Christmas time is a magical time

I'm sat here with Christmas music on the stereo and our window display about to be tackled. It's coming! Anyway.
The shop was shut last week (mostly) as I was struck down with gastroenteritis. I'm not one to mooch off and whine so I was well and truly ill. Three days shivering and not sleeping left me rotten. I returned Saturday as we had the amazing Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker here for a sold out gig, but the day trade was also hectic, the busiest for some time. From 3 days of doing nothing to 15 hours running around hit me hard, so much so that I decided to close Sunday too. A few more days rest and I'm up to 80%, maybe 83%. We're open again anyway.

Yesterday we hosted the final Palestinian Film Night at the shop. The Coventry Friends of Palestine showed 'Miral'. It was a very informative piece of work and I urge you to seek it out. It's got Willem Defoe in it at one point.

We're also hosting our regular Retro Game Night to night with fellow Fargo Village tenant Entertainment Bro. These nights are always well attended and great fun. Tonight I think Dan is dusting off an Atari so that should be fun!

Into the new year, I'm hoping to make every Thursday and Friday an 'event night'. See the event pages and social media for more up to date stuff.

On another note our Big Comfy Sessions have hit a high point with BBC Radio 2 folk award winners Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker, plus the excellent Ange Hardy recently sitting on the sofa. I love doing these. I basically give them tea and ask them questions whilst Ron from Redwood Photography does all the hard work. Rich of @Mr_Spoon also does stuff but no one really knows what.

On the Folk Club side you can now buy tickets for the next 5 months! Some have already been snapped up through til March so have a look who's here and pick them up. A great Christmas Present idea.

Finally, I've been asked a lot on twitter if our bookshop mugs are for order. Well now they are! We can do international shipping too. Just see the new shop HERE. There's also a new tab at the top of the website.

Be back soon as promised in my last post. In the meantime, catch me at @bigcomfybooks, on facebook and please sign up to the mail list.

Toodle-pip
Michael.

The Big Comfy Sessions are 1!

This past weekend the Big Comfy Sessions turned a year old. Between Rob, Rich and I we cannot believe how lucky we have been. Our initial aim was to record a handful of videos with a few local musicians we know to help promote the opening of the shop and help musicians with a cool video, but after the first session with Wes Finch we received great praise and a few emails requesting sessions. After the first half a dozen we realised we were on to a winner with dozens of requests. We've all grown into our roles since that first session. Rich wields a camera and liaises and organises the majority of the acts (and makes gig posters too!), juggling a whole host of emails, whilst Rob, well, Rob has always been a pro with filming, editing, sound mixing and the brain child of the entire operation! I do the hard work of a 5 minute interview and give free coffee. Tough ;)

It's really been a dream to open a bookshop and to do it whilst hosting some top quality acts is the cherry on the top. I've discovered so many brilliant artists and hope that I've spread the word about these.

We've recorded 28 sessions which culminates in 56 videos (2 each), just a handful off 25k views, close to 250 subscribers and lots planned for the future. We already have 16 sessions booked going into October and are in talks with several others but we're always looking for more top talent!

Please check out Redwood Photography, The Spoon Player blog and of course The Big Comfy Sessions.
We already have our first session of 'year two' this Saturday!

If you are an artist wishing to book a session please head on over to HERE.

Finally a huge thank you to Victoria who let us use the Tree House Bookshop in Kenilworth whilst my shop was being built. She was a wonderful host. The shop was forced to close at Christmas but it's just reopened in a better location in Kenilworth and I look forward to visiting.

I'll leave you with our last session where I got to chat to the lovely Ross AKA Blue Rose Code and hear him play Oh, North, my favourite off his album The Ballads of Peckham Rye.

Michael

The Big Comfy Sessions

At the end of last year my good friend Rob at Redwood Photography suggested recording some videos in the shop of musicians. This is firmly in my territory as I am also a musician in a duo called Barricades Rise and all my studies were in music. Useful. Of course I said yes and then Rob went away and refined his idea. The refinement brought along another fellow friend Richard Harrison who I met on Twitter a few years ago. Rich is passionate about local music, underground music, and basically shoves his oar in everywhere, plus is really handy to press record on a stationary camera. With the wonder team together (and me tagging along) we had a list of artists we wanted to work with. A half day run through with my own band at Robs house was an OK effort and smoothed out six dozen problems, ready to start with the real talent.

