DaZeD & ConFuSeD!!

WE ARE SAILING - OR SLEDGING, MORE LIKE!

2012-02-03T12:16:00.004Z

Hello again - the last 2 weeks have flown by, it's February already, the snow is about to fall, and it's time again to dust off our sledges and point ourselves in the direction of some music making!

The first holidays of the year are completed (Chrissie at great pains to point out (understandably!) that she and Paul were not away together!) and, before the second phase begins (for Hugh later this month, and Dave in March - au naturelle!), we're going to play a couple of gigs, to get rid of the ring rust and, hopefully, add a couple of numbers to the ever lengthening list!

First gig is a private party, this Saturday, and then next Thursday 9 February, we make a welcome return to The Jolly Sailor on Sunderland Street in Macclesfield. Now, those of you with long memories will know that the Jolly has had a somewhat chequered past; in fact, at one stage, there were more punters leaving the pub through the windows than there were through the door! However, over the last couple of years, Glyn has really turned the place round - great ambience, good beer, jazz music in the background (hopefully, not next Thursday!), and even a smart eaterie ("Muckers"!) upstairs. The re-generation of that part of town with the advent of other gathering places, like The Treacle Tap and The Snow Goose, has also helped to make it a much better place to be, than it was - the next challenge will be to get more than 2 people at a time eating in the Indian restaurant across the road (I suspect that will take a little longer!).

So, come next Thursday evening, we'll be there, and we hope to see the place full and jumping - I'm sure that, when they hear us, the punters in the Tap and the Goose will be hot footing it down the street as well - hopefully, in our direction!

Other gigs are in the pipeline; now that we've got several private parties in place, we're looking to sprinkle a couple more pub gigs around - we've been asked by Porters and the aforementioned Snow Goose to play, and we're looking for mutually convenient dates - so watch this space!

As ever, you can keep up to date (and even leave us comments - gulp!) on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/122280790779/ (how down with the kids are we??!!), so keep in touch.

What happens at an 18th Birthday Party??

2012-01-14T10:49:00.006Z

Just a quick update, as it's too cold to go outside (funny how spoilt we get with all this mild weather!); we're gigging again tonight (more of that in a bit), and it's an opportunity to bring you up to date with our gig at The Windmill, last Friday.

The chalk board in the pub (above) threw us a bit when we arrived - we thought there was a support band on, until it was pointed out that Chilli & Hotpot was the sustenance on offer to the punters, and not a popular beat combo!

It was only 6 weeks or so since we had played at the same venue, so we were a little worried about "over-exposure" but, fortunately, there was little to fear. True enough, the crowd was a little thinner than usual to start with - probably as a result of the economic crisis or post-Christmas torpor, or whatever - but things soon picked up! As well as some welcome and familiar faces, there were many new "fans" to be converted, so we went for the tried and trusted "party" set! We use the first set as a "warm up" and opportunity to "test drive" some new stuff, but we've stumbled across what seems to be a perfect flow for the second set, which starts with "cheese" trundles through some heavier stuff into more modern material (via the odd glam rock and punk tune) ending triumphantly with full audience participation on "Delilah"! And, to prove that we appeal to many generations, here's some of our younger fans

a couple of our older fans

and, finally, a couple of previous band members, Frank Witt (looking suspiciously like an estate agent!) and Paul Hambley (looking suspiciously like a ventriloquist's dummy!)

The evening went from strength to strength, and the fact that we weren't allowed to finish until 12:15am said it all. We had a great time, and we hope everyone else did - thanks as ever for your support!

As mentioned, we're gigging again tonight - 18th Birthday Party at the Brewery (so not far to travel!); don't think we've ever played for such a young gathering before, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. Just to be on the safe side, we've been practising "Nellie The Elephant" - don't worry, it's the Toy Dolls version, so we haven't completely sold out!

After tonight, there's a bit of a break until early Feb, as the holiday season has started again - not Dave this time, it's Chrissie and Paul that are off for some sunshine!

Before I close, a plea/request: you will see in the gig list that there is a provisional booking for a wedding on 2 May - unfortunately, none of us can remember where this is supposed to be, or who it is for! Maybe, it will become clear in the fullness of time but, if anyone reading this has enquired about a booking on this day, can you e-mail us via the link on the right hand side of the blog??

Quote of the day: Remember, a chicken is just an egg's way of creating another egg! (Samuel Butler)

2012, 6000 AND ALL THAT!

2012-01-03T12:08:00.007Z

Well, here it is - 2012 has arrived - how did that happen?? A Very Happy & Healthy New Year to all our readers - we hope it brings you everything you want!

And what better way to start the year, and forget about return to work, economic crises, Eurozone meltdown etc., than to get some good music in your ears, and good beer down your throat?? You have the opportunity to do both on Friday 6 January, because we are back at The Windmill in Whiteley Green (a mere 6 weeks after our last visit!) to help celebrate what has become an annual event - The Local Ale Sale, where many delicious beers from the local breweries are laid on and great music is provided over the whole weekend to help it go down! We have the privilege of kicking the whiole thing off and, if it's anything like the last 2 years, it will be a great night - so be there early to get a seat, and then be prepared to get off it and dance!

Our last gig of 2011, as previously trailed, was at the Old Ship on the Friday before New Year's Eve (see above) - and suffice it to say that it was well into NYE itself, before we finished! In fact, I think we broke the record for set lengths that night - the first one lasted over an hour, and the second set ran from 10:25pm until 12:40am - that's right 2 hours and 15 minutes - even Bruce Springsteen would be proud of that! As ever, Paparazzi Pete was there to take photos, and you can see a selection on the Dazed and Confused Massive Facebook page (under the Photos tab) - including the welcome return of the, now legendary, Ali Unwin "Shoulder Surf" (her carrier did a great job of keeping her head away from the ceiling rafters!)

We have another gig booked for the following week, and at least one in February, so it looks as though 2012 will be another busy year, AND our fame is still spreading! After reporting previously on our 40 fans in Romania, I'm delighted to report that we have now been read by one person in each of Canada, India, Latvia and Morocco - as well as someone in Saudi Arabia!! I suspect the latter is a mega-rich oil sheik who is looking for a band to play at his daughter's wedding - so watch this space for the next instalment of Dazed & Confused On Tour!!

Oh, and by the way, the ticker passed 6000 hits just before New Year, so many thanks to everyone for sticking with this drivel!!

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO OUR ROMANIAN FRIENDS!!

2011-12-21T11:39:00.006Z

You may be wondering about the title of this post, so let me explain. One of the little gizmos, that come with the Blogger tool that is used to create these literary gems, is a tracker that allows you to see how many times the blog is accessed, which posts are most "popular" (stretching the meaning of that word there!) and, surprisingly, where our readers are based. Unsurprisingly, the majority come from the UK but, in addition to a healthy band of followers in the USA, Netherlands and Germany, there have been 36 people accessing the blog from Romania!! This being the case, it's only right and proper to wish them a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (or more accurately Crăciun fericit şi un An Nou Fericit!).

On which note, we roll on to the bin ends of 2011; just 4 days until the Big Ho Ho Ho, and only 11 until we kiss goodbye to the whole year! now, I don't know about you lot, but this year has just shot by - so much has happened that I'm really not too sure how it's all been fitted in. For D&C there has been the usual pot pourri of gigs, holidays, illnesses, fallings out etc., but it's been another fantastic year, and we've had a great time - not least because of the fabulous people (old friends and new) that we have met over the year, and this theme continued at Fizz's birthday party in Hertfordshire last weekend. Fizz & Tim live in a big house in Hertfordshire, and have wanted us to play for them ever since they saw us play at a wedding in a Welsh Castle 2 years ago - and they eventually got us. However, as you might expect with our band, nothing was completely straightforward! We'd made great plans to leave in plenty of time to arrive at F&T's house by 3 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, but last minute beer deliveries to the Snow Goose & The Ship (who, strangely, had not banked on much being drunk on Friday night!) meant that it was 1:45pm before the dirty white tour bus (i.e. the brewery van) pulled away - of course, the snow and ice, that was around until we hit Nottingham, didn't help either! Anyway. we eventually pulled up in their driveway at 5:00pm, so still had plenty of time to set up, and get back to the hotels for a shower and a couple of pints!

The gig itself was wonderful - even though the 100 or so members of the audience (in the living room, by the way!) were a little "hesitant" in the first set, I said to Hugh that they looked as though they were "poised to spring" (to use a feline analogy)! This certainly proved to be the case - from start to finish of the second set (which lasted a little over 2 hours) the dance floor was full of jumping, singing, dancing, sweating bodies! A human pyramid was built on the dance floor, Fizz gave us her own rendition of "Honky Tonk Women" and it was amazing that the final rousing chorus of "Delilah" didn't cause the plaster to drop off the ceiling!

All in all, a brilliant night and, although there was a hiatus in the morning when Matt's chauffeuse left without him, everyone got home safely. Many thanks to Tim, Fizz, and their guests, for their wonderful hospitality and participation.

So, the last gig of the year beckons and, as you will see from the pic above, as well as the publicity on our Dazed and Confused Massive Facebook page, we're going out with a bang at The Old Ship Inn on Beech Lane. As ever, it promises to be a great night, and it should be a good way to prepare yourselves for the following night's festivities, so get along if you can - the fun starts at 9:00pm.

It just remains for us to wish you all (and your friends and families) a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

I KNOW, I KNOW - HAPPY HALLOWEEN, BONFIRE NIGHT....

2011-12-07T16:42:00.002Z

...and nearly Happy Christmas!!

It was only when Jane O'Leary accosted me at a "WinterFest" (whatever happened to "ChristmasFest??) event last Friday with the words "You've not done your blog for ages, and I love reading it", that 2 things struck me:

1. It is a really long time since I did this (about 6 weeks, actually!); so long, in fact, that Dave has actually been on holiday and returned, since the last entry!
2. Jane must need some serious help if she enjoys reading this and knows how long it is since it was updated!

Anyways up - no excuses, apart from early onset what do you call it, and the fact that the weeks just seem to fly by, so I will try and rack my brains to recall what has happened since I last put finger to keyboard, and what is coming up - all before I disappear to watch City try and cling onto Champions League football against the Hun!

When we last "spoke", we were about to make a triumphant return to The Old Ship - we did just that and, although it's now just a hazy memory (for a number of reasons!), it was as splendid a night as we have come to expect there. There was plenty of the usual noise, heat and jumping up and down, and I believe plans are afoot to secure another gig there before the end of the year (more of that later).

In the middle of November, we played at the xxth Birthday Party (oh, alright 40th!) of Claire Smith - that's guitarist Andy's better half! It was a fantastic night - people arriving from all over the place, and music/dancing/singing continuing into the wee small hours. I can always tell when it has been a good night - I find it hard to get out of bed in the morning! On this occasion, it was tough, but not so much of a chore, as we went to the Remembrance Parade the following morning - wouldn't miss Micky Jones in his finery for anything (and the "livener" in the Jolly Sailor afterwards helped as well!).

Our last November gig was at The Windmill, where we have played several times before and, as ever, it morphed from a cabaret club atmosphere (because loads of people turn up for a meal beforehand) into a general free for all at the end! Ally Roberts actually brought a mob with her to celebrate her own xxth Birthday Party, and they kept the far end of the pub dancing, as well as the front bit! This gig saw the debut of 4 new songs - Copperhead Road, There's a Guy Works Down t'Chippy, Never Lookin' Back and (by special request of Paparazzi Pete!) Should I Stay or Should I Go? All of them, while needing the usual polish and lyric learning, seemed to go down well, and will, no doubt, remain for some time! We're due back at the Windmill on 6 January for our normal first gig of the year so, if you want to get rid of the first week back at work blues, you could do a lot worse (ignore the tbc in the gig list, I'll get rid of that!).

And so we approach the truly festive season (say it aint so, mama!), and we kick off our contribution with a return to Congolia on Saturday. It's the first time we've crossed the border since June 2009, and we are honoured to do it for some longstanding friends associated with Congleton Ladies Circle (who can ever forget their Ladies Night at the Clonter Opera?!). It's at Congleton Town Hall, but I'm afraid it's a private do, so you'll have to gather outside and listen, if you're not going! The following week, we're on the road - to Hertfordshire! We're playing another xxth Birthday Party - this time at Fizz & Tim's pad, and there promises to be plenty of fun and games, so we're making a weekend of it!

So no public gigs before Christmas, but we are loathe to let the year end without seeing it out in style so, although we can't play on New Year's Eve, we are trying to set a gig up at The Ship on Friday 30 December. Hopefully, this will happen, and we'll keep you posted, either on here or on our "Dazed and Confused Massive" page on Facebook.

It just remains for me to wish you all the very best, as you attack the streets of your various towns, to carry out that tribal activity known euphemistically as "Christmas Shopping" - remember, it's the thought that counts, so if doing that shopping doesn't bear thinking about - you're in trouble!

MILLSTONES, SHIPS, HOLIDAYS AND FOOTBALL!

2011-10-25T09:31:00.004+01:00

Good morning all! How is everyone on this fine sunny morning - well I hope?!

Time to update you all on what has (or has not) been going on in the crazy, wacky lives of Dazed & Confused over the couple of weeks since we were last together. Now, I could make this very quick and say "not a lot", but that would be unfair on you - and not strictly true, so here, in a couple of paragraphs-ish, is a quick resume!

Saturday 8 October - finally time for us to rock up at The Old Millstone in Waters Green - it had been a long time coming (over 2 years, as you all know), so it was with not a little trepidation that we approached the gig! As 2 of us had to make a guest appearance at a family birthday party, in Stockport, on the same evening, we arranged with mein host/hostess (Ken & Donna) that we could set up in the afternoon, and then just pitch up and play later on. This was a great plan but, unfortunately, nobody had told the 6 or 7 people playing pool on the tables that were in exactly the same spot as we were intending to play something different! The upshot of this was that we had to lug the equipment into the stage area (which is excellent, by the way!), dump it in a corner, and then bugger off! When I say we, even that's not as straightforward as it might be....Chrissie had already sent her apologies (women's work to do around the house!), Dave was on holiday (yes, really!) and Andy was still in bed, so it was left to Hugh, Paul and Matt to load up the van at the brewery, along with some beer casks that had to be delivered to the Snow Goose after we had set up the gear.. Once this was done, Matt said "it's OK, I'll walk cos it's not far". So, Hugh and Paul arrive at the Millstone, unload the gear, and get back in the van - still no sign of Matt - suddenly, the phone rings "Where are you?" says Matt; "just getting in the van to go to the Snow Goose, where are you?" says us; "I'm just behind the van, I went to the Snow Goose first!" says the tweedy one. Those of you with long memories will recall that Matt actually forgot we were playing a radio session for Canalside a year or so ago, and arrived with minutes to spare, so I guess we shouldn't have been surprised, but even so..........

Anyway, the gig was brilliant - loads of new and old faces there; a great time seemed to be had by all, and Ken & Donna were delighted to have the pub full and rocking. Having checked out a couple of other gigs there before and afterwards, that's not always the case, so many thanks to everyone who came and made it such a good night!

Since the gig, the holiday virus has hit again! Dave is actually back (doesn't go again until early November!), but both Hugh and Chrissie have been soaking up the Spanish sun (and rain) over the last couple of weeks, so we've had no chance to practice, although we are hoping to make a bit of noise later this week, in advance of Saturday's thrash at The Ship - on which note.....

Yes, it's time for us to hit Lucy's gaff again this weekend! It is over 6 months since we were there, but it always seems to be like going home. and it never ceases to amaze me what a good night it always is. Everything just seems to slot into place - great atmosphere, great crowd (who are able to get nice and close!) and great beer so, as ever, we are really looking forward to it - and we will have a full complement of band, which is quite unusual these days! As ever, we hope to see loads of you there - what better way to welcome November - gulp!

Talking of pubs, there are quite a few possible hostelry gigs on the horizon - we've had enquiries from The Wharf (now run by Chris from The Hollins), the Jolly Sailor (our old mate Glyn) andthe aforementioned Snow Goose, so watch this space for more news as and when it surfaces.

Finally, I couldn't close this epistle without a word of consolation for Pete Banks (Paparazzi Pete, as he is better known) and any other United fans that happen to read this! I don't like to intrude on personal grief, and I know it must be a hard week after the humiliation that you suffered on Sunday, but all I can say is that we feel your pain - it has been a long time coming, and you have done it to us City fans many times in the past, so it is only fair! If it's any comfort, at least you'll have time to get used to it - cos it's going to happen on a few more occasions in the future!!

SINGING IN THE HEAT!!

2011-10-02T18:54:00.005+01:00

OK - so 3 weeks ago, we posted to say that summer was over, rain till next March etc. etc., and what happens - we only go and get a blinking heatwave don't we?!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - spending the back end of September/front end of October in temperatures of 25+ degrees is perfectly OK by me; however, the White Lion in Disley on a hot and sweaty Friday night is certainly a challenge - even with the big fan!

As usual , the crowd was small, but perfectly formed; it was great to see Andrea, Ally, Ian and Roger there - we really do appreciate you coming all the way out to the wilds of Disley to support us, and we hope you had as good a time as we did.

Ray, the landlord, did us proud - not only did he provide 6 lots of fish and chips for us to eat at 1:00am, but he also lent Paul his suspect t-shirt from last year, after he was told we had a pic of it, and were undecided as to whether it would offend or amuse. After much deliberation, I've decided to let you make your own minds up, so here goes (it's Ray in the photo by the way, not Paul!)........

So, the first leg of our pub mini-tour is put to bed, and the next leg happens next Saturday (8 October) and, as previously trailed, it sees us at The Millstone in Water's Green, Macclesfield. The fair should have buggered off by then, so that's one lot of competition sorted out, and we can easily de-rail whoever's playing at the Nag's Head! As mentioned before, it would be great to see everyone down there, and we will try and go for maximum audience participation (makes it easier on us too!).

Dave is on holiday this week (quite right, I hear you say - he deserves a break!), but we are pushing ahead with practice on Thursday - looking at new songs like "Never Looking Back". "There's a Man Works Down the Chipshop...," "Should I Stay or Should I Go?", "Copperhead Road" etc. etc., so at least some of them should be ready to air in the very near future, if not on Saturday!

Make the most of the sunshine - oh wait, it's p*ssing down! :-((

PS: Just about to pass the 5000 visitor mark for this piece of literary genius - thanks (and apologies!) to everyone who takes the time to read it!

TIME FOR THE AUTUMN PUB MINI-TOUR!!

2011-09-26T13:55:00.008+01:00

At last - the time has arrived when we can get back into the sweaty, noisy, smoky arenas that we love! Our next 3 gigs take us to pubs far and wide...well maybe not that far and wide, but you catch my drift! More of that, in a minute, but first, a brief catch-up on happenings since the last post (isn't that something they play on Remembrance Sunday?).

When we last wrote, we were just about to play our 3rd appearance at the Time Out Group Ball and, like the last 2, it did not fail to disappoint. There is a really good atmosphere at these events, because of the way everyone joins in, jumps around, and just generally has fun! Once again, the Patron of the Charity, Annabel Tiffin, was in fine form and both she and her husband John hit the dancefloor for "Teenage Kicks", even though (she said!) she had to be up early for a 10K run in the morning! The high spot, as ever, was Peter's rendition of "Johnny B Goode" which, this year, took pride of place at the start of the second set (as his taxi was coming early!) - here is a picture of him preparing himself for the big event!

Well done Peter - you were brilliant, as ever!

Our next gig was last Saturday - a private party at the Brewery; however, before that, we had a little bit of social business to take care of! As regular readers will know, as well as playing gigs and rehearsing together, we love each other so much, that we even meet up for the occasional meal! Ostensibly, this is to plan future songs, and suchlike, but it's fair to say that it's really just an excuse for a piss up! So, Friday evening saw us pitch up at Chrissie's (all except Dave who, although NOT on holiday, had to attend his daughter's 18th birthday party!), and be royally fed and watered - a veritable feast! Once we were sated, there were the usual photos to be taken - but this time with a difference. See if you can identify who is who from these little gems!:

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and the downright daft, if you ask me!

Anyway, Saturday came around and, despite headaches and trepidation that there might actually be TWO parties booked in for the same night, everything went off really well - a good crowd, who were up for a good time - can't ask for more than that!

Which brings me to our Autumn Pub Mini-Tou! This Friday (30th September) sees us warm up at The White Lion in Disley - a popular venue for us, because there's always a really appreciative crowd - even when there's not many of them! Last year, we helped to celebrate the landlord's birthday - not that he can remember it! I'm still resisting the urge to print a copy of the photo of him in his offensive t-shirt!

The following Saturday (8 October) has us making our debut (2 years later than originally planned!) at The Millstone in Water's Green, Macclesfield. Now this has to be a good night, after being so long in the planning, so put the date in your diaries now, and get down there - not just to support us, but also the new landpeople (Ken & Donna) who are trying to establish it as another fine Macclesfield music venue.

Our mini-tour draws breath after the 3rd gig at The Old Ship Inn on Beech Lane, Macclesfield on Saturday 29 October. It seems like years since we played there, and it will be really good to feel the warmth of a log fire or three again!

That's probably enough to be going on with for now, so we look forward to seeing as many of you as can make it at some, or all of the mini-tour gigs - may even be a couple of new songs to tease (or torture) you with!!

SINGING IN THE RAIN??

2011-09-07T16:59:00.004+01:00

So that was Summer was it???

I really hope those of you that got away did manage to get some sun on your backs - as for the rest of us, well just take a peek at the last line of our last post, and tell me that it wasn't Nostradamus-esque in its perspicacity (look that one up!)!! Supposed to be good for the plants, but the number of bloody caterpillars that were chewing on my brassicas after a weekend away gives the lie to that as well! Some of our number have been to exotic climes, e.g. Hugh travelled the full length of the Western US (although even he got rained on in the Grand Canyon!), and Matt went all French and sophisticated (yes, really!) in Paris and the Dordogne! Andy had a holiday in his bathroom, and even smashed his head on something sharp, while Paul & Chrissie just chilled (literally!) - especially at the Bellowhead concert at Gawsworth Hall! Dave, on the other hand, is still on holiday!

Anyways up, enough of that; it's time to get back on the road again, and turn our thoughts to things musical. If you check out the gig list on the right, you will see that, true to our word, we have managed to negotiate a number of public gigs in the next few weeks and, believe me, it will be great to get back amongst the muck and bullets (not to mention the sweat prompted by the 2 fires of The Ship!). You'll see that we kick off our Autumn/Winter term at the Time Out Group Ball this Saturday - this has become an annual event for us, and it's great fun (and does a bit to help the charity); if you care to peruse the blogs from previous years you will get a flavour of how things go, so we're really looking forward to the same on Saturday.

Our first pub gig is at the end of this month (29th), back at The White Lion in Disley, then we pitch up at The Millstone in Macclesfield on Saturday 8 October. You may remember that this has not been our favourite pub, since aprevious landlord told us to bugger off in September 2009 because we hadn't given him any posters - a stance that led to us taking every opportunity to bad mouth him subsequently! However, forgive and forget is what I say so, with the advent of Ken & Donna, we have agreed to give it a go, and we hope that there is a decent turn out to help them in their quest to add another good music venue to the ones that Macclesfield already has. The end of October sees us back at The Old Ship on Beech Lane, and then, towards the end of November, we trek into the wilds of Whiteley Green for a Friday night at The Windmill - we already know there are quite a few people planning to make an evening of this, so why not join in?

So, all of a sudden, it's famine to feast! We had a bit of a practice last week, to get rid of some rust; we're doing the same tonight, and we're hoping that a couple more new songs will surface by the time the pub gigs come round - Hugh has even been persuaded to try "Tainted Love"!!

The Facebook page will also be springing back into life, so check out Dazed and Confused Massive to read gig details, see some photos/vids (courtesy of Paparazzi Pete) and leave comments (only nice ones please!).

Toodle pip!

PARTY, PARTY, PARTY!!

2011-07-20T14:21:00.003+01:00

Yes, that's what it seems to be at the moment - lots of private parties, weddings etc., and not many "public" gigs, so we need to put that right (more of that later)!!

Since the last epistle, we have been quite busy, having played the ECH Midnight Walk, a birthday party and a wedding, and another wedding coming up on Friday this week! The Midnight Walk was a great experience and, although it was difficult to get everyone up and jumping around (they were about to walk 10km through the Macclesfield streets, after all!), the energy levels were high, and we got some really good comments. It was quite a sight to see 1000+ people lining up at the start, for such a good cause and, happily everybody returned safely!

