Deciding not to do things by halves I’ll be having an official blogging break only to return to my full glory in May. I’m moving half way across the country and having gigs, teaching and other work to juggle my time is very short to blog. So rather than doing some rubbish fast blogs I’ll be taking this time to store up some good material and returning in style with regular posts in a few weeks.

If this is your first visit to my site please take a look around. There’s a years worth of blogs categorized to your tastes, series 1 of The Eurobusk Documentary, The Master Musician Animation, Samples of my playing (both video and audio) and loads of photos too.

Please keep on leaving your comments on posts that inspire you and I’ll be back to my fantastic blogging self in no time.

Man - It’s been hard to motivate myself to blog over the past month. I’ll be making weekly posts for a while until I get back into the swing of things.

I had a couple of gigs over the weekend. On Friday night I was deppinging in Guys and Dolls in Stratford for a friend of mine. He didn’t have time to get any music to me so all I could do was listen to the CD and wing it. Not my favorite way to approach a gig but sometimes that’s the way it goes.

On Saturday I played a gig with a group I regularly dep with called the Soul Vibe Train. As with most soul gigs there’s a fair bit of musical map reading when the singers decide to go off on a tangent but it’s usually alright as you can just follow a horn player who knows what’s going on. Unfortunately for me somehow this ended up being me?!

Despite not really having a clue what the hell I was doing i did know that the only way to handle this was with incredible confidence. The other horns would follow me and the audience would have no idea. Of course I had nothing to base this confidence on (again ) but the gig came off perfectly. It was one of those situations where everything was just going so well I was afraid to think about how it was happening in case I broke the spell

Two gigs, no prep, no clue, DONE!!

I’ve finally made the choice to move back to Birmingham.

London has been a lot of fun and I’ve had some great experiences. Living with one of my best pals whilst he’s been studying for his Doctorate in music has been awesome. I wouldn’t say no to coming back to London either at a different time in my career. I though London would be rubbish to be honest but it’s a good place. There’s never a shortage of things going on so it’s never boring and the city is always alive!

Then why leave???

Well to be honest ever since I’ve moved to London I’ve been getting more and more work in the Midlands (sods law right??) and although the driving doesn’t bother me too much it’s just got to the point where my London flat and life is no longer practicle. I also worry that my network of friends in Birmingham who put me up will soon murder me Anyway!! Now I have enough friends in London who will look after me in case I need to crash up there for any work.

Why Birmingham?

Well that’s where I trained and where most of my music friends and contacts are. It’s also slap bang in the middle of the country so it’s easy to get everywhere and I like the city. I might not go to Brum itself. I have a few friends who are trying to bully me to live in their neck of the woods. Let’s call her K. Elliott and freinds??? No that’s too obvious….. how about Miss Kelly E.

I’ll decide where soon. Hopefully I’ll find a place I’m happy enough to stay in for more than 8 months… That’d be the first time in 6 years. Ahhh. The life of a musician.

I’ve been blogging for over a year now, creating 340 posts and making new content nearly everyday.

This week however I’ve not made a single post - Rubbish!!

Sorry about that! I have lots of things coming up including a review on ear monitors, a gig at the Jam House in Birmingham, pupils taking their exams, a new year of Indian Weddings…. woo?! and a few ideas on Eurobusk 09.

But I’m afraid you’ll have to wait for the next chance I get to sit down an write (which should be this weekend).

With the possibility of moving back to Birmingham a party in London and a nice peppering of gigs it’s been hard to keep up with my usual frequency of post. So here’s brief catch up of all the things that I haven’t had the chance to post about.

Eurobusk 08

The trip was great as always. We bit off a little more than we expected by driving from London to Berlin in a day but we all had a great time. This year we toured through Berlin, Prague, Salzburg, Luxemburg and London. The cameras were rolling as always and the documentary will be edited together sometime soon. This year we nearly ran out of petrol in a deserted village in the middle of nowhere (the kind of place where someone says, “hey, lets go up to that deserted mansion and ask to use their phone” before being mauled by zombies). We almost got arrested in Prague (that was fun and I caught it on Camera!!! :P), we stayed with a local family in Luxemberg AND we were asked by the President of the Covent Garden Busking Association to play there over the summer.

Full stories, more pictures and of course the next series of Eurobusk will be coming soon.
Click Here To See Trailers for Eurobusk 07
or if you have a little more time Click Here To See the Entire first Series

Musicians and the White Powder

Not THAT white powder. This White powder.

