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Allan played concerts at the gallery "Augenweide" in Muenster on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th October. Both concerts were successful, and the artist Allan Black presented and sold several of his paintings which had been inspired by Allan's songs. Seen below here with Allan and Allan Black is the painting inspired by the song "Frenchtown" from the new CD "Hotels and Dreamers" and from the CD "Colour to the Moon" is the painting inspired by the song "Kerouac's Dream".
Now the new CD is finished and released Allan will be working on a new songbook to include songs from the last two CDs. As is the case with the first songbook, Allan will tell the stories behind the songs. The book will be illustrated with Allan Black's paintings.
The Hannover gig is already sold out, but check the Tours page for other gigs in Germany if you want to see a concert.
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The new CD, "Hotels and Dreamers," has been released!
See the Orders page for ordering instructions.
Allan Taylor and Dick Gaughan Perform in Northern Ireland
Allan and Chuck Brodsky in North Carolina; Allan on KALW in San Francisco
Allan did an interview for around an hour and played some songs. The interview may be available on www.kalwfolk.org
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Allan stopped off at Stockfisch Records in Northeim, Germany on his way from Switzerland to Denmark last week. The new CD, "Hotels and Dreamers", is going through the final mix and should be ready be the end of the week. This means the CD will be released during early October.
Arriving at the Tonder festival on Friday, Allan was told that because of Eddi Reader having to cancel her concert, the night at the Kulturhuset had been changed to a songwriters' circle - much the same as last year when Allan played with Chuck Brodsky, Tim O'Brien and Bruce Guthro. With only a few hours to get some kind of running order, the concert went ahead with Allan, Ron Kavanagh and Annie, J.P. Cormier with his wife, Dave Gunning, John Sheehan (from the Dubliners, who were also there just for the holiday), Brian McNiell, Chuck Brodsky, David Francey with sidemen Dave Clark and Geof Somers, and Boo Hewerdine for the second set. They played for more than three hours, twelve musicians on stage having a great time. Finishing off with a standing ovation from the audience, it was a huge success. There were many requests for the same to be done next year - let's see what happens.
On the Sunday afternoon Allan hosted the songwriters' session at Visemollen with Chuck, David, J.P. Cormier and Plainsong. For the final session, Allan joined Plainsong - the first time in thirty years that Allan had played with Andy Roberts, who was on Allan's second album "The Lady", recorded at the now famous Sound Techniques Studio in Chelsea, London.
Allan goes to the USA next week for ten days in California and then for four days in North Carolina, where he'll meet up with Chuck Brodsky for three gigs (check the Tours page for venues). Hopefully Chuck will have some photos of the night in Tonder - we'll post them on this page when they come through.
Allan will be posting through news of his American trip - on the list of things to do will be to look up the "City Limits" bookshop in San Francisco, where the Beat movement started in the 50's with the likes of Ferlingetti, Kerouac, Ginsberg, et al.
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Allan has arrived home from Italy having had (as he describes it) “a fantastic time – one of those gigs you dream for, one you maybe have every two years or so.” The concert for the Folkest Festival took place at the castle in Udine (northern Italy) on a perfect balmy evening. Eric Andersen started the concert and was on top form. Allan followed, and at the end of his set he sang his translation of the great Fabrizio de Andre song, “A Pittima”. As he sang the song the band of Massimo Bubola joined him on stage, building to a great crescendo where the whole audience was singing with Allan and the band. After a short pause, Massimo Bubola performed his set. Massimo is one of the great songwriters in Italy (having worked with Fabrizio de Andre in former times) and has a great following. As a surprise to Massimo, Allan translated his song “Rosso su Verde” and presented it to him the day before the concert. Massimo asked Allan if he would sing the song, in English during Massimo’s set, which he did. Such was the feeling between these two songwriters, Allan and Massimo Bubola, they have decided to work on a CD together later in the year. Many thanks are due to all at the Folkest office – Andrea del Favero (the organiser and old friend of Allan), the lovely Ilena, Roberto and all of the rest – you made Allan’s time there the highlight of this year so far.
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Coming up in the next few days: If you can get to Udine in Friuli, northern Italy, for the Folkest Festival (www.folkest.com) you’ll see some great international acts there. Allan will be performing a concert on Tuesday 15th July at Castle Udine with Eric Andersen (they toured Belgium together in 2001) and Massimo Bubola, the great Italian songwriter and performer. Friuli is one of the most beautiful areas of Italy – food, wine and great people make for a good time every-time.
Allan was recently in Germany at the Stockfisch Studios working on his new CD – working title, “Hotels and Dreamers”. The release date should be around September/October of this year.
