Tomorrow night sees me performing my new liveset for the first time. I will be headlining a night at The Portland Arms, in sunny Cambridge. This gig came about through some peeps that watched me play at Supersonic last year. Since then I have reworked large sections of my liveset, which is all well and good in my studio, but I’ll be keen to see how it goes down live.

For a taster of what to expect, although it’s a rollercoaster ride as ever, here’s a live recording of the last track in my new set:

Looking forward to playing in front of someone other than myself again…

Last year was all about the emergence of Glatze as a live music sensation. Well, I had my moments ;) My time in Birmingham led to some exciting new relationships. I played a variety of gigs as part of the underground experimental scene. Then, out of the blue, the delightful Capsule girls got in touch to ask whether I’d like to support Melt Banana. As they are one of my favourite bands, it was a no-brainer. I went on to play at Supersonic, which was amazing. I was also honoured to be chosen by Capsule to complete an alternative score for “There Are No Others, There Is Only Us”, which was shown at Moor Street Station, throughout Supersonic.

Then to top my “Year with Capsule” off, they included a photo of me in their 10th birthday programme – see below. I am most flattered!

2009 also saw me develop my midi-octopus, which I demonstrated at Futuresonic (Thanks to The Centrifuge for sorting this!). Production of my midi-octopus stalled a little in the latter months of 2009, to give me time to concentrate on my Glatze liveset, but it’s very much back on the agenda for this year.

Other 2009 musical highlights included:

• Gigs for, and continued support from, the delightful Wassim at The Centrifuge
• Sonic Weekends 4 & 5, playing White Noise Festival and the friendship and support from White Label Music
• Gigs with Grover and Stuart
• Having a tune of mine released on Make Recordings
• (Virtually) meeting and collaborating with Ms Hypnotique
• A great night at Milk Kitchen
• Airplay on Resonance FM, Brumcast and The Big Paws
• My Supersonic interview on Rhubarb Radio, and subsequent encounters with Danny and Kevin

(sorry to anyone or anything I have missed, I have ZX-81-like memory)

Here are some pictures which hopefully sum it up…

Oh thank you lord for White Label Music!

Good stuff!! :)

** You can hear it as one of the tracks in my audio player thingy…click the grey tab at the bottom left of my site.

Susi O’neill aka Ms Hypnotique (www.hypnotique.net) recently mentioned on Twitter that she is appearing on the One & Other plinth this Friday at 8pm with electro music, Theremin, tea & cake (www.oneandother.co.uk/participants/Miss_Hypnotique). This sounded like a very cool idea and as a massive Theremin fan I thought I’d get in touch with Susi to express my support and to see if she would consider adding some Theremin to the new Glatze tracks I am working on.

Susi kindly got back to me with an even better offer. She asked me to send her some tracks and if she liked them she would maybe perform over one or two when on the plinth. Ideal! She liked and is taking a couple of my tunes with her.

So, in a roundabout way, weather & playlist permitting, I might just make it onto the plinth on Friday from 8pm. Tune in : www.oneandother.co.uk/

Have a great time Susi. Look forward to working with you once you get back down again!

Download it here

1. Work on my Glatze set – I am pretty chuffed with the performance aspect now (which is the hardest part for me)…but musically I have so much more to give! My initial set was written in a bit of a rush and, whilst it has been refined over the year, it can be on another level if I devote some proper time to starting it over. The debut of my new set will be at my gig at The Portland Arms (Cambridge) in February 2010.
2. Work on my Stump EP – for release on The Centrifuge. Gonna be some overlap with my Glatze tunes here.
3. Work on the debut recording by GypScab – my latest collaboration, with the mighty Grinner, Drew and Seamus.
4. Work on the midi-octopus – to get it completed for gigs in 2010!
5. To sharpen my tools – more learning to sing and play guitar, drums & piano better

So, no more gigs, conferences, other major projects for me for the time being (other than those listed above). OK, so I admit if The Centrifuge come through with the big old gig in Oslo, or Capsule ask me to play at their one of their 10th birthday gigs, the answer will be YES…but broadly speaking I am on it! :)

Bye for now…*crawls back into his box*

Ooh, and so many great beards! Always a good thing :)

Thanks for a top night Mr.Gubbins!

Firstly, here is my wonky little diary / review…hope you enjoy reading it. It also has some suggestions for next year, which can be taken as my contribution to this.

Then some pictures of Glatze:

setting up…

looking mean with my powerball…

giving it shit with my CB mic…

dancing my tits off to the drum and bass finale…