A Tale of two Phils…

Since returning from Ireland a couple of weeks back, my French artist partner Miki and I have been putting our heads together and created the beginnings of what we hope will become a series of joint artworks. By that, I mean, I create my own comic-style characters, usually, but not exclusively, musicians, and then hand them over to Miki in a fairly simple state for her to continue with in her style. It’s already thrown up some interesting stuff, such as Muddy Waters, and there’s more to come!

-But today I wanted to share two different takes on one of my idols, the late great Phil Lynott. The one you see above is my basic drawing given Miki’s treatment, she added the Howth peninsula where he used to live, and is buried. The second is what I came up with as I continued to work on that basic idea on my own, adding a Black Rose and Irish green clover as a backdrop. Two vastly different takes on the same subject, but great fun to do!

You can buy one or both of these by clicking on the respective widgets below!

Kev Moore

Triple Whammy – On the road with B.C.Sweet, Witch Cross & Christie

It’s that time of year…and I’m about to embark on a whirlwind of gigs for three of the bands I play with, all in the space of a few weeks!  Firstly, I’ll be driving along the southern coast of Spain next Thursday to Torremolinos to perform with B.C. Sweet as part of a 70′s week there.

Witch Cross @Heavy Metal Maniacs, Holland

Then, some days later, via the UK, it’s the turn of Witch Cross, as Mike and I fly to Copenhagen for rehearsals and a show in the band’s spiritual home of Hillerød to launch the new album Axe to Grind. The day after, we perform in Sweden. I fly home for a few days, then its back to the UK to appear with Christie at the JFest in Leeds on June 6th!

Christie in Germany

Never let it be said that the life of a musician is dull!  See you all out there on the road somewhere!

Kev Moore

Sunday in El Paniajo

The little dude’s not part of the band….

We thought we’d get out and about this weekend, and a took a trip over the Sierra de los Filabres mountains and down into the valley of a little village called El Marchal, enticed by the promise of Blues, and Chicken Satay!  “El Paniajo” is a lovely little bar by the riverbed in El Marchal, run by Jess and Anne-Marie, and a venue I played solo some years back. I’d visited again recently when showing my Dad around the area, and asked Jess to put me on her mailing list, thus discovering Sunday afternoon’s music and food combo.

The view from the mountain road back down to the coast..

It’s a lovely drive over the mountain, past the village of Bedar, the roadster loving the serpentine road that negotiates both the Southern and northern slopes, dropping down into the village on the other side. It was a sunny afternoon, and the band ( Colores Libres) set up on the huge patio in front of the bar, proceeding to play a number of blues and 60′s classics to a creditable standard. The female vocalist had a voice almost reminiscent of Cleo Lane, quite a low register for a girl. To be honest, if you have a competent band playing, sunshine, a few drinks and a nice meal, is there really any better way to spend an afternoon?

“I believe I can flyyyyyyy….”

La Cosa Nostra

These kind of gigs locally always bring out great characters, it’s one thing I love about the area!

As a musician, its always interesting to note the moments when a band moves from autopilot to flashes of inspiration. The unlikely addition of a passing friend guesting on blues harp for a couple of numbers pushed the guitarist into a series of back and forth exchanges that lifted the band, fleetingly, to another level. Great to see.

Cheers!

The food, was gorgeous! Chicken in a satay sauce served with wild rice, spinach and beautifully roasted red peppers, ensured we’ll be back again soon. If you’re down this way, check out El Paniajo, it’s worth the trip.

Kev Moore

Muddy Waters

Muddy Waters – Kev Moore & Miki de Goodaboom ©2013

I’d like to present today the first in an artistic collaborative series by myself, and my partner, the French artist, Miki. My drawing style is very different from hers, and in a bid to create something a little bit unusual, I suggested that I should draw the basic character, and then turn the project over to her for completion, and indeed,  the end result of this first effort looks exactly like a cross between her style and mine! We’re really happy with it, and we will be creating some more over the coming months. I picked Muddy Waters for a number of reasons, one being that Pinetop Perkins played in his band for a while – the late blues piano legend whom I met in Austin on my BLUE ODYSSEY trip a couple of years back, and also did an art work of (see link) ….and Muddy…well, I always loved the story of his first visit to England in 1958, when all these English high-brow blues purists accustomed to the more sedate acoustic blues Big Bill Broonzy and the like were shaken to the core by his loud electric guitar and stompin’ beat! Muddy’s ‘shock and awe’. I like that.  So here he is, out by Lake Michigan, in a snow storm over Chicago ( which it was when we arrived there after exploring the Mississippi delta in 2010) Muddy, like so many other bluesmen, made that journey to the windy city, so it seemed a fitting backdrop. Hope you like it! If you like it a lot, then you can buy it in a variety of formats by clicking on the widget below.

