Interview with Charlotte Savigar

As part of the promotion for the new Tales Of New Albion steampunk electro-rock album, I managed to get hold of the talented composer - Charlotte Savigar - to ask her a few questions about the creation process:

How did you get into music composing?

After starting piano aged 7, it was obvious I had an instant love for this instrument and indeed music. I remember as a kid listening to composers such as Liszt and Chopin at my Grandad’s house and feeling incredibly moved and connected to the piano pieces I was hearing. I guess this was the catalyst that prompted me to sit down and start writing my own music.
I wrote my first solo piano composition aged 11, it was called ‘Pulse’ and I remember feeling really proud of my creation. I even performed it at a school assembly. From there I filled up manuscript book after manuscript book writing down as many ideas as I could. 


Tell us about the Tales Of New Albion project and how that came about

I spend the majority of my time writing library music and every so often I will have a quiet patch where I’m waiting for my next project to begin. With this knowledge, my husband suggested that I write a piece of music for his next story (from the Tales of New Albion) that he was due to read at an upcoming Surrey Steampunk Convivial. After doing a little research about the steampunk genre I decided to create a victoriana / scifi sounding track that is now officially the ‘Albion theme music’. We were both very happy with the composition so Daren suggested that I compose more pieces to accompany his book. Over the course of about 10 months, he gave me more and more story briefs and I pretty much had free range to choose my musical pallet and get creative!  


What is your favourite track from the album and why?

My favourite track is ‘Lost in the Great White’, I would describe this as ‘the serious track’ on the album! It took a lot of time to create this Asian sounding composition and the reason I like it so much is that it really moves me. I feel an emotional connection this piece and am very proud of the writing here.


Your previous releases were more song based, how was it working on an instrumental album?

I loved it! As much as I enjoyed and still do enjoy recording vocal music in the studio, I struggle so much with writing lyrics that on so many occasions it’s held me back. I realised towards the end of 2015 that I was losing the passion for writing songs and once I started writing library music I decided that this was where my heart felt whole and ironically I felt I could express myself more through instrumental music than through words.
With this album I had the opportunity to write for instruments I wouldn’t have ever thought of writing for in the past. In particular synths! They play a big part in the album and really create the scifi landscape I was trying to achieve. I felt throughout the whole project that I had the freedom to create whatever I wanted and as a composer that felt truly liberating!

Any plans for a follow up?

Well Daren is already writing volume 2 so hell yeah!!!

Tell us something about your self that not many people know.

Apparently I’m a bus nerd! And I love to do impersonations!


Check out Charlie's website and download Tales Of New Albion from Bandcamp.

Tales Of New Albion - the Soundtrack Album

Well this is something a bit different from my usual posts.  A while back when I was doing a few readings of my Steampunk stories I asked Charlie (Charlotte Savigar) if she would do a piece of music as an intro for me.  One thing led to another and now we are very proud to announce that we have released a whole album's worth of music to accompany the book.  I'll post an interview with the composer and more about the specific tunes, but make sure you check it out here on Soundcloud.

If you like what you hear, then please do purchase the album from Bandcamp.  You can also order a signed copy of the book along with a signed CD of the soundtrack from Bandcamp, so check that out too.

A lot of the tracks are real earworms, but make sure you at least check out Ellen Hall, Tobias Fitch and Lost In The Great White - as these are just great pieces of music.  Once again there is great artwork by Frog Morris to accompany the release.  Charlie wrote, performed and mixed all these tracks and we had them mastered by Gethin John at Hafod Mastering just outside Cardiff.

I can't recommend this highly enough, so please do check it out and let us know what you think.

Brighton Days (and Nights)

For a couple of days we headed to the south coast of this fair isle for a fact-finding trip, and a jolly good time in the bargain. The idea was to explore some areas of the city as potential settling grounds and also visit some of the local open mic nights to see the lay of the musical landscape. You cannot move for open mic nights in Brighton, every pub I passed seemed to have an evening for aspiring songwriters advertised (at some point in the future I have a bit of a rant about this, as open mic seems to have replaced paid gigs for musicians almost completely, but for now I’ll save it). We were fortunate that we had a steer from a (temporary) Brighton resident who suggested a couple of the best events to attend on our two evenings in town, thanks Jess!

With this good information we headed to The Hop Poles (on Middle Street) on the Tuesday night. This was a splendid and very busy evening, so busy in fact that we had to retire to the small pub garden until there was space for us all to fit into the main pub. The standard of acts was very high and with pre-booked slots there was no bun fight for positions, which made for a very relaxed atmosphere. Our slot was fairly late, 10.45pm but pre-armed with this information meant we could pace our evening and really enjoy our set of 3 songs. We went fairly upbeat and this worked very well. Overall we were well looked after and the sound and gig photos (a good bonus for acts) were all excellent. Jess, our partner in crime, played just before us and her songs were beautiful and well received.

The second of our two appearances on the Wednesday was a very different affair. The Bee’s Mouth (on Western Road) is a hidden doorway between two kebab shops, but this unpromising start reveals a wonderfully eclectic pub, cinema and music venue over several, narrow, levels. The location of the open mic was the very lowest floor and on arrival we found it filling up already. Much shuffling of guitars and bums was required as people came and went over the night. The room itself was dimly lit and adorned with posters of various spiritual and magic acts (David Devant?) giving a spooky backdrop. Nevertheless everyone was very friendly and the acts came and went fairly swiftly as this time it was just 2 songs per person. We were one of a couple of duos that night and really enjoyed our playing and our free drinks (one per artist) very much.

Overall we felt that our very small toe in the Brighton musical waters revealed a very friendly and fun scene. Acts were diverse and, generally, of a very high standard. We look forward to spending more time there and getting to know the best places to play and people to know. See you again soon.

Get In Line

Now that I’m getting back into this Blogging thing, I realised I was very overdue with a review of the latest musical release that I’ve been intimately involved in. Namely, the debut album – Get In Line – by Country Rock chick: Charlie Savigar. This is a ten track offering which features my input on 9 of the 10 tracks. Rather than go into too much detail, I thought it might be good to give a few (hopefully) interesting facts about each song, and post the latest Promo videos which are yet to be featured here.

If you want to listen along to the tracks whilst reading my notes below, then you can stream the whole thing from Soundcloud, and if you wish to own it for yourself (and support an unsigned artist into the bargain) then you can download it from iTunes, or buy a physical copy from a gig.

