Why Malawi?

Well, nothing to do with Madonna – I had heard, sometime in the past, that she had adopted some kids, but I had no idea they were from Malawi, until I told people that I was going there. No, I chose it because one of my best friends at high school, whom I’d had no contact with for way too long has been living there for the last 4 years. I knew he was an ecologist and the last time we spoke (7 or 8 years ago) he was frequently doing guide work on safari’s in various different southern African countries. I was still under the impression that was his main occupation and, having not done a safari before, thought he could be a good person to help me on my little adventure.  However, what I discovered he had been up to was a lot more than that.

Meet Bella:

She’s a lioness, who was stolen from her parents in her youth and kept in a pit in the snowy parts of Romania. For years, she was like a toy, having stones thrown at her, cigarettes put out on her and given such a poor diet that she lost one eye and most of her sight in the other. She’s quite lonely in the centre and they are waiting for the opportunity to bring her another lion friend, which all depends on finding one who also needs rehabilitation. She was super happy to have some visitors to the point where, as we walk away, she roars so loudly that, apparently, she can be heard throughout the city.

In the last 4 years, my friend (Jonny Vaughan) and his girlfriend (Kate Moore) have managed and developed The Lilongwe Wildlife Centre, from being an unkept, rarely visited piece of wild land, uniquely situated right in the centre of the city (180 hectares of land), into an organisation which now thrives with activity, between both Malawian people and maltreated, orphaned animals needing rehabilitation before being strong enough to be let into the wild. They have won awards, including a Responsible Tourism Award for ‘Best Organisation for Conservation of Habitats and Wildlife’ in 2011, and they achieved PAW accreditation from the Born Free Foundation in 2012. They have built an environment with approximately 20 enclosures housing about 35 different animal species, a veterinary clinic plus quarantined area for the newer, more fragile arrivals. They’ve  created perma-culture gardens (fruits, flowers, vegetables) where people can learn about sustainable agriculture, sensory gardens (plants that pop, trap insects and give off insanely lovely smells), a restaurant and two separate bars (with prices affordable to locals) with all the furniture made from a very old tree they had to cut down, a dinosaur garden (with info on the ancestors of animals such as crocadiles and snakes), a children’s adventure playground, and lastly, an amphitheatre, for concerts and theatre shows.

The thing that I really like is that it not only attracts foreigners but, more importantly, works with local communities to help educate them in sustainable living without patronising their way of life, or, ignoring their basic needs. The most obvious example being, not expecting people who already earn very little to be happy to work for nothing at all. Except for the volunteers from overseas, all of the local staff are paid and treated as fairly as anyone doing a job anywhere else in the world. On my first visit I immediately noticed how each and everyone is spoken to with respect. I was introduced to every single person on site with the same level of conduct, regardless of their job position or skin colour.

Having had enough of living in the mad rat race of London for 8 years, Jonny and Kate’s reason for wanting to live there had nothing to do with this project in the beginning. As I mentioned, he had been to many other African countries, but found Malawi to have a particular friendly and gentleness he didn’t quite find elsewhere. It didn’t take me long to understand what he meant. Literally every person we meet say’s “Hello, How are you?” and is actually interested in the answer. At no point did I feel threatened by anyone, or had any warning of danger from other people. If I was met with any serious faces, it only took me to say hello for them to come out with big teethy smiles. It’s the 6th poorest country in the world, with most people living off less than $2 per day which doesn’t often meet their minimum food requirements. I can’t help but wonder if there is any relation between their poverty verses their outward friendliness. There’s a fast growing high population density, putting enormous pressure on natural resources like the forests, since most people rely on firewood to cook their food. As a result, Malawi itself has the world’s 5th highest rate of deforestation (quite shocking when you look at the size of it) and this leads to all sorts of problems like soil erosion, desertification and climate change. The Wildlife Centre has community outreach programmes to help reduce deforestation and loss of habitats from the use of firewood, for example 8,000 trees were planted last year and special groups have been set up making eco-fuel briquettes out of waste materials. Then there’s the projects that help communities to live in harmony with the environment whilst also generating an income through sustainable livelihoods. Many of the people from our ‘learning through wildlife’ adult literacy programme (like those dancing with me in the video I posted last Friday) have gone on to find employment and women from their Malambe Juice Cooperative are now making enough money to support themselves and their families. They are also publishing an online magazine called What’s Up, much like London’s Time Out, bringing only the good news to it’s readers.