We played Glenn Clarke's 60th birthday at the brewery - some of you may know Glenn as the big bear of a driving instructor that inhabits the higher reaches of Buxton Road! The party was a great night, with only 1 hiccup when a group of young lads (who were somewhat the worse for wear, for one reason or another) decided they would like to join the party! The assembled males in the room moved to the door to persuade them otherwise - including Glenn, who was all for throwing them in the River Bollin, but Dave S brought some sanity to the proceedings (he does live there after all), and offered them some inducement to leave (nudge nudge!)

The next week saw us up at the Mykita ballroom for Sue Nicholls' wedding to Tim and, once again, it was a fantastic night - even if we did have to ditch half the set because they wanted us out by 11:45 - at least we had an early night! Good to see some old faces that we'd not seen for some time as well - from AZ and elsewhere! Micky Jones and Annette turned up as well - for their second wedding that day! Not sure how they arrived - one minute they weren't there, the next minute they were - you might think it impossible for Micky to smuggle himself into anywhere, but he managed it that night!!

If you check the gig list, you will see that, in addition to 3 provisional gigs for 2012 already(!), we're starting to fill up the latter end of the year. Three gigs planned for December, including what promises to be a great night down in Hertfordshire! Some friends of Andy and his wife Claire are having a 40th birthday bash, and they've especially asked for us to play, so we're going to make a weekend of it - could be a very nice one, just before Christmas!

As mentioned above, we're also trying to get some pub gigs, because we're getting withdrawal symptoms! In addition to Porter's, to whom we offer our sincere apologies for the mix-up over appearing at the beginning of July, we have also been approached by a couple of other venues - including The Millstone at Water's Green!! You may remember (check the blog from September 2009!) that we had a run-in with a previous landlord, and the Milly has been off our Christmas card list since then! However, Ken & Donna are trying to re-kindle the music nights there, and have asked us to help them which, of course, we would be delighted to do. At the moment, it's looking like Saturday 1 October might be the date so, if you're celebrating anything then, why not join us? So, hopefully, after our August break, there will be a number of pub gigs to give folks the opportunity to join us for a right good knees up!

After Friday's gig, we'll be taking it easy during August, because of holidays etc.; if you are going away, have a great time, if not - enjoy the rain with those of us staying here!

A WALK IN THE DARK, 50 IS OBVIOUSLY THE NEW 20, AND OTHER STORIES!!

2011-06-21T09:28:00.006+01:00

Well hello - how is everybody after all this time?

Apologies for the tardiness in updating this literary masterpiece, but I'm not really sure where the time is going at the moment; however, as I have a few minutes while the rain is threatening to drown us all, I thought I would bring you up to date with what has been happening and, perhaps more importantly, what is going to happen.

This Saturday (25th) will see us at Macclesfield Leisure Centre, providing the "warm up" entertainment for the hardy souls that will be undertaking the East Cheshire Hospice Midnight Walk - the latest news is that there are now more than 1000 people registered, so it should be a lot of fun!! We will be playing from around 10:00pm until just before the intrepid hordes leave at midnight, and we aim to send them out bouncing, believe me!

This event is the biggest fund raiser for the Hospice, which needs around £6000/day just to kepp going, and last year the Walk raised £25,000 and there were only 500 walkers, so we're hoping for a lot more this year. There is still time to register, and you can even do it on the night - check out the ECH websit e for more details. The walk takes a really easy route (of about 6 miles) around the streets of Macclesfield (via Gawsworth), and is more or less flat, so you won't be climbing over gates and stiles or negotiating cow pats or anything like that (you will need a torch, though, cos the sun won't be out)!! So why not have a great Saturday night out with the band, and then clear your heads with a stroll around town - the pubs might still be open when you get back!

So, that's the future - what about the past? First thing to report is that all the band holidaymakers (Dave, Hugh & Chrissie) have returned safe and sound, rested, bronzed, recuperated and broke! Yes, you're right, we do seem to have a lot of holidays in this band - however, there are no more planned until August!!

Last Saturday saw us in Tytherington for the joint 50th birthday party of Alison Unwin (one of our biggest supporters), and her husband Paul, and to say this was a "good do" is possibly the understatement of the year! Because of the inclement weather, Alison & Paul had been in a bit of a quandary about where to put us - in the garden? under the gazebo? in the shed? Anyway, we ended up in the conservatory with the doors open playing out into the garden where all the guests were (didn't matter if they got wet, obviously!). As luck would have it, the rain cleared around 8pm, and stayed away for the rest of the night (so much for Pete Robinson's weather forecasting skills - "it will rain on and off all night" he said!).

We started around 9pm and, by the time we finished the first set, there were 100+ people crowded in and starting to enjoy themselves; when we kicked off the second set - they just went mad! There is just no point in trying to explain it, cos there just ain't the words (see photo below as an example!)

However, Paparazzi Pete was on hand to capture the action, and you can see 3 of the videos he took if you click on the link above. There is also a video of "Teenage Kicks" taken by someone else, but I've not included this because I was nearly seasick watching it (Ali's video skills are in definite need of polishing!). We finished playing around 12:15am and left at around 1:00am, with the party in full swing - and it was a relief to see Paul & Alison still breathing when we went round on Sunday morning to collect the gear!! Paul's mother said she had spoken to someone who had been out walking the previous night about half a mile from the house, and they could hear every word and note of what we are playing - good feedback for us, I guess, but perhaps a little disturbing for the neighbours (good job most of Cheshire's police force were at the party!)!!

So that's all the news at the moment - a few private parties and weddings coming up over the next few weeks, but we're trying to fit in a couple of pub gigs - because we love them, although it might not be until September due to (more!) holidays!

"THERE'S NOTHING MORE JOYOUS THAN A BEER FESTIVAL AND DAZED & CONFUSED!!"

2011-05-09T18:19:00.004+01:00

So here we are on the Monday after the Beer Fest - all deflated and wondering what to do with ourselves after the highs of the weekend! I'm not going to bore you with the all the details of how good everything was (especially us!), cos you've heard it all before, and it sounds a bit (a lot!) self-congratulatory (quite right too!). All I'll do is point you at the videos that Paparazzi Pete (and another, as yet unknown person!) has posted on YouTube (you can see them by just clicking on the link above this message), and the photos that are posted on the D&C Massive Facebook page - that way you can either re-live it for yourselves, or get a flavour for what you missed! If you're wondering about the title to this post, it's a quote from another of our longstanding supporters (Ian Gilliver), who said it to me when we wobbled into each other at the end of Friday night, just before he staggered off into the night! Just about sums it up really!
We've another gig on Thursday - at the Rugby Club again, would you believe?! It's in aid of the Beat Bowel Cancer campaign, and 2 lads are trying to raise sponsorship for their cross-channel escapade (in a bath or something!); if you have £20 to spare, I'm sure there are still a few tickets left, so why not come along and start NEXT weekend early?!

THEY THINK IT'S ALL OVER - NOT A CHANCE!!

2011-05-07T17:14:00.004+01:00

Half time whistle blew at around midnight - second half kicks off in about 3 hours time!

An absolutely BRILLIANT night last night - we seem to have been doing this forever, but without a doubt, yesterday's session was up there with the best; everything - the crowd, the sound balance, the "vibe", the numbers we played, seemed to come together so well - AND we got to finish with Delilah!!!

A couple of photos to give you an idea - including one of Paparrazzi Pete (Banks) who took them! Pete is now officially anointed as the D&C Official Photographer (see below!) and, as it was his birthday last night, he even got Happy Birthday sung to him by 1000 people!! Pete has promised some vids as well, so we look forward to them, and the set was recorded, so we'll see what that sounds like!

So, we move onto Chapter 2 tonight

LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!

2011-05-06T17:44:00.005+01:00

Well - it's 6:00pm on Friday 6 May so, in an hour, the doors (or more accurately, the flaps!) will open on the 2011 Macclesfield Beer Festival!

All tickets for tonight are SOLD OUT so, if you haven't already got your ticket, you will be disappointed. However, I believe there still a few left for tomorrow night, so get your skates on.

In the meantime - LET'S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!!!!

ALL IN ALL - NOT A BAD DAY!!

2011-04-18T15:43:00.010+01:00

OK - let's get it out of the way! Saturday's gig was made all the sweeter by the magnificent City win a couple of hours earlier - all the Blues were obviously on cloud nine, and I have to say that even the Reds in the room took the wearing of the City t-shirt and blue and white scarf in good heart (except for the guy who threatened to take the wheels off the dirty white tour van!)! So bring on the mighty Potters - fortunately we don't have a gig booked for 14 May, so Wembley here we come!! As for last Saturday's gig, once again it was a great night at the Cock & Pheasant - some familiar faces, and some new ones (even a coachload from Marple!), which was good because we played some familiar tunes, and some new ones! In fact, SIX new (or new-ish) songs received an airing - Gimme Shelter, Ballroom Blitz, Don't Fear the Reaper, 20th Century Boy, Hanging on the Telephone and Walk This Way! Audience feedback suggests that they all worked pretty well although, obviously some polishing is needed (will be especially good if Paul & Chrissie can learn all the words to Walk This Way!). Still, we have 3 more practices to do this (and maybe even learn one or two more) before the Macc Beer Festival on 6 & 7 May. Thanks to Charles & Ann for having us there, and we hope we didn't disturb the neighbours too much! On the subject of the Beer Festival, as we always say around this time, be sure to get your tickets early, because they really do fly out the door, and we already know that sales have been excellent. With the plethora of Bank Holidays that are just about to hit us, it would be easy to leave it too late, and find you have to sit on a freezing grassy knoll on Priory Lane (without beer!) listening to us, rather than being part of the action - so don't delay, get your tickets today. Details are on the attached poster (click to enlarge to a legible size!) We will be sharing the bill again with Monkey Harris and, as usual, we will be doing the late second slot on the Friday night (so we can have a couple of snifters ourselves on the Saturday!). Friday is always the more popular night so, even more reason to get your skates on!!

JUST NEED A LITTLE MORE LAPTOP IN THE DRUM MONITOR!!

2011-04-04T16:43:00.003+01:00

Well howdy folks!

The silence on here has been due to the enforced absence of 3 band members over the last couple of weeks - all of whom were taking well deserved holidays! One was Dave (no surprise there!) who took on the European slopes with his usual aplomb, and did not break a single bone; however, he was complaining last week that he twisted his knee, hip and back, so it wasn't all plain sailing (in fact, it wasn't sailing at all, for a change!). Anyway, he seems to be OK and, no doubt, will be fully recovered in time for his next escapade at the beginning of May!

As previously reported, Chrissie and Paul (and respective partners, I hasten to add!) spent part of March lapping up the delights of the South by South West Music Festival in Austin, Texas before departing for different recovery clinics in the East and West USA! For those who haven't heard of SXSW (as it is known by those in the know!), it consists of wall to wall music from 10am to 2am for about 6 days; now, you can buy a pass for about $1000, and go to watch people boring each other about how good their music is, and watch the "showcase" concerts, or you can gird your loins and hit 6th Street (which is literally all bars!) and savour every conceivable genre of music continuously for the above noted 6 days for absolutely nothing (except the price of your drinks - ah, not very free then!). You may think I am exaggerating this, for effect, but let me assure you I'm not - we must have seen getting on for 100 acts in the time we were there, and we didn't even scratch the surface! The fare on offer ranged from the unknown (and pretty poor), who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty, to the unknown and bloody good (examples for me being the Gary Lee Cox Band, Shayne Zaid and the Catch, SoandSo, The Golden Dogs etc.) to the relatively well known and bloody good. We saw Eliza Doolittle, The Bangles and Ron Sexsmith (among others), but decided to give Bob Geldof and Yoko Ono a miss! We even heard the dulcet tones of Duran Duran wafting down from a rooftop bar at one stage, but couldn't get in! Of course, as all these bands/acts were in bars, we had to have beer, Bloody Marys, Margaritas, and lots of other liquid (well, it was 80deg+!). We were there on St. Patrick's Day as well, so you can imagine what that was like - the Yanks all seem to think they have Irish heritage, and that means they have to wear green and drink Guinness - 6th Street looked like Wembley's turf for the whole day!

You may be wondering what the title of this post is all about, well......it refers to something we heard from a combo we saw one day, that went by the name of Bonjay. There were 3 of them: a lady called Alanna on vocals (hip hop, urban, that sort of stuff!), some weird guy called Pho (yes, really!) on "beats and effects" (whatever they are!), and a newly recruited drummer (with real drums!). They had enormous trouble setting up - the conventional 5 piece band that had been on before, set up in about 10 minutes, but this lot were at it for about half an hour, and all they had to set up was a computer and a snare drum! The first problem was with dear old Alanna's loop pedal, which she gave up on in the end saying "you'll just have to imagine what it would sound like"! Then came the piece de resistance - after the first number was completed, the newby drummer was heard to say "You''ll have to give me more laptop in my drum monitor"! On the list of things you never expect to hear said at a gig, that must be pretty near the top - who says rock and roll is dead!

Anyway, back to normality; we are currently "rehearsing" new numbers for the Beer Festival - 3 pretty much boxed off last week, and we're hoping there will be at least 3 more before the event itself. Our first opportunity to trial these will be at The Cock & Pheasant in Bollington on Saturday 16 April, so come along, if you dare!

The tickets for the BF are now on sale (from the usual outlets), so get your order in quick, because we all know they go like hot cakes! Details are on the poster below (double click to see a bigger version).

EAST CHESHIRE HOSPICE MIDNIGHT WALK

2011-03-12T13:44:00.003Z

The more observant of you may have noticed that we are giving our services to the East Cheshire Hospice on Saturday 25 June to get everyone revved up in advance of this year's Midnight Walk. As we've mentioned before, the Hospice does a fantastic job, and needs around £6000 per day just to stay in existence, most of which comes from voluntary donations.

So, if you fancy not only having a bop around to us, but also participating in the Walk itself, why not log on to the ECH Website, and register NOW?

THE BOYS (AND GIRL!) WERE BACK IN TOWN - IF ONLY BRIEFLY!!

2011-03-07T13:45:00.005Z

Good heavens - it's over 4 weeks since a post hit these airwaves; better fix that!

A good reason for the absence (well I think so, anyway!) - antipodean visit to long lost travelling daughter meant Paul was away for most of February and, unfortunately, that's just the start of it, as Dave is off on his annual attempt to shatter his limbs in the snow this week, and then next week Paul AND Chrissie are off to the US to witness first hand the magic of the South by South West Music Festival in Austin Texas! Who knows, maybe they will pick up some tips - either way, you can be sure there will be a report on here sometime around the end of the month; with bands like "Trampled by Turtles", "Wordburglar", "Pulled Apart by Horses" and "Say No to Architecture" to enjoy, how could there not be?!

In the midst of all this holiday mayhem, however, we did find time to fit in a gig! Last Friday saw us back at Porter's in Macc and, as seems to be the norm these days, it was a wild night! The "stage" at Porter's is not what you would call the biggest and, in order to fit all 6 of us in, we had to put one of the speakers and the PA mixer IN THE FIREPLACE (see Pete Banks' picture below)!

However, once we'd set up, and all agreed to Andy's request not to "gyrate" too much, we kicked off in front of an absolutely stuffed pub and things just got hotter and hotter (in more ways than one!). Highspots were more furniture dancing, a not so tuneful vocal backing to "Sex on Fire" from Mad Dave (don't ask!) and Sue, the landlady withdrawing her 11:30 curfew and allowing us to play on till midnight, because the pub was still rammed and nobody wanted to go home!! The only thing missing was Alison Unwin and her tambourine doing her crowd surfing but, on reflection, it was probably for the best that she couldn't make it - things might have got broken (like arms and legs!).

Thanks to everyone who come along - we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Below is a a further selection of photos courtesy of Pete B.

I've also added a link to the "Dazed & Confused Massive" Facebook page where Roger Thawley has kindly posted some videos - if you listen closely to the "Sex on Fire" vid, you might just hear Mad Dave's dulcet tones in the background!!

Next gig is now not until 16 April at The Cock & Pheasant in Bollington, where we hope to be giving an airing to some new tunes, in advance of our annual appearance at Macc Beer Festival - put the date in your diary - we'll be raring to go after all this travelling!!

PEOPLE HAVING FUN!!

2011-01-24T09:53:00.007Z

Many thanks to Pete Banks for posting some pics from The Windmill on our Dazed & Confused Massive Facebook page - posting them here as well just to prove that we weren't making up the bit about dancing on the tables etc.!

Shades of The Ship! Hope Alison didn't bang her head!

We lose most of our tambourines this way!

That's the tables take a bit of a hammering now!

3 previous band members in the background (Frank, Paul G and Paul H) wondering why this level of mayhem never used to happen!

Now that's better - much more sedate!

...and this is what caused it all!

Playing a wedding on Saturday, and then it goes quiet until Friday 4 March at Porter's in Macclesfield - we'll be ready for that, and hope you are too!

WHAT A WAY TO START THE YEAR!!!

2011-01-14T16:53:00.002Z

The first gig of the year is supposed to be a nice gentle introduction to what might yet be to come - after all the festivities, it's always good to slide into January without too much noise and disturbance - little did we know!!!

Star Date, Friday 7 January 2011 8:00pm - the dirty white tour van pulls into the car park of the Windmill to find there are absolutely no parking spaces whatsoever - the whole place is jam-packed with cars!! What the hell is going on?? Maybe it's 200 ramblers that went out at lunchtime, got lost, and have not yet returned? Maybe it's the Annual General Meeting of the Adlington Dogging Society? Maybe it's something else??

But no, the pub was actually cram jam full of people eating, drinking and generally enjoying themselves ("we'll soon put a stop to that", we thought!), approximately 200 maybe, so no pressure then! Some of them were even shoe-horned into the space where we were supposed to set up, so you can imagine how happy they were when we asked them to move, and shifted their table outside!

Now, this number of people in a venue before we even start poses a number of challenges:

Are they expecting a band, and will they mind their quiet evening meal being disturbed?
How the hell do we get our stuff in, and do a sound check without tipping food and drink all over the place, while we try and erect speakers and string cables around the place?
Will they all still be here when we start playing, or are they on an early shift, so they can get home and finish watching Christmas catch-up TV?

Whatever, we pressed on, set up the gear and, although it was a bit of tight squeeze (remember, there were 6 of us this time, and we weren't used to that!), we were just about ready to play by 9:15pm. We had realised by then that the size of the crowd was due in no small measure to the fact that Becca, the landlady, was having her "farewell do" (not her birthday, as originally thought), and loads of people had come to see her off in style. It was also the opening night of the Windmill's annual "Local Ale Sale" which had drawn many diehard fans of proper beer (especially Storm Brewing's best!) in.

Heartened by the fact that nobody had disappeared in the intervening period, we cracked on and, in addition to having people up and bopping during the first set, we were treated to an amazing display of dancing, singing and general mayhem during the second! Once again, there were people up on shoulders, tables, chairs and anything else that was vaguely fixed to the floor! We did have a bit of a turn when we were asked to go on for the second set at 10:30 and finish at 11:00(!), but we soon persuaded the new landlady, Abby, to let us play until 11:30 (we actually finished at 11:50!), so all was good! I'm hoping that someone has some pics they can send us to post on here, because it was yet another memorable night, and words alone can't do it justice; so, if you're reading this, and have some photos, e-mail them to the address on the right hand side of the blog, and we'll post them (or post them to the "Dazed and Confused Massive" Facebook page).

So, 2011 is well and truly under way, and we are out and about again this weekend, playing a private party in Marple tomorrow night, after which there is a band get-together at Paul's on Sunday - which I'm sure will be a quiet and subdued affair (just like the Band on a Boat event last summer)!!

New gigs are cropping up all the time, and are being posted on the right ------------->
next public gig looks like Friday 4 March at Porter's on Roe Street in Macclesfield - the delay being due to holidays (not Dave this time!), so put it in your diary, because we know you'll be having withdrawal symptoms by then!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR - THE SAILOR RETURNS, AND A MYSTERY SOLVED!!

2011-01-03T14:47:00.006Z

So here we are again - we've stepped out of the old black tour bus that was 2010, and into the rock arena that calls itself 2011 - I think we are relatively un-scarred by the festivities just passed, and we hope you are too, and can I be the last (but probably not!) to wish you all a Very Happy New Year! We met some fabulous folks and played some great gigs in 2010 (about 25 I make it), and thanks to everyone who took the time to come and see us - a lot of you on many occasions! We know that, although we have a great time, without you, it wouldn't be half as much fun, and we're grateful for your continuing support! We're really looking forward to more of the same this year, and I'll spill the beans about where it all kicks off in a little while.

Before all that, just a quick word about our last gig of 2010 - at our happy hunting ground of The Ship! You may remember, that we played a wondrous gig there in early November and, while it was expecting a lot for the Christmas gig to match it, it did turn out to be a fantastic night! The snow held off (mostly), although Pete Munro did manage to measure his length outside the pub at the end of the night - it was nothing to do with the drink, he said, but it was fortunate that he had taken enough anaesthetic, and so was feeling no pain by the time he landed! Nothing broken, fortunately (which is more than can be said for others who did the same earlier in the month!), and Pete did say he had enjoyed the gig, in spite of that! The pub was packed again, and everyone seemed to have a great time - and it felt really Christmassy! Paul's throat just about managed to survive the evening (which was a major surprise in itself!), probably due, in no samll part, to the chemist's shop he had lined up alongside the beer (VocalZones, honey & hot lemon, inhalers - the works!). We even managed to deliver the THREE new songs we promised - "It's My Life" (twice!) by Bon By Jovi, T-Rex's "20th Century Boy" and "Getting Away With It" by James; they need a bit of polishing, obviously, but seemed to work well, and will undoubtedly see the light of day again!

We were a fivesome at the Ship for about the 6th time in a row, but Captain Birdseye (Dave) has returned from his Atlantic jaunt and will be with us for our next gig (unless he's decided to go on another voyage!) which is this coming Friday, 7 January. You will see it is billed as being a "Mystery" gig, but it's time to put you all out of your misery - cos we don't want to be playing to a completely empty pub do we?! The madness will be happening at The Windmill in Whitely Green (near Adlington), which has more or less become our traditional opening gig of the year, as we've played there the last 2 Januarys as well. The reason it wasn't billed up before is that it is a birthday bash for Becca, the landlady, and she said that she was worried because we attract so many punters when we play there, and she might end up having to work instead of enjoy herself!! So, we have kept it under out hats for a bit, but now is the time to put the word around; if you fancy a bite to eat, and some good beer (assuming you've got any money left after Christmas!), not to mention a chance to join in with all the old familiar tomfoolery, get yourself down to The Windmill, and savour the opportunity to see a "full strength" D&C!

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND!!

2010-12-16T15:28:00.002Z

Almost exactly a year ago, we played Porter's Ale House as our Christmas gig and, just as we were unloading the gear, the heavens opened, a ton of snow landed on our heads, and it stayed like that for about 6 weeks! The picture on the left shows Chrissie trying to get back into her house at 2:00 the following morning - a frozen gate and 18 pints of beer made it more difficult than it needed to be!

The purpose of this trip down memory lane is to point out that we are playing this year's Christmas gig on Saturday at The Old Ship Inn on Beech Lane and, if the weather forecast is to be believed, history is likely to repeat itself! Another shed load of the white stuff is expected on Saturday (if not before) - but don't let that put you off!! There WILL be fires to keep you warm, there WILL be beer (and hot toddies!) to get you in the Christmas spirit and there WILL be great music (of course!) so wrap up warm, unleash the huskies, and get yourselves down there in good time to get a prime position!!

There is, apparently, a Strictly/X-Factor thing going on, since The Injectors have managed to wangle a gig that night as well (not telling you where!), and are touting for business! But, whatever you do, don't think about trying to fit both gigs into your evening - you will more than likely end up marooned in the middle of Macc, so head straight to the Ship and stay there - much better plan!

We're all geared up for it, since it's 3 weeks or so since we were on the road - maybe 3 new songs to share with you as well - we're due to practice tonight and, as long as we can keep the throat lurgy at bay, we should be able to box them off ready for Saturday! Without gving too much away, there might be a bit of Bon Jovi, T Rex and James for your delight (and some tinsel, obviously!).

See you there! Ho, Ho Ho!!

ABBA-MANIA & OTHER STORIES!!

2010-11-28T18:50:00.009Z

Mad November draws to a close, and there are so many stories to tell - and so little time!!

