Hi all.. I must say that for me personally 2007 has been a really ground breaking year. The thing that has stood out though above and beyond all else has been the support from all of you. You guys a simlpy awesome. I wish you all

A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS AND A FABULOUS NEW YEAR!!

I just can't thank you guys enough.
cheers Clarky.

Hi guys we have some very cool news.

1. My band has a new guitarist - Luke Walker.
Luke is currently studying music at the Academy of Contemporary Music (ACM) in Guildford, UK.
He is a superb young musician with a tremendous energy and enthusiasm.
I'm looking forward greatly to us working together.

2. I’ll be appearing on two Dutch radio shows real soon.

Rock Express http://www.radio350.nl

Wednesday, November 28th

9pm until 11pm Dutch time

8pm until 10pm UK

3pm until 5pm Eastern time USA

Power Metal Radio http://www.powermetalradio.com/

Saturday, December 1st

5pm Dutch time

4pm UK time

11am Eastern time USA

I hope some of you guys can get to tune in. It’d be just too cool.

See ya there
Cheers Clarky

The Feast of Buzzards is a little thing I wrote that is to be a part of a larger compilation work called The Symphonie of Birds. Several artists were assigned a bird and asked to create a piece of music depicting the character of the bird. I was assigned the buzzard.

When composing this work, this is the "movie" that was running through my mind upon which the music was based: The Feast of Buzzards Imagine a large beast like a bison slowly walking through a dried up river bed with high cliffs either side. The sun is beating down. The beast is dying of slowly thirst but the search for water goes on. High over head the buzzards are circling on the thermals, looking down on the beast as it struggles to take each step.

Eventually, it all proves to much and the beast collapses to the ground, utterly exhausted, it's life ebbing away. Pushed at last far beyond the limits of it's ability to endure the lonely suffering of the great beast comes to an end.

The buzzards see the opportunity, their endless circling slowly but surely descending towards the ground. Timidly at first, almost with an air of suspicion, the buzzards land and lightly make their way over to the corpse. A little peck. Then another and another. A sudden pause of indecision ending with the realisation that the beast is dead. The  buzzards fall onto it's still warm body in a chaotic riot of ripping and tearing. There is no order. No quarter given. A feeding frenzy. Torn flesh. Slashed blood. Talon gouged bone.

In the end, all that remains are the dry bones bleaching beneath the oppressive sun in solitude as that lay in the dust.

I hope you enjoy,

Cheers Clarky

As many of you already know, my new song Purple is my own re-write of the classic King Crimson instrumental piece called Red.
We put Purple up on myspace for you all to enjoy but unfortunately the audio quality suffered a little in the process.
To put this right we have just put a much higher quality MP3 of Purple on my main website for you all.

So for all you guys that would like to be able to enjoy Purple at a higher quality you can find the better MP3 here

I really would like to take this opportunity to say a huge thanks to you all.
Your response to Purple has been simply stunning.
You guys are just awesome.

Cheers Clarky

Now that my wrist has been publicly slapped, here’s the latest news and a few interesting tales.

London Guitar Show [LGS]
This years LGS was held in the London Docklands in early spring. I attended the whole weekend with the privilege of being a member of the Morgan Custom Guitars crew again. At the show I was fortunate enough to meet many friends – some for the first time too. The first I met was Mike Blackburn [alloutguitar.com]. I’ve known Mike ‘face to web’ for many years now as we are both members of Joe Satriani’s “T2J” forum. To finally meet him face to face was a real treat. All weekend he was superb company and it was a real pleasure to hang out with him. I hope it’ll not be too long before we meet again.
And as I’m standing out in the sun I hear in the distance “Clarky!!” and I looked around to see another pal Paul Fisher, who promptly led me to where Sandy Richards was standing in the queue waiting to enter the show.I met Paul and Sandy for the first time at a Satch concert in London 2006. Paul is a great guy and a hugely experienced musician himself. He’s such a great guy to be around.