I think I was driving during every snow warning through January and February. I saw 12 accidents including 1 live accident (thankfully no-one seemed to be hurt) and about 20 different kinds of snow. All of them cold. All of them slippery. All of them bad.

To tell us more about snow. Here’s Rob in a clip from Eurobusk 07
**!! Warning Contains 1 Bleeped Word - Justified by the Cold!!**

Rob on Snow - Eurobusk 07 from Matt Roberts on Vimeo.

My Promotional Material - Finally Getting It Sent

After a month of designing with my good friend Ashley Morgan we came up with a simple and elegant design for my promotional material. I finalized it, uploaded it to the printers, had it shipped to me, threw it all together and finally have it ready to send.

Jam Session with an Old Friend

I went to visit my old pal Kelly Elliott and her chap Hugh. Now Kelly’s had some exciting new that I’m not allowed to say and Hugh is working on an amazing instrument project endorsed by Dennis Wick which I’m still not sure I’m allowed to mention…. I should perhaps wait until I can actually tell you something before I post about this again .

Until then here’s a photo of Hugh and myself at a Jam Session in Brum.

Hugh has leant me some in ear monitors that I’ll be posting about soon. It will be exciting to give them a review as I continue to find a way to overcome the inherent problems for trumpeters overexerting themselves on loud gigs.

Last week was spent in the Midlands playing South Pacific with a company I’ve been with since I was 19. It’s only an amateur show but they’re a good cast and I like to catch up with the friends I’ve made there.

I’m not a big fan of the South Pacific, with gaping plot holes a clunky story and a less than flowing score it didn’t make a great impression. The production itself was good and the it had a few perks that helped the week go by with a little more fun but the main reason for this post tell you about a few more disasters that I’ve added to my show list.

For a full and up to date catalogue of these take a look in my Show Category.

The new top three this week are:

The Lighting Rig Shuts Down

Without any warning the lighting rig froze keeping the stage in an erie kind of perpetual twilight. Eventually (we could see this happening in the wings) the crew decided to pull out the whole system and put on the regular rehearsal lights. This made the appear as if you were going blind and could just make out the blurry shapes. Gradually each section of the rig started to behave and come back to life but it took an easy 10 minutes to sort out. Good stuff!

Emergency Dep

Two members of the Orchestra were called away in an emergency 10 minutes before the show started. Randomly one of the stage crew was a young trombonist and lived locally?! What are the chances?? He ran home, grabbed his gear and made a fair job of covering the part. That was very lucky!!

Oh Dan…how does it always happen to you?

Dan is my friend, fellow trumpeter and old house mate from my conservatoire days. I asked him to dep for me for a night on this run as I went to see Reel Big Fish play at rock city (a good gig). Dan has had a few interesting stories on gigs he’s depped for me. One of my favorites being the time his exhaust dropped out of his car half way down the A38!! But I think this could top even that!!

The venue is hard enough to find when you know where you’re going. Never mind if you have to leave the duel carriage way an exit early because of an accident. - Unlucky! Managing to find his way to the gig after the MD and I guided him in over the phone he ran in just as the show began. Not too bad in a regular pit. But when the entrance is located by the front row of the audience… nightmare.

Dan managed to dart in (as he describes it, with a pull the plaster off mentality) and excuse his way past the front row during the Overture. Expecting a round of applause he crawled and waited next to the trombone before he made a move on his seat. He didn’t realize that there’s only a brief applause before the cast start the show and didn’t have time to move.

Eventually he managed to crawl to his seat and the gig went happily ever after!!

Sorry for the large break between posts. I was playing in South Pacific last week and I ended up having no time to write. I did however find an old video whilst I was digging through unnamed CD’s and DVDs in my old bedroom in Derby and thought I’d put it up.

It’s a video taken in my second year at the Conservatoire (when I was 19). I was playing lead with the BMus Big Band at the time under Eddies Severn. This was the Big Band run for the regular course rather than the jazz specialists. After this I was asked to sit on the lead chair in the Jazz Course Big Bands for a few gigs.

It was interesting to look back at my technique a few years ago. The things that I’m proud of and things that I’m not For example, I think I have a good stance and sound but an inability to do a proper lip trill.

With a heavy pivot and far too much movement this show poor technique and doesn’t yields poor results at the expense of stamina (and risk of injury). [Check out 2:42]

I’m happy to say this is no longer an issue!!