Kev Moore

Witch Cross – Axe to Grind

Kev Moore

Dublin 3 – Scorpions over the River Liffey – Michael Schenker live

During our visit to Dublin, I was hoping to catch a gig or two, and as luck would have it, we dropped on a beauty: Michael Schenker on something of a comeback trail, 20-odd gigs in to a long tour, playing at the Vicar Street venue, confusingly located on Thomas Street (go figure!)  I’d long been a fan of the troubled German’s melodic style and distinctive tone that he could wring effortlessly out of his Flying V. ‘Force It’ by UFO was, and is, one of my favourite 70′s rock albums. These days he plays a selection (4 in all) of Dean ‘V’ guitars. But the guy’s still got it. Tonight was interesting for one very special reason. Several weeks ago, never having seen or heard Michael Schenker, my  partner, the French artist Miki, had chosen him as a subject for one of her successful series of musician paintings. We had no idea he would be appearing in Dublin when we booked the trip, and as he walked out on stage and stood in front of her, she remarked how touching it was to actually see him in real life, never dreaming it would happen as she’d painted him. You can see her painting below, with a link to her site if you click on the image.

Michael Schenker by Miki

A bonus for those of us in attendance tonight is the inclusion of two ex-Scorpions: Herman (The German) Rarebell on drums and the perennially smiling Francis Bucholz, playing a rather tasty top-of-the-range Warwick bass with a plectrum, and producing perhaps one of the bass live bass sounds I’ve heard in a long time. The line up was completed by Wayne Findlay, a great addition to any band with 2nd guitar/keys/vocal skills, and upfront Doogie White, delivering the Lead vocal with an almost pantomime flair. He shone particularly on the Phil Mogg tracks. What was striking was how the band seemed to be really enjoying this gig, nods and smiles all round throughout the set, which proved infectious to the watching Dublin audience.

A triple whammy of “Lovedrive”, “Another piece of meat” and “Assault attack” pretty much had everybody hooked from the off, as we were treated through a journey through classic Scorpion tracks such as “Holiday”, “Rock you like a Hurricane”, to UFO’s “Lights Out” “Doctor Doctor” and “Shoot shoot”, truly justifying the “bit of a mouthful” billing as: The Temple of Rock Lovedrive Reunion tour.

It was great to see Schenker on top of his game again, and looking like he was enjoying himself. I think there is a lot more to come from the Mad Axeman, including a new album from this line up in the Summer.

Kev Moore

Aghast in Wolgast! – Travels in Eastern Germany

“I get around” , sang some Beach Boy or other back in the day, and that’s something I can relate too. This weekend was…..interesting.  One of my bands, Bootleg Counterfeit Sweet (formerly BC Sweet) was back in Germany for the first time in a long while, and me and the guys were looking forward to it.
Our first clue that things might not run smoothly reared its head some weeks back, when we discovered the show was being advertised under our old name of BC Sweet, a moniker which, due to our refusal to line the pockets of any more lawyers is now put to bed. The new name reflects, if nothing else, some heavy irony….but that’s a whole other lawsuit….er, story.

Anyway, we got in touch with them expressing our dismay, and implied that we would pull the show if we weren’t advertised correctly. We specifically make clear in all contracts how we should be billed. There’s simply nothing more you can do in these situations.  Well, everything seemed to calm down, so come Friday, I dutifully arose at the crack of dawn, dawn in this particular instance going by the name of 7.30 am, and made the two and a half hour drive to Alicante to get my flight to Berlin.  I arrived in good time, strolling into the Airport at 11.30, my flight due to leave at 1pm.  I scanned the departure screens….to no avail. No flight was advertised for Berlin anywhere near the appointed time.  As luck would have it, the AirBerlin information desk was situated adjacent to this, your humble and now visibly palpitating writer. The lady manning the desk braced herself to receive the full force of “Kev in Panic Mode”, as I stammered something to the effect of “w-w-w-wwhere’s my flight? – it’s disappeared!”