Since we played the gig at The Ship on the 6th, we've played 3 more (4 gigs in a month is almost unheard of!), and all of them have happened without Dave (or HoliDave, as we know him, affectionately!). The reason Dave has not been with us is that he has been girding what is left of his loins to follow in the footsteps of Vasco de Gama, Christopher Columbus, Chay Blyth and several pods of dolphins to cross the Atlantic! Dave actually left port (in a boat, in case you are wondering!) on the 21st of November (i.e last week) but, for some reason, he had to go to Spain for 4 weeks to prepare! We believe it was to do with polishing his sextant or something but, anyway, he is now well on his way to St Lucia - or maybe that is stretching a point, because latest intelligence suggests that there is so little wind en route that they can't use the sails, and so have had to pull into the petrol station on the Cape Verde islands to fill up with diesel! As well as being somewhat annoying and time-consuming, it must have cost them a fortune - but Dave has Bernard Sumner from New Order on board, he can probably afford it! Even so, if the wind doesn't spring up soon, it will get interesting, because I'm guessing there are not that many petrol stations in the middle of the Atlantic! Anyway, Dave is not due to be back in Blighty until 21 December, so he'll even miss the Christmas Thrash at The Ship (more of that later) - I'm sure he will have a good time, but we all wish we had his holiday card!

The 3 gigs we've played since I last put finger to keyboard have been:

13 November at the Mykita Ballroom in Macc: this was for Carolyn's 60th birthday, and it was a really good night - made all the better by watching people do ballroom dancing to Teenage Kicks!!

18 November at the Beer & Curry Night at The Roebuck in Mobberley: our first time there and, although the early part of the night felt as though we were playing in somebody's dining room, things really picked up towards the end and, after thinking we would be slinking off at 10:00pm while nobody was looking, our planned 10:30 finish stretched to 3 encores and an 11:00pm end! Fortunately, most of the locals were in the pub, so we didn't disturb too many folks on school night! Many thanks also to some of our old friends who journeyed out into the wilds of Cheshire to join in the festivities - Roger, Pete, Ian (and your friends and families), it was very much appreciated, and it was also brilliant to see Paul Gregory (our "old" bassist), who sneaked in to see what he was missing!

20 November at Macc Golf Club: this was Brigid's 50th birthday party, and was a memorable occasions on several levels! Firstly, we turned up to set up at 2:30pm, only to find Andy in the foullest of moods because he'd done the usual Rock God thing, and not gone to bed until 7:30 that morning, and was "most distressed" when Matt knocked on his door at 2:00pm, as previously arranged (Matt being there at all was an achievement in itself!). Anyway, not only did we have to deal with the bear with the sore head that was Andy, we also had to deal with Steve the bar steward! I won't go into detail, other than to say that, for a fleeting (or not so fleeting) moment, I was convinced that he must be related to the ex-landlord of the Millstone pub (see blog post for 20 September 2009!)!

Having sobered Andy up, and set the gear up (and annoyed the Members with an over-loud sound check!), we moved on to the evening itself. We were viewing it with trepidation, as Brigid had asked us to do an ABBA number so that she, and her mate Nat, could join us on stage! Now, ABBA and D&C are not natural bedfellows; in fact Matthew nearly had a cardiac arrest when it was suggested that we do "Does Your Mother Know?" (only the fact that Nat is his next door neighbour convinced him!), and Andy was trying to work out how he could give it a "My Chemical Romance" vibe! However, we had sort of practised it, but did not have the chance for run through with the girls beforehand but, as you 'll see if you scroll through to video 7 in the video link above, it more or less worked, and went down a storm with the crowd! It has to be said that the whole night was a blast, and we finished around 12:40am with everyone baying for more - everyone went home happy!

Surprisingly, we are quiet in December - but it's probably just as well, because our next outing is going to be some sort of a night, as we are back at The Ship for our pre-Christmas party on Saturday 18 December!! Nobody likes to tempt fate, but if it's half as good as the gig at the beginning of November was, it will be a night and a half! Don't just come along to see us - come to experience the unique atmosphere of a great pub (full to the rafters) with great beer and pretty good music - the perfect way to kick off Christmas week!!

One final word; since we put the "hit counter" on the blog in mid-October, traffic has gone mad! I think there were something like 995 hits then but now, just over a month later, it's up to 1700+!! Hopefully, it's a distracting, if not enjoyable read but, if anyone wants to post a comment, or send us an e-mail feel free (we read them all!)

CURRY, BEER AND A BAND - BLISS!!

2010-11-18T09:50:00.002Z

What do you have planned for this evening then? I know it's going to be miserable and rainy, so what better to warm you on a cold winter's night than a fine curry? Add to that some fine ale, and then sprinkle in some old familiar tunes, and it's starting to sound like a recipe for a brilliant night out - after all, Thursday is the real start to the weekend!!

So where is all this happening, I hear you ask? Well, if you make your way to the sleepy village of Mobberley (see map in the previous post) and ask anyone who happens to be standing around to point you at The Roebuck, all will be revealed! If you log on to their website, you can even have a look at the menu!

All being well, if Paul gets away from the hospital, Andy finishes teaching and we manage to track Matt down, we're due on stage at 8:00pm, so don't hang around - I'm sure we'll be playing till quite late though, so don't worry if you can't be there on the dot - 8:05pm will be fine!

See you there!!

WAKE US UP - WE MUST BE DREAMING!!!

2010-11-10T15:20:00.008Z

That has to be one of the all-time great gigs!!

Rather than me describe it (which I will anyway!), here's a selection of comments we've received via e-mail, Facebook and even this blog, since we rocked, nay nearly destroyed, The Ship on Saturday night:

"I think you were as good as I've heard you (i.e. magic!), and you all seemed so happy and relaxed - wonderful!" (Ian Gilliver)
"Excellent evening at The Ship tonight - keep it coming!" (EventHorizon 2001)
"Fantastic night - made my 40th! Thanks for doing Kasabian better than Kasabian!" (Toria)
"Fantastic night on Saturday - best yet! Hottest place in Macc - in more ways than one!" (Pete)
"Excellent gig at the Ship on Saturday. In my humble opinion, the Dazed & Confused version of "Fire - Kasabian" is better than the original!" (Roger Thawley)

To say we are flattered and, at the same time humbled, is an understatement - in some ways, however, we are not surprised! Saturday was at another level - for some reason, everything seemed to drop into place. The audience was actually standing waiting for us to start for one thing - none of the usual malarkey of us having to try and catch people's attention by throwing things at them! Things just got better and better after that - a fabulous crowd, great atmosphere and even the set list seemed to work perfectly - our second set (supposedly 1 hour in length) started at 10:30pm and finished at 12:25am!! Probably has to go down as one of the best gigs we've played - to see everyone (and I mean everyone!) bouncing up and down to "Fire" was just incredible - there were even ladies on men's shoulders, for goodness sake - it was like bloody Glastonbury! BIG, BIG thanks to everyone who made it such a great night, and commiserations to those who wanted to come, but couldn't make it - Andy May: you know who you are, and you were missed!

I did suggest to Tony that next time we play there, we'll take a cut of the bar takings, rather than a fee but, for some strange reason, he didn't think that was a good idea - Eee, there were some stuff supped that night!!

So, onwards and upwards - next stop is The Roebuck in Mobberley (post code: WA16 7HX) on Thursday 18 November; they are having a Beer, Curry and a Band night, which sounds just about perfect! I'm sure the locals will be flooding in, but we'll be delighted, as always, to see any familiar faces that fancy a night out in the country. For those who might not know where it is, here's a link to a map (use the zoom controls on the right to change the scale of the map)!

FIREWORKS AT THE SHIP?

2010-11-06T15:32:00.004Z

Well, probably not fireworks - just fires!

Yes friends, tonight sees us back playing "at home" in The Ship Inn on Beech Lane - for the first time since February (takes that long for us to cool down!); so, if you fancy a bop and some good beer, why not come down? There will be some additional entertainment as well;

Paul will still be trussed up like a turkey!
Chrissie will be showing off her newly acquired tan!
Matt will be giving a long awaited debut to Bertha - his double bass (yes, really!
There may even be a couple of new tunes!

So, give the X Factor the bums rush, and come and watch some real music - and toast your tootsies by the fire(s) at the same time!

VIDEOS - COURTESY OF SILKPETE!!

2010-10-13T16:31:00.003+01:00

At last!! Good quality videos with reasonable quality sound!

Look upwards and you will see some snippets from the performance at the East Cheshire Hospice World Cup gig in June - big respect and thanks to Pete (one of our most stalwart supporters) for doing the recording and posting them for me to steal!

Great job Pete - pics and sound good - I'll leave it to others to judge the quality of the performance!

And here's something else from the same gig - a review from the online mag The Word - some nice things said here - especially about The Rock God!; although I'm not so sure about the "...but he's playing in a pub band" bit! We like to think he does it cos he loves us!

THE BEST OF BRITISH AT THE COCK AND PHEASANT!!

2010-10-10T13:58:00.007+01:00

Friday 1 October - a day to remember, for a number of reasons, although I'm not sure the guy on the left will - although he was up and bopping his little heart out!!

Members of the band arrived with several stories to tell - Matt was on top of the world because the fabulous games company that he works for had won about a hundred awards in the previous 3 days - including "Best British Business" so he was understandably chuffed - so much so that he even bought the first round! We have, of course, also entered Matt in the "Best British Bassist" competition, but we've not heard back yet!

Dave arrived with the "Best British Hangover", having been out until 6:30 that morning! His defence was spirited, but feeble - apparently he was about to leave the pub around 1:30am, when some hairy arsed contractor shouted "Oi, you can't go yet!" - so he didn't! He then spent the next 5 hours drinking, beer, brandy and the contents of the pub toilet bowl, judging by the look of him! It's a long time since we've seen him drink so much water at one go - or his "survival kit" as he called it!

Paul arrived without part of "Britain's Best Cartilage", having had it removed 2 days before - hopping around in a pub with a low ceiling is not recommended (more of that later)! This was Part 1 of the great body re-build, as Paul returned to hospital last Thursday for further maintenance (more of that later as well)!

Andy arrived having won"Britain's Best Grounding"; now Andy isn't the best flier in the world, and had spent the last week psyching himself up to accompany Pete Robinson (above average drummer with the Average Injectors) on a weekend of drinking and debauchery in Malaga (that's right, Chrissie & Claire weren't going with them!), only to find there were not enough standby seats, so he was grounded! For someone who doesn't like flying, he gave a passable impression of someone who well pi**ed off with not being able to fly!

I think Hugh and Chrissie were OK, so onto the gig itself!

The first time we had played Chez Charles (after a couple of false starts) so we had the usual trepidation with a new venue (and The Spinners debacle loomed large in our minds!); however, from a crowd point of view, there were no worries, as the pub was full when we started, and remained that way throughout - I think we helped them empty 3 casks of ale by the end of the night!

Our location did suffer somewhat, heightwise; neither Chrissie nor Paul were at the front of the queue when tallness was handed out, but there was still a degree of head scraping going on (Andy's cowboy hat saved him from grazing his scalp!) and the light fitting projecting horizontally from the wall at temple height added to Paul's challenges of standing upright on a dicky leg!

Spot the light fitting - behind his head!

Sorting the sound out was also slightly problematic, but sterling efforts from Dave and Matt in the interval, aided by input from the audience fixed that!

Both sets went well, and the debut of "Echo Beach" was almost perfect - better than the original, of course.

As well as new friends made, it was great to see some familar faces - including a member of the now internationally acclaimed VirginMarys - Mr Matt Rose! Seasoned followers will remember that Matt cut his bass guitar teeth with Dazed & Confused, and he remembers his roots! We also like to keep him grounded, so got him roadying for us at the end of the night - while we had a beer! Matt - if you read this, I have that D&C t-shirt for you to wear on the next VM tour!

Matt Rose - our VirginRoady!!

Next gig is up at The White Lion in Disley next Friday (15 October); it's for a birthday party, but we believe the pub is open to anyone - so, if you fancy a walk in the hills, followed by a great night of food, beer and music - you know where we'll be! Paul will still have his arm in a sling, so will make for an interesting evening, from that perspective, if no other!

BYE BYE BABIES, BAND ON A BOAT AND PLAYING (FOR) LUDO!!

2010-09-09T19:21:00.011+01:00

OK, OK, OK, it's been a couple of weeks - but it has been an emotional time!! However, I've composed myself enough to give you all a little bit of an update on the crowded happenings of recent days! Where to start..............

Star Date - Saturday 28 August: massive leaving "do" for 3 "children" - Lucy Jane, Nick and Rosie (with total respect to her Mum, Rosie is almost one of the Morrissey family as well!) - Rosie on her way to Welsh Wales to continue her quest to be the best Geographer in the world (PhD in Aberystwyth no less!!); Nick off to Aldershot, not to join HM Forces, but to embark on a "journey" that will see him becoming the youngest CEO in history, while at the same time consuming his own body weight in beer each day, and Lucy on her way to the Antipodes on the first leg of a round the world trip that could see her back here in a year's time or, alternatively, meeting Prince Charming (probably pronounced Chaarmin out there!), settling down and talking the hind leg off every adjacent kangaroo! Notwithstanding all that, we had an absolutely brilliant evening - first time we had played together for about 6 weeks, so we had that lovely warm feeling again (oo-er missus!); Lucy got a chance to sing with us - first time her sis Anna (and her Mum!) had heard her, so there were lumps in several throats (this was before Anna got really tired and emotional!) and all was good. Of course, when everything wrapped up, the youngsters went on to party in Macc until the small hours, while we sloped off for hot chocolate around 02:00! A selection of photos - we'll miss you kids, come back soon! :'((

Star date: Sunday 29 August: Well, that hot chocolate was a good move, because at 09:30 the same day, the mighty D&C embarked on a cruise! Now, before you start getting the wrong idea, this was not in the Med or the Caribbean (even though Dave was there!) - it was a "leisurely" jaunt down the Macclesfield Canal from Bollington to the Fool's Nook at Sutton and back! What a laugh - the Tiller-men varied in ability from the vaguely competent (Dave) to the downright dangerous (Andy)! In fact, whoever let Andy take the helm after several bottles of cava, much beer and other things, ought to be shot - thing is, nobody can remember who it was! The boat was officially sized for 12, but there were 13 of us on it, although our defence was that there were only ever 12 on board at any one time! I'm going to try and post a video of Tweed Meister Matt's attempt to join the merry crew (we arranged to collect him at the Puss in Boots, but it took about an hour longer than we thought, so he started walking towards us!) - let's see how it goes!

Matt's day job is designing web and phone games and, during the day, we came up with a great idea for a new game for all ages - Grand Theft Narrowboat - if you want to leave the game, you just get off! A great day, with great mates - here's some more pics (the last one is our boat after Andy had parked it)!

Finally, Star Date Saturday 4 September: A 60th birthday party for Ludo - we played at his daughter's wedding at the wonderful Sandhole Farm in December and, amazingly, he asked us back! Now, you Latin scholars will know that Ludo means "I play", and he certainly did that night - in fact, I think he's lying about his age! Great audience participation and, thanks to Dave's forward thinking, we split the set into 3, so that the older members didn't run out of puff too early (that's the band, not the crowd!). Finished about 12:30, got home around 2:00am, so must have been a good night!

Next gig is a new one for us - The Cock & Pheasant in Bollington on 1 October, and I'm 100% sure that we will have more people watching us than we did the last time we hit Bolly (anyone remember The Spinners?). So, if you want to see the Autumn in in style, toddle on down to Charlie's gaff, and swing your pants!!

THE ALBUM COVER!

2010-08-28T17:38:00.004+01:00

We really do have to get working on the album now - because the album cover has been designed!
This is courtesy of 6 year old Luca, who Andy met while on holiday in France; Andy & Luca are obviously kindred spirits (and it seems like the same mental age!) because they are both raving Dr Who fans, and (of course!) into rock music - so much so that Luca designed the album cover and gave it to Andy (in exchange for a set of Dr Who Top Trumps!)
Party time tonight - the 3rd leg of Lucy's Long Goodbye celebration will be happening, and she's sharing it with Nick (who is off to Aldershot) and Rosie (who is off to Aberystwyth) so, with Lucy going to Australia, there is a spooky "A"-type thing going on! Got to go and put a set list together - which will be a challenge, as I'm not sure how many songs we can remember! More details about the gig later and, as it's "Band on a Boat" day tomorrow (9:30am start!!!), it's a good job I have 2 days off afterwards to recover

ANOTHER LONG HOT SUMMER!

2010-08-03T14:00:00.012+01:00

So, August is with us again and, as happened last year (and the year before, and the year before...) the North West of England sunshine has gone on holiday, along with everyone else! Now, I often use this space for a bit of a rant, and I think it's fully justified that I have another one about the bl**dy weather! Surely, it's not too much to ask that, instead of making a token appearance in the middle of June and then buggering off till October, the sun might deign to stay around during the "high summer" months of July and August and warm the cockles of our little hearts? Doesn't look like it's going to happen this year - that global warming has a lot to answer for!

Couple of gigs since we last corresponded - both different, but both excellent, in their own right:

8 July had us doing one of our regular Brewery gigs - it was a Thursday and, as that's what we laughingly call "practice night", it wasn't too much of a stretch to set the gear up and play for a bunch of people that were on a Brewery Tour (which entails a 5 minute squint at the copper, fermenter and cellar, followed by a 4 hour sampling session of several Storm beers and Paddy's Pies!) This particular tour involved the St Alban's School Parents (otherwise known as the Sad Dads!) who were celebrating the departure of a teacher that had been there since the school was built (in fact it seemed as though he had taught most of the assembled gathering!). These are all good Catholic lads, and there was certainly plenty of sampling of Hugh & Dave's holy water that night!

Hugh suggested that we might do an hour or so for them, and then pack up, which would have meant finishing around 10:40 pm (nice early night!) - so, as the clock ticked round to 12:10am, I suggested that it might be a good idea to start wrapping up, as some of us had to go to work the next day!! Notwithstanding that, it was a great night - plenty of laughs, and a couple of contacts for future gigs.

16 July saw us up at Hollin Hall Hotel to celebrate Danute's 40th Birthday. Danute is an old (well she's getting that way now she's 40!) friend of Chrissie (who, incidentally, is over 40!), and she certainly celebrated in style! We arrived to find the room was set out as if for a wedding and, sure enough, there were speeches, a big meal - the full works! The first set was also a bit wedding-esque, in that the floor was not exactly groaning under the weight of dancers; however, cometh the time, cometh the band and the second set was verging on madness - plenty of jumping up and down, plenty of shouts for more, and plenty of people taking our contact details, so no complaints from us!

We've been quiet since then; Matt has embarked on his annual Festival fest, Dave has come back from holiday - for how long, nobody knows, Hugh, Chrissie and Andy are revving up for theirs, so it will be the end of August before we tread the boards again - a happy and sad occasion, because we'll be sending Lucy on her way to Australia on the first leg of her World Tour - she's due back in a year, but who knows.......Either way, we'll make it a night to remember.

The gig list has had some updating recently, so check the details out on the right hand side of the blog --------->

2 other pieces of news before we close:

I notice that The Millstone in Water's Green has changed hands - oh dear, what a pity, never mind!! Obviously, the previous landlord has got fed up with being grumpy in the middle of Macclesfield and gone off to be grumpy somewhere else - I just hope he let all the bands that he had booked know he was going! If he'd told us, we would have had a party!! If you don't know what all this is about, check the blog entries for last September - it's a date that will remain forever etched in my memory.

Some photos from the East Cheshire Hospice gig attached below - as you can see, a good time was had by all and there's one interesting shot where Andy seems to be shoving his guitar up James Milner's nose! On reflection, that might not have been a bad idea - might have made him play better (Milner not the Rock God!). The hospice raised over £10,000 that weekend, and we're chuffed to have played a little part in that!

THEY'RE COMING HOME, THEY'RE COMING HOME, THEY'RE COMING......

2010-06-27T21:03:00.007+01:00

Ah well, it was good while it lasted! The "boys" played to the best of their capabilities and, guess what? It wasn't good enough - well what do you expect for £100K/week?!

So, the England shirt is packed away until Euro 2012, and we can concentrate on the music! The last couple of weeks has seen us play 3 events that have ranged across the whole spectrum of gigdom - being the "warm-up" act for the England team, a Christening, and a pub gig - all of which were special in their own way!

Number 1: The East Cheshire Game & A Gig, which has been profusely trailed on here, and elsewhere. We kicked off in the "big tent" at 6:30pm, and were scheduled to play right up to the start of the England v USA game at 7:30. A challenge in itself, as folks were still dribbling in when we started, and we knew we had our work cut out to draw them in! However, things got a tad more interesting when we were told that the generator that was to power the 10 foot video screen had gone on the blink, and we might have to finish at 7:10pm so that they could switch generators!! No matter, we carried on regardless, the generator got fixed, we built to a climax with "I Predict A Riot", and finished our set just as the National Anthem struck up - brilliant! Shame about the result!

Big thanks and congratulations to Lara and everyone at the ECH for a fantastic, sell out night - a wonderful event, and for a really worthwhile cause.

Number 2: Gary & Lisa's Christening Event: 3:00pm on a Sunday afternoon, 2 band members on holiday (no prizes for guessing one of them was Dave, the other was Chrissie - again!), so it could have gone either way. Now, I know we say on this blog that we will even play funerals (sometimes it feels like we are - e.g. The Spinners!), but this is the first time we have done a Christening! However, it was BRILLIANT! Lucy stepped in for Chrissie again, and did a wonderful job (I've included her FB picture, to make her feel good!), the atmosphere was great, and we got THREE encores! If any other bands are reading this (yeah, like they would!) we can thoroughly recommend spending your Sunday afternoon playing at a Christening!

Number 3: The White Lion in Disley: Several Big Plus marks for us with this, including the fact that England had failed to top their group so weren't playing in the football, AND we managed to get to the pub without being stopped by the police! Those of you who are frequent readers of this dross, may remember that, on the way to the gig at the White Lion last February, we were pulled up by Cheshire Constabulary for having illegal cargo (i.e Chrissie & Matt) in the back of the van, and a £60 fine was incurred as a consequence! This time, we were much more circumspect, no illegals in the back of the van! Once again, the audience was small but perfectly formed, and we had a really good (if a little hot!) gig - the purchase of the 18" stage fan was a good move, although it did not do the perfect cooling job, because it was absolutley bloody sweltering in there!!

We have a couple of weeks off now, Paul's away for a week, and maybe Dave will be back in time for the next gig (private party in Bolly!) - looks like people still want us as we've had requests to play next January and next NOVEMBER (yes 2011!) already!

ENGERLAND, ENGERLAND, ENGERLAND - AND ALL THAT!

2010-06-07T10:25:00.009+01:00

OK, we've given you a bit of a rest on here , for a few weeks, so it's time to disturb you again - and this time it's in a really good cause! If you get yourselves down to The East Cheshire Hospice on Saturday evening, not only will you have the opportunity to jump around with us for an hour, you will also be able to celebrate along with hundreds of other people, as the England's team takes its first steps along the path to what is almost certain World Cup victory! The Hospice are laying on a 10 foot screen so we can all see the national team humble the mighty USA in the first match of Group C. Just be sure to get there early - doors open at 6:00pm, and we'll be on stage by 6:30 - our task being to get the crowd in a right jovial mood before the game starts. There's a bar (of course) selling a wonderful selection of Storm Brewing beers, and there will be barbecue to feast on (whatever the weather). All in all, an ideal opportunity to get some great music in, watch the boys win AND support one of the most worthwhile causes in Macclesfield - I'm sure we all know someone who has benefitted from the care provided by the Hospice, and they need over £6000 PER DAY just to keep going. Tickets are available via the Hospice website

While we are on the subject of good causes, just a few words about our last gig; this was the Time Out Group Spring Ball held at the Belfry hotel a couple of weeks ago and, as last year, it was an absolute joy!

Once everybody had been fed and watered, and the speeches made, the floor was prepared and all hell broke loose! The dance floor was full from the first chords of whatever it was we played first, and it barely cleared at all for the next 2 hours! Not only did we have the patron of the charity, Annabel Tiffin, strutting her stuff, we saw a return appearance on stage, of her husband John - who is a blatantly frustrated rock star - the way he battered that tambourine during "Come Up & See Me" was remarkable, and it was pure chance that he did not injure himself or have somebody else's eye out! We also had brilliant participation from a number of other guests, and special mention must go, once again, to "Uncle Peter" who followed the instructions he was given, for the night, to the letter before unleashing himself on his public at 12:15am with a reprise of his legendary interpretation of "Johnny B Goode"!! I'm pretty sure that neither he, us, nor the populus of Handforth will ever be the same again, after that!!

Here are a selection of photos taken on the night which, hopefully give an idea of the fun that was had

OH WHAT A WEEKEND!!

