Today I’m off the Kelowna to begin my little BC weekend tour!
Woke up at 8 am to pack up all the tour gear. Brent (bass) & Lyndon (percussion) met me at my home at 10 am to jump into my Escape and hit the road.
We arrived in Kelowna at 2:30 and found a great place to have lunch. The Wild Apple! A very cool restaurant with a fabulous view of the lake!
We arrived at the Minstrel Cafe at 4 pm to load our gear in and do a sound check. Here we have a very small stage however the sound system sounds great. Also the room itself sounds fantastic. It should be a great night.
After the sound check we checked into our hotel. It’s nothing fancy. Reminds me of my old 80′s touring days living out of Motel 6′s.
We’ll head back to the venue at 7:15 and begin at 8. The first set will end at 9 pm. Then we’ll have a bite to eat and play from 9:30 to 10:30 pm
The performance went great and it was a lot of fun performing as a trio. It was a blast playing the electric guitar once again. I really missed it.
Tomorrow were off to Perform at the Dream Cafe in Penticton.
Today I performed solo rumba flamenco in Richmond BC at the Wishing Tree. I believe the event was for the new and potential tenants is this newly built town house complex.
This was an interesting location to find. The address was located on Tomicki Ave. which I couldn’t find on Google maps. (Or in my map book)
Fortunately I had a phone number for the client. (As I usually do) Unfortunately I was unable to reach anyone on the phone. Yet fortunately, there was a message that gave me great direction to the venue. So, finding the venue was easy.
This was one of those rare gigs where I didn’t get to meet my on site contact. It was up to me to pick the best performance location.
The event and venue was really nice. I began my performance at noon and performed without a break until 2pm. There is never that much to do on a break so a lot of the time it’s nice just to sit a continue playing the guitar.
Once I finished at 2pm I was invited to have a sandwich before I packed up my gear to head home.
It’s getting close and I’m really excited about this one!
Here’s all the details…
March 12, 2011 I’ll be teaming up with Los Angeles spanish guitar virtuoso Benjamin Woods for a performance at the Fort Langley Chief Sepass Theatre with John’s fiery rumba flamenco, latin jazz quartet.
John Gilliat, a long time resident of Langley, has dedicated himself to a fiery, world beat fusion of Rumba Flamenco and Latin Jazz.
For three decades this Westcoast Music Award Nominee has toured throughout North America and Japan. Performance highlights include representing Canada at Japan’s 2005 Expo, performing at Canada’s 2010 Winter Olympics, performing for Canada’s former Prime Minister Jean Chretien and winning the 2009 Canadian National Loopstation Championship at the Montreal Jazz Festival.
John’s recordings have been used for radio, documentaries, TV and film in North America, Japan, Ireland and the UK.
Benjamin Woods is one of the few (if not only) American flamenco guitarists ever featured in Spain`s # 1 newspaper “El Pais” and in Spain’s #1 selling flamenco magazine: ALMA 100 (March 2008 issue). Benjamin is also the founding member of LA`s flamenco, metal fusion group Flametal.
For one night only these two master guitar technicians will be presenting a musical night you may not want to miss. Also joining John and Benjamin will be bass guitarist Brent Gubbels,latin percussionist Lyndon Dewitt and flamenco dancer / vocalist, Stephanie Pedraza.
Stephanie Pedraza is a unique combination of singer, song writer, and flamenco dancer/cantaora (traditional flamenco singing) based in Vancouver BC. Born in to a latin american family and having moved to Colombia at a very early age, she has been constantly immersed in her latin roots of song and dance.
The performance is Saturday, March 12th at 8:00pm in the Fort Langley Fine Art School`s Chief Sepass Theatre. Tickets are available at Long & Quade Music in Langley and at Wendles Bookstore Café in Fort Langley. You can also purchase tickets online at www.johngilliat.com or by calling 604.882.2112 Advance tickets are $25 general admission or $20 for seniors and students. Tickets at the door will be $30.
It will be a corporate performance with my fiery rumba flamenco guitar trio with Andre Stepanian playing flamenco guitar and Lyndon Dewitt on percussion.
Once again I’ll be performing background music for an unknown companies annual gala event. I’ll plan to arrive at 5pm to set up and our performance will begin at 6:30pm and will play until 10:30pm.
I have no idea what to expect for this gig so I’ll be bringing a medium size system with 4 Yamaha PA speaker cabnets for the room and a single powered monitor for the band. If it’s a really big group I’ll also be using in ear monitors.
Here’s a video I shot of the shark tank with my blackberry while we were hanging out before the gig.
I plan to leave at 3:30pm and if the traffic is light as it usually is on a Sunday, I should arrive between 4:30 or 5pm. This gig is also formal attire therefore we’ll all be wearing a suit and tie.
Once I arrived I entered the aquarium to find the event coordinator to find out were we’ll be setting up. I’ve played the aquarium a number of times now and the big room we were to play in is not the best for sound. Lot’s of glass and smooth surfaces. (yuck)
We began playing after a short speech at 7:15ish, the people at the event really enjoyed us and it looks like I’ll be back next year. Unfortunately I didn’t bring cd’s as there were a number of people from the group that would of loved a copy. It’s never my intention to sell cd’s at a corporate performance however it’s always a good idea to have a few copies on hand in the car. (bad packing today)
After the gig it was time to pack up, unfortunately it was pouring rain outside. Good thing I was able to park very close and a bonus was that parking for tonight was only $2!
Today I’m off the Kelowna to begin my little BC weekend tour!
We arrived in Kelowna at 2:30 and found a great place to have lunch. The Wild Apple! A very cool restaurant with a fabulous view of the lake!
After the sound check we checked into our hotel. It’s nothing fancy. Reminds me of my old 80′s touring days living out of Motel 6′s.
