised at how well the larger hall suited acoustic music.

The Loud Mouthed Women are a large choir made up of local … as the name states … women. There were maybe 25/30 of them all told? They made a wonderful sound and had the audience eagerly joining in … I love hearing that many voices raised in song – it’s brilliant.

We were very tired this night but managed to muster ourselves and put in a pretty decent performance I think. The crowd certainly went wild at the end of the night. And afterwards it was fantastic to see some friends I’d not seen for far too long. Unfortunately Howard Lees was ill but Jean and Alison and her lovely beau Andy came along without him – bless. And Potter, he who first introduced me to Patty Griffin and “Mary” was delightfully positive about our new musical shenanigans. Hurrah. Rob and Aaron headed back to Birmingham and Bob and I made our way across to the incredibly accommodating Ansell’s once more – yeh!

Loud Mouthed Women ... and a few blokes too! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

There were 3 full days off before our final musical fling and we made the very most of them for sure. Two nights with Diane and Bryan enjoying wonderful food and company – it’s been fantastic to spend time with them again and I’m totally indebted to Maria’s wonderful willingness to share her hard earned knowledge about hatching chicks. Enjoy.

Maria Ansell ... Superchick! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Our next friendly port of call was to see Rob and Jo Selbourne at Prebendal farm in Wiltshire. We love staying with them in their beautiful home which is also a B&B. In fact the last time we were able to sample their hospitable delights, was last June while on tour with Dave Kelly and the Gentlemen. Lucky for us we were the only people allowed to stay for 2 delicious nights.

Prebendal Madness! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

After a night of raucous daftness, the heavens well and truly opened the following day. I’ve rarely seen it pelt so hard. Knowing Rob had harvest a couple of weeks later made it all the more dramatic.

A Perfect preamble at Prebendal. from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Thankfully later in the afternoon it eased off enough for Jo and I to take their little black and tan Jack Russell Matty and the nieghbour’s Border Collie Socks, for a walk in Ashdown Woods. It was an absolutely fantastic experience – Jo is a brilliant person to walk with, as she knows so much about the countryside … it was an honour.

Take a walk on the wild side with Lady Robert selbourne prt I from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

(a photo I took of the beautiful 18th Century House at Ashdown Woods)

A walk on the wild side prt II from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Mutual friends from the village came to play with us all on our second night. Nick and Sarah are great fun – we all egg one another on! The Flip was left well and truly alone. Before we bid our fond farewells Rob decided to take his 1932 Morgan out for a spin and took Bob with him – eek! It’s a beautiful machine and has taken years to get to its’ present pristine state … Rob it would appear is a dab hand with motors. I hope it’s not too long before we have the Prebendal Experience again. XX

Gutta Morgan! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

And so it came to pass … the final show. As a way to ease ourselves into the right frame of mind we arranged to meet up with Rob and Aaron at the Orchard Tea Rooms in Granchester – this would be the 4th time Rob and I had been here during this tour! Yeh … d’ya think maybe we like it? We set off to the Acoustic Routes in Cambridge right after scones, clotted cream, jam and pots of tea! Yum.

I remember meeting Bernard Hoskin for the first time at a strange but bizarre outdoor Festival in Suffolk maybe 4 years ago? Anyway the story goes like this: It was a huge site with … no people attending! Well OK there were, maybe 10 trusty onlookers and – yes that’s right – a dog! There were 2 stages side by side and one enormous covered sound desk a good 200 yards away in the centre of the field. The idea being that one stage could be set up while the other stage is being performed on. Great idea. However … the techy guys were straight out of school and I mean school not college and they didn’t really care let alone know what that were supposed to be doing and … I went on a solo performer and three lines into my second song … the PA blew up! Man I must have been belting it out!

So I, being an old trouper, promptly jumped down off the stage onto the grass and walked to the huddled crowd of … 15 (I really brought them in!). After finishing the song I’d started on stage, we then proceeded to the blue and white stripy beer tent 500 yards away up hill at the edge of the field and “did the show right there!” Bernard was one of those few people … so you see I remembered him well.

Bernard runs a monthly acoustic show in a tiny cellar room beneath a very nice café/restaurant in the middle of Cambridge and he does a wonderful job. Dedicated, enthusiastic and an all round good egg; I love playing here. It was a fitting end to a fabulous tour. Aaron, bless him, on his day off ended up basically doing the sound for us – for which thanks! Chris Howarth bless him also, bought tickets for his fifth show of the tour … this time with a very lovely lady at his side … a Collister virgin no less. Hurrah.

The beginning of the end ... from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Rob for the last time … ah … played his final opening set and I joined him once more for a wonderfully joyous and emotional end of tour show which was thoroughly and ecstatically received by the full house crowd! Yeh … this is the way to end a perfectly, beautiful run of dates. Thank you EVERYONE! But especially ROB CROSS who was a joy to be around and a fabulous musical cohort. I hope he’s willing to do it again … sometime … next year? Maybe?

Cambridge Acoustic Routes ... the end of the road ... ah. from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

To everyone who made it to a gig and those who wanted to and couldn’t … I thank you … your support is not only appreciated it’s essential!

Bob and I are off on our travels once more next week; we fly out to Washington August 13th to see Back Door Slam on their continuing adventures before jet setting it to Los Angeles on the 18th! Yeh … I love my life! I will, of course, be carrying on with the writing process and Flipping a few moments in the sun for you all to – hopefully – enjoy.

Thanks for taking the time to read my Blog and watch the daft Flip videos I’ve learnt to edit along the way. For someone who’s not at all techy I’ve really enjoyed that new experience – I hope you have too.

Take care … remember I’m on Twitter, The 61 and Facebook too … all cool ways to find out what’s going on, on a more regular basis.

See you out there ...

Much love

Christine XX ;-)

2009-07-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

Blog on the run: instalment II … 7 dates and 6 mighty gigs on the trot … will our trusty musos survive?

We last left you at Maltby heading for a few days rest at the delightful Ansell household. Rob went to Whitby to stay with friends and returned Monday afternoon just in time to give Bob a lift to Newark train station to start his long journey back to the Island – ah. We missed him! Well I certainly did!

