Posts
As you may know (especially if you're one of our regular readers - we know you're out there somewhere!), we're currently taking a bit of a break from regular band activity. Unfortunately, this tends to make writing a blog about what we do as a band quite difficult...
Because of this, I was kicking myself slightly when I woke up this morning and remembered that I'd promised to write a blog post today... But, just as I logged on to Blogger, and was about to churn out 2 paragraphs about nothing in particular, I noticed that we've somehow made it to the marginally impressive milestone of 50 posts!
It seems a long time ago that it all started - since then we've recorded and released our debut album, and done almost 30 dates in support of that, everywhere from Northamptonshire to Portsmouth. Not surprising that we need a bit of a break after all of that...
Anyway, thanks to everyone who has read our blog (and of course bought our album and come to our gigs) over the last few months, we hope to keep you entertained for a few months longer at least! And for now, we're off to go and drink Guinness in celebration of the wonderful drink's birthday, under the thinly veiled excuse of having a rehearsal... Cheers!
Thursday 24 September 2009
Friday 11 September 2009
Last gig for a while
Tonight is the last date on our summer gig run, so thanks to everyone for coming out to see us and to those who have bought the album so far. We’re going off now to go on holidays, become parents and various other things that people do when on a break! We’ll be continuing to write for the next month or two and hope to have some more new material to debut when we start gigging again at the end of October.
Friday 4 September 2009
The Musical Raffle
It’s a Green Ticket, a Green Ticket – and it’s 107
A Yellow Ticket, a Yellow Ticket – and it’s 264
Shuffle!
You kind of have to perform the above, in a rock and roll style, with a walking bass line, to get the feel of the Rock and Roll Raffle that we had the pleasure of witnessing last night in Portsmouth. We were one of two featured artists at Roger Courtney’s Open Mike Night and had earlier in the evening played our best set in ages, to a really enthusiastic crowd at what is a great little club, just a stone’s throw from Fratton Park (in fact the pub to which the venue was attached to was a real home fans boozer, with pictures of the Pompey team from almost every year since the early 70’s adorning the walls).
The guy running the night, Nick Courtney – who has admirably kept the club going after his fathers passing some years ago, is one of the most affable men you could wish to meet. Not only that, but he seemed prepared for all sound and musical issues – having nothing less than a spare acoustic bass handy when Ben’s battery decided to die before we’d even played a note. You can’t beat that for forward planning.
So it was with interest that we sat down for a beer after our set, to watch some of the open mic performers. We were treated to a double act resurrecting the comedy song, a blinding bagpipe player with added percussion and then said percussion player then switching to guitar and running through a set of well played covers which included what myself and Adrian have come to agree was a song by the band Therapy? Certainly a mixed bag but all really good stuff.
‘You can’t leave before the raffle’ we were told by Nick as we upped to get on our way – ‘you’ve not seen anything until you’ve seen the raffle – it’s a rock and roll raffle!’.
And right there – we thought to ourselves ‘a musical raffle? We’ve seen that before……..’
Some time ago we did a show at what really was quite a similar set-up at a club in Watford. A nicer bunch of people you couldn’t wish to meet, although the builder who we spoke to outside who seemed to get a bit agitated when we said we didn’t know any U2 covers made us slightly uneasy.
However, other than a sound guy who enjoyed turning everything up to 11, and the odd random drip from the leaky ceiling, we actually had quite a good time, and played a solid first set.
………then however came the raffle…….the musical raffle.
Cue the theme from Bullseye, played on the slightly out of tune piano in the corner – it was all very music hall. Jim Bowen was not in attendance, so it was left to the sound guy to dart from the back in almost Ultimate Warrior fashion (80’s wrestling fans will know what I’m talking about), don a black bowler hat, and while doing his 2 step dance routine proceed to reel off the winning numbers. The excitement in the room as one after another people went up to get their prizes – a shower curtain, some lace doilies and a tube of toothpaste amongst other things.
