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July 28, 2008
I SMELL SOMETHING FISHY
I love the days when I just blow everything off, leave the phone at home, and go diving. Not that there’s too many of those days…..but yesterday was one of them, and I had a blast. Unshaven, new haircut and smiling! Thats the pic that tells the story! Haha! Went out from Long Beach with Patrick and about 15 other certified divers, and took the hour and fifteen minute ride over to Catalina. And the afternoon was spent on a couple of relaxing dives, not too deep, weaving in and out of the rocks and the kelp. I got to try out some new equipment that I had bought, which all worked wonderfully (thank God!) and pretty much spent a day turning my head off. And being on the water seems to be the same vibe as being on the 405 freeway! The picture below is of a huge ship that actually CUT US OFF on the way back! Now I am not quite sure how that happens - can't you see that thing coming from MILES away??? But our engines slammed into reverse, the boat shook with the effort of braking, and that great big thing cut across the bow (front!!) of our boat, blaring its horns and causing us to bob around madly in its swell for a second!!!
Now its Monday morning and of course my head is fully turned on again! Back to thoughts of all the various projects I’ve got myself involved with, including the Camp Freddy show on Friday. Its at The House Of Blues on Sunset and although it’s a private affair (as always – it’s the fourth year we’ve played the ESPN/X-Games party) and there are no tickets available, I know that a couple of you always manage a quick peek! Good luck with that this year.
Danni – I get asked this question a lot, and my answer is always the same. Madonna and Iggy Pop are the two names that have not jammed with Camp Freddy that I would love to play with…..so drop Madge a line and see what she’s doing on Friday!!
Leroy – You’ll have a blast in LA! Go online and check out the clubs websites – Spaceland, The Roxy, The Whiskey, The Viper Room, The Key Club. You want dirty rock shows?…..THAT’S where you’ll find em! They all have calendars on their sites.
Merc – That is a Lear Jet 7 seater – VERY small and compact and takes off and lands almost vertical!! It’s a thrill of a ride in one of those. Gulfstreams tend to be larger with 12 or more seats.
Furian – Thank you for clearing up the ‘Great Haggis Debacle of 2008’!! I actually didn’t hear Matt say that – and scrapple sounds equally delicious!!
I’m gonna get started on the days work. Check out this pic of Billy Duffy and I playing each others guitars at The Viper Room show the other day!! Take care everyone, and have a good week. If you ‘find’ a way into the HOB, I will see you Friday, and if not….well, who knows whats around the corner. And I have to say that if you wonder how this site has every podcast up for you all to listen to (and how I-Tunes has them available if you subscribe to Billy Morrison's Podcasts), its because UK Paul stays up until some unearthly hour every Saturday night taping them for me, and then edits all the music out (cos its a legal requirement) and emails the resulting MP3 to me. Every week. So be greatful people! This weeks is up, and it was a great show - Matt and myself hanging out and then being joined for the second hour by Royston Langdon from Spacehog. Enjoy. See ya.
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 09:17 AM | Comments (9)
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.
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Posted by vivelerock at 06:20 PM | Comments (9)
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)
July 06, 2008
RECAP/REVIEW
Time for an update I feel!! What with the Sunset Strip Music Festival, an appearance with McQueen at The Whiskey, a swift Freddy trip to Aspen, a video shoot and some CFR action its been a minute since I focused on this site. So lets rectify that and catch up. First on the menu – the acoustic performance on Sunset Strip as part of the music festival. We did a live broadcast of Camp Freddy Radio first…..not exactly the smoothest show ever, hahaha!!! Its really hard doing outside broadcasts because you cant hear the person in the studio properly, and the audience watching you do it cant hear the songs that you are spinning! So when you verbally cue a song, you aren’t sure if the board operator in the studio is actually playing that song (the music is not played from the live location – its played from back at the radio station) and then the audience watching you do the show stand around in silence waiting for you to talk again!! A complete receipe for disaster. But its all part of the fun, and we got through it. After the Darling Stilettos, we played a short set of acoustic songs. Dave was unable to be there, so we had Matt’s friend Lanny Cordola, my songwriting partner Patrick Cornell, along with Billy Duffy and Brett Scallions help us out. An interesting and somewhat different afternoon.