I took the opportunity to go into Nottingham with Diane and Maria Ansell to do a spot of mid-tour shopping! I can share with you that it was a very successful trip … 2 jackets and a pair of funky shoes later (all in sales!) and before we knew it we were sat at a pizza place ready to eat a well deserved luncheon – phew! Maria did especially well, managing not only to purchase several birthday presents for her mum but having 4 new – mostly purple - outfits bought for her by her mum … all in all a dizzy and exciting experience!

Shopping for purple things! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Rob and I did an impromptu performance for the Ansell’s after yet another delicious tea … due to Maria having her tonsils removed the following day, Diane and Bryan were unable to make it to our next port of call so we thought it only right and proper we sang for our supper. All much appreciated on everyone’s part.

We left the Ansell’s on Tuesday morning and headed for Leigh-on-Sea Essex to the Hoy At Anchor Folk club,which takes place on Tuesday evenings at the Ship Inn, opposite the train station in Old Leigh. I’ve played here several times now and always relish the experience. We arrived, after a particularly sweaty drive – too much information? And continued the physical heat by lugging our Carlsbro PA up the narrow stairwell that leads to the performance space.

Now when I’ve been here before the stage has always been set up in the window near the station but this time there was a bigger stage already up and functioning at the opposite side of the room so we rigged the PA to go there … seemed the right thing to us but … apparently we were supposed to wait till the lovely organisers turned up and use the window as usual… oops! Sorry! But there was no going back once it was all up and running! And they were very philosophical about our obvious conclusion.

Several people I know and love were coming to the show this night and I was very excited to see them all: Gary and Fiona, Ky and Emma, Phil and especially our hosts for the next few days: Helen Watson and her delightful partner Clea. Yeh!

I was still feeling a little off kilter at this point and not as confident as I like to be in general banter terms but no one else seemed to notice – phew! Rob’s extra harmonies were starting to come together and all the loop station and stomp-box songs went by without a hitch- hurrah. Another great gig under our belts – thanks Leigh! You were marvellous!

Untitled from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Rob had met many people on the tour so far who waxed lyrical every time the delightful Ms Watson was mentioned. So his expectations were very high and possibly, he was a bit fearful that she couldn’t live up to the abundant praise we all lavish on her when given the opportunity to express our utter confidence and love for her presence. Well … she did not disappoint! They hit it off straight away – of course! Which is a very good thing given we were to spend the next few days in her and Clea’s tiny but perfectly formed blissful home in Burnham-on-Crouch.

Helley-welleny-Botson-Swotson-Watson from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

A day at the sea side - Burnham on Crouch - a guided tour! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

I don’t know what it is about Helen and I that makes us so childish when we get together but whatever it is I am very grateful for it … we are like a pair of very naughty little girls who egg each other on to more and more ridiculous heights!

Foxy Watson sings the ballad of The Slimy Slew-ably assisited ... from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We laughed the entire time we were there. It’s always a joy to be in her company. Clea and Rob coped with us very well too – ah bless. It was hard to leave … we love you gorgeous girls! We’ll be back!

Next on our gig sheet was a run of 6 dates back to back – gulp! First on the list was The Musician in Leicester and the opportunity to stay with David and Jean Suff – Mr Fledg’ling Records himself. It’s been far too long since I saw them; in fact the last time we met was at the Musician last year when I played there with Dave Kelly and the Travelling gentlemen! We called in on the way to the gig and dropped off our speakers and sundry leads etc not wanting to leave them in the car during the show … time for a hug and cool drink – essential things both!

The Musician is a strange and wonderful venue … brilliantly equipped and presented and I always feel positive before the show. It sounds great and looks fab but somehow I always feel deflated by the end of the night. It’s difficult to get much response from the generally quiet audience … yet at the end of the show they go berserk! Weird … I suppose they just save it all up for the end? My lovely friends Ann and Brian James tried their best to whoop and cheer but even they couldn’t get their fellow audience members to give out … until the last song.

The Musician Leicester - legendary gig! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

David and Jean made us feel very welcome back at their lovely home in Uppingham and a sound sleep went a long way to restoring my dented demeanour. Onward and upward … well actually downward as our next port of call was Brighton!

On the road again ... from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

When we left Uppingham it was grey and damp and more rain accompanied us on our drive down. By the time we entered the M25 the sun had returned and the traffic had built up … and I was not happy about the 2 hours it took to get from the A1 junction to the M23! Argh …

The Open House is home to Brighton Folk and Blues club and a very funky place it is. We both loved it on first sight. Vanessa and Alan are the delightful organisers of this very lively club, which has only been running about a year. It’s a fantastic venue and once we got the sound check done the room filled up really quickly. Whatever fugue had plagued me surrounding my general stage persona, it disappeared at Brighton!

Perhaps it was the fresh sea air or conversely the stupid drive down but I felt my old confidence return and enjoyed a very light-hearted and witty performance -as did the substantial audience. Hurrah! Rob did a splendid few songs before the second half and James Asher turned up … co-writer of All About Love … another lovely friend I haven’t seen for far too long. It was the first time he had heard our version of the song he and I started many years ago but which Rob and I finished … and is one of the high lights of this tour. I can report that he gave it and us his full approval - phew! Rob had never been to Brighton before and his first impressions were very favourable. He was heard to say as we left the gig … “I haven’t seen a single ugly person yet!” … He may move there!

We stayed with Ness and her lovely partner Chris at their gorgeous home in Hove just 10 minutes from the gig and discovered – over a lovely glass of red wine - that Ness and I had met years ago (I’m talking 22 years!) when she lived in Hong Kong and I was there performing with Clive Gregson at the Hong Kong Folk Festival! Bloody hell! I thought she looked familiar when we met! We reminisced.

Before moving onto Aldershot we enjoyed a coffee and a walk round Hove … but didn’t make it to the sea front due to inclement weather … not what we ordered! Goodbye Brighton … we’ll be back.

Brighton! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We somehow found ourselves in Horsham in West Sussex looking for food … lunch to be precise but what we found there left us very confused and for sometime … very hungry … but it was a very interesting place!