Allan always goes to the Tonder Festival in Denmark, whether he’s booked or not. Those of you who go to the Tonder Festival know that he’ll be on stage somewhere during the weekend. Although not booked this year he will be there as usual – and the organizer Carsten Panduro has asked Allan to run the Sunday afternoon session at the Mill. Chuck Brodsky will be performing during the session, and no doubt Allan and Chuck will do some songs together (in preparation for their gigs in North Carolina in September). Book early for this because the Mill is always the first venue to be sold out, usually within an hour.
Interest in booking Allan for a concert has come from some of the Swiss venues, and as Allan will be there on his usual January trip to Wengen he has agreed to do two or three. The first to be confirmed is on 16th January ’04 at Mahagony in Bern.
Projects being planned for next year (’04) include:
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John Wright will be making a new CD in June and will record two of Allan's songs: "Songdance" (from the "Lines" CD) and "Some Dreams", a new song to be recorded on Allan's new CD. (Allan and John toured Denmark earlier in the year, and will tour through Holland together in November - see Tours page).
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Since recording ten basic tracks in Germany for the new CD during March '03 (working title, "Hotels and Dreamers"), Allan toured with John Wright in Denmark through April. They played eleven gigs in eleven days - the Aalborg gig was recorded by Danish Radio and will be broadcast soon.
Allan stopped off in England for just one night before leaving for the USA. Included below are snapshots taken during the tour. The Kennedy Center concert in Washington, D.C. which Allan played with Chris Jones (who plays guitar on the last three of Allan's CDs) was broadcast live on the internet and a video of the concert was made and can be accessed by going to kennedy-center.org. Click on "Archive," choose "2003" and May 1. Click on "Search" and a link will then appear for a Realplayer video of the concert.
The next night Allan played the legendary Cafe Lena in Saratoga Springs in upstate New York with his old friend Happy Traum, and they teamed up again the following night for a concert in Woodstock.
Before Allan left New York City for England he met up with Eric Andersen to discuss their next concert together at the Folkest Festival in Italy this July.
Allan returns to England on 6 May for a couple of days before leaving for Germany (see Tours page).
Allan and Chis Jones Perform on the Millennium Stage at Kennedy Center.
Allan Taylor and Happy Traum Perform at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, New York.
Allan Taylor and Happy Traum Perform at the Woodstock Guild in Woodstock, New York.
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Allan is currently recording his new CD in Germany. One of the songs is called "The Beat Hotel" and is about the hotel in Paris, between the years 1956 - 63, where many of the Beat poets lived, amongst whom were Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso. William Burroughs (who wrote Naked Lunch and Junkie) lived there, and even Jack Kerouac stopped off on his travels through Europe. Harold Chapman chronicled the period in his book of classic photos entitled The Beat Hotel (published in 1984 by Gris banal, Montpellier/Geneva), a copy of which recently sold for $2500 in New York. Allan met with Harold and played his song "The Beat Hotel". Harold's response - "Great! you've captured the mood exactly." Praise indeed from the man who lived it and saw it all.
This fine portrait of Allan and John Wright adorns posters advertising their tour of Denmark, which begins April 3. Eleven performances, eleven days in a row!
A.T. has been invited to take part in a celebration of Jack Kerouac's work on 15 March at the Cabaret Voltaire (36-38 Blair Street, Edinburgh). Following is the official announcement from "Big Word":
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There is a lengthy, interesting interview with Allan and Triste Magazine posted on the Triste website: www.triste.co.uk/at.htm
News on the Gaughan/Taylor tour: The BBC recording Allan and Dick are doing on Feb.14 will be broadcast on Feb. 28 on The Andy Kershaw show, BBC Radio 3. Final details: The Andy Kershaw show, 22.15 (British time), 90.2-92.4 Mhz.
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BBC Radio 2 has a page in its website's artist database featuring Allan. There is an excellent biographical sketch of Allan and some Realaudio song samples. The link is:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/folk/artist_database/pages/taylorallan.shtml
On the recent tour of Holland and Belgium in December 2002 Allan went to Brussels the night before the concert and along with Patrick Ferryn who lives in Brussels (and who is making the film of Derroll Adams in which Allan appears) he found the bar in which he wrote "Win or Lose" in 1978. Now it is a restaurant, but back in the days when Allan spent a lot of time there it was a bar that catered for an eclectic group of people. Whilst Allan was there, the new owner contacted Jean-Marie who owned the bar back in the 70s. Jean-Marie was so excited to know that Allan was back in the bar he told the owner that the drinks were on him. You'll see in the photo that Allan is taking full advantage of this.
The "ladies of the night" are no longer there, nor are the weird and wonderful characters who figure in the song, but if anyone is making their way through Brussels and would like to try some good food in interesting surroundings, the address is:
Aux Laboureurs, 832 Chaussee d'Alsemberg, 1180 Bruxelles. Tel. 02 378 1210.
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