We'll be gigging again in the New Year (watch this space) but in the meantime we're going to be appearing on the Raw Talent show on BBC Radio Leeds in the coming weeks. This one's a bit different, we're not playing live in the studio this time but recording a song in my living room to be played on the show.

We're going to be playing something new, probably a new song called 'Light the Way' which we've been working on. Looking forward to it, should be fun.

We should be recording the track next week in Chez Wiffen and I'll keep you posted with when it's going out on the show.

Hope the festive period is taking hold. My house is now twinkling so much I'm a bit worried I'm going to set off a chain reaction of seizures in my street.

Take care, and save a mince pie for me.

So while Mark adapts to having a second miniature person needing his attention I'm trying to turn my attention to writing whilst getting rocked by a sea of other responsibilities. I have a new song, '9 Lives' which Mark and I had just started to arrange when young Leon made his unexpected appearance. It's a little different, written on a Sunday morning after waking up with a sort of waltz in my head and carrying a 6/8 (we think!) time.

I'm not really sure if it's still a waltz but the original melody and lyric that was in my head when I woke remain as the main hook so it'll be interesting how the rest of the arrangement turns out. At the moment it's a piano based song, purely because that's what I wrote it on. That said, we rarely get the luxury of having a piano on stage so we may convert it to a guitar based track. Either way it's sounding promising.

On the gig front, expect us to be quiet for a good few months. Once Mark is a bit more settled we'll be knuckling down to some rehearsal to attempt to scrape off the rustiness with a blunt spoon and then we'll be looking to book in gigs again. I'd guess end of the year or possibly Jan for the next live dates.

In the meantime, if the lack of blog activity is causing you sleepless nights you can always follow me on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/simonwiffen - recent highlights include raging arguments about 'fun sized' confectionary, the introduction of donut and grumpy hat rules to the studio and getting into bother for stopping for a wee in a fire drill situation.... it really is a ceaseless wave of excitement I can tell you.

Hope you and yours are keeping well.... see you on the other side.

S

Their new album Architect of this Church has taken two years of blood, sweat and tears and we're delighted to be part of the celebrations to help wave the boys off to their two (yes two, greedy so and so's...) slots at Glastonbury later this month.

This promises to be a very special night and we can't wait to be part of it. Smashing :-)

In other news we played a most enjoyable gig at the Gaslight Club @ Oporto last night. Lovely place, lovely crowd, lovely free Guinness (that last one wasn't quite so lovely come work on a Tuesday morning).

While waiting for soundcheck I spotted a review of the EP in the latest NoTitle magazine. They were pretty kind saying:

"Seated in a converted church in West Yorkshire, Simon Wiffen spent his four days of prayer putting together Life Support. With lyrics portraying heartbreak and the loss of love, this sincere singer-songwriter inspires passion through a voice of intimacy and warmth."

and

"A smooth and melodic calm."

Finally congratulations to Mark who will be introducing another musical pair of hands to the world later in the year. Expect us to be taking a short break from gigging round about that time. In the meantime, keep an eye on the site for updates to the gigs listings between now and then.

Like well-trained child graduates from a 50's etiquette school Mark and I have been quietly getting on with our work without making a peep.... OK we've been quiet. But we have been busy.

A couple of weeks ago we joined the line-up with some friends of mine 53/12 for a charity gig in Shipley. We had a lot of fun playing to a very appreciative audience and we're getting ready to return to Leeds with some really great gigs coming up in the coming weeks.

First up we're delighted to have been invited back to the Fox and Newt on Friday 22nd May. Definitely up there with our favourite hosts so far we're looking forward to returning. It's a great night and it's free entry. If you're around come and join us for some end-of-week merriment.

Kicking off a June double-header we're really chuffed to have been invited along to Oporto to play the Gaslight Club hosted by the unreasonably talented Gary Stewart on Monday 8th June. A wonderful venue and a wonderful night it's one I've wanted to play since seing Mark play there in his previous role as over-zealous rock-out axe-wielder for Double Sixes. It's my idea of the perfect acoustic evening - leather sofas, candles, music and Guinness... lovely. Oh and it's free entry so there's really no excuse at all.

Last but not least, another one from my wish list - Sandinista on Sunday June 21st. Something a little different for us as we play a feature set of an hour. We'll have the piano in tow so it should be a good opportunity to see a slightly different side to us. For added entertainment I can recommend tunning a sweepstake on how poorly I position my mic to the piano and how uncomfortable I look trying to reach over to it whilst playing like some kind of tortured giraffe.... previous experience would suggest I'm incapable of positioning myself correctly until at least one song in. We're really looking forward to it.

If you've not already discovered us on Twitter you can follow us at http://www.twitter.com/simonwiffen - as you may have noticed I'm not too hot at regular blogging so it's the best way to keep up to date with what we're up to. Hope to see you on there soon.

So that's it, hopefully see you at one of the forthcoming gigs. We're really enjoying playing at the moment. Don't forget, you can still pick up a copy of our EP at http://www.simonwiffen.co.uk/life_support/ if you haven't already got your hands on a copy.

In the words of Jerry Springer, take care of yourselves... and each other

You can listen to the whole thing on my website or my facebook page and you can download "Hold Onto" (my personal favourite) for free.

It would be FANTASTIC if you could dedicate this song (or whichever song is your favourite) to all your friends on Facebook. If you like what we're doing and you know people who you think will like it please send them a link to the music page - we want to try and get more people to the page and get the songs spreading into the world of Facebook. Go forth and help us out!

