Free Tibet

A bus load of demonstrators went up to London from Glastonbury to participate in the ant-china rally along the Olympic torch route, and it was a mild success! Although we reached London a little late, on account of the Tibet like snow that came this way for the first time in years, we managed to reach the top of Downing Street right after the torch had left and there were still plenty of people on the streets, so we unfurled out flags and marched about in organized chaos.

There were many Chinese too bussed in and they might as well have been holding little red books as they were zealous and quite aggressive. The police by this time were wandering up and down and wondering what to do as there was really nobody to arrest so after some confrontation with the Chinese in Trafalgar Square we trotted off to the Tibetan Rally near Kings Cross where a few thousand braved the cold. There were speeches from Joanna Lumley and the Tibetan lady protestor who had unfurled banners on the Great Wall of China and no doubt will be in San Francisco now, plus music and general crowd raising awareness.

I drifted off to meet friend and have a drink and returned to the bus for the return journey where I spent a fair amount of time playing guitar and singing to the beat of the bongos from Lee. That was a tiring day and then I realized it was my dear old mum's birthday, so that was a good way to spend it.

Happy Birthday and Free Tibet!

Chris Jagger

Zummerzet; March 2007.

Many apologies for not updating this website sooner, but the older you become the less time there is left for everything!

I have changed servers so I hope that the wheels of the invisible web will run a little smoother with this one. I am gearing up for the spring and summer and music events across Europe and elsewhere so as soon as they are put together I shall keep them posted on this site and on http://www.chrisjaggersatcha.com/.

It has been quite a long winter here and very wet of late, which is how it's supposed to be down in this part of the world. One thing is for sure that for those of us who see the cold months out, we really look forward to some sunshine as much as the birds and mammals do. They weather the bad times out in the open and try to survive until there is more food and better conditions for them while we over bloated humans merely turn a switch when we need extra hear or another luxury. This world was not made entirely for mankind, something we would do well to remember; there are so many species we must share this planet with, many who have been here far longer and are just as important as we are.

Keep in touch!

Bye for now,
Chris Jagger.

Some say it's Somerset but it feels more like Texas right now with the searing heat outside. In my polytunnel it's around 50 C in the middle of the day, it's a South American jungle.

The band played last weekend up North in Brampton, twixt Newcastle and Carlisle on the behest of Andy Kershaw who introduced us and the onetime John Peel favourites Half man half Biscuit. So it was a good tent we had though not the main one where I caught some of the more sedate affair of Eric Bibb. I made the classic mistake of picking up someone else's bag at the airport and on opening it found not my leads and washboard but Judy Cook's clothes. Whoops sorry Judy. If you read this I'll send you a record or something as compensation.

Next weekend we're due out to Amsterdam where the a Rolling Stones Fan Club…. the Forty Licks variety are holding a jamboree at the Paradiso Club there on the day before the Stones gig and we are playing as well as a Stones spin off band headed by horn player Tim Rees and who can blame him as they only get to play a few riffs on the Stones show. So that should be one good evening…Will let you know. In general I am not too keen on playing in the same town as The Stones but, hey, it's about the only way I get to meet my brother these days…It's all one big family ain't it???

PS While writing this I'm listening to a free pod cast you get from www.deltabluesmuseum.org so check it out!

June 2006

It's been a topsy-turvy time for the band and me since the record was released. We've been busy particularly across Austria and Germany and had good audiences for the recent trips. We're off again to Berlin and Vienna soon so hope that goes well too.

In ole England it's been more mixed as we didn't receive much publicity and correspondingly the attention has been less. Why I don't know?

We have also just finished a new track; called "Nahanni" it will now close the album that we are currently shipping to Japan as an import there. We also hope to make this same record available for North America and are sending the track out as a free MP3 download as we hope it might attract some attention in Canada, which is where the Nahanni River runs up in the NW Territory. There is a campaign to extend the park area and there are commercial mining interests who want to exploit the resources so this track is a reminder of the fragile environment that this unique habitat contains. In fact I shall put the track up on this website as soon as possible so as you can all hear it.

Till then, have a good summer and don't get sunburnt!!