Later that night, our friends from the UK, McQueen, were playing at the Whisky A Go Go as part of the SSMF. And me, Sorum and Duffy had all been invited to jump up and play with the girls. So we all found ourselves upstairs at the world famous Sunset Strip club at about 1.00am in the morning, watching the girls rock the Whiskey. It’s the first time I had seen the band (although they had guested with Camp Freddy in May during our Roxy Residency) and they blew me away!! Awesome songs and a killer live show. And at the end, they rocked a couple of covers so that we could join em. I grabbed a guitar and played Dirty Deeds and Its So Easy with Sorum on the second drum kit and Duffy on lead guitar. So much fun – thank you girls (and the ever present Mr Zutatt) for having me.
Aspen. In the summertime. No snow. A weird place for Camp Freddy to play. But play we did. At the Belly Up club’s July 4th party (except we played on 3rd and were onstage at Midnight to usher in the 4th celebrations!). But I am getting ahead of myself. The first signs of this being a slightly ‘different’ gig was when Matt and I were sitting in a town car, on our way to LAX Airport. Dave and Billy Duffy were ahead of us in their car, when my phone rang. It was my guitar tech, who casually says….”have you seen the news? Some guy is wandering around LAX telling people he’s a terrorist and he has a bomb. Airports closed’….Great. Our flight leaves in 45 minutes. A quick cellphone pow wow with Navarro later and we have turned around, booked a private plane for ourselves (not cheap, but a good emergency plan!!) and I was back at home eating Pinkberry before you could say ‘Fucked Up’!! The next morning we tried again. This time, it was over to a private airfield in the Valley, drive straight on to the tarmac, park next to the jet and take off immediately. Instead of a five hour trip, with a change of planes in Denver, we landed directly in Aspen an hour and a half later. The only way to travel. The show itself was a lot of fun. We did a half hour acoustic set, followed by an hour electric set. Doing the Alice In Chains classic, Got Me Wrong, on acoustic, with Jerry Cantrell singing, just blew my mind!! And playing Suffragette City, standing next to 80’s legend John Oates (who was RIPPING on lead guitar!!) was another Freddy first for me. All in all the Aspen trip was another strange and wonderful Camp Freddy experience. I know that we all have to thank Chris Chaney for letting us stay in his families house up there. Your hospitality knows no bounds mate. It was fantastic, thank you.
Oh - I just remembered. Had a killer review of the Stimulator album sent to me - the album is sold out in hard copy form now, but is available in its digital form from I-Tunes. CLICK HERE TO READ THE STIMULATOR REVIEW.
I’ve run out of time (as always!!) and I gotta get moving. But before I jet, I want to tell you all that Camp Freddy will be playing a VERY special show at the Los Angeles VIPER ROOM on July 17th. The show is a benefit for our wonderful tour manager Scott P. Scott is basically the guy that ensures the gigs actually happen – from the amps being on the stage, to the band actually walking on to the stage together!! He has been with us pretty much since day one, and is part of the Freddy Family. He has been diagnosed with Cancer and is being hit with ridiculous medical bills in the process. We all believe that he needs to be concentrating on fighting the disease and not worrying about paying those bills, so we are going to play a special show and ALL proceeds (including the money from the door and the bar – thanks to Harry M and The Viper) will go directly to Scott. It is a MINIMUM donation of $50 on the door (although you are welcome to donate more) and we will also be auctioning off a Gibson Les Paul that will be signed by every guest performer that evening (thanks due to the wonderful Shanon and Jenny at Gibson for donating the guitar). We’ll take bids from the stage during our show. So get off your couch, get your wallet out, come down to The Viper Room on July 17th and help a very special person. The club holds 200 people – it WILL sell out. Buy your tickets now.
See ya
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 09:01 AM
July 03, 2008
YOU SPIN ME ROUND AND ROUND!
After getting caught up in yesterdays LAX bomb threat and missing our flights to Aspen for the Camp Freddy gig there today, we are rushing to the airport right now to get a jet straight to soundcheck. Sounds glamorous. Its not. The last week has been crazy with gigs getting added, cancelled, added again. I have not been able to keep up with it all, so I have decided to let the dust settle and then see what we have confirmed after the holiday weekend. A HUGE happy 4th to you all. I gotta run cos if we miss THIS flight as well, we dont play tonight!!! See ya.
Billy
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Posted by vivelerock at 08:01 AM | Comments (9)