If you like it, you can buy yourself a real copy with rather swanky artwork (if I do say so myself) by heading to my online store at http://www.simonwiffen.co.uk/store/

Mark and I are delighted with this record. It's so much more than either of us ever dreamed it would be and we hope you like it. Please have a listen and let me know what you think. If you like what you hear please buy a copy :-)

The EP will be appearing on iTunes and all major download stores around December.

We have plenty of live dates coming up in December and January to support the release including a rather special night at the Library in Leeds on 3rd December supporting our good friends Hope&Social (http://www.hopeandsocial.com) who've helped us so much in making this record happen. We're turning the night into an EP launch and general celebration so if you're around please do try and come down and join us - it promises to be much fun. And the H&S guys will put on a hell of a show as well.

Hope to see you there

Keep an eye on my website the Facebook page for up to date gig listings.

Voting starts Monday 17th November and runs until Sunday 23rd November so if you could spare 2 seconds to bob along to:

http://www.radioaire.com/unsigned

and vote for me Harry and I would really appreciate it :-)

You do need to put an email address in but it's just to validate the vote.

PLEASE PASS THIS ONTO AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE - 4 acts with the most votes by the end of the week play at a final gig at the Wardrobe in a few weeks to find the winner.

Ta!

So we've been making a record and it's all done. We're chuffed to bits with it and are going to be celebrating with a launch gig on 3rd December at the Library in Leeds.

I'm absolutely delighted to announce that we're going to be playing with the magnificent Hope&Social (http://www.hopeandsocial.com). they're good buddies of ours and we worked with a few of the guys on the EP (including Ed who produced the record).

We couldn't be more excited and couldn't think of a better way to celebrate the EP being finished so please come along and celebrate with us.

Hope to see you there.

More information here: http://www.simonwiffen.co.uk/gigs/gig.php?gig_id=44

Day 1.

We arrive bright eyed and bushy tailed full of childish excitement and optimism. This despite the unnerving sense of forboding that comes from waking up at 3.30am on day one of a mammoth few days of little sleep due to being overly excited. It's a really fantastic first day. After walking through the door and immediately jumping onto every instrument available to us (The H&S guys kindly gave us full access to their magnificent array of instruments) we lay down the heart of three tracks - Fireflies, All My Days and Lights Remain.

The absolute highlight of the day and, possibly my favourite musical moment of my life came in the early hours of the next morning when Mark and I layed down the dual piano parts for Lights Remain as a live take facing each other across the room on the two beautiful pianos that are set up down here (and kindly tuned up for us). Each has it's own specific sound - one soft and delicate and one bright and punchy (and a bit honky tonk). Then at about 2.30am I recorded the vocal by candlelight. This is a brand new song and it feels like it should be sung in the middle of the night - everything about it was perfect and magical and you can feel it in the track. I didn't stop smiling for many hours after...

Day 2.

Having been rudely awoken by my sadistic body clock after just 3 hours sleep I was miraculously energetic heading into day two. I was fully expecting it to be a bit of an anti-climax after day one as I didn't believe we could expect to make the same kind of progress again. Amazingly we exceeded it, getting through the bulk of the other three songs - Row Upon Row, Life Support and Hold Onto. Mark arrived looking like death warmed up and continued to spend the day excessively shifting from hilarious extremes of energy.

Day two was a long one. I got to bed at about 5am. The reason for the late finish was that Mark was let off the leash to rock out a bit today. He was in his element. Following his burst of electric energy we moved onto Hold Onto. This was a tricky one. Our pre-production guru Mr Huxley had made one note on this track which seemed hard to fulfil... a big arrow to the brideg that said "Mark pull your arse out of your face and do something brilliant". Despite the obvious confusion about how one goes about getting an arse into your face it was clear that there was a weight of expectation. I don't want to spoil the surprise but Mr Parrini excelled himself and the three of us spent several hours listening back to his 'something' with giant smiles on our faces. Whether his arse has been completely removed from his face is unclear but brilliant it is...

Another definite highlight from the day for me was recording the dual guitar parts for Life Support in one live take. Ed's obsession with all things microphone based has produced amazing results. The entire crypt was mic'ed up - all the way back to the vestibule entrance. Every ounce of character form this wonderful room has been squeezed into the mix and it sounds utterly beautiful..... I think i'd like to live here.

Day 3.

Having spent the first part of the day having a playback and making notes on outstanding tasks we pressed ahead with my backing vocals. A solid six hours later and I finally felt the first side effects of the workload. First my head and then my voice slowly began to give up and I ended up leaving the last track until the next day and falling asleep on the sofa for a brief catchup. It was clear I was tired as I managed to drift off to the peaceful serenity of Mark adding the required 'Big and Dirty" guitar part to All My Days with his amp turned up to 11.

In the early hours of the morning we put down the last instrument tracks on the pianos. A personal highlight being me waiting for the most wonderful and gorgeous moment on the whole record to lay down what could be described as the most horrific wrong chord in the history of man. This was to the obvious horror of Ed who was really feeling the moment. His chosen metaphor to describe how it made him feel is probably not one that should be repeated but those feelings, combined with teh fact that the piano part only includes two alternating chords worked together as a tag team to ensure that it was an utterly mortifying moment. Thankfully, in true studio style, the true horror of what happened that fateful day will never leave these walls....

Day 4.

