May in moments...
It's not very often we go on holiday. One major reason is that we're not very good at 'not' working - we usually work seven days a week as any independent artist knows. This time it was different...
May was full of promise and somehow we managed to book our first family holiday together in ten years.
Living in Europe is brilliant and a lifestyle we always appreciate, but we still haven’t managed to see much of Portugal yet as work has to come first. So a few months ago we all decided to rent a Portuguese-style house together in The Algarve for a week and spend some quality family time together. The first week of May was supposed to be out-of-season but the weather was perfect.
Our bunch are all living in the UK at the moment so we don’t get to see each other that often. James is our eldest son, then Joseph, his German wife Christina and our granddaughter Emma who has just notched up three whole years on planet Earth.
Simon and I live just north of Lisbon on the edges of the town of Samora Correia so it is about a three-hour drive down to Algarve on the ‘A’ roads aren’t too bad at all.
We avoid toll roads as much as possible as the Van of Rock (a VW Crafter van) gets stung big-style with double the rate of a car if not more - so a one-way trip costs us around €40.
It’s not worth it and would rather spend the money on a good lunch with a nice bottle of vinho tinto - which is why we had to make our now customary stop off at Alcacer do Sal for light lunch refreshment en route.
We literally packed up the kitchen sink which included our kitchen knives (Joe is a professional chef so good knives are essential), our spare filter coffee machine, a plentiful array of wine, food basics, one beach tent to make sure we could protect everyone from the UV and heat, an inflatable yellow submarine for the pool (the stuff that memories are made of) and a few guitars, basses, amps and… yes, we even stuck the Wurlitzer electric piano in - just in case we felt like a jam or had a moment of inspiration.
We had a wonderful time together that week - cooking dinner together, staying up late chatting away, little Emma singing Yellow Submarine in the pool, a couple of day trips to the ocean and generally hanging out and not doing too much.
Our new friend Euan from the Poor Man’s Band invited us all over for lunch at his house and with the help of Gary and Debbie Steel (of the band) they threw us a wonderful get-together. Full of great food, love and laughter - it feels like we’ve known each other for years, not just a couple of months!!
And before you know it, we were back home finishing off writing the last couple of songs for Starlite.One - our new Starlite & Campbell art rock album, just in time for Hugo, our new drummer, to zip down the road from Porto and finish tracking the drums. Again, Hugo is another person we feel like we’ve known for years!!
Here are some of our moments in May….
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And finally
We had the best of both worlds this month - spending time with family and making music. We are now only a few days away from completing Starlite.One - oooooohhh!!!!
More in next month’s edition.
Working on: Our third album album Starlite.One - now available to pre-order
Listening to: Tina Turner - What’s Love - Live!
What’s cooking: Sopa da pedra (stone soup) - a traditional Portuguese dish of pork, beans, potato and cabbage, plus a selection of chouriço.