July 22, 2008

WASTED IN LAS VEGAS

Another busy weekend for Camp Freddy, with the benefit show last Thursday for Scott P at The Viper Room, followed by a quick trip to Vegas to open the new club at the Hard Rock Hotel And Casion, called Wasted Space. The hotel sent a plane for us (that’s how you roll when you own a casino!) so we had the pleasure of private travel. It’s something that you could really get used to……and completely ruins any regular commercial flight one might take in the future! So we hopped onto the plane and were in Las Vegas as quick as a flash.

Now I have to say that Las Vegas and the words ‘acoustic performance’ don’t exactly go together! But that’s what we were scheduled to do, so that’s what we did!! Gavin Rossdale also played before us, and did it acoustic style as well. Interesting vibe, especially in Las Vegas, but we had a blast anyway – Matt was on the drum kit and the rest of us sat on stools and did the ‘up close and personal’ thing!! HAHA!! My favorite moment was getting to play “What It’s Like” with Everlast – one of my all time favorite tunes, he just walked onstage unannounced, sat down next to me, and I just started playing the riff!! Very cool. Royston Langdon and Billy Duffy were our guests – we did a great version of The Cult’s Rain, and Royston nailed People Are Strange as well as his Spacehog hit, In The Meantime.

The next morning I wandered around the tables with Donovan, throwing a few dollars here and there and ended up walking away up a few bucks. Always the best way to leave that town. And that was that. Another swift Lear Jet ride back to our waiting cars in Los Angeles and its on to another week. This week is turning into a fantastic one for me – about to sign some paperwork on something that will fill up a lot of time for me in the coming months. Details, as always, as soon as its safe to do so!! But keep fingers and toes crossed!!

Got some diving booked for this coming weekend with my pal Patrick – no doubt we will be discussing the ‘Billy Morrison Solo Project’ while we both sit on the boat out to Catalina. Looking forward to getting wet again, and getting a few dives in before my vacation – Cozumel this year!! Big respec’ out to Ron and Beth at the Eco Dive Store on Sepulveda. Yet again they came through with the VIP treatment – they are the ONLY way to dive here in LA. That’s it. A lot of behind the scenes work for me this week, with the dive at the weekend. Last Saturdays CFR is up live (thanks to Paul as always) and Dave and I will be in the studio for another all-new CFR this coming Saturday, So tune in at 6.00pm on Indie 103.1FM or check it out on the website, www.indie1031.fm. Or just be lazy and wait until Navarro or myself have it up on the websites!! Either way – I’ll see ya soon.

Posted by vivelerock at 06:20 PM | Comments (5)

July 18, 2008

CHRISSIE HYNDE WITH CAMP FREDDY

Pretty unbelievable. The place was packed beyond belief, the police kept showing up outside and eyeing the lines of people and the scene outside with interest, the sweat was literally dripping off the walls of the club inside......and we raised a fantastic amount of money to help Scott P with all his medical expenses by playing loud rock and roll. To everyone who attended and donated, a huge THANK YOU!! And if you were there last night, you will have witnessed Chrissie Hynde jumping up onstage and trying to get us all to sing an Elvis Presley song with her!! None of us had any idea how the song went, but she kept singing it by herself anyway! Eventually Dave threw down the opening chords of Brass In Pocket and we were off and running again. If you were at the show, there will be a few extra details of that song and Chrissie's performance that spring to mind!! But I am not indulging that stuff here.

I gotta say that one of the many things I love about Camp Freddy is that there are few bands that invite, encourage and cope with a complete surprise appearance such as Chrissies last night. To play that song with her in a small club like that, with no prior warning that its going down, just makes the evening special for everyone. I think Chrissie had a great time as well......even though we don't really rock Elvis that much!! I am sure pics and video will surface, but again, thank you to all the people who came to see the show, the artists who played (Cory Taylor, Billy Duffy, Warren De Martini, Corey Parks, Abby Gennet, Stephen Perkins, Patrick Cornell, Terri Nunn, Dave Kushner, Mark McGrath, Brett Anderson and the inimitable Chrissie Hynde) and Harry and all at The Viper for making it possible. OH yeah.....and Mr Michael Ball from Rock And Republic jeans......you fucking rock!!!!! For me, I now turn my head towards Las Vegas and our acoustic show tomorrow at the Hard Rock hotel's new club, Wasted Space.

Billy

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Posted by vivelerock at 09:39 AM | Comments (9)

July 14, 2008

THE VIPER ROOM/LAS VEGAS

I’ve never been much good at being sick. I revert to the age of about 9 years old and get really needy…..I stay in bed, eat Ben And Jerry’s Ice Cream and whine about how shitty I feel. It was even pretty much the same back in the day when I would be dope sick…..except without the ice cream. And without the bed!!! But I’m feeling a lot better today – and that’s good news, because our benefit show at The Viper is this week. Thursday to be accurate, and it looks like its gonna be a good one. I want to thank all of you who have made the effort to donate to Scott’s fund and please, if you live in LA, come down on Thursday night. Make a donation. Help us help one of the good ones.

We did a crazy private acoustic show on Friday night at The Peninnsula Hotel in Los Angeles. We played for an hour and had a couple of friends join us for a few songs. Highlight of the night for me was finally playing The Car’s “Just What I Needed” with Donovan singing. The song suits him perfectly, I learnt the solo note for note, and even with acoustics it sounded killer. I’m gonna be voting for that one in the electric set next time. And that next time seems to be this week! Twice! The show at The Viper on Thursday, and then I believe we are off to our home away from home, Las Vegas at the weekend for a show at the new club in the Hard Rock Casino – Wasted Space. More details on that soon, but I know the show is Saturday night. And I want to thank photographer Lynn Goldsmith for taking some great shots of Camp Freddy in Aspen - check out the collage picture below.

The radio show is up on the Podcasts page of the site (thank you Paul – hope you got some well deserved rest!) and as an added bonus, here is an MP3 of the Rod Stewart classic, Maggie May, with myself on acoustic and Matt Sorum on lead vocals. You gotta admit that Matt did a fantastic job on the song. Considering I sprung it on him at the last minute, pulled the guitar out ad said – lets do it now, on live radio! – I think he sounds great. CLICK HERE FOR MAGGIE MAY (Performed by MATT SORUM and BILLY MORRISON).

I’m done. I got nothing particular lined up for today. Its been a week without exercise so now that I feel better I’m gonna hit that shit with some purpose today, and then I’m going to start Season 3 of Nip/Tuck – and that will keep me occupied for the rest of the day. I also want to let you all know that I have had a few problems on this site with spammers and comments - we have been getting hundreds of Spam comments and I have been having to delete ALL comments in order to get rid of them. So if you see that you have commented and now its been deleted .... ITS NOT PERSONAL!!! Help me figure out how to block the fucking Spammers and I'll be able to leave yer comments alone. If I deleted you by mistake, I'm sorry!! Don't let that stop you from commenting. See ya.

Billy

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Posted by vivelerock at 09:10 AM | Comments (17)