The Indalo Cave
You hum it son, I'll play it....
Yep, that’s what I’m calling the Studio – named after the cave where they found the drawing of the Indalo man, the local symbol for good luck. (I even have one on here, watching over proceedings)
The Indalo Man sees all....
It feels like a cave, nice and dark and atmospheric – just how I like it to create the mood. Needless to say, it’s not a Sanctuary – Paparazzi Miki always finds a way in, and captured me rehearsing for my New Year’s Eve solo show. Coincidentally, I was running through some CHRISTIE songs, as I plan to play 30 minutes worth of CHRISTIE material during the evening. Kind of killing two birds with one stone – I won’t be so rusty come the tour next year!
What does this button do?
Photography by Miki
except “Indalo Man” by Kev
In Acoustica Flagrante
First notes ring out from my studio....
A flurry of activity yesterday, as I installed power supplies, and access points through the worktops to link Keyboards and Computers and suchlike. My acoustic also eventually found its way to its rightful place on the wall. Apart from a small servicing of the power amplifier, and installation of the iMac that will be the “control centre”, things are pretty much finished. The vestibule leading to the control room is the next thing to concentrate on, but that’s for another day. I sat down early evening and began running through the songs I’ll be featuring in my opening acoustic set for my New Year’s Eve solo concert. Lost in my strumming, I failed to notice the stealthy footsteps of “papparazzi” Miki, who captured me “in acoustica flagrante” as it were. But what a beautifully evocative photograph it is.
Photography by Miki
Nearly there!
(((Singing to the tune of 10 green bottles)))) ..there were 2 bass guitars, hanging on the wall...
Completion, like Christmas, looms large on the horizon. (So does my solo show on New Year’s Eve, but I’m trying not to think about that!) Today I fired up the power amp and tested the speakers, which are now proudly hanging, dungeon-like, from chains attached to the ceiling. Asyou can see from the photo, two of my guitars now hang proudly from the walls. Two more to put up on the other side of the studio. The entire worktop area is installed with end sections, and the pull-out drawer for the keyboard workstation also. My biggest enemy now is impatience – wanting to just have the thing finished so I can start creating in it. But, all being well, as we enter the rarified atmosphere that is January 2009, I’ll be engaged in a compositional frenzy in my newly finished studio!
Text and Photography by Kev Moore
Do people like this REALLY have the vote?
I was wandering around YouTube the other day and came across a video (well, there’s no video, just the music) of Billy Cobham’s Spectrum. It’s a fantastic piece of Jazz Rock from one of America’s foremost drummers. The guitarist on the track is Tommy Bolin, the tragic guitarist who replaced Richie Blackmore in Deep Purple and died from a heroin overdose aged just 26. In the comments section, someone was bleating on and on about how the track was nothing to do with Tommy and it was all Cobham, which is of course, plain rubbish. Cobham may be a great drummer, but this and other tracks he recorded were made by the combined efforts of the musicians he surrounded himself with. Take a listen, and see for yourself. I pointed this out on the comments page, and I received a mail in my YouTube inbox from the guy who dismissed Tommy’s input. It went like this (I’ve added asterisks) The lack of capital letters/grammar/punctuation/proper spelling etc. are all his very own.
look lets get one thing straight ok i don’t give a f*ck about tommy bolin are you and what you are talking about ok motherf*cker you have a problem with me stop hidding behind the internet and lets do this face to face and see if your are a man are a bitch that i know you really are and anymore about some stinking ass white boy bitch ass motherf*cker
I replied that I found his answer bordered on racism , and reitereated my point that the various guest guitarists used by Cobham and Mouzon significantly contributed to their albums. His reply:
look you must really be in need of someone to talk to i did’t send you a message on the comment i put my comments on in the comments box not to you ok so look it’s like this you keep trying to make your point i have say what i mean and mean what i say so we can keep going back and forth with what you beleave but to tell you the truth i can give a fuck about tommy bolin are you get it it not a matter of race to me as so much for you billy cobham hang with people like roy ayers, stanly clarke,george duke, miles davis, grover washington jr. and i acn go on on wirth this of brothers ok you just trying to fit where you can get in get a son ok that you thank that you can impress not don’t need you sending me anything about jazz music ok i am jazz music and soul and funk and blues gospel and rock & roll and r/b so go pull you hero toomy junkie ass out of the grave and he can be your god ok don’t send me any comments on your god tommy bolin ok i don’t care bitchhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…
I wonder if the guy takes a breath when he’s writing? I sure couldn’t observe his lack of punctuation and read it out loud from beginning to end without gasping and turning blue. And another thing, is it strictly English? He’s from Baton Rouge. so, all you Americans out there – does it make you proud? Scares the hell out of me!
Kev Moore
Hamburg Express
Coffee and Shadows
Well, Kiel, via Hamburg airport actually. A last-minute call from our German promoter on Friday night resulted in me being on a 737 heading for Germany on Saturday morning, and a rendezvous with BC Sweet and a few thousand fans at the Sparkassen arena in Kiel. It all happened so fast, I barely got chance to say hi to the guys before jumping on stage with them, without any kind of soundcheck. As is so often the case with this kind of scenario, it went very well indeed. Sometimes it’s better not to think!
I had a distinctly ordinary-looking coffee in Alicante airport (Haagen-daaz cafe, take note: your standards are slipping) and read about original Shadows bassist Tony Meehan’s exclusion form the re-union dates with Cliff Richard. Bass players always get a raw deal!
Nice comfy chairs backstage only really got some use post-gig. No time to relax beforehand!
