Valentine Court has received a charming review from the new, Biirmingham based music website, The Music Quarter:

This debut album from contemporary pianist Rich Batsford is the ultimate aid for subliminal relaxation.

Tracks such as ‘Lyndall,’ a short, sentimental piece with a calming lullaby effect and ‘So Steve,’ have a surreal, dream like quality that drifts from one magical place to another….

…. a stunning debut album.
Xx

Hello Everyone and Happy Xmas!

In the spirit of Xmas cheer and sharing the love, please accept this gift from me – a special Xmas edit of one of my most uplifting tunes – Gudonya.

Just click on the link below to listen, or better yet, right click on the link – select “save link as” and you can download the free MP3 file and keep it for posteriority to play it again and again – or why not share it with a friend?

Gudonya Xmas Edit

and a Happy New Year!!!

Rich
Xx

I’m really looking forward to taking part in this concert on Friday 13th alongside two very talented artists – Olivia Moore (violin) and classical guitarist Dharmapani.

Olivia will be accompanied by Indian Bansuri player Lisa Mallett and tabla player Mohinder Singh and I’ll be taking the opportunity to play a set of instrumental piano music.

The evening looks set to be a beautiful and inspiring musical experience and in a wonderful setting – the main shrine room at the Birmingham Buddhist Centre (Park Road, Moseley).

Olivia Moore has enjoyed playing internationally and recording with some of the world’s top artists, most notably Mukesh Jadhav (tabla) and Jean Toussaints (saxophone). She wrote to me about the concert saying “My music comes from my heart and reflects my journey through different states of being. All my projects embody my quest to bring together my different musical interests to make something that is meaningful”.

This will be a thirty minute classical indian recital. We are planning to play two ragas, Raga Hansadhvani and Raga Yaman. Hansadhvani is a joyful sounding raga. It’s name means ’song of the swan’. It is a popular south indian raga which has recently become very popular in the north of india as well. Yaman has been regarded as one of the grandest and most fundamental ragas in hindustani music.

Dharmapani has been a classical guitarist for 30 years and has taught in Birmingham for the last 15 years. He usually plays in a duo called ‘The Well-Tempered Guitar Duo’. During the concert he will be playing some music from Isaac Albeniz and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Should be a lovely evening, I hope you can make it – it starts at 7.30pm and its £5 on the door.
Xx

Fame at last eh? Well, of course it doesn’t necessarily mean that anyone’s going to buy it, but it’s kinda exciting anyway!

If you dont have Valentine Court yet, then please visit my iTunes page by clicking on the groovy little icon below – have a listen and maybe even make a purchase. Gawd bless ya!

Time certainly flies doesnt it? It seems like just yesterday I was young boy, reading a SciFi comic dedicated to life in the far flung future of the year 2000 and wondering what the heck Id be doing when I grew up.

Of course in those days I spent a lot of time singing and playing the piano whereas now …

Anyhoo – Id love it if you fancy joining me to celebrate 40 years on lovely planet earth – we are meeting at 9pm, Sat Oct 24th at the Adam and Eve at the top of Bradford Street in Digbeth (thats B12 0JD Sat Nav fans, or where the 50bus turns left towards town if youre a Moseleyite or Heathen) – its a big red pub, you cant miss it.

Aside from a great opportunity to experience what my good friend Shu once delightfully and wisely referred to as “the limitless joy of human interaction” – (and drink beer), I’ll be playing some tunes with some special guests and there will also be a great live band – Free Control – (terrific grooves and vibe). Also a friend is going to do a few minutes of stand up for us which I guarantee will provide some big laughs (or Im really not doing my job properly).

And we have two of the best DJs you will find – Marc Reck and Mark Smallman – they’re both able to play a wide range of styles from the most chilled delights to the biggest dance floor fillers.

So if youre free, do please come along for 9pm as otherwise, you’ll miss some of the live entertainment – most probly me as I’ll very likely be up first! If you cant tho, no worries – the Adam is open til 4am and I fully expect to be propping up the bar until then.

Its an open invitation so do bring friends if you want to.
Xx

Hi Folks

Exciting to be writing the first news entry on my shiny new website. I hope you like it – it’ll still be tweaked a little as we go, so any feedback you have is very welcome

Many thanks to Seb Lenton for all this hard work on this.

Please enjoy listening to my music and do please keep in touch.

big love

Rich
Xx

Very exciting to see that theres a new monthly magazine out devoted to music in Birmingham – welcome Brum Notes.

This is great news, particularly following the sad demise of the Midlands office of the Metro which is a major blow to music news coverage in the region. Their office is based in the recently launched Moseley Exchange co-working space.

Brum Notes is free and it looks and reads well, long may it continue!

I’m doubly pleased cos they have given my album a nice review “a perfect accompaniment for candelit relaxation … combining unobtrusive, soothing textures and hypnotic, complex rhythms”:

This will be, I think, the Fourth in what has become an annual fixture in the Moseley Festival – which looks to be seriously resurgent this year with over 80 events in more than 50 locations over 10 days between 26 June and 5 July 2009.

