*Always* meet your heroes!

Whilst at ADE, I had the absolute pleasure and privilege of meeting my musical hero, Jean-Michel Jarre. He features several times in BEAT GEMS as a pioneer of electronic music and early user of drum machines in electronic music. (Look up Keio Mini Pops 7, EKO Computerhythm, and Linn LM-1 in the book for more detail).

It’s not every day you meet JMJ and get to show him your new book! An honour.

For the record: it was hearing Equinoxe V as a young boy that turned the electronic lightbulb on in my mind. It connected with me immediately and deeply, and I knew I had make electronic music at that exact moment. So this was a wonderful meeting for me - thanks to Jarre and team for the opportunity.

The meeting followed a great show at AFAS Live, here are a couple of clips.

Very short clips - but it was a wonderful concert. This was first time I’d actually seen JMJ live since Docklands 1988!!! It was worth the wait!

SynthJam - Friday 12th April - I'll be there with Moog...

If you’re in the Telegraph Hill area of south east London tomorrow evening, pack up your modular synth and bring it to SynthJam - an evening of jamming on Synths..! I’ll be there to jam, hope you can make it too!

Peter, the organiser says “Grab your modular, drum machine or synth, plug in and jam! Be part of an evening dedicated to live improvised electronic music (of sorts) Places will be limited so message me if you want to be part of the performance. I'm keen to bring as many different electronic textures to the group as possible including acoustic instruments manipulated through pedals or laptops. Spectators are most welcome and we'll hopefully have time for some hands-on audience participation. Message me if you have any questions, Lets Jam!”