It gave me a lot of faith in my old school friend. And I realised that is why we were, and still are friends – because we share the same values in LIFE, be it in people, animals, plants, or just the experience to live. We talked and talked, over  endless cups of tea, just the same as we did when we were teenagers in that little English town of Southwold (where we spent our adolescence). I’m not interested in being a revolutionist and my mission is not to try and ‘save the world’, but I do believe in respecting life and purpose. The tiniest moving part is just as important as the biggest – too often, it is too easy to overlook that fact. So when I see my friend treating his employees the same as I like to treat mine, no matter what their position is, and how productive and happy they can be at the same time, it brings hope: one of the most essential and inspiring emotions. For that reason, it seemed obvious to me that this is something I could actively support, by becoming a patron (ambassador). Each animal I met has a story to be told, although I didn’t see every wild habitant of the centre; it is explained to all the visitors (over 17,000 local school children visited in 2012 – thanks to it’s location and Kate’s publicity skills) that this is their home, rather than a zoo, or a circus made for us to be entertained. So, even if they do not actually see every animal, they get their story, just as you now know Bella’s. The beauty of this is that it engages the imagination while allowing us to have a powerful feeling of empathy towards both wildlife and it’s interaction with surrounding communities. It’s the imagination and awareness combined which inspires people in a place like this.

On the second day in Lilongwe, I was taken to one of the markets. I was a wonderful chaos that I can’t even start to describe what I saw, but I have no photos because I was advised to leave my camera in the car. We walked all the way through the market, on both sides of the river which runs through the city – there are very homemade bridges which get washed away each year by the river’s high tide and, every year, get rebuilt by local entrepreneurs – they charge 10 kwecha per person (not even 0.01 english pound), making a relative fortune. Anyway, as we were making our way back through the market, I saw some guys tuning drums over a fire (the heat stretches the skin, raising it’s pitch) and I thought they were selling the drums. In fact, they were part of Zam Zam – a fairly well known traditional Malawian dance troop. The way that it started was very casual but that had no reflection on their output of of energy. I loved it, as did all of the locals. Being the only two white guys in the audience, the money collection bucket frequently came in our direction, even before they had given us a decent portion of choreography. Jonny clearly knew how to deal with them and we made sure (with laughter all around) they gave everyone a good show first. Then the leader invited us to dance with them, which Jonny declined, quietly telling me, “if either of us were to dance with them, the whole place will go crazy”. That put the idea into my head and the temptation was too much. A few moments later there was a guy and a girl doing some very sexual moves which also drew a lot of laughter – the joke being in his pursuit of her. Subsequently, she would move away from him with a big smile and approach me with her own advances, which made everyone laugh some more. It was on the third time that she did this that I followed her into the centre. When she turned around she looked pretty surprised to find me right in front of her dancing too. He was right, the whole place exploded with all the locals crying and laughing to see a Muzungu (their name for a white person) dancing their dance. Or trying to. When I returned to my place in the crowd, the leader of the dancers gave me a DVD of their work. The same one that he was trying to sell me a few moments before that. We watched a couple more routines and left. I left them a good payment in the bucket, for both the dancing and the DVD. Who knows, you might find me adding a little bit of it into my own shows in the future.

