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

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.

Home

I'm back in my home... and am relieved to discover that I can still play the guitar.

Now for some sleep.

Dxxx

Enjoy The View

Yesterday I was in Aberdeen. During a break in the day I took a walk out of the venue, over a mist shrouded links golf course. Warmed by the light of the setting sun, I climbed the last dune and was awe-struck by the sight of the North Sea bathed in the most extraordinary late afternoon light. In the distance were two oil tankers making their sedate way across the horizon (you can just make them out in the picture above, the guy on the shoreline is Michael one of the caterers), nearby the bobbing heads of seals and gulls. It was beautiful, incredible and chilling... and amazing sight.

Today, as I write this, I'm on the 15th floor of the Radisson in Birmingham. I have a view of the city lights and rumbling traffic... and all across the sky the fireworks of Guy Fawkes night are exploding in technicolor flashes. Beautiful too, in it's own way.

Daren
xx

Staying Alive

I'm in Paris today, on the last of three back-to-back shows. It's taking its toll a bit, I feel tired and run down, but tomorrow is a day off (hoorah!), although there is another drive tonight on the bus. I'm looking forward to a bath and a bed that doesn't bump up and down all night.

Yesterday I was in Groningen in Holland and I learnt an important first aid tip whilst going with the runner to get change. He'd been told that the correct speed for doing heart massage in CPR is 100bpm (beats per minute) and as luck would have it the Bee Gee's song Staying Alive is 100bpm and will do very nicely thank you as a tempo guide for, well, keeping someone alive. How good is that? You'll never forget it now either. Of course I'm already hatching a plot to write a song that is exactly 100bpm, annoyingly catchy and entitled in such a way that it becomes the de facto life saving song.

The picture on today's post is from a sports hall in Riga, Latvia. I think the idea is that drunk people can lean their heads against the basketballs to avoid falling over whilst peeing. Clever huh?

More soon,

Dxxx

On The Road In Latvia

I'm back in Latvia, and I'm thinking that it must have been a flying visit last time as I remember nothing at all about it. It's a beautiful city though, currently wrapped in autumnal colours. As I took a walk yesterday through a mixture of ex-soviet and medieval streets the leaves were falling like Ochre snow.

The walk ignited my creative fire and there are some song lyrics bubbling up again. At the moment they are in that stream of consciousness stage (kind of like Jason Mraz if he was depressed) but they'll shape up pretty good. It's nice to have another set of ideas on the go. Unsurprisingly this tune has the working title of The End Of Empire (can't have more songs with End in the title, so that will have to change).

It's 10:22am here and I have 10 minutes or so before vacating my room, so just enough time for this quick post to say "hi" and read a couple of other Blogs. Will try and post more from the gig later.

Daren
xx

Randers

Yes, that's where I am today. Randers, which is in Denmark. It's actually a quite picturesque town on the edge of a river. I took a very pleasant stroll to it's shores and watch a wonderful sunset over the wetlands. I'm slowly getting back into the swing of being on the road with a band. There are lots of similarities with my last tour, and many differences too. For one thing there are two real bands on this tour, and I'm hoping to make friends with most of them and find out what I need to be doing to get to their level. I only really miss two things from home, my friends (two in particular who are going through big changes in their lives) and my guitars. I miss practicing and writing songs, it's so much a part of my life these days that I feel quite bereft. Perhaps if I can befriend one of the guitarists I might be able to snatch some practice time.

Tonight will be an early night and, thankfully, I have a late call in the morning. I'm looking forward to the sleep and rest (I struggle to get good sleep on a tour bus) as tomorrow will be a busy day again.

Right off to read some Blogs and catch up.

Daren
xxx

Hit The Road...

So here is the news...

This Blog is going back to it's roots. By which I mean that I'm going back out on the road again to be a roadie and sell some t-shirts. Those that know me well will remember that I started this Blog as a way to stay in touch with friends and chronicle my exploits whilst touring with the Pet Shop Boys. Well here we go again, only this time it's with Katie Melua!

It looks like there are some new places and some old place on the route. A whole bunch of new crew members and merchandisers to meet along the way, and hopefully some songs to discover too. The downside is that all my gigs in October and November need to be rescheduled, but I'm sure the experience will make me even keener to play and record into the new year. Wish me luck!

As if that weren't enough, stay tuned too for details of my birthday exploits in December... it's one of those ones that ends in a zero... so you know what that means... PARTEY!

Daren
xxx