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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

(CLOSED)

Posted by vivelerock at July 6, 2008 09:01 AM