Get In Line
This is a firm favourite as a live track (we usually open the set with this) and a nice little rock-n-roll number. Originally the album was going to be called “My Journey” – but I thought this sounded a little passive, so I went through the songs on the album for potential alternative titles and realised that “Get In Line” worked just great. I also had the idea for the artwork that you see at the top of the post, with us all standing repeatedly in line. This was expertly shot by, great friend of the band, Kris Gruber at my dad’s house (the same location that the Superbad video, below, was shot. See picture at the bottom of the post for more of the line).

The drums for this were recorded in sessions with Tim Pennells.

Save Your Love
The beginnings of this track predate everything else on the album by quite some way. Originally recorded in sessions with Gregg Jackman and Francis Rossi way back in 2006, it was put to one side for a while until Gregg suggested that it needed to be sped up a little. Which he proceeded to do in a very painstaking process in Logic. We then searched around for a suitably weird instrument for the intro, which we found in the shape of an oddball Washburn Rover travel guitar (see pic). Brass was supplied by Charlie’s friend Bridget Goodwin who’s favourite phrase during recording was “Just shoot me”!

This is the only track on the album that I didn’t play or sing on nor does my brother play the drums. Instead the drums were hit by Michael Kruk and the bass was added by Nicholas Rossi. Francis played the solo for this track on his distinctive customised Telecaster – in one take!

When Will You Learn?
One of my personal favourites from the album and a really great pop tune. It reminds me a little of some of Ray Davies songs.

Following The Signs
I actually recorded the first demo of this song, which is actually the version you can hear on the promo video. Gregg Jackman re-recorded the drums and possible the vocals too. Marc Wyburn supplied the electric violin.

The fun video has been featured before, but it’s well worth another look.

What's Your Name?
This is the slowest track on the album and we tried to get a more acoustic / Latin feel on this one. In the end Haydn recorded the drums playing the snare with his hands rather than brushes and sticks. There’s a little percussion loop in there and this is the only thing on the album that was not recorded specifically for it.

In order to play this track live Dan (Newell) has to switch from brushes, to one brush one stick, to full sticks and back to brushes again, it took a while to get the best version of this. The lead guitar line was played on a Taylor T5 through a tape echo simulator, which gives it that wobbly, in and out of phase sound.

Superbad
A great pop tune again, that’s great fun to play live. The video for this one was again shot at my dad’s house on a sweltering hot day. Performance artist – Frog Morris – did the background painting live and then sweated his behind off as the spaceman/robot. The video was directed, shot and edited by Ben Henderson. One other interesting fact is that Kris Gruber (who shot the Get In Line cover pictures) also helped out on the video, his hands are amongst those holding postcards. Our friend Daniel Baker also turns up as Superdude (with carefully disguised logo), everyone supplied their own costumes for this one. Both of our drummers, Haydn & Dan feature too as Bond and The Penguin respectively.

Adrenaline
The heaviest track on the album and one that was recorded pretty much all at our house. The drums were re-recorded by Gregg again, but otherwise it’s actually a home project. I’m very happy with the heavy rock sound we got on the guitars, although I couldn’t tell you now which guitar we used, possibly my Les Paul Custom. The video for this one was our lowest budget effort to date (less than £200) – it was written/directed by Frog Morris and filmed and edited by his brother Theo. We tried to mimic the beginning of the Long Way Home video at the start, before heading off into the woods.

Sell By Date
This is, probably, my favourite track on the album. It’s a quirky little number that bounces along rather pleasingly.

Long Way Home
This is another earlier recording from Francis Rossi’s studio. This was also my first studio experience of working with Charlie (I provided a few harmony woo hoos). The bass on this one was provided by Allen Sassani and the hillbilly guitar lines were played by Adam Wedd.

Although you can’t really tell from the finished work the drum track was mostly recorded in little 2 and 4 bar sections to make sure we got the killer version.

Dance
Finally the album is rounded off with another track that is mostly comprised of the demo recording. The slide guitar parts were all played on Charlie’s Tanglewood resonator.

Tracks were variously recorded by Gregg Jackman, The Animal Farm, Tim Pennells and myself and all mixed by The Animal Farm. Mastering was by Hafod Mastering in Wales.

Except where mentioned in the text all drums were played by Haydn Callow and bass by Alex Lofoco.

Following The Signs

It's been another hectic and busy year so far (well that's my excuse or not Blogging and I'm stickig to it). I've already had trips to Mexico, Nashville and the top of Mount Snowdon. On the music side we played a 40 minute set at Tootsies in Nashville (more on that later). To top it all off we have created a fabulous new promo video for Charlie's new song: Following The Signs which we recorded and mixed ourselves.

This was a real labour of love and took several months to get everything together. We needed a large number of props, including a book (lovingly produced by myself with Victoria and Frog Morris), costumes for all the band and four different outfits for Charlie. After the problems with rain on the last video shoot we decided to do everything indoors. The only real option for this was to convert out house into a studio. This meant costumes in the dining room, make-up in the conservatory and film sets in the living room and front bedroom. The house was crammed with equipment and people! The illustrations in the book (see above) were created by the highly talented - Frog Morris - and he even came down to lend a hand on the day too. Alongside the band and Frog we also had a make-up artist, Maximilian White the director and Rob Macfarlane on second camera - quite a house full. To cap it all a Virgin Media engineer turned up halfway through to fix the phone - what he made of it all I don't know.

Many of the scenes were to be filmed in front of a big green screen to allow us to shoot the various locations that were in the book. This meant hanging a big green sheet up (there's a great pic of Frog ironing this flat - check out the Behind The Scenes page for this and loads more) in the spare bedroom. I soon realised though that the door was going to be in the way, so this had to come off! Somehow we also managed to get a wind blower in on the landing to create a blizzard at the end of shooting. Filming kicked off in the Living Room with Charlie and our severely jet-lagged director - Max. To give you a flavour of this, here is video clip of him explaining to Charlie what she needs to do...



I think she got it!! After the living room scenes we had to shoot all the other "locations" in the bedroom. This created a headache for Max and Rob as there was very little room and for the most part they had to shoot everyone separately and then edit them all together in post production. After lots of takes and various reactions from all the guys (and four costume changes for Charlie) - everything ended in a huge snowball fight and blizzard!! Charlie even managed to throw one snowball right at the camera lens, but fortunately she didn't break it. After the wrap it was time for Max to do his magic, we were just hoping that we'd got all the shots we needed.

