Two cracking gigs this weekend. Studio 2 on Friday and Lomax yesterday. Liverpool Fringe Festival filled the city up with great original music and it was amazing to be a part of.
This is the vid from my Lomax gig, playing Scratch the Surface. The other vids are now up on YouTube
x
Just a quick one today to give you a shout out about a couple of music – related things I have going on. I hope you’re all having a great summer so far whatever that means to you!
First up! Bob’s Folk Show Distilled Pt1.
I did a session for Bob in January of this year and had a great time. I got chance to hang out with the man himself for a few hours and then had the pleasure of performing pretty much all of the songs on my album live in the studio. Bob now has a second outlet for his show which he is calling Bob’s Folk show Distilled where he put selected highlights from his live show together as a show. I’m on the first one that was aired last week! Bobs Folk Show Distilled Pt1. I’m on at around 15minutes but I also highly recommend checking out the other artists. It’s a great show.
I’ll be heading down to London in October to perform at a festival Bob is responsible for putting on called London Folk & Roots Festival which will be held at Amersham Arms on 28th October .
Secondly! I did a gig on Saturday at The Lomax, Liverpool. Awesome gig and awesome venue. The Lomax was reopened recently as a music venue and has a great and supportive vibe for good music. It’s run by T2F and I’ll be heading there again for a gig on Sun 26th August for the bank holiday festival. Lots and lots of bands and acoustic acts. I’ll be playing solo in the upstairs room at 8pm. You have been warned…
The Lomax, Liverpool pic by Adrian Wharton 2012
See you soon
Jo x
Last week was awesomely busy. There seem to be a lot of people inspired to learn to play guitar for the summer. This for me is very good. This means I have been spending increasing hours in the first half of my week meeting new guitar students. This is good!
Interspersing my increasing demand as a tutor came a nice little couple of days off for my long-ago-booked gigs in London and Brighton. These two gigs have been on my list for a few months so I was very excited when they finally arrived. With the National Express and Mega Bus as my chosen method of rock n roll transport I headed down to Greenwich on Wednesday towards The Pelton Arms. The British summer has so far being a British summer at its best…this of course means a lot of rain. This meant that en route to gig I got absolutely drenched. I stayed in a hostel near Deptford Bridge. Round the corner from the hostel was a piece of paper stuck to the wall that had ‘Cardboard City’ written on it, with an arrow pointing down the road.., this did make me question whether I had made a mistake..
So…London…my gig was with Icarus Club run by the lovely Phil Dearing. Very friendly and supportive. I sold copies of my album and had a return invitation. This I take as positive. The bar was some decent real ale and a pay-what-you-want for food deal on a Wednesday. 🙂 I played and ran off into the night towards the Cutty Sark and onto cardboard city. All was well.
Up early and I jumped on a bus to Brighton. Pre-gig I met one of my good friends Mark M Thompson from uni that I haven’t seen in a few years. We obviously hit a few pubs and pints of beer and had the quickest catch-up, compressing 6 years into 3 hours. Knowing I had to sober up a tad in order to play a gig of decent caliber we headed for some food, bid goodbye and I again ran off into the rain towards the Brunswick.
A friendly gig where I also got chance to see the fabulous ‘The Finds‘ headline. Very tight band. The sound was great and there were a few familiar faces from the Pool there too. Unexpected and very welcome. I met some really nice people who like my music too.
I stayed the night in another hostel in which at 4am a massive fight broke out upstairs by seemingly somebody who was very upset about his bed… The morning hit and I took a long walk down the sea front, had an espresso in the Alchemist Cafe and begun my 9 hour coach journey back to Liverpool. On our stop off at London a guy tried to get on the coach with a Tarantula….he couldn’t quite grasp why the driver said no….:/
Done., looking forward to many more trips and gigs!
x
After a little bit of waiting my debut album Cycle Grace Pulse Break is now on Spotify for all of those streaming experiences..
x
This morning I finished my latest job as a freelance designer. I was asked to design a logo for Liverpool Independent promotion company Scarlet Tone. The company is run by Matt Swift, Singer/songwriter and at the moment manifests as a monthly run music night. If you want to know more details head to the PAGE.