For the rest of my time in Malawi I saw many other things. I drove East to Salima, on the lakeside, which feels more like the seaside. Stayed there for a few days before driving South to Lewonde in an incredibly beautiful safari park called Mvuu Lodge where I did several game drives and, on the second night at 3am, my chalet was surrounded by a troop of grazing elephants. As my chalet only had mosquito meshing for walls, I woke up thinking that were in the room with me. It was a bit scary, to say the least. It took me about 40 minutes to work out that they were actually elephants. Finally, I got the balls to get out of bed and switch on the outside light in the hope of seeing one, but it was just too dark. In the morning, when stepping outside, I had to be careful to avoid standing in a lot of elephant shit. The only elephant I did actually see is this below. A teenager, he seemed to be abandoned by his troop and stood there for a good few minutes,  trying to work out if he should charge or back off. He made a few attempts to run a us but, fortunately, the revving of our truck engine stopped him. It was a close shave but a beautiful moment too.

After my stay there, I drove back to Lilongwe; a stunning drive through many villages and towns, (like the one pictured below) with sceneries I have never seen before in my life. At some moments, the view did remind me of the horizons in Arizona, but not as flat. As I left later than i was supposed to, I experience driving at night along, which I wouldn’t recommend to many. It took a lot of concentration to make sure I didn’t hit any of the passing pedestrians, cows, goats, cyclists, cars, or trucks. It did maker it back safely, however. I was proud of myself, but quite tired and hungry too. The next day I took my flight home, with a 7 hour wait at Nairobi airport. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds, since I payed $30 dollars (thanks to some advice) to sit in the First Class lounge until I had to board my flight.

There is more I could tell you but I think I’ve written enough now. Plus, there are memories that I prefer to keep for me. It was a while since I last wrote a blog but I wanted to do this one and I am glad I did.

Until the next time,

Charlie W

To get you in the mood, you can check out the video for ‘Speak To Me’ below. Enjoy!

If you have ever seen him play live you would know Charlie is a generous soul. Further proof of this is here too, as in advance of the release of the album, Running Still, in the UK and US next week, Charlie is giving away an exclusive acoustic version of one of the album’s stand out tracks – the poignant and touching ‘Lift Me Gently’.

You can listen to the track above, or download it from here. Enjoy!

It’s like a return to my early days. Last night we had a real club spirit, on and off stage. People were noisy and we had to work to get them with us. Half way through the set I asked (something I never usually ask) who in the audience knew my first album – maybe 20% of the audience. So, I asked who knew my second album – another 20%. I mean, perhaps they didn’t all understand, or hear, but it didn’t matter – I realised that I had to give everything I had to get the whole room with us.

At the beginning we had a bit of a technical difficulty: On stage there was a very loud buzzing sound, as if a bumble bee was stuck in the monitors. For the louder songs it wasn’t such a problem, but it could’ve been for the fourth song in the set, which was Unlike Me – a tender song and needs tender loving care. I thought that the buzzing sound was heard by everybody in the room, so I made the executive decision to announce to the audience that we had a technical issue that needed fixing and there would be a 5 minute pause in the show. I walked off stage but the band stayed and jammed around a bass line from Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Melody Nelson’ album, my favourite. It was perfect. These are the things that never happen during any bigger shows. There’s always too much organisation and people involved to let those spontaneous events come about. As it goes, I was told that the problem was only on stage – no one could hear it out front and, though no one knew exactly what it was, it could be managed, but not put to rest. But, apparently, it was not effecting the audience or the recording.

My Austrian promoter, Alex, and his wife, Anita, were with us since we arrived in Linz for the first show. They were the ones to help get me to see Dr. Chen. Alex has a company called Audio Toasters. They have a mobile recording studio, which can pitch up outside a venue and split all the instrument channels which go to the front of house desk, so that they have a direct signal from the entire band, recording the concert as if it were a regular studio session. When the gig is finished they can print and package up to 300 CDs to be given or sold to the people who saw the show. Last night, Alex, with the technical expertise of his business partner, Patrick, did just that as a demonstration to me, with the view that we could do it again in the future for the fans to walk away with. After the show, they invited us into there little control room on wheels to listen to the sound quality that they had captured. I have to admit, it sounded a lot higher quality than I was expecting – though I didn’t really know what to expect. We heard a couple of tracks, which is weird when you’ve just walked off stage. After a few songs, Alex gave us each a CD of the gig. I haven’t heard any more since then but I intend to.

