Here is a brief picture account of the gigs I have been doing in May, including Cannes, Cornwall and The Cavern!
Leo
R.I.P Levon Helm you were truly an inspiration, here is a video of one of my favourite songs ‘The Weight’, beautifully filmed for the movie ‘The Last Waltz’. Levon is the singer and drummer, he was still making great music right up until the end here is his website: The Levon Helm Band
Bungay Marathon!
Yesterday I took part in the Bungay Marathon, it was almost exactly a year since I ran my first race and my last full marathon in Brighton for charity. This time I had decided it was me against the clock. I was excited to do my home town race, I had turned 30 last week and the Bungay Black Dog Marathon was 30 years old this year as well a perfect match!
I started training for this race at Christmas, building up my miles slowly and trying to build my strength and stamina. I knew from people who had run this race before that it was going to be quite tough, there are a few energy sapping hills on the way to Beccles that you must complete twice. It was a slightly blustery day with a mixture of sunshine, rain and hail but nothing too extreme and a nice cool temperature. We started at the Maltings in Bungay at 10.30. There were 2 main races, a full marathon and a half marathon, they started us off first. I have been lucky enough to train in some incredible places for this marathon. My trip to Australia and China has had me running along beaches, through mountains, through busy cities and even along the Great Wall of China. It felt good to be bringing all those miles and memories back to Bungay.
Once we had started I had to resist the urge to race off, the pace of the fastest runners was a pace I could follow, but not for 26 miles. I had to hold back. My plan was to complete the course in under 3h 30mins and I knew I had to be disciplined to achieve this, start off too fast and I will pay for it later. So off I went through Bungay and out over the Bath Hills for the first time, It was a lovely first lap, through Beccles over the bridge and down across the meadows past the Geldeston Locks along the old railway track back to Bungay, I was feeling strong and I past half way in 1h 35mins, friends and family cheered me on as I climbed Bridge Street.
The second lap is more difficult in a few ways, firstly you know how far you have to run again, secondly the hills seem a lot bigger. I managed to get over the hills keeping up my pace and as I passed the sign to Beccles I was overcome with a great sense of achievement “I have just run to Beccles… twice!” but now I needed to get home. I reached the 20 mile mark in 2h 30mins. I was hit with an almost instant welcome to the business end of the marathon, a heavy lead feeling in my thighs, over the next 2 miles I really had to convince myself to keep up my pace as best I could and at points to not listen to the little bird on my shoulder that was telling me to walk for a bit. For most of the race I had been near fellow Black Dog Chris Chorley, a fine marathon runner who was many years of experience and was making Bungay Marathon his first of 5 marathons in as many weeks, sometimes I followed him and sometimes he followed me, but we found ourselves together on the last 2 miles of the course. It was great to be running with someone who has obviously ran marathons in his sleep, very inspiring.
As I followed the cinder path along the old railway line, I gritted my teeth and found an extra gear, I was almost home. I wanted to finish strong and I was pleased my body had a little bit left. I was strangely spurred on by seeing the front runners whizz past from the Half Marathon, I cheered them on and they grunted back, some looked relaxed and some looked like they were really straining. I wondered what on earth I must look like on the last mile of a marathon. As I rounded the corner and heard the music at the finish, I lifted my head and smiled and waved at the crowd, they cheered and I crossed the line, it was over. What a feeling to have run the Bungay Marathon, it was really a special day. I also realised I had completed it in under 3h 30mins which was very satisfying, 3h 27mins. We chatted to many folks after and cheered finishers to the line. To my surprise I even collected an award for being the first male Black Dog, amazing!
I am going to have a few weeks of rest now and then consider what my next challenge could be, in the mean time I will concentrate on some music and prepare for upcoming gigs.
Hi everyone!, Here is a nice little video for you to get a flavour of the show ‘Mojo’ I was in at the Barbican. enjoy, we had a blast! We are also performing it again this summer at the Salzburg festival.