Motioning for me to produce my booking reference, her fingers danced across the computer keyboard while mine drummed out paradiddles of pensiveness in concert with her on the counter. With a flourish, our performance drew to a close, she fixed me with a gaze of undeniable finality and delivered three announcements that might as well have been bullets:

“The Berlin flight was changed. You should have been informed. It left at 11 o’clock. “

I had barely time to ingest and process this triad of bombshells before she surged on, relentless:

“And not only that. Your return flight on Sunday has changed also.”

It transpired that I would land in Alicante a full three and a quarter hours earlier on the Sunday than I first thought, being routed via Palma instead of Dusseldorf. “Oh well, every cloud” I thought, temporarily oblivious to the fact that I had yet to find a way to leave Spain, never mind return.

My AirBerlin saviour’s fingers were already dancing again, however, and her face was a picture as it ran the gamut of expressions, through hope, expectancy, frustration, despair, and so on ad infinitum. She helpfully provided a running commentary to accompany her admittedly riveting gurning.

“Ah, so…ve can take you via Palma….ach nein! es ist voll….there is even no Air Berlin personnel we can remove for you…”

It suddenly dawned on me as she meandered through cyberspace looking for empty seats, that they didn’t actually have to do a damned thing. It was pretty clear that air berlin had almost certainly sent an email to the promoter informing him of the flight changes. They had clearly assumed it was just a confirmation of what they already knew. Except it wasn’t. Thirty odd years of international travel in bands has taught me that, if there is a possibility for something to cock up, then cock up it most assuredly will. And here was Miss Air Berlin, quite prepared to give her fellow workers the heave-ho off a flight in order to get me to me destination. “As long as it’s not the pilot, I suddenly thought, worriedly….”

Finally, and almost apologetically, she announced:

“Well, I can put you on a flight to Munich that leaves at 2.30 pm, but your connection to Berlin means you won’t arrive at your destination until 8pm.”

My original, and now patently useless itinerary had me setting foot on Berlin soil around 4pm, but fortuitously, I assured her, my colleagues in the band were arriving from England around 8pm also, and so that would be just dandy, vielen danke!   Well, her little face lit up and she went on to tell me that she had also arranged for my passage home via Palma on the Sunday.  So, Palma Sunday coming a little later than Easter for me this year. Not only that, I had the VIP lane option upon arriving in Munich, to smooth things along, so to speak.  Just for the record: Air Berlin rocks!

Now, prior to boarding anything, I made several calls. One to the carpark, so they knew to get me at 4 on Sunday and not 7, and one to Marc, our bandleader, to inform him of my rescheduling. He gave me my driver’s number, and I texted him to tell him of my new arrival time. So I landed in Berlin fully confident our problems were behind us……

‘My’ driver, Karsten, turned out to be ‘Our’ driver, as I quickly discovered,  following collecting me in what looked suspiciously like a builder’s van, as we made our way across Berlin from Tegel (my airport) to Schoenefeld (their airport).  Karsten informed me that we had ‘about 300 kilometers to drive to Wolgast.”  This of course set me thinking. What if I’d arrived at 4pm? It occurred to me that I would have been kicking my heels for 4 hours waiting for the others to arrive anyway.

Anyway, the lads were patiently waiting in the cafe, and we all piled back in the builder’s van and hit the Autobahn, driving into what used to be East Germany. By that I mean, it’s no longer East Germany, the country, but it exhibits many of its communist traits, such as no amenities. Some time into the journey, we asked Karsten if we might stop at a motorway services to grab a snack and a coffee.

“Why yes!” he said jovially, “In fact it is the ONLY service station between here and Wolgast, we are in the East now!”

Well, we all had a jolly good laugh about that, as I availed myself of a curiously Franco-Prussian snack that appeared to be a perfectly serviceable croissant that had been raped by a bratwurst.

