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March 31, 2007
DIABLO DO OZZFEST
Well that was a bit of a crazy week! LOTS of things going on in my world, not least of which would be the Ozzfest announcement. It seems that Circus Diablo will be touring this summer – the Ozzfest and a bunch of other club dates in and around the festivals. Of course, we knew we had been asked, but we just needed to make sure we would have our shit together. And it all looks promising. The album will be released to coincide with the summer touring (no specifics just yet, cos I don’t wanna mess any thing up and we are awaiting those pesky things called contracts to sign!) and we will throw a single out beforehand and do a show or two to warm up. And with a little cleverness and lateral thinking on our part, I think we will be able to put together all the stuff a band needs to tour – bus, driver, crew, hotels etc etc. I gotta say I am really excited to get out and play these dates. The record is a great sounding rock and roll record, and we will have a lot of fun out there. The music business has become no place for the faint of heart these days – it is a lonely and vicious place, and 99% of people who work in it just do not care about the one thing that they are meant to care about ….. the music! But there is the 1% - the people that are trying to save us from bland, characterless, manufactured shit. I urge you to go out and find these people, these bands, these labels, and support them. Because if we don’t, then music will go so far underground that most of you will never be able to find it.
OK – rant over – now, what else has been going on? …… well, we resumed some work on the Camp Freddy album again this week. I spent a couple of days over in the Valley with Mike Clink – sang on a track and did a bunch of guitar bits and pieces. And we also listened back to everything we have so far (we have been at this now for YEARS!!!) and it all still sounds really good. So we have scheduled another couple of guests to record next week. I think the idea is to just keep chipping away and one day we’ll wake up to a completely finished record. I will, of course, let you know when that day comes!!
I also spent some time with Billy Duffy in my studio. He was over putting some riffs down – just ordering and doing housekeeping and getting his ideas out – but it is always a pleasure to sit and listen to that guy play guitar. He will be doing some of the Diablo dates, dependant on his Cult schedule, and we will also have another lead guitarist with us – again, I will tell you who, what, why and how when I can. Either way, I think that the Camp Freddy model of the ‘revolving line up’ is spreading into Circus Diablo – and why not. This is 2007 and bands, records, touring, and the industry in general is changing rapidly. I think that with a revolving line up, and multiple commitments for the musicians in a band, it keeps it fresh and exciting, and there will be no stale, ‘I played this show a thousand times already’ performances……. So lets see how it all pans out. I know that I will be singing every show, that’s for sure!
Donovans performance of Femmes and Phantoms at The Roxy was just pure, unadulterated FUN!! I know everyone will have read about it already, both on Daves site, and on the news wires (Donovan planted a kiss firmly on Dave – and everyone seems to be reporting it – Christ, is that all it takes to be newsworthy these days??!!) – but I need to reiterate what has already been said. The show was fantastic, Donovan was incredible, all dressed up and made up, and sang the songs with so much style and power. Monet and Dave both guested and looked and sounded (as always) awesome. And the whole night was a really cool, fun, rocking night out on the strip – something that we could all do with more of, right?! A huge thank you to Donovan for inviting Jen and I. And as you all know, Dave and I will be back on Indie 103.1FM tonight for an all new Camp Freddy Radio – while I remember, a HUGE THANK YOU to our very own Paul, who not only stays up every week to record the show for this site, but sent me three packets of Angel Delight, direct from the UK. Ahhh – a little taste of home away from home. Thank you Paul – you rock.
I gotta get going, so I am signing off for now – I might log on here during the show tonight and upload a couple of pics from the Camp Freddy Miami show and the studio session last week. For now, have a great weekend and I will be back soon.
Peace
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 08:49 AM | Comments (18)
March 26, 2007
FASHION, FLORIDA AND FOIS GRAS.
Please note that this is a large file size. A high speed connection is preferred.
Welcome to another week, and I cannot believe we are staring at April already! Its so crazy how time keeps going!! Anyway, as promised, a V-Blog from Miami – I actually lost a tape, but managed to edit this together, so it is what it is ….. hope you enjoy. The trip was a lot of fun, and although the flight is a long one, everyone was in good spirits, hitting the town on both Friday and Saturday nights. Scott and Dave both hosted nights at Mansion, and I think some of the Freddy entourage hit every single club in South Beach!! I do know that the flight back was a little more ….er…….. subdued! As I told you guys, the scuba diving thing didn’t pan out for Jen and I, but we still got to drive our rental car around Miami, down to the Keys, and generally acted like the tourists that we were for a few days.
