Clive's Newsletter
November 25th, 2003
Well...
Can't believe it's been such a long time since I posted any news... considering that it's been a pretty eventful year! Here's a quick catch up from where I left off
in the last newsletter...
The West Coast dates in March were interesting... just as I arrived in the Bay Area, the Bush and Blair "coalition" started their adventure in Iraq. I'm sure that my left coast
fans are starting to think that I only tour there in times of national emergency. The shows were fine but somewhat overshadowed by events in the real world.
May in the UK was fun. Then in June I had a career first: an indoor gig was rained off! The venue was in the basement of a church in Baltimore and a huge thunderstorm
flooded it! August saw me back at PSGW for what is becoming a yearly event for me, teaching songwriting at the music camp. Then back to the UK for a few days to
play a festival and a few shows in Suffolk. Great weather and fun gigs. It was nice to spend a bit of time exploring a lovely part of the world.
I spent most of my time whilst not on the road either playing sessions or working on my next solo CD. I had to cancel a few North Eastern USA dates at the beginning of
October when I came down with a bug that really laid me low and I am hoping to reschedule those shows for next year. More West Coast dates in mid October - no
national disasters this time! Hooray! Mastered the new CD on October 20th, and then -
October 25th started off pretty badly (Fulham beat Man Utd at Old Trafford) then quickly got worse. I thought I'd take advantage of the fine weather to clean
leaves out of the gutters at our house. Out came the ladder and up I went. It was all going well until the ladder slipped from under me and I came down with an
almighty crash, falling about 12 feet onto the back deck. Net result was a broken left arm/shoulder, banged up left leg and right hand, bruised ribs and quite a few bumps,
bruises and scrapes.
So, I'm out of commission for a while. My doctor tells me that the broken bones will take 6 to 8 weeks to heal and that it may be as long as six months before I get
full functionality back in my arm. At the moment I'm doing physical therapy on a daily basis and seem to be making slow, steady progress. Some days are better than
others. I can actually play the guitar a little bit now - no lateral movement to speak of but I can hold down and change chords in first position pretty well.
Good enough for a folk club floor spot!
My November/December UK dates are being rescheduled for next year. My apologies to all the promoters who had to re-arrange their schedules at short notice
and my sincere thanks for their understanding. My apologies also to those of you who were planning to attend a show and a huge thank you for all the get well messages!
I really appreciate your concern and was very touched by the many kind words I received.
I look forward to catching up with you somewhere down the road next year. Oooops.... nearly forgot: the new CD is called "Long Story Short". Should be out sometime
in May, 2004. I'll be back with more details as I know them. Till then....
Best regards: Clive
So, I guess the rest of this year will find me catching up on my reading, listening to music, watching football on the TV, drawing and painting a bit and trying to get above
the 3rd fret on the guitar! But for the pain, it would be pretty relaxing.