NEWS
what's the racket?
OLD PALS ACTS
In the South of Germany there will be several gigs where I shall have the pleasure of playing with old friends. Ron Hills, a most lyrical trombonist and chum for over forty years, will play with Claus Koch, Martin Schrack and I in Rechberghausen and Fellbach at the end of May. These are jazz gigs but we now use the word Swing to describe them. It’s a sad fact that jazz is not very interesting for younger listeners, but swing seems to be acceptable. I don’t like labels anyway, it’s either exciting and fun or it isn’t. I do my best to entertain the folks and I try to swing my butt of at all times.
Ron will bring in some little-heard tunes which we will improvise on and the audiences will be delighted to hear us jazzing up „The Wizard of Oz“ for example.
At the beginning of June we go into one of my favourite halls, the Schlossberghalle in Starnberg. I have played here several times over the years and we have always been full. But I’m incurably anxious and hope that our seven piece band with Ron, Claus, Stephan Holstein and Annette Neuffer in the front-line will bring in the fans. I shall have to think up some publicity stunts involving a daffodil, two hermaphrodites and my Admiral Nelson costume. Watch the Press!!!!
ADVENTURES OF ROCKY LEG ENDS
The ends of my legs are a bit rocky after the accident of two years ago but I shall hope to be dancing and leaping around in May on this Pro-Am Music Jam in Cologne. There will be quite a few old friends amongst the pros but I am really looking forward to meeting those who are coming for the once in a lifetime experience of playing with us.
There was never anything like this years ago. I would have given anything to sit in with some of my heroes for a short time. Now such dreams can come true. Imagine the thrill of sitting with your idol at breakfast in the hotel, watching him slurp his coffee, spill his porridge and lurch off to the loo after a warning fart. And after a days hard rehearsing of the important things in rock like the sex and the drugs, it’s back to the bar for an evening of his bragging stories and chugalugging until you fall over together. Of course, I’m just kidding, it won’t really be like that. Won’t it???? Then I’m not going.
I hear that J. K. Rowling is basing her next adventure on this idea – Harry Potter and the Rock Bitch from Helloween. Mind you, the bespectacled wizardlet is one of the few who can afford an event like this.
t’s going to be a lot of fun and I must remember to take a camera.
PETE YORK & FRIENDS
In-akustik, distributors of Pete’s recordings and, recently, the DVDs of Super Drumming, have released PETE YORK & FRIENDS. This is a collection of three separate sessions, all live, dating from around twenty years ago. Many of Pete’s old pals are to be heard and the recordings contain plenty of solo drumming as well as ensemble work. If you’ve never heard these before, well Christmas is just around the corner