After writing that last sentence I realised I could be listening to it right now. My speakers are set up and the music is on. It still sounds good, although I have to say that I prefer listening with everyone else, so we can talk about what needs work. However, what’s good about this is that I get to hear what the public hear… sort of – I shouldn’t discount the work of Franko, my front of house engineer, who has his part in beefing up the sounds with EQ and the occasional effects.

Back to gig itself. It was a real rock n roller of a show. We played My Life As A Duck in the middle of the set, which we haven’t done for a long time. I used the sing-along moment as my opportunity to jump off stage and explore the room. The club had a bar running all the way down the room. That became my temporary stage for conducting the peeps in their choral endeavours. I also picked up someone’s full glass of beer next to my feet and downed it one. If that person is reading this, I hope the barman saw and you got another one for free. My apologies if not. But it was worth it, for the entertainment value, don’t you think?

There’s a lot more I could say about the show but it time is ticking. I’m about to meet the gang for dinner.

We arrived in Krakow an hour or so ago (the drive from Dornbirn was 15 hours) for our two Polish gigs, tomorrow and the next day. It’s great to be in another new country, once again!

Bye!

Chunglee Wingchun

These gigs in Austria are a lot smaller than what we have been used to for a long time and that is a really great thing, as I explained yesterday in my previous tour blog entry. Last night was the smallest so far. It reminded me of playing gigs with my first band a the village hall near where I grew up. Nonetheless, the audience was still fantastic and we made it a great show. There were some very funny moments, as with the night before, in Vienna.

The bus left from Jenbach, this morning at 8am and we have now arrived at Dornbirn, which is not in a built up area at all. In fact, we are in what appears to be in the middle of the Austrian country side, just on the foot of Bregenz Forest Mountain. Just outside our bus is a mountain stream, with clear, fresh water rushing down hill, giving that “shhh” of white noise, that we all resonate with in ways that we can’t understand, but somehow seems to calm us. The air is clear and spring green trees create a translucent emerald city, which immediately relaxes all the senses. In case you didn’t get it yet, I am very happy to be waking up in a natural surrounding. As much as I love cities and the excitement they offer, in truth, I grew a country lad, and often does my heart yearn to be within the un man-made landscape. And there is one main difference between city and country side: when I arrive in a city it immediately starts asking something of me. Because it’s all made by man, there is so much ego attached to each different city (or town) with it’s ‘history and interesting things to do and see, discover’. But when I come to the country, it asks nothing of me. It’s almost as if it say’s, ‘just be’.

Of course I like the balance between to the two, but these days – in fact, for most of my adult life – I tend to spend most of my life in the land of the hand made.

Last gig in Austria tonight.

I have nothing else to add, your honour.

Winston

We’re in Austria. Less of us now than we were, but we’re here.

Last time I wrote a tour diary I think I was in Germany. I don’t remember exactly and I am not on line to check. It’s been to long to back track and give a review of every gig. All I can tell is that it’s still going; Ça va, ça va. However, there are changes in the camp. With the end of the German tour I am sad to say that we have lost Medi on the drums. He was getting pretty anxious to get things moving with his own music for a new record so, early on in April, he announced to the band and crew that he would be leaving at the end of the tour. Although we all knew is was coming at some point this year, we didn’t expect it quite so soon so it’s still a shame to see him go. We’ve played together in this set up for 4 years now and  he’s been on both records. But all is well and I totally understand why he has to get moving with his new record. We do still have one more gig, in New York on May 14th, which will be a good celebration of what we’ve achieved over the last 4 years of playing together and 5 years of hanging out and having a of fun. So, it’s not a goodbye but, rather, just another chapter. We all remain good friends, which is the most important thing, for sure.