Horsham ... myth or legend? from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We were invited to stay with my lovely friends Pam and Martin Dury in Sandhurst for the next 2 nights, covering Aldershot and Bournemouth nicely – thank you! I have to say that Rob has been brilliant, accepting every situation I’ve thrown his way – he’s delightfully sociable and quite house-trained and has made a positive and lasting impression on everyone he’s met – not least Pam and Martin!

We arrived late afternoon and made ourselves at home while Pam and Martin, together with our mutual and equally delightful friends, Phil and Pat Chappell, left for theWest End Arts Centre in Aldershot, where the festival we were booked to perform at was taking place.

We were due on stage at 10.30 for a 40-minute slot at the end of the night. I don’t think either of us has ever been to, let alone played at, an Indoor/Out-door Festival before … it’s one hell of an experience! Barney Jeavons is the very likeable organiser of this event and it’s due to his innovation and creative input that the centre’s floor surfaces are completely covered in turf! That’s right … grass … the real stuff too … it’s amazing and quite smelly! Last year apparently they had live sheep and goats! There’s also a small wooden bridge and stream running under it … all in doors. I dubbed the space by the river “Glastonbury” as by the time we arrived it was a proper muddy mess and I lost my shoe more than once to the suction it created. The other remarkable thing to mention was the amount of young people in the audience … brilliant!

Aldershot indoor/out door festival - say what? from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

There were a number of excited people who’d been to see me before who shouted out song titles with a fair amount of passion … I was quite taken aback … in a very humble way. These same people decided to come to East Grinstead too! Bless them – and thanks!

Rob and I got back to the Dury’s lovely home about 12.30am where Pam was in full entertaining mode and assembling a mountain of food for us to enjoy. It was a full-on party including champagne and red wine. Phil and Pat were also there and before we knew it, it was 4.30! Ouch. For some reason I still can’t fathom … Rob mentioned Amaretto and so it was produced from Pam’s magical never ending supply of lovely things to enjoy… which later … Rob regretted.

Aldershot aftermath! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Ah bless. We had a very long lie-in the following morning – what was left of it! I was surprisingly fine but poor Rob was not at his best. We drove to Bournemouth mid afternoon leaving enough time to meet up with Martin, Pam, Phil and Pat to enjoy a bite to eat before sound check. While waiting for food that never arrived ... we were a bit bored and Phil made good use of the time; thanks also to Pam for the group pic ... still no food!BTW ... Kipper Collister and the Amaretto Kid are still on the loose!

The sun shone bright in Bournemouth and a new venue to experience awaited.The Centre Stage, home to the Bournemouth Folk Club , is a rather wonderful venue imbued with a great sense of atmosphere that lends itself generously to anyone who treads its lovely stage. Paul Burke organises 2 nights of music each week, made us feel vey welcome. His obvious love of music is so warm and giving that we felt immediately at our ease. Nick is the in house soundman and was equally accommodating and very good at his job!

I haven’t played Bournemouth for quite some time and had no idea what sort of attendance to expect … I was very pleasantly surprised. We had our first – and only – funky dancer when we played “The Ones That Love You” … a delightful 5/6 year old girl who commented that I had tiny curls at the end of my hair … that’s what a very hot and sticky night will do for a girl! We loved the entire experience. Bournemouth ROCKS!

Beautiful Bournemouth! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Rob was still feeling a little iffy – bless – so I drove back to Pam and Martin’s, while he snored! Pam, Martin, Phil and Pat all absolutely loved the show and were very impressed with some of our “tricks”! I’m not giving the game away here of course! Pam laid on another spread … how do we survive without these lovely social gatherings? Rob went to bed before the Amaretto could make a move!

We left Sandhurst feeling very loved and appreciated – we can’t thank the Dury’s nearly enough… though we try! We love you too.

Monday July 6th had us heading for the Chequer Mead Theatre in East Grinstead. I’ve played here several times before and loved it each time … Monday was no exception. Martin Snodin has promoted gigs in the area for a number of years now and always does a first rate job … he somehow managed to get me on the front cover of the theatre’s brochure even though the deadline had gone! Hurrah.

We were supported by a very young – 19 year old? – but very talented singer-songwriter:Alex Hall who was delightful … I’m sure he’ll have a very long and successful career – we wish him luck! Bob travelled from the Island that morning to be with us for the show – he was up at 5.30m! It was a joy to see him.

East Grin-stead! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

It was another great gig full of daft moments and one big memory lapse that even I couldn’t bluff my way through but no one seemed to mind me starting again. Phew. Leaving East Grinstead proved harder than expected especially as I kept ignoring our Lady-of-the-Sat-Nav! Oops. We drove up to Hitchin to stay at the Sun Hotel. In fact we’re here until Monday now … a home away from home. Thanks to Paul Leitch … our friend and the hotel’s manager!

And so we come to gig 6 out of 6 … The Processed Peain Etton East Yorkshire. I’ve played here a number of times over the years and was amazed to find that they celebrate their 40th year this September … and in the same venue too! Brilliant. No mean feat.

The drive up from Hitchin was spectacular … amazing cloud formations and several torrential downpours in equal measure … both of which I loved! We also took the opportunity to stop off at Lincoln for a spot of cream-tea – mmm delicious.

the long and cloudy road ... to etton from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Martin Peirson is the Processed Pea’s gallant organiser and took in his stride my change of mind about not using our own PA – only the day before – when we realised how long a drive back it would be. Martin’s PA is more than adequate and would save us a fair amount of time at the end of the night in not having to pack down and fill the car before leaving into the long dark night. Thanks Martin! You’re a sweetheart!

The gig itself was a very strange affair. For one thing the stage erected at the front of the room was relatively high off the ground … or perhaps it was just that that the ceiling was quite low to start with and meant the lovely (6 feet 2 inches tall!) Rob was unable to stand on it without fear of concussion! So we had to improvise and devise an arrangement that allowed us both to be on stage at the same time and after several tries with various pieces of furniture, eventually used a tall stool placed on the floor behind the stage (are you still with me?!) so Rob ended up wedged in a corner of the stage surrounded by his gadgets! It’s probably the only time I’ve been taller than him … and I had to keep flat shoes on so I didn’t bang my head!

