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.

The Beast Of Camberwell

With great trepidation and heart very much in my mouth I, and a score of others, assembled to join the foray to seek, and possibly capture, the mythical beast of Camberwell Green. Professor Frog Morris over-excitable from a week of searching greeted us by his impressive hide, adorned with many helpful likenesses of the fiend and tales of his sightings. There were many questions as the motley band were first drilled in health and safety (none of us could see the fire exit) and then led a merry dance across the wastes of the Green to hear the various yarns associated with the foul apparition. A chipper few ventured their own possible sightings: on an omnibus here, in a greasy American chain food franchise there, but most scoffed nervously at such banter. Determined that our soiree not end in failure, Prof. Morris laid an intoxicating sheen of the beast’s favoured pheromones over his most likely emerging point (Eau de kebab much enjoyed by all, scent of curry less so), but to no avail although the tension was still palpable.

Then, when all had seemed forlorn and we had minded to disperse: SHOCK! HORROR!! The beast is spied and a “Tally ho” is raised in pursuit. Chaos ensued. A fearsome melee! Children and adults knocked hither and thither as the brave professor, net clutched in white knuckles, pounced fearlessly. A glimpse of the beast only; a snout here, a smart set of braces and dicky-bow there. A hideously gnarled claw lashed out and he was gone, bundled away by Prof. Morris for examination and reports.

I hear that he returned, chained and chastened, to the Green later but I was too afeard to return and come face to face with my nemesis. We can only hope it is finally in a place where it can no longer do any harm to itself or the innocent burghers of Camberwell. We will all sleep a little easier in our beds for this escapade.

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

15 Minutes Later

I've had a really fun week as Charlie and I embarked on a mini-tour of London with our duo - Dare To Be Charlie - which ends tonight at The Living Room, Tower Bridge. We've really enjoyed both our dates so far which included a bar under a railway in Brixton (Brixton Bar & Grill) and a tent over Kensington with Flamingos nearby (Roof Gardens).

Tonight we take our guitars and show to the Living Room, which used to be Prohibition. Really looking forward to this one as we'll see some old friends from the 15 Minute Club and get another chance to play our songs. The set is really strong these days with a great mix of Charlie's songs, my songs and the co-written material. Talking of which we have a co-written song in the pipeline for release on iTunes later in the year. I'm also really looking forward to recording new versions of live favourites - Lightkeeper and When The Snow Fell On Denver under the D2BC banner. We'll be releasing these later in the year as singles with some new songs - all featuring Haydn Callow on drums and Alex Lofoco on bass.

So if you're at a loose end do come down and check us out at the Living Room tonight, it will be a fab night of music. If you can't make it, then do check out the link below and see some pics by the fabulous Victoria Morris from our set at the Roof Gardens:

Dare To Be Charlie Live At The Roof Gardens

Catch you later.

Daren
xxx

Something New

I have to say I really love The New Root. I first saw their lead singer - Trish Boothby - perform at the 15 Minute Club in Hoxton. She had a very different style singing haunting songs in a vaguely Chrissie Hynde style whilst picking on a Fender Telecaster. It's great to see a female singer-songwriter on these nights which are often male dominated, but even better to see them playing electric guitar. It turned out that Trish quite enjoyed my songs too, so we stayed in touch and I finally got to she her full band - The New Root - when Dare To Be Charlie supported them at a gig in Bristol. I have to confess I was blown away! As well as Trish the band consists of a very tight rhythm section - a dreadlocked Joel Mines on drums and an occasionally be-hatted Craig Livings on bass - and the real icing on the cake for me (who loves the use of effects on guitars) - David Boothby on guitar. After seeing them live I coined the phrase - Kate Bush meets Radiohead - and that just about sums them up in a nutshell. As an added bonus there is a real depth to the lyrics and a great energy on stage that means they have the complete package. To cap it all their self-recorded album is excellent and well worth whatever you pay for it.

I really enjoyed their recent gig at the Bull & Gate, which was just an outstanding night. It went straight into my top 10 gigs of all time! Every song was strong, with my only slight criticism being that they played my favourite number - American Tale - quite early in the set. I also particularly enjoyed their new song but I don't know the name of that one yet. I became so absorbed in watching them that I didn't even notice the venue filling up behind me.

