If April, as the great poet T. S. Eliot maintained, is the cruelest month, then March, for me, was its polar opposite–blessed, munificent, generous to a fault. But as that other great poet, Bruce Springsteen, has observed, “you can’t walk away from the price you pay.”
Only in my case, he should have sung, “you can’t run away.” Continue reading
Cutting-edge lighting? Check.
Laser array? You bet.
State of the art animation? Of course.
And overzealous security guards? Oh, go on if you must.
I’ve been blogging for over a decade now. My first attempt, which included the initial incarnation of the Brief Biography of God, appeared on my MySpace page around 2007. I immediately fell in love with the medium–it was the perfect vehicle for me to share my writing with the world. Not that the world needed it or, outside of a few friends, even cared about it.
Two years later, and everyone, including myself, had migrated over to Facebook. My readership, such as it was, declined to almost zero (I was never very good at picking a winner). But that was OK, because I had bigger fish to fry, and a new platform to showcase my writing.
In 2009, I started City Boy, my record label, and a year later I began to see the potential of blogging as a way to enhance my visibility as a professional and to drive traffic to the company website. In between the press releases, Thoughts from the Guv’nor, as the blog was called, featured reviews and interviews with thought leaders in the music business and beyond. Some of those posts now reside in the From the Archives section of this site.
In December 2012 as City Boy was nearing the end of its lifespan, I ventured over to WordPress and began this little corner of the interwebs. I started with a couple of posts detailing my journey to defeat Type II diabetes by getting off my couch and working my way up to my first ever marathon in Toronto in October of that year. At the time, Feats of the Flat-Footed Fox–as the blog was then know–was only going to document my running exploits.
For the next two years, that’s all I wrote about. But I really didn’t pursue it with a lot of energy–I managed a post a month in 2013, and a post every two months the following year. I knew I had a lot more to write about, but it wasn’t until January 2015 that I finally figured it out.
It was then I decided to write about the three things that really interested me–running and music, of course, but also matters of spirituality. I immediately rebranded. I bought my own domain and I’ve never looked back. Posting was more frequent and traffic increased threefold over 2013 and almost doubled again the following year.
So, to celebrate the one-hundredth post here at brucepegg.com, I’ve compiled my own top ten list of favorite posts. And to all you fans, pedants and bean counters out there, yes, I am fully aware this is post number 101. But, as has been the case so often in the last twenty years, Chuck Berry got in the way and beat me to it.
And if you don’t like it, sue me–I’m celebrating now.
It’s been a week since we got the news that Chuck Berry had finally passed away at the age of 90. The news was broken to me a little after six on that Saturday evening by a softly spoken Scotsman named Paul Coletti, who announced in a very calm, gentle way that he was calling from the BBC in London and had I heard the news?
I told him I hadn’t, wondering all the time how the hell he got my phone number.
“Well, Mr. Pegg,” he continued in his reassuring burr, “I hate to be the one to break it to you, but news is coming over the wires that Chuck Berry has died in St. Charles, Missouri.”
I’d like to say I was overcome by emotion. I’d like to say that tears were rolling down my face and I sank to the floor in disbelief. Except, that’s not what happened.
No, my reaction was far more pragmatic. “Shit,” I remember thinking to myself. “My life just blew up.” Continue reading
In this second part of his interview with Rasmus Bom Anderson, The Guv’nor asks Ras to get technical and discuss monitor mixing, the benefits of in-ear monitors and how singers should approach soundchecks. Continue reading
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.” Matthew 17:1-9
Regular visitors to these pages will know that The Guv’nor makes no bones about being a big fan of Rasmus Bom Anderson. Like everyone else, The Guv’nor first became aware of the Danish-born vocalist upon hearing Diamond Head’s 2016 album Diamond Head, and he’s enjoyed singing the singer’s praises at every opportunity since.
Following DH’s triumphant 2016 North American tour, in which the band played twenty-six shows in thirty-two days, including a run of fourteen consecutive shows without a day off, The Guv’nor sat down with Ras to talk about how singers cope with the demands of performing live.
In this, the first part of the interview, Ras discusses the pros and cons of formal vocal training and offers some survival tips for singers on the road. Continue reading