For some reason this all added to our growing sense of hysteria and other-worldliness and made for a rather surreal experience. I have no idea what the audience thought about all this but their toes tapped through-out the night and their lovely smiley faces beamed up to our dizzying heights – though only a little laughter was drawn from them despite my silliness and general comic efforts – I was assured when their Flip moment came by their enthusiasm at the end of the night! Bless.

Anyone for a Processed Pea? from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

After big hugs and goodbyes, Rob took the first leg of the journey back while I surreptitiously flipped the full moon and Bob’s curious penchant for bursting into song! You gotta love him – OK maybe that’s just me then? And I do – very much!

It's a long way back to ... Hitchin. from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We have a hefty 3 day run starting tomorrow – Crouch End, Carlisle! Then Hitchin! I have only myself to blame.

Thanks, as ever, for stopping by and do come back to find out what happens next!

Much love

CC ;-) XX

On the road again ... Blog on the run ..

2009-06-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

On the road again … blogging on the run …

Thought I’d try and write as things are actually happening rather than as an after event recall. Intentions are great … following through with the action to make it happen is where it really matters … let’s see what kind of follow up I’m made of shall we? Mmm

So we now have 5 gigs officially under our musical belts … plus … on the last foray into Cardiff to rehearse with Rob, we also did a strange but necessary run-through gig in the heart of Cardiff city centre at a regular gig of Rob’s in O’Neills! This kind of venue is NOT, repeat NOT what I enjoy and when we turned up to set the PA in place, the pub was heaving with hundreds of very drunk 18 year old students who had just finished their exams and were in a fully fledged frenzy of celebration! I was VERY nervous! Their excited collective noise was so loud that even with a PA in full throttle we couldn’t hear ourselves … amazing. Rob assured me that by the time we were due on they’d have all gone on to wreak havoc at alcoholic pastures new … I closed my eyes … and an hour later all was mercifully student-free

There was, in their stead, a delightfully small and perfectly formed crowd of Rob’s friends and musical associates who cheered us on and helped make the process from rehearsal to performance space relatively pain-free. In fact they were fabulously generous with their praise and a good time was actually had much to my surprise. Thanks Cardiff!

A big, big thanks are also due to Andrew Bishop and Mick Wittemoore of Carlsbro PA http://www.carlsbro.com/ who very generously gave us the use of a wonderful Carlsbro set up for those smaller gigs where the PA can sometimes be a lottery. When Loop stations are emplyed to enhance one's musical exploits, a decent and reliable PA makes a huge difference to the performing confidence! We greatly appreciate the help! Thanks guys. XX

I made it home in time for mum’s birthday and a wonderful orchestral concert at the Villa Marina. Mum, dad, Diane (big sis!), Colin (lil bro), Rachel (lil bro’s gorgeous wife!) and Aaron … fabulous nephew who adores this music … all attended. We LOVED the entire experience and tears of joy were a collective bonus! Anna Goldsmith – local musical heroine – had the honour of singing with a full orchestral arrangement of a(yet more local musical heroes!) Bee Gees song – arranged by our very own Dave Armstrong! Anna and Dave’s arrangement were superb.
It was a thrill to spend a little time in the company of Andy Brown,London Metropolitan Orchestra's enthusiastic conductor, after the show.A group of us enjoyed a delightful meal with him a couple of nights later at niarbylcafe . I think he took a shine to the Island! And who could blame him … the sunsets lately have been breath-taking!

There was also time for a little TT outing with the Armstrong clan one day ... culminating in a rare ice-cream treat in Peel ...

And so our first gig was upon us! Sunday June 14th at Erin Arts Centre . We had great intentions of getting there early and having loads of time to sort out any technical hitches but … time sped up and we were scrambling around in a panic trying to sort everything out with little time to spare! We were very ambitious wanting to not only film the show but properly record it as well … some how … we managed it!

Rob and I were a little nervous and many songs found a speedier tempo than we rehearsed. The most memorable moment was our second Loop Station arrangement … where something went horribly wrong … and everyone … after a split-second silence, burst into absolute hysterics! This “feature” my dad assures me should be kept in the show … I think not! Thankfully, enough of our hard work paid off and the majority of songs came through with flying colours – phew! It was a great night and a brilliant way to start the tour. A few very important factors came to light too: there were 2 songs too many overall and a couple of songs didn’t sit as well together as we’d hoped but with a little jiggery-pokery I think it all works fine now.

The next few days were a fraught whirlwind of rehearsals – editing and producing and by the time we left the Island we had in our possession – thanks to the hard work and focus of Dave Armstrong and Christy DeHaven -a fair few copies of our tour cd: “Under Construction”! - available at a show near you!!! ;-)

We left the Island on Thursday June 18th and headed for my delightful friend Lynda Turner’s home, in Chadderton. She made us very welcome and cooked up a storm producing an amazingly delicious risotto, washed down with a generous glass-full of fruity red wine. She began what has become the trend of this tour with her fine food and wine and great company. This is Rob’s first tour and it’s a brilliant starting point … he’s very impressed.

On Friday morning we were due to pick Bob-the-Boyfriend up from Manchester airport. He’d been in New York to be with Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam at the launch of their second album “Coming Up For Air”. All had gone brilliantly well and the signs are more than favourable for a very successful album and tour. Hurrah!

Though his flight was delayed by a few hours he emerged from his travels as perky and positive as ever. It was great to see him and brilliant he made it for the start of the tour. He brought back for me a new video gizmo – an HD Flip camera! A very whizzy bit of kit. So far I’ve filmed a handful of clips at sound check and in the car as we drive through this beautiful country. As I get more familiar with it’s workings I’ll find more reasons to use it and “share” with you.

