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February 27, 2007
MORRISON TV UPDATE
So I decided to stop messing about, and put the whole six minute trailer to A LIFE LESS ORDINARY up on Morrison TV. Click the green MORRISON TV button on the left of this page to check it out. I have no idea where this will go - in fact it could just remain as a six minute trailer and never progress!!! However, it could end up being a lot of different things ..... I know what I want to do with it, and we'll have to see if I can find people with a similar vision. I do know that I have been taking meetings recently about this, and a couple of people seemed to share the ideas I have, so who knows. We might actually move forward soon with this. You lot, of course, will be the first to know!!
Time ticks inexorably by, and we find ourselves staring into MARCH!!! Two months down in 07 already .... how does that happen??? This means that Camp Freddy gear up and get into a rehearsal room very soon, to run through some new songs and get ready for our trip to Miami - its about time we played in the sunshine. I have always been a vocal advocate of the "Summer Freddy" tour of nothing but holiday resorts!! - Kick the tour off in Bali, and move on to Fiji, Hawaii, Turks And Caicos and wrap up in the Maldives. Trouble is, I cant seem to interest the management in that one....... possibly cos there's no money in it!!! Oh well, I'll settle for South Beach, FL and the Bacardi event. I promise I will figure out how to give some tickets away soon.
Questions:
Merc - As far as I am concerned, everyone on the planet should watch The Great Rock And Roll Swindle. It was the film that Malcolm wanted to make, not the band, but it shows just how messed up and eclectic the whole thing became. Then, AFTER watching that, people should watch The Filth And The Fury, to get some truth on the story. Then finally, the Never Mind The Bollocks documentary is just incredibly interesting and tells us the truth behind the making of such a seminal record.
Mary - I am not sure I understand your question, but surely the reason to pick up a guitar at all is to express yourself in some way. Talent, ability and a lot of other things come into play at some point, but for me, primarily I picked one up to see if I could use it to express the mess of emotions that were and still are, running riot in my head!!
Robin - I have not yet seen ANY of the proposed summer dates, either Ozzfest or our own dates. But I would imagine that we would be doing New York in some capacity. I mean, the Ozzfest hits the East Coast, so I am sure they will put a small club date in while we are there. Again - I will let you all know the MOMENT I know anything!!
Linda - Yes they do still wrap up the fish and chips in newspaper (it TASTES better that way) and yes, I have been to Northampton.
Danni - I have seen bits and pieces from Intervention. Never actually watched the whole show. I knew one of the subjects and found it rather uncomfortable viewing! No intervention actually ever worked for me, cos I needed to be ready, and until then, NOTHING would stop me. But each to their own.
Lisa - My top 5 albums always change each time I am asked (so no one go digging back to tell me that last time I answered this, I answered differently ..... I KNOW!!!). But at number one will always be Never Mind The Bollocks by The Sex Pistols. The other four in no particular order, would be - Dirk Wears White Sox by Adam And The Antz, Hunky Dory by David Bowie, The Downward Spiral by NIN and Earth Vs The Wildhearts by The Wildhearts. Ask me again in six months - you'll get a different answer!!
Mark - Nope. Not good friends with Elton. Don't even know the guy! Met him a couple of times - lovely chap, very friendly, knows how to throw a ridiculously lavish party!! I was invited by mutual friends, so thats how I was lucky enough to attend.
Cori - My answers to all your questions are very simple! Its a NO to everything!!! Oh yeah, and the car thing? I wound up being lured over to the three pointed star of Mercedes.
Paul - I am afraid that all Camp Freddy merch is done in limited numbers and we are completely out of everything. Rumor has it that ONeil are doing some beanie hats for us, but that will take some time. I'll let you know if we do any more shirts.
Wow - thats it from me. Gotta get moving. Enjoy the YouTube stuff, and keep the faith ..... I intend to make A Life Less Ordinary in some form or another. Have a great day everyone, and I have to thank you all for continuing to support this site. You're all part of the family. I'll be back soon.
Peace
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 07:28 AM | Comments (25)
February 24, 2007
OSCAR AND THE STATUE
STOP PRESS: The podcast from last nights Camp Freddy Radio is now up on the Podcasts page of this site, and also available from I-Tunes, if you subscribe to the Billy Morrison Podcast. As usual, mucho thanks to our very own "Paul The Podcast Person"!
