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Author: John Maul

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Thanks to my good friend and Musical Director, Clive Dunstall, I’ve been helping with the preparation and arranging of orchestral charts for the upcoming Matt Goss UK tour. The 80s pop icon will be having a full swing big band with a complement of string players so the production looks to be a very impressive sounding one. For more information click on the link - https://www.mattgosstour.com

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I’m looking forward to performing with 80s singer, Limahl (originally from Kajagoogoo) in September and his band. We’ll be appearing at Butlins Minehead on Sunday 18th September and Butlins Skegness on the following Saturday the 24th. Whilst this isn’t the first time I have worked with Limahl, it will be a chance to perform a full hour’s set of songs from the 80s with him rather than the usual short Festival sets. 

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It has been awhile since my last update but I’m glad to say this is not because of a lack work. On the contrary, life is definitely getting busier again, especially with the gigs I’m pleased to say.

From May onwards The Dire Straits Experience have continued to see their schedule get fuller. There was a short trip to France with 3 shows in Rouen, Caen and Angers. We visited Madeira in June. I took a two week holiday break from mid July only to return in August with more gigs in Majorca, Switzerland and Germany. The big tour is coming up in September  with 14 shows in France starting in Provence and finishing in Toulouse. 

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I’m glad to say some normality has finally returned to gigging life, albeit slowly and cautiously.

The Dire Straits Experience have at last been busy. March included a two week tour of France with no less than 11 shows, all with fantastic audiences, food and hospitality. After a brief 3 day respite back home we then had a gig in Prague followed by two in Austria , again fabulous audiences. And just last weekend we performed at the Magma Art Venue in Tenerife.  Coming up is this month is the Azores, Finland and Germany. So it’s good to be back and seeing living breathing audiences, even if wearing face masks. Here’s to the promise of a good and busy year in 2022. 

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I was delighted to be asked by pianist Jill Morton to compose and arrange five new Christmas tunes for her December Musical Advent calendar. Having been a while since I’d put pencil to manuscript, I cant deny it was challenging getting those creative cogwheels turning again. But I’m pleased with the end results and honoured that Jill recorded all five pieces for her YouTube channel. You can hear them on the following links below - (sheet music is also available from my ScoreExchange.com page)

All Aboard the Reindeer Express - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mb3n6jinGI

The Naughty Elf from Swaffham - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2s7LoPrvj4&t=95s

The Northern Lights - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bufmldkJY7s

A Winter’s Dawn Over Loch Etive - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnecREEs0Jg

In addition to these four newly composed pieces I also did an arrangement of one of my favourite Christmas tunes by David Foster - 

Grown Up Christmas List - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9404MnwqG0

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It was a pleasure to finally have a mini tour of 4 gigs with The Dire Straits Experience in Israel.  A very welcome October journey to the sun staying in the beautiful Sheraton hotel on the Tel Aviv beach. Understandably no one is taking any chances with the Covid situation which meant no less than 5 separate PCR tests over the space of our visit. But we had wonderfully enthusiastic audiences every night and some amazing food. That’s it now for the band until January when we’ll be visiting Finland. But nice to experience a glimpse of normality after some very tough times for all. 

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Thanks to the pandemic , I’ve been encouraged to look for other outlets for my musical pursuits. I’m glad to say that my ‘Piano Life’ You Tube channel has gained a little momentum albeit modest by some standards. But the purpose of the channel has really been a flag-waving exercise and, as and when time permits, I shall continue with content. One notable video is my piano cover of ‘We Bought A Zoo’ which has now reached 2.4K views. If you have a moment, please take a look and listen.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz4fo9hDSdIpIvOBFK2qEnQ/videos

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Welcome back after what feels like a very surreal and enforced sabbatical. I’m pleased to say that glimmers of normality appear to be returning.

A few weeks ago I experienced my first proper gig in over 18 months at a beautiful setting at the Festival in Vilar les Dombes just north of Lyon. The Dire Straits Experience visited France on a tour bus, some 13 of us (musicians and crew). 

Whilst the gig was an absolute pleasure and the French audience was amazing , the journey across the English channel was somewhat challenging. Sadly the combination of Covid travel restrictions and more annoyingly , the Post Brexit restrictions , make this kind of journey very troublesome . But nonetheless  we made it. A relief after having no less than 6 gigs since June cancelled due to the aforementioned troubles We hope to be visiting Israel in October for a four date tour that was postponed in August. Fingers crossed this will go ahead. Watch this space !

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I've been overwhelmed by the positive and enthusiastic response to my music video - an arrangement of ' I Heard It Through The Grapevine'. I was so grateful to the musicians who agreed to participate to support the music charity - 'HelpMusicians.Org.Uk'. We've had nearly 8000 thousand views on Facebook and nearly 200 'shares'.  The video was produced by my neighbour Adrian Kingston and the track mixed by Nick Pugh of Session Corner. I've now uploaded it to my YouTube page - please visit and give it a thumbs up ! Or subscribe to my channel if the mood grabs you ! Many Thanks

 

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With plenty of free time available due to the Corona Virus situation I’m pleased to be getting on with some new ventures at home. A particularly exciting one for me is the creation of my own channel on YouTube called ‘Piano Life’. For ages I’ve wanted to create some educational videos for students and alike, so I've been learning Apple’s video editing software, Final Cut Pro, and have already started uploading some new videos. Please take a look when you have a moment. I’ve tried some different approaches to learning piano and also included some of the ‘Pianist Magazine’ videos I did for Roland a few years ago. I welcome constructive comments and requests if you have any. Many thanks.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz4fo9hDSdIpIvOBFK2qEnQ