Joel Plaskett at Eastnor Castle

Joel Plaskett at Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire, supporting Jools Holland on the start of his summer evening concerts accross the UK. PIC BY JAMES WATKINS. 10/07/2010.

HEY FRIENDS,
The Joel Plaskett Emergency hits Summerside PEI this Saturday, June 26, at Credit Union Place Amphitheatre. We’re gonna rock it!

For those of you in Charlottetown needing your rock and roll fix on FRIDAY night (June 25) then get off the couch and check out Dave Marsh & The True Love Rules with the Jay Smith Band and Arrows in the Air at Hunter’s Ale House. The True Love Rules features the killer tunes of Emergency drummer Dave Marsh. Emergency bass player Chris Pennell plays in the Jay Smith Band . $5 Time:10:00PM
See you there Islanders!

Jump start the Suburban, it’s time to rock.

Sat June 26 – Summerside, PEI for first time ever!
July 1st – Alderney Landing in Dartmouth, NS. A free show for Canada Day. It’ll be a great day and night of music with a killer line up. Starting in the afternoon:

3:45-4:20 Rose Cousins from PEI/ Halifax
4:30-5:05 Steve Poltz from San Diego
5:20-6:00 David Myles from Fredericton/ Halifax
6:20-7:00 English Words from PEI
7:20-8:00 Deep Dark Woods from Saskatchewan
8:30-10:00 Joel Plaskett Emergency from Shannon/Clayton/Creighton/Point Pleasant Park

The fireworks and later show by Telfer will follow. An epic night no doubt. Come one, come all. Party up, party down. See you there.

Hey Folks,
Here is an interview and couple tunes live on RTE1 in Dublin Ireland with host Myles Dungan. It was May 6th and we had just arrived on the 7 am ferry after 40 hours of travel and Peter and I went straight to the radio station to perform. On Rollin Rollin Rollin we were in “the zone” and quite possibly had something to prove.

I think I started to stray/sway a little from exhaustion by the time we played Deny but in spirit of full disclosure I’ve included it here.

Thanks to producer Aidan Butler for having us on the show and Dave Gibson the audio engineer.

On another note- go check out Steve Poltz at Betty’s in Toronto tonight (Friday May 28) and at the Blacksheep in on Sunday May 30st.
Steve’s Dreamhouse record is out on New Scotland records and his live show is incredible. One of the most entertaining and fearless performers I’ve ever witnessed and getting to produce his record was a lot of fun.

I’m off to Toronto tomorrow to work with Sarah Slean on some tracks for her next record. Also on the horizon later in June: some more recordings with my friend Ben Gunning, my father Bill, mixing the tracks I did with Jeremy Fisher, and last but not definitely not least, the Emergency reconvenes for some rock and roll at the Scotland Yard and on the stage in Summerside, PEI on June 26 and Canada Day, July 1st at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth, NS. I’m itching to play some electric guitar again.

After that back to the UK for some acoustic shows in support of the UK release of Three to One, a single disc version of my epic, so as not to scare off the European newbies. Rub a dub Dublin I’m undone in London down the hallway in Galway I was frightened in Brighton by the pistol from Bristol. I could rhyme the day away but I’ve got to go replace the fan in my tape machine… to stop the quiet riot. Holy smokes, the yard looked different when I got home last week.

Wear my walkmen, off and running.
Randy Bachman, Burton Cummings
Guess Who’s coming here for supper
Johnny Burnette, Sir Charles Tupper
The future past stops making sense
Lucky Strikin’ in the present tense

Joel

Yep, home, at least for a few days. Good times in England and Ireland. Dublin got us rolling. After arriving at 7 am via ferry (damn you ash cloud!) we checked in then headed straight to RTE 1 for an acoustic performance and interview with Myles Dungan. That night we rolled out our first show at the upstairs of Whelan’s. Some rowdy Canadians mingled with the locals and the games had begun. The next night a great show at Vicar Street opening for Jerry Fish and the Mudbug Club. Jerry’s show makes grown men hug each other and strangers kiss. In inspirational event for sure and I felt lucky to be a part of it. After that we were off to Galway for an afternoon show at Nimmos with the breeze blowing through the cafe and pints of cider being poured. That night found me playing Light of the Moon and lakes of Ponchartrain at the local Gaelic club with Una the harpist. Peter captured the good times on his iphone which was later stolen outside The Crowbar in London by some skilled evil pickpocket who better be watching those videos and realizing that Peter Elkas has a lot more friends than he does.
The Borderline in London was full and rocking as we closed the night with the Madonna tune of the same name.