These artistic specimens are what I came up with. As ever it was a pleasure to work with Matt who I have also gigged with many times!
Earlier this month I also finished my design for The Cake Kitschen, Liverpool. A bespoke cake and cupcake business run by Jo Shelbourne. The idea was to come up with a pin-up style likeness of the woman herself. This started off as a pencil sketch and I am very happy with the result!
Logo Design
For quotes for any type of artwork please message me. I love doing this stuff and it makes me happy when people are happy with it. Have a look at my ARTPAGE for more of what I do. Whether you’re a business, a band or you want a bespoke present for someone.
Now onto the MUSIC!!!
I have some great gigs and radio sessions coming up this year: These are they so far…..
1st April: The Lomax, Liverpool
10th May: Cherry Reds, Birmingham
11th May: The Spring Gardens, Bristol Mark Venus Music presents…..
12th May: Songs From the Shed session
12th May: Marlows, Bristol Mark Venus Music presents…….
15th – 22nd May: IPO Festival Liverpool (dates tbc)
9th June: Burscough Wharf, Ormskirk (Adam Christopher Music)
7th July: Festival of Firsts, Wirral
11th July: Icarus Club @ The Pelton Arms, Greenwich, London
14th Sept: Session on ‘Roots and Fusion’ PURE FM
15th Nov: Picnic Club @ Fuel, Withington
I am also looking into recording a new vid for one of my tunes and plan to write my next albums worth of songs before the year is out!
Take care
Jo x
A great weekend was had as I reminisce with a very welcomed cup of coffee in Oomo, Smithdown Rd….
This weekend was Threshold Festival, held in the Baltic Triangle of Liverpool. I had the pleasure of performing for Mellowtone on Thursday night for the festival press launch, my artwork prints were on display all weekend in the Blade Factory and I also performed a gig I loved in the cafe of the Nordic Church on Saturday early eve. Both gigs had great audiences and reminded me of the plus points of the Liverpool music scene. Much like last year it was a perfect setting for seeing artists all in the same places, ones that I don’t really see much because everyone is usually out gigging in different places. There’s a great spirit and energy and there’s nothing like having a long list of bands to go see whilst swanning around with beers in hand.
Threshold had to do a quick re-shuffle this year as the arranged venue of the CUC had announced its closing. When all is said and done, to manifest something of this size in such a last minute effort is an acheivement and a half. Hats off to Kaya, Chris and the rest of the festival crew. I hope it returns next year!
As for this week….I will be heading to LSU on Wednesday to perform live in session for Mr Ian D Hall’s radio show on ICON. Good times!
Jo x
As my final mail of 2011 I mainly wanted to say thank you to everyone who has supported and enjoyed what I’ve been upto creatively this year whether it be music or art. Cheers! And thanks to those I’ve shared the gigs with. It’s been a great and varied year. My favourite!
2011 started off with my album released and ready to gig. I spent the year sending messages to magazines, reviewers and radio shows and got a significant amount of positive feedback. All the reviews i’ve had so far are on my website and I’ve had some great local help from Seven Streets, LSU, Liverpool Acoustic, Radio Merseyside, Nerve and this month Good Vibrations gave me my final review of the year.
Nationally I had positive reviews from FATEA, R2, MU Mag, The Girls Are and Americana. In terms of radio I had a fab experience on ICON Radio, KVFM and ‘Folkscene’ on BBC Radio Merseyside after being invited by Mr Stan Ambrose. As his only guest I had the whole show and had my entire album played. Definately a moment of pride and acheivement. There’s has also been great support coming my way from Bob’s Folk Show to the South!
Over the last 12 months my gigs were a little chocolate box of mixture. December culminated in two great gigs, the penultimate in LLanberis, Wales after which I went mountain biking in Snowdonia and the final gig of the year at Sound Women in Huddersfield, which was preceded by a traffic-laden, 4 hour journey from Liverpool!
