So I’m back in blighty after a super fun trip to Frankfurt. As always it does take me a little while to adjust back into normality again and to also stop saying ‘danke’ and ‘Tschuss’ to people, lol.
If you checked out my previous article then you’ll know that my first two days at the show were oodles of fun and that I really had no idea just how enormous the messe is (it’s bloomin’ massive, to say the very least).
Friday Chris and I played on the Schlagwerk stand and they also asked us if we could pop along on Saturday and a couple more sets.
Saturday was the public day so it was a pretty busy one. Mr Chris and I played our little socks off on the Logarhythm stand. Throughout the day we alternated between Chris’s set, my set and then a jam with both of us featuring Chris on guitar and me on Cajon and stomp box.
Here’s a little vid of me playing on the Logarhythm stand:
At about 2pm we mozied on over to the Schlagwerk stand for some more jamming action. This time I also managed to persuade Davide (who was working on the Schlagwerk stand) to join in with us and lots of other random peeps did too! Before long we had a lovely little gaggle of people all getting down to our funky grooves.
Giles filmed our little jam on my Flip so you can take a look. I was playing on the wonderful cajon kit they’d set up and it was totally awesome to play – yay!
Later on that day our second Schlagwerk jam was equally cool. Half way through I was chuffed to bits when from out of no-where Conny Sommer lept onto some percussion drums and also joined in!
Afterwards I got to chat to him and he was such a nice guy and fascinating to talk to. He tests the cajons that Schlagwerk make and gives them feedback on each one for things that need changing. He’s been playing for 17 years (so he’s like a jedi master of the percussion world) and was really open to me asking various questions about playing and techniques, very cool indeed. He also gave me a copy of his tution book which me being me I’ve already started getting stuck into.
I also met a few other peeps in the company who were also stupidly nice and had bags of enthusiasm. At the end of that day one of the Schlagwerk peeps came up to me and said that he wanted me to choose a cajon from the Schlagwerk stand and take it home with me, which I was totally not expecting and it was a seriously lovely surprise!
It was a little bit like walking around the animal shelters – there were so many lovely cajons all smiling at me on the stand shouting ‘Pick me! Pick me!’ but as always my heart ruled my head and I had to choose the cajon that I’d been playing all week as I don’t think I would have been happy to choose a different one and leave it behind lol
So… I’d like to introduce you to a new member of my musical family – this is Kartha everybody:
All in all it was a wonderful experience that I’m so very grateful I was part of. I have to say a massive thank you to Giles for tagging along and sussing out the Frankfurt tram system as I think it’s safe to say I wouldn’t have found the messe (or even our hotel for that matter!).
I got to meet a ton of really cool people, all as obsessed with music as me (well, almost lol). I was also offered an endorsement by G7th, who make those very nifty capos that you might well have seen me using. The head of the company (Nick) is a super nice guy and I’m very grateful indeed that he was interested in endorsing me.
One lady in particular who I got chatting to was an industrial folk singer/songwriter called Jordan Reyne. She’s originally from New Zealand but currently lives in Hamburg. I checked out her tunes on my laptop while I was there and they are mighty fine indeed and the vids are superb. Here’s my fav:
Anyways I spy some sunshine so I’m going to make the most of it and while I’m at it possibly catch up on some zeds too. Hope you have a fan-dabby-dozy week and I’ll leave you with a few pics from the show.
it’s meee!
Chris Woods doing his funky thang)
Me playing some tunes
getting ready for some jamming on the Schlagwerk stand
Me with Conny & Olimpia from Schlagwerk
Me with Detlef from Schlagwerk
Go team Logarhythm! Me with Howard and Chris
(main image: Katie Marie Photo taken by Lisa (Indigo Blue Photography) and edited by Sandra (Soul Photography))
