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His name is Ramblin'. When he gets a chance, he leaves his mark on everybody's pants - Blind Arthur Blake, Police Dog Blues

Author Topic: Euroweenie 2010  (Read 22677 times)

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Offline Norfolk Slim

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #150 on: March 23, 2010, 02:42:07 AM »
Of course...  How could I forget Derek?!  He was actually present at my first ever performance in front of real people, some years ago...

Offline Parlor Picker

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #151 on: March 23, 2010, 04:43:56 AM »
Photos now in the Weenie Photo Gallery under EuroWeenie 2010. More to follow shortly from Marshcat.
"I ain't good looking, teeth don't shine like pearls,
So glad good looks don't take you through this world."
Barbecue Bob

Offline Parlor Picker

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #152 on: March 23, 2010, 04:44:48 AM »
Of course...  How could I forget Derek?!  He was actually present at my first ever performance in front of real people, some years ago...

Yes, and he says he's never recovered since...  >:D
"I ain't good looking, teeth don't shine like pearls,
So glad good looks don't take you through this world."
Barbecue Bob

Offline Marshcat

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #153 on: March 23, 2010, 07:57:21 AM »
More photos added to the Weenie Photo Gallery. Selected audio snippets to follow!

Offline Slack

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #154 on: March 23, 2010, 08:38:37 AM »
Great pictures! -- looks like it was a great weekend!  Looking forward to the sound snippets!

Offline Bunker Hill

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #155 on: March 23, 2010, 10:14:15 AM »
Apologies for the tardiness with my half of the report. Tomorrow I'm taking the day off work to catch on "personal matters" and this will be the first.

Offline Parlor Picker

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #156 on: March 24, 2010, 02:24:11 AM »
Just added three snaps taken on the coast near our hotel in Milford-on-Sea. None of old geezers playing guitars, but they help set the scene for those who weren't there (and those who were too lazy to walk down there...).
"I ain't good looking, teeth don't shine like pearls,
So glad good looks don't take you through this world."
Barbecue Bob

Offline Bunker Hill

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #157 on: March 24, 2010, 04:09:40 AM »
Blueshome kindly agreed to collect me from the 10.30am train at Brockenhurst. After a fifteen minute or so wait he drove up. There were two exits and he had been waiting at the other! Fortunately he had the good sense to investigate the possibility of another one, something that never occurred to me given the "minor" nature of the station facility.

Arriving at the hotel I was shepherded into a spacious function room where groups of twos or threes were in earnest practice for the evening concert. My initial impression was of walking into one of those 60s Charing Cross Road guitar emporiums, instruments of all models and age were either on display or being played. The next half hour or so I spent trying to match Weenie screen names with actual names and not getting them confused which, at the outset, I failed in miserably. 

My sole knowledge of the guitar is rooted in a 340 page general history of the instrument entitled "The Art And Times Of The Guitar" published in 1969. Bob Long's extremely lucid presentation detailing the manufacture and history of the National and Dobro and the various cross-pollination within the two concerns had me Googling the topic on my return home.

A beer and sandwiches lunch was provided to sustain one and all prior to my burbling on for about an hour about the life and times of published blues research in Britain circa 1941 to 1963. Less said about that the better.

There followed a Lonnie Johnson workshop conducted by the good Professor. As a non-musician, and "outsider", I found his methodology absorbing as he took his "students" through various LJ chords and even brought some levity to the proceedings with his naming of a strange G chord up the neck as "Colin". The entire session was committed to video and maybe copies could be sold with the proceeds going to sustain Weenie Campbell.

The evening performance has been discussed and photos made available and there's little I can add other than to say there was a grand finale with all musicians on stage performing just for little ol' me. Thanks chaps.

I thoroughly enjoyed the weekend as, I would hope, did the three wives who were present. Well done Richard and Blueshome for organizing an entertaining and educative weekend.

Offline Richard

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #158 on: March 24, 2010, 02:48:16 PM »
A late post as I went on from the Weenie Extravaganza to play a jazz gig (drums you will be relieved to hear) and have only just returned home.

Great to see you all again and in particular to meet finally BH. Plus I think, a word for Derek who travelled down from the frozen north of England in his horseless carnage, the poor animal was knackered.

I have a recording of the great event, I'll do some editing for downloads etc and include the Prof's excellent Lonnie J workshop.

And what a surprise to learn of PP's other interests, leanings, hidden talents and photographic acomplishments, you have no idea where that boy has been with his Box Brownie  :-X   

Finally, as to the hotel... any comments? Do you think we should go for it again next year? I guessed when I booked it that it would be a typically faded English glory, but I don't think the place could have been much friendlier ubnlike last year.

Thanks again for coming and I'll get editing shortly.
(That's enough of that. Ed)

Offline blueshome

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #159 on: March 24, 2010, 03:52:37 PM »
The editing of the Prof's workshop video is proceeding apace and should be complete by the weekend. It will be available only to Weenies and not posted publicly here or elsewhere at the Prof's request.


Offline Parlor Picker

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #160 on: March 25, 2010, 02:21:40 AM »
Bunker Hill glosses over his talk, but we all found it fascinating and enjoyable. He even had documentary evidence of published writing on the blues in Britain as early as 1941.

