I am Calv' and this is my webpage, where you can find out about things I've done, things that interest me, and links to other pages that I enjoy.
Music
I learned trumpet at school and taught myself to play guitar. I've picked up a few other bits about music over the years, but mainly I've just tried to keep playing. I know so many great musicians who just stopped playing, so I try to say yes to as many projects as I'm offerred. Things have slowed down a bit as I've gotten older, but I still play a bit, and that's what matters to me.
Click here to see another wonderful webiverse page about the bands I've been in, projects I've helped on and things I've done
This is a link to my soundcloud page, where I stick stuff I've made at home on my own.
I love listening to music and sometimes make little mixes for online, you can see them at my mix cloud
Things I love
This page covers a lot of stuff about me, but I mainly love the things other people have made and done, so this page is all about things like that that I love. It covers music I love to listen to, shows I've seen, all kinds really. Have a look and a wee read.
Shinty
I've also played a fair bit of shinty over the years and still try to keep up with whats going on, despite living in Devon now. Shinty is a stick and ball game played on a grass pitch akin to Irish hurling or field hockey. You can play the ball on the ground or in the air and the long sticks (camans) have lofted heads to allow the ball to fly high and long. Although it is primarily played in the north and west of Scotland there are now teams accross the south of England allowing scottish expats to continue playing and new players to discover the game. I started playing at university and then, after a gap, came back to play in my 30s in London and even turned out for the english team a few times. The camanachd Association run all things shinty in Scotland
I live at Simpson Farm in Devon. It is a developing co-housing community with potential for 7 famliy homes with 20 acres of land and an aim to have some workshop space. I moved here with my family in 2024 after several years looking for the right space to accomodate my family and my sister-in-law's family and also have potential to have other people come and live with us. The aim is to produce a "light touch" community, where living in the same physical space is accompanied by some community activities. Simpson Farm offers the perfect collection of attributes with shared buildings for social projects and outdoor space for growing and working the land in diefferent ways. We have obtained planning permission to convert 3 of the farm buildings into 5 new dwellings and are in the process of finding other people who would want to join the community and help shape it as we embark on an exciting adventure.
Cycling a long way
Once I cycled from London to Istanbul just for fun. It was where I got my beard, so you can always tell whether photos are from before this or after it. There were 4 of us: Tom, Ton, Mike and me until Sofia, when Henry joined us for the last leg. We were apparently looking for the best kebab shop outside (or inside) Istanbul as inspired by the kebab shop in Stoke-newington.
We actually raised about £10,000 for male mental health and anti suicide charity CALM and then we got invited to their christmas party and met David Baddiel and pinched a load of plectrums
Here's a link to our blog
