Make it happen!

Filmed on my x-country trail the Hochmoor Loipe, Kitzbühler Alps Mittersill. It was such a lovely day with fabulous views I decided to experiment with some special effects.

Eddie Blackstone talks briefly about his children, about what inspired him to write songs following his first ever trip to Colorado. 

Listen to Eddie's 8 self penned songs towards the end of the Podcast, otherwise listen to his song collection on Soundcloud. https://soundcloud.com/eddie-blackstone 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/eddie-blackstone-89446339/?originalSubdomain=uk

Eddie tells the story of how he met with fellow singer and Country entertainer Tjaye Martin after his good friend Kelvin Henderson england/bristol/somerset/8605867.stm ; www.alancackett.com had introduced her to Eddie, and how Eddie, via an agent friend, arranged for Tjaye to perform solo at the Sheraton Abu dhabi in 1989 for a season. Following this, Eddie and Tjaye performed as a duo at the Sheraton for a 5 year period playing in front of an International audience as well as some select people from the UAE. Eddie remembered well a certain Egyptian born army Colonal always immaculately dressed and present at one of the performences and made sure that Eddie was well supplied with several rounds of Jack Daniels, on one occasion,no less than 18 shots were provided for Eddie conveniantely situated at the bar of the Hotel. Artists performing at the Hotel were forbidden to sit at any guest tables and opted for the Hotel bar instead!  On another occasion Eddie and Tjaye were bekonned to Sheik Muhamed's table, something that they'd normally not be allowed to do,but it was not protokol to turn down such an offer from a Sheik of course. The Sheik duly invited Eddie and Tjaye to perform at his Birthday party on their night off from playing the Sheraton, the address Liberty Tower Penthouse. There was a very wide door entrance to the Penthouse, on the dooor a Welcome Tjaye and Eddie notice, they were gariousciously received by the Sheik who was dressed in country and Western style clothing, 40 other invited guests were also present. The Sheik approached Eddie saying I think your favorite drink is Brandy? A full bottle was then provided to Eddie,and  Jack Daniles bottle to Tjaye Martin. Just some of Eddie's recollections and stand out memories of seasons in the sun at the Sheraton.  Eddie who had at one stage been the landlord of the Horseshoe Inn in Bath, had left the pub after a ten year stint, his wife Pat who remained great friends split up in the early 80's. Eddies rise to fame and musical popularity carried on when he started to write his own songs when in Colorado on a visit and meeting Arleen a 'very special lady' and became good friends with Eddie, he had written about 15 songs whilst in Colorado. Eddie goes on to tell several memorable stories of his ventures in the USA. Eddie and Tjaye embarked on a 4 week visit to the US playing and singing as they travelled around starting in New Orleans and driving to Arizona eventually clocking up 5,000 miles in their hire car. Visiting a ghost town named Stein, meeting and befriending Jerry Reed a well known Country and Western singer. https://en,mwikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Reed and once back in the UK, being invited by Jerry to perform at the renowned Jamborree in the Hill's,an American Country music institution. https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamboree_in_the_hills  in front of an audience of circa 40,000 spectators. It dosent end there, Eddie tells the story of being invited onto the Marty Robin's TV show, Marty , an established songwriter and performer of country style music, was an acclaimed performer who had his own television show. Marty had big hits in the late 50's and early 60's with songs such as 'El Paso' and 'White Sport coat and a Pink Carnation' https://youtu.be/KAO7vs_Q9is; https://youtu.be/zD8MnvyAi61  Marty intended to record two of Eddie's self penned songs and invited Eddie to attend the recordings in Nashville, sadly Marty died shortly afterwards.  Finally , Eddie recalled many great occasions and fun memories of his good friend Nigel Robinson once back in the UK. 

Pete tells us his period in life where he would spend time in Scotland, solo performences or duets, socialising and music making with Hamish Imlach, Danny Kyle, Tam Harvey and Josh McRae and even Billy Connolly!  How these people would make funny lyrics out of a popular song, how Bill Mcintyre was made fun of in a rendition of McCartney's Mull of Kintyre. Very often a certain Maggie Bell would also attend these social gatherings in a popular pub where people were getting slowly under the influence of drink.  Pete Gardner decided also to put his own funny lyrics to both Johnny Cash's 'St Quentin' & 'Ring of fire' all about the after effects of eating vindeloo curries after a gig!  Pete Gardner was a regular visitor to Scotland driving his truck from Barnoldswick to collect tonnes of Denim to be delivered to places such as Leicester and London.  Pete tells us of his longest ever stay in Austria due to being given the job of solo performing to a public in the Mozart platz in Salzburg, an Austrian emtrepeuner was responsible for organising the Public viewing and all pre and Post match ceromonies for the Euro football championships jointly staged by Austria and Switzerland in 2008. Pete played every night for 30 nights in a row to audiences of up to 2,000 people.  Pete talks about his good friend and musician Cliff Stocker who had unexpectadly died after a routine surgery had gone wrong, Cliff was always on the prowl for good lyrics to songs, a strength that Pete gardner had in abundance. Cliff had told Pete he should record his songs as he felt they had great potential, up to that point Pete was'nt interested in the hassle of recording studios,but following the death of his friend Cliff, Pete decided to finish off many songs and song ideas he had and recorded them at home as videos now available on 'Pete gardners music page' on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/Peter-Gardner-Music-page-917768181625253/ https:// Pete talks about inspiration to write good lines,he'd even get up in the middle of the night to write something down rather than forget it in the morning. Pete talks about his regular trips to Austria to perform and his favorite base of Mittersill, how in recent years his ability to play guitar was hampered by his carpal tunnel syndrome affecting to hands and fingers. Pete wrote a song called 'Long time gone' about his friend Erich Pletzer who ran the Cafe and Konditorei in Mittersill. The market village of Mittersill with a population of 6,000 had been upgraded to a town in 2008, Pete Gardner wrote a song titled 'Mittersill Forever' available on Youtube https://youtu.be/oe9-AjxNeD4 which became a minor hit on the internet. Pete talks about his style of writing songs being greatly influenced by the American artists he had long admired.     

