A Trip to Pepperland - the North West of England

Just returned from a trip to my birth place - the North West of England - where I performed at the International Guitar Festival of Great Britain on a tribute concert to my friend, and festival founder, Brendan McCormack (who passed away unexpectedly earlier this year).

Too many highlights from this trip to go into much detail here, but here are a few of them:

Had a nice chat with Rock n Roll Hall of Famer James Burton (Elvis’ guitarist for several years, amongst many other things) at the airport in Atlanta and again in Manchester - it’s a small world.

Spent quite a bit of time with Paul Balmer, film maker (BBC, the Grapelli and Bream films, etc.) and author of the recent Haynes manuals on Fender and Gibson guitars. Trying to work out what to do with Brendan’s many unfinished projects, including two films we were making together about my Bach and Albeniz transcriptions (filmed at the festival a couple of years ago).

Brendan’s daughters, Frith and Anna, gave me their dad’s Pujol books, which he used during his studies in Spain with Pujol himself back in the 60s/70s.

Gourmet Blue Mountain Jamaican coffee (I think we all know how those beans are ‘treated’) and wild boar, black pudding and venison sausages (these are called “Man Sausages!”) in Clitheroe, Lancashire, at Cowman’s Sausages http://www.cowmans.co.uk. According to Cowman’s published menu, the Venison sausages ‘may contain shot.’

Attended the Preston North End-Newcastle United game at the revamped Deepdale ground - amazing!

The tribute concert was a wonderful event and included many styles of guitar (reflecting Brendan’s wide-ranging musical interests) with players from both sides of the Atlantic.

On many occasions, with the Merseybeat groups The Memphis Three and Ricki and His Redstreaks, Brendan shared the bill with the Beatles. In a Merseybeat interview, John Lennon referred to Brendan as his favorite guitarist, and in the famous Time magazine interview following the break up of the Beatles, Paul McCartney said how he wished the Beatles could just go back to being a band like Ricki and His Redstreaks.

Well, by this time Brendan had studied classical guitar with Pujol in Spain and was playing lute for the BBC. He was a man of many talents - guitarist, lutenist, champion of the ukulele, orchestral arranger, expert on the lyrics of Chuck Berry, photographer, film-maker, calligrapher, graphic designer, founder and organizer of Europe’s biggest guitar festival, and much more.

Feels like the end of an era.

Next performance - a Beatles for Solo Guitar concert/workshop in a couple days…

…another trip to Pepperland.