Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace

WOW! What can I say? It’s the best since Colour And The Shape! I’m so blown away that I want to turn up all of my amps and break the windows with some N O I S E !! Awesome guitars, awesome vocals, awesome drums and yes there’s bass as well. Well done Uncle Dave, it made me smile and bounce…

Update on my Gear

It’s been a while since I’ve written and since some folk are actually interested in what gear I play. Ok, you asked... On the electric front I play a G & L Tribute S500, with hand wired G & L Custom Shop 8000 wound humm-buckers with a coil tab switch between the pick-up selector and the volume knob (they look like single coils, but they’re not), my Hagstrom Deluxe-F, which is just gorgeous and my preferred acoustic is still my Babicz Dreadnought. As far as amps are concerned I mostly play small, all-valve Fender amps, in my case a Champion 600. I love to drive this little baby. It only has 6 Watts and when I’m driving my Grainger 4 x 12 cab it just sounds awesome. Oh - and in the studio I play more often than not my old Pignose. More on my gear at a show near you next spring. Hang loos Possums!...

Welcome to the Tobster

Toby arrived here around 3 weeks ago. He’s a seven month old Jack Russell puppy and he is positively adorable. Toby has now really become part of the family and Miles loves him. Anna is indifferent and Jana and I are eating out of his hands, I mean paws. If any of you out there are experienced with Jack Russell then get in touch by writing a comment. In the meantime here are a couple of photos of his royal highness. Hang loose Possums...

Coming soon...

Hi there folks, it’s been a while. I went travelling a bit and below are 2 out of a series of white wolves we took in the Czech Republic. I won’t say exactly where so you don’t all go there at once, but I can safely say that it was absolutely amazing. More about this soon…

Photos From South Moravia

We're Going By Bus!

Nope- we’re not going to spend that much money on a plane ticket to get to czech. We decided to travel the old fashioned way, by coach. It will be tough going to London in a coach because British coaches are BAD!!! But once we’re in London, we’ll take a Czech student bus and they’re excellent(http://www.studentagency.cz/). It will be fun to see parts of Europe that way. I haven’t been on a long haul journey on a bus for years. It’s usually; car to airport, into plane, out of plane, taxi to destination, or taking another plane to wherever. It’s quite mad what goes on pollution wise with the air travelling these days and I’m glad we’re doing it this way. Ask me how it went when we’re back. See you later Possums...

Trying To Get To Europe & New Alto

It’s incredible how difficult it is to find a reasonably priced to Europe from Britain these days. I can fly to Florida for £85 return per person, but have to shell out over £500 from Edinburgh to Prague in October. AAAARRRGGGHHH!!!! This is the day and age of cheap air travel. Yeah, and my Auntie Mimie flies fighter jets! What’s the story with these cheap airlines?! Last year I flew to Brno in the Czech Republic for £30 - £40, this time I’ll have to sell my mountain bike. Anyway, it’s been a while since I wrote, cause I’ve been busy playing and trying out new saxophones. Great stuff, and a very cruel kind of confusion you can do to yourself. Here’s my new horn, it’s an Earlham Chicago Bronze and it’s absolutely beautiful. I play it with a Selmer C* or an Otto Link 6* rubber mouth piece, and I get the most warm sound I ever heard of an Alto. Even Miles likes the new horn, which is something because he always looks at me slightly puzzled when I’m trying new licks. – Peace, rice and vegetables Possums x

Autumn is coming

Whoopee! I got a new desk! No - not a new mixing desk - a new desk to work on. In fact it’s a very old desk, my friend Chiara had this and I always loved it. It’s almost 2 metres long so it just fits in my living room window. It’s white, well it used to be white, but I don’t care, it’s great! Autumn is certainly moving in here and the days are getting shorter. I like the light though. I’m so lucky, cause our flat’s so incredibly bright and the feeling here is beautiful. I’m getting ready to record now and I’m working on new songs, so hang in there possums…

Being in love is great!

You see, when Julie left me, I really didn’t think I would get into another relationship in a hurry. Things change though and now after just over a year I have a partner and we’re living together. Jana and I met last December in her home town in Brno. We met at an Irish session and as soon as she walked in I thought that something big had happened. It was my birthday and I introduced myself to her with: “Hi there, I’m Uwe, it’s my Birthday, and I want a birthday kiss. She gave me a little peck on the cheeks and I was happy. I saw her again the next day at a Scottish Ceilidh in Brno and I was just besotted. Unfortunately, she took off to the bar with some geezer, who was married and wanted a bit at the side, and I only saw her for a few dances that night. (Oh and she told the geezer to take a hike) After I got back to Edinburgh, I started calling her, and we spoke pretty much every day since the 16th Dec 2006 and after me visiting her a few times in Brno and her visiting me a few times here, we got together, and her parents supported her in changing to a British college here and now we’re a team.
Last night, we went for a cycle on the old hospital grounds just around the block from where we live. It was beautiful and I just realised how much I appreciate our union. We’re a good team. Jana loves my kids, and they love her, and we both like similar activities. So to all of you possums who are alone. Maybe you’re solo, maybe you’ve broken up with someone. Don’t give up and never think you won’t find anybody else. There are 6 billion people on this planet; you will find somebody for you.

Love & peace Possums

Sinead o'Connor

Hey Possums, I just started to listen again to Sinead O'Connor after a few years of loosing track of her. She's just the most amazing artist on My Space. Check her out!
She's beautiful Possums! I've seldom come across an artist with such honesty and integrity to offer. I wish there were more like her; http://myspace.com/sineadoconnormusic

WHERE'S THE CAT?!