2010-05-11T20:59:00.006+01:00

So, that's another Beer Festival chalked off! Two days gone in the blink of an eye - but what a great 2 days!!

As per the last post, Friday night was a blast - as you would expect going on at 10:00pm when everyone had been drinking for 3 hours!! However, it's probably fair to say that we didn't expect the "early shift" on Saturday to be as brilliant as it was. We took the stage at 8:15pm and found an audience of 2 in front of us (and one of them was Mickey Jones - a bit of a change from Tiger Tiger for him!!); however, never a band to look on the gloomy side, we challenged the "crowd" in the drinking bit of the marquee to join us and, within seconds, we had about 100 people in front of us - and this continued to swell and swell as the moments went by until there was upwards of 500 people srutting their stuff!.
We had put together a set that was designed to break the crowd in slowly, and build them up to a frenzy; the plan worked fine - except the frenzy set in long before we expected it! Within 15 minutes everyone was up and jumping - even Chasing Cars (which we did as the second number) had full audience participation, arm waving, everything! By the time we got to Whole Lotta Rosie, Sweet Child of Mine and Somebody Told Me, the roof was coming off the marquee - and it was still only 9:30!! The only downside of Saturday's set was that we had to drop some songs, so that we finished in time for Monkey Harris to have a go - although we felt we could go on all night!! Double gloom because it meant we couldn't do Delilah - again!!
Anyway, finishing early did give us a chance to sample some of the fine beers, and to relax - by the time we left at 12:30, we were very relaxed!
So, onto next year - perhaps? We have done 5 years in a row, and we know that is something that no other band has been given the privilege to do - but we enjoy it SO much that, if we were asked, I'm sure we would say yes!
Next gig is a private party this Friday (Dave will be missing because he's on holiday!), and then we return to the Time Out Group Ball the following Saturday. Those of you with long memories might recall the great time we had there last year - for those who don't, check out the April 2009 reports on the blog (link on the right).
So, I'll sign off now, leaving you to enjoy some photographic records of the evening, and there is a recording of Saturday's gig on its way, so we'll try and find a way of posting a link to that on here at some stage!
Macclesfield MPs - old and new, sampling the wares!
Bouncers in action to stop the stage being rushed by groupies!!

What's he got to smile about??

Paul (looking like he's lost a piece of his brain) and Matt (looking happy)

A portion of the happy crowd (shame we didn't have a wide angled lens!)

Dave (not on holiday!)

Chrissie (in typical full on Token Bird/Rock Chick mode!)

Look everyone - a crowd!!

SOUNDED BAD BUT SOUNDED GOOD!

2010-05-08T15:19:00.006+01:00

Writing this after completing Round 1 of our 5th Macc Beer Festival extravaganza! Last night was an absolutely brilliant night, although it was not all plain sailing!

We went on at 10:00pm, having been well set up by a great set from Monkey Harris - however, the first few numbers were blighted by some horrible sound gremlins! For whatever reason, the microphones made it sound like someone was frying chips in them, the on-stage monitors were giving some horrendous feedback and we had some problems hearing what was going on - very strange considering all had seemed fine about 15 minutes earlier!

Anyway, we persevered and, as ever, everything seemed to fall into place! The organisers had placed the usual plastic "crowd barriers" in front of the stage (a good move as we are renowned for our ability to kick things off!); however, the fact that these barriers were about 10 feet away from the stage created that horrible "shark infested pool" space between us and the audience - never a good situation! So, something had to be done, and the easiest thing seemed to be to ask the crowd to pick up the barriers and move towards us with them! Once this was done, and we could feel the closeness of the hot, sweaty bodies, thing really took off - 24 songs ripped out in an hour and a half (see attached set list), and it was just an incredible feeling to see so many people having such a great time! The fact they they were all drinking for charity was a bonus (and, I'm sure, totally unconnected to the good time they were having!).

We were given 11:45 as our cut-off time (to avoid annoying the neighbours too much) and, I have to say I thought we had timed the set to perfection, as we finished the main set at 11:40, giving us five minutes to deliver the encore that the crowd were salivating for! However, we had not taken account of the fact that the sound man had been told to "pull the plug" at 11:40, so our attempts to launch into a mass crowd-driven version of "Delilah" fell somewhat flat when all the electrics were turned off! A REAL disappointment for us and the punters but, as the saying goes "leave them wanting more", and that was certainly the case last night!

On to Round 2 tonight and, as we want to have the opportunity to enjoy the ambience of the Beer Festival for ourselves, we are kicking the show off at 8:15pm and giving Monkey Harris the chance to try and match what we did last night in the later set! If you have got tickets, make sure you are there in time to see us, as we guarantee that the energy levels will be just as high for the "early shift"! If you haven't got tickets, there may still be some available from the outlets mentioned on the poster (or even on-line). We'd love to see you there.

As an aside, we also attended todays lunch time session at the Beer Fest - as ever, it was a much more laid back event, although the numbers have swelled enormously over the last few years. Made the acquaintance of our new MP (accompanied by Lord Nick of Winterton, of course!) - seems a nice enough guy, and has got the message about making sure he keeps local priorities at the top of his list, irrespective of central party politics - if he does that, he won't go far wrong! By the way, STILL didn't get Nick W to buy me a drink!

Will let you know how tonight goes, in due course!

LOOKS LIKE FRIDAY IS SOLD OUT ALREADY!!

2010-05-04T20:25:00.006+01:00

Well - I go away for the weekend, and what happens? They only go and sell all the tickets for Friday night at the Beer Festival don't they!

Actually, that's probably not strictly true, as I think there are still a few available at the retail venues, but the online sales are definitely done and dusted!! No fear, you can still get some for Saturday, which is nearly as good! Just go to the "Tickets" page on the Beer Fest website, and your every wish will be fulfilled!

We're practising again tomorrow night - promises to be a late one, as Paul has to go and watch City beat Spurs first! After that, it's all systems go for Friday night............................!

8 DAYS AND COUNTING!!

2010-04-29T08:43:00.004+01:00

Had a great gig at Jane's party last weekend (and even got a new photo out of it!) - guest keyboard player John Wright was with us (in preparation for playing on a round the world cruise ship, would you believe?!), and it was fine preparation for the next one......

Only 8 days to go till the BIG gig of the year - Macclesfield Beer Festival, and everything associated with it! Latest intelligence (if I can use that word in this context) suggests that tickets are selling like hot pints of beer, and if you don't get one for you and your friends, you'll be as popular as Gordon Brown in Rochdale, because everyone wants to be there!

If you have never experienced the BF before, you have missed a real treat - 2 nights (and a lunchtime!) of amazing social interaction, with a vast selection of good real ale, ciders, wine and food, amazing music (of course), and all in 2 huge marquees. The atmosphere is genuinely brilliant - everyone is friendly, there is never any trouble, and the only problems seem to be with people trying to find their friends (or even the exit from the marquee!) at the end of the night! So get your act together, and purchase your tickets (a bargain at only £10) from the outlets mentioned on the poster above (you can even buy them on line this year - see attached link!). It's all in aid of an excellent cause (The Rossendale Trust), and you really do need to be quick about this as, last year, both nights had sold out well beforehand - there are extra tickets this year, but even so........

So how are Dazed & Confused preparing for the delights of entertaining 1600 people on each night, I hear you ask? Well, Dave has gone on holiday (I know, I know, but it has been 3 weeks, so give him a break!), so there was only 5 of us at rehearsal last night; our first task was to put together a set list, and that took up some considerable time in itself. Selecting tunes that go together, keep the momentum rolling, AND that we can remember the words of, is no easy task I can tell you! Anyway, we have managed to cobble together around 25 songs to choose from, and these should see us through the 90 minute set comfortably. Our biggest challenge is to try and stitch them together seamlessly because, as those of you who have seen us know, we do have a tendency to mess about between songs, tell jokes, have a sleep etc., so we have to try and avoid that, if at all possible!

Another practice scheduled for next week (after a cold, wet Bank Holiday weekend in Wales!), and that will be on Wednesday after watching City clinch 4th place by beating Spurs, so at least 1 of us will be up for it!

So, more news next week when, of course, you will all have your BF tickets, and will be as excited as us!!

A VERY ENJOYABLE WEEK - ALL TOLD!

2010-04-18T20:15:00.013+01:00

Sitting here on Sunday night, recovering from the disastrous football yesterday, contemplating work tomorrow, and feeling really glad that I missed most of the "Dorothy" rubbish - obviously, it's gone downhill since the Macc Lass was voted off (so much for the "vote for me" poster campaign around town!), so I thought I would bring you up to date with what has been a pretty eventful week for the mighty D&C, and tell you what lies in store over the next few.

As previously trailed, Wednesday was our return date at Canalside Community Radio and, as arranged we met on the banks of the canal at Bollington at 7:30pm, primed and ready to go - well, 5 of us did! I had done my usual ring round to make sure nobody had died since we last met the week before; Andy, Dave, Hugh and Chrissie checked in OK, but there was radio silence from Matt (i.e. his phone was switched off!). Now, bear in mind that this is not unusual, and the volcano cloud had not yet made its presence felt, so we were not unduly alarmed; however, as the minutes ticked by, we thought we had better go for Plan B (as we didn't even know whether he wanted an acoustic or electric bass set up), so Matt's boss (Pikey Jeff) was duly contacted to make sure nothing evil had befallen the hairy one. The conversation between Andy/Chrissie and Jeff went something like this:
Chrissie/Andy: "Jeff, do you know where Matt is?"
Jeff: "Yes, he's sitting here next to me, why?"
C/A: "Well, he's supposed to be on the radio in about 18 minutes time!"
J: "Matt, are you supposed to be on the radio in about 18 minutes?"
Matt (in the background): "Oh S**t, I forgot!!"

Now, maybe it's because I'm not used to this sort of thing, but I would have thought that doing a session on the radio was pretty memorable, but obviously not on Planet Matt! Anyway, cue a mad drive back to Macc by Chrissie to collect the prodigal bassist (and pick his guitar up!), while we stalled for time in the shoebox that masquerades as the CCR studio! Despite this inauspicious start to the evening, the session actually went really well. As ever, we had a few laughs, and the tunes seemed to go down well - got a few plugs in for the Beer Fest as well! This Tuesday sees our mates The Injectors in the shoebox so, if you want to hear about their back story (and who doesn't?!), tune in to 102.8fm (or listen on the web) at 8pm this Tuesday (20th).

Being the gluttons for punishment that we are, we re-convened on Thursday evening to do a bit of practice - actually, we quite enjoy each other's company, so it wasn't too much of a chore! Had some discussion about Beer Fest set lists etc. and a bit of playing about with tunes for the following night - early finish too, we were home for 12:30am!

So, Friday saw us at The Hollins for the first time since Nov 2008, and what a great night it was! The pub was absolutely jammed from start to finish (even Pete Munro stayed till the end!), and Chris recorded record beer sales (that Bombardier went down well, as it always has!), so a good time was had all round. Garry the Hat was there, so we'll see whether we were good enough to merit a mention in next week's Macc Express (depends whether Rough Twist were playing somewhere else I guess!). All we need to do is persuade Andy to keep his volume down in those sort of confined spaces - we were walking around with bleeding ears at the end! Any ways up, we will be back for sure!!

Next week sees us playing a private party on Saturday, and then next stop is the legendary Beer Festival (more of that in a week or so, but get your tickets NOW!) Now is also an opportunity to remind you about the big gig in aid of the East Cheshire Hospice on Saturday 12 June; it's being billed as The Gig & A Game and features ourselves, The Screaming Beavers and the England Football Team!! Copy of the poster and details of how to get tickets in the flyer below:

The Hospice needs about £5000/day to survive, and gets very little money from the government, so it seems an ideal opportunity to see England get off to a flying start in the World Cup, enjoy some great music AND provide a boost to a local facility that I'm sure many of us know people that have benefited from (was that gramatically correct??!)

OK - LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

2010-04-09T18:57:00.009+01:00

At least 4 weeks since anything appeared on here, and there's lots to tell you, so let's get to it!

The holiday sheepdogs have been out and rounded up Dave & Chrissie, so everyone is back in the fold now - Dave is mellowed out from his wonderful sail around the British Virgin Islands, and Chrissie is totally knackered from her whistle stop tour of the USA! Not to be outdone, Andy, Hugh and Paul all had a few days in Wales, and Matt had a morning in his Mum's front garden (think he fell over the wall on his way back from the pub!). I also had a week in the US - but that was business (apart from the Bon Jovi gig, that is!)

Thursday night was the first time the 6 of us had been together for about a month, and it was brilliant fun - old numbers, new numbers, bad jokes, good beer - no wonder it was 12:40am when we wrapped up! All of this had a serious purpose of course (several in fact), because we're back in action from next week, and there are loads of things coming up that we need to prepare for. Here's just a sample:

Next Wednesday sees us making a return to CANALSIDE COMMUNITY RADIO for another session on Matt Isaacs' Rock Diversity show. Some of you may remember that we made our maiden appearance there back in November, and either Matt has a very short memory, or he was sufficiently impressed to ask us back again! The show is on from 8:00-10:00pm so, if you are anywhere close to Macclesfield (and a radio, of course) tune in to 102.8fm, and give us a listen.
We've chosen some different numbers from the ones we did last time and, hopefully, Matt will remember to record it this time, so we will have some memories to treasure - starting to sound a bit like Desert Island Discs!

Next Friday (16th April) has us pitching up at The Hollins on Black Road in Macclesfield. It's over a year since we played there, and it will be good to go back, as landlord Chris is building up quite a reputation for his music Fridays, and so it should be a good night. We just hope there is not as much snow around as in the photo above. Facebook invites will be sent out for this to the Dazed & Confused "Massive" (you can join the group if you want!), and you can check The Hollins out on Facebook as well.

And after that? Well, we have a private party to play on 24 April, and then it's flat out, no nonsense, full speed ahead for the Macclesfield Beer Festival on Friday 7th and Saturday 8th May!!

Difficult to believe, but this is our FIFTH consecutive appearance at the BF, and it is still the high spot of our gigging year! This year's event will be even bigger than previous years, with sell-out crowds of 1600 people expected on each night - nervous, us? Never! We had our usual pre-festival meeting with Mickey Jones on Wednesday evening; as well as sorting things out, and meeting members of Monkey Harris, who will be playing with us, it was a good opportunity to have a couple of beers and watch United lose!! We'll talk more about this in the next couple of weeks but, in the meantime, you can get more information (and tickets!) via the Festival website. On the subject of tickets, be sure to get them early, as they really do sell out quickly, and we'd hate you to miss out!

That's all for now - got a football match to go to - I'm sure you will all join me in wishing City all the best as they move towards securing a Champions League spot - sorry Liverpool! If I don't see you at Eastlands, maybe we'll see you at The Hollins next Friday?!

ANDY'S NEW TOY!!

2010-03-06T17:12:00.004Z

Good God, I hear you say, what on earth is that??!! Well, I'll tell you - it's Andy's new toy, which is a multi-effect pedal which can simulate most sounds known to man - and a few that aren't!

What's a photo of it doing on here you ask? Well, in the absence of Chrissie (working), Dave (personal business) and Matt (another type of personal business, nudge, nudge, wink, wink!) on Thursday, Hugh, Andy and I went for a couple of pints at the newly re-opened Jolly Sailor, and then back to the Brewery so that Andy could demonstrate the power that is the Boss ME-70! Believe me, it is one powerful tool, and woe betide any guitarist, bass player or, come to think of it, drummer or singer that misses a gig, because this bloody thing could probably replace ALL of us!

No doubt the pedal will be put through its paces next week at rehearsal - both Dave & Chrissie will be on holiday in far flung places - Dave will be floating around the British Virgin Islands, while Chrissie (and Pete) will be sampling the flesh pots of Las Vegas, including the theme park at the top of the Stratosphere Tower (check out the picture below for a flavour of what that entails!)

Notwithstanding the absence of the holiday twins, the rest of us will convene and bash through some more new numbers so that, by the time the next gig comes round (which seems a lifetime away) they will be semi-polished (like fine gems!)

Not much else to report - the nights seem to be getting longer, and maybe the first signs of spring are in the air - before we know it, it will be Beer Festival time again, and we'll be enjoying the long summer nights - at least the rain will be warmer! Last gig for Kelly's birthday was really fun - made even better by the fact that Matt did the clearing up the next day!

Rumour has it that The Injectors are playing at The Millstone tonight - some bands have no pride! I might pop down and press my nose against the window, and shout obscenities at the landlord - although I'm not sure he would understand what they meant!

NICE QUIET NIGHT TONIGHT............MAYBE NOT!!

2010-02-27T18:11:00.004Z

Hello friends,

We're out and about again tonight, but not going far; it's Matt's lady Kelly's birthday party so we are going to play a little bit for her, have a sip of a few soft drinks, and then probably be tucked up in bed by 10 o'clock - I think not! If Matt has anything to do with it, the birds will probably be singing by the time we get home! Anyway, I'm sure it will be a good night, and no doubt there will be reports and maybe even photos next time round!

Last Friday saw us at The Old Ship for the first leg of their Big Gig Weekend, and I have to say that, even though we have played there many times before, it was still a great night! Even though Friday night is traditionally a quieter night in The Ship, the place was rammed, and everone was really up for it - we even tried 4 new numbers on them and, with the exception of In The Shadows (one of my favourite tracks, and I know others like it too), which was put in the wrong part of the set (stopped all the dancers dead in their tracks!), they all worked and seemed to go down well (especially Rock & Roll and Spitting Games).

There were people there that had travelled from Hampshire and London just to see us, and even Pete Munro turned up - he said he really felt he ought to make the effort as he had promised to come many times before - shame he left 5 minutes before we started playing! Any more tricks like that and he will acquire the same status in our eyes as the landlord of The Millstone!

I didn't get a chance to see The Injectors on the Saturday night (because I was watching Calendar Girls at The Lowry with my Mummy!) but I believe Pete, Mike and Bobby Rocket went down well, and that the whole weekend was regarded as a stonking success!

Rest of the week has been a real mixture of emotions for your correspondent - including blind panic and worry when No.1 daughter was in a car crash (thankfully, she's OK, if a little battered and bruised) and wild jubilation this afternoon when City thrashed Chelsea!

After tonight, we are gigless until the end of April, but at least it will give us a chance to practice some new numbers, and for Dave to have a holiday! No doubt we will be raring to go again, by then, and I'll just have to remember to keep updating this blog thing, so you don't think we've all died.

A BIG GIG WEEKEND AT THE SHIP!

2010-02-14T19:39:00.004Z

Hello again everyone - I'm sure you have wondered why there has been so much silence on here, over the last couple of weeks; well, 2 reasons:

1. Nothing to report
2. Too damned busy!!

Anyway, neither of those are any excuse, so let me bring you up to date with developments on the D&C front. We have actually managed to have 2 rehearsals over the last fortnight and, although Matt could not make the first one, we have gone a long way to boxing off 4 new numbers! Obviously, it's not sensible to reveal too much in advance of the great unveiling but, with a following wind (never a problem for our band!) and a good practice this week, we could be doing at least 3 of them on Friday 19 February at The Ship, as part of the first instalment of the Big Gig Weekend!! So, how much should we tell you..........?

We toyed with a couple of Michael Buble numbers, and Andy suggested the Macarena as one to get everyone up and dancing; Hugh threw Black Betty into the mix, as one of his favourite tunes, and Matt & Chrissie really wanted to do something by The Proclaimers to show our diverse tastes (which were amply demonstrated by the jokes told on Thursday night!! ;-)) But, in the end, it's looking like The Pretenders, an obscure band from Finland, Led Zeppelin and a tune from Stikipedia will be the first additions to our portfolio in 2010! Come along on Friday, to find out what they are, and help us through them (unless you're one of those that has gone on holiday for half-term!) Check out our Facebook link for the event.

The other thing you need to remember about The Ship (apart from the 2 roaring fires!) is that they have some wonderful porcelain in the men's loos - check out these photos!:

Ladies - don't be afraid to see for yourselves (but make sure you are accompanied)!

The other thing you need to know is that gigs are starting to pile in - at least for the latter part of the year! Check out the gig list on the right for details, but worthy of mention are 2 BIG events:

1. The Macclesfield Beer Festival on Friday and Saturday eveings (7&8 May)where we will be appearing for a record FIFTH year in a row! Not sure who is with us this year but, as ever, it will be a great weekend.

2. The East Cheshire Hospice Big Weekend over 10-13 June - this is the first time that Hospice has attempted anything on this scale, and they need everyone's help. On the Saturday night (June 12) they will be screening the England v USA World Cup opening game followed by a fantastic evening of music featuring ourselves and our old friends, The Screaming Beavers. There will be lots of other things happening between the Thursday and the Sunday so keep you eyes peeled, and support the Hospice as much as you can - it costs about £5000 per day just to keep the place open, and they rely almost entirely on voluntary contributions - we probably all know someone who has benefited from their care, so PLEASE help us to give something back!!

TIME TO GIVE THE WINDMILL ANOTHER WHIRL!!

2010-01-15T12:19:00.005Z

It's a year and a week since the dirty white Dazed & Confused tour bus first pitched up at The Windmill for a gig that still lives in the memory, so we thought "why not do it again?!" So, tonight sees us return for another bash at their Local Ale Sale 2010, and we're really looking forward to it. Rehearsals have been out of the question for the last couple of weeks, since the weather has conspired to turn the Brewery into a fridge, and we couldn't even huddle round the fire to keep warm because a new bar is being fitted - don't want to give too much away, but you'll be on your knees if you happen to see it! It does mean we have managed to avoid freezing, but also means that we REALLY enjoy it when we can play together - did it at The Ship last week (see below) and tonight should be just as good. The Windmill is a great pub - friendly staff, good food, great beer and a fine atmosphere, so why not treat yourself to some grub and a bop - just don't come too near the band if you've eaten too much! Here's a map of how to get there, if you fancy it.

Last week's gig at the Ship was a cracker; as you may well know, it's always a good laugh when we play there, and as last week was in celebration of Chris Caudwell's journey into retirement-land, it was doubly good. A great crowd (including some new faces), plenty of singing and dancing, 4 encore songs and a couple of potential band bookings - almost perfect! Probably a little too much jumping around on my part, if the stiffness on Sunday is anything to go by but, hey, you're only old once! We're actually back at The Ship on 19 February for their all-weekend bash, so we can do it all over again - reminds me of a song "If I could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You" or something similar!

Anyway, my little Confused-lings, time to go - so don't forget to drag yourselves out in the rain and wind tonight - and give The Windmill a whirl.

HAPPY NEW YEAR - THERE'S SNOW BAND LIKE OUR BAND!!

2010-01-05T16:34:00.004Z

OK - so 2010 starts, and all hell breaks loose! Drive back from New Year in the Lake District, where it was very picturesque with lying snow on the hills, clear roads, plenty of food and drink - only to turn off the motorway at Knutsford on Saturday afternoon and find it looking like Lapland - since then, it's been snow, snow and more snow!! Now, don't get me wrong, I'm a BIG snow fan, but when you have to drive to work sliding along the road behind people who drive like they have never seen the stuff before (I really hope they pass their driving tests, when they are allowed to take them!), AND (more seriously) it results in the City v United Cup game getting cancelled, things start to get worrying!

Anyway, the purpose of this is not to rant too much, but just to tell you that we will be warming our bodies again (and hopefully other people's) at The Old Ship Inn on Beech Lane this Saturday 9 January. It's a "retirement" party for Chris, who is one of our staunchest fans (teaching has finally got the better of her!), but i'm sure that there will be room for anyone else who wants to come and enjoy the wonderful TWO fires of The Ship (might be one of the few times they are needed!), so why don't you give it a go?!

Might even invite the landlord of The Millstone.........

WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2009-12-21T15:18:00.010Z

Saturday evening saw us close out our gig list for 2009 at Porter's, and a great night it was too - lots of noise and energy, which was all the more surprising because some of us had been out eating, singing and jumping around until 2 o'clock the morning before, as well! Anyway, on Saturday, the snow was falling hard, Christmas hats abounded, the pub was bursting at the seams, Andy kept playing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer - who could ask for more? It was good to see some old friends - especially Mickey Jones, who was in fine form despite his recent problems.

We played in the space usually occupied by the pool table (because our previous pitch was taken up by the Christmas tree!) and, while it gave us more space, it did make it a little difficult to see more than about 4 of the punters at any one time - apart, that is, from the start of the second set when about 25 people had strayed into the "stage" area because that was the only space for them! It made it very cosy anyway. Some photos here including one of Chrissie trying to get into her house at about 2 in the morning by climbing over the neighbour's wall, because her gate was frozen up!