Which brings us to today. three backing vocal tracks to be laid down and then the rest of the day mixing everything down. A few hours sleep and an emergency throat coat tea and my voice held together long enough to get my final backing track laid down. We were then joined by Rich and Si Wainwright for a brief cameo performance. Their backing vocals on the remaining two tracks can only be described as epic. At one point I was genuinely concerned that we were going to break Ed's singer and we would be forcibly removed from the premises. Guys, thank you SO much for letting us into your home and joining in the fun.

Which bring us up to date. We should be here until about midnight getting this mix done. The record really is so much more than either of us could have possibly imagined. To say we're chuffed to bits is a huge understatement. Keep an eye out for a lock of photos from our session soon. We're going to take the mix away and spend a couple of weeks giving it a real hard listen and then the final mix should follow soon after. Hopefully next month I'll have the CD in my hands..... I hope you like it as much as we do.

Tomorrow I sleep.

You may remember way back in July Mark and I appeared on East Leeds FM to play a few tracks and have a bit of a chat.

For those that missed it live or want to listen again, highlights from the show are now available here:

http://www.elfm.co.uk/2008/09/simon-wiffen/

The podcast features 'All My Days' and 'Hold Onto' (we played 'Row upon Row' as well. Annoyingly they edited out the second part of the interview where I managed to say 'Giant Enemy Crabs' online and hence earn twenty quid off my mate Ed. If by any chance anyone *did* listen in originally and can confirm I actually said it I would be very grateful!

Please do listen and let me know what you think :-)

In other news, pre-production is over and Mark and I are heading into the studio on 12th Oct. I'm VERY excited.... there are some photos from pre-production on my Facebook page: http://www.new.facebook.com/pages/Simon-Wiffen/11027861515 and further updates will appear on there as we work through the recording. Please choose 'Become a fan' if you haven't already. :-)

Watch this space.... I'm so excited about how things are sounding. I've even managed to finish a brand new song that's going on the EP. It's called 'Lights Remain', it's purely vocal and piano and it's "very, very dark" (or so Mark says).. that's all you're getting, I don't wanna ruin the surprise ;-)

Speak soon

In the temporary lull before the storm of recording fun begins I've been keeping busy putting a few things in place for the release. Not least of these is a photoshoot Mark and I did a week or so ago. I woke up one Sunday morning with an idea in my head for a shot for the EP cover. Giving the impression of the world stopping whilst everyone else seemed to be carrying on as normal. I liked it... The next day I spent a lunch hour reccy'ing a few locations around Leeds trying to find something that suited and when I found it soon put plans in place to get down there with Mark to get the shots.

I should at this point acknowledge Mark's patience and willing as I failed so spectacularly to explain the picture in my head in any legible form. Now the shoot was quite complex. Lots of multi-exposures and post-production required. It was further complicated by the fact that I had to be in them AND behind the camera at the same time. It was even FURTHER complicated by the fact I had to stand in the middle of a very busy three lane carriageway into Leeds city centre....

We arrived one VERY wet Wednesday evening to find that the location was surrounded by workmen and cones... not a good sign. In the end it worked in our favour... they'd kindly closed off the two lanes of traffic that I was required to stand in the middle of, thus preventing an untimely death that would have, quite frankly, put a bit of a dampener on the evening. We managed to find ourselves a spot between cones (thanks in no small part to Mark's patented "casually walk across the road whistling and then kick one of the cones out of the way before making a loop and casually walking back again" technique.

There were two shots I wanted to get, one under the dark arches and one out on the road. Everything went well, once we got over the hilarity of a load of road workers staring at us while Mark did a (really rather fetching) dance with his torch held proudly above his head. I think they thought we had escaped from a nearby institution but they very kindly left us to get on with it rather than kicking us out... maybe the entertainment value we brought to the site cancelled out the fact that we really weren't supposed to be there.

Anyway, post-production is done and I'm really pretty pleased with the photos (click for bigger):

Let me know what you think, drop me a line on simon@simonwiffen.co.uk.

All we hear is radio ga-ga...

Mark and I are going to be appearing on East Leeds Community Radio. We'll be playing three tracks form the forthcoming EP live in the studio and we'll be doing a short interview. We'll also be bringing in a few tracks that have influenced us so it should be a lot of fun. I'm especially grateful to Jas and Ed from Hope&Social who have kindly furnished me with a pre-release version of "Looking For Answers" to take along with me. This is a beautiful song and me and Mark are on it (in our own little way). In fact the band invited about 40 close friends and family along to sing backing for them, it was a wonderful night. There's a really rather lovely video of it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5waYtTe3k4s

You can see neither Mark or I on this video but you get bonus points for spotting my Harry who took great delight in being involved.

The show is on 7pm-8pm on 87.7FM or live online at http://www.elfm.co.uk/. There'll also be a listen again feature if you miss the show.

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll be able to confirm dates and release schedules for the EP soon... watch this space!

Lots of exciting things have been kicking off recently so it feels like it's time for an update. Mark and I are heading into the studio to record an EP. If I wasn't excited enough about this it's progressed to us heading into the beloved crypt of our good buddies Hope&Social - http://www.hopeandsocial.com (formerly known as Four Day Hombre) to record with Ed and Rich. Ed's lent his outstanding skills to Mark in the past and I can't wait to get my hands dirty with it all. Rich is gonna be helping us out with arrangements and backing vocals too which I'm stupidly excited about. I think he added the immortal line "and of course you can help yourself to any of the guitars and stuff" just to see if I would actually explode.... (miraculously I didn't but it was a close thing as Lynette can testify)

I'm particularly excited about getting Rich on-board to help with the arrangements. After several years of solo acoustic stuff I've been loving the extra dimension that Mark's guitar has added to the sound. Our last rehearsal saw us working on 'Life Support' with me on piano and Mark playing an EBow on his electric..... how so much changes so quickly! We're really excited about how things are developing.