When we went back on for our second set, we just couldn’t compete – it was so intimidating to follow what was obviously the weekly highlight that Gethin very nearly soiled himself – and that isn’t a lie.
So musical raffles – I’m actually excited to find the next one. I may make this part of the booking criteria that we only play nights with musical raffles. Sod bowls of M&M’s with all the brown ones taken out – or sandwiches with the crusts cut off, or 1000 purple balloons in the dressing room – the only contracted stipulation for us to play is that there has to be a musical raffle – it is the way forward!
To end – I’d just like to thank Nick and the folks at Roger Courtney’s Open Mike Night, one of the best nights we’ve played in a long time. If you’re ever in the Portsmouth area on a Thursday night, go along. There aren’t enough clubs like that – so long may it continue.
A Yellow Ticket, a Yellow Ticket – and it’s 264
Shuffle!
You kind of have to perform the above, in a rock and roll style, with a walking bass line, to get the feel of the Rock and Roll Raffle that we had the pleasure of witnessing last night in Portsmouth. We were one of two featured artists at Roger Courtney’s Open Mike Night and had earlier in the evening played our best set in ages, to a really enthusiastic crowd at what is a great little club, just a stone’s throw from Fratton Park (in fact the pub to which the venue was attached to was a real home fans boozer, with pictures of the Pompey team from almost every year since the early 70’s adorning the walls).
The guy running the night, Nick Courtney – who has admirably kept the club going after his fathers passing some years ago, is one of the most affable men you could wish to meet. Not only that, but he seemed prepared for all sound and musical issues – having nothing less than a spare acoustic bass handy when Ben’s battery decided to die before we’d even played a note. You can’t beat that for forward planning.
So it was with interest that we sat down for a beer after our set, to watch some of the open mic performers. We were treated to a double act resurrecting the comedy song, a blinding bagpipe player with added percussion and then said percussion player then switching to guitar and running through a set of well played covers which included what myself and Adrian have come to agree was a song by the band Therapy? Certainly a mixed bag but all really good stuff.
‘You can’t leave before the raffle’ we were told by Nick as we upped to get on our way – ‘you’ve not seen anything until you’ve seen the raffle – it’s a rock and roll raffle!’.
And right there – we thought to ourselves ‘a musical raffle? We’ve seen that before……..’
Some time ago we did a show at what really was quite a similar set-up at a club in Watford. A nicer bunch of people you couldn’t wish to meet, although the builder who we spoke to outside who seemed to get a bit agitated when we said we didn’t know any U2 covers made us slightly uneasy.
However, other than a sound guy who enjoyed turning everything up to 11, and the odd random drip from the leaky ceiling, we actually had quite a good time, and played a solid first set.
………then however came the raffle…….the musical raffle.
Cue the theme from Bullseye, played on the slightly out of tune piano in the corner – it was all very music hall. Jim Bowen was not in attendance, so it was left to the sound guy to dart from the back in almost Ultimate Warrior fashion (80’s wrestling fans will know what I’m talking about), don a black bowler hat, and while doing his 2 step dance routine proceed to reel off the winning numbers. The excitement in the room as one after another people went up to get their prizes – a shower curtain, some lace doilies and a tube of toothpaste amongst other things.
When we went back on for our second set, we just couldn’t compete – it was so intimidating to follow what was obviously the weekly highlight that Gethin very nearly soiled himself – and that isn’t a lie.
So musical raffles – I’m actually excited to find the next one. I may make this part of the booking criteria that we only play nights with musical raffles. Sod bowls of M&M’s with all the brown ones taken out – or sandwiches with the crusts cut off, or 1000 purple balloons in the dressing room – the only contracted stipulation for us to play is that there has to be a musical raffle – it is the way forward!
To end – I’d just like to thank Nick and the folks at Roger Courtney’s Open Mike Night, one of the best nights we’ve played in a long time. If you’re ever in the Portsmouth area on a Thursday night, go along. There aren’t enough clubs like that – so long may it continue.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)