So, it begs the question, who is on the drums for us now? Well, let me describe Olivier as a very tall chap, resembling the shape of Jacques Tati or John Clease. He is an old friend of Daniel and Medi from Nice. In 2006, when I (re)met Medi, during my travels through France. Olivier and Daniel were in fact the rhythm section in Medi and the Medicine Show, and for one week, I was supporting their band at Le Pompei in Nice. I guess you could say that’s where it started, so it’s funny to see how things turn around. The mood is good and this tour (Austria and Poland) we are currently doing, seems like a perfect one to have him join us; these shows are smaller, in a more club environment (which is just great) and for that reason, we are not using in-ear monitors, since we don’t have Nico with us, so back to stage wedges, plus we have also lost Jay on lights for this tour, so it really is like back to basics. However, our tour manager, Loops, has taken it upon himself, using his years of experience in the field, to be our lighting man, which is great because he knows the show. It couldn’t be more perfect for refocusing on the band, the music and it’s survival. I have to say that so far, two shows in, Olivier is doing doing a fantastic job. He has clearly been busting his balls, learning all the music – the transition has felt quite seamless, with the obvious kinks that we have to iron out.

Last night, we played in Vienna, after our first concert in Linz the night before. Danny (keys) didn’t get his passport back in time from the US Embassy (we’ve all had to apply for a visa to play in NY, which is quite an operation when we are all on tour, but more so for the English guys because we don’t have identity cards like normal Europeans) so he missed his flight and the Linz show. That meant it was even more refocussing that we had to do, but I think it worked out for the best. The music didn’t seem to suffer and it was fun for me to go back to playing parts on the piano that I had assigned to Danny since he joined in December. I was just happy to be able to be there playing, which i have to thank Dr Chen for. The night before when we left Paris for Austria, I decided to do a few body stretches in my hotel room, before getting on the bus. However, I over stretched and the next thing I knew, I could stand up. I made it to the bus and we all made to Linz, where an appointment was made for me to meet Dr. Chen. I am told that he is the best Doctor of Chinese Medicine and I have to say that he proved. I can’t say that the 15 needles he stuck into my back were comfortable but that night, I was on my feet and able to do the show. I stayed that night in Linz for a second session, which pretty much put me back to normal, before driving to Vienna. Oh, the joys of touring!!

Me, I like all these changes and challenges.

For some people, or perhaps even a lot of people, change can be very difficult. I think I thrive on it though. It keeps the flow of new energy going and also keeps people alert to where they are and what they are doing. With new people comes new relationships, comes new ways to behave, which inevitably creates the opportunity of discovering something new about ourselves. Or, perhaps not discover, but remember aspects of ourselves. I’ve always given a rule in my life, whenever I worked for other people in a job that wasn’t necessarily working directly in music, or art (like when I worked at the cinema, ripping tickets, or in the music studio café, cooking breakfast and lunch) and that rule is that I only do that job for a maximum of 18 months. After 18 months, it’s time to move on and do something else. So, when I stopped working in the cafe, I noticed that a lot of the rehearsal studios in the same building of the cafe needed some serious paint work on the walls and I persuaded the boss, Viv Broughton, to let me touch up the place, which he was more than happy about. I wasn’t very good at the beginning but I got better, with the help of lots of advice from predominantly male musicians, who also fancied themselves as painters and decorators. I decided to give my new job a business name: Paint, Init. During my paint works, I would make a sign for everyone to see which said CAUTION: WET PAINT, INIT!! and each time I finished a wall, I would sign it at the bottom simply with “Paint, Init”. It was the only business card I could afford a the time. I didn’t get paid much but I didn’t care. For me, I enjoyed the peace of mind that came with the work. Sometimes, I would listen to talk radio. I remember it was also a time when I was discovering the crazy world of Tom Waits, with albums like Bone Machine and Mule Variations; they still remain as two of my favourite albums of his. I was also given 5 albums of Autechre, by one of the members of a band called Simion, who rented a rehearsal room there. I got massively in to the electro industrial world of Autechre and often listened to it while cycling through the city on my bike. It seemed like a perfect sonic illustration of what I was surrounded by.

