ChickenboneJohn's Blog (42)

Glastonbury 2019 - it doesnt get any easier!

Glastonbury had a "fallow" year in 2018 to allow the land to recover, so we had a year off (we did WOMAD instead...but we'll not talk about that...). So, we submitted our application to trade in October last year, and heard late February 2019 that we'd been accepted. That was the starting gun for our preparation. My daughter Anne Zilpha made an analysis of the previous two years sales figures and we drew up a schedule of the stuff we had to make and buy-in. The daunting prospect was that we…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on July 6, 2019 at 8:00am — 4 Comments

At last...my CD!

At long last I've put out a CD!! Launched during my mini Euro tour of the Low Countries with Hollowbelly, at the Ouwehoer Cafe in Rotterdam.

https://www.chickenbonejohn.com/products/chickenbonejohn-cd…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on October 12, 2018 at 11:46pm — 2 Comments

Summer of '18 - Life On The Road

So...summer's well on, and it's been an amazingly warm one...and for me an exhausting one.   I know people think that being a professional musician is one long round of cool gigs, adulation, alcohol and drugs...but there's more...and less to it than that. Finding the cash for many tanks of diesel, worrying about whether there's a parking place near the gig, figuring out the logistics of loading out 500kg  of gear every night and keeping it safe, and not getting busted by the German Autobahn…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on August 10, 2018 at 8:54pm — 1 Comment

Back On The Road - Autumn European Tour

It had been a while, but it was time for me and Hollowbelly to go back on he road again…the Van Thom Weekender and the German Cigar Box Guitar Festival were happening on two consecutive weekends, so that was the cue to arrange a little tour. We had a contact from a new promoter offering a midweek date between the two weekends, and I managed to arrange some more dates on the way out and back, so we had a viable tour organised. Getting gigs is one thing, but getting shows that pay and work…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on September 26, 2017 at 2:00am — 2 Comments

Glastonbury with Chickenbone John, Hollowbelly and Anne Zilpha

  • GLASTONBURY 2017

    After last year's success selling cigar box guitars at Glastonbury, we decided to have another shot at it. My sales manager (and daughter) Anne completed the application in October of last year...and early in March we heard that we'd been offered…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on June 29, 2017 at 11:00am — No Comments

Pilgrimage to Bremen

Autumn, and time for me to make the annual pilgrimage to Bremen to attend the Van Thom Weekender, accompanied by my travelling companion of old, Hollowbelly. It's an  extravganza of alternative music organised by Andreas Reidel, aka DJ Tourette van Thom, and a great opportunity to catch up with old friends that we've made over the years. It was also a stepping stone for us going on to the 1st German cigar box guitar festival the following weekend.

It starts with…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on October 11, 2016 at 5:39am — No Comments

1st German Cigar Box Guitar Festival

Me and Hollowbelly have been on the road again, this time to Germany. We'd been to the Van Thom Weekender in Bremen (more of that in another blog), and now were headed down south on another long drive to a tiny village called Pleutersbach on the river Neckar. It was a long and winding road about 40  minutes drive up river from the beautiful city of Heidelberg..and when we got there we astonished at how tiny and rural the place was...but the stage had been built in a barn just off the main…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on September 21, 2016 at 6:30am — 3 Comments

The Eight Days Of Glastonbury

Glastonbury -  the biggest greenfield music festival in  the world. Way back in October 2015, me and my sales manager (my daughter Anne) decided we'd have a go at…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on July 3, 2016 at 2:30am — 12 Comments

2015...another hard row to plough

Phew,  another year end nearly come around, and I’ve kept myself busy again. 2014 saw me consolidating my guitar making and music business…with only the odds and ends of my day job as an architect to deal with, putting my elder daughter Anne to work, helping me around the workshop and in the office, a few festivals, workshops and so on.  2015 has moved up a gear, and has been a full-on year of getting the business on a serious footing.…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on December 23, 2015 at 8:30pm — 6 Comments

The Van Thom Weekender - Hollowbelly & Chickenbone John in Germany

Well, last weekend that time of year had come round again, and it was time for me and Hollowbelly to head off to Europe to meet up with our good friends over in Germany for the 3rd edition of the Van Thom Weekender. We were sad to hear that Paul Smith wouldn't be making it due to chronic back problems, hope you can make it another time buddy.  It's a weekend of music, fun and friendship hosted by our good friend and handmade music fan Tourette Van Thom, who, together with his wife Danni…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on September 18, 2015 at 3:30am — 3 Comments

"Clog Me Up, Beeyatch!!!" - The last Low Countries tour of 2014 for Chickenbone & Hollowbelly

Well that just about wraps up the touring schedule for 2014 for me and Mr Belly..a quick trip over to Belgium and the Netherlands for 3 gigs and 2 workshops, and a mere 1300 miles under the wheels. Huge thanks to Ozzy VanDer Loo of Chulahoma Music and Hans Siongers of Cafe Pallieter who arranged things for us, and for all who came along to make guitars and to listen to us. It…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on December 3, 2014 at 10:00am — 3 Comments

Banjo making...Appalachian mountain style.

