colleen

RESET THE COUNTER TO ZERO, OR HOW THE COVID-DELAYED KINGS PLACE CONCERT WAS JUST WHAT I NEEDED. 
(Written on the Sunday right after the show, held on 19 March 2022)

I am feeling so high from yesterday’s show at Kings Place, London. Every musician who has ever performed live knows that after a show, you can experience a myriad of feelings, mixed ones too, covering various areas: be delighted about one thing, disappointed by another, from how you played to the organization, the welcome you get from the venue, the sound, the audience… 
For me the main question usually boils down to: did I get the reward of putting in a good performance relative to the amount of time I spent rehearsing, or did I get “unlucky” for X or Y reason and not reap the fruit of my labour? And sometimes the reply hurts, and it was one of the reasons I had decided to give up live playing last year: uncertain results for an always insane amount of work. 
Yesterday though… everything just felt so *right* and the day was exactly what I needed to reaffirm the reversal of my previous decision: the joy of hearing sound beautifully amplified in a wonderful venue, for an audience that listens and cares, with exquisite treatment by everyone at the venue. It was also the first time I got a lot of help for a show (of my previous 230 + shows, 90% were done purely by myself, with me carrying more than half my body weight in gear). Literally without that human help the show would have been much less of what it was. To play those two very different albums (Captain of None and The Tunnel and the Clearing), I needed to bring 60 kilos of gear and instruments, and this would have been impossible without my awesome friend, colleague and now roadie/tech assistant David @furvoice @mutabor_music. Gid @lordgid from @soundgasltd drove down from Derbyshire to bring an Elka Drummer One and a Space Echo just for the show, thereby solving a problem for me and making the sound extra special with the real thing. 
Hopefully Covid is now truly getting weaker, and if the worldwide situation allows, I will tour the States again, and do more shows elsewhere, with a renewed gratitude for how wonderful this can truly be.

MORE MEMORIES FROM THE SHOW AT EL PUMAREJO, BARCELONA, 11 MARCH.

My dear friend and collaborator Luis Torroja, who was responsible for my last press photos and made the mini-documentary on The Tunnel and the Clearing, took these beautiful pictures of my show in Barcelona.

FEATURE IN CATALAN IN ARA

Finally, I forgot to post here that I got a full (and beautifully-written) feature in Catalan in prominent newspaper Ara, read it here.

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