This is a review of the Brighton gig.  It’s always nice to get a good review and not to be instantly slated purely by virtue of the fact that you are a male singer songwriter – we get SUCH bad press…

Every single morning I end up sat in the little chef.  Here I am.  Everyone else is asleep.  We aren’t leaving until 1pm or so, so I am not entirely sure what I am going to do for the next 4 hours…

Thanks to those of you that came to Bristol last night.  I thought The Shame was the best we have played it in a while actually.  Yeeah.  And I also CANNOT BELIEVE I made a mistake in Once More I’m Put to the Test – arghh.  I am turning into Bevis.

Hope you are all good and see you in Winchester laters for the next instalment…

Alex

Pic:  Record of the Day thing…

So,  I am in YET ANOTHER Little Chef but this time I have avoided the Olympic breakfast and went for something smaller, and IT HAS THE SAME EFFECT.  Dang.  If you see me near a Little Chef restrain me, give me a lettuce and tell me to eat that instead. 

Last night in Cambridge was excellent – thanks for coming down.  It’s a great venue the Portland Arms, really nice people that work there, great sound guy, excellent little room, I think I might like to go back and play there again.  We head to Brighton shortly, getting in quite early because we want to try to work out how to play Nothing Comes Easy properly (track 11 on the ltd edition CD).  Last night in soundcheck we worked out a new version of You’re Not the One That I Love Anymore and I think it’s really good, I do.

OH NO.  Bevis has just come in and ordered a breakfast too.

Before I go, any musicians out there that need a van and a legend of a bloke to drive the van and help with gear, then Scott is your man – check out his website BANDRUNNER.  He is doing this tour for us, and he is helping us massively Go and look.

Alex

Come down, so you can hear things like this…

…was a great gig. Thanks to Amy’s fans for being so nice, we had a great time! If you are coming to my website after the gig, check out our upcoming Glasgow and Edinburgh dates on the tour page…

Alex

 On our travels PG noticed this nasty cash machine scam and took a pic.  Sneaky.

Really excellent news about 6 Music. I don’t think it’s a final decision, but it’s good all the same. Hopefully it’ll stay that way. Looking back on this perhaps in a year or so there may be a silver lining to all this, namely that because the profile of 6 Music has been raised so much, and I think listening figures are up by 40% or something (?) then the new and/or more cutting edge music (i.e. not your mainstream stuff) will have more people discovering it.

When we were on our way to the Dermot O Leary session the other week, we got lost and I asked a guy in the BBC building where we needed to go and he showed us the way to the right building (yeah, we were that lost, wrong building…) and he was asking about me ‘Oh, I am Alex Cornish (who?)…’ etc. and I asked about what he did. He was in strategy and he made a joke about not being the most popular person at the moment. I laughed (’not surprised’) and told him that I wouldn’t be on my way to Radio 2 but for 6 Music. He appreciated the point, and all power to him for listening. It seems they have actually listened. And that is a good thing. There was a concern all the support, all the emails and forum posts to the BBC Trust would be ignored, but they haven’t Good for them and good for us all for taking the time to say something. Just shows. If you stand up and speak out things get done.

Alex

ps amazing weekends at Cornbury and Kelburn!! 1,000 miles, hot sun then torential rain, little sleep and two lovely gigs. Jackpot.

Pic:  What I might look like in a fishing boat

Bevis and Simon are up and tomorrow and we are going to do this:

- Go for a run…because Simon is training for a 10k and I said I’d take him for a 5 mile run. The only reason I run is because a while ago, well quite a few years ago, I didn’t do any exercise, drank buckets of beer, and I weighed a tonne, so I run so I don’t get fat again, that’s it. Bevis is lucky because he drinks buckets of beer and actually gets thinner. Doctors are doing tests on him. For that and other things.

- Rehearse…we are playing Solas Festival on Saturday at 5.30pm, but playing as a three piece because Paul is off to watch someone called Stevie Wonder (nope, not heard of him either), in London. We’ll work on the arrangements a little. It’s possible too that after we’ve played Solas we might head up to a beach hut and play there later on too – someone’s party…shall see. We need plugs and I’m not sure there are many to spare…

- Have a BBQ. Now this was a good idea, but the sun seems to have had enough of shining in a hot way in the last 24 hours. Idiot Sun.

