| News & Updates | |
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If you're looking for info on
past and recent Fresh Nelly events and performances, this is the right
place! Like a BLOG, Posts are listed most recent first. |
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S.Sims-20-03-2014 Mybanez Gitter! "Look Ma! Looky my new toy!" Introducing my Ibanez Road Star. Rebuilt by world renowned guitar rebuilder (and other rebuilder) Gena Hollingshead! It's a piece of sweet for me. And Eye Candy as well, with it's heavy (and I mean heavy!) epoxy gloss coat that'll still be around long after I'm dust, and wonderful tones, and wide enough neck for my stubby digits. "This will be coming on stage with me" was my first comment. Actually this was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but the rebuild took a long time because of parts that needed replacing. It's a gorgeous guitar and has re-kindled my youthful desires to play, and the search for the perfect amp / fx / pedal whatever! If you don't believe me, have a look at this. In any case, the photo does not do it justice. Rock On! |
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S.Sims-14-02-2014 Open Mic Café Valeeeentines Day! "And Now For Something completely Different!" should have been my performance intro, as it was. I did a 15 minute comedy routine and slightly off-colour song to round it up. To boot I put on my old British accent cockney thick! Everyone there really loved the whole thing. You can catch the routine and "I got Shagged.." song on video here. Now I know how crazily difficult it is to put yourself into that "space" and I have a new-found respect for all comedians out there! Thanks to everyone that performed, it was a great night everyone that couldn't make it missed ;) |
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S.Sims-29-01-2014 Open Mic Café TAST Promo The big TAST (Texada Artists' Studio Tour) promo was on, and this night may have been one of the most ambient for ages. The lighting was good (I donated the disco ball, Joseph donated the Par cans/filters) everyone was in great form, and I did alternate comedic versions of 3 songs. Coming into the centre was a magical moment when Taya was crooning off some -- songs to a slide show on the opposite wall. A slide show of island beauty that always seems to impress. Taya's mother Heidi is a photographer, and has the "eye" for scenic and natural beauty that seems to get by the rest of us. I was a bit the odd one out (as usual haha!) by riffing off a goth version of my cynical complaint song "Lies Lies" to a church organ sound on the Korg, and a drum pedal. Next was a vocoder accapela of "What Am I Supposed To Do" , then a comedic version of Willie Nelsons' "All Of Me" playing the guitar and keyboards at the same time. For me, that performance is particularly memorable because I went up dressed like a Village People member, and thumped this stuff out, and everyone absolutely loved it! I had several comments during the break, a couple from seasoned professional musicians. Wow! Thanks! All I have is this practice version tidbit, (mostly so I could remember how it went the next day) as Gena wasn't there to do any video taping. Did anyone get video? If so please contact me! |
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S.Sims-24-01-2014 Open Mic Café ! It's the new year, and along with it come a new format of Shirley's moonchild, the Winter Coffee House, now re-named the Open Mic Café, at the newly renovated TACT Centre in Van Anda! For the first official evening a surprising amount of performers showed to resonate the microphone and it was a very entertaining night indeed! The sounds ringing out into the street when the door was opened rivaled any pub or bar I' ve ever walked by! Hats off to you all. The backdrop of the stage sported some large cut-outs and artwork by O.C. Dobrostansky, who also runs the aerospace camp in the summer. The spot lights were a bit bright, but they sure made for some great pictures, which isn't always the case in the candle-lit coffee house. The music was nothing short of amazing thanks to Garnet, Ken, Doug, Simon, John, and I think myself! |
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| S.Sims-30-12-2013 Christmas Performances This is the first time I've ever performed Christmas Music, and it was great! Shirley McCune and I practiced some Christmas tunes, modified and Blues-ified some, and practiced my new song "Hill Billy Christmas" which certainly became a hit around the island! On Christmas eve I made up a cute video for the song and posted it on youtube. Everyone got a kick out of that! (Video Here) We performed no less than 5
times together, with myself adding one to that! It is a great way to get
