First, a bit more about my upcoming exhibition at Deda in Derby.
It will run from January the 6th to March 7th.
The launch will be on Saturday the 11th of January from 6-30pm to 8pm.
I will be doing a short percussion solo as part of the launch.
The work will be all 2-D, mainly mixed media, but also some collographs, acrylics and pure collages. There will be more than 40 pieces of work on show.
Deda is on Chapel Street, the Cathedral Quarter, Derby, DE1 3GU
Please try get along. Everyone most welcome. It’s free of course and you get a glass of wine!

On Thursday January 23rd I will be playing at OTT in Sheffield in a trio with Mick Beck on saxophones and whistles and Alan Halsey, voice.
The gig is at OTT, 78, Kingfield Road, Sheffield, S11 9AU, and begins at 8pm.
The set will be based on found text that I bought from a car boot sale. It’s a book with details of railway systems in the old mines in Derbyshire.
Hope to see you there.

On Tuesday March 17th , I will be playing at Fizzle in Birmingham in a quartet, with Bruce Coates on saxes, Sarah Farmer on violin and Lee Boyd Allatson on percussion and electronics. I too will be playing on percussion and electronics.
Fizzle is at the Lamp Tavern, 157, Barford Street, Birmingham, B5 6AH, and begins at 7-30pm.

19th and 20th October, – Chairworks studio in Castleford, Yorkshire, recording as part of The Orchestra of the Upper Atmosphere’s fifth album, Theta 5.

October 26th I’m playing with Murmurists and performing with Juxtavoices at the Greentop Community Circus Space, Sheffield. S4 8AS. It starts at 7pm.

Nov 9th Performing with Juxtavoices at The Capstone Theatre, Hope University, Liverpool, L6 1HP at 7-30pm.

November 16th – Playing in Deep Tide Quartet at the Discus / Confront Festival at The 100 Years Gallery in London. Pearson Street, E2 8JD. This is a collaboration between the Confront label run by Mark Wastell and the Discus label run by Martin Archer. 3pm

Nov 21st – Juxtavoices at The Nottingham Contemporary Gallery at 7pm.

Nov 30th – The Discus / Confront Festival part 2 at The Holt, Sheffield, Arundel Street, S1 4RE. I will be playing in The Deep Tide Quartet at 5pm and then in the Beck / Jasnoch / Shaw trio on at 7pm.

Dec 1st – Deep Tide Quartet playing at The Bridge Hotel in Newcastle-on-Tyne. 7-30pm.

I have a significant exhibition at the start of the new year in January 2020. It’s at Deda in Derby. The opening will be on the Saturday of January 11th at 6pm through to 11pm. At the opening I will be doing a percussion solo. The exhibition runs for 3 months at Deda.

I will be playing with Mumurists with a large emsemble on Sat 16th March at The Golden Lion, Todmorden. Doors at 6pm, performance starts at 7pm.

My good friend Corey Mwamba is changing his musical career direction from 23rd March. He will no longer be doing live gigs but will still be very musically active with recordings and research. To celebrate this change he is having an evening which he describes as “Sequestration” at Baby People, starting at 6.30pm. Corey and I hopefully will be doing a duo set to celebrate this collaboration going back 20 years.

The Birmingham Improvisers Orchestra has had a number of years inactive, but is reforming in April. I will be playing with the Orchestra on 23rd April, doors at 7pm, music at 7.30pm at Fizzle in the Lamp Tavern, Birmingham. This will be part one, and part two will be in the same venue on 7th May.

I will be doing a gig with Martin Archer on saxaphones and Mick Beck on bassoon, whistles and saxaphones at OTT, Sheffield, 16th May at 8pm.

May 11th, I will be performing in 2 sets, one with Juxtavoices and one with Mersyside Improvisers Orchestra on percussion. This is at 8 pm to 10 pm at Dina, 32, Cambridge Street, Sheffield, S1 4HP.

May 18th, I will be performing with Nathan Bettany and Stephen Chase at The Exchange Place Studios, Sheffield at 2pm.

I’m pleased to announce that I will be exhibiting in the Melbourne Art Trail as part of the Arts Festival on September 14th and 15th. I will be in the Assembly Rooms.

The ‘Deep Tide’ gig at Sheffield Cathedral on Friday the 14th will be a trio of myself – percussion, Laura Cole – keyboards, and the Norwegian cellist Maja Bugge.

We may be joined by Martin Archer on saxes, depending on circumstances.

I am excited about playing with this these musicians. It will be a first to be playing with Maja.

‘DeepTide’ will be playing The Vortex in London on March 5th.

The Skin & Bone gig in Belper on Saturday the 24th November will be a departure, as we will be joined by the artist Andrew Martyn Sugars, who will be responding to our sounds in real time with projected, dynamic images.

On Friday January 18th I will be doing a solo percussion set at Deda, Derby. This will be at the opening of a 3 month residency at Deda by my friend, the artist Vitor Azevedo.

On the 17th October, I performed with ‘Alchemy / Schmalchemy’ at The Martin Hall Exhibition Space at Loughborough University, as part of the exhibition, Re-Imagining Citizenship. The piece we did was ‘Rhodiaceta (Re-)Response. ‘Alchemy / Schmalchemy’ are myself on electronics, voice and percussion, Gillian Whiteley on accordion, voice & other instruments, and Geoff Bright on bass saxophone and voice. We were working with graphic scores made in response to a film made in 1967 in Besancon in the Rhodiaceta textile factory there. So it was a response to a response. The film was made by workers in the factory, who were striking in opposition to the conditions they were having to endure. This was in the build-up to the student/worker uprising in France, May 1968, especially in Paris. I was there in Paris, staying with students just prior to the uprising, which gave an extra resonance for me in this piece. The piece was filmed and will be shown at another Re-Imagining Citizenship exhibition in Besancon at the Institute Superieur des Beaux-Arts de Besancon there in 2019.

‘Alchemy / Schmalchemy’ will be performing in Nottingham in January 2019. More details to follow.

Skin and Bone will be playing at The Queen’s Head in Belper on Saturday the 24th November at 7-30 pm.

Deep Tide Quartet will be playing in The Cathedral in Sheffield at 1-15pm on Friday the 14th of December. This will be a candle-lit and rather special gig.

There have been 2 gigs in Derby as part of The Circuit, a rolling residency of musicians between the towns of Todmorden, Sheffield, Leeds and Derby. The next gig is at The Old Spa Inn in Derby at 7-30pm on the Tuesday the 2nd October. It will be the wonderful all saxophone ensemble ‘Hornweb’. I have been heavily involved in the organistaion of these gigs, which should roll through monthly into 2019.