The following week was full of fashion events, due to the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week celebrations. My two DJ gigs were great – the first was for Grail, a company that makes the best tees out there – near enough every tee I wear is Grail – and they asked me to DJ and create a piece of tribal music for their models to walk to …….which I did. I was nervous that it wasn’t the usual ‘rock’ thing and that people wouldn’t like it, but everyone seemed very happy with the end result. They had a live bongo drummer banging away over the top of my piece of music and the collection had a very tribal/Haitian/Voodoo feel to it – all in all a very powerful show. I then hung out at Smashbox for the afternoon, and hit a couple more runway shows to check out the designers.
The other show I did was for a company called Junker, who make crazy rock and roll leather apparel (among other things) and they had Alice Cooper walking in the show. It was at the Avalon, and I was asked to DJ for a couple of hours, which I gladly did. This time it was all about the Rock, and I had a blast playing all my favorite tunes. Again, it seems like it was another successful evening and I am very greatful to all concerned for having me be a part of it.
I hit a couple more ‘events’ throughout the week, including a nice affair over in Beverly Hills held by designer Jenni Kayne. Jenni made the leather pants for me that I wear onstage, and she has been a friend for a few years now – and she had a very intimate ‘desert and drinks’ thingy to show her new designs. Nice to see her again, and nice to find an excuse to eat a cupcake or two!!
The weekend was a welcome break from running around, and apart from doing CFR with Dave (which is up on the Podcasts page of this site) I watched a lot of TV and basically chilled. I caught up on one of my favorite TV shows, Rome, and am now back up to date with that. We also hit a few more Season 5 Alias which is still on our Netflix list. And we watched The Secret – interesting, and with a few great ideas but a little materialistic for me, perhaps. I am still digesting it. And that brings us bang up to date on this gloomy Monday morning here in LA. Not a lot else to report. Back to the business of show, which usually involves not much show, and an awful lot of business!! I have a bunch of meetings this week – as you have learned here, we take tons of meetings, and 99% of it all never happens. It’s the 1% success rate that we are looking for!!! See ya during the week.
Peace
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 08:55 AM | Comments (17)
March 22, 2007
BUSY LIKE A BUZZY THING
I am racing through this week, and don't seem to be able to find time to sit down, answer your questions, give you a round up of Miami, and generally catch you up on whats been going on. Its very busy around these parts with early mornings and late nights and little sleep! Looks like the detailed post and V-Blog from Miami will have to wait until the weekend. I have a whole day free on Sunday, so I'll attack all of that then. Suffice to say that I am running around LA all week, with the DJ stuff going really well (yesterdays Grail show was a winner, and I am hoping for another success at tonights Junker show at The Avalon). I have a meeting with Mike Clink today to listen through to all the tracks that Camp Freddy have recorded for the album, to see where we are at with everything, and to see what we need to do to finish the record. Every night this week has been some kind of event or party, and its been a lot of fun. But I am still getting up early to hit the gym and do my Pilates, so my day of rest on Sunday seems like a long way away! Most of you will have seen that The Ozzfest has started announcing the dates and the line up, and Circus Diablo are included - more details on that next week from us. And finally, see the pic today from Donovans latest happening - his performance next week at The Roxy, with Monet Mazur and MIG from Rock Star - be there or be triangle. Gotta go.
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 08:20 AM | Comments (19)
March 18, 2007
MIAMI BEACH, CAMP FREDDY STYLE
Its been a fun trip to Miami and last nights show was a perfect end to the trip. They tell me that 12,000 people watched Camp Freddy perform last night and we had a great show. Loud, energetic and about an hour and a half long, we played 16 songs and brought up a few friends to enjoy the evening with .... I will have a V-Blog and a complete blow by blow of the evening when I get back to LA, but for now, I wanted to check in and tell you it was a blast. Oh yeah - and I ran into Michael Caine while we were wandering about in South Beach! Couldnt resist it, so I did the whole fan thing and went up and introduced myself!! Told him that we had named our band Camp Freddy (after the character in the original Italien Job movie) and he LOVED that! Its weird, but he seemed really touched that we named the band after a character in one of his movies - so Big Up and Massive Respec' to Mr Michael Caine!!
No diving for Jen and I - the conditions out at sea were very rough (three divers actually died on the wreck that we were intending to dive on the same day as we were booked to go - so I thank God that we listened to the warnings and cancelled our dives) but we had a great time in South Beach anyway - went to see 300 (totally astounding - what a fantastic movie) and generally laid about out hotel relaxing. We did drive down to Key Largo one of the days, and it just reaffirmed that when the conditions are better, we absolutely need to come back to dive.
So like I said, we are traveling back today. Which means this post is a quick one. No CFR last night (I think they ran an old show) but we are back next week in full effect. And of course, next week is Fashion Week and a few DJ things for me to do. I'll let you know how I do!!! Once I get back to LA, I'll put a V-Blog together from the Miami footage, and I'll get the Camp Freddy site updated with setlist and guests from the show. For now, have a great relaxing Sunday and I'll be back soon.
