BLOG 84 11.05.13

Jurgen Adametz my webmeister has been waiting patiently for me to send him over all the things to update my website. I do appreciate the hard work he does in helping me keep the site running smoothly and also should say thanks to you all as it’s now almost up to 175,000 visits.

Lots (but not too much) been happening over the past few weeks since my last blog. The funeral of my friend James Herbert OBE in Henfield went off okay. Around 250 family and friends made it along. Jims brother John did a very nice eulogy, two of his three daughters did a reading, his book publisher read a tribute about Jim as one of the worlds leading authors and I wrote and read my tribute on behalf of his many friends. The wake was noisy and lots of glasses were raised in his honor. As these things go it was a lovely day and a great farewell to a very special friend.

My friend Michael Watt who I’ve mentioned before in my blogs is a very successful theatre producer and on 11th April his musical Matilda had its opening night on Broadway in New York to huge success. Get to see it if you can. Its also on in London …. http://www.matildathemusical.com/

Last weekend Sue and I spent a long weekend in Ibiza at son Jamie and Jo’s great home there. There was plenty of eating and drinking and sunshine. Just the short break I needed. We saw Jamie again this weekend when he flew in from Dubai where he’d been for 24 hours with Groove Armada on a festival. Four hours later he was on another plane out of Gatwick heading home to Ibiza.

I’ve also been working on the new Quo Box Set due out very soon. I’ve been supplying a lot of the photos and memorabilia for the booklet. Looks like it’ll be a really good package. Thanks too to Olle and Philippe for some help with a few bits.

Daughter Kirstie and Barney are due to have their new baby the end of June. Yep another grandson which Sue and I are really looking forward to.

A big thank you to everyone who sent me birthday greetings yesterday. It was another memorable day as in the afternoon I attended the funeral of another very good friend of forty years Tony Mullane who passed away two weeks ago. And in the evening had a most enjoyable dinner with Sue and our good mates Arthur and Dorothy Wickson. So it was a day full of mixed emotions.

So the ‘Bula Bula Quo’ single is released and seems to be causing a bit of a stir with one or two Quo fans. I think what has to be remembered is it’s a song Francis and I wrote specifically for the Bula Quo movie they shot in Fiji last year and therefore not a usual Quo style of single. It’s different and works really well for the film. There’s a couple of other songs that you’ll hear on the soundtrack album that might be a little less ‘controversial’ and suit the taste of a lot of the Quo fans. Take a listen and I’ll be interested to hear the opinions once the whole album has been heard. Looking forward now to the movie premiere at the Odeon in Leicester Square July 1st

I’m very much looking forward to seeing Mark Knopfler and his excellent band at the Albert Hall in a couple of weeks time. I love his album ‘Privateering’. It’s sooooo good. Brilliant musicians…

I’ve been working really hard along with Adrian Cross to get the new updated paperback version of the Quo coffee table book ‘Just Doin It’ finished. This one is called ‘Still Doin It’ (clever stuff eh?:-) So its got an additional 32 pages to include everything the band has been up to over the past five years, a new intro by Francis and Rick, lots of great photos and is scheduled for publication around the end of August time through Omnibus Publishing. While I’m on the subject I should say thanks to a few of you that have sent me some photos and memorabilia from your private collection including Olle Ostergard, Per Engelbro, Philippes Duponteil and Robin, Rob and Roger Schortemeijer, Roger Johansson, Arjen de Graaf and others. Deadlines have been on us and you really were a big help.

My new book of poems, thoughts and various other combinations of words ‘THIS RAGING STORM’ is almost finished. I hope you’ve checked out the click info on this site Homepage. I’ll keep you posted in my next Blog on when I hope to have it go to print.

Ciaran Gribbin is working hard Down Under on a lot of new songs. He’s co-writing with some great people and on various excellent projects. INXS are still ‘off the road’ and in the meantime Ciaran isn’t letting the grass grow under his feet. He and Andrew Farriss are about to do some more writing to add to the excellent catalogue of songs they’ve written together over the past two years.

The Quo Australian Tour began a week after the Frantic Four Reunion Tour and it all went very well as did the couple of Mexico shows soon after Oz. Quo really are one of the hardest working bands around.

Okay Jurgen here it comes…….

Cheers all til next month
Bob x