So, we can all relax into the Christmas festivities now - and a chance to look back over quite an eventful year! Highspots were the new venues we played (e.g. Nag's Head, Windmill), 2 more beer festivals, helping Matt Rose reach the pinnacle of his career before it took a dive when he joined The VirginMarys, becoming radio stars, sharing laughs with old friends, and meeting new friends. Not so high spots were frequently getting rained on when setting up or breaking down the gear, getting stopped by the police for having suspicious cargo (i.e. Chrissie and Matt!) in the back of the van, playing to about 4 people in The Spinner's at Bollington, and not even getting through the door at The Millstone! We sometimes beat ourselves up about not introducing enough new stuff into the set, but I've just done a quick review, and we have added 10 new numbers this year, which is pretty good going considering we've also fitted in 24 gigs (that's about 2 a month you know)! Whatever, it's still been a hell of a lot of fun and, as always, we would like to thank every single person who has supported us through the year and, especially our families, who have borne the brunt of our "hobby" - again!

Just remains to wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - except the landlord of The Millstone, of course!!

PRETTY GOOD CHILD OF MINE!

2009-12-06T19:35:00.010Z

After a couiple of weeks "rest" we tipped up again at Sandhole Farm last night to help celebrate Tom & Laura's wedding celebrations; second time this year we have played there and, as previously, the organisation was superb and this time the timing was even better, as everything ran according to the schedule we had discussed - for a wedding, unbelievable!

The major difference for us was that we had no Chrissie (boo hoo)! She had either forgotten about the gig, or decided that 4 days in Germany with Pete was a much better option - although it seems utterly unbelievable, the latter was apparently the case! Also, she might have something to tell us when she gets back..........

Anyway, in Chrissie's absence, as trailed previously, we had a "stand in" female vocalist - none other than Paul's daughter, Lucy! Now Lucy has had voice training for several years, and those who have heard her talk for England will probably vouch for that but, since she went off to the debaucherous wilds of Sheffield to get an "education", she has rarely, if ever, used her singing talents! So, for the last few weeks, since the subject of "depping" for Chrissie was broached, she has alternately poo-d her pants and practised like stink for the gig! In fact, yesterday was spent almost entirely in her room going over every song on the set list! Notwithstanding all this, Lucy has only had 1 formal rehearsal with the band before last night, so her nerves were totally understandable.

As it turns out, everything went really well - although things were thin on the dance floor at times, both sets went really well, and Lucy's "piece de resistance" of "Sweet Child of Mine" was met with a rapturous reception! The really nice bit was she got a text from Chrissie this morning asking how it had gone. Needless to say, Lucy has been on Cloud 9 for the last 24 hours - although she did have a prima donna "sleep in" this morning (too much X-Factor methinks!)

We have one more gig left in 2010 - Porter's/Prince of Wales on Roe Street in Macclesfield on Saturday 19 December. This will be a great Christmas Party night - no doubt many people will be celebrating finishing work for the holiday, so why not put it in your diary now, and come down and sweat with us?! We will obviously put some more publicity out in a week or so but, forewarned is forearmed!!

Oh yes - for those who missed it - City beat Chelsea 2-1 yesterday; now it get interesting!

ALL DONE AND DUSTED!!

2009-11-23T21:01:00.005Z

Well, that was the week that was!

The session at Canalside (got to be careful with the spelling on that!) last Wednesday was excellent fun! It was a little warm with 7 people squashed into a space that was approximately the size of 3 shoeboxes, but that just added to the enjoyment (fortunately, most of us had washed beforehand!). Matt managed to get back from London in good time, and Paul managed to get back from Sheffield - with about 8 minutes to spare!

We had rehearsed 6 songs that we thought might be OK to do "acoustically" - you will all know that that is not something we are too familiar with, so finding songs to do "quietly" was a challenge in itself (Andy was allowed to bring his amp, which helped)! We had no idea what the format would be, and were convinced we'd be done and in the pub by 9 o'clock, leaving little Matt Isaacs to do whatever else he felt like doing! However, we were there for the whole 2 hours, and Matt did a great job of "bigging" us up - he tried to interview us a bit (foolish man expecting us to be serious!), played some requests for us, and spread our tunes out throughout the whole programme. For the record, we did "Brick in the Wall", "The Chain", "Chasing Cars", "Pretty Vegas", "Fire" and "Say You Love Me" which (with the exception of Paul losing his "top end" during Pretty Vegas) all seemed to go down pretty well, and the people who heard it said it was really good! All we are waiting for now is a recording, which Matt has promised, and then maybe we can even post it on here or YouTube or Facebook or wherever. Some photos for you to look at to see how much we enjoyed the space (it may look like it, but nobody was sitting on anyone else's knee!)!

No sooner had we drawn breath after that, than we were down at Macc Town on Saturday for the big Brewery Band Bash - which was another event where no-one seemed too sure of what was going to happen! We turned, as requested, for a sound check around 6:30, to find that the sound men had only just been allowed in after the football match (Macc lost by the way!). The next surprise was finding that what was originally a 4 band gig had morphed into a FIVE band gig - all of whom had to play between 8 and 12pm! However, the Dunkirk spirit really kicked in and, although the sound check was still going on when the first band was supposed to be playing, it all turned out rather well!

The running order was Old Yellow followed by a combined Chinese Marbles/Bleatles set, both of which were excellent, and got the crowd up and dancing really early. We went on at 10pm (about half an hour earlier than planned!), and Fil Hill kindly allowed us to extend our set to an hour (which meant we quickly had to put things that we had taken out back in!), so we rocked the Moss for all of that time, and it was a pretty hot and sweaty set, I can tell you. The Hot Bananas closed the evening with their unique quirky thing - God knows what those guys are on, but you wouldn't want to take too much of it!

Many thanks to Garry the Hat for putting this on, and to the fairly sizeable crowd that turned up - maybe there will be the opportunity to do something similar again sometime?

A couple of weeks rest for us now; next gig is a wedding on 5 December, and then we close our 2009 gig list with the Christmas Party night at Porters/Prince of Wales on Saturday 19 December - which should be a brilliant night (more of that in a week or so). If you check out the info on the right of the page, you will see that gigs are already coming in for 2010 (even had an enquiry about doing one next November!), so it doesn't look like there will be any slowing down any time soon!

ONE DOWN, TWO TO GO!

2009-11-15T15:11:00.005Z

The first leg of our week's Triathlon took place last night at The Nag's Head and, as ever, it was a steaming night - full pub, baking hot, good set list (courtesy of the Rock God), and a great atmosphere! When we last played at The Nag's in July, some of the punters had drifted away by the end (probably because they had to catch the last boat home in the puring rain!) but last night was packed right to the bitter end!

Highlights were the proper debut of "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance - probably breaking the Trades Descriptions Act by doing it, but Andy insisted we give it a go, and it turned out pretty good in the end! We were also treated to a display of "break dancing/body popping" or something similar on the floor at the front of the audience by Matt's sister and girlfriend - not quite sure what it was all about, but it was certainly entertaining! Matt, of course, pretended that they were nothing to do with him. The other incident of note was the arrival of a "hen party", which was OK, except one of the ladies decided she would join us on stage - normally this is OK, but I got the sense that she didn't want to go, so we had to prise the tambourine from her hand and forcibly eject her (well Dave did!). For about the hundredth time, in my experience, we had someone who reckoned they could be in our band! All in all, a great night - even if it was a late finish - another walk up Buxton Road at 1:45 this morning!

Also in attendance last night was Matt Isaacs who hosts the "Rock Diversity" show on Canalside Community Radio.

As previously mentioned, Matt has asked us to do an acoustic session on this Wednesday's show, and was obviously checking out that he hadn't made an unwise choice, while under the influence, last time he saw us! Fortunately, he was very complimentary, and seems just as keen - we still feel it would be good though if he could provide a bottle of that stuff that Alice in Wonderland drank to shrink herself -that way we are certain to be able to fit in the studio! We've still got our doubts, but Matt reckons we'll be fine, hmmm....... Anyway, a sure way of finding out is to tune into Canalside Community Radio on 102.8FM at 8:00pm on Wednesday evening.

Our week will steam to a climax next Saturday 21 November at Macc Town Football Ground with the Brewery Bands Collective gig; more about that later in the week, but suffice it to say that it is bound to be a great night - brilliant bands and brilliant beer, what more could you want? Check out the poster for details on where to get tickets - a snip at a fiver!

AT THE NAG'S, ON YOUR RADIO, AND ROCKING AT THE MOSS - GOODNESS ME!!

2009-11-12T20:11:00.013Z

Another 3 weeks have passed since we shared anything with you, so the first thing to do is apologise profusely - Sorry! Good, that's got that out of the way, and now to tell you the the next week is going to be absolutely frantic!!

Since we last spoke, we have wowed Ruthin Castle at Terry and Lenny's wedding (even if we did have to drive through a biblical flood-like rainstorm from Pwllheli to Ruthin!). The band actually arrived within about 5 minutes of each other - from all different points of the compass! Even Andy got there on time - he was already at the wedding but, even so, it was a remarkable achievement for him to be there on time! The funniest thing was when he had to go and find his guitar and stuff - he had been so pissed the night before, he'd forgotten where he'd put them! Also, Ruthin Castle is (allegedly) haunted, and runs "Ghost tours" for gullible Welsh people - Andy likes to think he's hard (he is a Dr Who fan, after all) but the moving suit of armour on the stairs gave him the willies (not literally, obviously!), and when the head disappeared off it on the Saturday night, he was well spooked (actually the staff removed it so no drunken guests could!)!

The gig went off really well - loads of dancing, loads of laughs, even Delilah at the end of the night !! - the real high spot of the night was only taking half an hour to do an hour and a half's return journey - because the clock went back en route!

So this Saturday (14th) sees us back again at The Nag's Head in Macclesfield - 3rd time this year, and the first time since the wet night in July! We are really looking forward to it, and we're hoping that we get the same response as last time - seems like ages since we played live, so everyone is itching to do it again. We will have a little lady doing some extra vocals in preparation for her big debut in a few weeks - more of that in future posts. Andy has done another rocking set list - so get down there around 10 o'clock on Saturday for some real fun! It's only round the corner from The Millstone, but don't bother going in there!

Once Saturday is out of the way, we will turn our attention to another media stream! As previously reported, Matt Isaacs from Canalside Community Radio has asked us to do an acoustic set on his "Rock Diversity" show next Wednesday 18 November; the show runs from 8:00-10:00pm and, while I'm pretty sure we won't fill the whole show, we will fill the whole studio (see below!) - probably a good idea to tune in and listen to see how it goes! Hugh has been down and checked out the studio - he's pretty sure he can't fit his whole drum kit in - so much so, he is planning to take just one bongo, and see what happens! Space is at such a premium that, as Paul will probably be the last there - due to family commitments in Sheffield (go Anna!) - he might have to use a very long mike lead and provide vocals from a local Bollington pub! Should be a great experience, so give it a go - 102.8FM 8-10pm Wednesday 18 November!

The week will surge to a magnificent conclusion at The Moss Rose (Macclesfield Town's ground, for those who live under the proverbial rock!) on Saturday night (21st November) when all 4 bands that have a connection with the brilliant Storm Brewing Company will turn out together on the same stage for the first time!! There is really only ONE Brewery Band (the one that both partners play in!), but we are really looking forward to what should be a fantastic night with the other great bands - Fats, Fil, Roger, Jamie, Joe everyone!! Who knows what will happen - but it will be brilliant, and as there will be lashings of Storm beer as well, what could be better??!

Tickets are only £5 (available from outlets mentioned in the poster above - click on it for a bigger version), and we will have some with us at the Nag's on Saturday.

So, November has gone from a damp squib to a rocket in the space of a week - we look forward to seeing old and new friends at one, two or (surely not!) all three events over the next seven days or so!

WELSH WALES AWAITS!

2009-10-21T12:21:00.007+01:00

It's been a hectic few weeks, hence the silence on here - but the band has been back on the road, and is going abroad this weekend, so probably time to update you all!

Following the Millstone debacle, we retired to lick our collective wounds, and were back in action last week - twice in fact! Thursday evening saw us take on the challenge of the A6 and head for the Masonic Guildhall in Stockport where the Johnnie Johnson Housing Association were celebrating thier 40th birthday! Now, the older readers amongst you will remember Johnnie Johnson when he had a bandwagon and was "Breaking down the Walls of Heartache" - spookily that was in 1969, so he obviously absconded with the takings from his chart success, and started building up the walls of houses! What do you mean, it wasn't the same man - not the man who recorded the classic "Blame it On The Pony Express"? I don't believe it!!

Anyway, Johnnie's people had been hard at it celebrating all day but, even so, some of them managed to strut their stuff on the dance floor, and by the time we finished at 11:30, I think we were all ready for a bit of kip! Good result for us, because we normally practice on a Thursday night (yes, that's right, we DO practice!) and we rarely finish before 12:30am - so a relatively early night!

Saturday night saw us back at our old stomping ground - The Old Ship Inn on Beech Lane in Macc! It was actually our first gig there this year, which is astounding but, once we had got over the shock of there only being one fire roaring in the grate (instead of the usual 2!), we soon settled into the old routine. There are some standing jokes about our gigs at the Ship like "Will we be paid?" "There's free beer for the band, but only while you are playing!" and others - oh, how we laugh! Having said that it's always a great night, and Saturday was no exception. As ever, the crowd swelled as the evening went on; Matt had brought a huge entourage with him - celebrating Sarah's birthday and, although none of them looked over 30, we were so pleased that they stayed the whole night, and didn't seem to grimace or put their fingers in their ears once! We gave a debut to the Kasabian favourite "Fire" and it went down really well (only 1 line forgotten!), so that will stay in the set. At Andy's insistence, we also did "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance! Those of you who are familiar with this song, will know it is not one that you would immediately associate with D&C but, who knows, we might do it again - the line "All teenagers scare the living s**t out of me" resonates with some of us older folks, that's for sure!

An added bonus was that Matt from Canalside Community Radio in Bollington was at the gig and was (I quote) "blown away" by our set! He has asked us to go in and do an acoustic set for them one Wednesday evening and, although an "acoustic" set will be a challenge for us (probably means smaller amps!) we'll keep you posted - probably have to hang Hugh's drums from the ceiling! Who knows - Bollington community radio today, Radio 4 tomorrow?!

This weekend sees us leaving the country; well, I guess it's not exactly abroad - Wales actually! We are heading for the baronial splendour of Ruthin Castle in Denbighshire (see the photo at the top of this post) to play at the wedding of Terry and Lenny (or Andy, depending on how well you know him!). The band will be arriving from various locations, so the first challenge is to get everybody in the right place at the right time - and, with our track record, that is a REAL challenge! Anyway, we'll see how it goes, and report back here - assuming we survive!

Next gig is 14 November - back the Nag's Head! We'll probably pop round the corner and say hello to the landlord of the Millstone, while we're there!

THE MILLSTONE - WHERE DO WE START??

2009-09-20T20:06:00.003+01:00

I guess the answer to the question above is - nowhere! We turned up quite prepared to play, but ran into a little bit of landlord trouble! Now, having consulted libel lawyers, I have to be very careful what I write here, so let me try and summarise the situation by asking you all a series of multiple choice questions - which, when you have answered them, might help you to understand the frustration we felt last night!

Question 1: If you were to contact a band and agree a date for said band to play (presumably having written it in your diary with a contact name and number) would you:
a) expect the band to turn up on the agreed date and play a gig
b) expect the band to be really unsure whether the gig was going to go ahead, and continually contact you to check that the agreed date was still valid
c) assume that the band were not going to appear

Question 2: If you wanted posters or flyers advertising the band would you:
a) contact the band and ask them to send you some
b) assume the band are psychic, realise that you don't publicise the entertainment you are providing, and send you publicity material to save you looking completely inept
c) rely on the spooky vibes that pervade Macclesfield to draw everyone to your pub when the mighty D&C are due to play

Question 3: If you "lost" the contact number for the band (i.e. the one you used to get in touch with them in the first place) would you:
a) Google "Dazed and Confused" to see if there was a website through which you could contact the band.
b) Go next door to the Nag's Head (where the band have played twice) to get a contact number.
c) Sit on your arse until the band turns up and then say "we didn't think you were coming"

Question 4: If the band turned up anyway (even though you assumed they weren't coming, although you had booked them in and they hadn't said they weren't) and said they were prepared to play, would you:
a) say "No, there is no point, because there will be nobody in" (!)
b) take a punt and say "OK, but if nobody comes in, you won't get paid"
c) say "What's the point, nobody likes you anyway!"

You might have gathered by now that last night's gig didn't happen - the answers to the above questions used by mein host at the Millstone were:

Question 1: c (surely when you book somebody you assume they will turn up?)
Question 2: b - "why would we ask for publicity material, bands just send it to us?" - excuse me, the Nag's Head (next door!) publicise all their bands on a board outside and ask for posters - how amateurish!
Question 3: c (even more bizarre as they contacted us in the first place - presumably they got our number from somewhere then?)
Question 4: a - I'm speechless - especially as we had people coming from all over to see us! In fact Kip at The Baths Hotel told me today that he was extremely grateful to us for not playing as he had a pub full of people who went there when they found out we were not on at the The Millstone!

So -we had a quiet night! We did attempt to find another gig - The Ship were reluctant to evict the band that were booked at short notice (poor form, I thought!) and we decided that hawking ourselves around other venues, like cheap whores, at 7:30pm on a Saturday night would not do our street cred any good at all, so we went home! I can only apologise to everyone who was coming to see us - Dominic and Keda came all the way from Chester (and Surrey actually!) to see us, and went away disappointed! Matt said he had 20 or 30 people coming, and I know that even people who yearned to be there, but couldn't, were ticked off that we didn't play! One thing that is sure is that the Dazed & Confused Massive (check out Facebook!) will be giving The Millstone a wide berth in future!

Onwards and upwards! Next official gig is on 15 October, but we will try and slip something in earlier - in fact, we're doing one of those "secret" gigs this Thursday - can't publicise it because the venue would be overcrowded!

In the interest of trying to remain positive in the face of adversity, the only other things I will say in this posting are:

1. The rest of the weekend was surprisingly good (nice weather and everything)!
2. City were robbed! Just explain to me how a team can score a goal after 95 minutes and 27 seconds when there is only 4 minutes added time????

CARRIED AWAY BY PORTERS!!

2009-09-14T21:28:00.004+01:00

The summer certainly dragged - must have been those long hot evenings, you remember them! Anyway, that's all behind us now, and the first gig of the Autumn term took place last Saturday in Porter's Ale House (aka The Prince of Wales) on Roe Street in Macclesfield. This fine hostelry was taken over recently by Michelle (aka Sue!) and John, and our appearance was their first foray into real live music - a tactic that could be interpreted as a master stroke or gross folly, depending on which way you look at it!

We haven't played for nearly 8 weeks, as anyone listening to our practice on Thursday night would have easily guessed, so we were a little concerned about how things would go! It put me a bit in mind of the Morecambe & Wise sketch with Andre Previn - we knew we could play all the notes, but not necessarily in the right order! Add to that the fact that Paul & Chrissie have trouble remembering the lyrics to some of the songs at the best of times, and things could really have gone mammus verticus if we hadn't been careful!

There were only 5 of us on Saturday as, guess what - yep, Dave was on holiday! He was floating around in a becalmed sort of way, in the Irish Sea when we took the stage, and it was probably just as well because if he had been there, one of us would have had to sit on Hugh's knee (not a pleasant thought for either party!) or suspend themself from the ceiling - space was at a premium!

Notwithstanding all these potential banana skins, and buoyed by Manchester City's great win against Arsenal, we went for it with our usual vim and vigour (what a quaint little phrase that is!). The pub was packed, and amongst the familiar faces, there were Terry & Lenny whose wedding we are playing in October (think they wanted to make sure we were still alive!), and we were also being checked out by another gentleman who has booked us for a 40th birthday party also in October - although this particular party is for an organisation, not a person (which is a first for us!)! Added to this were Stella and Andy, who must now hold the record for D&C followers as they came all the way from Doncaster just to see us - we really appreciate it, especially as Andy helped to pack up the gear on Sunday morning!!

The gig seemed to go well - everyone was up and bopping, and Michelle has even asked us to come back and play on the Saturday before Christmas, which should be a riot (not literally, of course)!

Now we've got the taste for it, we're going to go out again next Saturday - to The Millstone at Water's Green! This will be another first for us and, assuming that Dave has managed to catch a bit of wind (never usually a problem for him!) and Chrissie has not drunk herself to oblivion in Puerto Banus (keep her in check, Pete!) we should have a full complement - so get yourselves down there for another night of fun and frivolity - as ever we'd be delighted to see you!

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!

2009-07-31T13:11:00.003+01:00

Dear reader - so sorry for the delay in placing this report - access to computers has been at a premium over the last couple of weeks - in fact I've missed a number of things - except the rain, of course!!
The gig at the Nag's was another great night - as usual there was a late start,which enabled the band to get fed and watered beforehand, and the crowd to gather. Andy did the set list again and, for some reason left out heavy rock numbers like Moondance and Ticket to Ride - can't think why! We did toy with the idea of including our Michael Jackson tribute (Beat It) for the first time but, as Paul and Chrissie had both failed to master the lyrics by the night, discretion got the better of valour and we went with Hey Joe instead (not a lot of difference!).
By the time we went on for the second set at 11:15 the place was jumping again, and by the time we came off at 12:45, the crowd were almost as sweaty as us (although it had thinned out a bit, probably as people caught their boats home!). By the time we had wrapped up, it was about 1:40 and the rainy walk up Buxton Road, although not very rock and roll, was actually quite pleasant!
So, we are on our summer break at the moment, and we kick off again in September with a possible private gig at the Windmill on the 5th and then a debut appearance on Saturday 12 September at Porters (The Prince of Wales) on Roe Street in Macclesfield. In fact, I think it's probably the first time any band has played there, so we're hoping for a bumper crowd to celebrate this.
We'll be looking to put several more gigs in for the Autumn and Winter, so keep checking the gig list on the right hand side of this page and, of course, we will be using the medium of Facebook to advertise our whereabouts as well - so if you are a Facebookie keep your eyes skinned!

AT LEAST THEY HAVE SPELT US RIGHT THIS TIME!!

2009-07-12T20:10:00.005+01:00

Next Saturday, Nag's Head - it was February when we played there last and it's difficult to believe that 5 months have gone - but they say that absence makes the heart grow fonder and, although I don't always believe it myself, we will put it to the test on Saturday!

What is good is that the NH have spelt our name right on the board outside the pub (those of you with good memories will recall that we were Daze and Conused last time out!), although we do seem to be in a slightly smaller font than some of the others!

Whatever, we are looking forward to playing the Nag's again - last time was a complete blast and, although many of our Facebook pals have not yet said they are coming (playing hard to get, I think!) we are expecting a great crowd to turn out - Paul's sister is coming over from Doncaster with Andy, who is a rock god in his own right, so no pressure!

The last week has seen us recovering from Andy's party, practising on Wednesday night and then playing at Omar & Laura's wedding on Friday night. This event took place at Sandhole Farm near Congleton, and a more perfect setting would be difficult to find. The venue was checked out a few weeks ago, and that was really nice, and the ambience, crowd participation and general bonhomie on Friday was magnificent! The fact that we were able to finish at 11:10pm to allow Andy to make a quick exit for his "civil partnership" appointment in Ipswich was an added bonus (not his, oh it's difficult to explain here!)

So, we will be in full force next Saturday, and then it's a break over the rest of July and August while we have some holiday (not Dave of course!) - we will all try to keep in touch, cos it's not nice to be away from friends!

THE ROCK GOD IS 40!!

2009-07-04T18:31:00.005+01:00

Big night tonight - cos it's Andy's 4oth Birthday Party! Yes his age has finally caught up with his hair, and we'll be celebrating it in style!

It's to be hoped that, having reached this estimable age, Andy will now realise that he's supposed to go to bed before 3:00am on at least some days of the week, if he intends to reach 50 (which he probably doesn't!) - live fast, die young is his motto (well, middle aged!).

Last weekend saw us out on the road twice - Friday night at AstraZeneca to bid farewell to a group of folks who are moving on to pastures new, and Saturday night at the Congleton Beer Festival.

Friday was a good night, even if the first set felt like we were playing to people in the next county, as everyone was gathered round the bar! However, a few brave ladies eventually led the gathering to the tables, and there were even people dancing by the end! Sex on Fire and Ever Fallen in Love got their baptisms at the gig and seemed to go down well! Apparently Dave is a dead ringer for Louis Walsh as well - who would have thought it!

