… FINALLY some rockin out!

My boys have arrived in town! Yay! Slowly trickling in from around the world, from Melbourne to Saigon, Mark’s cabal of rock gods have arrived in town.

Mark’s been helping to keep 50-odd high school girls in line during a European Music Tour with PLC (a girls school in Melbourne where he teaches) but you’d not recognise any hint of wearisomeness when you hear his playing. Simmo’s sick as a dog, but you’d not know it to hear his Rock God impression in rehearsals. Dave’s still a bit jetlagged, I suspect, but again, from the rockin-out that’s going on in rehearsals, you’d not know a thing about it. Eighteen months since our last gig together, eighteen months since I last SAW these lads, and the music’s still about as tight as it was last year (OK, so I may have forgotten a solo or two, but hey, it HAS been eighteen months!).

My living room has become a massive tangle of wires wrapped around effects pedals scattered around discarded ear-buds from our inner ear fold back. My poor parents who have been visiting from Kenya over Christmas have to find a perch where they can if they want to sit in the living room.

And it’s glorious. OMG, I’ve missed this.

Funny story for you Doctor Who fans out there – as long time readers of this blog will remember, Mark’s nickname is The Evil Doctor, due to his stunning pharmaceutical collection of various herbal remedies and vitamins which he pulls out whenever someone has an ailment. Often we (Simmo in particular, who’s worked with Mark the longest) just call him “Doc”.

Well, during the long process of setting up all the gear last night, Mark needed to look inside of one of our equipment racks, but his torch had no batteries. I was wracking my brains trying to locate a torch, but the best thing I could find was my Sonic Screwdriver that one of my friends gave me, which lights up with a bright UV light, and makes that iconic Sonic Screwdriver (heh – Iconic Sonic) sound.

I handed it to The Doctor, and he laughed at me, but proceeded to use it. I had to laugh in turn at the sight of Mark (The Doctor) pointing that sonic screwdriver inside his equipment rack, like it was some inner panelling of the Tardis.

I tried to communicate this glee to the boys, but they just rolled their eyes at me – it’s hard being the only geek in the band…

More band gossip tomorrow.

Cx

More jetsetting with the Mark Saul Band

Here we go folks – after almost 18 months of no touring or playing with (or even SEEING) my beloved boys in Mark’s band, we’ve been booked to do a show at a highland games in January.

“Highland games in January?!” you splutter, “isn’t Scotland a bit cold to be thinking about anything other than curling up infront of the fire in January?”

Well, yes. Yes, it is. Scotland in January is coooooold. Bloody cold. But that would only worry us if the Highland Games were in Scotland – but they’re not!!

No, dear friends, we have been invited to play somewhere far more clement – WE’RE GOING TO FLORIDA, BABY! Yep, highland games in Florida, land of white linen suits and alligators and shuttle launches and disneyworld…

Suffice it to say, we’re a little excited about the whole thing, I can assure you. I can’t think of anything I could use more than a week of sunshine and funky moosak with m’boys, to escape the chill of Scottish Winter.

So MySpace is good for something after all…

It’s tough, y’know, not living in the same country as the rest of the guys in your band – it means that even though you recorded your parts for an album late last year, you still don’t get to hear the finished product until just before the rest the world does. But the wait is over, my friends, and I have been in suspense for as long as you have!

Yes, dear friends and readers, we are proud to announce a sneak peek of the new Mark Saul Band album, due for release in Oct 2007. Mark has posted two new tracks on his MySpace page, which you can visit by clicking here. The new tracks are called Love the Technology and Surrender the Booty, and the tracks are even available for full-quality download.

Pull em out, share em around! It’s gonna be a ripper of an album!

Here’s one for you Van Halen fans out there

Especially for the boys in the Mark Saul Band… Some of you might remember the boys’ obsession with Van Halen during the tour, which has since instilled a sense of deep personal associations with certain Van Halen songs and the beginning of road trips… *sings* “Runnin’ with the deviiiiiiiiil!”

Oh, happy days. I’m sorry there’s no tour happening this year, but looking forward to seeing Mark over the Summer and doing a little more recording!

Van Halen Reuniting With Roth For Tour

January 24, 2007, 4:20 PM ET
Ray Waddell, Nashville

Sources tell Billboard.com a contract could be signed as soon as today for Live Nation to produce a 40-date amphitheatre tour by Van Halen this summer, with original frontman David Lee Roth back in the fold for the first time in more than 20 years.

As previously reported, guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s 15-year-old son Wolfgang has stepped in for original bassist Michael Anthony in the new incarnation of the group, which also features drummer Alex Van Halen.

