Tuesday 27 January 2009

I'm back

High folks. Thanks to all for the very kind comments on my last post. I’m back refreshed after a very relaxed break from all things EB Band.

Christmas was mostly extremely boring and seemed to be more sadly irrelevant, except for kids, than in other years. I cooked Chinese food for our family meal so nothing traditional there. We did have a nice tree though which Luke decorates. A little bit of Pagan never did nay harm while the annual vomit of Victorian images and Christian nonsense, the huge lemming like flight to the shops followed by the desperate fight to find a bargain at the sales is all a bit embarrassing. Of course it wasn’t difficult to find a bargain anywhere and the shops are still throwing useless rubbish at us for half it’s normal asking price. Isn’t it time we grew out of this Christmas crap and reinvented it? It could easily be some thing meaningful that we could all could join in with in order to make life better for people with less. Christmas – Ba humbug! In the words of a great song “Get back to where we once belonged” ?

The year is well underway now and so I can tell you the EB Band will be back on the road touring Norway at the end of April. Some dates are still to be finalised.

Lots of people are asking when we will be touring in the UK again and I have to say that with things they way they are right now I can’t honestly say. It is quite easy to end up paying to play here in Blighty and we can’t afford to do that. Having said this we will be considering good offers for later in the year.

This year is our 40th anniversary and to celebrate it we will be playing a show featuring our favourites from all of the albums. We will be concentrating on the old songs, playing them as close to the original form as possible. As you might expect there will be the occasional song that gets a new treatment but it will all be aimed at creating the atmosphere of the original. I am finding it interesting that so many of the old lyrics have retained some relevance to me and I hope the same is true for you. I am playing with a list of songs at this time and I have to admit I am keeping a bit of one eye on the difficulty factor and the time that can be reasonably spent on this venture. There is always so many other things that need to be done these days.

Work is continuing on my biog that is being written by Ms Sally Fadelle and I have to finish my novel which is long overdue ha ha !
Luke and I have been looking a fresh at new songs (his and mine) and plotting the way forward to recording them.

I recently bought a new 8 mega pixel digital camera with a few lens filters and gadgets. Loads of features for less money than I paid for my original 1.5 Mega pixel job back when. It shoots decent video too. I am still up to my eyes and ears in video footage and tunes and I will post some thing eventually. I did get hung up on finding out what can be done instead of doing it but I have to have some research and development time these days with all the possibilities available to me to make video / music material on what is fairly basic equipment. Ah! That is my excuse any way.

So it is official. The UK is in recession and it seems folk are already finding ways to change their spending habits and other strategies in order to maintain some security and hopefully a little fun in their lives. Tell me about what you are doing to defeat the CRUNCH in the comments section and I'll send a signed copy of the Rockpalast DVD and the ONE CD to the comment with the most useful suggestion. I am guessing it might take a time for people to realise this blog is under way again so we'll let this one run over a week or two. Same rules as usual as many entries as you like under different names.

Well it’s back to compiling a list of songs for the new show for me. I’m off to explore the eastern coast for a few days at the end of the week but I’ll write this when I can.

Peace

copyright e d g a r b r o u g h t o n 2009


18 comments:

Anonymous said...

ahh the sleeping giant is back ... i/weve missed ya!
i know making gigs pay is difficult so how about a mega gig to celebrate 40 years meybe at the Robin in Bilston a all day thing with two sets meybe Steve and Art do Sleepthief and Rob and Luke do their thing and the EBB in the evening , plenty of notice so we can plan travel ect ...goodness im getting carried away sorry .. but what a idea/wishfull thinking! so glad your back
Christmas for us was a non event we treated it like a normal day no decarations no nothing , we just took the dog and walked along the beach (so did a lot of other folk!) ive weened myself off Christmas and new year its a money making exercise but there not having mine!
Walking is what the credit crunch has given me i walk every where now i leave the car as much as possible, to visit me mam and dad is a 14 mile round trip and i do that every sat and sunday and i have lost 5 stone last year i feel fitter and leaner and happier but i also feel for the people who have lost jobs and homes , i feel for the inocent people of gazza and zimbabwe, but i feel happy that bush has fucked of and i hope the wind of change will blow thro the USA i could go on ...sorry ! Im glad your back welcome home!
cheers
tony

Anonymous said...

Great to see you back Rob. I totally agree re Christmas. It has become awful and decadent.(Not the nice kind ha ha!).

Angela
x

Anonymous said...

Welcome back.

shoreham steve

Anonymous said...

What a great night,checked the blog more out of hope than expectation,and found you back,sounding happy and looking to the future.(The night was even better when our little home town took something off the mighty liverpool but i guess that doesnt suit us all does it!!! ). Hope you can find a way to play some UK dates this year.Really missed the fix last year.If a recording with Aerial included was to appear ,that would be something far more enjoyable than watching a 1~1 draw earlier this evenng. Up the pie~eaters ! As always Love and best wishes John & Val B.

Anonymous said...

