You and me and Sinterklaas makes three

A few weeks ago I was aked to join the UNA orchestra in Kekerdom as a guitarist. The UNA orchestra is actually a very old orchestra, over 100 years old, who used to play traditional music, but now focusses on big band, jazz and even film music. They needed a guitarist for the annual live show on October 23. I joined on a very short basis: with only 3 rehearsals to learn 21 songs! In the end, I managed to squeeze out 11 and I must have done something right as they asked me to become a permanent member after the show. It was hard work as I don't read sheet music and everybody else in the orchestra does (they must have been quite desperate). The evening was great, and slightly surreal, fun. Around 80 people were present. We had a 16 year old girl singer on a few tunes and a dancing couple who demonstrated the Rhumba and Mambo. The town vicar was present as well (in full ornate). So now it's every Tuesday night off to Kekerdom for me, trying to work out complex chord schedules, tempo changes and wondering what the hell all those funny symbols mean on the sheet music. Great fun! As there are no images of the night yet, I thought this nice image of Sinterklaas would to. After all, it is the season...

Fame, fame fatal fame

Local television station Nijmegen 1, a station I readily confess to not knowing even existed, will be filming a documentary on Frans de Waard. And rightfully so. In order not to show the identical live image of Frans behind his laptop too much, it was decided to include some Beequeen as well. On Friday 20 August 2010 Olga, Frans and myself performed three songs (Breathe, It's A Fine Day and The Honeythief) live in the Extrapool Geluidwerkplaats. Bits and pieces will be included in the upcoming documentary, about which more information can be found at http://www.nijmegen1.nl/. Unfamiliar with being filmed, it was quite a fun experience. Even more fun was the fact that we played the songs really well. Aural evidence of the fact can be found at http://www.beequeenarchives.blogspot.com/ where you can download the full set. The arty image shown here was photographed straight from the camera. A fun way to spent an afternoon!

THE MAGIC HAS ARRIVED!

I am very proud indeed to announce the release of CRITICAL MAGIC, the brand new cassette by TAPAJAWA on Beam Ends records!

TAPAJAWA is in fact guitarist extraordinaire Barry Gray, who used to play guitar in The Legenday Pink Dots in the 80s, where, due to his amazing guitar skills, he was known as Stret Majest. On CRITICAL MAGIC, Barry offers 9 blistering new recordings featuring him using drum programs, bassguitar, guitars and his own fierce vocals, giving the music a nervous edge. the cassette was released in an edition of 50 copies only. The cassette is professionally made and features an on-body print and full colour artwork.

A copy can be yours for 15 Euros (or the equivalent in most valid currencies on this planet) including worldwide postage. To order, simply send a friendly e-mail to me at info@beequeen.nl and it will be my priviledge to send you a copy of this blistering manifesto.

Maria Roepaan

Two pictures of the recent Beequeen live show at Maria Roepaan in the nearby town of Ottersum. And what a lovely day it was! Not only is Maria Roepaan a beautiful location (in fact, it's an old monastry), it was also gorgeous weather and quite a few friends took the efford to travel to Ottersum to see us perform, which was much appreciated. We had actually rehearsed for this show quite a bit - it featured some older songs (Sad Sheep, The Honeythief), some newer (Port Out Starboard Home, Patience), some borrowed (Jane's It's A Fine Day) and none blue. Beequeen was on first and played a 45 minute set that wasn't exactly free of mistakes, but full enough of good notes, minor chords and fine vocal work by Olga. In short, a very rewarding set. Shame about the mistakes in Patience, but you can't win them all! In the end, we were all quite pleased with our performance. Also performing that day at Maria Roepaan was Stahlkwartett, who played Bach and Bjork on four home-made-of-metal-sheets-then-bowed instruments. Slow bow - very impressive! Third on the list was Use of Ashes, who perhaps struggled on stage, but put on a good show nevertheless. The atmosphere they manage to create is always highly tense yet fragile. Final performance was by Frans de Waard, Roel Meelkop and a host of others in the specially designed soundlab in the basement of Maria Roepaan. They played a good improvised set using both laptops as acoustic gadgets. In all, a great day with good friends and amazing music. The whole Beequeen concert can be downloaded for nada via our Music For The Head Ballet site. Two brief films of It's A Fine Day and The Honeythief, made by Miranda, can be found on YouTube. Someone stated we looked like a band from Twin Peaks. I quite like that description! The next Beequeen show is planned after the summer in the Lux Theatre in Nijmegen. A date is yet to be set. The evening will be with Legendary Pink Dots and Use of Ashes. Hopefully it will be as special as our day in Maria Roepaan. Thanks to Huub for organizing the lot!

One step beyond!

The first single I ever bought was Tarzan's Nuts by Madness. This was in 1980, now 30 years ago. I actually wanted to buy Embarrassment, but once in the shop, couldn't remember the title of the single. It was just as well, as the b-side to Tarzan was the wonderful Nightboat To Cairo. I still have that single in my collection. The first album I bought was also by Madness; it was their second album called Absolutely. I was so much of an über-fan in 1980, that I even joined the fanclub. Strangely enough, this folded the day I joined. Coincidentally the same happened when I joined the Adam and the Ants and Alice Cooper fanclub. Folded the day I joined. Strange. Anyways, ska was a wonderfully upbeat way to spend a downbeat decade. I loved The Specials, The Beat, The Selecter and Bad Manners, but most of all Madness. They were so utterly zany British. I loved that. Oddly enough I never saw them live in the 80's. To correct that awful omission in my live career, I bought a ticket for their show last weekend in Amsterdam. And what fun we had! I was right up front, in the middle of this uncontrolled mob, jumping, dancing and singing and pushing and shoving like hell. I've got the bruises to show for it! They played a lot of older tunes as well as some ditties from their latest venture The Liberty Of Norton Filgate. The boys clearly enjoyed themselves on the stage as well; they were slightly older, balder and fatter (like most of the audience), but having a lot of fun. All images I took at the concert are blurred due to the dancing, but this one, taken from a distance, is quite nice. The following day, the "day after", I played all my Madness albums again. Always a sign of a wonderful evening.

And then there were.... three!

Goodbye to the fabulous four and welcome the tremendous three! Last night The Residents played Nijmegen as a threesome. Not sure what to expect after the Bunny Hop shows from last year (which in retrospect were a tad disappointing) I was looking forward to this show with some anticipation. So three there were last night as "Carlos discovered after 40 years the rock and roll lifestyle was not for him and returned to Mexico". There was no theme connected to this show, just "playing some songs and telling some stories". Well, The Residents are amazingly good in telling stories, ya all know that. The music was great too; bombastic, chaotic, intimate, loads of distorted guitar (courtesy of Otto, the man who can restring a guitar in 15 seconds flat - and proved it three times!) and of course Homer's typical voice. A beautiful evening. Great song. Hell, there was even a reprise for Death In Barstow. Two shots from my mobile phone. They're pretty good eh? Just like the show!

A race well run

Last night Beequeen rehearsed for the upcoming live show in Ottersum. During rehearsals Frans suggested a name for my new guitar (see previous blog post). Seeing the scratch plate has a lightning bolt and the letter A, he suggested it was an AC/DC guitar and I should call it “Rosie”. As I like the idea of a black and white guitar called Rosie, Rosie it is then.

I would like to thank Stuart Goddard for his suggestion of the name “Prince Charming”, Vincent Furnier for suggesting “Balls” and of course Paul McCartney who sent in “Yoko”. Thank you all!