Stormcellar Band Home Page

We're in Eden this weekend.

It's both wonderful and a little sad. We had hooked this gig up so we could take Friend of the Band 'Travellin Mac' down to one of the prettiest spots on the coast.

We wish Mac a speedy recovery.

On a positive note, almost all the folks who have been joining us at our Eden gigs as support acts are doing their own shows this weekend :-) so we'll be doing the night solo.

It's greatly encouraging that live music is starting to come out of hibernation :-)

The show goes on.

For crying out loud. WTF.

Paul's mum passed away yesterday, the day after John McC.

WTF.

It's been a time.

Mr Wizard didn't say a thing about it until after the gig today. My blog would be normally about what a pleasant way it as to spend the afternoon today, and how we had a grand night on Friday.

I liked Bernie's bag.

Maybe it still should be.

A few years back we lost Kaye, and now in quick succession, Rosie's Dad, Paul's flatmate and now..oh for the love of mike...

I know it's all part of the cycle, fair enough, but it's been a lot, quickly.

We take so much comfort from what we do. These are 10 years of friendship. Cameraderie. Support. Extended family. People who have heard all of your stories. All of them. Even the ones you don't want to share. Because after so many hours in a car, you get to the start of your life :-)

We look out the window, we see green. We listen to music. We play for each other, and for the friends who come hang out with us. We write stuff together. Try to work out what each other are saying, what we mean within the work.

These are the signs, the milestones, each one past is as treasure to be carried with you.

At times like this, you reach for the strength that surrounds you, the network that holds you up.

10 years of solace.

Now more than ever, the stormcellar is a state of mind. 

We gather Mr Wizard into ourselves, as we do with each of us, and we talk, cry, whatever. I'm not smart enough to fathom rhyme or reason to these things. But we're together, that's what we've got, and maybe it's enough.

What a great couple of shows we had. Thank you to everyone who joined us. Thank you Shawn. Thank you Dan. Thank you Kel, Con, Sal and all the Cellar Dwellers who came out with us.

We started and ended the weekend in the company of friends.

We're saddened by the passing of John McConnell, friend of the band.

Even the casual observer would note that there's been a big dose of passing over the last year or so. This one's a little closer to home.

John was a talented, passionate guy. We made a particular point of working with him, on his grand old 2 inch tape machine.

John was a gent of the old school and did not suffer fools lightly. I can quite clearly recall at least one 'frank and honest' conversation with him :-) Knowing that it was Ok to stand my ground with him was a personal milestone. Thanks John.

We were fortunate to have recorded with him. Vale John.

A big weekend for us - Friday night will be our 20th show at the Town Hall Hotel, with special guest Dan Crestani.

I did a compilation of all our Show posters :-)

and sunday we're doing an afternoon session with our mate Shawn and Miss Jo is joining us!

2017 is all about celebrating through creating.

Mr Wizard suggested one of the ideas I'm pursuing is a 'bucket list' concept, but I plan on sticking around a while, so I'm calling an EPIC list :-)

It's time for KUNG FU LOGIC!!

Continue!

We've been apprentices and journeymen, if we wish to emulate the ways of the Master, we must start with Understanding.

We must first understand that we are not the Master. Only then do we take the first step towards mastery. 

Ponder that one a minute.

We must Make Stuff.

Do Stuff.

It must be.

EPIC.

Also, affordable.

So less Kung Fu Master and maybe more KUNGFU MASTER!

We have a number of things on the hop, some of which are going at full speed, some of which have already FAILED. 

Experiment, fail, learn, repeat :-)

So for my own purposes, I'm just going to note down some of the projects we're still working on now - but, because D. tells me that talking about it gives the same dopamines as doing it, I'm going to go half way here, to avoid internal rewards for work we are yet to complete, so no details. 

2017 Band Epic List

1. Defiance - 80% complete

2. Project  Jo - 10% Complete

3. Project Lightwell - 25% complete

4. Project MJSPS - 25% complete

5. T-Shirt For Every Gig Project - 30% (yeah 2017's moving aint it?)

6. Heavy Weather Videoclip - partial fail. I worked it up and didn't like it. back to drawing board.

7. Project GOB - fail 1, 2nd now at 10%.

8. Project SL - FAIL. Might try again.

9. Sailing suite - 50%

10. SC 10 - 5% (Yeah if you know our album numbering you know what what means)

11. Project Jerry - 25% complete.

12. Project Revival - 60% complete

13. Project TLGIS 2 - 25% complete

14. Project PopU - 15%

15. Project ReM 1 - 5%

16 Project 5 - 50%

Would you believe that's not all we're up to. But as you have no idea what most of what I've written means, I guess the answer is 'WTF are you talking about?'.

Fair call. 

For every video or thing you see up here, there's plenty of ideas and attempts that don't work or don't get off the ground.

It's OK to try something and have it go haywire. Some of the best fun we've had has been when things went a little sideways.

I expect a few of these things to come together over the next three months so it will make more sense as we go. But if it goes south, I'll note that too.

Meanwhile, I got work to do! Can't hang around here blogging!