Well we needn't have worried, once the video arrived we absolutely loved it! We were relieved and happy as so much time and money (about £1200 in total) had gone it to it and it came ou looking like the budget was much, much higher. So here it is, do enjoy watching (make it full screen and turn up the sound if you can, it is HD after all) and make sure you give us some feedback... oh and pass it on to anyone who might enjoy it:



Many thanks to everyone who helped getting the video together...

Video director / editor: Maximilian White
Second Camera: Robert Macfarlane
Make-up: Mallzii MUA

Following The Signs recorded and mixed by Daren Callow.
With many thanks to Ville Leppenan

Thanks also to Frog Morris, Victoria Morris, Alan and Lorraine.

Long Long Long Way Home

What an incredible few months I've had! The Katie Melua tour has finally finished but not before covering over 10,000 miles across mainland Europe and the UK. I've had some wonderful experiences in Germany, Austria, Portugal and Poland to name just a few. Including driving at madcap speed along rainy autobahns, diversions into the Czech Republic and meeting a whole bunch of very friendly and interesting people. It would make a whole Blog of it's own and I can only apologise for not writing up more of it. Unfortunately this was a self-drive tour, and time was at a premium. I'm sure I'll share a few tales now I'm back and have some more time.

On top of all of this I came back to the UK in mid-tour to take part in two special events in my role as guitarist and backing singer for Charlie Savigar. Firstly we trooped off to Monmouth in Wales to perform on the Sunday at the Rockfield Country Music Festival. This was a great event to be part of and the band really rose to the occasion. At the end of the day we certainly weren't everybody's can of beans, but the response we got was great and we'd love to play there again.

Following on swiftly from that we dodged showers in Harrow to film a new video. It was an all day event including shots of us in the van, driving up and down the road (many times) and miming in front of a green screen. We were working with a young director called Maximilian White and he did us and himself proud with a really fun video. Enough talk - check it out here:



It was an incredibly long day of filming considering that it's a 2 minutes 40 seconds pop song, but the result was worth all the effort. Many thanks go out to Max and second cameraman Rob along with Michelle who did Charlie's make-up. We also should thank my dad Alan and step-mum Lorraine who lent us their house and Autocruise Pace mobile home for the day!! It was particularly poignant day for my brother (drums) and myself as we filmed the vast majority of it at the house where we used to live, and also practice with our first band. The ending was particularly serendipitous as we had originally planned to venture out to Chesham and film us arriving at the Elgiva Theatre, but rain delays thwarted us and so we opted to try filming at Brent Town Hall instead. As we drove over the hill towards the venue we had a vision of the white arch through the showers. It seemed like the perfect ending and indeed it was.

To check out a little more of what went on behind the scenes then check out this link. We'll be adding more to coincide with the official launch gig/party next week, details below (do come along and party with us). Btw, if you like the video when please do pass the link on to your friends, we need all the publicity for the band we can get - thanks guys!!

In other news Charlie is now a Rotosound Strings endorsee and we're really looking forward to an article they are preparing on her. Please do check out all her Summer gigs here and come along if you can.

Have fun! Daren xxx

OFFICIAL VIDEO LAUNCH PARTY

27th July 2011 - 8.30pm
CAMDEN ROCK
18 Kentish Town Road, London, NW1 9NX

Anywhere And Everywhere

It's taken 4 months, but it's finally here! The next EP release from my musical partner in crime - Charlie Savigar. Unlike the last EP - Long Way Home, which was recorded at Francis Rossi's home studio and produced by Gregg Jackman where I sang a few backing vocals - I had a slightly bigger role in bringing this one to fruition. I had a hand in the engineering, production and mixing, as well as playing guitar and singing on all the tracks!

Aside from this the majority of the singing and playing is done by Charlie herself. She sung all the vocals and played guitar and all keyboards on all the tracks (she's a very skilful piano player, which we don't get to show off live yet). The final two musicians on the tracks are my brother - Haydn Callow - who played all the drums and Italian bass player - Alex Lofoco - who supplied all the low end notes. As is the modern way the songs were recorded in a number of locations including Acton and Clapham and then mixed in my own home studio. Charlie is one of those artists who can't really be pigeon-holed into one genre and she writes in a number of musical styles. So here's a quick breakdown of what to look out for on each track:

1) ANYWHERE AT ALL
This is a toe-tapping Country rock number. As with most of these songs - Charlie's guitar is on the right and my guitar on the left (the same as we stand on stage). This was actually the last of the songs that we recorded and I felt we got the best snare sound on this track. I had a very small contribution to the writing of this song as I came up with the "anywhere at all" lyric when we were jamming it originally.

2) ADRENALINE
This song is a full out rocker and the heaviest song we play in the set. In this case my guitar is double-tracked and Charlie's picked guitar part moves from the left to the right. We shortened the intro to make the song more immediate and we play it a little different in the live show. We had great fun getting the "heys" in the middle 8 echoing from left to right in the stereo mix. This was also Haydn's first recording playing double kick drum pedal (ie he plays kick drum with both feet, for that rolling drum sound).

3) NO GOOD FOR ME
This is a song that people often pick out as their favourite song in the live set. It makes use of a lot of harmonics on the guitar (where you touch the string lightly and pluck it so it rings like a bell or a chime). It's also a great lyric, which you might not guess is about alcohol and not being able to find the drink you like! We had fun at the end of the song as mostly it's played to a click track, but the drums and bass slow down and we had to slow our guitar parts and vocals to match what they've done.

4) BLUE DAY
Again another different feel for this song which is part rock, part blues and part ballad. It's also in 3/4 time which is a bit unusual for a rock number. The end of this song originally had a 4/4 section, but we decided to change this fairly early on in the recording process and keep the 3/4 feel all the way through. Originally it also had my overdriven guitar part played all the way through, but we gradually cut it out from parts of the song to create a sparser arrangement. We also had lots of problems with one of the sung days (the first one after the guitar solo) which had an annoying "click" right in the middle of it! In the end Charlie had to re-sing that one word!! You might also be interested to know that the guitar solo is actually three different takes edited together - hopefully you'll never know that now. I have to say I really like the ending of this track where the piano chords, bass and guitar all resolve back to the root chord. The sliding guitar stop at the end is from my very first guide guitar part.