We're playing at the Royal Park Cellars on 10th July with the wonderful Michelle Plum and this is likely to be our last gig for a little while we turn our attention to getting the songs ready for recording. For more information see http://www.simonwiffen.co.uk/gigs/gig.php?gig_id=39

Or if you're on Facebook, see the event at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=16091728751

We should be heading into the studio end of September/early October if things go to plan and already we're seeing a few opportunities for releasing the EP on iTunes and the like.

You can expect many an overly-excited update blog akin to a 7 year old finding an Optimus Prime under his Christmas tree over the next couple of months. In the meantime, if you can make it down to see us on the 10th it'll be great!

So there we have it. Our Transformers are in battle mode and Mark and I continue to compete with each other over who is more excited about the weeks ahead. I can only apologise profusely to all my friends who have already had to endure me raving on about this for a few weeks already. Sadly, like the rising costs of fuel, I fear it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better...

Onwards and upwards!

S

We thoroughly enjoyed the first gig. Thanks to everyone who made it down. We had a good crowd and it really made our night to see so many friendly faces. Special thanks go out to Rich and Ed Hombre who were most gracious about our cover of one of their songs. I won't name the song because the sight of Ed getting progressively more and more worked up when he couldn't remember the name of their own song and Rich refusing to tell him was absolutely hilarious. Top marks to Rich as well for sneakily asking me later what the song was called when Ed wasn't looking...

We're both really excited about how the songs are sounding with the second guitar and we're already looking ahead to the next gig at the Primrose on Saturday 12th April. It's an acoustic fundraiser for Cancer charities so if you can make it down plase do so, it's a very worthwhile cause. We're playing again at the wonderful Royal Park Cellars (fresh from their mysterious 'getting closed down by fake Environmental Health officers' drama) on May 15th. Full details of the gig on the site as always.

I've added a few pics to the photos section - these range from me playing on-stage with the, frankly magnificent Four Day Hombre, to the Zavvi in-store and some pics from last Wednesday for those curious to know what the mysterious Mr Parrini looks like.

That's all for now, if you can come and see us at one of the gigs above please do... we're very friendly.

P.S Despite Lynette's best intentions 'Wifferini' is NOT being adopted as a band name but it's getting used as a pet-name with increasing regularity... Thank you SO much my dear... I can't tell you how very grateful I am ;-)

Until next time...

The first stage of my masterplan comes to fruition on Wednesday 12th March at the Library, Leeds where I'll be joined on stage for the first time by Mr Mark Parrini who I welcome to the Wiffen line-up with open arms and loaded Guinness glass. We're both really excited about how everything's sounding and we can't wait to get on stage. We even have a couple of new songs to play in case that wasn't exciting enough.

It's a terrific line-up on the night, including Fran Rogers, Daniel Pearson, Samuel Thornton, Armstrong and Tom Bradley.

Full details are available here: http://www.simonwiffen.co.uk/gigs/gig.php?gig_id=33

There are six acts to get through so music is kicking off around 7pm. Mark and I will be on at about 7.40. We hope to see as many people down there as possible to join us in a celebratory debut performance pint.

There are so many more exciting things to follow but this is the first step in what I hope will be a really fun year. Please come and join us if you can, it'll be worth it if only to join in the sweepstake on how far through the set we'll get before one of us makes the other laugh to the point where we have to start again.

Hope to see you there!

I'm really looking forward to this one, not least because it *may* be my last gig playing solo. We'll see how things pan out on that front but in the meantime, if you're in the area I'd love it if you could come down and support the night.

As always there are full details of the gig available including links to everyone who's playing.

The tickets are £4 each in advance. If you want to come please contact me for one rather than paying on the door. It'll cost you less and it means I'll get a cut.

Hope to see some of you there!

Wishing you all a very prosperous 2008!

Next year promises to be very VERY exciting. On the sly I've been practicing with a good friend of mine who will soon officially be my lead guitarist. Bass and drums are waiting patiently for the New Year to bring much band-related goodness. I'm really excited about how the songs are sounding in multi-player mode and I can't wait for you guys to hear what we've been up to. Watch this space!

For the time being there's some rather lovely gigs to look forward to in the New Year. Notably Josephs Well on 15th January which I'm excited about. I'm picking the tickets for this up in a couple of hours so please contact me if you want some.

I'm also playing in-store at Zavvi (formerly Virgin Megastore) in Leeds on 25th January on a Friday lunchtime which will be good fun. If you're out shopping or taking lunch drop by and say hello. I'm playing at 12.15

So I think that's about it. time to stop and take a breath, look forward to the many exciting things that are developing for next year and spend some time with my family.

I wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a terrific New Year. Have a good one....

So we met up at Revolution over a beer and a chat. Well... once we'd realised that we hadn't in fact stood each other up but were just sat at opposite ends of the bar. We really should have worn a red carnation or agreed to meet under the clock in the station or something...

Anyway, the interview is now online. We talk about music, inspiration, lyrics and stage fright. You can read the whole thing here: http://www.the-hype.co.uk/space/lyrical/eskimo-productions.

I'm delighted to say that www.simonwiffen.co.uk won the vote with a landslide. Consider me chuffed.

http://www.cssliquid.com/hall-of-fame/

Getting back to the music side of things I had a very exciting first rehearsal on Friday night with a good friend of mine who will be appearing on stage with me sometime in the new year along with a few others.... watch this space.