So, on to Saturday, and the Congleton BF. Seasoned readers of this twaddle will know that this was the 3rd year we'd been asked to play, and it is always fun - this year turned out to be no different, for a number of reasons!

When we arrived, Nigel (the beer man) said he was convinced that the beer would run out because, due to the nice weather, they had 500 people turn up for the afternoon session, all of them drinking for England! Nigel's view was that, if they ran out it was fine, but we were a bit concerned that, if it ran dry at 9:00pm, it would make for a very quiet second set for us!

However, all worked out well - the beer lasted till the end, the crowd became more and more friendly! Once the punters realised that there wasn't a crocodile infested pond between them and us, the madness began and the night finished on a real high with 3 encores (Delilah almost bringing the marquee down!)!

As ever, the evening was not without its comic moments, the supreme one (in addition to Paul falling all over the stage when he tried to jump on it!) was when an esteemed Round Tabler approached the stage, just as we were building to our big finish, and asked if he could read the raffle prize winners out! Of course, we obliged, thinking it would only be a couple - 21 prizes later he left the stage - we were fully expecting the bingo caller to appear next! It was a bit like coitus interruptus (I believe!)!!

We're expecting some photos from the BF to be posted on Flickr anytime and, when they are, we will post a link on here; in the meantime, here's a link to some video clips from the gig at the Windmill in May - they are only short, but Pete Robinson did a sterling job, and there may be some more from the Nag's Head gig later in the month (more on that to come soon).

Next gig is a wedding next Friday - let's hope the weather's nice again, and we've even had 2 bookings for next April - good God!

ANOTHER BIG WEEKEND IN STORE!

2009-06-22T16:22:00.003+01:00

After a couple of weeks of "rest", we're gearing ourselves up for a great weekend - 2 gigs to come, and some good weather to go with it! We've spent the last couple of weeks playing with new choons, and some of them will undoubtedly get an airing in the next few days - obviously not going to say what they are, cos that would spoil the fun - suffice it to say that, in the true D&C style, they will be mainly up tempo, and familiar to most, if not all, of the crowds.

So to this weekend's gigs - Friday sees us at a private gig for AstraZeneca - a nice "loosener" for Saturday, and an opportunity for some of Paul's work colleagues to see what he gets up to in his spare time! Some of them have been threatening to come and see us for ages - let's just hope they are not disappointed! Should be a really good night - it's a leaving party for about 12 people, so I suspect spirits will be high!

Saturday sees the D&C caravan pitching up (for the 3rd successive year) at Hankinson's Field near the Leisure Centre in Congleton for the Round Table's Summer Beer Festival! This is an event that goes from strength to strength and, this year, there will be over 60 ales to sample, and they are expecting 750 or so people on what promises to be a warm and sunny evening so, if you fancy some good beer and great music (2 sets worth!), get yourselves along! The last 2 years have seen a really good atmosphere develop, and the crowds have been fantastic - never being slow to join with singing and dancing - let's hope this year is the same.

To get you in the mood, here's some photos from last year's event, and a map of how to find the "big tent"!

Congleton Beer Festival photos

Map of Beer Festival location

A NON-REPORT!

2009-06-12T13:32:00.005+01:00

Well hello!

Not a lot to report at the moment, as we're in a "down" period between gigs - had to cancel the one at the Ship last weekend, as Paul had a family commitment, that he'd forgotten about!

Next gig is a private party at AstraZeneca on Friday 26 June, followed by Congleton Beer Festival the following day (i.e Saturday 27 June for those not familiar with calendars!) - we're doing a bit of practising in between, mainly to fine tune Matt's choirboy tones on "Chasing Cars"!

In the meantime, to keep you interested, here's a link to a Flickr album containing some short video clips from the gig at the Windmill - many thanks to Pete Robinson (drummer with that fine band The Injectors) for taking the photos - Chrissie was a bit miffed that her fella took more photos of Paul and Matt than he did of her - but we all know why that is don't we?!

ANOTHER TURN AT THE WINDMILL!

2009-05-20T19:16:00.005+01:00

Cast your minds back to the cold dark nights of January - our first gig of 2009 saw us pitch up at The Windmill in Whiteley Green for what turned out to be a mega night of fun and entertainment! Well, we've been trying to sort out a return date for some time, and now it's happening - this Friday (22 May)!

We've just about come down from our Beer Festival high, and Andy, Matt and Paul went out for a de-brief (ie several pints!) last Thursday, while Hugh & Dave were drowning themselves off the coast of Scotland, and Chrissie was "working" (well, that's what she calls it - nudge, nudge!). The consensus was that we did pretty well - some moans about sound quality on Saturday, but judging from the audience reaction, and subsequent feedback, we were well chuffed (and we had another pint to celebrate!).

As ever though, it's onward and upward, and we're looking forward to exerting ourselves again this weekend. We'll probably pick and choose from the Beer Fest sets for Friday night but, starting tomorrow night, we'll be trying yet more new numbers so that, by the time we reach the Congleton Beer Fest at the end of June, we've got them polished.

So, get yourselves down to the Windmill on Friday; the light nights are fast approaching, and it's supposed to be a warm evening. Never mind the bright lights of Wilmslow WAG-land, Adlington is the place to be - good food, good beer and great music - what more could you ask for??

Here's the link to the Windmill website, which gives you some more information (although I notice we're not on there - obviously don't need the publicity!), and here's a map of how to get there!

A TRULY AWESOME EVENING!!

2009-05-10T12:08:00.005+01:00

Well, there it was - gone! Loads of build up, plenty of butterflies and, before you know it, the whole thing's over! But let me tell you, it was a fantastic experience for us - Friday night was good, but last night was even better!

The Beavers did a great job of warming the crowd up and, by the time the clock ticked round to 10:00pm, we were also raring to go! Choice of first number is always tricky, and we elected to go with "Say You love Me" which has a Blues Brothers feel, and allows us to do some introductory waffle - got the crowd jumping up and down at least, and when we went straight into "Johnny B Goode" everything kicked off big style!

We changed the set round a bit from Friday, so that it was all high energy numbers, and we made sure we had enough in to last us the full hour and a half - the only problem with high energy numbers is that you have to have the energy to do them - that gets to be more of a problem each year!

Anyway, high spots were the singalongs for "Brown Eyed Girl", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Come up And See Me" for which Hugh, our drummer got a standing ovation (obviously, as there were no seats!). The final thrash of "Teenage Kicks", "My Generation" and, particularly "Somebody Told Me" nearly ripped the roof off the marquee - and when we did "Delilah" as our encore there was just a wall of sound coming back from the audience - ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!

A big thank you to the crowds on both nights - you were tremendous, and a special thanks to Dan the sound man for getting the mix just right - and for the help when Andy's guitar sound decided to pack up just as Chrissie was about to launch into "Sweet Child of Mine" - that was a bit of a sphincter twitching moment!

We're booked in for the Congleton Beer Festival on 27 June, and the gauntlet is well and truly thrown down in the direction of the Congolians (including sweaty groupies!) to match the passion of the Macc Beer Festival crowds - can you do it??

So, we might be back next year - who knows? If they want us back, I'm pretty sure we'd be happy to go for our 5th year but, if not, this one will certainly live on in our memories! Lucy took some photos again, and I've put them onto a Flickr album - just click on the link, and then click on the slideshow button on the top right hand side.

Next gig is back at the Windmill in Whiteley Green on Friday 22 May -more about that is due course.

HALF TIME REPORT!

2009-05-09T15:29:00.006+01:00

As we did last year, I thought I would give everyone an update on how the first night's Beer Festival festivities went - and that is after just returning from the Saturday lunchtime session - purely business obviously!

As reported elsewhere, we kicked the proceedings off last night and, although an 8:15pm start is pretty daunting, we were pleased to see there was a stiff, cold breeze blowing which meant that, although folks were tempted outside by the evening sunshine, they pretty soon cam back inside before their bits froze off! Bonus for us, because it meant we had an audience!

Being the "warm up" act is always tricky, because you want to do your best stuff, but have to recognise that the crowd needs time to get into the swing of things - anyway, we did what we do and, in truth, it seemed to go down a storm - old and new numbers e.g. Teenage Kicks (our "joke" number when you weigh up the average age of the band!) and My Generation being particularly well received! There was a bit of a panic when we realised we were down to our last 3 numbers and still had 25 minutes left to do! No matter, out came the old audience favourites "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Come Up and See Me" and we were back on track - we'd saved "Delilah" until last in the belief that it was the right song to take us out and, sure enough, the crowd nearly brought the marquee down with the chorus! Unfortunately, due to time constraints, we couldn't accede to the roars for an encore, much as we would have loved to stay on all night! Once we were off, there was time to chill out with a few beers (b-rewed not to!) and we were overwhelmed with the number of people that came up to thank us and congratulate us on what we'd done - nobody has to do that, and it really gives us a lift when it happens - eat your heart out Enrique! We've even had an enquiry about playing a gig in Durham on the back of last night! Here are some photos from Lucy's camera to give you a flavour of the fun!:

So, one down and one to go - tonight we're finishing the whole festival off, and will be on stage at 10:00pm - we're really looking forward to the headline spot, and we know the Beavers will be whipping everyone into a frenzy beforehand - if you're going down there, make sure you pack round the stage and sing your hearts out - we will do our best to give you a good time!

Log back in here in the next few days for an update on how tonight's proceedings go - can't guarantee to post tomorrow though!

GETTING CLOSE NOW!!

2009-05-04T16:36:00.009+01:00

Well, only 4 days to go before the big day(s)! The extravaganza that is the Macclesfield Beer Festival kicks off this Friday (8 May) and carries on, almost without stopping (well it will seem like that to us!) until midnight on Saturday!

Knowing how demanding our public is we have, of course, been practising like mad to hone our set so that it is sharper than a very sharp thing! Only last Thursday, we were at the Brewery until gone midnight - admittedly most of the time was spent drinking beer, rolling around the floor laughing at childish jokes, and telling each other how bad we were at the respective things we do in the band - but we try to think of that as bonding!

In all seriousness, and without giving too much away, I can say that at least half the set on each night will contain songs that we didn't do at last year's Beer Fest - however, in line with our stated mission (very corporate eh what?!) most, if not all of them will be familiar and, even if they aren't, you'll still be able to dance to them (or whatever it is you are capable of doing by the time we come on!).

As ever, the event is expected to be sold out on both nights, so that will mean about 1300 punters in the tent (sorry marquee!) on each night. So, if you haven't got your ticket yet, and love good music and good beer get one quick - apparently, Enrique Iglesias is "performing" somewhere on Friday night - but would you really want to pass up Dazed & Confused to see him - no, I thought not! Details on where last minute tickets might be available from, are on the Beer Festival website.

Look forward to seeing everyone there - come up and say hello, if you dare!

LONG DISTANCE BLOGGING!

2009-04-22T20:15:00.002+01:00

Wonderful thing this t'interwebbynet thing - sitting here in Sweden whiling away a long dark evening (actually they are not that dark in April!) and I thought - nothing better to do, so might as well write to the Dazed & Confused fans!

No gig news to report - down time before the Macc Beer Festival; however, new songs are being polished - in fact, now that Dave is back from the Caribbean (have to keep him away from the brown walls, or we won't find him!) the band is actually practising this week without me - hope I've still got a job when I get back, they are a fickle bunch!

As for the Beer Fest, we have agreed with the Beavers that, as they will be a man down late on Saturday evening (will only leave them with 25 members!) , so we will bring the whole weekend to a fantastic climax!! The running order for the 2 evenings will be as follows:

Friday 8 May: Dazed & Confused 8:15-9:45 and Screaming Beavers 10:00-11:30
Saturday 9 May: Screaming Beavers 8:15-9:45 and Dazed & Confused 10:00-11:30

As ever, tickets for both evenings will be like gold dust, so get them soon - details of outlets selling tickets are available on the Beer Festival website and you can even buy your tickets online this year!

Well, I'd better go and tend to the smorgasbord, and take the sauna for a walk - take pity on me won't you - these business trips may sound exotic and enjoyable, but they're not all they are cracked up to be!

TIME OUT EVERYBODY!

2009-04-05T19:57:00.010+01:00

Saturday saw us at The Belfry Hotel in Handforth playing for the Spring Ball of the Time Out Group, and I'm guessing, like us, you are wondering what the devil the Time Out Group is about? Well, let me take a few minutes to explain before I regale you with the details of the evening because, believe me, it was a remarkable experience for us!

The Time Out Group is a charity (and, therefore, relies purely on public donations, Lottery grants and such like) and aims to provide support for people of all ages with learning disabilites, so that these people can feel they are part of the "normal" population. The charity has only 2 paid employees, and relies on volunteers for the rest of the work that needs to be done. The patron of the Charity is Annabel Tiffin, who many people may recognise from NorthWest Tonight or the Politics Show on BBC1 - her photo is attached as well, just in case you don't recognise the name ;-))! Annabel was guest of honour for the evening, with her husband (more of which later!)

The evening was an absolute delight for us - the atmosphere was brilliant - there were about 160 folks there, with a mix of volunteers, guests and the people that benefit from the work of the Charity, with no feeling that anybody was "disadvantaged" or being treated any differently - this is difficult to describe in words, but I hope you get the picture! If ever you see anybody collecting for the Time Out Group - don't hesitate to give them some money - believe me it's worth it!

As for the gig -well, it's difficult to see how it could have been better! Firstly, the band was fed!! In itself, this is a rarity at "posh" events, but on Saturday, there was an added bonus (for Matt anyway!), because he got extra helpings of roast potatoes (because Andy had stuffed himself before arriving) and an extra chocolate "tear drop" pudding!

We went on for the first set at 10:15, and it's always with a bit of trepidation that we approach the "late" gigs, because it can go one of 2 ways - either everyone is ready for a good dance, or they have just had too much "fun" already and think that throwing stuff at the band is the next instalment! However, on Saturday, it was the first option that prevailed and, from the moment that the starting chords of "The One I Love" rang out at 10:15 (right on time!) the crowd were off and running! Every song was met with almost rabid approval (even the Happy Birthday to Peter's Dad - more of him later as well!)

The first set lasted until 11:00pm and we planned to take a 20 minute breather (so that Matt, Chrissie and Andy could do their bit for the tobacco industry workers!), but we were hauled back on at 11:15 to start again! The challenge for us was to get everyone up and dancing - even the Tiffin table! This actually proved easier than it might sound, and Annabel's husband even joined us on stage for a couple of numbers with a tambourine! His parting shot (before Annabel dragged him outside for a beating!) was "I want to be in a band.........!" He's welcome back anytime - providing he doesn't want a cut of the fee!

Being on stage with the mighty D&C became a theme for the night because Peter - our MC for the night - also decided to join us on several occasions! His piece de resistance was Johnny B Goode (which he thought was coming a number of times before it actually did, so he made a few false starts!) when he eventually took centre stage, he gave it many decibels and many different words! It was certainly the most eventful rendition of the song we've ever done!

We finally called it a day (Sunday, actually!) at 12:40am - there were lots of things that we wanted to do that we couldn't (but we hope people understand!), but it was a great night, we felt that we played really well - even though Dave wasn't there (he was on holiday - yes really!) - and it was for a truly worthwhile cause.

We now have a "rest" before the Macc Beer Festival - still not clear whether we are headlining on the Friday or the Saturday - but we'll let you know (we are on both nights though!). There will definitely be some new numbers being launched but, of course, we're not going to tell you what they are! Tickets are already on sale, so get them while you can!

There will be more postings on here before then - obviously!!

ANOTHER 2 DOWN!!

2009-03-22T19:45:00.013Z

Hello again!

Must be 3 weeks since we were on here, and so there is plenty of news to report! 2 gigs done - and in depth reports follow! Also, some more gigs confirmed - see right hand panel for details. To summarise, we will be on again at the Nag's Head on Saturday 18 July and Saturday 14 November (Prince Charles' birthday, for those who are interested!) at the Millstone in Water's Green, Macc on Saturday 19 September, and a private party for AZ friends on Friday 26 June (nice warm up for the following night at Congleton Beer Festival!).

So, to the recent excursions; we found our way to New Mills on the 14th (no escapades with the scuffers this time, as we took the van and a car, so there were no illegal-types in the back!). We last played at the Beehive a couple of years ago, and it has always been a "challenging" venue because, although we have a nice "stage" to play on, half of it is obscured by a wall, and there is also a plasma screen TV to contend with (although we have learned how to turn this off!). Also, it is difficult to see a lot of the punters because they are hidden behind walls and pillars (and occasionally nip upstairs for a curry!). Anyway, we kicked off with a healthy gang in (including some welcome faces from the White Lion in Disley, where we had played the week before!) and things went well; as the second set progressed, we realised that putting the PA speaker at the back of the stage was not a good idea, as we all gradually got deafer and deafer as the sound reverberated around our enclosed space! However, we go through it, and there were still some people left at the end, so all was not lost.........

Last Friday saw us at the Halliwell Jones stadium in Warrington (home of Warrington Wolves rugby league team!) for the Warrington NHS Trust Awards evening. As ever, the journey there was not without incident!; this time it involved the dirty white van having to do a couple of laps of Warrington town centre, before we found the way in - absolutely no fault of the town - we were just incapable of reading the road signs, and even the huge stadium did not give us a clue as we drove past it! Anyway, we eventually found the entrance to the banqueting suite, and were pleased to note it was on the second floor, with only a 1 person lift serving it - so you can imagine moving the gear up to the venue was a pleasure - and that was only the half of it! Dave went up first, and came down with what can only be described as a "cryptic smirk" on his face, accompanied by the words "well, this is probably a unique layout!" He wasn't wrong - the room was long and thin, with the stage facing the entrance and the people sitting on tables spread out to the left and the right, so that we got cricks in our necks trying to look at the audience!

However, all worked out well, because we were amongst fellow lunatics! The first set was only 30 minutes long (as a precursor to the Awards) and, whether it was because Chrissie's colleagues were in awe of seeing her as they never had before, or whether we were just our normal brilliant selves (probably that!), it went down a storm with loads of dancing and madness! The second set started slowly (due to fag breaks (that's the NHS for you!) photo opportunities etc.) but eventually the crack kicked in, and we had a full dance floor! Plenty of incident - Andy confirming his "rock god" status with several impressionable ladies (they were pissed!) and even one of the said ladies joining us on stage horizontally (she fell over the monitor!). This was OK (even expected!) but the fact that she demolished 2 pints of beer and a pint of water took the edge off her grand entrance!

The beauty of doing an NHS gig was that we saw just how many different groups support us - mental health (very appropriate!), transport and wheelchairs (much needed!) etc., but the high spot for me was spotting the Sexual Health Team table - not only that, but they actually had Ann Summers on the table with them - now you can tell me that was just a coincidence until you are blue in the face, but I will never believe you! So, our latest claim to fame is that we have had a whole Sexual Health Team and Ann Summers dancing to the sound of Dazed & Confused (I did check, but there were no toys left on the table!) Matt thought all his birthdays had come at once! Big bonus was that there was a pro photographer at the gig, so we might even have some new pics to show you - watch this space (or, more accurately, another one in a week or so!)

And, just for fun here are some pictures - just click on the link and then on the slideshow buton (top right)

So we have a bit of a rest, as Paul leaves everyone he loves behind and heads for the US this week (business, not pleasure, unfortunately) - we're back in action on 4 April (private function), and then a few weeks of preparation before it's all guns blazing at the Macclesfield Beer Festival on 8 & 9 May - more of that as we get nearer to the date!

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER - FOR SEVERAL REASONS!

2009-03-01T19:33:00.006Z

So, we took to the road following last week's marvellous experience and, before I tell you all about the evening's events (which were memorable for so many different reasons!), let me just share one last snippet from the Nag's Head! You may remember that I mentioned we were billed up as Daze and Confused, which was a tad disappointing, well - it was actually worse than that! Below is a photo of the board outside the Nag's and, as you can see, they got both names wrong (what the hell is a Conused?)!

Ah well - at least they spelt Phoenix's name wrong as well!

On to last night - and I struggle to know where to start! Regular readers will know that it is a tradition, nay a necessity, to travel to gigs with at least 1 person in the back of the dirty white van. Well, apparently, this is illegal(!) and last night two chickens came home to roost because Chrissie and Matt were snug in the back at exactly the time the police decided to pull us over and check what the cargo was! To cut a long story short, the protestations that our bassist and female vocalist were actually doing a public service in keeping the gear from rolling around and causing a potential accident, cut absolutely no ice with Cheshire's finest and the end result was that our driver finished up with 3 points on his licence and a £60 fine (more of that later) - bad enough in itself, but made worse by the fact that this was before we'd even left Macclesfield! Dave did the decent thing and asked if we could bugger off to the gig while Mr Plod continued his interviews with the "offenders" - they said OK! Chrissie said she can't remember the last time she was picked up by the fuzz -but we don't believe her!

So, we arrived in Disley Land at around 8:00pm, entered the empty White Lion, and presented our apologies for being late - not that it looked as though it would trouble too many people! How wrong this proved to be because, by the time we'd got set up and were ready to start, the pub had filled up nicely, and we were reassured that this was not going to be Spinners MkII! We did a quick assessment of the clientele (looked a little like a "bistro" crowd) and kicked off with some "lighter" stuff i.e Ticket to Ride was first out of the traps. What became rapidly obvious was that this was a crowd that not only appreciated good music played well, but was one that was also prepared to show it! By the time we got to about the 5th number, all inhibitions had gone (on both sides!) and the pub was rocking!

During the interval, something special happened - the landlord organised a "whip round" and presented us with £60 to pay the fine incurred earlier - a truly fantastic, and unexpected, gesture that just fired us up even more for the second set! We kicked this off at 10:30 and, when we finished at 11:55 we were absolutely exhausted and the crowd was ecstatic! There were probably 50 or 60 people around at any one time, but it was living proof that you don't need a packed room for people to enjoy themselves - everyone was jumping and we had a fantastic time. I believe the Kaiser Chiefs are playing the MEN Arena on Monday and, if anybody reading this happens to be going, can I just say that Ricky and the boys have their work cut out to be better than we were on Saturday! In fact, if we had played "Ruby", and they had been there to see it, there is every chance that they would have cancelled their gig! We send our sincere thanks to everyone who came to see us on Saturday, we hope to be back soon and, hopefully, the word will spread, so we can entertain even more Disleyites!

So, what happens next? well, Dave is off on holiday (yes really!) and others are occupied next weekend, so we will be practising on Thursday, in advance of the next gig is in 2 weeks time (Saturday 14 March). Again, we're up in the hills, this time at the Beehive Inn in New Mills. For those who have not been before, it's a great, friendly venue, and there is even an Indian restaurant upstairs, so you can eat before coming to see us - how cabaret is that?! A link to a map is attached (map to find the Beehive)

So, that's it for now - we had a great night and, if you weren't able to be with us, maybe next time, you will - if you need to stop overnight, I'm sure there's a Travelodge handy!

PS: The Congleton Beer Festival is now confirmed - Saturday 27 June! So, all you Congolians get your glad rags on and come down to Hankinson's Field for some good beer and great music!!

DOESN'T GET MUCH BETTER THAN THAT!

2009-02-22T14:44:00.006Z

Well, friends, if we wanted the perfect antidote to our last outing, we got it last night! Our virginal appearance at the Nag's Head was absolutely brilliant (I can't think of many things that would have improved it!), and it's only fair that I give you a blow by blow account of the evening, not just so you can absorb, through the ether, the ambience of the event, but also so we can re-live it!

As mentioned elsewhere in this virtual diary, the Nag's Head is famous in Macclesfield and its ennvirons for being the Mecca of music, especially rock music, so we felt privileged to have been asked to play there. However, we were also aware that much of the music played at the Nag's is of a somewhat "heavy" nature, so it was with some trepidation that we approached the gig as, although our repertoire is varied, eclectic and brilliant, it is not exactly out of the Iron Maiden, Metallica or Slayer stable! This was actually confirmed last night when we told that a friend had heard we were playing on Friday night (not Saturday), which is the real "head banging" night, and was trying to contact us to cancel, because he feared we would be killed in an avalanche of beer glasses! Notwithstanding this, Andy had put together 2 sets which, in his professional opinion, would give us a fair chance of escaping with all our body parts intact, and maybe even meet with the approval of the discerning clientele (sorry, you Moondance fans, we had to leave that one out!)! We practised the whole gig on Thursday night, and surprised ourselves with how good we were (even on Hey Joe which we probably haven't done for 2 years!).