Well there you go, that's a brief summary of each track and now, I hope, you are wondering where you can get hold of the EP!! Well check out this link:

http://charliesavigar.bandcamp.com

Where you can download the tracks in MP3 format or a number of others. Also if you are quick you can buy one of a limited edition of the EP on CD. These CDs (pictured above) are individually numbered and signed by Charlie herself! Move quick if you'd like one of these as there are only 30 or so left (from 50 to start with). If you are happy to wait Charlie's EP will shortly be on iTunes and so on, and you can also download her first 3 track EP - Long Way Home from there:

Charlie Savigar on iTunes

Hope you enjoy the songs!

Daren
xxx

P.S. For those of you born in the CD/MP3 age you might be interested to know what EP stands for. It's actually short for "extended play" and comes from the days when 7" vinyl singles could be made to play at 33 1/3 rpm instead of 45 rpm. Slowing down the spin allowed more music to be put on the smaller format - hence the extended play moniker.

P.P.S. You might also like to know where Charlie is in the Hotdisc chart as it's chart day again today. She was at #36 last week and #8 in the UK chart.

P.P.P.S. As a bit of fun there is no number #13 EP - instead there are two #14s in purple cases (Charlie's favourite colour).

Hotdisc Charts

Sunday is the day that the Hotdisc charts are announced, and I can't help myself but get nervous. Some explanation is probably required: Hotdisc is a compilation CD of Country music tracks which is sent out to DJs, Magazines and other Country music people across the world. At the end of last year Charlie submitted her Country-tinged track - Long Way Home (recorded at Francis Rossi's home studio by Gregg Jackman and featuring myself on backing vocals and my brother Haydn on drums) - and this was included on disc 145 in January. As part of the package you get rated by everyone who receives the disc and this rating is used to compile the Hotdisc International and UK charts. Take a look here:

Hotdisc Chart

As I write this Blog Charlie is currently at number 20 in the International chart (down one) and unmoved at number 5 in the UK chart. But of course after midday today the position will have changed and eventually this song will drop out altogether. Hence my anxious wait to see where today's position will be. The first few weeks were very exciting. The song entered at number 38, then rose 9 places to 29 (the biggest mover that week), then four places up to 25, then another jump of 6 up to 19 and finally last week a drop of one place to the current position. The chart is revealed over the course of an hour long show that starts at midday and the tension builds as you get further into the show and your song has not been mentioned yet. Once we get the International position I also start frantically doing the maths to figure out where we are in the UK chart (this is published later in the day, and there is a show featuring these songs on Monday at 8PM on UKCountryRadio.com. This week will be especially nerve-wracking as we're expecting another a drop and we'll be hoping it won't be too great a fall.

Want to share the nerves with me? Well tune in from midday on a Sunday for the show hosted by the excellent Stuart Cameron:

CMR Nashville Radio

I do, of course, remember listening religiously to the chart show when I was a kid - tape recorder poised. The chart show was the one time when you could predict when certain songs would be on the radio and the trick was to press record just after the DJ's introduction and then pause it just before he started talking over the end! A real skill. This way you could record all your favourite tracks for enjoyment later. It's definitely a strange feeling to be listening to a chart show with a real interest in one of the songs! Let's hope for another good result this week.

One other part of the Hotdisc package is that you get 100 pieces of feedback from around the world. This is very interesting to see what people are saying about Charlie's track and where in the work her music is most liked. It seems we're very popular in Australia and New Zealand (what good taste you have) so who fancies organising us a tour down under? Good average scores from France, UK and Belgium are really encouraging whilst high individual scores from USA, Cyprus, Ireland, Italy and (most intriguingly) the Faroe Islands are just plain exiting.

Here's a collection of the very best feedback we received:

"Very good new act with a great voice."
John Morris, Trust AM Radio, UK

"Really enjoyable new act." 
Petur Rouch, Faroya Radio, Faroe Islands

"Refreshing music and nice vocals with a tight production." 
David Miller, Pukepatu Radio, New Zealand

"Likeable – more please from this gal."
Martin Van Der Laan, Radio Compagnie, Holland 

"Liked Charlie but I would like to hear another song by her and I guess that will happen in the future – very promising effort."
Al Watts, Collingwood Radio, Australia 

"Thanks to Hotdisc another new talent gets promoted. I liked it. Intrigued to hear what comes next from Charlie."
Tom Lambert, Variety Radio, Ireland 

"She has a terrific voice. Very interesting song and great debut."
Gordon Davies, Radio Maldwyn, UK 

"No doubt at all that Charlie is very talented and must be applauded for doing her own music. Some of the comments agree that possibly a more country sound would attract airplay and it will be interesting to see if she takes her music more into that direction. There is no doubt that there is a market there waiting for her to tap into, if that is what she wants to do. Her next move will be watched by many."
Stuart Cameron, CMR Nashville Radio, UK 
 
"Well done Charlie – this is good and you are talented."
Ricky Lee, WCR FM, UK

"Great track and British too."
Graham Lees, Radio Fish, UK 

"Promising artist, lovely voice."
Alan Potter, Tempo FM Radio, UK 

"Certainly uplifting singing from Charlie, just proves how the home grown country music scene is growing and getting stronger all the time, with an abundance of hot new country artists such as Charlie. A new singer to keep our eyes and ears open to, with her own self penned hit material as well."
Tom Robinson, Kingston Radio, UK 

Can I just say many thanks to everyone who said nice things, it's so encouraging for a new artist!

So has that got you as excited as me? I hope so, I'll drop a comment on this Blog later to let you know where we are. Plus, you can come and see Charlie and myself play this Friday 18th February at the Water Rats in London, UK.

Have a fun Sunday.

Daren
xxx

Lighting Up

Sorry about the severe lack of posts!! I've been busy working on new recordings and gigs for both Dare To Be Charlie and the Charlie Savigar band and both acts are really making waves. I will do a post early next week as Charlie has a new toy that is well worth mentioning, but I'll need some decent pics which we should have after the gig this Friday at The Cobden Club.

Hope all is good out there and I promise I'll be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, do follow me on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/#!/Daren68

Or eschew the virtual world and come see me in person!!

5th November - Café Rocks presents Charlie Savigar
COBDEN CLUB, 170-172 Kensal Road, London, W10 5BN

Doors 7.00pm Charlie onstage at 9.15pm
£7 with THIS INVITE
(£5 before 8.30pm or FREE before 7.30pm with invite):

18th November
HOPE & ANCHOR, 207 Upper Street, Islington, London, N1 1RL

16th December
FIDDLER'S ELBOW, 1 Malden Rd, London NW5 3HS

29th December - DARE TO BE CHARLIE
UPSTAIRS @ THE RITZY, Brixton

Btw, if you're curious about the new toy the pic above is a bit of a clue. It's definitely be a highlight of the show (groan!).