Voting is open until the 1st November so you need to be quick!

Please get yourself over to http://www.cssliquid.com/2007/news/vote-for-hall-of-fame-round-3/ and vote for me - it'll only take 2 seconds!

As usual I finished my set with a cover of Day by Day which, on this occasion was a bit more unusual as Ed Hombre had come down early. He later told me he really enjoyed it as he'd never seen anyone cover one of their songs before. Phew!

As you would expect the Hombre boys were fantastic. The evening threatened to turn into a farce as Jas Hombre seemed destined to win the raffle no matter how many times it was drawn and there was much laughter as Jas enjoyed spinning his new double bass with the utmost enthusiasm and Si and Rich appeared to be arguing with each other about which chord was which mid-song. The new album tracks sound fantastic and in the tiny Primrose venue it was a wonderful, imtimate gig where many old friends got together to drink, play and be merry.

My evening took an unexpected and rather surprising twist when the Hombre boys got to the point where they were going to play Day by Day themelves. Si had already told me he was sorry he hadn't been able to get down to see my set earlier and I was rater surprised when he offered me his guitar and said "do you want to do it?"... after much laughing and then realising he was actually serious I found myself in the bizarre stuation of being on stage with Si's guitar and playing and singing with Rich while Si took my place in the crowd. Naturally at this point I was slightly regretful that having been super careful with my bad throat for the last week, I marked the end of my set by completely disregarding any consideration for it by starting to drink Guinness and popping out to eat a curry. Not the best vocal performance of the night but a great thrill to be an honorary Hombre for a few minutes.

In summary: Dr Theatre is a wonderful man. The Hombres get better and better. The new album is going to be amazing. Despite apologising to me repeatedly for the rest of the evening, Si Hombre made my night. After multiple recommendations I'm off to source some throat coat tea....

I'm delighted to be able to announce that the, frankly magnificent, Four Day Hombre are headlining the Oxjam gig a the Primrose in October.

Described by the Independent as "One of the top 5 live UK bands" they're not only buddies of mine but also my number 1 favourite band so the prospect of sharing a bill with them is ACE.

The Primrose if a small place, there are no advance tickets. The place will be rammed so if you're coming you need to get down early. It's a fantastic line up - 10 hours of quality music for only £3.50 and all proceeds going to charity. It promises to be an amazing day.

I'm heading to London for a week on Friday so took the opportunity to pick my guitar up while I could yesterday. Was rather delighted to find myself inadvertently starting to write a new song. It's always a pleasant surprise to pick the guitar up and suddenly start playing and singing a song that you've never heard before. I've been trying to make time to sit and write recently and it seems to be working. It's very VERY early days with this song but it'll be interesting to see how it pans out. At the moment it's quite upbeat. I still have plenty of time to put my morbid stamp on it and crush any underlying happiness there might be in it I'm sure ;-) Working title is 'Slowly sobering'. Don't ask me why, cos I have no idea.

Finally I've been grinning like a cheshire cat these last few days after getting some very exciting news. It's very frustrating cos I'm not allowed to announce it yet but all I can say at the moment is the headline act for my Oxjam gig on October 13th is good....... very good. Watch this space ;-)

This isn't just a rename but a change of attitude. 'News' was a bit stuffy... all a little official and, well.... a bit 'meh'.

I'm wanting to post more regularly and on slightly more random topics so a blog seemed a more sensible approach.

I'll kick things off with a few updates. After a long break from writing, having a second baby and generally sleeping at every given opportunity I've stepped back from open mics to try and give myself a bit of time to write (time's not something I have alot of nowadays).

It's working well... I have 3 new songs that I've been performing recently - 'The Man You Could Be', '13' and 'Hold Onto'. None of these are on the site as yet but those of you on the mailing list will have heard a sneaky peak already. If you're not on the mailing list then shame on you! Get yourself signed up, you really don't know what you're missing.

I've just created a Facebook profile so if you're on there why not add me as a friend? I'll write nice things on your wall.

That's pretty much it for now, there are one or two new photos up on the Photos page from the Revolution gig last week. Next gig up is at Royal Park Cellars on September 7th. It should be a good one...

With the new style blog section comes a quick reminder, if you want to keep up to date with posts etc.. click on the funky little orange RSS feed icon to syndicate the blog entries so you never miss a thing!

You may or may not be aware that this website has been showcased on all manner of CSS and web design galleries since it launched last August. As a web designer this is obviously quite nice for me.

Well I'm quite chuffed to announce that the site's featured in the recently released Web Design Index 7. This is quite cool.

So that's all very nice. In other, more related news, I played the Angel's Share in Chapel Allerton the other week and it's nice to be back in gigging action, a couple of new songs in tow.

I have a few gigs coming up in the next few months, the next one being at the Red Lion in Otley on July 22nd. Full information is available on the gigs page.

If you missed it you can listen to my slot on the Graham Liver Mid Morning Show on BBC Radio Leeds.

I've also added a few pictures from the sessions on the photos page.

The show runs from 9.00am until 12.00pm. I'm going to be having a chat with Graham and performing two acoustic songs live on air.

You can tune into BBC Radio Leeds on 92.4FM, 95.3FM, 774AM and DAB Digital Radio. For those outside Yorkshire you can listen online at http://www.bbc.co.uk/leeds/local_radio/. They also have a listen again facility.

If anyone would like to contact the show you can call in on 0845 303 3333 or text 07786 202924.

To keep you occupied while I'm gone I've added a new reviews page to the site with a few quotes that various people have said about me.