Peace
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 07:43 AM | Comments (35)
March 13, 2007
CHOP IT OFF
Please note that this is a large file size. A high speed connection is preferred.
Thought I would throw up this V-Blog before I disappear to Miami for the rest of the week. The traumatic process of cutting the mop – captured on film!! It’s no biggie really – I have always gone from long to short, to long and then cut it all off again ….. it keeps me from sticking to one thing for too long. Anyway, its done, and I like it. And I wanted to get it up here before the Miami trip, cos I will have the camera in hand all week. And that means more V-Blogging from yours truly. I’ll wait until I get back to do all the editing and posting, but I’ll make sure we get some fun stuff on tape.
I’ve been keeping my nose down, and working on a bunch of ‘behind the scenes’ stuff – my DJ sets, the Camp Freddy set list, some crazy Circus Diablo logistics ….. you wouldn’t believe what it takes to keep a band on the road these days, and we are attempting to have Diablo do the whole Ozzfest, as well as a bunch of club dates. Not sure if its gonna work, but we are trying our hardest to figure it all out. So that little lot has kept me busy for a few days. Time for a rest, time for some beach, some surf, some diving …… time for MIAMI.
Kelly – Great, and very involved question. Downloading from torrents and other ‘free’ places is basically what is making it so difficult for bands to stay on the road!! With the business losing money, the labels will not spend anything on promotion, marketing and tour support because they know they won’t make their money back. Because people are not buying albums anymore – they are downloading them for free. The bands have a responsibility these days, to provide exclusive extra free content, directly from their site and other approved sites, to go that extra step for their fans. And the fan has a responsibility to keep the music flowing by purchasing the album, or tracks from the album, from I-Tunes, Amazon etc etc. This mutually beneficial relationship is what will enable your favorite band to actually come and play in your town.
Dave C – Serrato is the industry standard DJ software, that enables Djs to spin, scratch and mix MP3’s directly from their hard drive. Native Instruments also make a similar program called Traktor. I will move into that world at some point, but right now, its mixing from CD’s for me!!
Kate – Its not really about how deep you dive, its about how calm and controlled you are while you do it. Most of the good shit lives between 40 and 80ft anyway, but I have been down to 115 foot. And nitrogen narcosis has never really affected me – I think cos I was so stoned for so many years anyway!!!
Digger – Ha ha ha!! Thump thump music does definitely NOT appear in my playlist! I just started to DJ because there was a distinct LACK of decent rock music at parties. If someone wants dance music, they’ll hire a pro DJ. But if someone loves guitar and rock music and wants a more rock and roll vibe, they can now have me. The gigs come by spreading the word, sending out a press release, and having someone on your team pimping you out. Oh, and Tina? – it is a popular pastime for musicians because its music! And that’s what turns most of us on in the first place …… so getting to play two hours of your favorite tunes is pretty much all fun and no down side!
Mary – Actually I do practise a little – probably more when a Camp Freddy show is coming up. There are usually a couple of new tunes to learn, and I take that and roll with it for a few days, just noodling around and trying new things. I also watch my peers very closely and the players that I admire – Duffy, Slash, Navarro etc – and ask when I see stuff that I don’t understand. Usually they then show me at lightning speed, and I spend four weeks trying to do the same thing at the speed of a tortoise!!
Alright. I am outta here. Things to deal with, emails coming through, phones lighting up ….. anyone would think there are 15 rockers flying to Miami during Spring Break ……..hold on a minute? ……. Sounds like a good idea.
Peace
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 08:28 AM | Comments (27)
March 09, 2007
EASING BACK INTO THIS....
OK - so I am gonna ease back into this blog. I missed posting, but I had to take a break for a week, cos sometimes the "Entertainment Business" is anything but entertaining. It doesn't matter what went down, and it doesn't matter who did what, said what, to whom ...... thats all bullshit, and we move onwards. I intend to remain spiritually fit, emotionally strong, and above all, creative, loving, happy, content and greatful that I get to do so many exciting things in my life. I truly feel that just having had the opportunities and experiences I have already had in my life, that "my cup overfloweth!!!" - and with that ......
Tomorrow is a brand new CFR. And to make up for leaving so abrubtly last weekend, I will be taking the helm entirely tomorrow (unless Donovan finds his way into the studio) but I have a few interesting phone calls to make, and a TON of extremely cool music. I will also try and think up a cool competition or give-away, but don't hold me to that! Tune in and find out if I remembered to bring in a prize of some kind!!
