A community band in name only....

So my time with the Carnival Band has come to an end.

I'd like to say it ended in a fiery crash with guns ablazing, tears being spent, but it was more of a fizzle, not unlike a dud firework at halloween.

The new God's Monkey CD is out. Half covers inspired by the Carnies, half originals inspired by my own imagination. Sadly, it was the inspiration from the Carnies that brought my time with them to a close, turns out my ongoing nemesis Marcos X considered my inspiration a theft of his talent. Amongst other things he accused me of stealing his arrangements of cover songs, when in reality I downloaded the MIDI files from a free site and used them.

When a community operation like the Carnival Band is actually run by a petulant and petty dictator like Marcos X, everyone loses, especially the other players in the band that have to contend with his demeaning persona. The public are also fooled in to believing how great and wonderful the band must be, whilst it remains so in concept it is an idealistic and superficial notion as the band stands today. But hey its only music right ?

The last few months with the Carnies have been kind of quiet. The last real gig was at the Pride Parade in August and only half of that was functional thanks to a dodgy generator. We played the Britannia Centre's 30th anniversary on the 7th of October and this was my final event with the band.

I have benefited greatly from the last 11 months of being an active member of this band. My guitar playing has increased a 100 fold, hell I can even play the off beat. I have benefited from playing with other musicians such as Ross Barrett and his sons Tim and Nathan, Steven Lester Smith, Brandon Walker, Bryan, Dan Vie and many others who shared their talents and skills freely.

However, there was a more mean spirited aspect to some of the members of the band, call it paranoia or insecurity. I'm still convinced some of these people still believe I am an undercover Vancouver police officer, [something I was accused of from the start] despite the fact the VPD does not hire people with disabilities.

Then there is Marcos X himself. An obviously talented and skilful musician who taught me an incredible amount about playing, yet he seemed to resent everything he gave. Marcos X taught me a lot about how not to treat people in a band, by setting himself up as leader beyond reproach he continues to dominate the band much to its sad demise.

I now move on to other projects that have thankfully been brewing over the last few months.

Mr M and the All Nighters is this project and it looks like it is getting a full head of steam with gigs now booked for late November. Bringing a little bit of Wigan to the West Coast will be a pleasure on my part and we have a fine cast of players to help out with the task.