It’s a bit different from a regular post so I hope it makes up for being away for so long. You can even spot Neil from The Shades (and the Abu Dhabi Diary) leading the saxes. Good times

Birmingham Conservatoire BMus Big Band
Piece: Hayburner
Lead by: Eddie Severn
Matt Roberts: Lead Trumpet

Old Big Band Video from Matt Roberts on Vimeo.

We’re set up,rehearsed, tanned and sound checked. Then the news arrives that the party is actually a masked ball, which was very exciting news. Especially as guests were to wear uniquely designed and hand-crafted Venetian masks that they had flown over from Italy to the palace a few days before. Each mask was worth between £200 - £300 and we were shown into a room with over a thousand masks laid out on a table and told to chose one to take and wear for the ball?!

I told you it was very cool!

Meanwhile, whilst most of the band are picking out our favorite Venetian masks, we had left Chris tweaking the lights. Baring in mind that it’s his band AND he’s the front man for the gig somehow it didn’t occur to him that perhaps HE shouldn’t be going up a 20 foot ladder to play with the lights on the rig. That’s Perhaps why I like this photo so much:

This is what happens when you leave Chris on his own.

Nearly Gig Time

After returning back to the hotel and getting ready for the gig I came up with a cunning plan to get past security at record speed, as despite now having passes it still took an age to get in. It was simple really,

Nick and I were just going to tell them that Heidi (backing vocalist) was Shakira. We just had to act as her security, you know, talk into our sleeves, hold our ears, the works. It turns out that despite being the busiest time we were ever at the palace that we slipped straight in.

That night we ate at the Emirates for the first time. I have never seen a more extravagant buffet. Ice sculptures over looking lobsters, the biggest prawns I’ve ever seen (although that could have been another plate of lobsters?), a huge carvery with meat that melted on the plate, never mind in your mouth. Caviar, fraguar, 3 giant chocolate fountains… the list goes on.

Personally I liked that there were 2 waiters standing like statues by our table and the second you’d finished something or looked like you were thirsty they jumped into action. I think you had to be their for that experience but it was crazy.

Over lunch we found out an interesting piece of information. Apparently the tickets for our gig were being sold for £600 each. Neil and I had counted over a thousand seats in the ball room and estimate that they made £750,000 from ticket sales. I should have asked for more money

By the time we saw the stage again they had mounted 2 or 3 remote control TV camera on and around the stage which fed to the 30 plasma screens mounted around the ball room and 3 projectors (because sometimes 30 40-inch screens just aren’t enough).
The good news is that I’ll not only be getting hold of Nick’s videos that he took during the trip but also the video from the Emirates (although the guy controlling the cameras wasn’t making a great job of it).

Quite a lot happened from this point so I’ll try and touch on the important stuff.

The dodgy white jackets came out for the horns in the first set… I say white. Mine was more dirt than white but you couldn’t tell unless you wearing it … or looking at it.

It was however better than the bow ties the other guys wore for set 1

The masks made up for the jackets and the girls looked especially good in their masks.

Gig Time - Finally

We played really well through the night and a couple of songs were so popular we had impromptude solos to extend them. I’ve got a few shots that some people took of the performance but videos will do the gig itself more justice than I can describe.

We played 4 sets in total that covered 4 hours. Adding to the 3 hour sound check it turned out to be a 7 hour day of trumpet playing which was pretty hardcore. I wouldn’t have had a chance without Andy Taylor, our sound engineer, who was absolutely brilliant. Again proving that a sound tech can make or break a gig. Especially for brass!!

Between each set we had our own table, with a few more masks and party toys. I kept half of the menu for the evening as I thought it’s be fun to post:

Obviously playing or always being about to play meant that I couldn’t stuff my face like I wanted to but the few courses I tried were incredible.

After our 3rd set we all left the hall to head towards the beach where we found a 10 foot bar made out of ice and full of champagne. We could see the lights and hear the noise from Shakira’s gig on the other side of the palace but it was even more exciting when they asked Chris to count down the new years for the UAE which climaxed in a multimillion pound fire work and music display erupting over the sea.

This evening just got better and better.

It was hard to believe that we still had a set to play after all that - that’s real commitment Shakera!!!

