Why can’t all motorcycle reviews be honest and fun like this one?
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Our livelihood under threat..again!
Interference
I walked into a shop some weeks ago with my wife to buy the de riguer black suit for live shows after my old one finally fell apart and while I was (reluctantly) trying one on the young man who was looking after us asked Emily if I was a teacher in BIMM (did I really look like a teacher?)
She replied I was not and told him what I do and as I was at the till paying for same said suit, I gave him a business card whereupon he took a step back, looked at me and said I was one of his biggest inspirations as a Bassist…wow!
He was studying Bass in Bimm and quoted my work on a recording of the late Fergus O’Farrell’s band Interference as being inspirational.. wow again!
I was quite touched to have influenced a player in some way and had to download the album to hear what I had played as he mentioned the song “Vaj Vaj” as a particular one.
Yep, that was me alright, brought back memories of a very enjoyable session which took place behind what was Mother Redcaps I believe, with Dan Dan Fitzgerald at the controls.
Then, a week later I was speaking with Lisa Lambe to congratulate her on her beautiful album “Hiding away” and she reminded me again about that same track and how it had inspired her, so thank you Fergus for having me play on your great songs, it made me realise how important music is in our lives and if we can make someone happy in some small way by what we do then it’s all worth it.
Grammys 2017
So excited to see an album I played on nominated for a Grammy this year.
I had the pleasure of playing Bass on Celtic Woman’s album Destiny which is up for an award in the “Best world music album” section alongside Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Yo Yo Ma & the Silk road ensemble, Anoushka Shankar & Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, very distinguished company indeed. Good luck to all, especially Gavin Murphy for asking me to play on it, thank you.
Cheers, James B
A great artist
It’s always a pleasure when I hear the finished product of a project I ‘ve really enjoyed being involved in.
Johnny Mc Evoy is one our great artists and songwriters and it was great to work with him and the team of Bill Shanley, Jeff Young, Martin Ditcham and yours truly.
The Beezer is back..well nearly!
This was my first “Big Bike”… a while ago :-), a 1968 BSA 441 Victor.
The compression ratio on this single cylinder engine was so high I couldn,t kick start it with my slight 5’6″ frame and so had to run down the road and jump on the saddle while releasing the clutch in 2nd. gear to get the beast started.
It was loud, it leaked oil everywhere but great fun to ride until one day whilst riding to Sligo from Dublin with my good friend Mark Heather on the pillion, the engine decided to explode internally and leave us on the side of the road near Mullingar 😦
No parts being readily available for BSAs as the company had closed, I had had to scrap the 441, so sad (I actually swopped it for a Fiat 124 …shocking!) & so ended my early bike career.
There is an upside to this tale though, the BSA name has been bought by Mahindra, an Indian motorcycle co. and they are going to release a range of new BSAs….starting with (You guessed it) a 500c.c. single!
The Beezer is back 🙂