Finally we get to a couple of Pete gardner performed songs throughout this 37 minute Podcast. Gardners signature tune starts the Podcast off, his excellent rendition of Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison! https://youtu.be/yhTbesZhQL0  All the sounds-songs were recorded at my home using a mixture of a Zoom H4n device and an Iphone 4 in the year 2014. Pete Gardner was very influenced by American artist's not least Johnny Cash whom Pete had met outside the Manchester Apollo in England prior to Cash's performence at the venue. Pete had met Cash on 3 or 4 occasions during Cash's UK performences. Country music was where Pete's heart lay and his association with a Country Magazine had given him the task of interviewing country artists and people in the backing bands such as the entertaining and talented musician and personality Joe Brown who played guitar in Johnny Cash's backing band. Digressing is Pete's speciality, after all, he has had a long and fulfilled life with plenty going on, Pete tells the story of him learning to box, he learned how to throw a punch which stood him in good stead throughout his young life! Pete by this time also a musician singer and guitarist was playing in bands that very often supported some popular and famous stars, many that had come over from America such as Gene Vincent whose performences made a huge impression on everyone.  Pete and his musician friends were playing the dance halls and Cinema's where many hundreds of people would gather to be entertained. Pete formed a friendship with Mike Harding a popular British singer songwriter and comedian, amoung his many talents, Mike was also a Poet, and some of his monologues and delivery skills rubbed off on Pete who composed his own Poem spoken in an ethnic Yorkshire accent to end this Episode 4 Podcast, very much saving the best until last. Please savour Pete Gardner's 'the Cut'. https://www.facebook.com/100000021634074/videos/3787531901257494/

 80 year old Pete Gardner is from Barnoldswick in Yorkshire England, a Yorkshireman through and through!  Pete had his challenges throughout his life and found that the strict upbringing and expectations of him from his father in particular, made for a tempestuous relationship in his younger years the effect of which made Pete a rather aggressive person using his natural strength to deal with some people that he felt were confronting him.  Pete was a very industrious worker in all he took on, eventually investing in wagons/lorries/trucks and setting up his own successful transport company where he employed several drivers and mechanics. During the 50's and 60's he became enamoured by the music scene and quickly learned to play guitar to compliment his already strong voice particularly suited to country music but not limited to this. Music had a theraputic effect on Pete, he no longer was looking for a fight and channelled his energies into his music, and even song writing.  See his songs on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/Peter-Gardner-Music-page-917768181625253/ Once Pete had decided he had had enough of the transport business , he successfully sold the business and decided to retire, following a 3 month spell travelling in America, he started to visit Austria in 1980 and found he could easily get work as a solo performer. His chosen base was a town named Mittersill where he had regular engagements in both summer, and winter seasons returning on an annual basis until recent years.    The town of Mittersill had become a town proper some 10 years ago, Pete promptly wrote a song about this called ' Mittersill Forever' https://youtu.be/oe9-AjxNeD4  which became a minor hit on the internet and can still be found on facebook and youtube as we speak. Although dogged with occasional ailments and serious health problems in the past, Pete is remarkably energetic and still has no problem jumping into his car and heading for Scotland to visit friends,but in particular, to Austria where he has made many friends over the years.  Some 15 years ago or so, as a Mittersill resident since 2002, I was introduced to Pete by our mutual friend Eric Pletzer proprietor of Mittersill's Konditerei Pletzer www.konditoreipletzer.at , Eric knew I was a keen musician and generally a creative and sometimes crazy tourism guy, Pete and I hit it off reasonably well, we didnt just have a passion for music, but mostly, we loved that great British humour! My working role in Austria has always been in the travel and tourism side of things. Last but not least, apart from his strong Yorkshire accent, Pete is a constant joke teller, any subject you care to mention, he'll make you laugh, this as well as his music making has become his trait, he has well and truly left the aggression behind, at least I think he has?  All the best to you Pete!  Bernie Audio recorded in Mittersill Austria on the 16th, 17th & 18th September 2020. Incidental background music performed by Pete Gardner & Johnny Cash.