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Nice gig in Portsmouth last week – back at Roger Courtney’s Open Mike Night. Always a great crowd in there, and although a few technical issues at the start of the set, it seemed to go down fairly well again – apart from us getting the name of the venue wrong, much to promoter Nick’s amusement…..
We followed a great set by local Jeff Radford, who did a blinding version of Mr Jones by Counting Crows – which is alright by me.
Of course there was the famous rock and roll raffle which was one of our highlights of last year (as those avid readers of our rapidly diminishing blog posts will remember). We had a winner this time around – Ben managing to snap up a tin of tuna from the prize stand……which he said he was planning on eating last Tuesday, at about 1.45pm. We haven’t yet found out whether that was the case, or indeed the quality of the product, as we haven’t actually heard from him since……..hmmmmmmm.
Bournemouth this Sunday, we’re loving the South Coast at the minute. This will be our first set at Bournemouth’s famous folk club, although I believe this one is more of a showcase night. So if you’re in the area, come along and see us – I believe we’re playing at about 8.45pm.
There’s also been a bit of movement on the festivals side for the summer. Unfortunately we weren’t selected for Glastonbury (yet), but we have confirmed a few summer events, with hopefully more to come in the coming weeks. The thought of hot summer days, playing live music in a random field with a load of new age hippies and drinking warm ale is seriously appealing right now……
Anyway – check the website for those dates and indeed further gigs announced over the next few weeks. It’s gonna be a busy summer.
Showing posts with label roger courtney's open mic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label roger courtney's open mic. Show all posts
Friday, 26 February 2010
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.
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