It's been a while but I've finally uploaded a new song to the site as well. It's called Time And Time Again and, as always, full lyrics and a description of what the song is about are also available. It's a bit of a sad song, sorry about that!

I'll be back soon, assuming I don't bang my head when I pass out during the operation and forget who I am. Watch this space...

Secondly the song is a new one. If you're on my mailing list you'll have had a sneak preview of this already but if not it's called 'Time and Time Again'. Have a listen and let me know what you think.

Also be sure to check out the wonderful ODi who also features on the playlist this month.

Click the banner below to listen to the full playlist for February.

So I took stock.... then I realised that I have a second baby on the way at the end of March and I'm likely to have a natural break in playing for at least a few weeks while I try and remember just how hard it is to do anything else during that time and figured I ought to try and get myself something sorted for the new year as soon as possible while I still could!

Funny how things come along in threes... Within the space of two or three days I've suddenly found myself booked for three gigs out of the blue.

The first is a gig at the Old Police Station in Chapel Allerton on 25th January. I've heard about this place, it's a relatively posh restaurant based in the, er, old police station, graffitied walls and all. I'm really looking forward to this as it's the launch night for a new Acoustic Showcase in association with No-TiTLE magazine. If that sounds familiar it's because this is the night that has replaced my cancelled gig at the Breeze Bar a few weeks ago. Hopefully there'll be 6 acts on the bill,I'll post the full line-up as it becomes available so keep your eyes peeled on the gigs page.

After that I'm playing two gigs for Ossett Breweries. The first is at the The Shepherds Rest in Sowerby Bridge on February 7th and the second is at the The Shepherds Boy in Dewsbury on 28th February. (They appear to have a thing about shepherds). These two gigs will be the longest gigs I've played to date, with two forty-five minute sets at each.

I may well start panic-booking gigs as the little one's due date gets ever closer so be sure to keep an eye out for more dates appearing. It remains to be seen whether my open mic appearances decrease when baby Wiffen number 2 arrives in the house or whether they increase dramatically as I look for a way to get away from the house at any given opportunity... time will tell!

Anyone trying to get 16 acts playing with very short turnarounds is going to be up for a hard day's work but, once again, Acoustoc was a smooth and enjoyable day from start to finish. Doc and the guys at the Primrose really deserve a big hand for managing to make something that, by all accounts should be a nightmare, seem like an effortless process.

The day was reviewed in the November edition of No-TiTLE magazine (PDF download) in a very positve light. My particular performance was described (somewhat briefly - thanks Jamie ;-)) as follows:

(Simon Wiffen) continues to add to this sumptuous ambiance of drunken tenderness...

Last I heard a wonderful £1000 was raised in aid of I Can, Crisis and Leonard Cheshire so a great result all round!

Before I headed over the pond I contacted a few guys over there to see if there was anywhere I might be able to play while I was out. Sadly it seems Florida's fairly limited acoustic scene becomes... well, almost non-existent outside the tourist season but I did get chatting to a very lovely guy called Bud Buckley who was playing in a Venice coffee shop the first weekend I was there. He said to come down and say hi which I did.

He very kindly let me play a couple of songs while he took a break so although I wasn't able to find a gig of my own I did get to play a little while I was there. If anyone's interested, we managed to get a photo of us at the coffee shop. I realise I don't look at all tanned in this photo. I'd like to point out that I'd only been there a few days and that's why but sadly my tan was equally non-existent when I returned home. What can I say? I'm just not a tanner!

Only other musical-related news from the trip was I managed (against the odds of seven people sharing a house) to find some quiet time to write a new song. It's as depressing as you might have come to expect from me and it's called 'Time and Time again'. Those of you on the mailing list will have already heard an early demo of this song. Those of you who aren't on the mailing list, well........ all I can say is go to the back of the class and have a long, hard think about what you've done.....

I'm obviously delighted with this, but another review saying that I'm ready to start doing real gigs has reminded me I really should update my myspace profile as I wrote it long before I started gigging properly.... ah well, never mind!

The demo CD contains the following tracks:

1. Leave Me Gently
2. Sit Me Down
3. Row Upon Row
4. This Way Up

The review

Simon Wiffen is a singer/song writer from Leeds, well, actually he is a Web Designer, and apparently music is just a hobby.

For a hobby, he is very good at what he does, when his four-track demo came through my door I didn't really expect a lot, but I was pleasantly surprised. This acoustic music isn't full of fiddly chords, it is simple guitar playing that goes to show that good songs mixed with a good voice, which he also has, it doesn't need gimmicks or over the top acoustics to make it work. The songs on this demo are well written and well performed, and personally I think he has got what it takes to step away from the open mic circuit and start performing his own shows, or at least get support slots on other artists' tours. The other pleasant thing about this demo is how professional it sounds, Simon recorded it himself, and what a good job he did.

If you live in the Leeds area, I would recommend finding out where he is performing and checking him out, if not, you'll just have to watch this space.

The review can be seen here: http://www.roomthirteen.com/cgi-bin/cd_view.cgi?CDID=4383.

The demo CD contains the following tracks:

1. Leave Me Gently
2. Sit Me Down
3. Row Upon Row
4. This Way Up

The review

"Simon says that his real job is web designing, the music is a hobby. As far as hobbies go he's really good at it. A singer songwriter from Leeds, his demo was recorded by himself and it sounds really professional for it.

