Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Truly Madly Deeply

In December 2005 I attended a screening of a documentary about singer George Michael at a cinema in London.

I didn't know much about the evening or what the film was. I just knew that his publicist had invited me to attend a friends and family screening of the film.
If you know anything about me you'll know I'm notoriously terrible at the job of celebrity. I've famously uninvited myself from many a dinner with many a star simply because I always feel fraudulent (don't we all?).

But I wanted to attend this event because George was quite simply someone who really inspired me to want to sing. I'd met him a couple of times in the past and he always struck me as such a shy and sensitive soul and more importantly I felt he'd been down a few roads I was about to travel.
So I took my then assistant and now amazingly successful author Lana Penrose as my date.

As we pulled up in our taxi I saw a line of paparazzi and a crowd of about a hundred in front of the Curzon theatre. My immediate reaction was to tell the cabbie to keep driving and take me home. I had no idea it was a gala event and I was in my 'in between albums' state of not wanting to be in the public eye.
But we got out and just before we went in, Lana tried to say something supportive about making sure we smiled for the cameras. Читать дальше »

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Your Chance To Re-Live The Side Two Tour
Category: Music

If you would like to re-live or experience the audience high point each night when fan-favourite 'Casey' was performed you can order digital downloads of the song now.

Casey was recorded each evening and every individual one off performance is now available to pre order and own forever by CLICKING HERE .

In addition, there are 3 unique digital bundles available with exclusive b sides at WWW.DARRENHAYES.COM

SINGLE ONE
1. CASEY (A CAPPELLA)
2. WORDS (ORIGINAL DEMO RECORDING)

SINGLE TWO
1. CASEY (LIVE FROM THE TIME MACHINE TOUR)
2. IN YOUR MOTHER'S EYES (DEMO RECORDING)

SINGLE THREE
1. CASEY (ORIGINAL DEMO RECORDING)
2. WALK AWAY (ORIGINAL DEMO RECORDING) Читать дальше »

В этом интервью Даррен рассказывает о концепции фотосъемки к его альбому 'This Delicate Thing We've Made'...

Friday, February 22, 2008

Until we meet again..
Current mood: Zen
Category: Zen Music

I have blogged about every show on this tour so I thought I'd quickly post about Amsterdam. It was a love fest. Simple as that. I sang until I was hoarse actually (I think we played 17 or 18 songs and explored a lot of older stuff).. I've got one more show on Sunday night in London and then, as you all know, I'm officially out of the lime light for as long as it will take to get me some happy. I've had a lot of people ask me what will happen after I play the last live date.

The truth is, I don't know.
Time out, for sure.

I've been in the public eye solidly for 12 years now. Even in my downtime when I wasn't promoting an album I was making one. When I wasn't doing press I was touring. When I wasn't touring I was having meetings. When I wasn't having meetings I was making an album.
And so on and so forth.
Читать дальше »

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Brighton

Originally posted in the members area of Darrens Official
Fanclub 'Delicacy' Feb 16th 2008.

Just got in the door from the Brighton gig. It's after 2 am and I'm more than a little bleary eyed! It's the only show outside of London close enough to drive home afterwards but it still feels like a bit of a trek after doing the set and then piling into a transit van with the lads.

I really enjoyed singing tonight and the venue was a very cool looking space. I do feel for the audience at some of these clubs as obviously they aren't completely designed for everyone to have the best view and there are always loads of people sort of crammed in at the sides where they can't really see much.

This perhaps leads to a bit of cheekiness. Or perhaps it's my own banter that invites it. Either way there was a very vocal young man to my right who kept INSISTING I sing 'Insatiable' all night.

To be kind, I performed some of 'To The Moon and Back' . Thought this was a nice peace offering. You know, something old but good.

Hats off to Shave for remembering how to play it, since it clearly wasn't at all rehearsed!