There is so much more to say and stories to tell – a great one about “Paint, Init” and how it ended – but I’ll have to come back to it another day. Soundcheck soon. Tonight we are in Jenbach. It’s a small town, right in the middle of the mountains in the west of Austria…. I think. This morning, I took a little walk in the town and stopped for breakfast in the only cafe I could find. The sun was shining and the air was clear, so I ate on the terrace. On the table next to me there was a middle aged couple. It was 11am as I ordered a coffee, they were just ordering two more long pints of beer. By the time I had finished my food, another guy, sitting alone with his dog and rollup cigarettes was in the middle of his third pint of beer. I felt like a bit of a light weight, just ordering coffee. Inside the cafe, where I payed, was full of mostly older men, smoking, drinking and playing card games. There was a real atmosphere. It was apero time, for sure.

I want to talk more, but I really have to go now. Let me just say that the last two nights have been great gigs in really cool venues. The audience in Vienna was priceless, with heckling that I haven’t experienced for a long time; I had lots to work with on stage. Tonight, the venue is quite strange with a distinct lack of lighting – I feel a little bit like we have come back to school and are about to do a nativity play – but I think we will still have some fun. It’s gigs like these where we get to play around and find new things in the music that we don’t discover on the bigger, slicker shows.

Under and in,

Over and out,

Charlie

Long days, small crew, I saw more of the Big Apple than I think I had ever seen, including movies. People were what made the experience so memorable. That started with the crew of about 8. We all met on a windy street in the meat packing district at 8.00 on Monday morning, greeted by smiles, coffee and hot ham and cheese bagels wrapped in foil. Throughout the two days of shooting I got time to talk to all of them and it felt like a mini family by the end. But it wasn’t just the crew I spoke to and that was partly thanks to the role I played in the film, as a photographer.

The director gave me an analog reel Canon camera, like the one I took with me to India to make a photo story, and he gave me a bunch of camera rolls and said ‘take pics of what you see’. That gave me a good excuse to approach people in the street and ask for their portrait. I was amazed at how obliging everyone was, especially for New York.

It’s really city for sure. One of my favourites.

Charlie

Our last German show in Munich (Munchen) was cool. A great end to the tour. Afterwards I went out to meet the people. Everyone was very nice and polite. In fact, I’ve been very surprised by actually how polite German people. I’m not sure if it’s polite or shy. They are always very timid when asking me for a photo/autograph. I wasn’t expecting that.

After the show in Munich we were all sad to say goodbye to Thomas Peter, my old friend and photographer (Reuteurs) who joined us for this tour to make a daily photo journal on Facebook. The feedback there has been for his fantastic has proved it was worth it. We hope he’ll be able to come again. He caught some shots of us live that I have never seen before.

Tonight we played at the Artefacts festival in Strasbourg. 12,000 people were with us and, despite it being a festival with a lot of other acts, it felt like there were a lot of people there for us tonight, who not only knew the songs from Hobo, but Running Still too. That was a nice welcome back to a French festival. Also, it was in a Zenith, the festival, and the lights that they provided were super strong tonight. Every time I looked around at the band I could hardly see them for the brightness of the lights in my eyes. And often, I saw the people in the front having to cover their from the intensity. On a few occasions I used my shadow to help some people from going blind. You see, I’m not just a singer.

We have new tour manager join us tonight called Loops (that’s how he is known to us so far anyway). He is a very big guy with a very big beard and when he arrived he had hair on his head. However, after the show tonight, I realised that he has exactly the same beard as Franky Franky Franky, who is not playing with us but has been on the tour to work with Medi on new songs (plays bass in his band and he is a dude). So, as a joke, I suggested that Loops shave his head like Franky Franky Franky and he calmly said ok, going straight ahead with the procedure; in the shower room, Franky with the clippers, literally taking off all the hair his head. And now they are like two of a kind. I wonder if this fashion will spread.

That’s all from me,
Chunkle