It can only have been another 20 kilometers or so down the road when Teutonic mutterings started emanating from Karsten’s mouth, accompanied by the occasional worried glance at the fuel gauge.  After several unsuccessful attempts to engage him in conversation, and a further 20 or 30 kilometers, he finally volunteered some rather startling information. We were running out of fuel.

General weariness and a desire to get to bed prompted me to announce: “If we run out of fuel, you will be getting us a hotel or a taxi, whichever comes first. I’m not up for freezing our nuts off in subzero temperatures for the night waiting for some bloody farmer to turn up in the morning.” We exited the dark and empty motorway at the next available opportunity, which delivered us into some dark and empty farmland.  The one town we did find was pretty much empty. Karsten ventured that this was probably due to the gang fight there the previous evening which had resulted in multiple arrests. Evidently they must have arrested the proprietor of the local petrol station, because it was closed.

However, there was a group of  rather lost looking individuals gathered around under the ailing neon lights on the forecourt. God knows why. If this is what passes for a party around here, then they need to legalize drugs. Somehow Karsten managed to convince one of them to get into his car, and we followed him into the night, across some disused railway tracks, down a potholed lane into the middle of nowhere….and there, in exactly the middle of nowhere, was a single, solitary petrol pump with an automat.  Never let it be said that the Germans have no sense of humour.

Is it a Hotel? No, it’s Wolgast’s premier Rock venue!

When we finally reached Wolgast (it was now the following day) the need to tarmac the roads seemed to desert them, and our last 500 yards were so rough it would have been ruled out as a suitable site for a moon landing. Nevertheless, we had arrived at our hotel, and, apparently, our gig. For there in the compact and bijou bar area was a small stage with a backline that made a Sony walkman look impressive.  We were given schnitzels, lots of them, as the reality of the situation began to sink in..it wasn’t long before I decided I was better off in bed.

The next morning, I headed downstairs to check it wasn’t a dream. It wasn’t. There were the tiny amps, staring at me balefully, as if daring me to defile them with a power chord.  I defiled the cornflakes instead, along with a few other comestibles as we had the slightly surreal experience of eating our breakfast in front of the stage we were to be performing on later that evening. I thought it wise to eat all the bread rolls, in case anyone wanted to start throwing them later.

Looking around the vestibule, I noticed a small poster advertising the show which looked familiar to me, but for a strange reason. It featured a piece of artwork by my partner Miki, of our band. (See top of article) Now, we don’t use this piece of art in our publicity, and it’s not supposed to be reproduced by anyone without permission, (she wasn’t even credited on the poster!) but that didn’t seem to bother our mate the promoter, who’d also used the old BC Sweet logo against our express wishes. (I’ve changed it on here) To compound matters, I saw at least one more poster about the size of a small bus on the outskirts of town too. So, clearly some fell on stoney ground then….

That afternoon, Mike, Marc, Pete and myself convened in the gig/breakfast room to run through a couple of songs and see if we could get some kind of sound out of the equipment. After an hour or so we had a passable sound, given the limitations, and we declared ourselves able to gig.

“Compact and bijou….”

Cut to 8pm, and a room full of eager German punters, as the strains of John Carpenter’s “Halloween” theme fade and Pete counts us into ‘Action’. The mics aren’t working. At all.  The first verse grinds to a halt and instead of greeting the audience, at only a minute into the show, I’m apologizing to them.  Marc disappears offstage to consult with whoever is looking at the mixer like it’s an alien, and Mike, Pete and myself entertain the crowd with an impromptu 3 piece blues jam that lasts 5 minutes but feels like a lifetime.

We start again. And an entertaining game of ‘musical mics’ begins as, during a second attempt at ‘Action’, Marc, Mike and I juggle the mics around between us to see if any actually work. They don’t, and a smell of burning wiring signals the end of this particular attempt to entertain the Germans. The mixer has exploded. Detleff, the guy who brought us over in the first place, is looking seriously harried, as well he might.  Trying to get away with using ‘My mum’s PA system’ for a grown-up rock band is always going to leave you in a heap of scheisse.