See you soon!

Daren
xxx

Guitars Pictured: Taylor SolidBody Classic, Taylor T5-C and Taylor 314ce acoustic.

Daring To Be Live (On Video)

The last month has seen me and Charlie play some fab gigs. We made our way up to Bristol to play on the same bill as the amazing Less Than Me and awesome The New Root (Kate Bush meets Radiohead - my current favourite band!) at The Croft, we rocked The Montague Arms with Charlie's band as Cowboys and popped up in The Ritzy in Brixton to recreate the sound of AM radio (we had a crackly mic lead... still played a great set though, even if we say so ourselves). It's been fun and exciting, we really feel like there is a momentum building up behind our music and we're looking forward to all the gigs coming up. We've even found time to get on the radio (Charlie's been on practically every internet show you can imagine - and I've been on Radio Sydenham) and we've got a fab show coming up on the 15th October on Resonance FM. We've also started recording some new tracks with the mighty Haydn Callow on drums and Alex Lofoco on bass, look out for those in about two months.

For those of you who haven't been able to make it to a show we have been videoing our sets and it's time to share a few of those with you. Charlie and my shows are not just about the songs, we also like to think that we have a bit of a stage presence and our on-stage banter can sometimes be very amusing in itself. So I thought I'd start to include a bit of our chat so you can get the full Dare To Be gig experience! We do hope you get to see us live very soon, as that's the best experience of all!

Let's kick off the videos with the song that starts our set - Dance. These are all from our gig at The Elixir Bar on the 29th September.



Technical notes (for those that love that sort of thing): Charlie's guitar is a Martin Alternative XT played through a collection of effects including a Boss Flanger that you can hear at the start. My guitar is a Taylor 314ce played directly into the desk. Charlie's auto-tune effect is a Boss VE-20 and all my voice effects (delay, harmonies, doubling and flanging to name but a few) come from a TC Helicon VoiceLive 2. Last, but by no means least, the tambourine is played with my foot! Check it out.



This one features another of Charlie's songs - No Good For Me, this time complete with her intro explaining what the song is about. Excitingly for us we got a spontaneous round of applause before we'd even finished the song, love it when that happens. Also listen out for the coffee machine trying to join in towards the end!

That's all for now on the video front, more songs to follow.

If that's whetted your appetite then do come and see us live, check out our live dates here:

http://www.daretobecharlie.com/

or tune in to Resonance FM (on FM and over the internet) on the 15th October at 10pm (BST / GMT+1) to hear us play live.

Daren
xxx

Rock Royalty And Norwegian Sing-a-longs

You've got to love my life sometimes. Yesterday I flew back out on tour again, this time with Katie Melua. This is for a series of Summer festivals and TV appearances in Europe and UK. We flew out from Heathrow yesterday and a particularly wonderful moment happened when we were waiting for our bags in Norway. One lady suddenly realised her enormous suitcase was passing by a little to quickly and rushed to get it. It was clear that she was going to struggle to haul it from the carousel. I was preparing myself to help when the man standing in front of me, none other than Dave Grohl of Nirvana and Foo Fighters, moved a little quicker and helped her remove the bag. In fact we had shared our flight out with all of Them Crooked Vultures - ie Josh Homme, Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones! Plus assorted other band members and crew, quite a collection of tattoos and sunglasses I have to say.

Being around all this rock royalty is very inspiring and it's sure to rub off on my next few performances. Most notably for those who haven't seen me for a while is the very new duo (soon to be band) that I have been gradually working on these last few months. This new act is called Dare To Be Charlie and is myself and fabulous singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist - Charlie Savigar. We've done a few shows already and the feedback has been extremely positive. We're planning bigger and better things all the time and it really is worth coming to check us out as soon as you can. I can safely say that this is the most exciting musical project I have ever been involved in, and that's saying something!

As I say it's still early days, but check back here for more information as we go along. In the meantime do check out our website and the picture above taken by the wonderful Victoria Morris. Make sure you check out her Blog too: Mrs Frog Blogs.

Here are the dates when you can catch Dare To Be Charlie live:

16th July 2010, 8pm
BABALOU
The Crypt, St Matthews Church, Brixton Hill, SW2 1JF

3rd August 2010, 8.45pm
ELIXIR BAR
162 Eversholt Street, London, NW1 1BL

I also now play guitar and sing with Charlie's band, featuring my brother - Haydn Callow - on drums too.

21st July - The Bedford, 77 Bedford Hill, Balham, SW12 9HD

26th August - The Enterprise, 2 Haverstock Hill, Camden, NW3 2BL

9th Sept - The Montague Arms, 289 Queens Rd, SE14 5JN

26th Sept - Tommy Flynn's, 55 Camden High Street, NW1 7JH

See you there!

Daren
xxx

P.S. Oh, the Norwegian sing-a-long is the gig I'm working at tonight. A TV show in a hill fort in Halden, Norway. Apparantly the audience are expected to sing-a-long - sounds bonkers to me.

Charlie Savigar

I first met Charlie Savigar way back in October 2007. It was a moderately memorable gig (mostly due to the fact that a band was playing in the room next door!) but I thought very little of it at the time. I do look back on it very fondly now as it was because of this gig that I thought to recommend Charlie to Lee Robson when he needed more artists for his Faith! album, and thus how we met up again (almost exactly 2 years later) in Margate for the album launch. As Charlie said in a text message afterwards: we won't leave it 2 years next time! How right she was.

A few weeks later, after we'd met up a few times and seen each other's bands, Charlie's guitarist quit her band with several big gigs coming up. In an effort to boost her sound I volunteered to sing backing vocals, and things just grew from there. Charlie then joined my band Callow Youth to sing on some couple of songs, and with my TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 box I started to add increasingly dense harmony vocals to her live set.

The real eureka moment for me came when we were strumming through my song When The Snow Fell In Denver on acoustic guitars. Charlie suggested slowing the song down and started singing a close harmony as we played it through. I'd always imagined the song with a male and female vocal on it (to kind of get both sides of the story if you like) but I had never imagined it would work so well. I must confess I felt very moved by what Charlie had added to the song - for the first time the song really worked for me. Unsurprisingly the idea of performing and writing songs together became very important to us both.