It was a very studious performance tonight. I was really internal (well until I started making jokes about having massive testicles). And Steve said during the encore that he saw loads of people crying during certain songs. I presume this is not because we were terrible but because they too were feeling the lyrics and getting 'internal' as well. Читать дальше »

Новый концертный DVD Даррена The Time Machine Tour выходит в свет 28 апреля 2008 года. Где приобрести DVD будет сообщено дополнительно

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Bristol Thekla

Originally posted in the members area of Darrens Official Fanclub 'Delicacy' Feb 12th 2008.

The Boat gig.

When it was first proposed to me I thought 'Oh God No!'. I ain't playing on no boat. Visions of a harbour cruise for singles came to mind. Bad Karaoke. Even worse lighting. A dinner crowd perhaps.

But the choice to do 250 to 300 capacity clubs meant that our options were somewhat limited. I really wanted to make sure I played in Bristol this time ?and this was our only option.

But you know what? It rocked (no pun intended.. see what I did there?)
It was a really cool venue and a great set and the audience were mad for it..

I came on stage and the second the gig started I knew it was going to be fun. Added in bits of 'Alphabet Street' tonight into Dirty and we included 'Dublin Sky' for good measure at the end.

All in all a great gig and I'm slowly started to realize that it's soon coming to an end!

Only 5 more shows now. Brighton then two in Birmingham, the Amsterdam gig and our final show in London.

Yikes!

xxD

Monday, February 18, 2008

Holy snappin duck shit
Category: Music

Originally posted in the members area of Darrens Official
Fanclub 'Delicacy' Feb 7th 2008.

Holy snappin' duck shit.

I can't believe I talked about having 'the runs' on stage!

But God it was funny.

Anyway I told that story.

I felt on fire (not from my ass, thankfully that had gone..)

But musically.

We were on fire.

Sang Unlovable at the end just because we felt like it.

Added a bit of 'What you need' into Dirty tonight..

And some 'Running up that Hill' into 'Conversation..'

Brilliant brilliant audience and a wonderful town.

Thank you so much Manchester.

All was amazing until the last second.. I left the stage

So full 'o' energy and did a little jump! ONLY TO CRACK MY HEAD ON THE LOW CONCRETE CEILING and land on my ass!

So it ended where it began really.

With the rear end.

Hehe..

xxD

Saturday, February 16, 2008
Manchester First Show
Category: Music

Originally posted in the members area of Darrens Official
Fanclub 'Delicacy' Feb 6th 2008.

Spent the most hilarious 2 and half hours on the Virgin train (not an untouched by man train but a train run by, err, Virgin..) Anyhoo it was the unveiling of A.D.D Darren to Tracey (my P.A) and at one point Steve asked Tracey if there was a child's play pen I could be placed in. I guess I had a lot of spare energy.

Got excited about the gig tonight and about how the future is unfolding. Really looking forward to a break. When the tour is over I'm hoping to go visit my family and then take a good chunk of time for me.

Feel so good to be happy in the present. Not looking back. Not hoping forward. Just comfortable where it is right now. And the best thing about things winding down is that there is less stress around me. Читать дальше »

Thursday, February 14, 2008

London Feb 4th
Category: Music

Originally posted in the members area of Darrens Official
Fanclub 'Delicacy' Feb 5th 2008.

Talk about night and day.

THAT was a wonderful gig.

I was so much more relaxed on stage (*owing in full I'm sure to getting over first night jitters and the TERROR of new songs first time blah blah).

And there was a really tight connection between Steve, Shave and I.

We changed the order of a couple songs by moving Gunning Down Romance and that fact alone seemed to give us a little bit more room to ramp up tonight. 100 Challenging felt better at this tempo (we sped it up just a little) and Dirty was fun! Little bits of I Want You and Britney thrown in for good measure. Worked a treat.

I got a chance to say hi to a few people afterwards. Some who'd travelled form the other side of the city and some from the other side of the world.

And I got to share the TRUTH about the Insatiable video (ask your friends).

Mhwahah.

It was lovely.

Just lovely.

x