Work – wise I’ve spent an incredible time building up my guitar students and also taken on more commissions art-wise. The most recent two being illustrations for a childrens book and a painting for a present I’m half way through for a customer in USA.
My plans for 2012 are of the writing kind. New music for the new year and the forming of a tour, possibly Europe. I’ll definitely be gigging as ever around the UK. Plans for the capital city are afoot. 31st Jan I will be playing live in session on Bob’s Folk Show. http://www.radiowey.co.uk
My album Cycle Grace Pulse Break is for sale at http://www.cdbaby.com.jobywater2
My blog and updates are as ever to be found at http://www.jobywater.com
The shows I’ve done and art I’ve created will very soon be on the site!
Again, many thanks and I wish everyone the best for the end of 2011 and most definitely 2012!
See you there
Jo x
Fresh from a weekend doing some fantastic experiencing of the Welsh mountains I’m still not aching like I thought I would.
Sunday night I spent the night in the Heights Hotel Llanberis after gigging there, waking up in Snowdonia was pretty amazing. Veggie breakfast and then onto a seriously hilly but very beautiful mountain bike ride. At one point the sound of a Jet seeming to be in the air actually manifest infront of our faces and shot down the valley, Top Gun stylee 🙂 good fun. A walk onto Devils Kitchen ensued. Beautiful. At one point I nearly skidded off the road on the way back because a confused sheep couldn’t decide whether it needed to run infront of my speeding wheels or not…….
The last couple of weeks have brought me some good radio experiences. I was invited to be interviewed for Folkscene on Radio Merseyside by local Harp legend Stan Ambrose. This aired last Thursday and tonight. I will be putting it up here at some point soon.
I also recently received this link for my KVFM session.
My last gig of the year is coming up on Friday 16th Dec at Lawrence Batley Theatre Huddersfield. Sound Women. The day before my birthday 🙂
I’ve also just finalised some illustrations I’ve been doing for a children’s book. There will be some examples up here very very soon I’m sure! A completely new experience was had, I learned much and hoping to do more illustration-type wor.
December excitement!
x
Hey all,
Last week was a great experience for me having the opportunity to perform live on Mr Ian D Halls radio show at Liverpool University Station. I had the priviledge of playing 2 of my own tunes and having a little chat with the man himself in his championing of Liverpool music, both old and new. Ian gave me a great album review earlier on in the year for LSM so it was a pleasure. A very hospitable experience was had. Part of the show was that I choose an influential song. After having 2 months to make this decision I still managed to show up at the station with 8 CDs in my bag…..finally resting on ‘Indifference’ by Pearl Jam. It was a toughy! I then went on to play a set at CUC for Ronan Boyles night. A satisfyinly musical day. This coming Friday (2nd Dec) I shall be heading to KVFM to play on the Christmas edition of the Orange Show with Alicia Rose and a whole host of local musos. Should be a good one.
The last few months have been decidedly art-based and with my art and guitar tuition ventures starting to take off all is looking good. Bring on my birthday, Christmas and the New Year! I also became an Auntie for the first time in November. Happy Days 🙂
Next gig is at Heights Hotel, Llanberis Wales on 11th Dec, then Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield 16th Dec.
Jo x
After an awesome gig and day of art-perusal in London a couple of weeks ago i find myself heading back down there for a nice social chill and a gig on 16th October. Lucky, lucky me booked myself a slot at 12 Bar Club on Denmark st. Door £5. I’ve also just organised a date to perform in the studio on Bob’s Folk Show on 31st Jan 2012. Though it’s seemingly far away I’m pretty sure i’ll be there pretending not to be nervous quicker than expected :). Bob will be playing one of my tunes on 11.10.11 for those who want to tune in! I listened to the show last week and there were some great artists on, definitely recommended.
I also have 2 tunes (Let Go & Disclaimer) on the playlist at Women of Substance radio for the next 3 months. Happy Days!
Currently spending much time teaching guitar, drawing illustrations and analysing the world down to its quantum physical particles.
Bring on the Autumn 🙂
x
Jo Bywater 