MUSIC: Jon Gomm new single ‘Message In A Bottle’ available today

It’s one month since my first ever single Passionflower was released, and it’s so far been watched over 45,000 times on youtube and played on radio stations on 3 continents! Thankyou/grazie/merci/danke/gracias to EVERYONE who watched it and – most importantly – told their friends about it.

The second single – my interpretation of Message In A Bottle by The Police – is out today.

You can download the mp3 right now from http://jongomm.com/store for Pay What You Want (you can pay zero if you like) and 10% of the proceeds from all the Domestic Science Singles Series goes to The Happy House children’s home in Watamu, Kenya.

The guitar tab is available from my website too.

I hope you enjoy the song and sharing it with your friends. You know there’s more to music than what gets played on pop radio, but maybe some of your friends don’t realise there’s more out there. Educate them!

VIDEO: Guthrie Govan ‘Sevens’ Live in Iceland

Check out this beautifully shot video of a stunning recent performance of ‘Sevens’ in Iceland:

CLINIC: Jamie Humphries Musicman clinic at Red Dog Music Edinburgh

A fave player of mine, Jamie Humphries (Guitar Techniques, Lick Library, We Will Rock You, Brian May), will be holding a Musicman guitar clinic at Red Dog Music this Saturday in Edinburgh between 11:00 and 16:00.

Jamie will be spending the day doing various guitar demos, jamming along with some backing tracks and generally rocking out all over the shop – for lack of a better phrase. I imagine it’ll go something a little like this.

Word on the street is that he quite likes inviting people up to play with him as well… so if you fancy having a jam with Brian May’s right-hand music man on some of our tasty Music Man guitars, now’s your chance.

Who knows, he might even teach you how to play the almighty Bohemian Rhapsody. Come down to the shop and get stuck in to our range of Music Man guitars.

This is a great chance for any locals to check out a World Class player up close and personal, here’s a little taster of what’s in store:

CHECK IT OUT: MonkeyFest 2011 The Movie – Featuring Guthrie Govan, Andy James, Godsized & Alex Hutchings and much more!

If you haven’t seen it already I wholeheartedly recommend you check out this brilliantly filmed movie featuring highlights from this year’s amazing Monkeyfest:

Early bird tickets are now available for Monkeyfest 2012!

SOFTWARE: Edit TAB on your iPad – Guitar Pro now with Notepad

Great to see that the Guitar Pro app for the iPad now has the very handy Notepad functionality that was added to the iPhone version last year.

I use Guitar Pro quite a bit for teaching and personal use, so I’m happy now that the Notepad feature has been added to the iPad app. I can now add licks/song ideas on the go anytime without having to be sitting at my main machine in the studio . These can then be exporting and worked on some more in the main app if needed.

What is really awesome about this new iPad version is that using the iPad’s great touch interface you can add articulations to notes added in Notepad, e.g sliding between two notes on the virtual fingerboard to create a slide. Very cool.

One thing to watch out for, when I updated my existing version of Guitar Pro for iPad the fingerboard would occasionally disappear, a quick uninstall and install sorted this though.

Guitar Pro for iPad is available now in iTunes

TOUR: The Aristocrats UK dates announced!

Following on from their hugely successful US tour, The Aristocrats have announced dates for a UK tour in March next year!

The UK dates are

March 7th 2012 – London – The Peel
Time: 8:00pm.
Admission: TBA.
Box office: 0208 2558104.
Address: 160 Cambridge Road, Kingston upon Thames KT1 3HH. Venue phone: +44 (0) 20 8546 3516.

March 8th 2012 – Bilston – The Robyn2
Time: 8:00pm.
Admission: £12.50 Advance, £14.00 Door.
Address: 20-28 Mount Pleasant, Bilston, Wolverhampton WV14 7LJ. Venue phone: 01902 401211.
Buy tickets

March 9th 2012 – Manchester – Night and Day
Time: 8:00pm.
Admission: £15.50.
Address: No. 26 Oldham Street, Northern Quarter, Manchster, M1 1JN. Venue phone: 0161 236 4597.
Buy tickets

March 10th 2012 – Newcastle – The Cluny
Time: 8:00pm.
Admission: £15.00.
Address: 36 Lime Street, Ouseburn, Newcastle upon Tyre, NE1 2PQ. Venue phone: 01912 304474.
Buy tickets

March 11th 2012 – Edinburgh – The Voodoo Rooms
Time: 8:00pm.
Admission: Call or Email chris@guitarguitar.co.uk
Box office: 0131 3347100. Address: 19a West Register St., Edinburgh, EH2 2AA. Venue phone: 0131 556 7060.

Super stoked to see that the guys will be playing in Edinburgh .

Full European dates are still to be announced though one date in Holland has been announced, keep up to date with the announcements at The Aristocrats Tour page.

TOUR: Chickenfoot announces UK & European Tour January 2012

Following the release of their long awaited second album ‘III’, the hottest rock & roll band in the world, Chickenfoot, have announced a 5-date UK & European tour for January 2012; their first European concerts since July 2009. Including 2 UK concerts in Manchester and London, tickets will go on sale at 9am on Friday October 14th 2011; further info is detailed below, and at www.chickenfoot.us.

Chickenfoot will perform songs from their gold-selling, eponymous debut album, alongside tracks from the critically acclaimed ‘III’, for the very first time outside of the United States. The European tour kicks off at the Manchester Academy on Thursday January 12th, followed by London’s O2 Academy Brixton (Saturday January 14th), Paris Olympia (Monday January 16th), Tilburg O13 (Tuesday January 17th) and Dusseldorf Mitsubishi Electric Hall (Thursday January 19th). Tickets for the 2 UK concerts will be available from www.livenation.co.uk/artist/chickenfoot-tickets.

Chickenfoot fans in the UK will be treated to a special Planet Rock pre-sale, where tickets can be purchased 24 hours ahead of the October 14th general on-sale date. By visiting www.planetrock.com, tickets will be available from 9am on Thursday October 13th.