So we pitched up at around 8 last night to find the pub filling up nicely, and to hear the strains of heavy rock music pouring out of the jukebox! By the time we went on at about 9:50 there was a sizeable crowd in place, as well as the "locals", I'm pleased to say there were also many familiar faces present, and I have to again say a big thank you to them for their unfailing support - Iain, Tony, Claire, Justin, and everyone else - you know who you are and we appreciate you enormously!

The first set went really well and, by the time we came off at around 10:35 we were really getting a taste for it! The second set started at 11:15 and, amzingly, the "music room" was packed which, apparently is almost unheard of! The next hour or so is a bit of a blur for me, because we were carried on a wave of adrenaline - Andy was smashing power chords all over the place, Matt had his bass turned right up so the walls were shaking, Dave had got the sound balance almost perfect, and was beating his acoustic to death, Chrissie was dancing like a dervish (even disappearing into the crowd at one stage!) and Hugh was threatening to break every skin on his kit! Every number was rapturously received - Somebody Told Me by The Killers got its first public airing, and received the unqualified thumbs up from our most discerning young fans (i.e Lucy and Anna, my daughters!) and even Delilah made it onto the set list as an encore!

We eventually finished around 12:45, leaving the crowd still baying for more but, as I had almost no voice left, we couldn't oblige! After our traditional post-gig group hugs, the consensus view was that it was probably one of the best, if not the best, gigs that we have ever played. Thanks to Sandra for giving us the chance, to the crowd for being so flipping brilliant, and to the band for being the best in Macclesfield, if not the country (watch out Elbow, here we come!)!

So, it's on to The White Lion in Disley next Saturday (28th) - difficult to follow last night, but we're up for making it even better - get yourselves up in the hills for the hottest ticket in town!

IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME FRIENDS!!

2009-02-15T19:40:00.003Z

Goodness me, it must be weeks since we updated this - good reason, nothing has happened!

Since the Spinners debacle, we've all been in therapy - except for Dave, of course, who did not get the emotional scarring that the rest of us did! We've been asked back(!), and we've told Dave he has to do it on his own!

Our therapy has included a couple of band outings - one to The Ship the other Thursday, and one to Sutton Hall last Sunday - where we had the honour and privilege to meet up again with old band mates Frank Witt (with the lovely Robbie), Paul Gregory and Paul Hambley! Unfortunately, we weren't all there at the same time - it was a rolling attendance between 2:00pm and 5:00pm (when Matt eventually managed to crawl from his pit - but I suppose he is in love!!). However, it was great to see everyone, and catch up - could have more members than the Screaming Beavers if we all played together!!

We have been doing some practising as well - and there are at least 2 new numbers reaching maturity. We did try Pretty Woman - but it is well and truly in the bin, for a number of reasons (why do all the simple songs end up being so hard?). We've also even threatened to do an ABBA number or 2 - I guess that could go one of 2 ways.......

So to the next gig - Saturday 21st at The Nag's Head in Macc. Many people will know this as the Mecca of rock music in town and, because of this we approach it with some trepidation (they've billed us up as Daze and Confused, but we'll let them off!)! We're hoping for a full house, but some people are obviously feeling the pressure as they're finding other things to do like parties and things (totally understandable!)! But let's hope it's a good night - it's Andy's gig, so if it all go tits up, we'll blame him! We're all really looking forward to it, and Sandra is eager for us to play - so it's all systems go!!

As for other gigs, you'll find the list on the right hand side - still awaiting confirmation of the Congleton Beer Fest and, if that comes off we expect all our Congleton groupies (sweaty or otherwise!) to be out in force, as they have been for the last 2 years - always a great night!

So, if you're at a loose end next Saturday, get down to the Nag's - there'll be a full run down on proceedings right here - can't guarantee to do it on Sunday, cos we're expecting a late night!

WAS IT SOMETHING WE SAID.......?

2009-01-18T14:10:00.004Z

Well, what a difference a week makes!!

We came off the back of last week's gig flying as high as it's just about possible to fly, and then the week went from bad to worse! Bear with me, dear reader, while I share the collective woes of Dazed & Confused with you:
1. Sunday evening - made contact with Matt Johnson, whose body had arrived back in Blighty, but whose mind was somewhere between Bangkok, the Mekong Delta and Duke's Court Macclesfield! Brought Matt up to speed with the 2 cracking gigs that had happened in his absence, hoping that he would not take it personally, and confirmed with him that he was OK to practice on Thursday and play the gig on Saturday (knowing full well that he would have to be reminded at least one more time once his body and mind had been re-introduced to each other!)
2. Wednesday - brought the gig list up to date ready to check that everyone was OK to do them (including the triumphant return the Windmill, that had hastily been plugged in for Feb 27th!)
3. Thursday morning - got a text from Matt Rose to say he was just being measured for his coffin because the flu had got him, and he wouldn't be able to practice that evening because dying would probably take priority! However, he was still confident he would be fit for Saturday - needed because Dave was escaping to Lincoln (a very shrewd move, as it turned out - see below!)
4. Thursday evening - practiced in the freezing cold (the Brewery is having a new wall fitted, as the previous one had started to march towards Macc town centre!) - not very productive, and also found that half the proposed gigs had changed or were not going to happen - including the Windmill one, because they now had a party on that night!
5. Saturday morning - text from Matt Rose - he hadn't died yet, but was still polishing his wings and harp, and would not be able to play the gig!! Mass panic, followed by calmness, when we realised that of course the remaining 5 of us would be able to carry it off - just a matter of playing and singing louder!
6. Saturday evening - I was still buoyed up by City's win against Wigan (it was quite a pleasant afternoon, all round, actually!), but felt more like a kip when I got home - then found that Chrissie, Matt J and Andy had all been over-celebrating the night before, so none of them were at peak either! Then, the rain and wind started so we got p**s wet through loading and unloading the van (it was Matt's turn in the back this week - that'll teach him to go on holiday!)! We got a lively reception from the locals when we arrived - especially as we had to throw them off the dartboard so we could set up (we did check they'd put the darts down first!) There then followed some lively exchanges which revolved around them wanting us to play the whole of the Kings of Leon back catalogue or, alternatively, for them to do that with us! We disabused them of both these suggestions, so they resorted to trying to get off with Chrissie (brave men indeed!)

On to the gig itself! We were billed up to start at 8:30 but, because many of the locals that had fruitlessly tried to get the better of our verbal exchanges had gone off to the Dog & Partridge (they did suggest we picked up our gear and came with them, because it would be packed!), we decided to wait until around 9:15 to give more people a chance to arrive. This did, in fact, happen - to the tune of our wives and Hugh's brother and sister in law!! So, we kicked off Set 1 with a total of about 15 people in the pub and, during the course of the evening this number fluctuated between about 10 and 20, as we drove some away, and enticed others in! We've been encouraged to throw some Killers numbers in (and it may even happen!) but, I'm sure if we'd done that last night, we'd have driven even family and friends away! Special mention for Iain Wilkie - a stalwart supporter, who happened to be in Bollington (not knowing we were playing) but responding to a text from Chrissie, he arrived for the second set, and even did his famous wobble dance on his own to "Bohemian Like You" - thanks Iain! Perhaps we should all have texted our friends! Mein host did go to great pains to point out that we played fantastically - just a shame that very few others were able to verify that claim!
So now we have a few weeks off to recover from the shock of last night before the next gig (21 Feb at The Nag's Head) - plenty of time to polish up some new numbers (and hit the Facebook advertising hoardings)!

WELL - WHAT A WAY TO START THE NEW YEAR!

2009-01-10T17:48:00.004Z

Last night saw the tour bus (i.e. the dirty white brewery van!) eventually pull up outside the Windmill Inn at Whiteley Green. Now this place isn't too far from the centre of Macclesfield, but when you spend the 10 minutes or so that it takes bouncing around in the pitch black that is the back of said van, it seems a VERY long way. This is what Paul and Matt had to endure, with only the light of their mobile phones saving them from being impaled or crushed by various bits of gear! Thanks Hugh - just don't drive like that on your test!

Anyway - to the gig itself, and what can we say?? Friday was the second night in a series of 3 to celebrate the Windmill's "Local Ale Sale" - the star attraction (apart from us) being 9 of Storm Brewing's best beers. We were hoping that the double incentive might encourage a few punters, but it's fair to say that none of us anticipated just how many people would be there! By the time we kicked off at 8:30 (early for us!), there must have been close to 200 people in the pub, all eating and drinking as if their lives depended on it which, if you think about it, I suppose they did!

We kicked off with the usual "slower" stuff and, by the time we'd got through Moondance (done with feeling, of course!), the crowd were putty in our hands! The rest of the 2 sets went off tremendously, and everyone was extremely complimentary about what they experienced - by the end of the evening I think they were as damp as I was (and that was extremely damp, I can assure you!) Thanks to everyone who turned up, especially on such a cold night and to a pub that is not really on the main drag - we did say that if the people who came because they'd heard the band were on hadn't turned up, there would have probably have only been about 20 in the place, but maybe that's just our egos talking! The Windmill have said they want us to come back and play again - although the landlady did admit that she was so busy, she had not heard most of the gig - maybe there would have been a different outcome if she had!

So now it's on to The Spinner's in Bollington next Saturday (17 January); we've never played there before either, so more new ground to be broken there! Having lived in Bolly for 2 years in the early 80s, I'm fully expecting a warm welcome - it's not a big venue, so get there early to book your place. Andy's really looking forward to it as well! Unfortunately Dave is not available for the gig but we are hoping that his loss can be covered in 2 ways:
1. Matt Johnson is allowed to return from Thailand, Vietnam, Mongolia or wherever it is that he has been over the last few weeks
2. Matt Rose is able to play with us again, this time on acoustic or electric, rather than bass.
Such is the ever changing line up that is Dazed & Confused!

With regard to other gigs, in addition to the Macc Beer Festival noted in the last post, we're provisionally booked again for Congleton Beer Festival on 27 June (I need to check they didn't change their mind when they sobered up!), and we will also be making our first appearance at the hotbed of Macc rock music that is The Nag's Head in Water's Green on Saturday 21 February. They have some real class acts there, so we will need to be on top blob for that one - and, again all support will be welcome!

STOP PRESS - MACCLESFIELD BEER FESTIVAL CONFIRMED!!

2009-01-09T12:08:00.002Z

It's only January, but the wires are humming with more calls than Mark Hughes' phone!
Just had confirmation that we're booked to play Macclesfield Beer Festival on Friday & Saturday 8 & 9 May.
This will be the 4th consecutive year that we have played the Festival, which must be some sort of record, and the format will be as last year i.e. the Screaming Beavers supporting us on the Friday, and us doing the honours for them on the Saturday.
Obviously, there will be more information nearer the time, but scratch it into your diaries while they are still new, and you can find them!

FRIDAY NIGHT AT THE WINDMILL!!

2009-01-02T12:50:00.005Z

Well, that's the end of one set of festivities - time to think about the next set and, for us, that means Friday night at The Windmill at Whiteley Green - a beer festival featuring at least 9 wonderful Storm Brewing beers, and the mighty Dazed & Confused - who could ask for more (don't answer that!)??

I'm guessing we'll be on around 9:00-ish, but the fun starts before that, so feel free to arrive, sample the goods, and myabe even have a bite to eat beforehand - a link to their website is attached(for those who have not ventured out into the wilds of Adlington before!) Link to Windmill web and a map to help you get there

We will have Matt Rose on bass with us again but, apart from that, it's the usual line-up - fresh and re-invigorated after a nice long Chistmas rest - oh, and a week at work :-((

SO THAT'S IT - NEARLY ANOTHER YEAR GONE!

2008-12-28T14:19:00.010Z

The massive 2008 gig list was completed last night (well this morning, actually!) when we played to a completely packed Ship Inn - of course, both fires were lit (in case anyone felt cold!) and with around 200 people crammed in, the place rapidly became a little like Dante's Inferno!

Not that this mattered, because we had the best of times, and it appeared the audience did as well. The occasion was primarily to celebrate Ben's 60th birthday, but there were quite a number of people who came along just for the sheer hell of it - what better way to celebrate that strange period between festivities - and, of course, it was the weekend (even though we've just had about 4 weekends in a row!

As well as the usual madness, there were a number of high spots in the evening that are worth mentioning - as reported elsewhere, our regular bass player (Matt) has swanned off to the Far East to buy himself a tie (I think that's how you spell it!), so we had to bring in a deputy. Of course, the deps name was Matt (to save confusing us!), in this case Matt Rose - a good friend, and now official demi-god! Matt had never played, or even practised, with us before, and all he had to go on was 2 CDs of the set lists hurriedly put together to give him some idea of what we did (even though the keys for most of them were completely different!) To say Matt did well is probably the understatement of the century - he was absolutely brilliant and, if we hadn't embarrassed him by pointing out that he was a D&C virgin, I really don't think anyone would have known! Matt - you are a legend, and it was a privilege to have you with us! Matt will also be playing with us at our next gig on Friday 9 January at The Windmill Inn Beer Festival at Whiteley Green (near Adlington) so if you want to see him in action (and probably a little more relaxed!), get yourselves down there (more details, with directions, in a short while).

The second high spot also involved the Rose family because, when Hugh's bladder got the better of him at the end of the second set, we press-ganged Nev Rose (Matt's Dad!) onto the drums, and he bashed his way through "You Really Got Me" before we forced him to perform his party piece - "Wipe Out"! For those who don't know this track, it has probably the hardest drum solo known to man (or me anyway!), and Nev does it with his own band (Revolution). Hugh refuses to do it because he was emotionally scarred in a previous life when his band mates all buggered off to the bar, leaving him to play an extended (i.e. about 10 minute) solo at 100 mph! However, Nev's rendition was brilliant, and all the better because he wasn't expecting to do it - I met him outside Tesco this morning, and he still looked like he was recovering!

The third high spot involved Professor Andy Smith, who received some sort of Guitar Hero computerised gizmo for Christmas which means he can play tunes without his guitar! He gave a virtuoso performance of several rock classics by waving his plectrum around in the vicinity of his groin - not a pretty sight, but the sound was good! We did ask how he felt about having spent so much money on his 17 or so guitars, when he can now do the same with a small box (no offence, Andy!) and a bit of computerised plastic!

So, we're ready to pull the curtains over the window that was (still is, actually) 2008 - 29 gigs in a year is a record for us and, considering we said we would limit ourselves to a gig a month, it says a lot about our ability to plan and control our diaries! As everyone knows, we do it for fun, and if it stops being fun, we'll stop doing it - we'd love to have more time to practive new numbers, but sometimes it's not possible. Having said that, we've probably added 6 or 7 new songs this year, which is pretty good going, and there are some more in the works - honest!

It just remains for us to thank everyone who has booked us and put up with us during the year, our regular supporters who, for some reason known only to them, turn out to listen to us and join in wherever we are (Colin Stanway, you know who you are) - we look forward to having more groupies in 2009 (somebody has already threatened me with that!) and, finally, a big Thank You to our wives and partners who put up with so much hassle, and tolerate our "hobby" so uncomplainingly - we'd be lost without you!

A HAPPY 2009 TO ALL!!

2009 GIGS - ALREADY!!

2008-12-11T18:49:00.004Z

The machine that is Dazed & Confused never sleeps - we've not even put the 2008 cat out before we're ushering in the 2009 gig milkman!

A couple of January dates for your diary:

Friday 9 January at The Windmill in Whiteley Green (near Adlington) - they've got a beer festival on (in January??) and we've been asked to entertain the punters. As ever, the decision will be whether we get on early before they start throwing things, or wait until they are a bit mellow and receptive - I guess the choice won't be ours!

Saturday 17 January at The Spinners' in Bollington - another first for us (I don't think we even played in Bollington before!), but as an honorary resident (2 years in the mid-80's), I'm sure I will be welcomed back with open arms!

But before all that, don't forget our pre-Christmas bash at The Bruce Arms on Crompton Road in Macclesfield on Saturday 20 December, and our post-Christmas bash at The Ship Inn on Beech Lane on Saturday 27th December - both will be good old party nights, and we should have at least 1 guest bass player with us for the second event!

END OF NOVEMBER - IT CAN'T BE TRUE!!

2008-11-30T20:22:00.005Z

It's pretty obvious that everyone has been missing these updates, if the avalanche of comments is anything to go by.....

Anyway, I'm still going to update you on what has been happening in the last month:

Dave has been on holiday - hard to believe, I know, but it's true! This time it was sailing in the Greek islands with his kids - a great time had by all, and they came back in one piece, which is the important thing!
Paul has also been away - unfortunately on business, and he can assure everyone that the delights of Sao Paulo and Hamburg are not what they might be cracked up to be!
Chrissie has survived an audit (not of her personally - God forbid!), and then spent a week undoing all the good work!
Matt might be going to Tanzania with work over Christmas - he hopes so, we hope not! At present, the money doesn't seem to be forthcoming so, hopefully, the December gigs will still see him strumming his fretless thing!
Hugh and Andy have kept doing what they do!

4 gigs knocked off since the last posting - the Jolly Sailor on 6 November - really good night with a huge number of people in the pub; our debut at The Hollins on 21 November - I think we surprised a lot of people who had not seen us before and, again, they were crammed in really tightly by the time Chris (the landlord) came back from watching Jools Holland (wrong choice, Chris!); a private Brewery gig on 27 November for the Dads from St Albans School in Macclesfield (who had a great night - well they would, wouldn't they!) and, finally, last night at The Ship Inn. As ever, this was a cracking gig, and the new songs (Pretty Vegas, Message In A Bottle and Money For Nothing) are now really starting to sound as though we know them!

It was great to see our old band members Frank Witt & Paul Hambley at The Hollins (and Gary Knight at The Jolly Sailor), and all of them commented on how much they missed us. It's to be hoped they don't all want to come back at once, because it will make for a very crowded stage!

Our December gig list is more or less set now - 4 December, back at the Jolly Sailor (for Sarah & Glenn's wedding anniversary!), 20 December at The Bruce Arms and 27 December back at The Ship Inn (this is for a birthday party, but I'm sure others are allowed in!). So, if you fancy starting or finishing your festive celebrations with a good night out - come along and join us!

2009 gigs are starting to come in, and we have at least 3 lined up for January - more details to follow in our festive blog edition!!

GIG UPDATE!

2008-10-22T21:32:00.002+01:00

Oh my Lord, it's getting complicated keeping up with this gig business!

Looks like the Ronnie's gig on 2 November is off, because someone (not Matt, no definitely not Matt) ended up getting us double booked with some other band! We've set him the challenge of getting us in when there is nobody else on - let's see what happens! Matt has a new beefy, sod off bass amp (not in tweed, surprisingly enough!), so he needs to be able to show it off - perhaps that will be the incentive he needs!

So, the gig list for the rest of the year is updated on the right - for those too lazy to look there, here's a summary:

Thursday 6 November - Jolly Sailor, Sunderland Street, Macc
Friday 21 November - The Hollins, Black Lane, Macclesfield
Thursday 27 November - Private party
Saturday 29 November - The Ship Inn, Beech Lane, Macclesfield (tbc)
Saturday 20 December - The Bruce Armas, Crompton Road, Macclesfield
Saturday 27 December - Private party
Monday 29 December - Private party (to be confirmed)

The last 2 gigs we played earlier in the month went off well - Sarah's dad's party at the Moorside in Disley was a hoot - a 60th party with people of all ages enjoying themselves! The next night we pitched up at the Broken Cross Beer Festival, which was a real education - not quite what we expected! Anyway, between us and Gizelle, we managed to get people up and dancing, although I suspect some of them were a bit stiff in the morning! Matt managed to devour 3 portions of hog roast, so he was well pleased!

So, next appearance is back at the Jolly Sailor on 6 November - some new stuff to practice, so get down there!

OCTOBER, AND IT'S STILL BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!

2008-10-04T17:57:00.005+01:00

So, another month rolls round and, looking out of the window, it is blindingly obvious that Autumn has arrived! However, for Dazed & Confused, one month is pretty much the same as another - more music to play and more fun to be had, and this month is no exception!

Having said that, we've got this weekend off - one of us is away sailing (in this weather!), one of us is in a caravan in Wales (in this weather!), and one of us is dying with a stinking cold (in this weather - no hold on, that doesn't work). Anyway, it gives us a chance to gird our loins for next weekend when we do a double header in Disley on Friday 10th (private party) and then the Broken Cross Beer Festival on Saturday 11th.

Not sure what the plan is for the Beer Festival (other than to play music and drink beer!) but there is a link to their website, which give some more information

Broken Cross Beer Festival website

Looks like you can start drinking at 12:00 noon, but we're not on until the evening, so it could go one of 2 ways - we'll bring the body armour and tin hats just in case!! Also seems like there's somebody else on with us as well (well, hopefully, not actually with us, as it could get a tad confusing!) - she looks a feisty lady, and as if she could eat us all for breakfast, so we'll have to watch out for her (good job there's a hog roast on!)

So, if you're at a loose end, and feeling thirsty next Saturday evening, why not mosey on down to good old Broken Cross and have yourself a real good time y'all - yee hah!

ONLY 2 MORE 25THs AND THEN IT'S CHRISTMAS!!

2008-09-28T21:04:00.004+01:00

Well, goodness me, just enough time to squeeze in a post to make it 2 for September, and then it's downhill to Christmas - as the post heading suggests, it will be here sooner than we think (want)!

What I find most incredible is that it only seems like 5 minutes ago that I was sitting here in January trying to work out how this blogspot thing works, and now we're looking down the telescope labeled 2009! OK, maybe I'm exaggerating, but you know what I mean!

Anyway, as far as Dazed & Confused are concerned, September has been a hive of activity, even though holidays have intervened! We played Nigel & Claire's wedding in Swindon - a good night, even if the first set was a bit slow (this happens at some weddings because the punters seem to want to talk to each other because they haven't met for years - strange, but true!).
The second set (and the sound!) got better, and everyone seemed to have a really good time. Hugh, Andy, Chrissie and Matt decide to go straight back home afterwards, which meant they arrived back in Macclesfield at 4:00am having left there at 1:00pm the previous day (despite Hugh's TomTom saying they would get home an hour earlier!). Meanwhile, Paul started his holiday in a lovely country hotel, and Dave was left to clear up and bring all the gear back!

Once Paul returned from France (having missed City's magic 6-0 win!), the band had a little refresher practice before playing the Bruce Arms on Friday 26th and a private party in Disley on Saturday 27th. Both gigs went off well; Friday at the Bruce started slowly (we normally play ther on a Saturday, so it was a bit of a surprise!), but by the end, everyone was up and jumping (including Shaun and Heather from Canada!), and it was only the neighbours that brought things to a close (again!). On Saturday, we did wonder why people would rather enjoy us from the sidelines rather than get up and dance, but hey ho!

So, onward to the Autumn! More gigs booked in (check the listing on the right) - we're playing the Broken Cross Beer Festival on 11 October, on at Ronnie's Bar in Duke's Court on 2 November and, as previously trailed, we play The Hollins on 21 November. Plan your diaries accordingly - we will be sending out Facebook invitations as well!

It's looking like a record year for D&C bookings, and we'd like to give a big thanks to everyone who has supported us through the year so far - our faithful fans (the "Dazed Massive"!) and all the folks who have "discovered" us as the year has gone on - stick with us, it can only get better!

MY - HOW TIME FLIES!!

2008-09-01T20:25:00.002+01:00

Well, what do you know? Another month has flown by, so it must be time to put finger to keyboard again!
Fantastic gig at The Old Ship Inn on Saturday - Jed was back home, at least 2 birthdays to celebrate - who could ask for more?!
It was absolutely bloody boiling in the pub (and that was without the fires being lit!) - Hugh was so hot, he was complaining he had only had one pee - which for a man of his age, is a miracle!
Paul's shirt resembled a very damp dishcloth by the end of the evening, and Dave's wasn't much better (in fact it might have been worse!) - but a great time was had by all. The pub was absolutely rammed, and we ended up doing 2 and a half sets - it was about 1:00am when we finally finished, and I think that only happened because Matt was about to fry eggs on the top of the bass amp, it was that hot! Hopefully, Gordon took some good photos, and we'll post them on here if he ever sends them!
Another new song added - Pretty Vegas by INXS (new line up); perhaps not one that people know immediately but, trust me, it will soon become a D&C classic (as Message In A Bottle has already!). We also resurrected China Grove because Dave wants to do it at the wedding on Saturday - that needs a bit more work, but we can practice it again on Thursday.
Yes - we're on the road again twice this week Thursday night at The Jolly Sailor, and then a road trip to Swindon for a big wedding. After that, our next gigs are at the end of September, so we've time for a bit of a rest (maybe!).
So - get yourselves down to The Jolly on Thursday, and start the weekend in style - after all, summer has gone, so you've got to do something to while away the weeks till Christmas!

