My birthday

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday in a very special way. I invited some friends, but a few days ago I invited also all my neighbors to come over to have a drink and listen to my music. I needed to rehearse with Frankie for a performance at the NDSM-werf at Queensday, and suddenly I got this brilliant idea  that it would be nice to make this rehearsel public. So just a few days ago I invited all my neighbors. Some of them I hardly knew so I didn't know how their reactions were gonna be.   I called the show:  "Beter een Goede Buur dan een Verre Vriend". (which means that sometimes good neighbors can be more important than friends who live far away.)
I didn't think many people would show up because I invited them  just two days earlier and well, not everybody likes music.
 I told them I would give a little concert from 8.30 pm until 9 pm in our little garden, that would be long enough, I thought. But it was cold yesterday and so we decided to play our music inside the house. At 8.15 there were only a few people but then ten mintues later the house became really crowded ! So everybody showed up ! That made me so excited because I  really didn't expect this !  I heard some people saying to each other that it was about time to meet each other and that this was a very nice initiative. I am so happy about this and now I know for sure I got really nice neighbors and I appreciate it so much that they accepted my invitation!

We played our music for almost two hours in stead of half an hour and we had very much fun. Thank you so much for this very special birthday, now I am certain I will invite everybody again next year when I will celebrate my birthday. ! And you, all my dear fans, you will be also very very welcome !

Café Langereis Part Two

( Part one:      http://annettevogel.blogspot.nl/2012/12/cafe-langereis-in-amsterdam.html        )

 I know  I got some really good people around me. They sure take care of me when I need it. Last weekend I've had a real bad backache so first I didn't know what to do. I went to the doctor and told him I had this gig at café Langereis this night but that I couldn't play because I couldn't move at all. He gave me some strong pills and told me he would probably pass by so that he could listen to my music :)
I called my best friend Gianni to carry my bag and my guitar and I phoned with Marjorie and Cindy to talk about what I should do: play or cancel the whole thing....
Finally I decided to play just one  set and Cindy told me she would play instead a few more sets to help me out.
My friend Okke drove Gianni and me  to this little nice café Langereid which you can find at the corner of the Rembrandtplein and the Amstel. We arrived  at 6pm,  and  Arjen and his friend and JanPaul, the violinplayer, were already waiting for us. Mick, the bassplayer,  arrived a few minutes later and he brought some friends with him.
The sun was shining and Ajax just won the competition, so nothing could go wrong that night.

Cindy arrived and she got everything fixed so that we could do the soundcheck and play our music for an nice little audience. It was really nice to play together with Arjen on cajon, Mick on the bass and JanPaul Grotenhuis on his violin and mandoline. We'd had just one rehearsel with JanPaul the day before and he did a good thing. I think we had a very nice time together ! We played some new songs like 'Thunder and Lightning' and 'Raga' and that was real fun to play.I didn't dare to move a lot, but everything was allright. I was drugged so I didn't have too much pain.  After we finished the show Cindy started to play Eleonor Rigby and JanPaul played with her. Because of my physical condition I couldn't stay too long to listen. Me and my friend Gianni left the house around 9 pm and afterwards we had  dinner together at an empty restaurant somewhere close to the café. When I came home at 10 pm I was happy because I was glad everything worked out fine. The next day my colleagues of the school where I work helped me with the job of supporting the 25 kids I work with. In the meantime my backache dissappeared :)

JanPaul Grotenhuis, Annette Vogel, Arjen Slot, Mick Bekker

Gianni

Audience from Denmark: 'you're fucking good, your lyrics are fucking good'

JanPaul Grotenhuis and Cindy Peress

SWAN ( Song Writers Amsterdam Noord)

Last night I went to the Noorderparkkamer to present Song Writers Amsterdam Noord.
I was very happy that this time Baltazar came over to help me with the sound. Things were a bit different this night. Me and Ellen didn't need to work at the bar this time, but Carolien came and she made the coffee, tea and helped with all kind of jobs.
Some neighbors helped me with light, tables and that kind of things. This night there were a lot of songwriters I didn't know. Unfortunality two songwriters didn't show up without canceling,  but there were two others who showed up without signing in so that made everything all right.
It was a great night anyway, very intimate atmosphere.

Okay, before I left home my family told me not to wear this hat, not to wear the pyjama, but I didn't listen... but now I have to admit... it doesn't fit.... it was fun though :)


 

The Secret Singer-Songwriter Society

The Secret Singer-Songwriter Society

Last night I went to The Hague to enjoy The Secret Singer-Songwriter Society organized by an American singer-songwriter: Richard Morris.
To be honest,  first I did not really understand what was going on there but I just took a train to The Hague and I was happy GedFx was waiting for me at Central Station. I knew GedFx because he has been playing at SWAN at the Noorderparkkamer ( a monthly open mic which is organized by me.)  So he took me to this little restaurant called Quirky

(Quirky, Lunchroom & Gallery )

Christine, the owner of this restaurant welcomed us and showed us where we could leave our coats and guitars. I never had met Richard and I was a little surprised that he was busy with cooking. So I thought he might be the cook of the restaurant.
Then Sharon Gosler and Ell Sol arrived. Sharon I already knew from a gig in café Langereis in Amsterdam and Ell Sol I also knew from his great performance he gave at SWAN. Okay, while Richard was cooking I found out that the other nice young people who were in the room were students of a school and that they were working this night as stagiaires. Richard was cooking for them and the songwriters, but in fact he is the founder of The  Secret Singer-Songwriter Society which is a Dutch non-profit foundation just established this year. Its mission  is to foster the work of singer-songwriters by recording, distributing and promoting their songs to raise money for and awareness of a multitude of humanitarian causes around the world.

