Mick Davidson

In what amounts to an almost uncontrollable burst of writing, I reeled of a few short pages of your actual literature recently, which I am willing to share with those of you more interested in the surreal happenings inside my head, rather than more news of how our money is being flushed down the pan.

So you can read - and enjoy - a full fat slice of life I experienced from my recent stay at McDonalds in Cambridge, here: http://davidsonmick.squarespace.com/life-with-the-colour-turned-up/

The new year promises more of my writing, you lucky people: read it now for free, while you still can!

Tootle les Pipes!

I've had a foto and a short poem published in a book called Freedom and Art. The book contains art work and words about how artists from the Mirca art group views the concept of freedom, and is helping to raise funds for Amnesty International.

Follow this link to my page on it, then follow the other links to that special place where you can buy a copy: http://davidsonmick.squarespace.com/publications/

Newcastle's finest living slide guitarist graced the podium in the Oude Brabant cafe a few days ago, and brought the house down, and my project for this year, to an end. Thanks for both Johnny. (And Bart and Ron, who improvised their way through the evening brilliantly - you couldn't have or want a finer backline.) Mr Dickinson, who played the entire evening on a borrowed guitar as his own had suffered some unscheduled in-flight adjustments, delighted us all with his charm, guitar playing and singing. Who will ever forget the whole of the Oude Brabant singing Goodnight Irene?

So what of next year's project? I was thinking of doing the whole thing next month, but decided that would be too obvious. I've a few ideas kicking about, but nothing's settled. Whatever it is, it will be very simple to do and involve no more than 12 fotos. One thing I've learned about projects is DON'T TAKE SO MANY BLOODY FOTOS!

I'm going to continue on with the bands at the Oude Brabant cafe though, they'll appear in a seperate gallery in the not too distant future, perhaps...

Nighty night!

Just a quickie tonight, but I was so excited at getting the October and November edition of Project 2008 on the site, I had to tell you NOW!

Not that I'm resting, despite having a near death experience with a cold, oh no. This evening I shall be taking more fotos at the Oude Brabant cafe of a Friesien heavy metal band, and on Sunday, if I'm still concious, an English slide guiutarist. For more detail of both, stay tuned...

As we all know we lost Pink Floyd's Rick Wright recently. Personally speaking I can never thank the Floyd for all of their magical works, especially The Wall, which came out at a particularly important moment in my life. As well as suffering with long term unemployment thanks to bloody thatcher and her cronies, may you all rot in hell, it was also a difficult time on the home front. And of course there are many other fine albums featuring Rick's talents, not the least being Echoes. So thanks for everything Rick, and the rest of the band.

On a more positive note we've just had the Oosterhout Blues festival, with bands coming from far and wide including from as far away as the USA. I was asked by Jan, the owner of the Oude Brabant café to take some fotos of the bands appearing in his café, which meant two very late but very enjoyable nights with Tantrum (wild and eclectic blues-based rock, find them a: http://www.tantrumrockinblues.co.uk/), from the UK, and Monti Amundson (voice of silk and a guitar that slays dragons, find him at: http://www.montiamundson.com/monti_amundson.htm) from the USA. The festival was nicely rounded off by local group Watts in a Name, a band of considerable size and talent, so big they actually didn't fit into my lens. :)

I restricted myself to a mere 1000+ fotos, and have now whittled (with an axe) them down to the 60 fotos you can see in the Project 2008 gallery. The bands are, handily for me, appearing on the site as September, October and November. Which means I've got three month's worth of work in one long weekend: you may think I'm cheating here, but this is my project and I make the rules, ok? Now all I have to do is find someone for December and I'll be done, mission accomplished and promise fulfilled. Tantrum are up today, the others will appear during the next week or so.

The Blues festival is spankingly good, a fact even more amazing when you consider how small Oosterhout (Pop: 55,000) is. But the people who put the festival on are hard working and dedicated, you can find them at: www.oosterhout-blues.nl, and so the show is a great success with the marquee in the centre filled with music fans and many of the local cafes and bars filling the air with live music.

Talking of marvellous six string things, I've ordered myself a very nice looking Tele copy via the magic of the internet. It looks good and sounds excellent on paper (ok, webpage), so I'm very excited about being able to share my love of overly long, overly loud, unaccompanied (a blessing in disguise really) widdly wank guitar solos with everyone in our little square. I believe the anticipation is mounting with some people already putting up deck chairs and at least one table on the grassy bit in front of our house. Lucky people – and I won’t be charging them!

Power Chords to the People!