I’ve got another gig in Leicester and then one at the NEC today. I should be driving out to Newcastle tonight to break up the journey to Edinburgh in the morning however in an interesting turn of events the groom seems to have disappeared (and maybe even done a runner). I’ll let you know how that turns out.

Well so much has happened since I left London.

First of all my new place is awesome!! Complete with my studio to record, work and practice. A must for any professional musician (I’ll get some photos up at some stage) and as a result my regular practice routine is beginning to get back on its feet and advances in my playing with it.

As for gigs my diary’s been nicely full since my return to the midlands and through some persistent networking I’ve secured some corporate work. (More on that in future posts and possible video/photos to accompany).

My teaching has been going well too. My star pupil has achieved his grade 8 at 14, my other rising star has nailed his grade 6 at 10 and all my other pupils are destroying there exams and evolving into strong trumpet players. So much so that I’ve been noticed by the head of music at another private school who saw my pupils play. The school has a very strong music department they have offered me some teaching work with the trumpeters and groups at their school.

All in all I’ve been pretty damn busy.I have missed keeping my site up to date though, so I will try and get back into regular blogging. It won’t be daily like it used to be but I’m going to try and set up a routine to get a couple out every week.

So welcome back to mattrobertsmusic.com and keep reading!

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!!

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.

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.

I last left you with the band working hard sunning by the pool in a 5 star hotel and I’d promised a few snaps of the outside of the Palace. So here’s a picture of me in front of the palace and Mark in the fountains. Keep in mind that this is only the front of the palace

With 2 days before new years eve we started to set up our equipment in the ball room of the Emirates Palace. This was easier said than done when we were being security checked in and out of the Palace all day but eventually we got all our PA, instruments, rig and lights into the room. It was only the case of putting them all together from that point. Easy.

You might have spotted that Nick brought his video Camera (top left). I’m hoping to grab the footage off him to make a short video on Abu Dhabi. I would have taken my stuff but I’d spent 10 days on camera and carrying all the camera stuff for Eurobusk 08 only a few days before and I really didn’t feel like it after that.

Here are a couple shots of the stage. You can see the rig has been raised and the last touches have been finished for now. The next time you see this kind of shot the room will be filled with tables and over 1000 seats.

We managed to set up in an evening and the next day we finally got down to doing some playing. I think by this time we were all itching to play together like a bunch of big kids who had set up their toys but then had to wait . I’ll finish this post with some photos of our rehearsal, there’s not much more to say that you can’t see from the pictures. The band goofing around and having a laugh playing

Keep your eye out for the 4th and final part to this series.

Todays post is about my gig with the Shades over the weekend. I have to say, they’re never boring.

It was a long 3 hour journey from London and I arrived at the post code I was given in Staffordshire at 5pm when I started my usual hunt for the venue. I tried to save time by pulling up to ask for directions. Unfortunately it turns out that the guy I pulled up to was the guitar dep for my gig and he was lost as well along with Neil (sax) who was asking directions from someone else. I turns out that the address we had was to the organizers house and not the venue… Useful.

We were told that sat-nav wouldn’t take us where we needed to go so we had to follow her directions the old fashioned way. We ended up driving around a square mile of this village for 45 minutes and gradually bumped into other lost band members on the road adding to our lost convoy of a motorbike 3 cars and a big van full of 5 band members, PA and lighting rig.

But this is when the fun really started. We finally narrowed down where the venue was (by traveling up and down every road in the village) and ended up on a dirt track through a wood and of course it was pitch black by now.

At this part in the story we are all tired, frustrated and late to set up so what’s the worst thing that could happen? That’s right, the van got stuck. In the mud. By a river

As random chance would have it, a lone stranger was walking down this abandoned track and told us that he had a JCB. I still can’t believe our luck. 10 minutes later he pulled Chris and half the band out of the mud and we were back to being lost.

Eventually we arrived at the venue which was, as it turns out at the end of the mud track, we could now start to set up. It was a pretty standard gig; tuxedo’s, ball dresses, champagne etc.

Unfortunately the place was filled with the kind of upper class offspring who are so inbred that it’s a good job Mummy and Daddy can pay for their entire existence. I only say this as I was treated to the company of some of these girls as they snuck round the back to slum it with the band. I want to say they talked to us but it’s more accurate to say they talked at us.

On the plus side they were really into the music and when it came to Chris shouting; “do you want to hear a trumpet solo”, I got a chorus of “yeah!” – which was cool. But ideally not the best time to have my wireless mic cut out on me (I’ll be making a future post on the wireless mic). To say that particular solo was good wouldn’t be accurate, to say it was loud to make up for the dead mic would be much more accurate.