So what should we expect to hear upon listening to the songs. Firstly Simon does not play songs like other leeds solo act Jon Gomm, the guitar is more simple, dont expect fiddly picking sections, solos or too many key changes. This is just music that shows that a good song can be as simple as you allow. But thats second place anyway to the voice which has that lovely soothing tone to it which makes you think of watching him in an intimate venue, possibly with a loved one, but definitely with a drink and a chilled atmosphere. Backing vocals add nice atmosphere throughout the demo, and the lyrics seem to of been written from the heart. Reading his biography of how he got to this stage, you can see where the lyrics come from, an initial stage fright that was overcome through that good old tried method of practising a long time before going on stage. Simon confesses he still plays open mics, but he's certainly got the songs to start playing his own gigs or at least getting support acts.

The songs themselves are very strong, and for a self recorded demo this is a really good listen. Personal favourite song, Row Upon Row, sounds like it could easily slip onto an album by much more established peers Ocean Colour Scene. All in all a very enjoyable listen, and it would be interesting to see if Simon ever goes a further step and forms a band or at least steps away from the open mic circuit... he's certainly got the songs to do it on his own.

We don't normally always give marks out of 10 for demo's recorded at home, but this is such a good quality listen it deserves the 8.5/10 that it gets. If you like your acoustic to be melodic and soothing, or just like to chill out to a few well written songs, this demo is well worth checking out.

Check out the songs, and add simon at http://www.myspace.com/simonwiffen

More info can also be found at his own website http://www.simonwiffen.co.uk/

or catch him live soon;"

The review can be seen here: http://www.21stcenturymusic.co.uk/?p=191.

Thanks to everyone who's sent me messages already and asked for a CD. I promise I'll get them out to you as soon as I can. Rather odd, I wasn't really expecting people to be asking for CD's from overseas but at the end of day 1 I've already got a list of addresses in the US, one in Germany and one in Croatia to post out to... how perculiar.

Anyway, the news.... ah yes. during a rare weekend without the little one (thank you Grandma and Grandad) my wife and I decided to pop over to the Surburban Style Bar in Baildon as Al was playing so it seemed a good opportunity to see some good music and check out the venue for next month as well.

I was surprised when I got there to find out that Ben was down to play as well.... bonus. Or so I thought. Turns out he'd been down to a stag do and not made it back in time due to travel issues.

Anyway, to cut a long story short I ended up playing (as I was there) which was nice. However, having a rather odd problem with my hand at the moment. Last few weeks I've been getting shooting pains up my left hand which isn't brilliant when you're trying to play guitar. Seems to be improving bit by bit but only ever seems to happen when playing live, never happens at home. Perculiar? Answers on a postcard....

The gig at Carpe diem went well on Wednesday night despite a few technical issues. There are a couple of photos in the gallery if you're interested.

So I think that brings me up to date. A successful first day of the new site and long may it continue. I have a few weeks before I'm playing again (unless something comes up in the meantime, which it always seems to!) so hopefully my hand will be back to normal.

I'll be keeping my eyes open for more CD requests from far reaching corners of the world. First one from Australia may get a special prize..... or they may not. In fact it's pretty unlikely they'll be getting anything that may add extra weight to the jiffy I'm going to have to send to the other side of the world. The Internet's a funny thing...

In other news I'm booked in to play at Carpe Diem on Wednesday 2nd August. Was slightly surprised to hear that the whole evening is in my hands so my good friends Ben Greaves and Alastair Leeming have kindly agreed to share the bill with me so really looking forward to that. Last time I went to a Wed gig there it was pretty quiet so I think I might sort out some posters and flyers and stuff for this one, it should be a really good night and would be a shame if we didn't get a decent crowd down there.

Next gig is at the Primrose Sunday 2nd July (unless anything else comes up in the meantime!), so hopefully see you there.

1. Leave Me Gently
2. Sit Me Down
3. Row Upon Row
4. This Way Up

I'll have a few copies of the EP on me so if you see me at open mic or at Acoustoc (18th June! ;-) grab me and you can have one. If you can't get along to see me (shame on you) and you fancy a copy, drop me a mail with your address and I'll stick one in the post to you - postage paid! I can't say any fairer than that! ;-)

It went ok - not great but not bad for a first go. I've certainly played and sang better but I got through it in one piece. After the gig I set my mind to Acoustoc on June 18th - a nice bit of time to relax, or so I thought. I had a mail from Ben Greaves on Thursday last week asking if I'd support him at the Cockpit on Wednesday (last night). I couldn't possibly say no so all of a sudden I had another gig. Tricky one as I was away from Friday until Tuesday so not much time to prepare but in a way that made it much easier as I didn't have time to get nervous either.

Couple of mates from work came down but apart from that I kept it fairly hush hush. I saw it as a really good opportunity to get more live practice with the full set and hopefully build the confidence up a bit more. It worked as I felt much better this time round. Was happy with the performance and the sound system was really nice (albeit without any monitors). Really enjoyed it the second time round and am really REALLY looking forward to Acoustoc now. I've chatted to a lot of the people playing but have only met a couple of them so will be a good opportunity to put some faces to names.

I don't *think* I'm going to be playing any gigs before then but the way things have been going who knows?

Got a day off on Monday so I'm hoping to get 'Leave Me Gently' recorded and a few EP's printed off. Fingers crossed for a productive day!

As well as that my small 'warm-up' gig next Wednesday (24th May) has now been escalated to a full set as one of the bands have had to drop out to go and appear on Blue Peter (?). As a result my debut solo gig is going to be somewhat quicker than expected.

I wanted to get a few demo cd's printed to hand out at the June gig but I've held back so I can record "Leave me gently" and put that on. Problem being I've not got a day off to do it until 5th June so it's not going to be ready for next week. Hopefully have them sorted for Acoustoc.