First Flippin moments! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

So … we drove up to Knaresborough- our first port of call. The Frazer Theatre is a gorgeous performing space normally used exclusively for the local Knaresborough Players Dramatics Society but for the last year, with the able help of John Haxby (thanks to him for the fab live pic from the night!) they’ve given over a night or 2 a month to music and it’s a wonderful space to perform in. Originally according to Mike (who I kept calling Mark!), one of the Board of Directors, the Theatre was a Dance Hall with a live band perched on a precarious platform way above the dance floor. There are still some original features here and there alluding to it’s colourful past.

Sound check was quick and painless and all technical devices were in good working order! I was very pleased to see our great friend Chris Howarth just before the show … enjoying local fish and chips, as we had ourselves had a little time before.

Sound Check Knaresborough from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

A healthy crowd filed into the auditorium and Rob, taking a deep breath, went on first to do a 15 minutes set – greatly appreciated by the people of Knaresborough. I joined him and off we went on our musical odyssey. Everything went well though I still fell off the guitar several times … having someone else there making up for my chordal faux pas is great! Mr Ben did a roaring trade at half time and the second half went by really quickly. We’ve made a few more changes since then but all was as well as could be. Knaresborough showed their appreciation in no uncertain terms and left smiling.

We met up with friends Andrew and Alison Bishop along with John and Mike from the theatre at a local Wine Bar. I was lovely to relax and wind down with friends. A perfect end to a pretty much perfect day.

I decided that lunch at the Queens Head in Troutbeck, just outside Lake Windermere was the right thing to do on a Saturday in June, so we drove from Knaresborough to the Lake District the following day. Brooding clouds above luscious green rolling hills - wonderful. And the food! Mmm ;-)!

Brooding clouds ... luious green hills from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

I’ve played at the Acoustic Tea Rooms in Kirby Stephen once before and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Penny and Paul who put their considerable energy into running these wonderful events, had since sold off the Tea Rooms where it all began and now set everything up in the local Masonic hall.

Untitled from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

The night starts off with an exceptionally delicious 2 course meal (bring your own wine – everyone does!) and we get to sample dinner before anyone else arrives … once PA has been assembled and sound check achieved of course. We do work you know! Bob and I had the vegetarian lasagne – spinach, pine-nuts and blue cheese – scrumptious. Rob chose the one pot chicken tagine with minted cous-cous. My mouth’s watering again just thinking about it. We held off pudding till after the show.

Untitled from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

While the audience arrives and settles down to eat, we relax back at the ranch a few minutes walk away and make our preparations. Rob’s the only one who uses an iron! Penny often says that her food is the opening act and it’s an easy act to follow as everyone feels so good!
So this is our third show and things are still getting moved about a bit . It was a very warm evening and guitars notoriously hate being that hot but we managed to stay in tune, just about. After a request at half time there was a spontaneous song change in the second half which left me wondering about my lyrical recall! Apart from that … we had the most ecstatic response so far. It was a very special night. Topped off with fabulous cake and wine after the show.

Continuing the culinary extravagance we were treated to one of Penny’s beautiful breakfasts and deep rich coffee sipped, sitting in the front of her shop Sunday morning. Astonishingly the shop next door had been broken into in the middle of the night and the whole village was a-chatter with speculation! We came to the conclusion the thief was not very bright … having broken into an Estate agents Paul was heard to say … they could have waited till Monday to get the particulars!

After a long goodbye we headed off to stay with Jo and Mike (Bob’s daughter and son-in-law) to celebrate Father’s Day. Mike’s family were also there and we all enjoyed yet more amazing food, wine and company! Rob’s definitely up for more touring.

Untitled from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

On Monday Rob and I took advantage of the afternoon by rehearsing some more trying to tighten-up some of our arrangements and getting Rob to add a few more harmonies here and there. We’re getting there.

We called in to see Diane and Bryan Ansell in East Stoke en route to Hempstead and the Bluebell Inn. Introducing Rob to their wonderful family and home. We would be staying with them for a few days in the gap between Hempstead and Maltby.

Return to Stoke Hall! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

I’ve played the Bluebell Inn several times before and delight in landlord Rod Stokes telling of the story of Dick Turpin’s downfall. How after years of terrorizing the countryside with his evil antics Mr Turpin managed to escape to York – a veritable distance in those days – and lived undetected for years under a different identity. Only to be take to prison for shooting a chicken (presumably someone elses?!). While in prison in York he wrote a letter to his brother, still living in hempstead, to ask for help but the postmaster, who had taught him to write in the first place, recognised his handwriting and so shopped him to the magistrates in York, where he was put on trial for his Highwayman past and found guilty. You just never know the day!

This was the first night we tried out Rob’s brand new stomp box … very high tech! Plus another new gadget in the form of a reverb pedal - just to add a little atmosphere from time to time. It may have added a bit more than we expected as we’re pretty much convinced that Dick Turpin’s ghost was present at the show … several technical shenanigans occurred seemingly for no good reason? Despite that it was a great night with plenty of interaction and joking about and for the first time I turned the Flip on the audience instead of taking the usual snapshot at the end of the night … now we have actual moving, cheering pictures … the circle of friends on the front row were there to represent the other unseen but felt presences!

We were treated to yet another great English breakfast experience courtesy of Rod the following morning and I remembered to take a few minutes of Flipness for your delectation:

Stand and Deliver ... a night with Dick Turpin! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

We dropped Bob off at Cambridge train station around mid-day, he had several lots of meetings to take in London while Rob and I carried on further north. He met back up with us late Thursday night – bless. I thought Rob might appreciate the loveliness that is The Orchard Tea Rooms at Grantchester. I wasn’t wrong! After our large breakfast with Rod there was only enough room for coffee and a small piece of cake … food maketh the tour.

We arrived at Diane and Bryan’s late afternoon and unloaded the gear from the car and set everything up in the conservatory to rehearse a little more the next day. Always trying to improve! But one thing was missing … the bloody stomp box!!! After scratching our heads over where on earth it could possibly be I decided to call the tea rooms just in case … and lo- and behold someone had found it in the car park that afternoon and thankfully handed it in. Rob had really enjoyed the experience there and wanted to go back … not sure he meant only 24 hours later but that’s what we did!

