As always, my life away from Integra is wonderfully busy and revolves around family, travel, music and sport, often combining some or all these activities at the same time!
May saw me officially become a pensioner – I know it’s difficult to believe from my youthful appearance – they say that things get better with age – I plan to keep looking!
A few days in the beautiful city of Riga in Latvia were enjoyed by the FD and myself towards the end of May. A very walkable city with attractive architecture around every corner even if many of the buildings are actually reconstructions of originals that were bombed flat during the second world war. A history, including being controlled by the Germans and Russians and being part of the Hanseatic League has now seen an independent country emerge that, rightly, values its freedom.
We stayed at the excellent Dome Hotel, located just yards from the Cathedral and Castle in the Old Town and, during our stay, sampled some excellent international cuisine, a few sherbets and a couple of guided trips by bus and boat to fully familiarise ourselves.
One important excursion was to visit the Riga FC club shop and get grandson Jack a Riga shirt for his birthday!
My children and their families have also enjoyed, or have planned holidays, in Zante and Spain.
Music wise, I have continued to attend regular open mic gigs in Maidenhead, Cookham and Chalfont St Giles. In April I supported the emerging blues talent Jack-Austin Despy at the Tropic at Ruislip – definitely one to watch – as I write this he is playing at the Rory Gallagher Festival in Ballyshannon in Ireland.
I also appeared on Dacorum Radio (Hemel Hempstead) on May 9th playing a few songs and talking music with Moz Copestake. On June 28th I will be playing at the Chalfont St Peter Feast Day on Gold Hill Common – I’m on at 11am.
On September 18th I will be playing at the St Werburgh’s Centre in Chester on the Wishclone Ish night of the three day Wishbone Ash “Ashcon” event and on December 14th I will be playing at the Blues at the Tropic night in Ruislip in celebration of musician, promoter and agent Derek White’s birthday.
In addition to writing, recording (watch this space) and playing, I have, since my last Communique newsletter, attended gigs by Papa George and Pete Rees, Laurence Jones, Back Porch and The Bluescasters.
Gigs already booked in the remainder of the year include:
Wishbone Ash – (six gigs), Jimmy Regal and the Royals, Doris Brendel and Lee Dunham, Matt Edwards and John Verity.
Football wise we are now in the close season and all attention turns to the transfer window.
Having parted company with Tom Cleverley at the end of last season, there is a sense of real purpose about Watford FC and their efforts to return to the Premier League. The owner is selling Udinese in Italy to concentrate his efforts on the Hornets.
If they retain the key players in the squad and make a few good additions I fully expect Watford to be up in the play off or better positions under new Head Coach Paulo Pezzolano, a largely unknown Uruguayan but with a track record of gaining promotions with clubs across the globe.