Played Carpe open mic for the second time last night - I'd forgotten just how nice the sound system was down there. I've been chatting to them today about possible doing the Sunday Glutton spot down there in July. We'll see how that develops.

On top of that I've also got a bit of a warm-up gig, again at the Primrose on Wed 24th May. Only a short (probably about 15-20 minutes) set to open the night but should be good practice for the full set the following month.

All quite exciting - first solo gigs and all that. Also first time playing to a lot of people that I've known for a long time so will be strange. If anyone wants to come down please do - I think I'm going to need all the support I can get.

Open mic at the Primrose was good last night. Played 'Leave Me Gently' for the first time - I'm really liking that song. Very perculiar experience watching 'Howards Way' play the main band slot with their ambient guitar based chill-out music combined with their vicar outfits and homemade 3 foot high wizard hats and prosthetic severed arms..... Fair play to them.... I've remembered them the next day. Good work lads.

Not only that, but I've also finally managed to finish a song that's been sitting around half-written for a couple of weeks. I've got a demo recording of that done and I'm really pleased with the way that's sounding. Hopefully over the next few weeks I'll be able to get that recorded properly and up on here. It's called "Leave me Gently".

My busy day continues, I'm hoping to FINALLY make it down to Carpe Diem tonight for my first open mic there. Been trying to get down there for ages but things keep coming up. No idea what I'm going to play, if I can learn it properly this afternoon I might play my new one but as I'm still writing a few bits of it it might be pushing it a bit! Ah well, we'll see....

Enjoyed open mic this week, although it felt a bit like performing at a youth club. Couple of young bands playing who all brought all their mates along. I don't think I've ever felt so old. Did manage to squeeze a Toad cover in this week though which was a lot of fun. I doubt anyone there will have heard of them but I enjoyed it all the same...

Back to work tomorrow... bah

I wanted to play something new this week. I had a day off work on Tuesday so decided to sit down and do some long overdue writing. I've had so much going on I've not written for ages and had a really good musical day. My fingers were a touch fragile by the evening but I had a new song written and my rough acoustic demo recorded. I should explain I *always* record a rough demo of a song as soon as I finish writing. With my memory it's the only way I can remember how the damn thing goes the next day!

Sad song mind, really have no idea where it came from but really happy with it. Decided that I was going to play it at the open mic this week. Bit quiet down the Primrose this week, was aggreived to find out I was first on the list again. Ahh well, good way to recover from last week I suppose. So I played my songs. I finished with the new one, very happy with it and a really good reception from the crowd. Very exhilarating experience - writing a new song and then performing it to a crowd two days later. I was amazed that I didn't forget how it went.

So all in all very happy this week. Much happier with my performance and a nice reception from a good crowd AND a new song written, recorded and performed within 48 hours. Great stuff. I still don't know whether the freezing temperatures were the cause of my downfall last week but I drank much less cold coke and dressed in layers this week ;-)

Nerves are getting much better, think I may actually be starting to enjoy this performance lark!

I was first on and was reasonably happy until I started to sing. Now to say it was bad is a bit of an understatement. The wobble in my voice was so bad it's a wonder the place didn't fall down. I wasn't that nervous so don't think it was that. I was however FREEZING having decided that in -5 degrees a t-shirt would be perfectly sufficient for the evening. My freezing cold coke (driving - brilliant) really added nicely to the arctic effect. I was physically shivering with cold. I assume that was the main reason, or perhaps I'd not recovered as well from my food poisoning as I'd hoped. Whatever the reason it was a spectacularly bad opening for what turned out to be a really good night. Well done me!

Ah well, when you fall off a horse etc. etc. Hopefully I'll be able to climb back on next week without falling back off and breaking my neck!

I went along to Dr Wu's a few weeks back to suss out the open mic there and it was terrifying! A few people played who were all exceptional and, to my surprise, played 4 or 5 songs each. Went home thoroughly down and feeling a hundred years away from having the balls to go up and play.

I dropped a mail to one of the guys who'd played that night to ask for a bit of advice. He gave me some really good pointers and told me what I needed to hear to try again the following week. I avoided Wu's this time as it was far too terrifying but I went along to the Primrose where I'd performed before and felt a bit more comfortable. This time I took my guitar so it would be harder to bottle it and sure enough, the compere had jumped me before I got through the door and my name was on the list.

I went up, I played my two songs and I felt relieved to have done it. Wasn't the best performance in the world - had no vocal in my monitor for the first track but I got through.

On the way out a couple of people stopped me to tell me they liked my stuff which was really nice and I went along again the following week. It was much easier the second week, and was really pleased with the way it went. Not the best audience in the world - most were there to see one of the bands and were pretty inconsiderate to anyone else - still all good experience and it's difficult to be too nervous when noone in the room is paying you any attention whatsoever!

I had a pretty nasty sore throat last week so unfortunately had to skip it, I didn't think the froggy croak like thing I had going on was really suitable for my songs.

So that brings me up to date, open mic is tomorrow and I'll be there again trying to find the confidence that I keep seeing in the other guys who play. I'd had a nice reception to my songs but really need to learn to be in front of people. For some reason I can stand there and sing but ot stand there and chat - odd. "Introduce your songs dammit" don't just stand there like a rabbit in headlights!

So if you see me in the Primrose and like my stuff please come and see me after and let me know - Those of you who already have really did make my day. If you see me in the Primrose and don't like my stuff, please politely clap anyway ;-)