Recently we've performed a few times as a duo, with some great feedback (see the last post) and started to put together a new band, but more on that at a later date. We've also started to write new songs together, which is a really exciting thing for me. It's great to have found a collaborator who I feel so compatible with and I'm sure this will lead to some really magical things. We already have a few new ideas ready for you to hear, but you really will have to wait until the band is ready to go (am I teasing you enough?).

In the meantime there is a great chance to hear some of Charlie's story tomorrow night (and it is a fascinating story) - Tuesday 25th May - at 7pm, when Charlie will be Lee Robson's guest on Reach On Air. To listen in then click on the link coming up and then on Listen Live a little before 19:00 (British Summer Time - ie GMT + 1) and catch her show:

http://www.reachonair.com/

Also there is a great chance to hear our musical collaboration live on Thursday 27th May at Arch 635 in Clapham. We're onstage for half an hour from 20:30 and we can promise a super set with one co-written song and lots of new arrangements. We're also doing a longer, fully acoustic set during the day on the 5th June in Brockwell Park as part of a large art event - come and find us from 2pm. I've put a full list of Charlie's gigs below, all of which you will see me at in one role or another. Do come along. For those of you further afield, we're hoping to play a gig soon which will be live web streamed, so you can all listen in. Look out for more details in a week or so.

So what does the future hold for Charlie & me? Well we both have a few ideas, but I can promise you that whatever happens, it's going to be fun and exciting!

Happy listening,

Daren
xxx

27th May - Arch 635, 15 - 16 Lendal Terrace, Clapham, SW4

5th June - Brockwell Park (2pm - 2.50pm), Herne Hill.

11th June - Octoberfest, 678-680 Fulham Road, Fulham, SW6 5SA

15th June - The Library, 235 Upper St. Angel N1 1RU

21st July - The Bedford, 77 Bedford Hill, Balham, SW12 9HD

PS Picture of Charlie was taken at Camden Rock by Annelie Rosencrantz

Duo

Planning a big post on my partner in crime - Charlie on Monday. But for now here's some great feedback we had from a couple of our recent duo gigs, and a list of dates so you can catch us in the flesh very soon.

"Lovely set, fantastic end to a gorgeous day. Charlie was every bit as good as you said she was. Brilliant." Carl

"Great gig on Sun. I really loved the male/female front person thing. It gave an edge to the songs I thought. Seemed to bring them to life, like seeing both sides of the story. I loved it." Trish Boothby - The New Root

27th May 2010 - duo with Charlie Savigar
Arch 635, 15 - 16 Lendal Terrace, Clapham, SW4

5th June 2010 - duo with Charlie Savigar
Brockwell Park (2.30pm), Herne Hill.

15th June 2010 - duo with Charlie Savigar
The Library, 235 Upper St. Angel N1 1RU

Love to everyone,

Daren
xxx

Manic Music Month

It's been another mad music month, lots of gigs and lots of chances to see bands play. Here's a round-up of some of the highlights:

Dan's Send-Off
=============
The gig to see Dan off in style went even better than expected. Despite only a short time to get Haydn & Wayne up to speed with Charlie Savigar's songs I think they played really well. The vibe was great with people singing and clapping along and again we were told that our chemistry on stage was really good. It's a real sign of what will come when we have a regular band to back our duo act, it's certainly the most exciting thing I've worked on musically (and that's saying a lot!!) - so make sure you keep checking back for more news on this new act. I'm very pleased to say that Dan had a fabulous evening, all the acts played with gusto and gave him a great send off. As a bonus the ash cloud actually cleared enough to allow Dan to fly out to Cyprus on schedule, where he is currently getting a nice suntan apparently.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
==========================
Charlie and I had been looking forward to this gig for ages and on Friday 23rd the day finally arrived. It was a really great gig at the Forum with a lot of songs from the new album (which we really like) and the best of the old and we enjoyed every minute. Their new drummer seemed to fit in really well and the atmosphere was great as always (the picture above says it all). We enjoyed it all the more after spending the previous day working on our own music and some new recordings, including mixing a live version of When The Snow Fell In Denver which was played during my radio interview on the 27th.

Oh, we got some great t-shirts too, which you might well see at a gig very soon.

Torriano
=======
Charlie and I took our duo to the Torriano in Kentish Town on Sunday 25th (it was nice to be doing our own gig so soon after seeing BRMC in Kentish Town) and had great fun playing. The gig itself was downstairs in a little area that had a great vibe and the audience were very into listening and supporting the acts. The night was run by David Studdert who kicked things off with one of his own songs. Our performance went really well and we also loved the little backstage area where the artists could chill out whilst still watching and supporting the other acts.

Backfire Cool - 12 Bar
======================
Following on from the Torriano I made my way down to see another of David's nights at the 12 Bar Club near Tottenham Court Road. This is a venue with a real history of live music, although I'm not convinced it was ever a forge as the sign on the chimney says. The fireplace sure looks old, but it's far too small to be a forge I think! Anyway, I have to say it was a fantastic night of music and it would be unfair to pick single out any acts, so I'll save a review for another time. Suffice to say that the place was really rocking for a Monday night and David will be running nights there every month now.

Reach OnAir
==========
On Tuesday night I was scheduled to appear on Lee Robson's radio show - Variety Hits - on Reach On Air. This didn't start too well as phone problems meant we couldn't actually talk to each other! However, things recovered and went a lot better when this was fixed. I must confess I could talk about my music for hours and it was great fun and a real privilege to be on Lee's show. We covered a lot of ground and actually played 5 of my solo and band tracks, one of Charlie's (Long Way Home, on which I am singing, but am not - very sadly - playing the gong!!) and finally the first recording of Charlie and me as a duo. We were very excited to have a live recording of us singing When The Snow Fell In Denver which we previewed on this show. If you tuned in we would love to hear what you thought. I'm also hoping that Lee managed to record the show, so you can all have a listen even if you couldn't tune in live.

Thanks again Lee! Your support over the last year has been really wonderful and, of course, if it hadn't been for the Faith! album, I would probably not be working with Charlie Savigar now, so we owe you a lot!

15 Minute Club
=============
The week just got busier and busier as I headed to the Hoxton Pony on Wednesday to host the marvellous 15 Minute Club. I've written plenty about this in the past, so won't dwell too long. It's enough to say that it was an amazing night of up-and-coming original music in a really top London bar. All the acts who played were really good and really joined in the vibe of the night. It was wonderful to see Rae and Laurence down too, which really made the night special.