Grantchester Stomp-box madness! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Bob’s train was stupidly late on Thursday night due to another train breaking down just north of Grantham; so while I patiently waited outside Newark station he was, equally patiently waiting outside Grantham. In the end I drove to Grantham and picked him up there. Ah it must be love.
Last night, Friday June 26th, was our fifth show and the best technically so far. All that rehearsing is paying off – who knew?! The Rock folk club has been running many, many years now and I’ve played there on numerous occasions over several decades - gulp! And always loved it. Not least because of Rob Shaw’s presence and energy – he’s been organising shows – formerly at the Rockingham Arms in Wentworth -for as long as the club has been running and now in it’s, relatively new home, at the Wesley Centre in Maltby, that experience continues.

Back stage shenanigans The Rck Maltby ! from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

It’s certainly a beautiful venue and apparently – I only have Rob’s word for it – the beer’s even better! It was a stupidly hot evening … I should be several pounds lighter than I am after the experience – Rob Cross, started the evening a towering 6 foot 2inches … shrank from perspiration! You don’t have to believe me of course. He also broke ahis G string (yes really!) in the 3rd song! So I sang an impromptu Gear jin Ayr ... all in a days work you know.

Dylan Felix and his partner Roger were able to come to the show – Dylan looks after the Myspace site for me and does a great job. It’s always a pleasure to see them. Jo and Mike were there too – Mike was a Collister virgin till last night! They were both very effusive and full of praise – thanks guys!

Bob and I are staying here at their delightful home just outside Worksop and Rob has gone off to visit old friends in Whitby for the weekend. It’s not all slog.

So … 5 down 12 to go! I hope to see some of you out there very soon. Thanks for stopping by. If you haven’t already done so check out the new-look website: www.christinecollister.com – thanks as ever to Christy DeHaven.

Much love

CC XX ;-)

Great expectations ...

2009-06-03T02:18:00.000-07:00

I thought the time was ripe to write a blog about the up coming tour and the preparations that go on behind the scenes plus of course " ... any other business". Mainly I've spent time wrestling with what songs to include in the set. It's difficult to get the balance of old, new and borrowed just right. I started off with about 30 songs which I whittled down to say... 22. Then, after several rehearsals with Rob Cross (he who shall make me sound musically exciting and bless him, had to learn everything from scratch ) I realised I had too many certain types of songs and not enough of others ... plus there were too many songs altogether! Argh! So ... I've deleted 3 or 4 songs and added 2 and now have a "subs bench" of about 5. Are you still with me? Thought not! It's a strange and sometimes satisfying conundrum. I've thought about having an online post show debate ... where I post the set list for each night and you ... my dear, dear listener ... get to comment on it, whether you're at the show or not. It's just an idea ... and generally speaking once I've found the list that works I stay with it but this being a new way of working for me, perhaps I'll veer off the normal way of things and be even more adventurous?! Only time will tell. Apropos of nothing really I just want to say how beautiful the Island is ... look!

On Sunday May 17th my good friends at Stereoscout records started a weekly music event at the award winning and beautifully renovated court house on Atholl Street in Douglas (iom). Christy DeHaven (guitar,vocals and loop station!) with Dave Armstrong on bass, (Mr and Mrs Stereoscout ) were hosts and first up ... I'm so proud of Christy's confidence now on stage ... hard won and well deserved, she was fab.

Truman Falls were next and filled the place with their gorgeous harmonies and brilliant songs - the tiny isle has a wealth of musical talent. Anna Goldsmith should have been here too but was fighting a nasty virus - she has since fully recovered - hurrah. So I was up last to finish the night. It's a while since I stood on stage on my own and I have to say I was quite scared ... but loved every minute of it once I get going. I played a few tried and tested songs from the past and one of my new songs for the first time ... "We Spoke Today" ... glad to say we both came out of the ordeal shining bright. It was a great opening night and each week will have a different Stereoscout host with 2 or 3 guest artists doing 2o minutes a piece ... as I say the Island is chock full of very talented people and these events are a brilliant way to get aquainted with a whole host of different artists and their wonderful music. If you live on the Island or just visiting and here on a Sunday ... GO! Thanks to Martin Critchley for the photos!

I was invited to Manx radio last week (May 26th) for an interview and a song or 2 on Bob Harrison's afternoon show, ostensibly to plug the very first gig on the tour (eek!) at Port Erin's Art Centre. Christy DeHaven came along and very kindly videoed the proceedings. I'm not sure we made much sense to anyone listening but we sure had a lot of fun ... Bob is a great supporter of live music and is always generous and sincere ... oh yeh and very cheeky! I was blown away by the emails that came pouring in while I was there ... from fans as far afield as Essex, Ramsey, Suffolk, Buckinghamshire, Belgium and California! Fair tickled the cockles of me 'eart! Thanks!

We Spoke Today from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

I took advantage all week of the full fat gloriously bright sunshine and practiced in the garden each day ... much more satisfying than stuck in a room in the gloom on your own. I have so far been through at least 4 lots of false nails ... can't keep the glue going long enough ... must try to have a professional job done for the tour ... just one hand though, I wonder how often that happens in a nail salon?;-) Talking of salons ...another essential part of the preparations for touring is a new hair cut! I tried a salon in Douglas that has a great reputation and has won awards over the years, called "Utopia" and is ... as I found out ... difficult to get an appointment at. But I persevered et voila! I dared to go darker and richer in colour ( sloughing off my recent middle aged grey) and love the bright red glints. The salon may not get another award for my new look but I like it .... just need a fab new outfit now ...

Stereoscout and DAM productions are involved with several great projects on the Island at the moment, one involving the Manx TT ... which is already upon us! ... and the worlds first zero carbon, clean emissions Grand Prix Race, scheduled for June 12th: www.ttxgp.com . As part of the promotion of the event Dave Armstrong at DAM has been inspired to make a music video capturing the spirit of the venture. He came up with the brilliant idea of using John Mayer's "Waiting For The World To Change" and has filmed and recorded a multitude of local musicians at various outside locations, all live each time adding their performance to the growing track. I added my part a few days ago on a perfect evening at the Sound, on the southern tip of the Island, driving back via Port Erin which looked stunning ... it was a fabulous experience and I think the final results are wonderful; here's a clip to give you the idea:

Waiting On The World, by 'Treisht' from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

There's also a music event affiliated with the clean emissions race an orcestral concert with the LMO entitled "The Promise of a Generation", we've bought tickets already and are bringing mum, dad and my sister Diane ... it's being held on mum's birthday so all round we're very excited. It promises to be a wonderful evening.

