Well, as you might have guessed, we had a bit of a party to celebrate the launch of the CD.

And played some tunes.

It was a hot June evening, and everyone seemed to be in a mood to party.  It was great to catch up with so many friends from all over the place.

You can see some photos from the event by clicking here. As more pics come in from the various people who were snapping away, I’ll add them to the album.

I have to say DBs Weston did us proud with the PA rig and the lighting.  On the whole, I have to say it was a brilliant night. Notwithstanding the problems I had with the mainstage rig and the monitors.  We got through the first half with half my keyboard sounds missing, but it didn’t matter.  We just had a great time.

The set list was as follows

• Fantasy Bridge
• Together on the Shores of Time
• Autumn Rain
• Endless Ocean
• Quiescence
• Don’t Give up on Love
• Ode to Joy (encore)

I would like to thank Daren from DBs, Sue for all the help in organising it, and putting up with me in the run-up to the party, and of course Adam, Brendan and Paul for helping create the Fantasy Bridge live sound.

Every good album launch event needs t-shirts. Right? So we decided to push the boat out and get some shirts made.

The design is based on the CD on-body image, with the ‘Bridge’ coming out at the viewer.  I’m rather pleased with  how it’s come out.

We found a guy locally who would do short-run jobs called RM Signs and Textiles and he was a really nice guy.  Really switched on and, happy to advise on the best print method for the job.  He even had to do a small edit on the design where photoshop had clipped the top of the circle, which he’s done really well.

So now we have a large pile of t-shirts which I think have come out rather well, and they will be available on the night at DBs alongside the CDs themselves. More about which, very soon.

It was Sue’s idea.  If we’ve got to delay, we might as well do something a bit more ‘special’ to launch the album.

We decided that playing the CD through and me having a go at some ‘unplugged’ versions of a couple of songs, in the back garden with 20 or so friends over Easter would have been nice, but we could think a bit more ambitious.  Adam was up for it, as was Paul (the two ‘local’ musicians on the project). So we got together and started trying out some of the songs. Yes it was working, but we could really do with a guitarist too.  Andy unfortunately had to rule himself out due to work commitments, and of course Steinar and Nick are in different timezones!

But Paul and I thought of a friend from way back who is a good guitarist and who might be up for a jam.  To cut a long story short, I’d like to welcome Brendan Dykes to the Fantasy Bridge family for the launch gig. Rehearsals are very much under way, and I’m pretty pleased with the way it’s sounding.

Then our attention turned to the venue.

So having thought a bit and explored a few avenues that seemed to get closed by either cost, or people not returning emails, Paul happened to mention his neighbour owned a live music venue, and might be worth contacting. Sue and I went to visit Daren of DBs Music Bar in Weston, and he is a really nice guy, with a cool venue, replete with sound system, stage, lighting, bars, and more importantly  a free night on June 3rd.

So we will be presenting about half the album, live to an invited audience on that night, followed by a play through of the CD and some fine retail opportunities.

The countdown to the launch party begins!

Things never run quite to plan do they?

So this week, I got a phone call from the CD manufacturers.  The plant they use had some machinery problems. The result of which is, my CDs are going to be delayed until the end of the month.  Add in the Easter holidays, and this means that 25th April is no longer going to be a viable release date.

Of course there is nothing much the Disc Wizards guys can do about this, it’s their subcontractor that has had the problem.

Anyway, what is to be, and all that.  So, with that in mind we are working on the new release schedule.  And also looking at the surrounding release activities, to try and make a bigger thing of it.

As soon as I know more, I will of course let you good people know too.

Stay tuned for more info.