At the end of November, Emily and Jody greatly enjoyed performing at a retirement community in Bristol followed by a private house concert in Atworth near Bath. Emily then had a major kidney operation in December. She is recovering well.
Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and New Year.
Feeling rather daunted by the prospect of 3 robots cutting up my left kidney in Southmead Hospital at 8.30 tomorrow morning, I am instead focusing on the absolute delight of rediscovering comic duo Flanders and Swann.
My grandparents had their seminal live recording ‘At The Drop Of A Hat’. Donald Swann wrote the music and played the piano, while Michael Flanders (who was in a wheelchair due to polio) wrote the lyrics and was the compere.
I remembered them the other day while having Sunday lunch in Bath with the famous (and infamous) producer/composer/arranger/engineer David Lord who has been recording my vocals for my next album.
Of course I looked them up on Spotify and found them immediately (Spotify, all is forgiven :). David then said he’d known Donald Swann back in the day which I have to say impressed me more than any of his other claims to fame.
Anyway if you need cheering up, check out ‘At The Drop Of A Hat’, particularly the first track ‘A Transport of Delight’, ‘The Gnu Song’, ‘Design For Living’, ‘The Reluctant Cannibal’, ‘Madeira, M’Dear’ and also ‘A Song of the Weather’ (appropriate this time of year).
Hope all’s well in your world.
xx
I love Spotify. Listening to music on it in the past 20 months has saved my life – literally (mainly thanks to playlists from my friend Ecki who I wrote about in my previous blog today).
But today I remembered why I also hate Spotify… I received my ‘2024 Wrapped For Artists’ email.
The summary?
28,000 streams by over 4,000 listeners in 94 countries this year.
How much money have I been paid for that?
Basically sweet FA.
Fans are always wide-eyed and horrified when I tell them that not a penny from their Spotify premium is coming my way. Rather that the major record labels are the ones making a killing.
Fortunately I’m not making music for money. I make music to hopefully make other people feel better, and that makes me feel better. Worth it every time someone listens to one of my songs on Spotify. So please keep listening, but just be wise to the BS that I’m being paid for it.
If you want to support my music apart from coming to my gigs, please head to https://emilymaguire.bandcamp.com/
xx
Having listened to these songs about a million times, I thought it was about time I told you all about the White Star Bulb Company.
The man hiding behind the White Star Bulb Company is actually one of my oldest and dearest friends Richard Ecclestone, otherwise known as Ecki, who in his day job as a professional photographer has taken nearly all the shots for my album covers and other promo material, including the one you’re looking at now on my website.
But aside from being a brilliant rock’n’roll photographer – see https://richardecclestone.com/ – Ecki writes, sings and produces the most stunning songs.
Some of you might have been lucky enough to see him open for me at The Junction in Cambridge and a few other places years ago. He point blank refuses to play live these days (he is incredibly stubborn) so he makes incredibly beautiful albums and puts them out into the digital stratosphere where, not having the funds for pluggers and publicists, they disappear.
As he’s produced so many brilliant albums, just to help you out I’m giving you my top 6 favourite songs (all on Spotify and everywhere else), which I listen to on repeat and are actually the only songs I’ve ever wanted to cover and hopefully will next year when I’m mentally well enough to catch a train to Bury St Edmunds…
‘Rare Sun’
‘Save You’
‘Radar’
‘Under the Dust’
‘Somewhere Beneath’
‘I Can’t Sing That Song Anymore’
xx
Many of my songs are inspired by the lives of other people. Sometimes it’s people I know, sometimes it’s people I don’t.
In 2011, I saw a photograph of a woman called Melanie Reid on the cover of The Times Magazine. She was standing up, locked into some kind of exo-skeleton, holding onto metal bars in the spinal injuries unit of a hospital in Glasgow.
The photograph and its accompanying article by Melanie moved me so deeply I immediately wanted to write about it. I started to think of some kind of analogy and the first thing that came to mind was that of a bird inside a cage.
In the article, Melanie had mentioned very briefly her husband Dave. The second half of the song is his voice. I hope he didn’t think me too presumptuous in imagining it.
When the song was finished my manager sent it to Melanie, who gave it her blessing and so it became the title track of my fourth album. I was absolutely delighted when she called it her ‘candle in the wind moment’ in her column published on the day the album was released.
Melanie’s incredibly inspiring, moving and final ‘Spinal Column’ for The Times Magazine was published today. She says she will continue writing. I can’t wait to read what she writes next.
If you would like to hear the song, it’s here on my website and also on Spotify and other digital music platforms.
xx
Award-winning journalist Melanie Reid mentioned Emily’s song ‘Bird Inside A Cage’ in her final ‘Spinal Column’ in The Times Magazine today. Melanie broke her neck and back in a riding accident nearly 15 years ago which left her in a wheelchair. She began writing Spinal Column from her hospital bed only two weeks after the accident when she had just come off a ventilator.
A photograph of Melanie on the cover of The Times Magazine in 2011 inspired Emily to write ‘Bird Inside A Cage’. It became the title track of her fourth album and was described by Melanie in her column as her ‘candle in the wind moment’ (you can read the original article here).
You can read Emily’s blog about it and listen to ‘Bird Inside A Cage’ here on her website or any digital music platform including Spotify.
Last night I performed in a beautiful little village hall in rural Oxfordshire in a place called Letcombe Bassett, all thanks to Tony Haupt who so kindly organised and promoted the night and gave us accommodation in his beautiful Thatchcombe B&B. I had such a fantastic time – a huge thank you to everyone who came, to Jody Prewett for providing the PA and performing another stunning opening set and to Tim Pardoe for driving across the country with my books and CDs.
I’m doing a couple of private house concerts before my kidney operation in December and then I’m very much looking forward to starting to perform again in March once I’ve recovered. Dates confirmed so far are all up on my gigs page. In the meantime, since Christmas has already started in the shops, I wish you all a very happy festive season and hope to see you at a gig sometime in the new year.
Thanks so much for your support.
xx
Emily performed her second solo gig at Letcombe Bassett Village Hall last night, supported by Jody Prewett. Thanks to everyone who came and to Tony Haupt from Thatchcombe B&B for organising the night. You can read Emily’s blog here. If you would like Emily to come and perform in your village hall, please contact her direct.
Thanks to everyone who came to my concert at Hatch Court in Loddiswell last night. It was my first proper gig in 20 months and I’d been fairly terrified up until the very lovely audience arrived and I realised it was going to be okay. Thanks so much to Mark Arnold for hosting us at his beautiful home and doing such a great job with the sound, and thanks to his sister Faith for feeding us dinner and breakfast. Also to Jody Prewett for driving all that way and playing such a fantastic opening set.
My next concert is at Letcombe Bassett village hall on Saturday 16th November – please note it’s not 10th November as previously advertised! You can book tickets by emailing hello@thatchcombe.co.uk.
xx