I was particularly intrigued to hear how BH first got into the genre. He said he was at a friend's house to listen to the latest pop singles and the friend's father was a jazz fan. When he put on an LP called (if my memory serves me well - please correct if necessary) "Blues in the Mississippi Night", he was captivated, not so much by the music, but by the social commentary and apparently alien culture.

The rest, as they say, is history. Alan Balfour, aka BK, is one of our most respected commentators on the music we all love. It was great to meet him in person, having been aware of one another on the British blues scene since the 1970s. As he reminded me, I even subscribed to a magazine he helped issue in that decade.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2010, 02:23:00 AM by Parlor Picker »
"I ain't good looking, teeth don't shine like pearls,
So glad good looks don't take you through this world."
Barbecue Bob

Offline Bunker Hill

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #161 on: March 25, 2010, 03:47:51 AM »
Blimey PP, spare my blushes. There are those far more qualified than I for the ?one of our most respected commentators on the music we all love? accolade, but is taken in the spirit it was made. Thanks.

"Blues In The Mississippi Night" was reissued by Castle Communications as part of a three CD box set which also included its two Pye-Nixa label mates "Murderers Home" and "The American Song Train". Each CD used the original covers and back liner notes including a huge booklet authored by Neil Slaven. It was my intention to bring it to the event but only remembered when I was Brockenhurst bound!

The recent death of author and broadcaster Charlie Gillett rekindled memories of my first attempt at writing for publication. In 1967 I had produced a lengthy and enthusiastic appraisal of Lightnin' Hopkins, one that I was very proud of. This I passed to Charlie. Whilst engrossed in Charlie?s American music magazines he patiently read my gushing screed. He handed it back to me and the horrified look on my face must have been a picture. Charlie had thoroughly "blue pencilled" it. "Less is best" he said. He went on to explain that he had removed all the "flowery language" and excessive over use of "adjectives" on the grounds that, rather than adding authority to my writing, exactly the opposite was being achieved. Although my ego had taken a huge dent I put a "Less Is Best" sticker on my Olivetti portable typewriter. This was still in place when I moved into the Gillett?s basement flat in 1969. It brought a wry smile from Charlie.

As usual, I digress.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2010, 03:49:08 AM by Bunker Hill »

Offline Norfolk Slim

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #162 on: March 25, 2010, 09:22:06 AM »
Thought I ought to add my tuppence worth...

Hotel was good Richard- certainly be happy to be there again.  Shame to miss out on a pre strum Chinese or whatever, but we can live with that.  Be nice to have slightly better access to cold beer etc but im not sure what they can do about that short of selling us a case and lending us a fridge for the function room!

Musical highlights?

I thought that Phil's Rock me Baby on the 12 string was great- really solid sound and driving yet relaxed groove.

Marshcat's foray into hawaianish twiddly flourishes in one number (cant remember which one it was!) was good fun, and his blues slide subtle and wonderfully understated as ever.

Realisation late on Saturday night that Scratchy's deep south / celtic drawl is perfect for Lightning Hopkins numbers- there's something about the profs vocal tone which is very similar to Sam, and worked brilliantly.

Andrew getting off his arse and having a go...  Whilst not actually playing a full song, the stuff he did play and sing was incredibly cleanly played for such complex stuff.  I know that when I'm playing in front of people, my fingers just wobble too much to play material that intricate cleanly.  For those not there he tackled a couple of Blind lemon numbers.  I think, Andrew, you just need to practice actually performing the numbers- i.e. just sitting down with the specific intention of playing and singing them all the way through as if performing.  I find its only that process (often through posting on the back porch) that really irons out a song to make it fully performable- ensuring that ive really got the lyrics memorised well, the guitar part organised, and I know what Im going to do next and where Im likely to get into trouble...

Anyway- roll on next time...

« Last Edit: March 25, 2010, 09:33:39 AM by Norfolk Slim »

Offline Johnm

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #163 on: March 25, 2010, 11:01:25 AM »
Thanks for the reports, guys.  I had noticed in a couple of the photos that Andrew was playing out, the first time I'd seen him do that--good on you, Andrew!  I've only ever been to one event with Prof, at Pocklington one year, I believe, before I knew he was the Prof!  I hope to run into him and hear him again on one of these trips to England.  It's great to see photos of Phil and Simon and Grahame and Richard playing, as well as other folks I've not yet met.  It does sound like a great time, and a nice size, too.  It would have been great to hear Bunker Hill's talk and meet him in person, too.  I know there are a lot of logistical considerations in putting such event together, low-key as it may be, and congratulations to all concerned for figuring out how to make it happen.
All best,
Johnm 

Offline Marshcat

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Re: Euroweenie 2010
« Reply #164 on: March 26, 2010, 04:05:25 AM »
Slim, thanks for the comments! Great to see all you guys again.

The 'Hawaianish twiddly' bits probably featured on "The Old School" (John Hiatt). I'll see if I have a postable recording of it.

Meanwhile, here's 'Furry' Lewis Cohen and me having a go at Patton's "Screamin' and hollerin' the blues" in the Saturday evening session.

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