A NICE DAY FOR A WHITE WEDDING!!

2008-08-02T13:50:00.003+01:00

Having survived a raucous evening at The Jolly Sailor on Thursday, we've go our best bib and tucker on for Tom & Fran's wedding reception, this evening! Went down and checked the venue this morning, and the setting is just fantastic, sleepy little Cheshire village, with a marquee in the garden, and everything set up for a great day - let's just hope the weather holds!

Took the opportunity on Thursday to baptise a new song - "Message In A Bottle" made it's bow, and worked so well, we did it twice! As we'd only actually played it twice before in practice, this was quite remarkable (as Barry Norman used to say!) - a fine mix of reggae and rock, thanks to Messrs Thompson, Smith and Johnson!

Had some disappointing news last week in that, due to complaints about noise, problems with shuttle buses etc., the Mind, Body & Boogie event has had to be slimmed down, and we are one of the many turns that have been "bounced" off the menu! Aside from this probably being the wrong decision for the benefit of the punters, it's really disappointing that some small-minded people and associated bureaucrats, have sabotaged an event which, as well as being great fun for the performers and the audiences, actually did a great service to the community by raising funds for Mental Health - something which tends to get forgotten and, since the advent of "Care in the Community" (which is actually a euphemism for turning sick people out on the streets!), appears to be becoming more of a problem. Well, maybe next year common sense will prevail, and the mental health of the people who have conspired to wreck the best intentions of the organisers, will have improved, so that the event can go ahead again in all it's glory! Rant over!!

Anyway, every cloud has a silver lining, and we have replaced the M,B &B gig with a return to the Old Ship Inn on Becch Lane. Happily, Jed is now home from hospital, and it will be great to play there under happier circumstances than when we last appeared in March.

A couple of other gigs have also been added:
- Saturday 11 October at the Broken Cross Institute Beer Festival, just outside Macclesfield. Don't have much more info about this - but I'm sure there will be some fine Storm Brewing ales to be sampled!
- Friday 21 November, at The Hollins on Black Road in Macclesfield. This pub is fast becoming the place to be seen at the weekend, and they are great promoters of live music. Check out their Facebook group (THE.HOLLINS MACCLESFIELD).
More about both these gigs nearer the time.

A LOT TO CATCH UP ON!!

2008-07-16T21:13:00.008+01:00

Well - a lot has happened since the last post - Frank's last 2 gigs (Congleton Beer Festival and Brian's Bristol Birthday Bash) and a welcome return to The Bruce, so let's take them one at a time!

The Congleton Beer Fest was as good, if not better than last year (the weather was certainly better!) and, although Andy wasn't with us, we managed to get the marquee rocking again, and everyone had a great time! Steve Shuttleworth from the Round Table was round and about with his camera the whole evening, and captured the ambience of the whole event - click on the link below to see his Flickr album (when the album opens, click on the "Slideshow" icon at the top right, to see the photos more easily) - there's not only photos of us, but of all the Congolians enjoying themselves!

Congleton Beer Festival photos

And so to Bristol!! On Saturday 5 July, the band de-camped to Wooton-under-Edge to play at a joint birthday party for 7 people ranging in age from 21 to 60! The venue was the "farmstead" of Brian and Pat and, although the weather was fairly kind throughout the day, and allowed the band gear to be set up in the barn, and several gazebos to be erected to protect the crowd, from about 5 in the afternoon, the heavens opened, and by 8:00pm there was a river flowing through the "dance floor"! However, we did not let this deter us, and we'd like to think that we made a pretty decent fist of entertaining 120 odd people for the night - in fact, we went on at 8:15pm and (with a couple of beer breaks in between) played until 12:45 in the morning - eventually had to stop because Paul was hoarse (and we'd run out of songs anyway!).
Here's some photos (some are a bit blurred - but, then, so were we by the end of the night!) - again, click on the Slideshow icon to see the whole lot more easily

Brian's birthday bash photos

Chrissie, Frank, Matt,Dave and Andy stayed under canvas overnight, and did look a bit bedraggled in the morning (Paul and Hugh got the short straws and had to sleep in beds in the house!), but the bacon butties cooked on barbecues the following morning (washed down with beer!) did help a little bit - and it had stopped raining by then (just)!

Finally, a return to The Bruce on Saturday 12 July, and the first gig without Frank. A bit of sphincter twitching to start with (not helped by there only being about 5 people in the pub when we started!). However, we got warmed up, more people came in, and if the neighbours hadn't complained and forced us to stop at 11:30, I think we would have still been going at Sunday lunchtime!

So now we have a couple of weeks to re-group before the next gig at the Jolly Sailor on Thursday 31 July. We are going to take the opportunity to look at some new numbers, and maybe play around with the line-up - Matt fancies trying his hand on lead guitar, and Dave fancies trying the bass for a new numbers - so let's see what happens!

New gigs have been added to the list on the right hand side, so check them out, and we hope to see you at one or more of them (we'll also send some Facebook invitations out - how cool is that?!)

WE'RE NEARLY AT OUR WITT'S END!!

2008-06-28T13:14:00.008+01:00

Sad news to report today!

After tonight's gig at the Congleton Beer Festival and next week's in Bristol, Frank will be leaving us, as a combination of work and family commitments have made it increasingly difficult for him to fit in time for the band.

We all fully understand why Frank has come to this difficult decision and are 100% behind him - but we'll miss him hugely.

We'll never forget you Frank - just be sure you don't forget us!

If you read this beforehand, get yourselves down the Congleton BF tonight, and give Frank a great send off!!

LONG TIME - NO SPEAK!!

2008-06-07T13:06:00.006+01:00

Well, it's over a month since we posted any news on here - sorry about that! It's not because nothing has been happening; quite the reverse, it's finding time to sit down and do it, that has been the problem!

Several more gigs are in the pipeline, and they are posted in the list on right hand side of the blog. We're back at the Jolly Sailor on Thursday 19 June but, before that we're doing a Sunday night gig on 15 June at the well known stammerer's pub The Ox-fford (on Oxford Road in Macclesfield), which also happens to be the home of the Macclesfield Quiz League Champions (and there's a bit of trivia in itself!). So, if you're looking to round next weekend off in style, come along for a sing and a boogie! Paul and Hugh are in Wales for the weekend, so let's hope the A55 isn't too crowded on the way home, or it will be a bit of a quiet gig.

The next "big" gig is Congleton Beer Festival on Saturday 28 June - it will be our second year there, and if it's half as good as last year, it will be tremendous. A bit of rivalry developing between the Macc BF crowd and the Congleton BF crowd to see who can sing loudest - all I can say is that the Congolians will have to go some to beat the crowd at this year's Macc shindig - they were fantastic on both nights!

As Andy has a family commitment on that night, we are delighted to have Paul Hambley making a return guest appearance with us - Paul played when we entertained the Congleton Round Table and Ladies Circle, so he's becoming a bit of a Beartown regular - anyway, it should be a good night (let's hope the weather is kinder than last year!) and, as it's my birthday on that day, I certainly intend to enjoy myself and try to defy the advancing years for a bit longer!

Link to Congleton Beer Festival information

We're also returning to another old haunt on Saturday 12 July when we play at the Bruce Arms on Crompton Road, this will be our first time since New Year's Eve, so it will be good to go back, and see the old friends

ONE DOWN - ONE TO GO!

2008-05-10T14:57:00.004+01:00

Well, here we sit on Saturday afternoon - fresh from the lunch time session at the Beer Festival, and reflecting on last night's proceedings; and I have to say - it was pretty damn good!
The sun shone during the day, so it was a pretty balmy (or is it barmy?) night - the Beavers came on at around 8:30, with about half the assembled gathering outside the marquee, which was not the best of situations! However, they did their normal good job of getting the crowd going with their mix of soul and R&B classics, so by 10:00pm everybody was nicely primed!
We had a slight hiccup in that Frank decided (at 10:10pm) to go to the toilet, change his shirt and tune up, which delayed us by about another 5 minutes (he's only had half an hour to do this!), but once we ripped into "Johnny B Goode" and "Summer of 69" the crowd were putty in our hands!
The set seemed to go down pretty well - our really new number "Whole Lotta Rosie" was brilliantly received, and Chrissie's performance really settled her nerves (her knees were actually shaking when she went on!).
So, all in all, a fantastic night, and we're looking forward to this evening - we're on at 8:15pm, so will be sending security out to drag people in from outside, or doing a rain dance! Once we are off at 9:45, we can relax and really enjoy the beer - assuming there is any left!
If you read this, and you've not got a ticket - there's still some left, so get to one of the outlets and get down there for a brilliant night - and it's all for charity!

FRIDAY IS A SELL-OUT!!

2008-05-07T13:52:00.005+01:00

Well, you can't say we didn't warn you!

If you check the Macclesfield Beer Festival website you'll find a line in bright red type that tells you that all tickets for Friday night have now been sold, so we know there will be over 1200 sweaty bodies enjoying themselves that night! I've never known this to happen nearly a week in advance, but there you go - must be something to do with the quality of music on offer!
Link to Macc Beer Fest website
Anyway, still tickets available for Saturday, and we'll be there - us and the Beavers will be swapping round for that night, with us doing the "warm up" for them (as they are kindly doing for us on Friday) - should be just as good a night so, if you haven't got your tickets for Friday, get them for Saturday or you'll be left sitting outside listening through the canvas with a can of Fosters in your hand!
As I write, we are putting the finishing touches to our 2 sets (we're doing slightly different ones on Friday and Saturday, because we're on at different times); we rehearsed last night, and will be doing another hour or so tonight, so that we've rubbed the rust off some of the old faithfuls!
Looking forward to seeing all our old friends - and maybe some new ones, over the weekend - some of us will even be there for the Saturday lunchtime session!

WE'D BETTER GET TO THE GYM!

2008-04-23T18:44:00.007+01:00

Only 2 weeks to go now before the Macc Beer Festival, and we're taking some time off from from gigging to gird our loins, practice a couple of new songs, and generally prepare ourselves for the fray!
If the past 2 years is anything to go by, we'll be booking ourselves in for an MOT straight afterwards - but it will be fun getting to that state!
Hot off the press (literally) is the cutting from this week's Macclesfield Express (click on it to enlarge) - and I quote "The energy Dazed and Confused bring to the stage has to be seen to be believed. Customers may struggle to keep up and will hate it when we close down for the evening, but will be exhausted when we do" - thus speaketh the Festival Chairman - so it must be true! I don't know about the customers - Frank struggles to keep up sometimes!
Anyway, get your tickets quickly - Friday night's your best bet, as there will be a full selection of beers available - but the tickets for that night are like gold dust!

Other news is that we're looking to play at the Mind, Body and Boogie Festival in Bollington at the end of August. Anyone who has been to this in the last 2 years, will know that it has grown very quickly to a really popular event with a huge number of acts (50+?) performing at a number of venues (inside and outside) across Bollington. There have been (as always) a few complaints about noise (I believe there were a total of 7 - 4 of which were from the same person!), but the organisers are working with the local authorities to ensure it can go ahead. It's for a fantastic cause (Mental Health charities), so I'd recommend it to anybody who likes good music. Entry is completely free - all you have to do is pay £1 for a string of beads for every act you watch over the weekend! Check out the MySpace site for more information
Link to Mind, Body and Boogie

21st BIRTHDAY PARTY PHOTOS

2008-04-07T19:43:00.001+01:00

Well here they are - a selection of photos (copyright Gordon Letij 2008) from Anna & Lucy's 21st birthday party the other week - this gives just a mild flavour of the fun that everyone had that night!

http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/7962168

WE ARE SAILING.......AGAIN!!

2008-03-31T21:12:00.005+01:00

Thursday night sees us back at The Jolly Sailor - practice night for us, but we'll try not to practice too much!

Some new numbers to try - as ever, they're not really new - just new to us! They might include "Tobacco Road", "Substitute" and even "Wishing Well" that rose from the grave like Lazarus at last week's practice - Matt and Andy haven't done this with us, so it sounds quite fresh!

Saturday night at The Chain & Gate was a reasonably good night, although only about half of the expected 200 people turned up - Ian and Dawn also have a huge dance floor, which is a big expanse to play across when nobody's dancing! We did get home for 1:00am (which, of course, immediately became 2:00am!), so bleary eyes all round on Sunday morning!

After this gig, we'll probably have a rest, so that we can put in some quality rehearsal time for the Beer Festival - only a month to go, so we need it! We will have done 7 gigs already this year, which is something of a record, considering we normally work on doing one a month!

BEER FESTIVAL SEASON APPROACHES!

2008-03-29T12:47:00.006Z

The clocks go forward tonight and, as well as it meaning that we get almost no sleep at all, because we're playing at The Chain & Gate for the official opening of their new "Function Room" and probably won't get home until 2:00am (which will actually be 3:00am!), it also means that summer is rapidly approaching, and that can only mean one thing - BEER FESTIVALS!

Obviously, for Hugh & Dave, this is great news, because it means they sell loads of their fine ales (even more than usual); for the rest of us it's great news as well, because we get to make great music in front of really happy crowds AND we get to sample plenty of fine ale as well!

We met with Mickey Jones and James Coley from the Macclesfield Round Table, and several Screaming Beavers, to sort out the details for the Macclesfield Beer Festival entertainment - we've agreed to share the billing rights so, on Friday 9 May, the Beavers will be kicking the evening off at around 8:15pm and playing until around 9:45pm. We will then come on at about 10:00pm and play until the death (of the evening or ourselves!). On the Saturday evening the roles will be reversed.

It promises to be a great weekend; details are in the poster above (click to enlarge) and we advise you to get your tickets early - they are only a tenner and, believe me, they sell out really quickly.

As mentioned above, we're on at the Chain & Gate near Congleton tonight - it'll be the usual nonsense, and we believe it's open to anyone who wants to come. For those who don't know where it is, a link to a map is attached

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/newmap.srf?x=387445&y=367293&z=5&sv=387445,367293&st=4&ar=Y&mapp=newmap.srf&searchp=newsearch.srf&ax=387445&ay=367293

21ST PHOTOS

2008-03-17T20:38:00.007Z

Here are some "amateur" photos from Saturday night to be going on with - thanks to Xanthe and Sally for these - professional ones to follow.....

ALBUM COVER?!

2008-03-16T21:42:00.004Z

Thanks to Colin for this photo that he took after the gig at The Jolly Sailor in February - obviously, we'll be using it on the cover of our next CD when it is released! Mean and moody, or what?

By the way, we only play places that offer bed and breakfast, just in case!

A BUSY 2 WEEKS!

2008-03-16T20:59:00.006Z

Lots has happened since I last updated on here - we've played 2 gigs for a start!

No.1: At The Old Ship Inn in aid of The Stroke Association - this went off really well; the pub was packed, and loads of money was collected for the charity. Again, I won't go into details but, hopefully, what we did will help to help people who find themselves in need of help from the SA.

No.2: Last night we played the most surreal gig of my life - we entertained fifty or so 21 year olds at the birthday party for my 2 daughters!! Not only did this seem to be totally the wrong way round, but also they all seemed to have the time of their lives!

We played at HQ (i.e. the Storm Brewing Company premises in Macclesfield, where we practice each week!), and converted the place into a veritable den of iniquity - although I'm not sure Lucy and Anna appreciated the slideshow of photos from their lives!

Dave wasn't able to be with us, but we played 2 great sets, and we were joined by Mr Hambley for the second set - everyone had a fantastic time and, although there were some sore heads amongst the younger members this morning, we have now achieved legendary status with students from Sheffield, London, Leeds, Loughborough.........etc., and will, no doubt, be "Facebooked" across the country (already tagged as "Lucy and Anna's pissup in a Brewery" - thanks Xanthe!)!

Surprisingly, I remember my own 21st party - Ray's Place in Fallowfield, Manchester actually, 1974 - but my Dad certainly didn't provide the entertainment!

More photos to follow, when Gordon puts them onto CD!!

SHIP INN GIG - 1 MARCH

2008-02-27T21:02:00.005Z

We're back on stage this Saturday and, due to circumstances beyond our control, which I won't go into here, the gig will be in aid of The Stroke Association. I don't know how many people even read this, but after the publicity in the Macclesfield Express (see below, click on the image to enlarge) hopefully many more will; all I will say is that if you can get to The Ship on Saturday night, it will be much appreciated, and we guarantee you a GREAT night!!

...and, if you don't know where it is - here's a map!

THE OLD SHIP INN

BEER FESTIVALS AND MORE!!

2008-02-16T13:04:00.004Z

Plenty of activity this week - as well as practising for tonight's gig for the Congleton Round Table's Ladies Night, we've had confirmation that we will be playing Congleton Beer Festival again on Saturday 28 June AND both nights of the Macclesfield Beer Festival on Friday/Saturday 9 & 10 May!! This will be our second year ay Congleton and our 3rd in a row at Macclesfield - rumour has it that The Screaming Beavers will also be on at Macc - we just hope they don't mind supporting us!! Plenty more to come on these, as we get nearer the time.

Another gig that is looking likely is the grand opening of the new "function room" at the Chain & Gate on the Congleton Road at North Rode on Saturday 29 March. Ian and Dawn have ambitious plans for the facility, and we will, hopefully (depending on availability), have the pleasure of playing at their inaugural "do" - we think it's "open house" so more details to follow when it's confirmed.

A JOLLY GOOD NIGHT!

2008-02-09T15:05:00.000Z

Last Thursday at the Jolly Sailor was another excellent gig - thanks to Glyn & Sarah for having us, and thanks to everyone who came along - the pub was pretty packed and, although we didn't start until after 9:30 because of Andy's work commitments, most people stuck with us until we called it a day (literally!) at midnight.

There was some additional entertainment, for the first 20 minutes or so, in the form of a gentleman who had obviously been lubricating himself for a fair few hours previously - it was great to have him dancing right from the start - but, as he was having trouble staying upright even when he wasn't moving, dancing was starting to look like a life-limiting exercise. Paul tried to stare him out a couple of times; however, as his eyes were looking in totally different directions (the other guy's, not Paul's!), this did not have much effect! Fortunately, Glyn Naden did his friendly bouncer act, and the guy "left" - he's probably still trying to find his way home even now.

Several of the guys from Macc Round Table joined us for the second half - on one of their monthly nights out, they were fresh from the Thai restaurant next door and, although they claimed to be just after some of Storm Brewing's "Bosley Cloud" (which was on fine form, incidentally), we reckon they were secretly checking us out to see if we were fit to do the Beer Festival again this year! We've been in touch with the Chairman, but if anyone wants to lobby on our behalf, pop in and see Micky Jones in his Chestergate shop, and tell him to make it happen!

There'll be some photos of the night on here shortly - when Colin sends me the CD - he took about 300 shots on the night, so we should get a couple of good ones!

Here's the set list we did (click on it to see a big version):

Next gig is for the Congleton Round Table Ladies Night next Saturday (16 February) - a "posh do" in Congleton Park (well, in a building in the Park!), so log back on here to get an update on how it went! After that, we're at The Old Ship Inn on Mill Lane in Macc on Saturday 1 March, which is always a good night, so put the date in your diary now!

HELLO SAILOR!

2008-02-03T12:43:00.001Z

Our next gig takes us again to uncharted territory although, having said that, it's only spitting distance (not that we've tried it!) from where we practice - which is the Brewery (oh dear, what a pity, never mind!).

Yes - Thursday 7 February sees us play THE JOLLY SAILOR on Sunderland Street, for the first time ever!

Now the Jolly (or is it the Sailor?) has had a somewhat chequered past. and rumours of people being thrown IN through the windows, as well as out, abounded, so we were a little apprehensive when Dave announced that he had got us a gig there - cries of "where??" and "...you've done what?" were heard all round the place, and we had visions of having to rent a Blues Brothers-esque cage to protect ourselves!

However, being the true professionals we are, Hugh and I went to check the place out the other week, and we're delighted to report that the new landlord has done a great job in doing the place up - bright decor and good beer, together with a friendly welcome, what more could anyone want (they even stock Storm Brewing's Bosley Cloud!)?

So, if you're at a loose end on Thursday night, why not come along and start the weekend early? It will be a nice relaxed evening - we usually practice on Thursdays, so this will be a refreshing change, and we might even try some new stuff out on the unsuspecting audience! Andy is working until 9:00pm, so we'll probably go on around 9:30pm and play till about 11:45.

Be there or be rectangular!!

WELL, WHAT DO YOU KNOW - 1 MARCH IS BACK ON!

2008-01-27T22:11:00.000Z

Just come off the phone with Andy, and he has confirmed that the gig on 1 March (that should have been at Morton Hall) is now on at THE OLD SHIP INN on Beech Lane in Macclesfield.

This is always a good night - so get there early, otherwise, you'll be outside with the smokers!

For those who, for some reason, have never been to The Ship before - here's a link to how to get there!

THE OLD SHIP INN

and if nothing else, you can enjoy the cisterns!

A VICTORY AT THE VICTORY HALL!

2008-01-27T21:28:00.000Z

The first gig of 2008 took us to the wilds of Mobberley, and the mightily impressive facility that is the Victory Hall. For those who are not familiar - and I suspect there are many - the Hall is actually 3 facilities in 1 - a friendly bar area, a 3 room snooker hall and a large function hall with stage and lights and everything you could possibly want!

The place is run by Gary, who is brilliant- he's into heavy metal and wears some pretty suspect clothes, but he lives and breathes the Victory Hall, and is passionate about providing the local community with good quality entertainment and hospitality - all we can say is SUPPORT HIM!

We had a great evening and, although there was room for plenty more people in the hall, hopefully those that were there enjoyed it enough to tell their friends and maybe we can come back again? We knew things were going well when Gary synchronised everyone's watches at 11:50 pm back to 11:15 (the music is supposed to finish at 12:00am, and he wanted us to play several more tunes!)

The set list is in the right hand panel - the normal variation on a theme, but we have some new stuff in the works (well, not exactly new, but you know what I mean!)

Our old mate Dave Robinson appeared with Rosemary (they keep coming back to see us, and Dave likes his music, so I take that as a good sign!), and he took some photos - here are the first couple (click on the images to enlarge them - if you dare!):

1. Paul & Chrissie trying singing with their mouths glued shut (note also the matching pyjama tops on Frank & Paul)!

2. Some semblance of action in this one, although Chrissie has obviously spotted something amusing hanging out the back of Dave's trousers!

3. Good God - there's even people dancing - although Paul can't see them, cos he's looking the other way - fool!

BOBBY CRUSH RETURNS!!

2008-01-16T12:20:00.000Z

Breaking news!
As Andy will not be able to be with us for the "posh" do on 16 February for the Congleton Round Table Ladies Night (because Claire's promised him a better evening!), we have enlisted the services of old friend, compadre and band member Paul Hambley!
For those who don't know Paul, he has been around the music scene in Macclesfield for many years (more than he would probably care to count!); for a number of them, he was a regular member of the Jack Miller Band (in between their frequent fall-outs!), and Paul has also guested with other beat combos around and about. Paul played with Dazed & Confused for 2 years, but left because we kept nicking his flask of tea, so he couldn't have a drink at half time (as he called it!)
Paul is an all round good egg - not least because he supports Manchester City, and it will be good to have him play with us, even if it is only for one night (who knows!). All we have to do is provide him with a set list, and he can then annoy his neighbours by practising into the early hours of the morning at full blast.
We will, of course (in true Strictly Come Keyboard Playing tradition), be scoring his performance out of 10 and, if nothing else, we'll try and capture the event photographically (particularly if he's all dressed up, and wears his gangster hat!)!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN - SATURDAY 26 JANUARY!

2008-01-15T19:40:00.000Z

Yes folks - we're out and about again for the first gig of 2008 - and for this one we're straying into uncharted waters - Mobberley!

All we really know about it is the people that live there are very rich (including Paul Gregory!), there are (or were!) 2 pubs opposite each other and not another for miles, and you can't hear yourself think because the village is just inside the end of Runway 2 of Manchester Airport (we should fit in well then!)!

Anyway, mein hosts at The Victory Hall have been after us to play there ever since they came to see us during our "residency" at The Coach & Four in Wilmslow during 2005 (i.e. we played there approximately every 6 weeks until they got fed up with us, or we got fed up with them - I can't remember which), and we have been promising to turn up there ever since!

As ever, we'd be delighted to see old and new friends at this gig and, for those who are not familiar with the wilds of Mobberley, a link to Streetmap.co.uk is attached so you can work out exactly where it is! Victory Hall Hopefully, we'll have some photos of the event to post on here, so we can build up a nice gallery of "Confused-lings"!