into the holiday spirit, and we were really appreciated around the island,
but now it's all over :( |
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| S.Sims-05-08-2013 BC Day at Shelter Point Ahhh! The hot heat of summer, sunbathing, beaches, swimming, sailing...and performing! George and Jerry at the concession decided to put on a celebration for BC Day, and invited local artists to play. Pretty much every performer I know was away for the weekend, but guitar-meister Doby had promised to do a couple of tunes. "Oh no! Just us 2?" I thought, better practice up! Happily, Doby did show along with John Brown, and we eventually all jammed together. It was a very different performance, stress free, and was almost tech-trouble free...almost! Thankyou so much you guys, it was a really good time! |
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| S.Sims-06-07-2013 Sand Castle Weekend 2013 I was asked to manage/perform a show to fill the time between the lip sync contest and the laser show. After setting up all of the equipment I decided to do some songs in the afternoon for a sound check. Suddenly I had an audience as the campground was full and people were walking along the beach up to see where the sounds were coming from. I played a good 2 hours, until the lip sync started and other performers began arriving. More than I'd expected so I only performed a handful of my tunes but played along with everyone else which was fun. Sound was great too, yay!! Thanks to Arnie, Carol, Taya, Lois, Doug, Ken, and even Shirley who rushed over immediately after returning from a holiday! We had to stop short for the laser show, but the audience wanted more! |
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| S.Sims-18-01-2013 Winter Coffee House at TACT It's amazing what can be done with a few tables, candles, great coffee, and a happy crowd! Shirley McCune has totally converted the TACT centre into a "club" with warm & wonderful atmosphere! I got up to perform a few tunes, but thank you to all who made the evening a great experience, and we won't forget the photo-art presentation! Sorry about the night vision photo. Warm ambience = candles = low light |
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| S.Sims-16-09-2012 Terry Fox Run 2012 On your mark, get set, play! Loud!! For this performance I took an excess of amps, speakers, and was VERY loud. Of course, I didn't know it at the time, but the only person sitting close had forgotten his hearing aids at home so....(photo) Had a chance to play a couple of new tunes, and donate all the money that fell into my gitter case to the cause. Thankyou everyone that contributed! |
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| S.Sims-30-07-2012 Run The Rock 2012 Over the past few weeks I have acquired a boom box and amp from an old car we bought for parts. Putting a battery inside and a bit of wiring, then adding on a mic mixer I found at the scrap yard, has made a nice little 150 watt battery powered system. I couldn't resist using it to perform at the Run The Rock on Texada. The sound quality isn't top notch, but the performance was enjoyed by everyone! (photo) |
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| S.Sims-30-07-2012 Powell River Sea Fair In sharp contrast to the preceding performance, the open mic / contest in Powell River was a last minute thing, and went well! We saw a poster the day before advertising an open mic competition, so I grabbed the gitter and jumped up on stage. I won! See the video below. |
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| S.Sims-21-07-2012 Sand Castle Weekend 2012 I've been so looking forward doing this night performance, but things went wrong. Part of the light show wasn't working, the audio was all wrong on the piano and guitar FX weren't there. Because of a limited power situation, I wasn't able to power up until 2 minutes before playing. All the same people were dancing and enjoying the beats, thanks to the bass/sub amp I just added to the gear. (And perhaps my music!) |
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| S.Sims-14-07-2012 Texada Fly-In Fling! Sometimes those best of the best performances happen by complete surprise, even when it's seems everything is going awry, and the adrenaline is all going where it shouldn't be! A long swim before the show really helps too I think! |
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S.Sims-18-02-2012 |
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| S.Sims-03-02-2012 More Studio Toys! Apart from a quick song or two at the Fly-In Volunteer Party back in November, not much has been going on outside of the studio in "Fresh Nelly" world....but inside the studio things have been growing nicely!
