Blogs

<p>freeboys1237.tumblr.com</p>

<p><span style="font-family: 'courier new', courier; font-size: xx-large; color: #ff9900;">I hope you take a listen!! It's short and it's sweet. Peace.</span></p>

<p><span style="color: #ffff00;"><em><strong><span style="font-size: medium; font-family: book antiqua,palatino;">I had to go on a retreat......to learn the ins and outs....of the mouth harp...!! However the experience was quite AMAZING,,!!&nbsp; I really wanted to do a gig with these ladies.....!!</span></strong></em></span></p><p><span style="color: #99cc00; font-family: book antiqua,palatino;"><span style="color: #ffff00;"><em><strong><a href="http://www.mixposure.com/index.php?t=mixposure_song_player&amp;song_id=25172&amp;band_id=816">http://www.mixposure.com/index.php?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; t=mixposure_song_player&amp;song_id=25172&amp;band_id=816</a></strong></em></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium; color: #99cc00; font-family: book antiqua,palatino;"><span style="color: #ffff00;"><em><strong>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span style="color: #ff0000;">Aw</span></strong></em></span></span><span style="font-size: medium; color: #ff0000; font-family: book antiqua,palatino;"><em><strong>wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwOooooooooooooooooooo</strong></em>ooooooooooo </span><span style="color: #ff9900;"><span style="color: #ff0000;">!</span>!!</span></p>

<p><img src="http://www2.mixposure.com/image.php?mode=message_image&amp;band_id=4303&amp;message_id=7787" alt="" width="450" height="600" /></p><p>Check it out...Finally found a cell phone I can afford. Downside it's little difficult to text on... </p>

As many of you guys know, I commute each week from Bordeaux in France to London to go earn my daily bread, and from time to time you meet some interesting people on the plane, apart from the twelve or so of us who make the journey every Monday and Friday.

A couple of weeks ago, I was at the boarding gate at Gatwick, waiting for it to open, and one of the ground crew went past me escorting a guy carrying an acoustic guitar case covered in tour labels.  He want down the ramp to the plane before everyone else was let through - Aha, I figured, he wants to find a safe spot for his guitar before all the tourists fill up the luggage space.

So I didn't think about it again until we were all getting off the plane in the evening sunshine at Bordeaux, and I took another look, and recognised the guy, just as the stewardess pulled his guitar case out of the back of the business class coat locker.  It was Chris Difford of Squeeze, who were one of my favourite bands back in the eighties and ever since.  Had a quick chat with him before I lost him in the customs queue.  The guy is the most incredible lyric writer and musician, made his name writing down to earth pop songs with a serious lyrical hook (if you can remember, think of "Up the junction", "Pulling mussels from a shell", "Tempted", Black coffee in bed" and many more that I can think of which were real classic songs back in those days - almost all the Squeeze songs were written by Chris Difford and Glen Tilbrook, both of whom are still gigging today.  Jools Holland, who was with them for a while, has gone a lot further though, it seems.

Anyway, must have inspired me somehow, because the song I put together over the past three days is very much in the Squeeze mould, happy song with some cute lyrics, which you may like if you're a long-time Squeeze fan like me.

Here's the song for your delectation my friends: Breaking into you

Cheers,

Chris

<p><span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hi everyone!</span><br /><span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The latest news on the album is :-</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif; font-size: large;">CD Baby have given us a special rate for posting the album with them </span><br /><span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif; font-size: large;"> (it will only be available for download, as physical CDs involve more outlay)</span><br /><span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif; font-size: large;"> The album will be available first on Mixposure then on CD Baby</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif; font-size: large;">UNICEF have finally given us an answer :-</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif; font-size: large;">We CAN&rsquo;T use their logo, but we CAN state that all proceeds will go to UNICEF</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif; font-size: large;">We hope to have the album on sale by the end of September (still a couple of hoops to jump through, lol) .</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif; font-size: large;">Once again, thanks so much to everyone who is involved in this project!</span><br /><span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif; font-size: large;"> Special thanks to Dazed for his invaluable help!</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif; font-size: large;">By the way, the Executive Director at UNICEF Switzerland tells me that charity CDs don&rsquo;t sell well!</span><br /><span style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif; font-size: large;"> LET&rsquo;S PROVE HER WRONG!</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

The difficulty, when you've been away for a while and you have got a few songs waiting to see the light of day, is knowing which one to put up next.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to listen to Walking on Water, the first solo song I've floated out there into the wide world for over a year.  Thanks also for the reviews, you guys!  I've been a bit slack in that department myself, but I'm now home for three whole lovely weeks and I'm going to hunt out some of the great tracks hiding on here so's I can pinch some of your ideas (only joking  ).

In the end I decided to put out a new song called "Skies of blue" next.  Back to my secret eco-warrior stance for this one, something with a similar story line to my old song "Contranature" but written from an after-the-event perspective.  One day I might even write a happy song, who knows 

Here's the link to the new one - thanks for listening if you got this far.

