Chamonix

It's all done and dusted!  Chamonix will be my destination for one last season before I hang my ski boots up... finally:)  Maybe it's the love of a good woman that's done it, lol:)  It will give me an opportunity to get this site up to somewhere close to being where I'd consider acceptable and then mailing the link to everyone I know who will then hopefully mail it to everyone they know and so on...  I'm really looking forward to that day.  So, I leave these shores on December 7th, arriving the morning of the day after followed by a 16 hour drive to my Mum & Dad's in SW France and finally crossing over to SE France after another mammoth 13 hour slog.  I actually enjoy travelling a lot so I'm looking forward to it.  One last time, one last season, one last mad ski and back here, home!
I'll be writing from Chamonix as there'll be Internet in the flat.  Maybe I'll post a few blogs on life in the mountain rather than here.  Who knows.  Anyway, it's all sorted, first gig December 13th in La Terrasse if anyone can make the trip, lol:)

22/11/08

No it's not!!!!

Agents, agents, agents...

Ok, this is my view and if I'm wrong I'll accept the blame.  Apparently one of the bars I was due to play in over the winter was closed down for one week and heavily fined in the summer for noise problems relating to last winter.  My agent said that the bar was on its last warning, one more complaint and that's it, season over!!
I mailed back saying that to expect me to travel all that way when there's a noose hanging round a bar that holds the key to my main income was too much to ask.  I questioned why the hell it had taken so long for this to come to fruition and found a replacement for my position.  He's a total pro, not just anyone so I replaced like for like I hope, possibly he has even more experience than myself.  Having received another email saying that the problem wasn't as serious and that my money and gigs were "Guaranteed" I surmised that I'd made the right decision in staying here for the winter.  How could I trust a person who says one thing one minute and another thing another?  The emails couldn't have been more polarised, black & white as far as I was concerned.
In the end I was called selfish by the agent.  Everyone else sympathised with me and said they understood why I had no choice.  So, I won't be flying down any mountains this winter unless I go out there on holiday.  I'm actually quite looking forward to the winter crowd here who I prefer to the summer crowd, the Christmas dinner with my adopted family and being warm!!!  It's a shame, I've lost money big time on this thanks to the agent who called me selfish ( ferry, skis, flights for the family, bits of odd looking drum equipment I'd bought for the gig and worse still, a visit to my parents house in SW France ) and I'll miss playing drums with the Juggernaut Of Rock plus the mighty Yeti Lovers and I'll miss the skiing like mad but C'est la vie and life goes on.  Time will tell whether the risk was worth taking or not.

Hopefully see ya in Mollies, Irish Anvil or Lighthouse over the winter!!!