Brighton was breezy, beautiful and fun until a a whopping cold knocked me out and left me in a hotel room for two days watching Diehard, The Breakfast Club and most importantly, Walter Matthau as Charlie Varrick. Thanks to Shane and the Canadian Blast crew for hosting some fun shows with our friends Zeus, Jason Collett, Woodpigeon, Rich Aucoin and more.

Liverpool was… eventful. First we checked into a hotel that had a condom hanging from the fire alarm above the bed. We switched to another one that just smelled sweaty so it seemed like an improvement. Apparently monitors are not something to be taken for granted and the lack of them at Hannah’s made for a tough show. Twenty five minutes into what was supposed to be 30 minute set, the stage manager kindly let me know that I had “one minute left”. We stood there for a minute, wondering what song to play, then packed up and retired to the Premier Inn bar to drown our tired vocal chords. I shouldn’t have sent Steve (my soundman) home earlier that week. The next night at MOJO found us patching our own stage only to have the first two songs marred by constant feedback that the local tech couldn’t control. We quickly abandoned the idea of amplification in favour of an acoustic performance to a handful people who moved up close the stage. Peter and I played about four songs before being told by the stage manager that our time was up. Ignoring this information we rocked one more for the small but enthusiastic crowd. We came to play, not to get our 30 minute set cut down to 25. The Sound City Music festival needs to invest in the idea of Sound in their City or change it’s name to something more appropriate…I have a few suggestions I’ll keep to myself. Not all was lost in Liverpool. We met some cool locals, ate some good food, went to the giant cathedral, found a breezy outdoor cafe and got to hang out with our friends Sanjay and Paul. I also found out about this band called The Beatles who are making a bit of a splash.

So… home. Happy and sad. Happy for obvious reasons. Sad because while I was traveling the world’s most memorable cat, White Fang, passed away, moving on up to the great sheepskin blanket in the sky. Adopted on Sept. 11, 2001. Stray in the back of our Brenton Street apartment, Fang, was originally named Little Queenie (after the Chuck Berry song) for about a month. Many band-aids and scars later, we realized that name wasn’t appropriate and White Fang she became. Once her ears came off to cancer she no longer had to abide by the rules of Cat-dom and all bets were off. Changing locations every month or so, nomadic Fang was both a complete mystery and true constant in a world of uncertainties. You could never predict where she’d set up shop next, but, you could know without a doubt, that for 23 of the day’s 24 hours, she’d be sawing logs. Low on energy for her entire life, partly deaf, and always seriously off balance you could never be sure if Fang knew who you were. It didn’t matter, we knew who she was. The Sweet White Fang. She hung on as long as she could but it was time for her to move onto greener pastures.. or whiter blankets…or hotter radiators… or more chewed up cardboard boxes… or longer laps… or simply to a place where she had ears again. I loved that cat.

House of Fang

Play it again, Fang

Earless Wonder

yup, we made it Ireland. HFX to Heathrow – relatively smooth sailing. Heathrow to Dublin?- not so. Flights cancelled due to volcanic ash cloud. So…underground to Euston station with guitars, bags and amps hanging from every limb. Then 5 hour train to Holyhead, Wales. Then 7 hours in Holyhead waiting to catching 3:00am ferry to Dublin. Arrived in Dublin at 6:30 am. Deboarded to epic taxi queue in spitting rain and cold. Sketchy/ cokey/ scary dude with a face like a catcher’s mitt hounding us the whole time and tried to get in the cab with us. Denied. Checked into hotel then off to radio at 9am for 11:30am interview performance on RT1. Back to hotel. Then … only then…. sweet sweet sleep. Four glorious hours of it. Then a show at Whelan’s. Rocked it to a raucous crowd of ex-pat Canadians and locals and then off for drinks at the Library bar. Tomorrow (or is it today)- Vicar Street opening for Jerry Fish. Onwards and upwards.
JP