Hospital Food: Free download of the week podcast

This week's free song podcast is now available. It is a cover of David Gray's Hospital Food recorded live at the Acoustic Music Centre @ St Bride's, Edinburgh, on 24 August 2008 as part of my Octagon '08 show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The video of this recording is available at youtube.com/dayvedean.

It's been just over a year since my run of shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe last year. It was great to go back up there last week to play with the band, and because we were playing the Free Festival we could enjoy the festival without having to worry about selling tickets. It was quite a learning curve to do a show up there last year, particularly as I was launching the new album at the same time so there was a lot going on.

One of the things that became quite obvious even during the first show of the run was that the venue felt less relaxed than the places I usually play so the shows were more like sit down performances rather than a show in a bar or venue where it's fine to move around, go to the bar etc. I realised that an hour long show was quite a long time to sit and listen to new songs, particularly considering the album had not yet been released. I decided to restructure the show so that I was playing a cover version to every two of my own songs.

The covers I performed varied during the show's run: some were songs I'd prepared before coming up to Edinburgh, others I was either already performing regularly or had done so in the past. Hospital Food was completely new to me though and it was interesting to learn a song and start playing so regularly within such a short space of time.

I was performing several times a day in various situations including in the shop window of John Lewis and on an outdoor, unamplified stage on the High Street, as well as my hour long show at the Acoustic Music Centre. This recording is taken from the final show of my run, the only show of the run which I recorded. The videos are available at youtube.com/dayvedean.

You can download the podcast at www.dayve.co.uk or on iTunes.

Launch of the Words and Music Festival

I've just played an acoustic set along with Dan Logan at the launch
event of the Nantwich Words and Music Festival at Costa in Nantwich.

We played a half hour set including:

Follow
Starting Line
Like Jimmy Did
After The Goldrush
Not The One
Lizard Skin
I Don't Want To Be That Man Anymore.

More photos and video will hopefully be uploaded soon to the usual
places.

We're now watching Nigel Stonier and are looking forward to Thea
Gilmore, both playing with Fluff.

The lineup for the festival has now been announced. It's taking place
between 8-11 October 2009 and includes performances from acts
including Thea Gilmore, Mark Radcliffe, Rod Clements, Ian Brodie from
the Lightning Seeds and Simon Armitage. There's more information and
the chance to buy tickets on the festival website at www.wordsandmusicfestival.com
.

Nantwich Words and Music Festival launch

I'm going to be playing at the launch event for the Nantwich Words and Music Festival later today, Sunday 23 August 2009.

It will take place at Costa, 1 Church Lane (off Hospital Street) in Nantwich, Cheshire, CW5 5RQ between around 2.30pm and 4.30pm and will feature several acoustic performances from acts including myself, Thea Gilmore, Fluff and Nigel Stonier. There will also be an announcement of some of the main acts to play at the festival which will be taking place in October this year, as well as a chance to buy tickets.

If you're at a lose end this Sunday, come along and enjoy some free music and a (FairTrade) coffee! For more information, contact Costa on 01270 629733 and also check out the festival's website at www.wordsandmusicfestival.com.

Final Edinburgh show

We've just finished playing our final show at this year's Edinburgh
Festival Fringe.

The weather was probably the best of the three days and we had a good
crowd in the beer garden. We tried something a bit different which saw
Carl take over lead vocals for one of the songs. Hopefully I'll be
able to upload some video of that coming soon.

The band are heading home early tomorrow so we've one more night of us
all in Edinburgh. I'm staying on until late on Tuesday so might be
able to get a solo gig in before leaving.

I'll be uploading photos and video from the shows as soon as I can!

James and the Giant at The Pear Tree

I played the first Edinburgh show with James and the Giant tonight at
The Pear Tree Music Stage. It's an outdoor show in Edinburgh's largest
beer garden so it's dependent on the weather but thankfully the rain
kept away and we had a pretty large audience tonight.

I'll be sending regular updates during our time in Edinburgh which you
can follow on Twitter at www.twitter.com/dayvedean

James and the Giant at Edinburgh, 14-16 August 2009

I'm up in Edinburgh again for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and am
currently in the beer garden at The Pear Tree, part of the Counting
House complex.

It's the biggest beer garden in Edinburgh and I'll be performing here
with James and the Giant for the next three nights. We'll be on stage
at 7pm as part of the Laughing Horse Free Festival so entry is free.

Here's the info:

Fringe venue 170: Pear Tree @ The Counting House
On stage time 7pm (for approx 1 hour)
Address: 38 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh
Tickets: Free, unticketed. Just turn up!

You can find events listings for the three shows on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dayvedean

Pear Tree Stage in Edinburgh

New free downloads: Not The One and Starting Line (live at the Octagon album launch at Orchard Studios)

There are two new songs available to download for free on my download of the week podcast:

This week's podcast song is something a bit different. I had a couple of songs which I had in mind to record for this week, both of which I needed to finish writing and play through a few times. However when I picked up the guitar I started messing around with a few chords and within an hour this song was written and recorded straight onto the Voice Memos app on my iPhone. The quality is surprisingly good!

I thought about adding a few things to the song, and can hear space in the song for a bit of bass, strings and picked guitar, and I've left room near the end for a guitar solo. I thought I'd leave the podcast version as just the raw demo, recorded as one take purely using the iPhone which I emailed to my computer for iTunes to convert to MP3. It was all written and recorded within around an hour this afternoon, 10 August 2009.

Let me know what you think.

Last week's download is still available. Here's the details:

4/8/2009

It's been a year since I launched the Octagon album at the Edinburgh Festival. Before heading to the festival, I held some launch events in Cheshire including a full band gig at Orchard Studios where some of the album was recorded.

This week's download is taken from that session featuring Fluff on violin, Roy Martin on drums, Nigel Stonier on bass and vocals, Dan Logan on guitar, and myself on guitar and vocals. The sound is taken from the video shoot, and you can find the videos from the launch event at www.youtube.com/dayvedean.