April, 30 We were asked to play at this special festival in Nieuw Vennep. It was organized by Podium Duycker. So on this sunny Sunday we took a train at 10 AM and arrived round 11 AM at this beautiful place. We played twice a set and we had a good time with other musicians and some organizers. I just got these pictures by mail and I really like them :)
Last week I celebrated my birthday. It was a very nice event because some musicians came to my house to make some great music. I really enjoyed the night. Some people gave me some special surprises, one of them ( André Homan) made a little book with a lot of pictures he took of SWAN
He called the book SWAN ONE.
The book got lots of pictures of musicians from Amsterdam or other parts of Holland.
André took also some pictures of my birthday party.
I would like to thank so many people and i hope we'll meet soon again... :))
a week ago the kids celebrated my birthday in the classroom. I was surprised, didn't know they had organised a party. So no lessons that day...
rechts met camera: Andre Homan
Paul, Huib en Bayla
Jan en Richard
Dzuana en Annette
Roelie
met Annika
met Huib
Niek, Aad en Mario
Links Frank Boske
Dzuana en Jaap
Willem Teunissen
best koud buiten...
playing with Francesco
Paul Pleijsier op gitaar
At the end of the party some friends stayed a little longer and I told them I would like to try out some new songs. So Mario and I played together and Francesco played with us. Live recorded by Bayla Moon! Enjoy!
It's been a while, I've been pretty busy with my work as a teacher, and with rehearsing my new songs and of course the gigs. I've had some nice gigs. If you would like to join, you can find the tour dates right here: AnnetteVogel tour dates
I was in The Haque at a radio/TV show and we played live recorded some songs.
You can listen to CUT THE CRAP right here! (i just loaded it up)
I went with Mario to Utrecht to this nice café called Kopi Susu. We played for almost two hours and had a nice time.
You can watch the first song of the second set right here:
We'll be back at KINGSDAY!
Yes, we will leave Amsterdam and we will travel to Utrecht to play a full set at 2PM! We are really looking forward to it. Info about the café you can find here: Cultureel cafe
Another nice gig was at the Polish Library, I played with Mario and the fantastic guitar player Rei Satoshi. Again this was a nice event!
The organizer, Lulu Lightning, made a vid of this event, you can watch me after a few minutes in the vid, she did a good job by editing! Watch it here:
A really good gig was at Einde van de Wereld, we really did not expect so many people there and everybody was so quiet when we played our music. I don't have pictures of this gig, but I need to mention it because this gig gave me a real boost.
Sunday is our next gig,it's in Castricum. We've been there before, it's outside in the middle of the centre and we will play there 'round 3 PM a full set.
And next: I will give a houseconcert on my birthday, some talented musicians will play in my living room and ofcourse I play myself. Hurray!
And last but not least, I mentioned KINGSday and as I said we will go to Utrecht that day and play there in café Kopi Susu. See you!
Last night I had a great night at Amsterdam, SWAN songwriters! It's been 5 years now that I started SWAN with another musician (Bruno Edsme) from Amsterdam-Noord and I have had many support from other people to realise these monthly events. Thanks to Harry Siers, Baltazar Jacobs, Aad Luymes!
And ofcourse thanks to all the songwriters who showed up and shared their lovely songs!
Today Mario and I went to Utrecht and played at this nice festival "Peeking at your neighbor". There were more than 500 acts, played in livingrooms and we were guests in a girls group home and were warmly welcomed. We played three sets of half an hour and the living room was full. In the first break we visited other neighbors and when returned there were already people waiting for the front door to come to listen to us.
We really had a nice afternoon, it's a great festival, I think Amsterdam should enjoy next year!
(DUTCH version)
Vandaag gingen Mario en ik naar Utrecht in het kader van gluren bij de buren. Dit is een landelijk festival en in Utrecht waren er meer dan 500 acts!
Wij waren te gast in een meidenwoongroep en werden gastvrij ontvangen. We speelden drie sets van een half uur en de huiskamer zat vol. In de eerste pauze zijn we met de meiden bij de buren gaan kijken naar een optreden en toen we terugliepen stonden er alweer mensen te wachten voor hun voordeur.
We hebben echt een leuke middag gehad, meer info over dit festival vind je hier: Gluren bij de Buren
My life fucking sucks. I mean at this moment, not always
ofcourse.
Actually, most times everything is allright, I really don’t need to
complain. I really don’t want to pay too much attention to the bad feelings I
often have. I can feel so completely lost in my sadness. But as long as I still feel emotions, nothing bad is going on. You really got a problem when you loose contact with
emotions. I can tell, I have been there, you know. (that's what I tell you in my song "Beggars".)
Me, looking in the mirror in a toilet
Why I am writing this down is because I find myself writing
a new song and again this song is about how life really is: it can be freaking hard but please, take it as easy as possible,
let me hug you because everything is about LOVE. Don’t let your MIND telling fucking lies to your HEART!
Love, I hate that word. The most cliche thing I ever heard.
But still. After half of a century living on this earth ( am I dreaming?) I can
only admitt that’s all about love. I have been struggling with this fact because I am cynical and down to earth. But feeling that you are beloved, feeling you love
somebody, that people like you and that you can be who you really are, are the most important things to experience. I wrote some songs about what ’s really going on in my life: I
know nothing and that’s for sure. I even don't know anything about love. What I know is that I am the witness of being ME. People in the audience tell me that these kind of songs of mine comfort them. I think that's important and I am happy I can give this comfort. But...
Well, and how about me, myself? I am stucked in mental
depressions, I go up and down, up and down and I hardly talk about it. But what
do I do? Yes. I write songs. To myself. To tell myself what’s going on. So I
wrote this summer ‘Changed” and “Blue Rain”. And now I write a song telling
myself that everything is alright. “Walk with me and let it go”. I write these kind of songs and I should
listen more to myself when I sing them... to me. To you. Those words are for
you. And me. Best songs are written in hard times.
Okay, my life sucks. I see many things happening around me.
I am not talking about the political rubbish. I am talking about personal
histories. My pupils, just young children and their families.
My own kids. Neighbors, friends. What’s going on?
Everything will pass. Every cloud comes and goes. Still. I
feel this pain in my body. Everywhere. This sadness. This feeling of: why was I
born anyways? It’s all to difficult for me. All this shit.
Don’t worry about me. I know myself very well. I will
survive. Anything. So will you.
And at least, I got my music. And I need to share it.
