Hi Folks

I was in Glasgow last week for a one-man show on the Thursday night. I sang three songs in all: 'Welcome To My World' (Jim Reeves), 'Ring Of Fire' (Johnny Cash) and 'Piano Man' (Billy Joel but with re-written lyrics specially for the occasion by me). There is a video of me singing 'Welcome To My World' here: Welcome To My World I hope you enjoy it!

I flew out to Glasgow on the Saturday and, although it was not a paid job, I did not have to pay for anything from when I left until I got back last Saturday. I stayed in a private apartment with the producer and his assistant / girlfriend, who normally live in Sweden but had arrived the day before me to set up the show and film it. They still had not heard me sing so they took me to a karaoke club on the Monday night which was a real dive with ugly bouncers on the door, rude bar staff and an ignorant kj (he refused to let me sing 'Fever' because he said it was a 'girl' song and a man is not allowed to sing a 'girl' song! Idiot! He obviously knew nothing at all about music). I really felt very uncomfortable but was eventually persuaded to sing one number in front of such an ugly crowd. Still, the show must go on so I sang 'House Of The Rising Sun' (The Animals), which was at least very well received by everybody. The kj's song list was only about 3,000 tracks in any case (I have over 10,000) and only listed by song title and not by artist. I got so nervous with the slow development of preparation that I really was not very happy that I only got to start practising on the Wednesday for the show on Thursday. The show was a 'one of' to be filmed live and then shown for a month in the venue so I wanted it all to be right - only one shot at it. The owner of the venue has a mailing list of 1500 but forgot to email them to let them know so, whereas we expected 100-200 people, we only got about 35 or so. The stage was not even built until Wednesday evening, I had to organise the hire of my costume and had problems finding a laptop to borrow to load my backing tracks onto. I insisted on a headset mic because the show would consist of a mix of singing and a hypnosis demonstration that was pre-written as a play. The sound check only happened an hour before the start and I did not meet the guy I was to hypnotise until 10 minutes before the show began. Talk about 'last minute' - there was not even a dress rehearsal. For a 'one man show' I was really very unimpressed by the lack of professionality for the whole event - after all, it was my show that was on the line ultimately...

The Saturday before I flew to Glasgow, my music laptop wiped its own hard drive between leaving home and setting up prior to a 9 hour DJ/KJ gig. It was a nightmare but I borrowed a laptop and managed to get through it. Thank God my tracks are all on a USB HDD. As a result, I had to fight for payment. Janine, my sponsor / girlfriend, found me somebody to repair the music laptop and then ordered me and paid for a top-of-the-line new laptop from the UK, which arrived while I was in Glasgow. The old one isn't back yet and I have to get the new one set up prior to a wedding gig on Saturday.

Janine flew out to Glasgow specially to see the show and is now considering promoting me and producing me here somehow.

Enjoy the video above and if you are on FaceBook, link up with me (just search for 'Heathcote-Parker'). If you are not on FaceBook yet, I strongly recommend you join - it is a great marketing tool.

Apologies for not having been very active lately but my life is a complete mess at the moment. As to when I will be really active on PG again, I still don't know.

Sam

Follow That Dream

Sam
Karaoke King

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Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what