Last year’s gig went very well indeed – so much so that it inspired myself, Mick Perrier and Amran Ellahi to go on to create the Musituality concert together, which went down a treat at Birmingham Cathedral last month. More on Musituality, soon, meanwhile, check out Matt Murtagh’s beautiful pictures from last years Music by Candlelight – St Marys Church by candlelight is really quite special.

This year I’ve got another eclectic blend of deliightful and spiritually inspired music featuring:

The marvellously named Moksha Medicine Men – who played beautifully at the recent Project X event – featuring the nimble fingers of Rohit on Sitar, with bass and tabla playing some wonderful and intricate Indian music.

John Gerighty playing classically inspired acoustic guitar influenced in part by his Christian spirituality.

And finally, Eve and the Garden offering a feminine trio of vocals, harp and violin with Celtic and folky influences to the fore.

Plus I’ll be playing a set of my piano music.

It should be a lovely evening – its an 8pm start in the inspirational setting of St Marys Chuch (the big Church overlooking the Village) and its free in although your donations would be most welcome.

I usually get some refreshments sorted for the interval – a glass of red wine or orange juice can only help with the vibe!
Xx

Just a quick update on my plans to continue making writing, performing and recording music a significant part of my life.

I’ve been playing solo live at various acoustic nights, Project X events and assorted self promoted events for three or so years now and planning to start spreading my wings a bit further afield this autumn. Unless – and maybe even if – some record or management executive taps you on the back with big plans for you, I think in this game its best to take things one step at a time, and so its mostly around the Midlands and a little further afield I’ll be venturing to start with.

I’m aiming to get these dates in October and November and create some flyers and posters with the dates on – a tour in other words, tho with the dates spread across the two months, rather than crammed into a couple of weeks.

At the same time, I’m going release a newly recorded version of my piano album Valentine Court – which Ive been giving away in MP3 form on this site for a while. Then we are looking at another Project X event in the spring which will keep me busy for a bit, until Im ready to release an album of songs in Autumn 2010. And then – who knows – some travel, a move to Australia? Time will tell, tho either way I hope there’ll be much more music to come as I already have the next album of piano instrumentals written, as well as about half of a furhter album of songs and a few more instrumentals on top of that. So a bit of a backlog really.

Wish me luck! (but not with the comments on this page as the “comments pending” bit of this site is completely filled with several hundred thousand pieces of spam).
Xx

Had another great night at Bohemian Jukebox last night. I was chatting with programmer and promoter Ben Calvert before the gig about the joys of visiting and potentially living in Bristol – if he does ever move away, Birmingham will have lost an indispensible figure from the music scene.

The small room (actually its only marginally smaller than the other room, but has much cosier and intimate vibe) at the Hare & Hounds once again made for the ideal setting for a great evening of acoustic music.

I had the pleasure of kicking things off. I’ve once again reshuffled my set – drawing on the experience of playing live over the last few years and noticing which songs I enjoy most live, also making a conscious decision to avoid too many introspective lyrics in the set. The uplifting instrumental Gudonya is now back in the set.

I missed Banksa’s set but had caught a few of Rowena and friend’s tunes earlier in the sound check – she plays guitar well in a folksy style, with a hint of bluegrass at times, and there were some nicely done two part hamonies.

Next up Erinn Williams, whom I’ve seen at Bohemian Jukebox once before and had enjoyed so much I asked Ben to put us on the same bill on her next visit (she’s from LA but tours regularly). I wasn’t disappointed, the undistorted electric guitar she plays provides a great, rich backdrop in a style that brings to my mind minimalist rhythms and trip hop warmth. She has the skills to pick out a melody in the guitar over a picked rhythmic background with considerable sensitivity and phrasing. As well as rhythm there’s some very interesting and effective harmonic changes in evidence too.

Vocally Erinn can produce a strong clear tone then effortlessly, say, at the top of a rising phrase, throttle back into her head voice and allow a controlled vibrato to creep in or come back still further to a breathy softness. Very effectively done – she has some operatic training in her past and it shows in the great control she can exercise seemingly effortlessly.

The overall experience of Erinn’s performance is greater than the sum of these ingredients, thanks to an instinctive grasp she has of communicating – or creating, an emotional experience through her music – with shades of dark and light throughout.

Finally, Frankie Ward and friends comprise the outfit Get Frank, here appearing as a full band albeit with the drummer experimenting with bongos as an alternative to a full kit. Frankie is a talented young performer and is generally active on the Birmingham creative scene – onstage there were hints of nerves but also a big bag full of confidence and charm – I would think in a very short time she has what it takes to be a top notch performer. She’s a good songwriter offering witty lyrics and lively, tunes embracing both pathos and humour she has a rich, versatile voice.

In the rest of the band, Sebastian Bonfiglioni was noticeable for some sensitive sax playing and some intricate and lively guitar solos.

A great end to a fine evenings musical entertainment and good company – the only thing that could have improved it for substantially would have been an extra 20 odd audience members, so if you want to make the next gig even better, get on down there on July 9th – you wont regret it.
Xx