I've just finished this..what a challenge it's been..and long overdue in the completion. It's an Appalachian mountain-style banjo for Hollowbelly. This is designed to be a stage instrument so I opted to use a Fiberskyn head instead of a natural vellum as it would be less prone to variations in humidity and temperature, and it's also got a pickup in it. The tailpiece is designed to accept loop-ended banjo strings or ball-end guitar strings.…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on March 20, 2014 at 6:32am — 15 Comments

2013 - a few thoughts from a Chickenbone perspective

I suppose this is my version of those awful ‘round robin’ letters you get sent with Christmas cards, so if you don’t like that sort of thing, then please read no further. I haven’t been trekking in the Andes, celebrating a birthday in the Maldives, skydiving, buying a Porsche or seeing my children graduate from Oxford University…nobody is forcing you to read on, so rather than posting to tell me to shut the f*ck up, just stop reading, OK?  Having said that, I’ve felt the need to put my…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on December 18, 2013 at 10:30pm — 14 Comments

A Weekend Tour Of The Low Countries…or Cigar Box Guitars for Fun and Profit, European style.

Another little visit to Europe by me and Hollowbelly - this time we decided to make it short and sharp…just 4 days in Belgium and the Netherlands...plus traveling there and back.

 

One thing that a lot of people don’t realise is that it’s not the gigs that are the hard work...it’s everything else that’s involved...the logistics of traveling, loading gear in and out of venues, simple but important things such as finding somewhere to park, making sure you arrive on time with all…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on November 12, 2013 at 7:04am — 7 Comments

MUDDY ROOTS EUROPE

So...a festival in Belgium..sounds pretty dull, not worth bothering with? Well, I've just got back from a trip over there with Hollowbelly and it has been an amazing weekend. If you think the UK music scene is hip and happening, get yourself over to Muddy Roots Europe next year and prepare to be amazed. It's a small festival, just one stage but the range of music is amazing, the quality is excellent, and the enthusiasm of the audiences is totally refreshing.  At this modestly sized event…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on June 18, 2013 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Getting tooled-up...

As I've got a couple of 6 string guitars on order, I thought I'd tool-up and get some neck pocket templates. I looked at StewMacs...but as well the high price and costly shipping, (and the router bits were even more extortionate) they copped for a lot of very poor reviews, so I decided to look elsewhere.  I found something from the EU, with very reasonable shipping, and also got the correct router bit with a bearing from a UK supplier.  The bit was really cheap compared with StewMac, so I…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on June 6, 2013 at 10:27pm — No Comments

Making a flame-grilled resonator guitar

I'm gradually catching up with my backlog of custom work..and here's one of today's jobs...prepping an alu box reso...here it is in the jig just after cutting the soundholes and milling the pickup cutout.

Out of the jig...ready for the next stage.…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on June 6, 2013 at 6:38am — 5 Comments

Slotting fretboards...finding an easier way!

As I've got a lot of guitar making work on, and need to get some custom builds finished, also with loads of guitar shows to prepare for, I'd been thinking about improving my efficiency with slotting fretboards. I'd already recently built my second manual cutting jig, which uses an master template and an indexing system, but it's still quite a drag slotting fretboards, so after much consideration and pondering. I decided that I needed to get a table saw. Buying workshop power tools is always…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on May 22, 2013 at 6:59pm — 6 Comments

European Tour with Hollowbelly..part the Second

After my mammoth posting last time, I thought I'd keep this post a little shorter. Our next destination was Asten, in Noord Brabant, Netherlands...to stay with with Ozzy Van Der Loo. We'd never met, but he'd done all the arranging of our gigs and the workshop in Belgium and Southern Holland, so we reckoned he was an on-the-ball sort of guy. We were warmly received by his partner Jolanda, and very shortly afterward Ozzy turned up, and we were introduced to Thomas, their 8 year old son, who…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on February 26, 2013 at 8:30pm — 1 Comment

My first European Tour - on the road with Hollowbelly

Well...as the words to a Hollowbelly song go, we knew it would be a "Long Long Road". It was all planned out in a very short time, so our itinerary was a bit random, but we were up for it. A couple of days before the off, my car had to go to the garage to be repaired as the ignition lock barrel had broken...so I had to nervously wait for the "dealer only" parts to arrive, and I got it back in the nick of time on Wednesday night, ready for an early start on Thursday.



A steady drive…

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Added by ChickenboneJohn on February 19, 2013 at 12:00pm — 6 Comments

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