Hello all, I have finally landed back in the U.K after a whirlwind trip to Australia and China. I was lucky enough to visit many beaches up and down the N.S.W coast, all beautiful, sandy and surfy. I hiked in the Blue Mountains in the mist, I ran up the Great Wall and through the backstreets of Shanghai. First stop was Sydney. Running around Sydney harbour was fantastic, I also ran a race, theSydney parkrun. It was great fun, very humid and hot even at 8 oclock in the morning. This is a new event that has started up and somehow I managed to get a snap of me in the Sydney Morning Herald.
On the 18th of Feb I did a gig at a venue called The News Agency in Sydney. It was a brilliant night, packed full of many different types of music. The News Agency is a great little venue, almost like a house party with a proper stage and lights. I opened the evening with a solo set. Great crowd, really quiet and appreciative. Then it was time for the fantastic Kathleen Williamson to take to the stage for a home coming gig, I got up and played some trumpet on a few of her tunes along with her brother John Williamson who accompanied on guitar. We then all played together again with the final act, The Mick Hanna Quartet. A lively jazz finale with piano, drums, bass, trumpets, saxes, guitar and vocals. The after party was at a house party in Marrickville and no-one I was with seemed to know whose house it was! Nice buffet though.
A visit to China for 10 days on the way home was an incredible contrast to Australia. There are roughly the same amount of people living in the whole of Australia than live in the city of Shanghai. That is either a very small amount for one country or a large amount for one city. The population density of Australia is 6.4 people per square mile. In Shanghai the density is 9400/sq ml. That is a lot more people working, cycling, walking, driving, shouting, singing and so on. As you weave down the streets you realise it is a country of incredible contrasts. Skyscrapers and 5 storey highways towering over crumbling Hutongs and 1000’s of people on bikes. We also went to Beijing and travelled north to the Great Wall where we ran and trekked for 3 hours high up into the mountains until the wall was crumbling and the wind burnt your cheeks. It is a truly incredible landscape, the wall looks like a dragon climbing over the mountains off into the distance as far as the eye can see and further. It is tantalising, you want to carry on, over the next ridge, to the next tower to see where it travels, where it ends. There is a marathon along the Great Wall and I am now wondering if I could somehow run it in the future.
My plans for the near future are as follows: Get over Jet lag, read my 700 emails, gig on 23rd of March at Saxlingham Nethergate village hall in Suffolk (details to follow this week) and continue training for the Bungay Marathon on the 15th of April.
Leo x
Hi everyone, having a great time down under and I am doing a gig tomorrow in Sydney Australia follow link for details. http://www.facebook.com/events/316812181699056/
As you are all aware by now, if you have been following my blog, I am a musician and also a runner. Following on from my video ‘Run and Become’ I thought it would be great to further combine my passions by travelling somewhere and doing a gig and running a race all in the same weekend. So here you go with the first instalment.
12/1/12 BIRMINGHAM- Jam House and 5K
I travelled to Birmingham to do a gig with a band that I front called Les and the Licks, I am Les, or at least that is a nickname I have adopted by friends when in Brum. It’s a great city where I went to university and lived for many years. The venue was The Jam House in St Paul’s Square, a venue which reputedly is owned by Jools Holland, not sure if this has ever been true but it seems to help promote a venue which puts on live music every night of the week. I was there to wail out some blues, funk and rock & roll, much to the appreciation of the audience including 100’s of university students who appeared from nowhere and wanted me to sing them all a happy 21st birthday, I’m sure there was some fibbing going on there, it cant have been everyones birthday! After a great night of music and merriment at the Jam House we travelled back to friend Andy’s house where we all danced in the kitchen to old 78’s on his gramophone!