Nevertheless, against all the odds, he disappeared into the night and returned with a replacement. I have no idea where he got it, or how. There’s probably a dead sound engineer lying in a ditch somewhere near the Polish border. Take three, and off we go! It’s still bloody awful, but the crowd, sensing we’re really up against it, seem to take to these four idiotic blokes who don’t know when they’re beaten. At one point, I moved away from the mic, and screamed the vocal at the audience, complete with expletives, just to get it out of my system. They loved it. They like a good shout, the Germans. Against all the odds, the evening was success. The meal we were expecting following the gig, less so.  It took us half an hour to locate it. Apparently it had been waiting on a kitchen table in a hidden room somewhere and consisted on schnitzel, in a bun.  It seems that, around these parts, the answer is schnitzel, regardless of the question.

The town of Wolgast. Huge Concert P.A. system not shown…..

Now, I was the only one who could remotely string a German sentence together, so I was charged with the task of making sure the promoter knew that I had to be on the road at 7am in the morning, other wise I would miss my rescheduled flight.  This proved confusing, when another guy called George, who I’d never seen before, and who was pissed, insisted he was driving me to Berlin in the morning. Thankfully, before I retired to my room for a bit of kip, it was established that, for reasons best known to himself, this was a lie.

“…You didn’t let the dog in free, did ya?”

The next morning, as the clock struck 7 am exactly, Detleff and I were sat in the drive thru lane at the local McDonalds waiting for the shutters to open. He treated me to an Egg McMuffin, and we hit the road. how the other half live, eh?

Kev Moore

Happy Talk

A rather unusual string I seem to have inadvertently added to my bow is that of appearing on a talk circuit.  I’ve recently begun giving a series of impromptu lectures about my career in general, and some parts of it specifically, the latest being the story of my album ‘Blue Odyssey’ – the songs and the journey that inspired it.  I usually perform one of the songs from it acoustically too. It’s quite fun to be able to waffle on to a group of (usually ladies) who are interested in the life of a musician, and who usually know very little about it beforehand. It’s also become a surprising and successful outlet for selling my albums. It’s something I’m looking to do more of in the future, and to that end, I’m collating my diaries from my time in America with a view to eventually producing a companion book. Certainly, in this day and age, diversity is the key to gaining, and keeping, an audience.  Long may it continue! Today, I’ve just returned form giving one such talk to the Tuesday Ladies Club (TLC-geddit?!) on nearby Mojacar Playa, a lovely experience beneath blue skies and sunshine by the sea…nice work if you can get it!

You can order the album online at SHOPKEV

Kev Moore

Turn on your receiver, I’m gonna lay it on the line….

….sang Dan McCafferty of Nazareth, once upon a time in the 70′s. I thought it an apt title for this post, as HEAVY METAL MANIACS are re-running my one-hour radio special from last night this Sunday night at 7pm European time. HMM is an organization dedicated to metal – we (Witch Cross) played their festival in Hoorn, Holland last year and they run an internet radio station accessible from their site. So if you missed it yesterday, just click on the HMM icon below to listen tonight. I’ve enjoyed getting into broadcasting, what with my Bay Radio slot twice-weekly here in Spain, and now with Heavy Metal Maniacs, I’m getting the chance to play some of my favourite rock music, stuff that inspired me back in the day, some from my friends in the biz, and some of the new stuff that’s coming out. It’s a fun gig- and I’ll probably do it again!

Kev Moore

Off topic: Don’t give up the day job….Artwork as a sideline to Music.

You may or may not know, but in addition to my career as a musician, I like to create artworks when the mood takes me. Recent weeks have seen a nice return for this activity, as I’ve sold a variety of items featuring my art in one way or another. I thought it might be a good time to share them.

A few weeks ago I sold some greetings cards featuring ‘Souperman’, and ‘Dali the Dog’, and more recently, a couple of T-shirts featuring my ‘Like Father like Son‘ artwork. Then yesterday, a framed print of Pinetop Perkins, (see above) the legendary bluesman I had the pleasure to meet in Austin, Texas in 2010, when at the grand old age of 96, he proceeded to get up on stage and blow me away.

I was inspired to write the song, ’96 on Sixth’ about the experience and it featured on my album ‘Blue Odyssey’ from the same year. You can hear it by clicking on the widget below:

It’s always fun to create art, and always a big incentive to do more when people appreciate and buy it! -and with that in mind, click on the Fine Art America logo below if you are interested in any of my artworks

Kev Moore