Well, the Grahamstown National Arts Festival is upon us - hopefully heating up a freezing winter wonderland with creativity manifest! For those that have never experienced a Gtown ArtsFest, put it on your bucket list and give yourselves at least one meander in this most fantastic world! Drama, comedy, musical theatre, jazz, music, stand-up, street theatre, painting, sculpture, photography, arts installations plus plus plus. It's insane! The whole programme would take you six months to experience. You have ten days, and thousands vying for your attention. It's phenomenal! From the uber deep and tres high-browed, to the slap your knee and laugh, it's all here, every year, from the last Thursday of June for ten glorious days! And this is the second year running that more than audience, I'm a participant! Now that rocks!

SunshiP, our band, is doing five fabulous gigs - some just us, others with other musicians in town for fest guesting with us, and a gig as headliners to a triple-band extravaganza, of SunshiP, The Brother Moves On from Joburg, who are a mod afro-pinkfloyd maniacal medley of incredible talent, and Mr. Cat and the Jackal from CT, that are to folk-blues what Banksy is to art - way left of centre and really cool! As for me, having recently emerged from my first recording studio experience a tad less cocky than when I walked in, this period heralds another growth spurt. And the fact that I'm 43 and still having those is a victory in itself! Let me tell you, recording in a studio's the most abnormal musical experience you can have as a band used to playing off each other. In studio you're listening to each other on headphones in separate spaces, and as a newbie it definitely messes with your style. I battled for a while. But I started getting the hang of it - and ultimately, that's music ... that's life really ... you tackle it and it goes well, then it tackles you, then you get up and tackle it again, and again, and again. And the trick's to do what you love, to add the enthusiastic gusto you'll need to get up and do it, on and on and on and on. This fest is gonna test me big time - particularly my new drummer complex when I have the country's best in the room watching me play. But that's all ego, and I'm gonna do me best to play as well as I can. And that's grand! Other guys my age keep telling me how old we're getting, and I'm feeling like a kid learning, trying, growing ... even if sometimes I miss a studio beat which noone can hear but me. I won't hear it again I tell ya! For now though, it's gonna be a great fest, and I promise all you neofundis you won't miss many fest beats with me here this year. Tonight I go watch my first show at the Standard Banks Jazz Festival, which forms part of the bigger fest. Kesivan Naidoo, the country's best drummer's performing. Two years ago he cancelled a rehearsal and a press conference to come spend an afternoon teaching me drums. Tonight, onstage, he'll no doubt do the same.