If Tigger was a real person, and a girl, Tigger would be Sandy. She’s absolutely bursting with energy and enthusiasm and has a deep love of guitar music and a great big heart. We managed to bump into each other many times at the show. She always brings a great big smile to my face, she’s simply awesome. As we chat outside the show, Sandy presented me with framed a picture that she drew. The picture is of me playing live at Eindhoven and is absolutely stunning - and currently on display in my lounge.
Note to Clarky: Figure out a way of getting Sandy’s superb picture up on the website so that everyone can enjoy her considerable talents.
Sandy – thanks massively for the picture, it really is superb and I absolutely love it.

At the show, I was standing by the Morgan stand and a guy walked up to me and said “Paul??”. I recognised him instantly. The guy in question was Dave Price. Dave and I went to college together in the early 80’s and we used to be in a band together. We worked out that we hadn’t seen each other for roughly 24 years. I was so pleased to find that Dave is still and active musician – he always was and still is an absolutely jaw-dropping guitarist. Meeting him after so long was simply amazing, and better still we made sure that we could remain in touch.

On the Saturday afternoon I was hanging out with Mike and Owen [alloutguitar.com] when I spotted Uli Jon Roth. I was gob smacked. Mike said “wanna meet him? He’s a really nice guy.” I just didn’t know what to say. Next thing I know, Mike is walking up to me with the legend “Uli, this is Paul. Paul meet Uli.” I was totally blown away.
We were chatting away like old pals for ages, it was just so cool. I told Uli about how some guys compared my playing style to Uli’s because of our attachment to classical music. Uli said to me “you cannot be the next Uli, I’m not dead yet. When Yngwie first showed up they said he was the next Uli too. And I wasn’t dead then either!”
What an awesome guy.

I can’t end this LGS topic without mentioning the guys I was working there with:
Dave ‘Thing’, Nik, Hayden [Bulldog Pickups] – it’s always a great pleasure to meet and spend time in the company of you guys. And to get to see you all play too is a real treat.
Sian – Thanks and hugs. I’m sure that if you stopped organising things the world would stop rotating. You’re simply awesome.
Neil [Morgan Custom Guitars] – bro, like your guitars, you’re simply the best. A massive heartfelt thanks for everything.

alloutguitar.com
Alloutguitar.com is a website dedicated to all things guitar. Reviews of all kinds [CD’s, DVD’s, instruments, backline, effects etc], news, tutorials, etc.
The alloutguitar team that has been assembled is massively talented, highly skilled and hugely knowledgeable. Owen Edwards – the team’s lynch pin – has asked me to contribute to the website’s educational section specialising in dark art of composition.
This website is simply a must for guitarists of all levels.
Here’s a link to the education page where you can find my part 1 of my composition series along with many other fabulous tutorials http://www.alloutguitar.com/education .
Owen and the rest of the team – guys, it’s a great honour to be a part of this.
Thanks massively for considering me in the formation of your team.

New Stuff, Cool Stuff
Some of you may have noticed over the last few weeks that lots of new and cool stuff has become available.

- Clarky T-Shirts: at long last we have Clarky shirts available.
They are very nice quality black shirts with the “Clarky Shredding Stickman” logo in white on the front, underlined by the website address.
There are a wide ranges of sizes available from a lady’s small size up to a men’s XXL. The shirts are £10.00 plus £2.00 P&P [UK] or £3.00 P&P[overseas].

- Merchandise Page: http://www.paul-clark.com/pages/merch.htm
This is a new page where you can order CD’s and T-Shirts

- Downloads Page: http://www.paul-clark.com/pages/downloads.htm
This is a new page where you can download some new and very cool stuff.

Clarky Wallpaper – The ‘Clarky Shredding Stickman” and a picture of me playing at the Dynamo Club in Eindhoven, Holland at RCR-Fest.

Clarky Ringtones – There are two clips from The Rape of the Sabine Women.

SNOCAP – with this feature you may download individual tracks from Shredz at an Exhibition at $0.99 each. This is ideal for those of you that would like the music for your MP3 players.

