Mayne Island show sold out!

Playing some tunes on the ferry deck on the way to Mayne Island!

Our show at the Mayne Island Folk Club last night was a complete success. Much to our surprise, the show was completely sold out; they were turning people away at the door! The audience enjoyed the show.. we got a standing ovation at the end of the show as well as the "foot stomp" after our encore. We were paid a percentage of the door sales -- it was well worth our while to do the show! I'm looking forward to visiting Mayne again; it's a lovely island.

How could we NOT get a picture with the sign for our show? :-)

The venue with the tour van parked out front.


Banquo in action!

Famous Puppet Death Scenes

"Death"

Last night Stephen and I went to see Old Trout Puppet Workshop's "Famous Puppet Death Scenes" at the Metro Studio. If Edward Gorey wrote puppet shows, this is probably what he would have come up with. If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend getting out to see it (it closes here in Victoria on Sunday). The Old Trout website is here and information for Victoria performances is located here.

New band photo

As mentioned in my previous post, we had a photo shoot with Barbara Pedrick the other night. Here's a proof of one of the full group shots. :)

Latest Banquo news

It's been a bit busy around here at Banquo HQ the past few days. I am quite proud of the lovely gig poster I created for our June 2nd gig on Pender Island, which you can view by clicking the image above. The finished poster size is 11x14 (legal size). I printed them today and they came out wonderfully. It was nice to see that I can still do print work after so many years of doing only web design!

This evening we met with Adrian Dolan of The Bills, who is indeed performing the final mixing and mastering of the new album for us. Over the course of the next week we will be getting the rough mixes finished, and then it's looking like next Friday/Saturday will be the time for Adrian to work his magic. After that it's only a matter of getting the CD duplicated (2-3 weeks). Taking the extra step of mastering will make a world of difference in the final product, so it's worth taking the extra time and expense to do this.

In addition to the above, we also spent a few hours with Barbara Pedrick at her photo studio this evening. She took shots of the five members together, individual portraits, and then some of the "Banquo-lite" trio for when Jude and Adam are touring. It was a great experience and Barbara was wonderful to work with. Not to mention that everyone looked fabulous in their costumes. We get to see the photos next week... I'm excited! :-)

Work extended, again

For what seemed like the umpteenth time over the past year-ish back at my job, I was once again offered another extension this past Thursday. I couldn't turn this one down... I am now employed until August 2009!

While it's not the permanent position I've been hoping for, it does offer me some stability over the next 2.5 years. Who knows what will happen over that time...

One of the world’s great musicians busks in a metro, makes $32

Pearls Before Breakfast - washingtonpost.com

Dragula, Queen of Darkness

Anyone who has seen National Lampoon's "Disco Beaver from Outer Space", will get the title.

Ahem.. anyhow... there's been a Dracula theme here the past little while.

Last week, Stephen and I went to see the Royal Winnipeg Ballet perform Dracula. It was based on Bram Stoker's novel and it was really good. The show stealer for me was the gargoyle dancers (who provided a bit of comic relief):


The costuming was very well done. I'm not one for ballet (dance of any sort challenges me), but this was a fabulous production.. I'd happily see it again!

In other Dracula related news, I finally got my hands on a replacement copy of the graphic novel, "Dracula: a symphony in moonlight and nightmares". Ya gotta love eBay. The illustrations throughout the novel are beautifully rendered watercolours.