I am a professional singer songwriter bloke and here are some of my songs...I also write for, play and sing in a jazzy goodtime band called The Zen Hussies when I become Mr Jonah Flatfoot Esq for tax reasons...I also have a scratch band called Jockeywheel assembled from whatever loony musician friends of mine are available for bugger all pay!
I can play and sing on stilts as a psychedelic jazz doctor or bespoke character for street events and walkabout. I also act and am on TV sometimes see me here on MTV!
I run the sound each week and compere once a month at the open mic at a club called Mr Wolfs' in Bristol on wednesday nights, you can catch me playing live there each week. As well as my own stuff I sing a couple of hundred jazz standards, blues and folk songs.
I also make music with the beautifully dulcet voice of my girlfriend Delyth Roberts, an award winning Welsh singer / poetess, we have an acoustic band called Very Gandhi ...check us out!
These tracks are all first takes as I don't reckon I'd do 'em any better if I kept trying, I am playing all the instruments, which are guitar, harmonica and clarinet, and singing my daft words...
Lonely Days and Tarbrush Ragdoll were written by myself and are played with The Zen Hussies, who are kinda like a second family to me.
The Lido Vibe was written as a challenge from my mate who said ' I bet you can't write a song about lidos...', so I did there and then in the pub. If anyone else wants to throw down the songwriting gauntlet, I'd be happy to rise to the challenge! At the moment I'm working on one about Rory McLeods' arms...every girl I know with any taste seems to go wild about 'em! If you aint got into Rorys' music yet, check him out, he's in my top friends and is a living legend...as are Nic Jones,Pigmeat Pete Smith RIP Bert jansch and Steve Tilston, check them out too!
Handyman Blues was written whilst I was decorator / labourer, and is a study in trying to fit as many euphemisms and double entendres as I could into one song, I still turn my hand to that stuff (manual labour that is!) when gigs are lean, and the Bb Broke Blues really was written on a skint friday night last spring.
These tracks are from a solo LP I am working on which'll be ready someday soon! A big thanks to Tom Wilding from Smerins' Anti Social Club (another gert Bristol band) for recording me!
Tarbrush Ragdoll will give you an idea of what me and my pals The Zen Hussies sound like, we got a new LP out soon.
There'll be a load of my friends sticking their bits of talent on my solo stuff so watch this space...I am available for all sorts of gigs solo or can put together a band of almost any size depending on the occassion and spondoolies available!
I also have an evil nemesis called Devlyn Sinclair who is a thorough cad and I work as an illustrator so check out my pics...I also write nonsense verse and have a literary agent in NYC trying to find me that elusive deal...you can check out my verse on my illustrators page, in 2001 I was elected Bard Of Bath for my tales but we best not go into that!
I also DJ old Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, and Jump Jive etc at my local pub the Star & Garter in Montpelier, Bristol, every thursday from 10pm-late at my Jive-By nights so get on down for a cider and lindy-hop!
I collect 78s, 33s and 45 and am quite a keener for vintage tunes per se...my old man Doug Landau is a gigging trad jazz trumpeter / music historian who edits a quarterly magazine called New Orleans Music. Check it out.
Having my tipped my hat to my Dad, I got to thank my dear old mum Moolie Lumdum for running Watford Pump House Folk Club for 25 years throughout my childhood and turning me on to folk and guitar playing, exposing me to true legends like Nic Jones live, very special memories
I love love my daughter Alice and my sisters (Dee and Melon)and me half bro (Hugo) too because they danced me round the house as a kid to punk rock and Holst!...
For anyone interested.
My dessert island discs are at the moment (they change all the time!)-
1) The Little Pot Stove from the Penguins Eggs LP by Nic Jones,
2) Ae Fond Kiss by The Corries /Robbie Burns
3) Really The Blues by Sydney Bechet & Tommy Ladnier
4) Swing, Brother Swing by Billie Holiday,
5) Rock Me by Sister Rosetta Tharpe,
6) The Billycock Hat, By Don Bilston from the Farewell To Steam LP,
7) Cold Sun Shining by Rory Mcleod (for Gwendolyn au revoirs toujours x)
8) Go Your Way My Love By Bert Jansch/ Anne Briggs.
So many millions of great songs...surely these days we can have a solar powered MP3 player and an 8gb hard driveof top tunes? My books would be Saki's complete short stories and The complete writings of Flann O' Brien / Myles na Gopaleen for the Irish Times which I find far more instructive than the Bible! My luxury would have to be a Guild steel string guitar with unlimited strings and if I could only take one record, it would be Nic Jones for those beautiful life affirming harmonies and sheer simplicity...with Sister Rosetta Tharpe on the B Side 'cos I'm a cheeky Boy!
My favourite word is Temerarious - look it up!