Yep - FINALLY, I am back up and running, with all server issues seemingly sorted out! Took a while, but now we have lots of space for all the good stuff, like V-Blogs, music etc etc. And while that was being worked on, I took advantage of the many Gifting Suites, Spas and events that have been taking place this week in Hollywood. Its Oscar Week, and that means more envelope openings to attend!! I kept the gifting to a minimum, but I did attend Brent Bolthouse and Brandon Boyds exhibition of artwork and photographs in Hollywood. Its great to see Brents photographs being shown properly, with the right lighting in a fantastic space. And Brandons artwork is brilliant - really 'out there' and thought provoking.
I will be attending the Elton John annual Oscar dinner on Sunday, and have a dinner tonight with Jeff Beck and Billy Gibbons .......... oh GOD!! Now that sentence is pure name-dropping!!!! Whatever, I have a great weekend ahead, including a brand new CFR tonight with Matt Sorum. We have some in-studio guests dropping by ... a band called AntiProduct. So tune in and join us for a couple of hours tonight on Indie 103.1FM from 6pm to 8pm.
Apologies for the lack of appearance round here last week, but I really was 'cleaning house' with the old server and getting everything running smoothly on the new one. Now its all done, I can get back to the business of running the sites. Circus Diablo are moving ahead with the touring plans and album release plans, Camp Freddy is doing the Bacardi event in Miami in a couple of weeks and planning a Five Year birthday party for later in the year. I am taking a bunch of meetings about some TV ideas I have knocking about, and we continue with the weekly radio show. I also have a great appearance coming up during LA Fashion Week, which I will tell you more about next week, and have some songwriting/studio time booked over the next few weeks, to work on some co-writes with a few guys. So please understand that I am (as always) pretty busy!! Hit me up with all your questions and I will do a Q+A at the end of the weekend, and I want to wish all of you a nice, fun, safe weekend.
Peace
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 09:33 AM | Comments (24)
February 17, 2007
THE EPIC V-BLOG!
Please note that this is a large file size. A high speed connection is preferred.
So I am still having problems with the new server – but I have my peeps working on it, and they assure me that everything will be hunky dory by Monday. The good news is that none of the problems seem to be affecting this site. And with that, I present to you …… the EPIC V-Blog!! I took the camera out with me for a day, shot it all myself, cobbled together an edit …… and here it is! Make of it what you will – it’s just an attempt to answer some of your questions personally, and intercut that with some of my goings on in a typical day. Hope you enjoy it.
Camp Freddy Radio will be live this week – and Donovan is manning the ship. I am off for this weekend, and he will be taking over and guiding the show through its two hour stint on Indie 103.1FM. Call him, show him some love and I’ll be back next week.
Thanks for being patient and I know I have been conspicuous by my absence here this week, but trust me – I am making way more room for more media, more video and more of everything on all the sites. Its worth it. I hope todays V-Blog is not too big …… its 12 minutes long, so if you got dial up….. well, all I can say is I am sorry!!! I’ll get it up on YouTube as well over the weekend, but for now, that’s it. I’m off.
Peace
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 08:26 AM | Comments (43)
February 11, 2007
ALL CHANGE
Its a quick post to let you all know that we are changing servers around here, and making room for some new and exciting media on all the sites. But what this means is that Podcasts, V-Blogs and other media will probably be down for a few days. I will make sure that all your questions are answered in a V-Blog when we get normal service resumed. And Paul has sent me last nights CFR Podcast already, but I cant get it up online for a few days because of the server change. The end result will be more room (and smoother service) so that we can continue to have V-Blogs, Podcasts and the like. So be patient, and be assured that I am beavering away in the background over here, working to swap it all over with minimal damage!! I have no idea what I am doing, but I am learning tons and will get it done soon. I will go through ALL the archives, and repair as many broken links as I can. Some might have to remain broken, but we'll see.....
For now, have a great Sunday, and spare a thought for my mashed up brain, dealing with the intricacies of the world of the Web Hosting Server!!!
Just so we can test the new server, I have rushed through this weeks Podcast and it should be available now - and if anyone out there has this site subscribed on I-Tunes, I would love to know if this Podcast came through in I-Tunes as usual.