Everyone I play their songs too seems to like them as well, so I do hope you check them out and give this band from Bristol the leg up they strongly deserve.

The New Root Offical Website

The New Root on MySpace

The New Root on iTunes

Daren
xxx

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

To Edinburgh and Beyond!

I spent a very pleasant weekend just gone in Edinburgh with my friends Frog & Victoria Morris and Mark Quinn. They were up there performing on the Fringe and their shows were going down really well. The main show that Frog & Mark were performing was the Unwrong Quiz (which you may remember from my multiple appearances at the Montague Arms) - now reworked for a one hour slot in a cellar. Between the rounds it's traditional to have some music. For the Edinburgh run this was provided by Frog's brother Theo Morris, and he was doing a splendid job with songs about genetically modified dogs and land enclosure acts. On the Sunday though, Theo fancied an afternoon off so I was very privileged to step into the breach and reprise my old role as the fill-in music. The show seemed to go really well and I think everyone was happy with my contribution. I have to say though, I was very disappointed to not win a marrow, or Pots! The Game, or even a Crunchie on a mop - oh well, perhaps next time.

Whilst up there I managed to catch a lot of comedians, including seeing Robin Ince for a couple of pounds. I also saw Steampunk strippers, burlesque, singers, the mighty Beta Males Picnic in the bunker, a spell-binding one man show called Bane (very cinema noir) and Frog bemusing an audience with existential art wrestling and Dave "Security" (lovely legs, lovely, lovely legs). I also got used as a keyboard stand! Unfortunately I didn't get to see Utter, Gutted the musical or Charlotte Young's show (Aude, Vide, Tace) - but I hear they are excellent - so go and see them to make up for my absence!! I even got a seat on the train home, so that was a bonus.

Some of you will probably know already that I'm off on the road with Katie Melua again in October for nearly three months! So here are the last few chances to catch me live before then. Do come along and hear my exciting (and fun) duo - Dare To Be Charlie or see me playing guitar with the other half of the duo: the excellent young singer-songwriter - Charlie Savigar:

26th August, 8pm with Charlie Savigar
The Enterprise, 2 Haverstock Hill, Camden, NW3 2BL

29th August, 7pm with Dare To Be Charlie
The Croft, 117-119 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3RW

9th Sept, 9pm with Charlie Savigar
Cowboy Night! @ The Montague Arms, 289 Queens Rd, SE14 5JN

14th Sept, 8.30pm with Dare To Be Charlie
Upstairs @ The Ritzy, Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, SW2 1JG

26th Sept, 8.30pm with Charlie Savigar
Tommy Flynn's, 55 Camden High Street, NW1 7JH

Hope to see you at one of these gigs, otherwise, catch you on the road some time!

Daren
xxx

P.S. The Dare To Be Charlie MySpace is now live, do add us to your friends:

In Real Life

The internet is an amazing thing especially, it seems, for musicians who have many different ways to get their music to potential fans around the world. One site which is really good for this is Last FM, and a couple of years ago a chap from Sweden got in touch to say that he'd enjoyed listening to my music. You can still see his comment at the bottom of my profile from October 2008 - his username is Winterbay. Well this month he happened to be in London, and wanted to know if I was gigging. As I happened I wasn't, but it's easy enough to arrange something, so I booked Dare To Be Charlie in to play at the Elixir Bar last Tuesday. In the emails concerning this date it turned out that it was actually his Honeymoon!! So he had to get permission from his wife to come along!! It all turned out fine in the end and I met him and his new wife and it was a pleasure to play some songs for them and have a good chat afterwards. It was a really good gig for us, and it was made all the better that a friend from overseas was able to make it to listen. So many thanks for coming and your support over the last two years Peter (for that is his real name) - it was a pleasure to meet you and your wife and I hope you enjoyed the music as much in real life (as you say) as you did in cyberspace.

For those of you who are not in the UK, there is another chance to catch some off my own music, and also hear me talk about song-writing and some of the songs I've enjoyed over the years on Radio Verulam - tomorrow (Sunday) morning from 10am - 12noon. Tune in hear and catch the show:

http://www.radioverulam.com

There are also lots of exciting things happening with Charlie's music, so there will probably be another post to follow on that very soon. Plus, a bit shout out to Frog, Mark, Charlotte, Martin, Richard and Theo who are all in Edinburgh this week running or preparing their shows for the Edinburgh Fringe - good luck guys!!