Another project that myself and other Stereoscout artists are included on is a cd "One In Three" for a local Cancer charity now available on Amazon.co.uk: One in Three. A great collection of songs/artists showing off Manx musical diversity at the same time supporting a very worthwhile cause.

One last thing before I blog-off ... I forgot to mention last time about the re-release of HBHB II Money The Final Frontier now available at: Stereoscout
... and also available at gigs! Hurrah.

By the time I next Blog I should be on the road! Yeh ... and I'll have details of the cd that will be available on tour ... some live recordings of Rob and I doing our new thing ... plus a few new demos ... a sign of things yet to come ...

Thanks for taking the time to stop by and read my meanderings. If you make it to a show please come and say hello ... I'd love that!

Take care. See you out there soon ...

Christine ;-) XX

My First Full Fat Greedy Blog! :D X

2009-05-14T04:04:00.000-07:00

2009 … an adventure in the making …

Just to get you all used to the idea I’ll be out on the road again – very soon! I thought I’d start a blog and do a quick rundown of the first few exciting months of this year.

We started 2009 with Bob’s lovely sister and family in New Zealand … we’d been there the whole of December and were thrilled that Bob’s daughter and son-in-law, Jo and Mike, were able to join us for Christmas. Needless-to-say we had a fantastic time. On New Year’s Eve Bob and I went on a dolphin boat trip … simply awe inspiring!

While Jo and Mike flew back to the UK, Bob and I headed for Los Angeles, visiting Palm Springs the first few days we arrived, before moving to a town house owned by friends right in the middle of West Hollywood, sandwiched between Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards a great place and a brilliant location!

We were in Los Angeles for most of January – escaping the cold and grey back home – and it was an exceptionally warm month! We spent a fair bit of time with Davy Knowles -of Back Door Slam- ironing out the last few organisational details in order to make his/their second album … much more of which later!

I finished off a song I started with Christy DeHaven back on the Isle of Man in November (no one could accuse me of being prolific!) entitled “Get Up!” a really fun track with a deep and heartfelt message. Also started a “story” song with Davy … his delightful guitar work and my vocal meanderings – still a song in embryo but with great promise.

We were home on the Isle of Man towards the end of January for what felt like a very short month. A week on the mainland catching up with family and friends there and several meetings with music-company bigwigs for Bob. All to the tune of wind rain and snow! Yikes! It was great to be home all the same.

Then after an unexpected call from John Haxby
http://www.haxby.net asking if I’d be available to perform at Knaresborough’s Frazer Theatre in June, I somehow managed to cobble together a whole slew of dates! I’ll be starting rehearsals with Rob Cross who’s accepted the position of musical genius for the duration! http://www.myspace.com/robertmichaelcross I’m very excited about it all.

Dave and Christy from Running Media travelled with Bob and I back to LA at the end of February. Before we left I was able to go to the Purcell Rooms on the South Bank and watch one of Barb Jungr’s wonderful shows http://www.barbjungr.com/ – the theme for which was Songs of War and Peace – and was totally blown away with her vision and elegant performance … it was a beautiful and moving experience and I couldn’t be more proud of her.

When Bob and I had left LA Davy was about to start the process of recording and … when we returned … he was nearly done! He has co-produced the album with Peter Frampton! The connection was made after a successful writing session with Peter back in November and by some wonderful quirk of Fate he was not only available but also very excited to take up the role.

A Day in the (LA) Life of Davy K from Davy Knowles on Vimeo.

Dave and Christy wanted to video as much of the process as possible while they were there and to that end, set about filming Davy et al at various locations in and around the LA area and in situ at Frank Rozella’s delightful studio in Sherman Oaks. Christy and I also had the thrill of singing backing vocals on a George Harrison cover “Hear Me Lord” with Peter Frampton himself!We are now officially called the Framptonettes – although we may have forgotten to tell Peter! I used to have a poster of him on my teenage wall!!!!

http://www.frampton.com/

There was time also for Davy and I to spontaneously figure out an acoustic duet version of John Martyn’s classic song “Sweet Little Mystery”- the seeds for which were sewn back at a BDS gig last summer in New York … it’s our tribute to a troubled but very talented soul … which Dave Armstrong and our good friend Jordan Harriman kindly captured – warts ‘n’all- on film! Ah … the Hollywood glitz and glamour is finally rubbing off!

"Sweet Little Mystery" (J.Martyn) with Davy Knowles from Christine Collister on Vimeo.

Some of the fun and memorable things we did while Dave and Christy were with us were: watching Slumdog Millionaire (me for the second time!) and Coroline in 3D – both amazing films. Wandering the dizzy heights of the Griffiths Observatory and watching the presentation in the planetarium: The Story of The Night Sky – awe-inspiring. Visiting Paradise Cove – aptly named. Generally enjoying the company of good friends, fine wine and delicious food under a warm and sunny sky. My gratitude is unbounded!

There were a few last minute touches to add to Davy’s record by the time Dave and Christy were flying home. I was invited to sing on several more tracks … an honour and a privilege. On one track “Amber’s Song” I hummed along with Davy on the choruses and … one of those hums ended up looking like this!

This is the audio picture of the hum as I sang it …
I have no comment to make other than a raised eyebrow and a question mark hanging in mid air … oh yeh!and a twinkle in my eye!

Once the over-dubs were finished it was time to organise the mixing sessions. Life can be very strange n’est pas? And although other arrangements had been made … circumstances were such that they became null and void … and then … opportunities arose that far out-weighed the original scenario. Am I being obtuse!? Yep!