Sunday 15th July, 2007 – Terminal Studios, London.
The First Ever Band Rehearsal
It’s been a long time coming. There have been numerous little setbacks – each of them eventually overcome.

Here’s the line-up:
Drums – Jamie Woods
Bass – Mick Paul
Keys – Alex Hall
Guitar – Neil Morgan
Guitar – Clarky

This was not only the first time that the band played together, but also the first time that everyone met face to face, so obviously I how no idea of what to expect. And to my great pleasure, everyone hit it off right away both as musicians and as friends. It was really amazing to see everyone together, big smiles and playing so well.
One of my greatest concerns was how Shredz would translate from a studio project to a live band. I knew that the music would need some slight adjustments to the orchestration and I felt reasonably good that the sound I imagined in my head would work. That said, I was still a little nervous about it.
Once we got playing I had a wonderful surprise. Shredz actually sounds better live than studio. The music has a better ebb and flow, wider dynamics and much more power. Given that this was our first time together it was not perfect, but the 70% to 80% that went well, went extremely well and filled me with a great feeling of encouragement. We need a few more rehearsals to polish off a few rough edges, but beyond that the band has bonded phenomenally well.
This line-up plays with tremendous passion and energy.

The set for the first rehearsal was:
The Rape of the Sabine Women
The Raft of the Medusa
The Chosen One
Artaud: On the Fringe of Insanity

Guys – I’d like to say a massive thanks for all your hard work in preparation. This is a passionate and highly capable line-up. I’m deeply proud of all of you.
You make me feel that I’m an extremely fortunate person, I could not ask for more.

Cheers Clarky

Romauno are broadcasting the second part of the David Cross band gig in Rome this week!

It will be available as a webcast from www.romauno.it
Scheduled times 16.05 and 23.55.
In the UK the time will be one hour earlier.

Playlist:

1) Tonk
2) Starless
3) 21st Century Schizoid Man

LINE UP

David Cross - violin
Mick Paul - bass
Arch Stanton - vocals
Paul Clark - guitars
Joe Crabtree - drums
Alex Hall - keyboards

LINE UP

David Cross - violin
Mick Paul - bass
Arch Stanton - vocals
Paul Clark - guitars
Joe Crabtree - drums
Alex Hall - keyboards

www.romauno.tv
www.indielive.tv
www.stazionebirra.it

22nd Feb - Rome , Italy : Stazione Birra - David Cross Band concert:

Last night I played a concert in Rome with the David Cross Band at the very prestigious Stazione Birra music venue.

The venue is simply wonderful. The PA, the lighting, setting and the crew were all superb. The sound in the venue is tight and crisp.

When I first arrived I was wandering around looking at the photos on the walls of all the great people that have played there - Tony Levin, Tony MacAlpine, Billy Sheehan, Earth, Wind and Fire, Pendragon, Carl Palmer, Denis Chambers, to name but a few. It really brought home to me the significance of this venue.

The concert itself was fabulous. There was such a great vibe on stage between all the band members, and the audience were simply awesome. The passion from the fans was superb. It was so infectious. As the concert went on the band just went from strength to strength. The last song of the set was the King Crimson classic, Starless and Bible Black. It really was the perfect climax to what had been a great concert and earned the band a standing ovation.

At the end of the set the fans were all shouting and whistling for us.

For our encore we played our own special arrangement of the King Crimson's classic anthem, 21 st Century Schizoid Man - for which we were rewarded by a 2 nd standing ovation. It was fantastic to see the reaction from the fans at their immediate recognition of that opening riff.

After the concert we went out to meet the fans. Out Italian fans are so hugely passionate and adoring of us that it took my breath away. For me, they made the evening very special and truly unforgettable.

In summary, it was a fabulous evening made all the more special by our fans.

I'm hugely looking forward to playing in Rome , Stazione Birra again!!

I'd like to take this opportunity to say a special thanks to all of the staff and crew at Stazione Birra for their professionalism, warmth and for making us feel so welcome.

But most of all, I'd like to say a very special thanks to our fabulous fans in Italy .

A truly unforgettable evening!!

Cheers Clarky