Autumn Tony

Once again its time its time to dust off the scrolls of parchment, take the quill, sharpen the nib, dip it in ink and write some more stuff - I speak metaphorically of course - like everybody else, I'm sitting at a flickering screen and tapping at a crumb caked keyboard but still I feel that one can writing in the spirit of Alexandre Dumas. After all - did the Count of Monte Cristo blog? - did the Marquis de Sade podcast? - I think not…

The Ukes have returned from a successful two week run at the Edinburgh festival which was fun but tiring. Edinburgh at Festival time is full of young people who are thrilled to be in show business and make sure that everybody knows it. I did see some good shows and can highly recommend the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players who played at the same theatre as us- they manage to be both wholesome and weird - quite a combination. Playing the exactly the same show every night is not easy, audiences are enthusiastic which is great, but I don't know how actors do the same play every night without going nuts!

Its worth mentioning that the new Ukes website has gone up with a visitor book and CD's, DVD's for sale - if you haven't seen it have a look at www.ukuleleorchestra.com you'll find it quite an improvement on the old one.

I've also been posting some of my songs on various American web sites; one of the more interesting of these sites is garageband.com which has been by endorsed by Sir George Martin no less (of Beatles fame). The idea is to post up a song for a nominal fee and then it will be reviewed by your 'peers' (usually some teenager from Minnesota who only likes Slayer) and then, if its considered good enough, it will enter their charts. Why not pop along there and listen to a song and post a review?! - (for Gawd's sake please try to be positive!)

I have found this process quite addictive and in a strange way it has parallels with what I imagine its like to visit a brothel - you take along your song (libido) pay your money and hope that you get a tawdry sort of 'love' at the end of it all. More often you are roundly abused and jeered and you'll skulk away shamefaced - however my song Easy Listening Man from 'Mainly Manly Music' is currently nestling in the second round of the Comedy charts and is doing well - lets hope it keeps doing "business".

Tony's Archives:

Naked As Nature Intended
Old Tony Penultimate Video Resurfaces
Berlin and the Best of America
Tony and the Faerie Queen
Tony Visits a Brothel
Bull Fighting The Penultimate Way
Tony and the Tax Man
Soppy and the Sentimentals  
Tony meets Alfred Molina
Autumn Tony
Naughty Tony