Three Piece Sweet
There was a touch of Christmas spirit around in Germany this weekend. Everywhere you went, you ended up with a chocolate Santa. I found this one on my pillow. Miraculously, it made it back to Miki without being eaten!
Santa says: "Froliche Weinacht"
Although I managed to get a late breakfast at the hotel (the others having to suffer the ignominy of a 7am departure) I still spent most of Sunday here in Hamburg airport.
Busy doing nothing.....
Earthshine...novelty lamps in the foreground as every plane except mine prepares for departure
Away across Europe at 12 hours notice for a total of 50 hours, and all to appear on stage for 35 minutes. What a peculiar job I have!
Muted winter sun on a misty morning
P.S. You can see more pics in CAFECREM
Two heads are better than one….
Hello Kev, fancy lending a hand?
STUDIO REPORT: Star date 2:000456575 and a bit.
The work rate gathers momentum, a full 50% of the ceiling acoustic covering is fitted, all of the walls are carpetted, save for a few square inches here and there, and the inner door is finished, along with its surround. Today, I affixed the battens to the wall that will support my main work area and recording equipment. Sometimes I feel like I need to split myself in two to get all these jobs done!
Luckily, with Miki’s help, I can do just that…….
Photography and cloning by Miki
See more, do more, be more, Kev Moore
Sometimes, as a musician or a performer, you can spend all your days racking your brains trying to think up a “handle” or witty epithet with which you can be associated, or be known by. Invariably, it doesn’t work. but I have come to realise that catchphrases are like buses. You can wait all day for one, then two come along at once.
Tony's Gift
A few years back, when I’d tired of the bass and life on the motorways of the world, schlepping from gig to gig, I decided to put a solo vocal show together and market myself a little differently. My goal was, unashamedly, a bloody easy life. it all worked out rather well, when , on the strength of 20 minutes worth of songs, I began a wonderful 2 years sailing the Mediterranean and the Caribbean seas as a guest entertainer aboard Ocean Village - a colourful cruise liner that advertised “cruises for people who don’t do cruises”
I quickly became part of what we laughingly referred to as “the Village People” – and made fast friends in particular with Tony Stevens (Magician and Comedian) Rachel lane (Vocalist) and Zac Bauman ( er…well he’s just Zac really). We would regularly gather in Charlies Cafe bar amidships and bandy ideas around. Somehow or other, one of Ocean village’s catchphrases morphed from See more, do more, be more, into See more, do more, be more, Kev Moore - and before long comperes were introducing me onstage that way!
It wasn’t long before Tony presented me with a T-shirt featuring the newly bastardised slogan!
It didn’t stop there of course, I was also christened “The Nice guy of rock” which I was also from then on introduced as. My intro was in danger of becoming as long as my show! Towards the end of my time onboard, various cast members from the show also took to singing “Kev Moore, Moore, Moore, how do you like him, how do you like him?” to the tune of 70’s disco hitmakers Andrea true connection’s “more more more” whenever they walked past me!! I had become a publicist’s dream.
By the way, I was only kidding about Zac, he actually does a wonderful swing show…oh, and apparently he thinks he’s funny too.
Kev Moore
It’s that time of year again
It’s amazing how time flies. This time last year I was composing and publishing my song “One Stranger” which is about the homeless at Christmas time. As Christmas approaches again, I thought I’d post the video here as a reminder that there are many less fortunate than ourselves in this world.
The song was written and recorded over about three days, if I remember correctly. I worked fairly intensively, and it came together without too many problems. I wanted the video to look a bit like a Christmas edition of the old BBC Children’s story programme – Jackanory – Hope you enjoy it!
Kev Moore Bio
(Born: 20th May,1958, Chesterfield, England) is a Bass Player and Lead Vocalist. Formerly with Tubeless Hearts, he played with English Pop band Christie from 1990 to 2003, and featured in Graham Oliver’s Saxon on two European tours, before other commitments resulted in John Ward taking over vocal duties for the resulting Oliver/Dawson Saxon CD releases. Nevertheless, he appeared on Graham Oliver’s solo album End of an Era returning the favour after Oliver had appeared on Tubeless Hearts Three CD.
Since 1998 he has been an occasional member of The Gonads, the punk band founded in the mid-seventies by journalist Garry Bushell, touring America and appearing on the albums Back and Barking and Schiz-oi-phrenia, and two videos of songs from the yet to be released third Gonads album that featured on the Bushell on the Box DVD.
As of 2005 he has been Lead Vocalist and Bassist with BC Sweet, the band originally founded by Sweet vocalist, the late Brian Connolly.
2006 Meets Miki, and a stream of CD releases follow, The Classic Collection, Stars over Desert Springs, One Moore Reggae for the Road, The Brush with Poetry project in conjunction with Miki, a CD EP of re-worked Sweet songs and a full-length original album.
2007-2008 Kev still tours Spain regularly as a solo artist and throughout Europe with BC Sweet, and continues to write and record, collaborating with different artists around the world.
2009 Reunites with Christie for an extensive European tour. He also writes and records “Derby Pride” for Derby County Football Club – the first in a series of Derby-related songs for a projected CD.
April 25TH. 2009 Fan Fayre for the Commons People CD released to coincide with DCFC’s securing Championship status!
November 20th.2009 The Long Walk Home solo album released as a digital download through Jamendo.
Tubeless Hearts 1994
Christie 1990
with Graham Oliver
BC Sweet 2008
Download my new solo album FOR FREE!!!
CHRISTIE
CD AVAILABLE NOW!
Video Downloads
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