Unwrong Quiz
===========
In a rare night off from playing or talking about my music, I popped along to Frog Morris & Marc Quinn's Unwrong Quiz at the Montague Arms last night. I won a clock that tells you the time (wrongly) by decorating my answers very nicely. I also really enjoyed the music from Less and Fred Lindberg.

Frog and Marc are taking the Unwrong Quiz to the Edinburgh Fringe in August, so if you are going, do look out for it.

This Happy Band
==============
Despite the fact that my partner in crime - Charlie - is off for a break in New York this week, I will be picking up my guitar at least one more time... this Saturday I'll be in Brixton Market from about 2pm playing as part of the eclectic troubadours - This Happy Band. If you are in the area, come and find us - it will be a hoot!

Also, do come and see my band Callow Youth playing at the Elixir Bar on the 12th May. We promise a really tight and exciting set, so make sure you check us out.

There are also lots of exciting duo gigs coming up, which I'll write more about in my next post.

Bye for now!

Daren
xxx

Exciting Times

There are quite a few exciting things happening behind the scenes: a new band, some new songs, gigs further afield in the UK and Europe and even a new guitar. But these are all for the future, in the present there are two really exciting musical projects to savour. Firstly my duo with Charlie Savigar is starting to attract attention and fans, we're expecting the crowd to continue to grow. Do come and check us out as soon as you can, there are lots of chances coming up (check on MySpace for a full list). Secondly my new band (Callow Youth) continues to get rave reviews and we're getting tighter all the time as we really start to know the songs, and get into the live vibe.

Here are the next three chances to hear me play, do come along to one or more!

Daren Callow & Charlie Savigar
Sunday 25th April, 8pm
The Torriano, 71-73, Torriano Avenue, London, NW5 2SG

Hosting 15 Minute Club (with a short set from Daren & Charlie)
Wednesday 28th April, 8pm
The Hoxton Pony, 104-108 Curtain Road, London, EC2A 3AH

Callow Youth (band featuring Haydn Callow, Wayne Myers and Charlie Savigar)
Wednesday 12th May, 8.30pm
Elixir Bar, 162 Eversholt Street, London, NW1 1BL

Catch you later,

Daren
xxx

Photo is from Charlie Savigar at the Camden Rock taken by Annelie Rosencrantz. Check out more pictures from this gig on Charlie's redesigned website: www.charliesavigar.com

Three Of The Best

My dad doesn't really like my band's name: Callow Youth. His surname being Callow too and the phrase being much in use when he was younger it was used to tease him and he's not forgotten it. These days nobody much knows what it means, and for my own part the fact that it was used to describe Luke Skywalker in the novel of Star Wars actually made it rather cool. So hands up, who does know what the phrase "callow youth" means? (answer at the bottom of this post). Regardless of it's meaning the name tickles me as a moniker for my band. It's very useful that it has my name in it, but the "youth" part makes me laugh every time. Not that you'd know that we've been in one or two bands before this one, we all look so fresh faced!

I'm taking my band to the Montague Arms this Thursday (8th April) for one of Frog Morris's excellent cabaret nights. This month you can also expect to see a Voice Activated Drawing Machine, the singers Jude Cowan and Dave Hill, Charlotte Young and Dr. H. Notter giving a lecture on DNA cloning techniques and (as if that weren't enough) performance art from Alex Fear. All this, plus my kick ass rock band (Haydn Callow, Wayne Myers, Daren Callow & Charlie Savigar) all for £3! It's a seriously enjoyable night and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

There are actually 3 chances to hear me play / sing this week and the band gig is just the first. Secondly I will also be appearing as a backing singer for the Charlie Savigar band at Camden Rock on Saturday (10th April) as a part of the Camden Weekend - Charlie's songs are very catchy and feature really strong melodies and harmonies - her shows at the Cafe de Paris, The Troubadour and the Bull & Gate were all excellent and very well received and this one promises to be another great show, at the family friendly time of 6pm. Check out her recently recorded songs produced by Gregg Jackman on Last FM.

Thirdly Charlie and I will also be appearing in our spanking new duo on Sunday (11th April) at The Cavendish Arms. The duo act features a combination of the best of both of our songs presented in new acoustic arrangements, with harmony vocals and percussion, plus a few surprises. We're also writing new songs and previewing new material in the duo, so you should always hear something a bit different from our band shows. Charlie and I are really excited about this collaboration and I've been told that we have real chemistry on stage (by people who really should know better, ha ha) - so do come down and check us out. This show is free, so make the most of it!

So there you go, three good reasons to leave your house and venture out into music world this week. I should also mention that I'll be using my brand new TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 at all these shows and it adds an amazing sound that will really take your breath away. Here's all the details for you:


8th April 2010 - CALLOW YOUTH (feat. Charlie Savigar)
Frog Morris presents @ THE MONTAGUE ARMS, 289 Queens Rd, London, SE14 5JN

10th April 2010 - As part of the Charlie Savigar band
Camden Weekend @ The Camden Rock, 18 Kentish Town Road, NW1 9NX (6pm)


11th April 2010 - As a duo with Charlie Savigar
The Cavendish Arms, 128 Hartington Road, London, SW8 2HJ (7.30pm)

Looking forward to seeing you and playing for you very soon.

Daren
xxx

P.S. So what does "callow youth" mean? Naive and innocent youth. So who got it right?

Meeting Bob Taylor

I've met a couple of legends of the music equipment world. I was really happy to get a signed poster of Jim Marshall OBE at a music show a few years back. Marshall amplifiers and speaker cabinets have virtually designed the way we hear and appreciate electric guitar today.

On Thursday I met a new kid on the block (relatively speaking) in the form of Robert Taylor of Taylor guitars. The event was a special Taylor presentation at Harrod's department store (some of you may have heard of it) and it was great fun to meet the man behind the guitars and try some of their new models. For those that don't know much about guitars, my acoustic guitar is a Taylor 210-E. It's one of those guitars that soundmen and audience love very much as it sounds great just plugged straight into the mixing desk. I've often loaned it to people who's guitars weren't working, or had broken a string mid-set and I've always enjoyed hearing how it sounds from the listener's point of view. It really is a great sounding guitar, and very inspiring for writing songs too as it also sounds great unplugged. Songs such as Lightkeeper and A Song About Pain were written on it, and sound at their very best played acoustically.