The major problem was of course venue. My shop opens September 27th so instead of waiting so long, we approached The Tree House Bookshop in Kenilworth and Victoria very graciously housed us.

In early April, Wes Finch, a local folk singer-songwriter, took the plunge first. I've known Wes a few years through the gigging circuit and he's such a down to Earth gent. The idea was to ask a few questions about books, then play a song. The whole thing was really relaxed. Wes then decided to play a cover too so we ended up getting that down as well which led to The Comfy Cover, where now each act will record a cover too. You can see all the ones recorded so far at www.bigcomfysessions.com.

Here is Wes with his own song Ring on the Riverbed.

We followed that up with the trio Speak, Brother. I had to turn up, record an interview, then leave within 15 minutes due to my own gig so didn't hear the actual song, but I love what Rob and Rich have captured. As it's early days, the interview was a tad too long so Rob cut it, a wise choice I think. We're still working things out with format, but listen to this anyway!

With two local acts under our belt we aimed further afield and were actually swamped! With the initial idea of 1 act per 6-8 weeks we ended up recording 2 acts in 2 weeks and have 2 more lined up next week. Last weekend saw Chains travel to Kenilworth from London to film for us. This duo are blindingly fabulous and have received hundreds of thousands of YouTube hits for their weekly cover songs. Their video's will appear online next month.

Rob, Rich and I are over the moon with the response from the public and the calibre of bands requesting to film. One act lined up is International! A vary big thank you to Victoria at The Tree House Bookshop for her hospitality, and to all who have popped in to say hi (and buy a book) whilst we're recording.

Visit www.bigcomfysessions.com 

Follow us on twitter at @Redwoodphotos, @mr_spoon and @BigComfyBooks.

Michael

A long overdue update

There has been quite a lot going on in the past 3 weeks since I last blogged. Apart from Easter, my birthday, my wife's birthday and a lot of time spent with my family, I have been trying to cram in as much bookshop work as possible. So first and foremost the shop.

We've been told by the lovely Fargo Village people that we should be able to enter Fargo in July. Just 2 months away! I'll then have X amount of weeks to get the empty shell up to scratch to house thousands of books, delicious home-made cakes (from Clairey's Cakes) and teas and coffees. Since I found this out I've been scouting for bookcases. So far I have around 7 that I've managed to pick up cheap (or even free) from eBay and Gumtree. I've travelled to Coventry, Market Harborough, North Leicester somewhere and Solihull to collect them then store them alongside my mountain of books, my desk and other titbits. I've yet to solidify the design of the interior but have roughly estimated I'll need 24 bookcases. I have my eyes on a few tables and chairs too, as you need to sit down in a comfy shop! The big red sofa will be purchased close to opening as I have nowhere to store it! 

I have a stall again at this years Earsldon Festival. Last year it was THE best experience and also where I met Jo from Fargo Village. The festival is currently ongoing and culminates in a street long celebration of local traders with loads of entertainment on May 5th, Bank Holiday Monday. Come along and say hello (and buy a book).

Last year at Earlsdon Festival

Back to the shop, I will be looking for local people to chip in to help with several things. First off the basics like painting the shop, but also people to make signs (and fit them), help organize events (anything be it music, comedy, clubs ets), artists to design posters and other things, plus volunteers! Just 2 days ago I had a brainwave to have local artists create a bookmark for the shop so I'll have around 6-10 special ltd edition bookmarks that both showcase their work and promote the shop. I've had a great response too!

I'll shortly be launching a crowd funding scheme to help give the shop a massive boost when it opens. I've come up with some great rewards for those that donate. That'll be active in a few days.

The bookshop music sessions have already started. The Big Comfy Sessions was hosted at The Tree House Bookshop in Kenilworth with Wes Finch playing the first one, filmed by Rob at Redwood Photography along with Richard at TheSpoonPlayer blog. These will be regular sessions filmed exclusively in the shop and we'll be getting local and touring bands and solo artists in to film one song. A larger blog is coming very soon about this but in the meantime check out Wes doing his thing on the website www.BigComfySessions.com.

There will be several book reviews coming soon including two of my favourite books I've read this year. 

Finally this site will soon be transformed. The online shop (www.thebigcomfybookshop.co.uk) and this blog will be amalgamated into one brand new website. All this while the shop is creeping ever closer!

Please like the Facebook and follow me on Twitter too.

A final thank you to my beautiful wife for getting me the BEST birthday presents!

Michael