Anyway, I managed to play two sets in the end. One was with the band on the main stage, then I did a solo acoustic slot on the aptly named Acoustic Stage as another artist had pulled out. Always nice to do some stuff on my own, grab the attention and show off a bit. Only thing is I can’t blame any mistakes on Ian the drummer.

The band is gelling well and we’re going to sit down in the next couple of weeks and work out the cunning plan for the next 12 months. On the agenda is recording, sorting better gigs and ‘any other business’ Recording is going to be exciting, as I haven’t done any for almost 2 years now. We have 3 new songs and more on the way, and we will release each as a single before the album finally appears when we can finish doing it.

It is past my bedtime, so I shall dash. I promise to write a much more amusing blog next time…
Stedders
x

Win Two Of These (Signed!)

WIN 2 TICKETS TO A GIG OF YOUR CHOICE & 2 SIGNED CD SINGLES OF “MIDDLE OF THE SEA”!

How do you win this marvellous prize, I hear you ask out loud… Well, all you need to do is head to the Facebook fanpage and guess the England v Algeria score for the match on Friday, and the first England goalscorer (as a tie-break). It’s as simple as that!

If you win, you get two copies (signed, no less!) of the rare CD Single ‘Middle Of The Sea’ and two free tickets to a gig of your choice which you need to claim by the end of 2010. That’s 6 months, so plenty of choice.

On the Facebook fanpage, as well as the usual stuff, there are exclusive videos and most of all some fascinating chit chat between me, you lot, and you lot and you lot, if you get my drift. It’s more of a coffee-bar than a Fan Page. Without the coffee. Or the bar.

Anyway, to head over to the competition click HERE. See you there!! Make sure you add yourself too.
Stedders

The Barn is a pretty unique place. It’s like a funky coffee bar/pub. If you haven’t been and are in the area, it is worth a trip anytime even if you are on your own with a book.

It’s free entry Saturday, see some of you there!

Stedbucks is the Andy Stedman Facebook Fanpage, with a difference. Instead of bombarding people with boring event invites and status updates of gigs, at Stedbucks (irony intended) it realyl is a place to go and chinwag/banter online about anything really. The internet has become a place where bands just throw out a million ads or event invites, but we wanna get old fashioned. Yes – we want people who like our music to chat about anything with each other and with us.

Recent topics of conversation have included ‘which famous person should be PM’, is Stedman ‘in the closet’ (answer = no!), an attempt (failed) to write a song line by line with everyone pitching in, and many more.

I’ll stick up some vids (there are already some amusing ones up there, as well as live gig footage), and you can listen to the songs in full on there too. Get over there, add yourself as a fan, recommend it to others and make it the place to escape from the boredom of whatever it is you are doing, even if just for 5 minutes here and there.

See you there, mine’s a hot choc with whipped cream.

Back On The Road

This Summer sees us heading out on the road to various lovely places so we can sing,  indulge in some stage banter, party and sell the album of course! I’ll be updating the gigs page as soon as any are confirmed, and at the moment we have 7 gigs/festies for your ears and eyes, with more to come.

You can check them out on the GIGS page of the website, so go get your diary/open up your phone calendar and get them down!

To find out more detail (address, info etc) go to our Facebook Fanpage and add yourself as a ‘fan’ (go on, hunour us!)

For those of you who know my band, it’s hello again to Ian (drums) and Dan (bass), but a fond farewell to Paul (guitar). We have a new fella on the gee-tar, a good friend of mine Mr Luke ‘Shredderz’ Edney. Edderz is 18, and has the musical maturity of a legend, in my opinion. Not only that, he can do some fiesty backing vocals and also indulges in onstage banter. We were doing the tender and exquisite (ahem) first verse to ‘The Butterflies‘ in Sussex recently, and I look across and see Edderz miming the actions to the words, a cheeky look on his face. Welcome Luke, and just you wait…!

So what can you expect from our new gigs? Well, we’re still looking for a cool pianist/keyboardist, so if you know anyone. However we’re working on new stuff, and in an hour set you can expect about 8 from the album, 2 or 3 older ones that aren’t on there, plus 2 or 3 brand spanking new ones. To reveal a lil’ snifter of info, one new one is called “I’m The Glue (in the hullabaloo)“, and aother is called “So You Think…”

2009 was a pretty fristrating year, musically, to be honest. Obviously snapping my finger tendon was a bit of a git, but the disappointement of the Hong Kong/China tour falling through (which had I been on I wouldn;t have busted my finger playing dodgeball). More than that though, my tour to Canada in March last year was the final straw for me. Having been promised a lot by my management at that time, only to realise half of it was bullshit, and the other half wishful thinking, was a bitter pill to swallow. A lot of effort and investment went into Canada, and frankly I learnt that sometimes to get stuff done, you have to do it yourself, so at the moment we’re managing ourselves until we find someone who we can really trust and who is a doer and is passionate about the music. I met some great people there, and would love to return sooner rather than later, but this time with it properly sorted.

Other than that, I have been spending a lot of time on my new business venture, Dodgeball UK. Go check it out at www.dodgeballuk.com… It’s a lot of fun, and hard work too, and provides me with another platform to be creative and also put my business mind to the test. I watch Dragon’s Den a lot  (how f*ckin cool is James Caan), and I reclkon I can do this entrepreneurial thang! This time next year, Rodney…

My other big change is that I am back living in London, Putney to be precise. I love the buzz and the sense of possibilities, but on the other hand it can be a lonely city, but it is up to me to sort that out.

That’s all for now. Please join my Facebook Fan Page if you haven’t already, I am often on there having a bit of banter. You can find it at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Andy-Stedman/9285419524

Cheers
Stedders
x

I love house concerts, they are great fun. I either play totally acoustic, or very quietly amped up, and I can do a mix of my own tracks with a few covers as well for you all to sing along to. You sort out the food, drinks, and the guests and let me know when and where… I don’t charge an arm and a leg (more like a fingernbail and a toe) because I love doing them. Wherever you are, let me know and we can sort something out. Hell yeah

Drop me a line: andy@andystedman.com

Click to check out videos and gig clips, and see what other stuff I am into as well. Feel free to upload any footage you stalkingly took of me to your You Tube account, but make sure I look at least ok!

Ah, the book of face. Become a fan, chat with myself and other fans, all 3 of them. See who else is coming to gigs, indulge in some banter and check out any talent! You know you’re gonna!

Yes, I have the compulsory MySpace, where you can hear a few of the songs in full and do everything else that MySpace does…