- Then on Sunday we are playing Hazy Recollections at the West End Festival in Glasgow at Glasgow University Union, on around 4pm. I have got rid of all my tickets but I am sure there’ll be some on the door if you fancy coming down. I think it’s a mere £8 and there is a load of quality music on the bill.

And that’s that for this weekend. Next weekend it’s off to the Cornbury Festival, playing the Caffe Nero tent on the Saturday evening (5.30pm), then on the Sunday we are off to Kelburn Garden Party to play Sunday evening.

And that’s my next two weekends neatly and eloquently summarised. Or, to be more to the point, four festivals, a run, a BBQ, a rehearsal and a party all in five days.

Have good weekends, Will keep you posted via twitter…

Alex

ps saw a van the other day, on the street, parked up, similar to Rosie. She was a beauty, red, 6 seats, funny tyres, I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a lump in my throat, or maybe that was the cheese sandwich I was eating.

Pic: Alex and his band rehearse for Alex’s Christmas Extravaganza

Okay, some of you saw my email. I am putting on a special gig, like the one at St Giles last year, with strings, the band, backing singers etc. The venue is Bush Hall in London, which is an expensive place to hire so it has to sell out. Capacity isn’t actually that big (350), but I am putting the tickets on sale early enough. If you don’t get paid for a few weeks or want to pay later email me at bellevuerecords@hotmail.co.uk and I’ll reserve a ticket for you.

Onwards,
Alex

Pic: A cage like this would do the trick – see below.

Afternoon,

Got back from the Nero tour then immediately moved house, to a place 30 miles south of Edinburgh by the sea, so sorry for being a bit quiet. it’s very nice indeed the new place. Had fish and chips last night and watched the sea. I need to build a studio, however, which I have started planning, all the soundproofing etc. then will set about more recording. Although the new record isn’t even officially out yet I have a load of new stuff that I need to get down. I think I might try and do a Bob Dylan and just get the guys in the studio with me and just record pretty much live, keep it simple. The way the band developed on the Nero tour was an awesome thing to be a part of. Thanks to all of you for coming down. Hope you all like the new album.

There are a few festivals coming up this summer then there will be some more dates once the album is out there doing it’s thing (btw if there are any venues near you that you would like me and the band to play then let me know – open to all offers from livings rooms to nice swanky venues…all I ask is for at least 4 tins of Grolsch for me, some salt and vinegar hula hoops, also for me, and a cage in which I can lock my band, to make sure they cause no trouble).

There’s some pretty exciting mixing going on at the moment and that will be going on in the next few weeks. We have a new mix of You’re Not the One that I Love Anymore which is being done right now by a very talented chap called Justin Fry, then all being well a couple of singles will be mixed by some very talented people, it’s all being sorted at the moment. Hopefully they will dominate the airwaves.

Went for a run on the beach yesterday and saw a load of people surfing. There’s a surf school where have moved to and I am gonna sign up. Hopefully I won’t turn into Jack Johnson…

Onwards,
Alex

Pic: 21 May 2010, Rosie the van passes away.

Sat in Little Chef just outside Brighton. Gigs have been great, thanks to everyone for coming down, hope you all like the new album.

The big challenge of the last few days has been sorting out the van situation. Rosie broke down right at the start of the tour, needed a new alternator, it was fitted and she worked for a few days. But…we came out of Bristol, stopped to get a drink, and she wouldn’t start. No electrics. Managed to limp to London and parked up and smoke was coming out of her bonnet. Always a bit of a challenge to figure out how to finish a tour when you can’t get around and trying not to spend a fortune. So we left Rosie in Lincoln’s Inn in London, went to the pub, had some beers then called Green Flag and got her towed back to Simon’s where she is now. This week I will arrange her funeral, think it involves the passing of a small amount of cash, a lorry and a scrapyard. Rosie has seen a lot in the last year or so, about 18,000 miles, lots of festivals, big venues and small venues. She has had a good second life as a ‘tour bus’.

Tonight is the last night of the tour, in Cambridge and really looking forward to it, then it’s return to Edinburgh to get everything ready for singles for radio etc etc.

Onwards,
Alex