Daren
xxx

Radio, Someone Still Loves You.

When Queen wrote Radio Ga Ga, I feel that they were predicting the decline of the radio in the face of all-singing, all-dancing television. But they missed the mark somewhat as they didn't realise the effect that the internet would have. In much the same way as the internet has let unsigned artists reach fans all around the world, this global reach has enabled local and community radio to reach far wider and expand their audience. So it is that being interviewed or featured on local radio is now not the parochial experience it once was. Listeners from some very far-flung places can be tuning in, so it's always something that I really enjoy.

Following on from me and Charlie both being featured by our friend Lee Robson on Reach On Air a few months back, we have both been on shows again recently. Another friend - Acoustic Ashley Cowan - asked if he could feature Dare To Be Charlie on his Open Mic show for Sydenham Radio. We jumped at the chance, and he duly came to our gig at Babalou in Brixton with a microphone and a few questions. The talk ranged from advice to unsigned acts (and musical couples!!) to thoughts on use of effects in shows. It came out really well and hear the whole of Ashley's show on Vimeo. It's a good show with some interesting poetry and music and other features too, so do check it out. Our part is around 50 minutes in, and features a little of our songs Dance and Wash too.

The second show I have been interviewed for was a real treat. A few weeks back my dad was interviewed for Radio Verulam for a show hosted by Elspeth Jackman called Tracks Of Your Life. The premise is that, a little like Desert Island Discs, interviewee selects a number of records that have a meaning to them and talk about them with Elspeth. My dad's own show was a fascinating glimpse into his life, which I found both interesting and enlightening listen. It's also a fantastic record for future generations to hear what my dad thought about various periods of his life. My dad recommended that I should be featured on the show and I duly made the trip up to Smallford near St. Albans to record my show. It was really fun to choose 16 songs that had meaning to me through my life, and I really tried to find songs from every period rather than just concentrate on the more obvious choices. My dad had taken us on a musical trip through his whole life to date and I'd presumed that my show would follow the same lines. In the end though, although I did present the songs in chronological order, our discussion focussed more on popular music and song-writing rather than a dissection of my life. I had great fun making it with Elspeth, who is a very good radio host, and if you'd like to hear it then you can very soon.

The show will be broadcast on Radio Verulam Sunday 8th August from 10am - 12noon. You can tune in on line by visiting their website, or if you live in the St. Albans area you can tune in the old-fashioned way on 92.6FM. The show features tracks by my old bands Air and Normal, and also Charlie Savigar and Dare To Be Charlie as well as a selection of songs that have meant something to me over the course of my life. I hope you enjoy it, and many thanks to Elspeth for inviting me to take part!

It's quite likely that you will very soon have a chance to hear a live Dare To Be Charlie gig over the internet, but in the mean time you can catch us live at the following fabulous venues:

3rd August 2010, 8.45pm - Dare To Be Charlie
Elixir Bar, 162 Eversholt Street, London, NW1 1BL

18th August 2010, 8pm - Dare To Be Charlie
The Cuban, Stables Market, Camden, NW1 8AH

26th August 2010 (with Charlie Savigar)
The Enterprise, 2 Haverstock Hill, Camden, NW3 2BL

9th Sept 2010 (with Charlie Savigar)
Cowboy Night @ The Montague Arms, 289 Queens Rd, SE14 5JN

26th Sept 2010 (TBC)
Tommy Flynn's, 55 Camden High Street, NW1 7JH

The last of these gigs might well be a debut for the full band line-up of Dare To Be Charllie - featuring Haydn Callow on drums and Wayne Myers on bass!! Stay tuned for more information on that.

Today's picture was from Charlie's excellent show at The Bedford in Balham taken by Annelie Rosencrantz. Look out for more pictures from this show on our various websites.

Happy listening!

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.

D2BC

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

Clear Skies

The sky is empty of planes today, a strange and ominous event. A reflection of the past or a prediction of the future?