On May 28 I will be making my second show ever as a solo artist. The gig will take place at The Bull & Gate in London. This time I won’t be able to bring my new excellent backing band and the idea was to make a solo performance. However, as it turned out, I’m fortunate enough to have been put in contact with a great, tasteful, and very talented English band called Mini who to my great surprise seem to be ready, willing, and able to back me up on a few songs so that’s going to be great fun! Rumour has it that they are fans of Jellyfish (just like me) and even of the Merrymakers(!) so I obviously already like them as people without even having met them and I look very much forward to meeting them IRL not to mention to be playing together as well.The show is part of an annual pop music festival called International Pop Overthrow which focuses on – as arranger David Bash puts it: “music that relies on melody and harmony, with prominent guitars. It’s music that is strongly influenced by but doesn’t necessarily sound like what we heard in the ’60s and ’70s.”My friendship with David Bash goes back to 1997 when he first invited the Merrymakers to play in Los Angeles which we did, first at the Poptopia festival, and then in 1998, at the the first International Pop Overthrow festival ever. So it’s going to be great fun to get together again and have the opportunity to expose my new solo stuff to the international power pop community.The legendary Bull and Gate is possibly the best place in the London area to catch unsigned acts. Nirvana and Blur are among those who stomped around on the Bull & Gate’s stage before they made their names.Check out the schedule here for this year’s IPO in London.Hope to see you in London!