Van Halen last toured in 2004 with vocalist Sammy Hagar, grossing nearly $40 million, according to Billboard Boxscore. Hagar refused to collaborate further with Eddie and Alex Van Halen after the tour’s completion (“I don’t get along with Eddie anymore, and that’s all there is to it,” he told Billboard.com in August 2005), although he has consistently played live with Anthony in recent years. The warring factions may wind up meeting in public in March when Van Halen is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“I see it absolutely as an inevitability,” Roth told Billboard.com last May of a potential reunion with his ex-bandmates. “To me, it’s not rocket surgery. It’s very simple to put together. And as far as hurt feelings and water under the dam, like what’s-her-name says to what’s-her-name at the end of the movie ‘Chicago’ — ‘So what? It’s showbiz!’ So I definitely see it happening.”

Hagar recently told Billboard.com he was concerned Eddie Van Halen was asking too much of his son to have him join the band and promptly perform in front of thousands of people every night.

“That’s a lot of pressure for Wolfie. Just ’cause he’s Eddie’s son doesn’t mean he can go out and play in arenas and perform and entertain an audience for two hours,” he said. “I would love to see Eddie and Alex get behind Wolfie, with a kid of his age singing, and produce the record for him and help him launch a career. I’d rather see it go that way than come out and say ‘Wolfie’s the bass player in Van Halen and maybe singing, too.’ Van Halen’s got way too much history to have that put on him.”

You gotta love David Lee Roth though, “It’s not rocket surgery” – was he being ironic with his mixed metaphors, or is it simply a life of Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll catching up with him?

I believe I may have mentioned the running theme of Van Halen which weaved its way throughout the tour this year. I kept promising to explain it, and the great extent to which it has coloured our journeys (for the better!), but never quite got around to it. Well, if there was ever to be a soundtrack to a tour, it would be Van Halen’s “Jump” for ours…
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I’d been meaning to share this tragic little photo for ages. Remember when we were in Italy, and Dave and Jamie wanted to stop off in the town of Modena, on the way home from the Montelago Celtic Festival? Modena, of course, being the home of Ferrari, and Dave and Jamie being massive Ferrari fans, it would have been like driving past Universal Studios in late 2004 for me (Browncoats know what I mean…)

Gigi was just keen to get us back home, so he could get home himself. He’d done a good 17 hours on the road in the past 36 hours, and he just wanted to get it over and done with. We came within just a few miles of Modena on the motorway, Dave and Jamie were practically frothing at the mouth, but Gigi wouldn’t have it.
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Right, where did we leave off last? Thaaat’s right, the computer starting up hassle free the morning after Solfest.

Fast forwarding 5 or 6 hours will see us arriving in Shrewsbury.

What’s that? You want stories from the ROAD!?

OK, so the conversation in the back of the van consisted mostly of “zzzZZZZZzzzZzZzzz”, and in the front Mark was driving and I was navigating, and playing DJ on the iPod.

Long time readers will know that I lurve my Nano. It stores everything I need for my own personal music requirements. BUT it’s hard to cater to everyone’s desires when you just have 1000 songs to play with. Mark and I, being the only ones in the car with really any appreciation of traditional folk music, were working our way through my recordings of Solas, Lunasa, Trouble in the Kitchen, and some old 1968 recordings of Andy Irvine & Paul Brady.
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A blogger in Spain just posted these videos on his blog, and has kindly given me his permission to embed them here. You can see me on the far left, battling desperately to keep my bow on the string in the high winds, which is why I’m not as animated as I might be! The track is the housey version of Beyond, on Mixolydian.

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Arrr, me-hearties, this be one festival where oy’d be glad to foind meself at again, arrr!

Picture a hippy festival of 5000 folk. Now, picture all those folk, dressed up in the most garish pirate and fairy costumes you’ve ever seen. Imagine it, 5000 people dressed up to the nines with swords, swashbuckling coats and bandanas, or wispy fairy wings, flowy dresses, glitter and scarves. Now, imagine a good proportion of those folk mixing together fake swords, fairy wings, eyepatches and fairy wands all in the SAME costume, and you’ve got a good idea of what Solfest was like.

It was, must have been, felt like, the LARGEST pirates and fairies party in the world! I thought that Beautiful Days was good – well, Solfest was even BETTER! (Meaning no disrespect to Beautiful Days, we had a marvellous time there – but one word: mud!)
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AKA hippy-fest 2006. Lots of folk going around in hippy clothes, more dreadlocks than you could poke a stick at, and vegetarian health food stalls everywhere, as well as the mandatory greasy snack carts. Lots of hippy clothing stalls, along with … A FAIRY STALL!! Yep, go there for all your fairy needs. I bought myself a pair of fairy wings for the Pirates and Fairies party at Solfest next week, SOO excited!!

The vibe at this festival was just awesome! There were young folk and old, families, and the whole festival was strewn with entertainers bringing the place to life.

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