The run I wanted to do was a 5k parkrun in Canon Hill Park. If you don’t know about parkrun it is an amazing organisation which holds free timed runs all over the country all starting at 9am every Saturday morning. The clever bit is that everyones times go onto the same website so you can see your own time from where you ran or view people who ran in Brighton, or London etc. For some it is a competitive race to chase PB’s against fellow speedsters, others a training run on the way to a longer race or for many a great way to keep fit and enjoy running with others in a beautiful setting. It was really cold on arrival and after a slightly rusty jog through the park I was standing on the start line suddenly realising I had absolutely no idea where the course was going to go, I would keep an eye on the runners ahead.
Go! We were off, 263 enthusiastic athletes in miles of lyric on a cold crisp and icy morning. I started at a good pace and managed not to race off too quickly at the beginning even though it is always so tempting. I slowly upped my speed throughout the race. The aim of today was going to be a controlled quick race with a bit left over. I really enjoyed this race, there were lots of twists and turns and the path followed around the lake in the middle of the park it was also really flat.
I finished in 16th place in a time of 18:34 a PB. I finished strong and enjoyed cheering on the finishers and soaking up the post race atmosphere with a cup of tea, lovely!
’Run & Become’, is a combination of my two passions, it is inspired by my running exploits, and also takes inspiration from the late guru Sri Chinmoy’s phrase ‘Run & Become’.
“This is a song I hope everyone can understand and take inspiration from, it is about doing things you are passionate about because they can set you free, especially if you don’t put too much pressure on yourself and remember to enjoy!”.
For the video, I teamed up with friend and fellow film maker Theo Godley. It was created in September in two days. A camera strapped to Theo’s car filmed me running down miles of Suffolk lanes during day and night whilst training for the Round Norfolk Relay
Click below to download the song from itunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/run-and-become-single/id477884393
Hi everyone! I am rehearsing like mad for Mojo at the moment which will be on at the Barbican in London in December. A great family show for christmas, with music, dancing and puppetry. To book tickets you can go to the barbican website which is www.barbican.org.uk
In the last few months I have been all over, Surfing in the South of France very fun! huge waves!, good food, good company. I spent a small amount of time standing on my board and most of the time paddling and holding my breath as the waves from The Bay of Biscay barrelled on by! I went to Amsterdam and Brussels for the Cinekids Festival, and I have run a few races as well.
I ran in The Adnams Great East Run last weekend, a great 20k race through the lanes of Suffolk starting in my home town of Bungay and organised by The Bungay Black Dog running Club which I am a proud member of! I completed it in a time of 1:25:57 in 32nd place, it was my first attempt at this distance and I enjoyed it very much, apart from maybe the last vicious hill that appeared from somewhere even though we are in flat old East Anglia. It was a beautiful autumn day, a bit grey and windy but perfect all the same, I felt full of running and I finished strong crossing the line and immediately being handed a bottle of Adnams Ale very nice!
Finally, on a musical note I am uploading a video next week which was made a month ago for a new song which I will also make available for download.
’Run & Become’, is a combination of my two passions, it is inspired by my running exploits, and also takes inspiration from the late great guru Sri Chinmoy’s phrase ‘Run & Become’.
“This is a song I hope everyone can understand and take inspiration from, it is about doing things you are passionate about because they can set you free, especially if you don’t put too much pressure on yourself and remember to enjoy!”.
For the video, I teamed up with friend and fellow film maker Theo Godley. It was created in September in two days. A camera strapped to Theo’s car filmed me running down miles of Suffolk lanes during day and night.
Epic week touring completed! played drums and trumpet with Matthew P, we supported Mat Mchugh, great music and lovely people on this tour, a pleasure to hang out with them all, I also did a solo gig in Norwich on Thursday with an Orchestra, the Norfolk Youth Orchestra, they are all fantastic musicians who will go on to do some amazing things, again a pleasure to play with them and meet the other bands. It was organised by BBC Norfolk Introducing, there will be some recordings of the evening to come! I have done a lot of miles this week I need to plant a lot of trees. I have a solo gig in Cambridge on friday follow this link for details: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=213791602014266
