BEN SANDS

It is hard to believe that 2015 is already more than a month old!

I hope you all made a safe crossing from the old year and that all goes well as 2015 gets into gear!

So far, two great visits to Germany for me in January : first, a "Winter Traum" festival in Ratingen-Lintorf followed by two very enjoyable Private Concerts ... then a long weekend in Dresden and Berlin.  Great to meet old friends again in Dresden's Club Passage and to make a few new friends too! The concert in Alt-Heiligensee was sold out…

Autumn is always an especially beautiful time, and this year was no exception.

For the first time in what seems like a long time, I spent three weeks of Autumn on "the bigger island", our neighbour across the Irish Sea.

The itinerary stretched from Stonehaven, on Scotland's north-east coast, to Plymouth in the south west of England, and included my first performances in Wales - in Flint and Llantrisant.

Altogether my travels in Britain covered just over 2,300 miles – a good challenge for my old 1997…

As so often in life, I find myself looking back!

I'm looking back on the 2014 Summertime - which brought some of the finest weather that Ireland has seen for a while.

But nevertheless not as warm and pleasant as the Summers we think we remember when we were children growing up!

Why IS that?

Nobody will tell me if the weather really WAS warmer and the evenings longer in the Summers of the 1960s and 1970s ... maybe our memories play tricks and are a bit selective, remembering the better bits and…

A Spring tour in Germany began on March 13 in Spandau, Berlin and took me, by highway and byway, through most parts of Germany.

Wonderful welcomes in Ottersheim and Spirkelback in Pfalz; Toeppen bei Hof; Syke-Barrien, Suedbrookmerland and the lovely Island of Norderney in the North; back to Bavaria - and Immeldorf, Nuernberg and Wiesentheid; a quick and enjoyable stop in Lauffen bei Heilbronn and finally a very happy ending in Munich! Always so great to meet old and new friends, even for a short time.

February was a month of ups and downs!

The downs came first - when my Central Heating boiler decided it had had enough and collapsed after more than 30 years of hard labour!  It was a good boiler in its time - a pity that it waited for the coldest day of the winter to retire! I was without heat for a few days but survived until a new boiler was installed!

The ups came with a trip to Berlin and surrounding areas!

Very enjoyable "house-full" concerts in the Petruskirche, Lichterfelde and Villa Felice in…

I was invited to play at a "Burns Supper" on 1 February, 2014 in Enniskillen.

Robert "Rabbie" Burns (1759-1796) was a Scottish poet, singer and song collector who is celebrated and feted in the early part of each year all around the world. While the name of the poet may not be known to everyone, there are very few who have not sung or heard his song, "Auld Lang Syne" as the clocks strike midnight at the end of each year!

I thoroughly enjoyed the music and poetry and marking of tradition in a lively…

After an enjoyable Christmas time I ran into some health problems as the New Year began.  

First, a nasty flu virus and lung infection which made some of The Sands Family concerts very difficult for me - but I survived!

Then came - out of the blue! - severe arthritic pain in hands and wrists, which left me unable to play an instrument for nearly three weeks - absolute HELL!!!!  Eventually, with the help of Antibiotics and Steroids - and several alternative treatments! -the pains disappeared as quickly and…

The Sands Family release a new CD in early December and will launch it during a series of concerts in Ireland. The tour and the CD are entitled "Home for Christmas", available to buy via PayPal from their website, www.sandsfamilyfolk.com

Back again In Ireland after an exciting and enjoyable couple of weeks in and around Berlin!

The highlight of this trip was the launch of the new CD "LIVE" IN BERLIN on September 1 in Borsigturm, Berlin - where the album was recorded back in March.

The March concert was recorded by the Sound-Man, Tobi Johow - but with no intention of it becoming a CD!  After several listens, I was persuaded to make it into an Album and although it may not reach Studio standards in terms of technical quality, I think its…

Today I approved the final artwork for the album recorded "live" in Berlin, in March of this year!

The concert - in The Meistersaal of the Borsigturm - was recorded "on the fly" by Soundman, Tobias Johow, with no intentions of taking it further.  But when we had a listen next day, we realised there was the possibility of producing a CD which would give a snap-shot of what and how I am performing at this time.  Since we had not planned to make a CD, we didn't even think about setting up extra microphones…