So, the cat… yes, he’s definitely around, because his food was gone in the middle of the night. What a weirdo! I could understand that he disappears as soon as he arrives here, which apparently is quite normal, but no - not our cat! He comes here, eats, has a few cuddles and then buggers off to hide, God knows where...
Maybe he doesn’t like our smell?! If there are any cat psychologists out there, get in touch, because I’m not quite sure what to do next. He must be needing the toilet at some stage… Well he hasn’t used his litter tray, so no doubt we’ll find some nice presents of the smelly nature soon. I read on the internet that cats sometimes disappear for weeks, even months at the time. A lady in the cat home told me that in our old tenement buildings the flats are sometimes connected by cavities in the walls where the floorboards are installed. If that’s the case then hopefully he’s using somebody else’s cavities as toilet. Wow - that’s nasty! I just hope he’s ok. Keep it up Possums.

Houdini – because it suits him

So there we go, we have a new member in our family. He is a 2 year old ginger boy-cat, and he is very shy. His previous caretaker called him China, but I think he’ll be Houdini from now on. That’s because he has disappeared since last night. He was cuddling up to me in our bed and the next thing I knew when I woke was that he’s in hiding. Apparently it’s quite normal for cats to hide in the new place when they’re re-homed. I’ve even lifted the border boards in our kitchen but no sign of him. I hope he’s ok.

Dreams, dreams, dreams...

I was chatting away to Jana the other day. She asked me about my dreams, and I hadn’t thought about it much lately, so after a while of deliberation I came up with my oldest dream. I would like to write a book (or a series of books), and I would like to buy a Fisher sailing boat and live on it for at least 4-6 months every year. I know, it’s cold and all that in Edinburgh, but we’re also on the Gulf Stream and get a lot of warm weather fronts right past our coastal line. I don’t need much luxury and the ability to lift anchor whenever we feel like it and travel somewhere, really appeals to me… The boat to the left is one of my dreams, a Fisher 34, although if we wanted to live on her, we'd really need a 37 foot boat, so a Fisher 37 it would need to be.

Have you ever thought about living on a ship in Europe? If so let me know, and write a comment, because I’d like to know. If you have actually researched the subject - even better. It scares me a little but I think that it’s a risk worth taking.

I remember when I was still together with Julie, we went on a holiday down to Cornwall, to stay with her aunt and uncle in Falmouth. We attended a sailing taster course which was terrifyingly brilliant. It was so exciting being blown about on a 14” dinghy in the old Cornish harbour. When we got back to the sailing school, the elderly owner’s wife greeted us, looking positively petrified and asking: “You didn’t, did you?...” meaning she thought we’d capsized because we were soaked, and she wondered if indeed we had swam to safety…

For Ginsberg

War-child comes to mind
As you sit there on the stage
Did you really invent flower power
Or did flower power invent you

Your helper is turning the pages
You chant, sing and read
Alone you're still on that stage
Speaking of middle-aged queers

You practice the dharma
You are the philosopher
When we are almost forgetting
You remind us of what

You describe the ways of our times
You return inside yourself
Forgive us for not listening
Thank you for speaking out

(c) 15th Sep 2006 Uwe Bartsch. All rights reserved.

Who wanted to have a band again?!

You know, when I started this idea about having “a band” again, instead of my usual solo stuff, I really thought: “ok I’m in my 40s, really, now all my nightmares with band members should be past” Well – I was wrong. It’s like this… The bass player is playing elsewhere, and if not he’s hanging around with whatever woman comes to see him, the drummer’s just real sweet, tells you what you want to hear, and then buggers off to Spain, whilst the boardist has an identity crisis involving his drug dealer. OH WHAT JOY!!

So now I’m sorting out my material and start recording on my own with some mates who do telesales on the side but are cool duded who have their heart in it. The great thing about that is that I have no idea what we’ll sound like, but that’s cool and I’m excited.

Oh by the way, I just got up listening to Bob Mould’s “Poison Years” – what a brilliant track! Check out his blog; http://modulate.blogspot.com/

See ya later Possums

Ahoj Possums

What a weekend! We got a bike each for Janicka and Miles, and we've been out a bit around the meadows and stuff. Miles is so fast, he's giving his old man a good run for his money. Hey maybe I'm getting old Dudes but it's fun to watch my wee man cycling past me with a huge smile on his face.

Jana is now here for about 2 months and she's finding the weather here challenging, to say the least. The last couple of days have been ok, but boy - did we have a rubbish summer so far.

My album is coming along slowly and I'm not sure if it will be this year, but we'll have to see, and I can only do my best. On a happy note though, I'm so glad that I'm a lot closer to finding my sound. I'll try some Boss pedals, (Eq & Chorus, maybe). I tell you, I used to think that by now I'd have my band finally in shape, but it seems to never end with people's issues and getting the right personnel.

G'day Possums

It's a beautiful day here in Edinburgh and I'm still bumming about in bed trying to get this new blog thing going. I'm just starting to like my guitar sound again and I'm quite humbled about the boys at Sound Control in Edinburgh http://www.soundcontrol.co.uk/ especially Jamie who's been helping me "big time" with my guitar issue(s). Boy that geezer's got patience.

So now I'm playing a Hagstrom Deluxe-F in, wait for it: "Gold Sparkle", which is just about the most ridiculous thing I've seen - EVER!!! But this baby sounds so awesome and it has the most gorgeous neck I have ever played. These guitars where big in the 60s and then disappeared, look at their website http://www.hagstromguitars.com/

I also have a new 4x12 cab, it's a Grainger in red and it sounds great! Together with a couple of pedals this should be me for a bit. More on my gear later.

I'm trying to get rid of this arthritis which has been bugging me since 1994 and I've been pretty much in pain all over for most of the time. If you know of any cures which help with this dreaded disease please let me know. That's it for today... Cheerio Possums x