Even though we had a few disasters that evening I think we all had a good time. The audience loved us and it was nice to see all the guys from the Shades since being back from Abu Dhabi.

The Shades

The first gig I ever did with them I didn’t even have to play a note. About 4 years ago my good pal and sax player at college, Neil, asked if I fancied recording a promotional DVD for a group he played with. That’s how I ended up in this situation:

Thanks Neil!!! (On the left)

They guys had already recorded all the audio in the studio so it was a simple job of miming.

However, anyone who knows me will know how much I hate seeing badly mimed instruments on TV or in movies so whilst the camera crew were taking shots of the other side of the band Neil was teaching me and cramming the trumpet lines into my head. The whole evening was a good laugh and the band were great fun. A month later I got a call to do a proper gig with them and I’ve been their regular trumpet players since.

The Abu Dhabi Gig Brief

Chris Poole (aka boss man) and the Shades have been going out and playing new years gigs in Dubai for a few years now but they’ve been going as a smaller version of the band. This year they went with a 3-piece horn section, 3 backing singers and a percussionist on top of their regular line up.

It’s the first time I’d been round that side of the world and the furthest from the UK that I’ve played so far but I was looking forward to the gig. All I knew was that we were playing at the Emirates Palace Hotel for new years, were staying at a 5 star hotel and that Shakira was playing on the other side of the palace. Not to forget that we had about 20 dancers going out there to perform with us. Cool hey?!

The Journey

Knowing very little about what was going on or how these things have worked in the past I wasn’t entirely sure how we were going to get a lorry full of equipment to Abu Dhabi. I knew that my trumpet was exactly the right size to go on the plane (per. the specifications in the MU handbook) but baring in mind that my trumpet was the smallest instrument in the band I had no idea what anyone else was doing.

As the guys began to arrive I saw Andy (keys player) who told me that he and Chris had already taken the kit, PA, lights and desk out there already. “Job Done” I thought… and then Matt McCloud arrived….
Matt and his 30,000 pieces of percussion.

That along with Andy’s keyboard (which weighed more than a family) and the guitars it seemed that we had little problem. We Spent the better part of 2 hours in our fast track queue which had been opened especially for us, my favorite part were the pompous couples who thought they’d spotted a cheeky way to skip their queue, joined ours and then realize their big mistake.

Chris handled the situation well though. Personally I would have loved to see him explain that the guy who had booked us for the gig was the same guy who owns Etihad (the airline we were flying with) and then walk down the check in desk pointing at the staff saying; “Fired, Fired…. Fired….. … … Fired.”

A threat of having to pay £1600 extra for our gear, 2 hours and 4 security checks later we were through to the flight. But explain this to me: You aren’t allowed to take a bottle of water on the plane with you. Neil had to throw away his tiny screw drivers in his sax case and they even made half the band remover their shoes to check for “sharps”. Fair enough for the tight security. But when lunchtime comes on the plane, why do they give you metal knives and forks anyway??!

Six and a half hours later we arrived in Adu Dhabi. And what a greeting …..

to be continued

The gig at the Palace was amazing and the venue incredible. When I’ve had chance to swap photos with the rest of the Shades I’ll be posting all about it. It’s hard to believe that in a month I’ve played in Berlin, Prague, Salzburg, Luxembourg and Abu Dhabi. From freezing around Europe in the back of a motor-home to staying in a 5 star hotel, getting tanned by the pool and bringing in the new years for the capital of the UAE. It’s is quite a busy month.

So from today I’ll be resuming my normal post frequency for a brand new year.

Here I go. Off to Abu Dhabi for my New Years Eve gig at The Emirates Palace Hotel.
I’m finally packed, I’ve dug out the hard-case for my Callichio and I’ve removed anything that can be used to make a bomb, such as water bottles and deodorant, from my hand luggage. Yet I’m allowed to take my trumpet onto the plane with me.
You’d have thought that it would be more dangerous to bash someone with a blunt piece of metal than a bottle of water but I’m not complaining as it’s not traveling in the hold!!

I’ve packed my camera to snap lots of photos so that I can bring back some cool stuff to show you.

I’m swinging by Neil’s at 4:30am so I’m turning in nice and early. As always there’s lots to see on my site (documentaries, animations, music samples and podcasts) so I hope it’ll keep you entertained until I get back.

Matt Returns on the 2nd of January… until then, Happy New Years!