I loved to meet Richard, he is a very open-minded and creative person and he made me feel very welcome at this gig. So first we had dinner together and then the fifth singer-songwriter arrived. Her name is Arlette and she lives in The Hague.  Ell Sol and Sharon are from The Hague, too, and GedFx is from Utrecht.

students cooking

dinner together

Ell Sol  and GedFx

It was a very international company cause the students were from all over the world and Christine is British and Richard is from the USA. After dinner everybody was busy to get things fixed before the guests would came in. Christine told us all tables were reserved and dinner would start at 8.30 pm

Christine, owner of the restaurant

Arlette and Ged trying to fix the sound

When all guest arrived Arlette sang two of her songs. She has a nice folky voice and a very good presentation. Later on she sang more of her songs, but first Richard explained to the people what was happening this night. After that it was my turn. On facebook I had seen that Craig was planning to come over and so I had asked Craig Latta to bring his guitar with him. Later on we played some songs together.

Arlette Hovinga - WeAreLette

Craig Latta on bass and Annette Vogel ( me :) )

Then it was Ell Sol his turn. He did a good job and I am glad I invited him to play at SWAN in june on a Sunday afternoon in the Noorderparkkamer.

Ell Sol, singing in between the audience

In the mean time Gedfx made me really laugh, he said he was a bit nervous, but he really had nothing to worry about. He is a nice performancer, has really nice songs and a good voice and most important: the audience was GREAT ! While I was drinking my wine and waiting for my second turn I loved to listen to GedFx and Sharon Gosler.
While Arlette was singing her songs I really had to go because I needed to catch a train and bus, I wanted to stay longer because now I had to miss the songs of Richard, who also played later on.

GedFx

Sharon Gosler

I didn't want to leave, but I was in a hurry so I already left the place at 22.15 and I turned right in stead of left so I got totally lost in the dark and lonely streets of The Haque. There were not many people and then some girl took me on her bike to get me at a busstation. Finally I caught a train but I missed my bus in Amsterdam so I arrived home at 01.15. It was not really a problem to me, I didn't want to miss this nice gig, thanks to Richard, Christine and colleague singersongwriters and the very nice audience !
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singing for the Homeless

I just came back from this special gig. Somehow I got to this special place where homeless people can eat and live for about three months. I knew what I could expect but it's been a long time I sang for the homeless.
This afternoon I decided to sing some songs I used to sing in the streets (which was not a very good idea, but  I didn't know that yet).
As you can read in this blog my musical career started as a street musician and when I was just 18 I travelled through Europe and earned my money by singing in the streets. That's where I met a lot of people and  I also know very well how it feels when you are alone and feeling lonesome and just surviving your f* life. When you are always looking for a place to stay and counting money. You can read about my homeless life in my autobiography  -just send me an email and I'll give you a link where you can order the book.  ( As an author, I do not use my real name.) Anyway, I know a lot about beggars, drunks and streetpeople, and I can tell you this: there are 'bad' people and there are 'good' people. Just the same as everywhere,  in all layers of the population. Some of them were my friends and some of them were definitely not. But however, I've had fun with some really tough beggars in France and yes, I stood next to them when they begged in front of churches and yes, I begged by singing and me and the beggars did a good job together in these early eighties of the last century.

Anyway, I made a setlist and there were songs of Leonard Cohen and Simon & Garfunkel on it ( and Sandy Denny ofcourse). I had to play acoustic which is always really hard to do because I don't have a strong voice. I took my 13 years old daughter and her 12 years old friend with me and told them what was going to happen. Once a month some volunteers are cooking and everybody in the neighbourhood is invited to come over and eat a good meal. When we arrived after cycling 45 minutes in a cold wind,  people were very busy by preparing food and they offered some coffee and tea. I waited untill more people came in and then I decided to start, while the girls were at the toilet to do their make-up. I played some own songs and I sang Suzanne (Leonard Cohen). But I sang that song to low and it didn't feel good at all.I did some more covers, and remembered how I used to play them in the street. But this was 20 years ago and times  change ...I tried to tune in with the people, but I was a bit worried about the girls, so I could not really relax.  I could see they didn't feel comfortable at all and so first I felt sorry I took them with me. But when I sat down with them and we started to eat then everything changed. The guys at our table were really nice and funny and the girls were very fascinated by this guy who tried to hide some food so that he could eat it at night. Actually I think he was making jokes, but the girls were very impressed.

The guys started talking with us and one of them asked me if I would like to come back and sing at another place for homeless people. The girls were having fun  and happy and so from then I had a good time and I sang some more of my own songs. I thought the people liked my songs better then the covers, although one of them came to me and asked me if I sang songs of Joan Baez. (No, I don't but I can sing like her if I want to, which I don't want to, ofcourse). At 8 pm we got some icecream (delightful !  Actually, the whole meal tasted really good, it was Thais) and it was time to go home. One of the guys shaked hands with Luka and spoke to her: "You must do your best at school ! " and again she was very impressed and told me later that she had to think all the time about her fights with her parents about having a smartphone, tablet or whatever, and that now she realized how rich she was. Also my daughter told me she was glad I took her with me to meet these people, so they were pretty excited about this experience.
And me, I was excited because I was trying out my new glasses. They are fake !

I would like to show more pictures of this gig, but I don't think people appreciate.

So, if you want to know more about this place where I played this night, clilck on this link: instroomhuis
If you like what I am doing please click on the thumb up LIKE button on annette on facebook

Me and Auke

I just got this picture from Facebook and I am so happy with it !
It's a picture of last night, I played together with my friend and father of our two wonderful daughters.  It's been at least 10 years we did a gig together. We only played three songs last night but I loved playing with him again. And I loved watching my daughters who were excited to see us playing together.
On a Raft

If you like to read more about this night you can read my report here (in Dutch):


SongWritersAmsterdamNoord