I spent the last few days in the town of Bremen in Germany at an annual jazz industry trade fair called Jazzahead. It was pretty good, actually – a lot of good music across a number of venues, and lots of stands where people were promoting their bands, their countries, their festivals and their jazz-related [...]
Category Archives: Travel
Up, Up and Away 3
Jake, me , John Mostyn and the blimp Sometimes it’s good to put your hand up for stuff just in case. I was doing some writing on Friday, but keeping an eye on Twitter – and one of the people I follow mentioned that if any journalists wanted to go up in the Goodyear Blimp, [...]
Categories: Travel
A ride IN the blimp for a ride TO the blimp 1
Through a series of unusual and interesting connections today, I’ve been offered a ride on the Goodyear Blimp on Monday. This Monday coming. I’m really incredibly excited about that. Can’t wait. There’s just one hitch though – it’s taking off from a field in Essex, and it’s nowhere near anything remotely resembling public transportation. In [...]
Categories: Travel
Tagged: blimp, favour, opportunity, Travel
So here’s my dream job… 1
I’ve been talking to people about their dreams and aspirations a lot recently, especially yesterday, when one of the things I did at Unconvention at The Roundhouse in London was a sort of ‘speed networking’ thing, in which people would book 10 minute slots with me (or others, if they preferred), talk about their musical [...]
Tagged: Work
Meanwhile, in the jungles of Borneo… 0
I flew Royal Brunei Airlines to New Zealand for Christmas. Managed to get out of Heathrow just fine, though there was plenty of evidence of the chaos it had been subject to for the preceding few days. We went via a short refuelling stop in Dubai, and then I had a 12-hour lay-over in Brunei [...]
Categories: Travel
Change of scenery 2
I’ve been travelling a bit this past week. I went back to Brazil, to speak at the Feira Música Brasil in Belo Horizonte. Met some very nice people, ate some good food, and bought some cheap and interesting records. I’ve come back to a proper winter. It’s snowing here again, and while it’s lovely, it’s [...]
Categories: Birmingham,Travel
Upcoming keynotes 2
Keynote speech at Like Minds, Exeter (photo by Harry Duns) I’ve been doing more and more public speaking over the last year or so, and it’s showing little sign of slowing down. I have a couple of upcoming keynote speeches that I’m really excited about over the next month – one music industry event, and [...]
Categories: Music,New Zealand,Radio,Travel,University
Tagged: Auckland, brazil, Conference, Keynote, Speech
(Not) blogging about Brazil 0
Auditório Ibirapuera, Sao Paulo For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been in Brazil. First, in a town called Goiania, and then Sao Paulo. I’m over here for Unconvention, which is a grassroots and independent music conference and event that started in Salford a couple of years ago, but which has expanded dramatically, and has [...]
Tagged: brazil, unconvention
After the Jura Project 0
Had an amazing time on the island of Jura with Clutch, who was there writing a song to raise money for the ferry, which is under threat from funding cuts. The song’s nearly done (just some vocals, real strings and maybe a bit of guitar to go) – and you can hear the rough mix [...]
Categories: Travel
Stranded on a remote island 0
View from the ferry, Port Askaig, Islay I’m in Jura with my friend Clutch at the moment. We’re working on a music project that sort of doubles as research, and happens to be somewhere there’s a very good distillery. Ticks all my boxes. You can follow that project at http://thejuraproject.com. Lots of great pictures and [...]
Categories: Travel