Sunday is a website day, and i will be tweaking around in Final Cut, trying to edit a new V-Blog for you all, just to say thanks for all the concerned emails last week. I also have some updating to do elsewhere, as well as helping a friend get started with a site. Cue lots of coffee, and that familiar burning sensation in your eyes when you have been staring at a computer monitor for WAY too long!! I will also try and do a Q+A so ask away people - just don't bother asking "what was wrong last week?" cos I have already said that we are moving along!!
Monday and Tuesday will be spent compiling my music for the three DJ gigs I have coming up soon - a couple in Fashion Week here in LA, and then one pretty soon afterwards. I know that the professional cats in that world have the whole thing down, and show up with a laptop and thats it, but me?..... I am running OG!! I actually have to put in some time and figure out what music I wanna play!! I really should go learn that Serrato shit - they are all rocking that these days. Whatever - I will enjoy spending hours listening to great music and putting my sets together. I am really looking forward to the DJ stuff coming up.
Then its off to Miami - and Jen and I are going out early to get a bit of diving in before the rock and roll starts. One of the dives I have sorted out is a sunken drug runners boat!! They found nearly 200 kilos of coke on this boat and it sank in the ensuing chase!! I trust all the narcotics have been removed now! But in all seriousness, I love Scuba and love that I get to dive the Florida Keys - the marine sanctuary down there is amazing. And then, of course, its back to South Beach for some amazing Rock N Roll!!!
Thats it from me - a gentle re-entry into having my life posted up on this here world wide web for everyone to see. Hope you are happy I am back - I certainly am - and I will see (or at least hear) some of you on the air tomorrow night. Till then.....
Peace
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 08:42 PM | Comments (52)
March 03, 2007
CLOSED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
I want to make clear my reasons for taking a few steps back for a little while here – and I appreciate all your emails etc. Just so you know, my health and my marriage are both fine!! This is a spiritual thing I am going through right now – and dealing with blows to the spirit, to the heart, to the soul, is a thing I need to do by myself. And while opening up parts of my life here on the web leaves me wide open in certain areas, I am just choosing to focus on a couple of things for a minute, and that means laying low around here.
I am still immersed in innumerable projects. Radio, TV, Camp Freddy, Circus Diablo, Music, Film …… I intend to do it all. I will be at the station this coming weekend for the CFR show. I will be in Miami next week for the B-Live event that we are playing. I will be DJ’ing a couple of fashion shows the following week back in Los Angeles – the Junker show and the Grail show – and I will continue to work on a couple of TV projects that I have in the fire.
So bear with me, as I take a huge breath and dive into the world that is The Business Of Show once again. Patience is a virtue, they tell me. Lets find out, shall we?…..
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Posted by vivelerock at 08:41 PM
THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL SON
Mr Navarro returns from his two month tour with The Panic Channel to join me tonight on Camp Freddy Radio. And I have to say I have MISSED him!!! Actually we went out to dinner last night for a friends birthday and had a blast, so we are now all caught up and ready to rock the airwaves tonight. Which brings me to a random thought - how can a private dining area in a restaurant be louder than the onstage mix at a Camp Freddy show??!! We sat in this back room, with a table for ten people, and a few other tables were occupied with some other patrons ..... who gradually got louder and louder and louder until we were actually screaming at each other on our table to be heard!! I'm not quite sure how and when having a dinner party became so ...... loud!!! But I left at the end of the night with a full stomach and a pounding headache from shouting at everyone!!
On to the weekend, and I intend to run around with my wife and catch up with her - haven't seen too much of her lately because she's been getting up early and I have had some busy, full days recently. So we are taking advantage of the weekends, and watching a ton of Tivo together, and doing random stuff like getting the cars washed together!! Its amazing how creative you can be as a couple when you both lead busy lives and you have to get the daily errands of life done AND catch up with each other at the same time......... "hey honey, ..... fancy meeting at the grocery store for a quick half an hour????" Honestly, I sometimes wonder when we will actually get to just hang out at home!
I am confirming a couple of DJ gigs in LA during Fashion Week - I'll post the details when I have them. But it does look like I'll be out and about that week, and a couple of the shows look like being a lot of fun. And what with the Camp Freddy show in Miami (and a few extra days spent diving while we are there), and a few meetings about some TV stuff, it seems like March is a full dance card for me! I am also starting to think about Circus Diablo rehearsals, and gearing up for our summer activities, although there is still plenty of time ..... and a lot of details still to iron out. Again - more news as it happens, viewers.
OK - I will do a Q+A very soon, and actually have some footage that should make a fun V-Blog. I just gotta get around to editing it up. Maybe tomorrow. So keep your eyes on the prize, tune in tonight if you can, and I will see you all very soon.
Peace
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 08:15 AM | Comments (11)