Yes,welcome back indeed.Re the credit crunch:read the other day in the Big Issue that world wide economic growth has not increased for the for the first time since the end of the second world war.You can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from the planet as it declares thank goodness for that.Am I missing the plot here or am I right to think that increasing worldwide economic growth is NOT sustainable!I mean,hello!Wake up people,wake up so called leaders.If any resource is not truly sustainable then think very carefully about using it.As the old Native Americans used to say,what are you going to live on when you have consumed everything in sight.People get ready,there's a change a comin'!Keep it local would be a good place to start.Local communities,local jobs-local industries-cottage industies,local food.Slow down everyone!
Blessings,Ade.

Anonymous said...

Hi great to see that your back, even if Christmas was crap peace and best wishes for the new year. How to beat the credit crunch? emigrate !! (if you could sell your house that is).

bart100bart said...

Christmas has always been used as a capatalist ploy to sell, let's say coca cola and (Santa Claus). I say coke because as we all know the 19th century coka cola actually containce cocaine. Anyway - the credit crunch - bugger capatalists and the greadheads, this is as a consequence of Thatcherism\Blairism etc. I'll hold back now and say that I am no longer aloud to flush the loo unless its a no2!!! my family has also remembered that I used to be a decorator many moons ago, so here I am unpaid - but my family are happy!!! - I also subscribe to market research websites - I say yippee every morning as I wake up to find no survey in the hope that I compile one for 50p. I say that to legally beat the credit crunch you have to duck out of what we have learnt over 30 years and praise the Park Lane squatters - yes we could believe that they are all rich but why not believe in the dream - it was before, so why not now!!! unfortunately we are all programmed to beliee that squatters (whatever class) are as dangerous as so called terrorists. So what do I do each day - I strive to survive causing the least suffering possible!!!

Anonymous said...

It is good that you are back Rob. I look forward to your missives (and maybe a gig or two?)throughout the coming year.
keith

Anonymous said...

well i remember my Grandma keeping all the last little bits of soap bars , and then pressing them all together to make a new free one !
look out for another tip from tony tomorrow!
cheers
tony

Anonymous said...

Welcome back Rob. I hope you are feeling refreshed and looking forward to new challenges. Your plans for the 40 years anniversary are great. I hope to be at the gigs. It will be quite a feat to create the atmosphere of the original. Perhaps we 'commenters' can get together and create a bit of the original atmosphere from the floor (I better dig out my purple bell bottoms!) You were once quoted (correctly I hope) as saying the EBB were passionate, chaotic, glorious, shambolic, powerful, pointless and dumbfounding. For me, this is what made (and makes) the band unique. Why pointless though?
My credit is well and truly crunched. We have vowed not to return to the supermarket until we have eaten every moulding sprout in the freezer and consumed all the edible contents of the kitchen cupboards. We've survived three weeks already and I reckon we could go through to the autumn.

Best wishes to all,

Paul, hiding in the Dales

Anonymous said...

Paul said : 'I better dig out my purple bell bottoms'!
Dig them out?? I'm still wearing mine !
I like Tony's idea of an all day gig. A 40 year celebration gig on a Saturday somewhere central where all supperists could attend. Sod the credit crunch - let's make a weekend of it! It would be great to meet everyone - I'll be the one in the purple bell bottoms. On second thoughts, I don't want to clash with Paul so maybe I'll wear the yellow ones.
shoreham-steve

Anonymous said...

Nice one shoreham-steve :)
Great idea for all supperists to meet up, if I have the ability I'll try my best to manage an uk trip and meet up with you all.
The crunch....well I guess I'm happy to have a safe job, and I hope that all leaders in different companies allover will step down some levels and show some moderation in their own salary and demands...
EBB - looking forward to your tour in Norway, GREAT news !!

Anonymous said...

Rob, i see from your photo that your wearing a tee shirt in your house! well heres a money and energy saving message... if you turn your heating down a notch or two or three yes it will be colder but you can put a hat and coat on and still be as warm and snugg and you will be saving money and energy at the same time!now there may well be smelling mistakes in this message thats because im typing this with 3 coats on ,thick gloves and a large bobble hat thats fallen over my eyse!
cheers
stay warm
tony

Anonymous said...

Aah yes, the tee shirt. Tell me, is your tee shirt printed in reverse, or did you reverse the photo? Do I get a Blue Peter badge for spotting that one?

Love you guys

Tony H

Anonymous said...

i have always wanted to have a pair of cowboy boots! ive seen some i like on ebay... theve been calling to me for the last few days "tony tony come on buy us ..you know you want too! ".. but i've so far resisted i dont have a horse and my names not woody, so ive not bought them... only because money is tight and i dont really need them before the credit crunch i would have had no hesitation and bought them!.. have i beaten the credit crunch? ...only the next few days will tell..
cheers
tony

Jon said...

Do you have an email for Sally Fadelle? She wrote to me and I'd like to make contact through the air rather than post.

jon@shindig-magazine.com

Anonymous said...

Hi there, Im a good friend of Sally Fadelle's and do alot of work with her. Im sure she would be ok with me leaving her email for you. Here it is

timothylearytheory@hotmail.com

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