Peace
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 09:35 AM | Comments (28)
February 06, 2007
YOUTUBE.COM EXCLUSIVE/GRAMMY AUCTION
STOP PRESS: GRAMMY AUCTION NEWS - Camp Freddy signed guitar for auction on Ebay.
Bid on exclusive Camp Freddy items in the 49th GRAMMY® Online Charity Auction benefiting MusiCares and the GRAMMY Foundation. Auction runs now through Feb. 15 (with a special second round running Feb. 12 – 22). Visit www.ebay.com/grammy to check out the auction today! CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE CAMP FREDDY GUITAR.
There is another one-minute clip from A Life Less Ordinary now showing on MORRISON TV. Its another short clip, but I hope you enjoy it. And the Podcast from last weekends Camp Freddy Radio is now up on the Podcasts section of the site. Not a lot to tell you all right now - I'll be back in a day or so with a Q+A, so ask away, and I shall try and answer as best I can. For now, have a great week, and I'll be back soon.
Peace
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 08:53 AM | Comments (34)
February 03, 2007
EARLY MORNING REFLECTIONS
Reaction has been pretty encouraging over the clip I posted on YouTube - I didn't expect that. To be honest with you, I'm not sure what I expected. It has always amazed me at the kind of stuff Camp Freddy has brought into my life - the opportunities, situations and performances that have been the stuff of dreams (at least, my dreams anyway!). On a day to day level, I just work on the next show, making calls, arranging stuff, answering questions, replying to all the emails etc. But when I take a step back and look at the last few years - Strip Club openings, playing on top of a huge structure in the middle of Times Square, Playstation launches, a Nascar show ..... having the honor of performing with SO many names, from Lou Reed, Steven Tyler and Ronnie Wood, to Slash, Billy Jo, Jerry Cantrell, Steve Jones, Billy Idol ...... you have to understand that a little over 12 years ago, I was homeless. Not just struggling with a small substance abuse problem ...... HOMELESS!! Begging on the streets. Somehow I was allowed to crawl out of that gutter and find the life I lead now. And yet even with ALL that incredible stuff going on in my life, I still bash my head against the doors of 'The Business'!! I can honestly say that I love The Process and not the results. Which is just as well, because I push myself every day to work on all kinds of stuff. But I found it interesting enough to shoot a couple of months of it all last year, and will probably do the same this year.
And that is how A LIFE LESS ORDINARY was born. The film people edited an amazing trailer together and then we all sat on it, wondering what to do with it. Its not TrainWreck TV - I'm not in and out of rehab, beating people up and rolling down stairs drunk. So that rules out 75% of all television right now!! Its not an award show or a competition (which is another 15% of on air content these days!!). It doesn't fit into a mould (story of my life right there!!!), so we just sat on it. And eventually I got bored, and put up that clip. So thank you very much for all the positive stuff, guys - I really have no idea what will happen to it, because the reality is that it needs a production company to finish it. But I can keep editing small two/three minute episodes together and throwing them up on the web. So who knows - maybe someone will get interested in just how a homeless heroin addict gets to stand up next to the biggest Rock Stars in the world and play amazing shows, and is still relatively unknown in his own endeavours - or maybe they won't. Truth is, I don't really care. I am however, having a lot of fun being creative with all this stuff. I am the luckiest guy in the world. I should be dead, but instead I get to live this amazing creative life. However did I go from the photograph below (yep - thats me.....dont know how old I am but I obviously knew what I wanted to do with my life!!!!!) to the picture at the top???
Camp Freddy Radio is live again this week, on INDIE 103.1FM or www.indie1031.fm and I believe it will be Mr Sorum and my good self filling the airwaves with our dulcet tones!! Tune in and find out. Last weeks Hip Hop extravaganza with La Coka Nostra is up on the Podcast page in case you haven't looked. Thanks for letting me drone on today ........ actually, you have no choice! Its my blog, and I can do that if I want to!! - No doubt Paul will be recording the show tonight, so more Podcast activity soon. Also, last weeks info about the Camp Freddy Miami show being public was, apparently, wrong!! It is a private show! HOWEVER, they are sending us a few pairs of tickets to give away, and I will do some of that on the radio, and some of that RIGHT HERE, on the web. Once we get the tix, I'll figure out some details and let you know. For now, have a great weekend and see ya soon.
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 07:56 AM | Comments (23)