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| S.Sims-18-09-2011 Played At Terry Fox Run! I must curb my enthusiasm for fear I might make a fool out of myself, but I must say this performance along with "The Jessica's" went flawlessly! The rain stopped, the crowds gathered after the run and got into the groove, and the stage atmosphere was relaxed and amazing at the same time! We alternated sets which gave a really great mix of music from my blues, to their folk, to my pop & dance, to their blue-grass styles. We all played together as well, 6 women on stage, which is a first for me. Compliments were hot & heavy and everyone left with a smile! Click on photo (right..) or to see video here Thank you everyone, the weather gods, and especially The Jessica's & Jonelle for putting it all together! |
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S.Sims-17-08-2011 |
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| S.Sims-4-08-2011 Played The Rockhounds Dinner - Van Anda Legion Spirits were high, and the annual meeting of rock hounds from all over BC was brought to a crescendo with a BBQ dinner at the Legion and me performing. Unfortunately the noise and acoustics were far less than ideal, so was a real test of endurance for the evening. There was appreciative applause from the less noisy parts of the audience, even though I had an equipment malfunction during the more accompanied songs (Island Blues Dance Vers., In Ur Eyes etc) and realized that I'd forgotten to plug in the laptop (duh!) so it was trying to go into standby continuously once the batteries ran down! "Texada" received the loudest applause, even though most of the crowd is off island. |
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S.Sims-17-07-2011
Originally the performance was to be
the 16th of July just before the laser show, which would've merged nicely,
but we were basically rained out. Miraculously it stopped just in time for
the lasers (see video
) So my performance was re-scheduled for
the next day at the other park. |
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| S.Sims-12-06-2011 Outdoor Performance-Gillies Bay Finally! 3 sets of 13 songs each, and lots of happy people. It's like a dream come true for me! I played the same 13 songs in each set, but being at a market, people were coming and going constantly. New song "Tick-Tock" was a hit! See video below. |
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| S.Sims-18-03-2011 Powell River Compilation CD My new song "Texada" has been recorded and entered to be added to a compilation CD of Powell River artists. But now in hindsight, entering a song about an island that is *not* Powell River or about Powell River was probably a bad idea! Ooops! Oh well, at least I got to go into a recording studio! Cool. |
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| S.Sims-15-03-2011 The blues experiment For the past few months I have been steadily taking notes and learning the art of the blues, from one of the best blues musicians I've ever seen. We jam together weekly, and I've learned so much! The time is almost nigh to begin the scientific blues experiment. Merging blues with electronica and house/dance with a dash of world music! This of course must be performed live as well. A tall order, but the need for eclecticism is strong |
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| S.Sims-14-02-11 The Valentines Bash My first ever for-real, on-stage-on-my-own performance went very well! The 3 days of nervousness before & after were worth it! There's nothing like performing new songs in front of total strangers! (See videos below.) |
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| S.Sims-11-02-11 Simplification of the site Some of you may remember the previous freshnelly.com? It was full of Flash sequences and cool background music etc.. A real feast for the eyes & ears. But it seems many people hate flash and find it really annoying (bet they don't know youtube is all flash!) SO bending like a leaf in the wind, I have removed all that complicated code, and huge bandwidth load, which was environmentally unfriendly as well, for a simple site that does the same job in a more passive way. Pretty naïve aren't I? |
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| S.Sims-08-01-11 Archives... All the "old tunes" are still here, but yes that was a different Fresh Nelly, a different era. Most of my music was studio------>release and no live "performability" because of the massive amount of sequencing and preparation in the mastering phase. I think you'll like the new me after listening to some of the music I've posted, but if you still like the old me...or hate the new me, but liked the old me a lot, which is great too, then the old tunes page is here. Plus you can still get me on itunes, Rhapsody, Tower Records, CD baby or even Wal-Mart if you special order at their music counter. |
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