The up-shot being that Bob Clearmountain was able to take up the baton and mix the album immediately! http://www.mixthis.com/ Amazing. Bob (BTBF!) and I were there for the first few exciting mixes and though Peter Frampton was physically in Cincinnati, by some wonderful Apple Mac gizmo – iChat – he was also able to be - as-it-were - there too!

Bob and I flew off to New Zealand leaving a very happy and overly excited Davy Knowles in Bob and Betty Clearmountain’s wonderful care. Yet another piece of “luck” fell into place a few days later when Peter F was able to procure the services of another legendary record maker: Bob Ludwig, who mastered the album in New York State a week later.
http://www.gatewaymastering.com/mastering.asp. Wow … Davy has some powerful friends on his side. The album’s called “Coming Up For Air” and will be available to download this May and in cd some time in June. Go out and buy it! It’s a brilliant piece of work … and I’m on too! Hurrah.

For the next 3 weeks Bob and I enjoyed a brilliant time on the North Island of
New Zealand. We spent the first week in and around the Bay of Islands … utterly breath-taking.

From there we drove down through the Coramandel Ranges, finally heading to Mount Maunganui and Bob’s family once more. While we there this time we celebrated Easter (well the eating of chocolate at any rate!) and Ken’s 88th birthday! He’s an inspiration to us all. Also this time Phil, Yuri and little Koto were able to join us – they’re Chris and Ken’s youngest son and his gorgeous family.

We returned to LA April 18th – arriving 7 hours before we left! Don’t ask … maths was never my strong point. In the 10 days we had before coming home, we tried to catch up with as many friends as possible but Bob, bless him managed to get food poisoning the first night back and was laid low for 3 or 4 days. Which left me to go to see Davy support, Jeff Beck at the El Rey Theatre LA, on my own. Ah … do you feel sorry for me? Nah … didn’t think so.

Davy had been the opening act for Mr Beck for his US tour the past 2 weeks and this was 1 of 3 shows I was able to get to. Davy was great of course though by this point … having played acoustically the whole tour … he was itching to strap on his Les Paul Gold Top and crank it up all the way up to 11! He grabbed the mainly male (90%?!) audience all the same and definitely garnered more fans.

There were 2 surprise appearances at the end of Mr Beck’s set in LA … luckily I was primed for them and manoeuvred myself into a great position to witness first … Rod Stewart! He sang “People Get Ready” and “Ain’t Superstitious” which he introduced as being 41 years since they originally recorded it! Wow … he sounded wonderful and … did I mention that … yes I think he’s sexy! More so now than way back then! When he sauntered onto stage the entire room erupted. It was a great moment. The second surprise and the final song of the night was Joss Stone singing Sly and the Family Stone’s “I Want To Take You Higher” … and she did! She sounded and looked amazing. I was whooping and cheering as loud as the rest of the audience.

Though Bob and I were both there the following night to see Davy, we weren’t able to stay for Jeff Beck’s set and so missed John Mayer! However … he came into the theatre as we were leaving so … I was inches away from him! I’m a huge fan of “Continuum” and just love his live DVD “Where The Light Shines”.

The following day we drove up to San Francisco for the final show at the wonderfully refurbished Fox theatre http://www.historigraphics.com/fox/default.shtml. Another great night for Davy and the chance for me to sit and talk with John Murray and John Eckstrom , organisers of the charity show for Haitt Ashbury Free Clinics the following night, where both Davy and I performed.

The charity concert consisted of a 20 minute set from myself, where John Ekstrom played bass on “Boulder to Birmingham” and the Davy joined us for “Sweet Little Mystery” … it was a joy for me on so many levels.

Davy then did a brilliant acoustic set before he and I both joined the wonderful singer/songwriter Bonnie Hayes (keyboards and vocals) http://bonniehayes.com/ her brother, drummer Kevin Hayes along side bassist Karl Sevareid – both long time members of the Robert Cray band - http://www.robertcray.com – for a ridiculously exciting romp through a few rock and blues numbers … mostly written by Bonnie and Kevin. Songs like: Back Door Slam (the song Davy took the name for his band from!), Love Letter (which Bonnie Raitt made famous on her “Nick of Time” album) and Phone Booth, now a Robert Cray classic. They let me rock out on a wonderfully up-beat version of “Love Me Like A Man” which went by far too quickly for me … more of this please! I musically oohed and ahhed at moments but mainly grinned from ear to ear throughout the set. It was most definitely good for me!

The final portion of the night was given over to Narada Michael Walden – check out his credentials! http://www.naradamichaelwalden.com/ playing wild drums for a free-form Jimi Hendrix tribute set with John Ekstrom on bass and Davy on equally wild electric guitar and vocals … thrown in at the deep end with no rehearsals whatsoever! And swimming admirably up-stream! It was one hell of a ride.

The Haitt Ashbury Free Clinics http://www.hafci.org/ set up in the mid 1970s by John Ekstrom, are an amazing charitable Trust that support and do vital work for the underprivileged and down-at-heel members of San Franciscan society. It was a privilege to be asked to take part in this extraordinary concert and I hope to be able to take part in more fund/profile-raising events in the future.A big, big thank you to Laura Kudritzki of Muse Studios http://www.musephotostudio.com/ for the brilliant photos!

We drove back to LA the next day, saying au revoir to Davy who was on his way to Seattle to rehearse his new band for the up-coming tour in June http://davyknowles.com/ it’s going to be mega!

We had little time left before coming home but managed to see our good friends the Nebens and Slamers up in Northridge one evening. While Mike Slamer- http://www.myspace.com/mikeslamer - and I got together to finish our 3rd song: “Edge of The World”, the day before we flew. Phew! No mix as yet but when there is I'll let you know

We’ve been back a few weeks now and I’ve already started the rehearsing process with Rob Cross in Cardiff. It’s all beginning to come together. I’m really excited to be going out on tour again, with a different musical approach and a whole load of new songs … I hope you’re all excited too!

Thanks as ever for stopping by. Do come to a show and say hello … I always love to meet people at gigs … feed back always welcome too!

Take care and see you out there soon!

Much love

Christine XX ;-)

PS: Check out my twittering too: http://twitter.com/ccsings