Max

The last couple of weeks have been busy, thanks for coming and supporting me at the Hare and Hounds in Birmingham  last Thursday, and it was nice to make some new friends there too. Next day was directly to the Roundhouse in Camden for a show with Lizzy P supporting Quantic, and the following day Lizzy and I were again playing together – 2 sets at the Tru Thoughts 10th birthday party at the Vibe Bar in Shoreditch. It’s been great to spend some time with the guys from Cookin’ on Three Burners and Kylie Auldist who came over from Australia for these shows. The “Burners” and Kylie played a great show in Brighton the following Wednesday and then Thursday was a vocal session with the “Sparkle Sisters” (Lizzy P and Sarah James), recording backing vocals for my album. Thanks ladies.

Work continues on my album which now we hope will see an early december release. We have (almost) finally settled on the title which is “Walk In This Direction” and we are hoping that we can schedule some band shows in the new year to promote the release. There will be 12 tracks, I’ll try and get some tasters up here as soon as we have something close to completion. In the mean time come and support me at the Brian Kennedy shows around and about the country if you are anywhere near – would be great to see you!

Max

The wonders of modern technology mean that I can write this while sitting on the train travelling South towards London. I should be concentrating on the beautiful countryside flashing by but hey – I guess this post is a little overdue… So almost 3 months after surgery my hand is just about back to normal, I’m very grateful to all at the Haywards Heath orthopedic unit and Chris Williams for looking after me. First gig back was at Ulcombe Village Festival, which despite the rain was a lot of fun. Following weekend was a 24 hour trip to Croatia for a show at the Soundwave festival with Lizzy Parks. What a beautiful place! We played a great set and it was wonderful to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones. I even swam in the sea!! The Ganda Boys rocked the Almeida Theatre on the 1st of August – if you were there you will know what an exciting show this is – really looking forward to more live shows with this band. Incidentally the album is now available, i’m playing bass and guitar throughout – go to www.gandaboys.com and follow the links. Since then it’s been full steam ahead on two albums, firstly the Auburn album which I have co-written with the wonderful Liz Lenten. We recorded some live piano and vocal tracks last week and this week has been the turn of ‘cello and bass. In amongst all this I have been working on my album which we now have a provisional release date for in November. I’ve been shuttling back and forth to Spain to record the vocals which are all but finished so just the mix, artwork and mastering to worry about now…. And the new Prince Fatty 7″ single Shimmy Shimmy’ has sold out of it’s first run and is being re-pressed. If you want get hold of a copy go to www.mrbongo.com and again follow the links. Incidentally you can see me playing with the Prince Fatty collective when we recorded at maida vale for the Mark Lamarr show on the Radio2 earlier this year. Just search for ‘Prince Fatty’ on youtube.

There are more solo shows in the pipeline – i’ll post the details when i get them. Next solo show is in Birmingham on the 3rd of September in Kings Heath and then 5th of Sept with Lizzy P at the Vibe Bar in London.

Thats it for a bit!

Max

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 A, B, C, trust me, is not as easy as 1,2,3, but it was for Michael Jackson. While he may have been naive and immature in other parts of his life, making historic pop records came easy for him. I can think of no other artist – with perhaps the exception of Elvis Presley – who so profoundly touched lives beyond the scope of the music world. Billie Jean would be one of my 8 Desert Island Discs – possibly one of the best singles ever recorded. His music will outlive all of us.

Hand on the mend – some new gigs on the gigs page, album on the way and the sun is out.

M

so it’s back to one handed typing for a couple of weeks (sorry no capital letters) i had a small operation on my right hand on friday so am out of action for a few weeks. sympathy and cake to the usual address please…

back to the good news – last weekend i played with lizzy parks at the spiegeltent during the brighton fringe. this was our first live show together and was a lot of fun. we are playing again in august (in croatia!) but if you cant get there i’m sure there will be more uk shows to follow….

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It was a pleasure and a privilege to sit on the panel that chose ‘Papa do Plenty’ to open Sundays main stage at this years Isle of Wight festival. Wight Noize is an annual competition open to young bands from the Isle of Wight and alongside me on the panel were Andy Booth – drummer with ‘Go Audio’, Dan Swift (producer – Feeder, Ash, Snow Patrol etc), and Lindsay Weatherstone (Solo Promotions). Congratulations to all the bands and artists who took part, it was a great weekend of music and good luck to ‘PDP’.

This weekend i’ll be performing an acoustic set with singer Lizzy Parks (http://www.lizzyparks.com/) at the Spiegeltent during the Brighton Fringe festival. For tickets check the website http://www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk/ticketing.Lizzy has a new album available called ‘This and That’ which features me on acoustic guitar.

Work cotinues to go swimmingly on the debut MAX album – we are now looking at a September release to co-incide with tour dates which are currently being scheduled – watch this space for more details. I’ve also been recording more tracks for the ‘Ganda Boys’ project. This is a band formed from the musicians who came together to make the soundtrack for the BBC2 drama ‘Moses Jones’ set in the Ugandan ex-pat community in London. ‘The Ganda Boys’ features the fantastic vocal talents of Dennis and Dan from ‘Da Twinz’ and we have our debut live scheduled for August 1st at the Almeida Theatre, Islington. More details soon.

M

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