Last month I told you about my accident falling off a chair and damaging my ‘corti’. I have never had vertigo before but it is a dreadful feeling with the floor disappearing when you are walking across it. Two weeks into it and I awoke to find it had disappeared – boy was I grateful. By that night I had come down with the worst virus I have ever had. Apart from a raging temperature I was confined to bed for over ten days, with both the vertigo back in place and a feeling of absolute lethargy. All I have done the last two weeks is sleep.
I haven’t been able to do any singing in the house, for which Michele is very grateful. She is in the middle of writing ‘The Book’ and boy is it difficult with the temperament of writers! I mustn’t interfere with her artistic flow!!!
Anyway she is over twenty chapters into it now and hopefully it will only be a few more months before she returns to normal – if that’s possible.
A rough outline of the year has been put together but until I sign the contracts they are not set in stone yet. So far we have:
2008
July/August 20 matinee shows
September Ireland 6-10 shows
October/November British Tour – 30 dates
4 November The Shaw Theatre – London
12 November The Beck Theatre
December Philippines
2009
January/February Australia and New Zealand
March/April Intimate Tour – 30 + dates
The dates above have not been added to purely because I have had to cancel all my meetings. I do know that Tony Clayman and Nick Lee have firmed up a lot more dates but I will come back to you next month when I know more. All I do is sing; they are the team behind the scenes who put it all together.
As I mentioned I am going back to The Beck Theatre this year and I can confirm that ‘Fans reunited’ will not happen this time round. It is six months since Michele had the car crash and she is still not walking properly yet, you can see all the projects she has had to work on and there are several more to come before the years’ end. Then there is the website which she has to work on every day but her priority at the moment is the book. Both her partner in crime Richard Moore and her are working round the clock so there is really no time for her to put another ‘meet’ together for this year.
She has told me there will definitely be a massive meet for the 25th anniversary year – 2010 – and that will see a beautiful new release ‘The Singles Collection’ and the book come to fruition, that is the one to wait for.
Talking about new releases. I have had to shelve the dedicated Filipino album temporarily. Having only just brought my new solo album out ‘If He Could See Me Now’ and trying to get in the studios for a possible new ‘Duets’ album, there is no time in the day left. Colin is busily working on new arrangements and not just for the Duets album but also for the new show this year. It usually takes the best part of a year from the first concept of an album to the release date and there is no way we can try and be more ambitious than we are already trying to be.
I am not sure why the Philippine promoter cannot use my new solo album but the Philippine public are very discerning and the one thing I have found out having worked there the last two years is they are not partial to up-tempo tracks. They like the ballad. They want an album full of ballads but the trouble is with no light and shade it will purely be just for them and that is an expensive lengthy project, which would be better to do later.
Talking about a new ‘Duets’ album, thank you for all your ideas, please keep them coming in. We are at the point now of having selected three tracks which we are going to lay down in the next few weeks. These will be presented to the big wigs at EMI to see if they want to run with it, so fingers crossed. The tracks selected are ‘This is the Life’, ‘What a Wonderful World’ and ‘Yesterday When I Was Young’.
Don’t forget to keep your suggestions coming in to the Forum and say why you think it would make a great choice.
Talking about the track ‘This is The Life’, most of you are aware that it is the Harvey’s theme on their adverts and we were thrilled to see it advertised throughout the programming of the quiz ‘Dual’. When the show ended we thought that was that but the programme to take its place on Saturday nights is ‘Mr. & Mrs.’ and Harveys are also the sponsor of that so we are being treated to the dulcet tones of my father once again. That’s a great piece of luck.
Even though I wasn’t well last month the DVD project is still moving forward. That’s because Michele waded through more than 40 hours of videotape and we are now waiting to see the first rough draft. This is an exciting project for me and I am looking forward to seeing the results of a year on the road.
Although I will keep my monthly updates here I also have my own site at www.mattmonrojnr.com, which is a more in-depth area. If any of you want to pop across I would love to see you there.