Skies of blue

All the best

Chris

<p><span style="font-size: small; color: #339966; font-family: impact,chicago;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A musical collab with Bip Pete.....with an amazing&nbsp; &nbsp;video...created by Bip Pete</span></p><p><span style="font-size: large; color: #339966; font-family: impact,chicago;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<span style="font-size: x-large;">&nbsp; <span style="font-size: xx-large;">~~The World of Green ~~</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large; color: #339966; font-family: impact,chicago;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <a href=&quotTLT50 - The World Of Green (BigPeteRemix 3.0);

<p><span style="font-size: medium; color: #ff9900;"><strong>El Kady &amp; THE MEDIA</strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; color: #ffff00;">"<strong>El Kady</strong> incarne &agrave; lui seul le m&eacute;tissage de r&ecirc;ve. L&rsquo;Afrique, l&rsquo;Inde et l&rsquo;Europe coulent dans ses veines. Sa musique est fid&egrave;le &agrave; son image."</span><br /><span style="font-size: small; color: #ffff00;"> <strong>Laurent Saulnier - VOIR</strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; color: #ffff00;">&hellip;&nbsp;&ldquo;&nbsp;<strong>El Kady</strong>, a pioneer of World beat in Canada, brings us a cosmopolitan sound of diverses languages and rhythms.&nbsp; A mixed background of African and Latin cultures has prompted the singer to impart on their rhythms a jazz-rock-funk quality that lends a contemporary flavour to all his compositions.&rdquo; &ndash; <strong>INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL OF MONTREAL MAGAZINE</strong></span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-size: small; color: #ffff00;">&hellip;&ldquo; <strong>El Kady</strong>, un ensemble cosmopolite, envo&ucirc;te un public enthousiaste au Festival International de Jazz d&rsquo;Ottawa.&nbsp; Leur son provient directement des pays chauds o&ugrave; le rythme est omnipr&eacute;sent.&nbsp; Une musique qui a inspir&eacute; Paul Simon pour sa tourn&eacute;e <em>&laquo;&nbsp;Born at the right time&nbsp;&raquo;</em>.&rdquo; <strong>&ndash; Marc-Andr&eacute; Joanisse &ndash; LE DROIT</strong><strong></strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; color: #ffff00;">"Ricardo Pellegrin <strong>El Kady</strong>, who originally hails from Senegal and Guinea Bissau, at the doorsteps of the Mandingo and Malien empires, has one of the encyclopedic knowledges rhythms in Montreal."</span><br /><span style="font-size: small; color: #ffff00;"> <strong>Andrew Jones - Montreal MIRROR</strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; color: #ffff00;">&hellip;&nbsp;&laquo;&nbsp;La musique d&rsquo;<strong>El Kady</strong> est &eacute;toff&eacute;e avant d&rsquo;&ecirc;tre exotique, &eacute;galement plus pouss&eacute;e que la moyenne des musiques pop de n&rsquo;importe quelle souche.&nbsp;&raquo; - <strong>Alain Brunet &ndash; LA PRESSE</strong><strong></strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; color: #ffff00;">&hellip;&ldquo;&nbsp;<strong>El Kady</strong> fait partie de cette nouvelle g&eacute;n&eacute;ration de musiciens par qui la musique t&eacute;moigne d&rsquo;une culture mondiale profond&eacute;ment m&eacute;tiss&eacute;e.&nbsp;&rdquo;&nbsp;<strong>- Paul Cauchon &ndash; LE DEVOIR</strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; color: #ffff00;">&laquo;<strong>&nbsp;El Kady </strong>cr&eacute;e une saudade qui ne renonce pas au rythme.&nbsp; Il habite ses textes d&rsquo;une voix voil&eacute;e et tr&egrave;s touchante.&nbsp; Ne manquez pas ce pr&eacute;cieux repr&eacute;sentant d&rsquo;un style unique.<strong>&nbsp;&raquo; - ICI</strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small; color: #ffff00;">&laquo;&nbsp;Il y a de l&rsquo;espace dans cette musique, l&rsquo;Afrique, l&rsquo;Asie, l&rsquo;Europe, et une richesse qui ressemble &agrave; la vie d&rsquo;<strong>El Kady</strong>.&nbsp; <strong>El Kady</strong> est un voyage en lui-m&ecirc;me&hellip; c&rsquo;est de ses influences culturelles africaines et latines qu&rsquo;&eacute;mergent&hellip; les sons afro-jazzy, les guitares espagnoles, les sambas br&eacute;siliennes, les ballades cap-verdiennes.&nbsp; Un m&eacute;lange sensuel, spirituel et actuel qui transporte vite ailleurs.&nbsp;&raquo; <strong>- POSITIVE CARIBBEAN MAGAZINE</strong></span></p> <p><span style="font-size: small;"><strong>&nbsp;</strong></span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>