Charlie (Savigar) also has a Taylor guitar (see picture above, with Bob himself holding it) - a very beautiful Taylor SolidBody Classic in stunning purple flake. This is an electric guitar rather than an acoustic and it sounds great when she plays it with her band. According to the great man it is the very first one in that colour that they made, it's certainly a very special guitar. Charlie loves that colour so much that she is planning on getting an acoustic in the same purple sparkle! If you'd like to see and hear Charlie's Taylor then come along to the Camden Rock on Saturday 10th April - she's playing with her band at 6pm as part of the Camden Weekend.

I'd also like another Taylor guitar. They do some really fantastic sounding hybrid (both acoustic and electric) guitars and the one I'm after is the Taylor T5 - this amazing guitar will allow me to play both acoustic and electric sounds in the same song. It will be perfect for songs like Lightkeeper and When The Snow Fell In Denver which really need both sounds to be played at their best.

Until I have one though I'll just have to stick with my trusty Fender Telecaster (a very special guitar too) and you can hear this guitar in the flesh on Thursday 8th April with my band Callow Youth at the Montague Arms in New Cross.

See you there!

Daren
xxx

One Plus One Equals?

Last night I played at The Phoenix in Oxford Circus as a duo with Charlie Savigar for only the second time. We've been really working on our set, taking the best of our songs and re-working them with acoustic arrangements and harmony vocals. The third member of our group (TC Helicon VoiceLive 2) has been working overtime too, with big harmony and choir sounds, echo effects and telephone / radio voices all at different times. We've also working in some percussion - including something very unusual, but you'll have to see us to find out what that might be. It all seemed to go down rather well last night, with some of the seasoned performers saying that they thought it sounded really good, and so much better than either of us playing on our own. One lovely chap actually came over to tell me that he really enjoyed it, especially my song Lightkeeper, which he said made him cry! I think he meant in a good way... it was a really touching thing to say and just added to my feelings of excitement over the night.

We're both really excited to take our duo to the Blag Club in Notting Hill Gate on Friday night (click here for the Facebook event). We have a couple of new tricks to add into the set and will be looking to just perform with even more confidence and passion. Do come along and support us if you are around, it's going to be a great fun evening.

Also do check out the dates of our next band gigs, mine comes up first: 8th April at the Montague Arms, and Charlie's next one is on the 10th April at The Enterprise, all very highly recommended.

Daren
xxx

Troubadours

I have been to the wonderful Troubadour in Earl's Court many time, but never played there. This finally changed on Tuesday 16th March when my band, Callow Youth, headlined at a select night. It was a really cool evening, Frog Morris opened the night with poetry and puppets! Then Charlie Savigar and her band took to the stage and we really excellent (I am a little biased, but only a little) - her performances are coming on all the time and she was very good to start with! Luke Jackson then astonished the growing crowd with his powerful voice and intimate and well observed songs.

Finally it was our turn, and Callow Youth (Daren Callow, Haydn Callow and Wayne Myers - with a little help from Charlie Savigar) finally played on the famous Troubadour stage. We didn't manage to get all the performance on video, but here are a couple of highlights:



That was our intro song... and this one came soon afterwards:



I've been sadly neglecting my Blog recently, but this year is promising to be really, really exciting, so I'm going to make more effort. Plenty of band gigs with Charlie and my band coming up, plus going on the road with Katie Melua to do more merchandising later in the year. So look out for more things to read.

Looking forward to catching up with you all,

Daren
xxx

Callow Youth - 16th March 2010

Stand by your spaceships my friends for the music event of the year (so far) - CD Live are excited to announce Callow Youth, Luke Paul Jackson, Charlie Savigar, Vashti Anna and Frog Morris live at the Troubadour. Please let me know if you are coming, so I can add you to "the list" which will save you £1 on the entrance fee.

March 16th 2010
Doors open 7.30pm

The Troubadour, 263 Old Brompton Road, London, SW5 9JA

Acts in order of appearance:

Frog Morris (host)
=========
Frog Morris is a man, a poet, a comedian, an artist and a real ale drinker. Nobody is quite sure which of these is the most important one, but we suspect it's the real ale part. His poetry takes you on journeys through a wild and wacky world of insane animals, beer, travel, space, bar snacks, pig semen and, indeed, more beer. Frog will be hosting the evening and sharing his crazy world with us between acts.
http://www.frogmorris.net

Vashti Anna (8pm)
==========
Vashti Anna is a singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Her voice is sultry and evokes thoughts of travel and losing yourself in fantasy and romance and smoke filled rooms in a way that is both nostalgic and bang up-to-date at the same time. Equally at ease on her own or with a wonderful assortment of other musicians she is the perfect opener for our evening.
http://www.myspace.com/vashtimusic

Charlie Savigar (8.45pm)
============
This country rock chick has it all, the songs, the sound, the attitude and the look. Her band are always tight and entertaining, and her catchy songs will have you singing along before the set is out. Glamour, unfailing enthusiasm and fun are never far away when Charlie plays. Your feet will tap and your ears will be loving every minute. She recently stole the show at the Cafe de Paris, and she's one of the co-organisers for this show.
http://www.charliesavigar.com

Luke Paul Jackson (9.30pm)
===============
What can be said about this young man that hasn't been repeated many times over. Don't let his age fool you for a second (he's just 15), this kid has the biggest voice you've heard in years. He will hold your spell-bound you from the very first note to the very last as his huge stage presence and talent shine through in his mix of original songs and covers all done in his unique style. This is a one performer who will be going a long, long way. If you don't believe me then just check out a few of his videos.
http://www.lukepauljackson.co.uk/

Callow Youth (10.15pm)
===========
A dynamic, exciting, original and eccentric three piece, Callow Youth combine driving rock, with reggae, jazz and spoken word to create a captivating sound. Daren Callow (Stars in Exile, Normal) is the lead singer and guitarist adding vocal effects and soundscapes via a TC Helicon Voicelive vocal processor, Haydn Callow (The Choice, Barron Knights, Honeytunnel, Damien McCabe) plays drums and percussion with great technique and passion which drives the songs with Wayne Myers (Fit & the Conniptions, Hadar Manor, Vivachi) weaving lyrical bass lines with a jazz feel and a broad grin. Fun, fantasy, love, sci-fi and life are all here, an explosive end to our evening.
http://www.callowyouth.com

I hope that's whetted your appetite, see you there!!

Daren
xxx