But it was loads of fun; Mr Matt McCloud (percussion) left his platform to shake on the stage and the backing singers danced with the brass as we played. It was only fair that the brass make a break for the other platforms and give Andy T a heart attack. I can still hear his voice as if I were next to him when he told me his thoughts on this the next day: “The horns are off their mic’s, They’re OFF THEIR MIC’s!!”

We went down a storm and at 2:30am we finally finished and sat down to enjoy a nice chilled glass of champagne.

One of my best memories of the trip was pointing out to Andy Powell (keys) that the champagne bottle we had was a little further than I was willing to reach, summoning a waiter and asking for a fresh bottle which was placed a couple of inches closer to my hand than the half full one we were drinking previously. I’m only ever going to be able to do that once in a lifetime so why not??

We all chilled out until 6am when we went back to our hotel. In these 3 days I ended up clocking up 4 hours sleep in total and then slept for 14 hours on the 2nd of January when I got home. On the 4th my body showed me how unhappy it was about the abuse I’d given it by coming down with the flu. I regret nothing!!

So that’s it for my Abu Dhabi Diary’s. I hope they were a good read. I’ll convert the posts into a shorter version for a page and add the video when they come. I think it deserves it’s own page. At least till next years new years gig.

Back in the day (i.e. before I was around) Westend show work was seen often seen as being bellow the higher class of players, coming second to session work and other London gigs. These days however the Westend sees some of the finest musicians around sitting in their pit orchestras. Derrick Watkins, to source only a single example, is currently playing in ‘Hair Spray’ and he’s considered (and deservedly so) as one of the trumpet greats.

I love shows and I’ve been playing in pits since I was 13. I’ve played all types of shows and for my age I’d say covered a fair few. The list includes:

West Side Story, My Fair Lady, Kismet, Student Prince, Barnum, Joseph and his Technicolor Dream Coat, Grease, South Pacific, Dancing Years, Carousel, Perchance to Dream, Gay is the Word, Call Me Madame, Calamity Jane, Kings Rhapsody, Le Cage aux Folles, Chess, Les Miserables, Princess Ida, Oklahoma, High Society, Anything Goes, Copa Cobana, Sweet Charity, Jesus Christ Super Star, My Favorite Year and Me and My Girl.

And a number of these I’ve played 2 or 3 times.

I have a couple of friends who are currently knocking at the Westend door. Ben Kennedy who was my accompanist at the Birmingham Conservatoire has deped for ‘Wicked’ a number of times and James Newton who I met when playing ‘My Favorite Year’ at LIPA who has sat in (on kit) at half the shows currently playing in London.

I’d love to get into the Westend pit. However not to do my friends accomplishments a disservice but it’s a bit different on the trumpet. You have to be very very special to be sitting on the big shows. The chops that these guys have are great and something that to listen to can re-inspire any trumpet players dull practice routines.

At least this is what I felt when I went to see ‘Wicked’ last week, especially when I stood over the pit to watch the play out at the end of the show. In fact… I felt so inspired after they’d finished and were all getting up to leave I shouted across this Westend pit for the trumpet player. I had a short chat with him and ended up meeting up with him at the stage door where I asked him for a lesson and we traded details.

I think even Mr Newton the networking machine would be proud of me for that. However I will point out that I think I was lucky to get such a kind response. Keep that in mind if you have an insane urge to follow my example.

The reason I wanted a lesson with this trumpet player was watching him and how he played I could see what I was aiming for. I’m not putting myself down. I’m a pro, I’m making a good living and I do some great gigs. But I still want more out of myself, that’s why I still practice hard everyday.

I had my lesson today backstage at ‘Wicked’ witch was very cool (see that clever play on words). The guy was great. I asked him about how he started and how he got to where he is, he told me about being in Europe on lead trumpet trials for a National Radio Big Band (I’m being purposely vague), about the guys he trained with and of course the kit he uses.

Incidentally not only has he played and is a fan of Calicchio trumpets, but he also has a GR mouthpiece -like me. So I was happy about that. He also knew a lot of the guys who have taught me and who I’ve been lucky enough to meet and play with which shows I must be on the right track.

We worked on some great stuff and because I’d done the research about the physicality and processes of playing a few years before I was already a few steps down the line on the exercises we did. It was really worth it. Even more so because he was very encouraging about my technique and the way I play and he really didn’t have to be. Baring in mind that he was modestly slurring double octaves to a double C. Legend

I’ve got some things to think about and now I feel even more inspired to play.

All in all… not a bad day.