April 19th 2010
Hi Folks
Off on POT tour in a couple of days, so I thought I’d better post something on the Bogleblurb before John, Pete, Emma and I head off on the luxury Boglebus...
Nothing is too good for the Bogleband
We’ve only got a 3 week,16 concert tour this time, a mere stroll in the park compared with our 4 month, 90 concert overseas tour of 2009. Hardly worth stepping foot outside the door really, in fact I was thinking of just phoning the concerts in......but noblesse oblige I suppose, so I’ll strap the old guitar on one more time and take to the road. I’d rather take to the drink, in fact I’ll probably do both....
Well, Christmas has come and gone since I last posted anything on my Blurb, so what have I been doing since then I hear you ask (or maybe not....).Well, the answer is not much of anything really. Not on the musical front anyway, John and I had a festival in Maldon Victoria in November last year, and it remains our only musical foray since we got back to Australia. Not that I’ve been totally idle, Carmel had a huge list of jobs around the house and garden awaiting me when I got back, including building a new ‘Eric’s Folly’ to replace my original bamboo pavilion which was destroyed in a storm last year. You may remember the heartbreaking photos I posted on this blurb when it happened (or maybe not...). Here is the new breathtaking structure, loosely modelled on a Japanese Tori gate......
It’s built of 100 year old Jarrah hardwood...if a tree falls on it, it’s the tree that will smash to pieces this time.......
The memories of last year’s marathon UK, Ireland and Canada tour have dwindled away to almost nothing now, as indeed has the income from it.......almost without exception the concerts were very well attended and very enjoyable, at least for John and I. Of all the concerts we did in Scotland, 23 I think from memory (or maybe not...), only one of them wasn’t sold out. I won’t tell you which one, to save the venue’s blushes, and anyway, THEY KNOW WHO THEY ARE!! In fact 90% of the concerts for the whole tour were sold out, most gratifying. I really should do another farewell tour (or maybe not....)
Here’are some pics from the tour. First one is our trusty Skoda Octavia which didn’t miss a beat through 13000 miles of crowded and crap UK roads. The other 2 are of John, one of him loading CD’s into the car prior to leaving for a gig, (he’s a wee treasure!) and one of him sitting on the throne of Scotland, well, actually a cardboard facsimile thereof...
Actually I suppose the abiding memory of the whole tour was how highly emotional it was at times. Believe me, I won’t be doing another overseas tour, in spite of what some people may think. ( I know I’m going to New Zealand in October, but we in Australia don’t regard New Zealand as overseas, more like neighbours just across the back fence). So I knew that, of the many old friends and relatives I’d be meeting on the tour, the odds were that I’d probably never see most of them again, at least not in this world. Which was easy enough to say blithely in pre-tour interviews, but which turned out to be a different kettle of fish entirely when faced with those friends and relatives. Goodbyes are never easy, but when you reach a certain age, and believe me I’ve reached it, you realise that in many cases the goodbye may be for the last time. I’m not being gloomy or pessimistic here folks, my nickname is not Mr. Sunshine for nothing, that’s just the way life is. I turned (reached? achieved? crumbled into?) 65 years of age on last year’s tour, that particular milestone achieved on the night of our concert in Winnipeg, Canada.The audience sang “Happy Birthday”to me, quite lustily if a little off-key, and I think it must have been that musical dissonance that caused a lump to appear in my throat........some things about the road I will miss a lot........
Anyway, enough of that....I still plan to appear in the occasional concert in Australia, if the invitations are forthcoming, and will hopefully make at least couple more CD’s, providing the songs I hope still to write are good enough of course. My plan is to move from relative to total obscurity in a gradual fashion, hopefully becoming more of a mythical God-like figure in the process. A reasonable plan I think.....
On my links page I’ve added a bloke called Ray Nelson. Ray has a great organisation that supplies guitars and guitar teachers for underprivileged and ‘troubled’ teenagers, in an effort to bring some focus and joy to their lives.
Please check out his web-site and also see his amazing guitar-shaped motor bike!
It’s awesome man! (That’s me trying to be cool...)
On a serious note, this year so far the music world, and indeed the world in general, lost three more irreplaceable members of the choir, Ruby Hunter, Alastair Hulett and Kate McGarrigle. I was privileged to have known them all.......
And that’s it for now, I hope to see some of you on the upcoming tour, remember the bulk of the profits of the tour will be going straight into my pension fund, and byGod it needs it, I am in the unenviable position now of contemplating having to sell the Lamborghini and downgrading to a Porsche. Please help me to ensure that this doesn’t happen......
And, as has become the custom, one last photo. A lot of you at my concerts would have heard me talk about my favourite Aunt, my Auntie Ivy. She’s one of the people I found it very hard to say goodbye to when I left Scotland after the tour last year, in fact I think it was the hardest goodbye. We yet may meet again though, who knows?
All The Best
Eric
