Greetings everyone,

Peter Knight's Newsletter August 2008

Well, on paper it certainly looked as though I was in for a fairly relaxing Summer and I anticipated plenty of Fishing and Golfing opportunities, but as we know things never quite turn out as we expect…….

In this instance, I believe that this has been for the best as my Band 'Gigspanner' has now completed the recording of our first CD. Again, this is pretty typical of a project not turning out exactly as expected, and the whole process certainly took longer than anticipated.

We have actually had the CD mastered twice by different Studios, and much time has been spent deliberating the merits of the two versions.

The upside of the delay during the first and second mastering process meant that we used the window of opportunity presented to record some more material, and we now have what we believe is a much stronger CD as a result. We extend our thanks to the people who purchased advance copies for their patience, and we hope that you think it was worth the wait.

The Artwork gets underway on Friday and the extra tracks are being mastered this week. When that is done, the final copy will be sent to the processing plant for production. Hopefully, we should have the finished product in about six weeks time.

Obviously, I will write to everyone again once the CD is available.

The other major event of the Summer was of course 'Spanfest Day of Folk' which was this year held at Stanford Hall in Leicestershire.

As I am sure many of you are aware, the event had to be rapidly re-organised fairly late in the day due to Park Records not being able to reach a mutually favourable arrangement with our previous Venue, Kentwell Hall.

Along with everyone else who attended last year, I was blown away by the magic of Kentwell Hall and would have been very happy to play there again this year, but there was simply no way forward based on the terms on offer.

It was a brave move by Park to undertake such a last minute venture, and what they put together was an absolutely brilliant day of Music showcasing the various projects of all of the members of Steeleye Span (Buick 6, Whapweasel, Gigspanner, Ken and Ashley, Maddy and Friends and Steeleye of course) plus an outstanding performance by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.

Those who supported the event were well rewarded with glorious weather in idyllic surroundings, and an unexpected bonus…..the owner of Stanford Hall gave impromptu tours of the House, which was generous in the extreme.

It is no secret that it wasn't a particularly well attended event, and discussions will be taking place soon to decide what happens next year, our 40th Anniversary.

The next exciting event in my Diary is the Masterclass I am hosting over the weekend of the 13th and 14th of September in the Cotswolds.

So far we have an interesting group of participants, mostly Fiddle Players of course but not exclusively. They have a good mix of experience between them and I am looking forward to them joining Gigspanner on stage for the evening Gig at Lower Oddington Village Hall.

We still have a couple of places left on the course if there are any latecomers, and Tickets for the Gig are now on sale.

Details of the Masterclass can be found here:

http://www.peterknight.net/masterclass.htm

And details of the Gig are to be found here:

http://www.peterknight.net/tickets.htm

If you haven't done so already, you can listen to a track from our Debut CD here:

http://www.peterknight.net/gigspanner.htm

Following that, we are playing at the Rye Arts Festival on the 17th of September:

http://www.ryefestival.co.uk/pages/event_detail.asp?Event=309

I mentioned in my last newsletter that there were plans afoot to record a long overdue album with Swarb. I am aware that there are a lot of people to whom this would mean a lot and would love to see this become a reality. Well, the news so far is that we spent a weekend together in July discussing the project, how best to approach it and what kind of material we should cover. Obviously we also had a scrape together which is always immensely enjoyable. We have plans to get together again soon, and this is very much 'work in progress'.

As you will know from previous news letters, one collaboration that I find to be especially satisfying is my work with the extraordinary Sax player, Trevor Watts. We have a very special gig to look forward to on the 14th of October when we play the Purcell Rooms at the Southbank Centre, London.

An album by the name of 'Reunion' was recently released by Nick Dart who absolutely loves what we do, and is a live recording of a Gig we played in Islington many years ago now. It consists of one piece of improvised Music that is an hour in length, but we have moved into a different area of late and play shorter, more readily accessible pieces. Try and make this gig if you can.

http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/music/productions/peter-knight-and-trevor-watts-42578

Well, that pretty much wraps up the news for now. Obviously there is much planning taking place with regard to Steeleye Spans 40th Anniversary in 2009, and all we be revealed in due course.

The Feast of Fiddles dates are already in the Diary for 2009 and they are the 28th of March to the 11th of April.

With a Gigspanner Tour in the planning stage for June, and several Festivals lined up already, 2009 is going to be a whirlwind of Musical activity.

I love it :-)

Hope to see you somewhere on the road.

Best Wishes,

Peter Knight.