BC Tour Oct 2009
Thursday Oct 8th Victoria-Vancouver -Kelowna
I arrived back from Germany on Monday the 5th, stupidly I had arranged to do a show in Victoria that night, but thankfully had got someone else to cover for me. when I am back home in Victoria I usually play in two of the bars in town. Matt McNiel, is the owner of both of them, The Bard and the Irish Times. Both bars are fantastic, and what’s more the people who work there have become great friends of mine.
I played there Tuesday and Wednesday, which was great, because it got me back into the solo frame of mind. My BC tour was to truly begin in Kelowna. Kelowna is in the Okanagan valley, about 370 Kilometres outside of Vancouver. Foolishly I had booked these dates on Thanksgiving weekend, which means …ferry trouble.
I wanted to catch the 9am ferry, but despite getting there early, it was already full, and there wasn’t another until 11.Two hours to kill, luckily I had a few books to read.
Earlier this week I had met Jowi Taylor at SMUS where he was giving a brilliant and highly emotional presentation on his project the Six String Nation www.sixstringnation.com .This has to be the coolest project I have encountered in matters musical since coming to Canada . A guitar built entirely from pieces of wood and metal that have historical significance to Canada.
So I was sitting in the lineup waiting, and reading Jowi’s book, when I got a little idea for a song about Jowi and the guitar…two hours later, I am sitting on the ferry and have finished the song…can’t wait to send it to him.
The drive takes around 4/5 hours and the drive through the Fraser valley and the mountains is truly spectacular, God I love this country.
I am playing two shows in Kelowna [don’t ask] the first one was at the Minstrel Café, a wonderful restaurant and music venue . Clare the owner, has created a very classy space for music and eating .I set up the equipment, then go for a walk down to the shore of lake Okanagan, the down side of being on tour is of course spending large amounts of time on your own, but the joys are times like this when you can sit down and watch the evening draw in , whilst watching the sun set and the mountains before your eyes turning pink to blue to black.
I really enjoy the show, I meet some friends who have traveled quite some way to see me. I ask a young girl up to sing a tune towards the end of the show, and the evening finishes well.
I ordered a shrimp salad to go, packed away my stuff and then headed off to bed .For this tour I am experimenting with sleeping arrangements….I have a mattress and sleeping bag in the van . Saves a bit of money and of course gives me the freedom to just wake up and head to Starbucks for a wash and a coffee, bargain at $2.00.
Friday 9th Kelowna Vancouver
My second show in Kelowna was in a really cool little coffee shop called the Streaming Café. The café is great combo of imagination and technology .the show is recorded and streamed live on the internet, with 4 cameras and a really decent sound system, the overall product is extremely pro.
I checked in early at the café, and had my second cup of decaff coffee [free because of my performer status]. Both the girls in the café were delightful. I spoke at length with Amy, who had come over from England with her folks a couple of years ago, and looked the picture of an all Canadian student.
I went to get some strings and then headed back into town. As a boy I spent many hours on the street busking , after playing on the street in Hamburg I decided to wherever possible to busk in every town I was playing a concert in. I am going to have a table so you can see how either :-
a. brilliant I was or
b. how generous the town was.
Hamburg 92 euros
Kelowna $20.94
So, if you need to earn some cash, head for Hamburg…..
I have to say however that Kelowna is blessed with beautiful women, and most would smile [if not give me any money] but that’s fine.
I took a pleasant stroll around the lake and then went for a snooze in the van .The concert was a lot of fun, the totally professional crew and staff of the streaming made it a must to come back to.
I had received news that one of the ferries had broken down and so I made the decision to drive back to Vancouver after the show. I loaded up on snacks and drove back through the Coqoahalla mountains and arrived at the ferry terminal at 2.45 am.
The next sailing was 7.00am, so I got a bit of shut eye in the van.
Saturday 10th Vancouver –Victoria-Thetis Island
I wanted to be back in Victoria early because my boys’ soccer team had a game that I wanted to be at. I have coached soccer teams all of my adult life…I love it. I managed to see Cormac referee a game and we secured a victory in a tightly fought game.
The evening concert on Thetis Island is one of my favourite places to play and visit. Of course given half a chance I would live on a gulf island, but it is the people of Thetis that I am so fond of.
Particularly, Will and Mary and Michael, Laurie and Lon, and my new friend Henny.
I first met Will and Mary at a wonderful little coffee shop here in Victoria, called O”Beans . Run by Trevor Bennett, from Northern Ireland . Will and Mary are simply wonderful human beings .I love being in their company .They built a house on Thetis, and now Will is in charge of all matters to do with lighting, and entertainment on the 300 strong island.
We drove up island to Chemainus, and got a 30 minute ferry across to Thetis.
Will was waiting for us in his Toyota pick up, and we headed off to the community hall, where the show was going to take place. My two sons had decided to come along for the trip, and I was thrilled, because they would also play a few songs with me at the show as well.
We set up the guitars, I had decided to do the show without any amplification .This is quite common now here in BC. We then went back to Will’s house, where Mary had made a beautiful meal…I really didn’t want to leave the table it was so good and welcoming .But leave we did .the concert was a great night, and the boys were of course the biggest highlight.
After the show, Will packed away all of the lights and staging and made the community hall ready for the Sunday service, the following day.
We went drove home in a gulf island darkness [no street lights], and settled down for a wondrous night sleep in the cabin next door to the house.
Sunday 12th Thetis –Victoria
We slept in late, but no-one seemed to mind, there was no immediate plan for the day . Until the phone rang…it was Lon Wood. I had met Lon on my previous visit to the island and he had made a huge impression on me. His wit and intelligence bordered on the intimidating, but what a bon vivant! Lon said I am going to give you a tour of the island…believe me, you just don’t say no to that kind of offer from Lon.
Two years ago when I had met Lon at the concert, we found out we both shared an interest . I had written the song For My CONTACT _Con-39E8782E18D \c \s \l Mary, about the plight of the young soldiers who had been executed for being frightened. Lon had actually interviewed the man who had started the organization SAD [Shot at Dawn] with the mandate to get these boys pardoned and properly remembered as war heroes . John Hipkins in Newcastle, was a retired school teacher, who fought valiantly to secure these rights for the long dead soldiers, and actually to persuade the government last year to u-turn on the original sentence passed down upon these unfortunate lads . Lon had interviewed John, in his role as Editor in Chief of Victoria’s largest newspaper The Times Colonist. Due to health reasons Lon had had to retire early from the paper and was in charge of all communications on the Island whether he liked it or not.
Lon picked us up and took us to see the Island…trees were to be the focus . On my Sacred Lines album I wrote a song called Madrona. Madrona is the First Nation word for the Arbutus tree, a tree only found on the West Coast of N.America .Would you believe it …but the Largest and the third largest Madrona tress on the planet are to be found on Thetis island, they were huge..see the pics.
We didn’t have a lot of time, but we finished off with Lon taking us to the famous hollow tree on the Island. Hit by lightening the tree has no insides and its possible to get inside…again, I refer you to the pics…and the boys unfeasibly long arms.
It was time to go, the 2.50 ferry beckoned.
If you are ever in this neck of the woods, you have to go and visit the gulf islands , their beauty is only surpassed by the uniqueness of the people that choose to make them their home.
