IT'S NOT A GIG - IT'S BAND ON A BOAT 2!!



Captain BirdsEye and Roger the Cabin Boy

 



 A bit of explaining to do here, I think!

A few weeks ago, Andy enquired whether we would be able to play at The Unicorn in Congleton - a fine establishment with a growing reputation for good music, on Saturday 22 June. We all duly said that would be fine (we've not played Congleton for a year or so), and wheels were put in motion to confirm the booking (Andy's job), sort out publicity (Paul's job) and generally get ourselves into shape (not easy when holidays and the like had to be accommodated!).

Things were seemingly going OK, except for the fact that The Unicorn were apparently oblivious to the fact that we would be appearing there! There was nothing on their Facebook Page - in fact, they were billing up another band to appear on that night, so there was a real risk of either a multi-band event, a coin toss for who played the gig or (at worst) a big fight in front of the pub! When this was pointed out to Andy, he seemed completely unfazed saying "Don't worry, I'll talk to them, it's all OK". Unbeknownst to Paul, who was getting a little perturbed by the lack of action at the Unicorn end (to the extent of posting on their FB page to tell people that their entertainment had changed, and that D&C would be there, rather than the other band!), a plot was being hatched!! To celebrate his birthday, a replay of the famous "Band on a Boat" trip of a couple of years had been arranged and, when he was told of this at 7:45am on Saturday morning, it almost precipitated a heart attack, stroke and nervous breakdown all at the same time! Sure enough, on arrival at Macclesfield Marina, the whole band, partners and friends were assembled - except for Chrissie and Pete who were late, because they live 50 yards from the marina!

Notwithstanding the shock, it was a fabulous day - the weather held out, there was a big spread of food and drink AND Andy had frantically rung round telling people who had arranged to go to the gig (and The Unicorn!) what was going on, so all's well that ends well! We did consider going on to the Unicorn to heckle the other band, after we'd parked the boat (I think that's the right nautical term!)but decided, in view of level of refreshment that had been reached, it probably wasn't a good idea! So, big apologies if we wrecked anybody's plans, and the same to The Unicorn if we messed them about - we are hoping to actually turn up and play there sometime in July, and that will give us the chance to make amends properly!

So, onto this week, when we ARE actually playing! We're back at The Windmill in Whiteley Green, which is always a great night, and we'd be delighted to see old and new friends there. As it's Paul's actual birthday on that day, that's also a good reason to come and see if the addition of another year has taken its toll!

STOP PRESS - 2 MORE GIGS!

Well - I obviously spoke too soon! No sooner do I say that we don't have another gig until the end of June, than the "London Bus" syndrome strikes and TWO more come along at once! both of these are "public", so you don't need to worry about smuggling yourself in under the hem of someone's bridesmaid's dress, or disguising yourself as a waiter!


The first one is this SATURDAY 1 JUNE at Porter's Ale House on Roe Street in Macclesfield. It's a while since we've played there, and it's changed hands, but we're sure it will be a good night and, as Summer officially starts on 1 June, no doubt the sun will be cracking the pavement (except that it will be 9 o'clock at night when we start!). So come along in your shorts and flip flops, and we'll have a good old summer knees-up!

SATURDAY 22 JUNE sees us breaking new ground - we've been asked to play at The Unicorn on Holmes Chapel Road in Congleton! Apparently, mein hosts at the pub are trying to generate a worthwhile music scene in Congleton, and we are one of the first to get it going (of course, it will all be downhill from there!) so, if any of our Congleton readers are at a loose end on the night, why not come along and see what you've been missing all this time - of course, everyone else is welcome too!  PS: I couldn't find a photo of the pub, so here's a photo of a Unicorn!

SEVENTH HEAVEN - IT WAS JUST LIKE BEING FAMOUS!!

Friday 10 May 2013 will be remembered for many things - the Government Transport Committee produced its Aviation Strategy, Adam Hansen won Stage 7 of the Giro d'Italia cycle race (it finished in Pescara, by the way), and there was a total solar eclipse visible across Australasia. However, all of these events were eclipsed (see what I did there?) by the SEVENTH appearance of Dazed and Confused at the Macclesfield Beer Festival! Now, it wasn't the 7th appearance in a row because, as seasoned readers of this nonsense will remember, we decided to give last year a miss after 6 on the bounce (we said it was to give ourselves and the audience a break but, secretly, we were afraid we wouldn't be asked!), and regretted it ever since! When we were asked to come back this year, we took the opportunity with open arms and, my goodness, was it a fine decision!!

 

The format was different this year, in that there were 2 different bands on each night, and we baggsied Friday night because we know it's always the best one! Special mention must go the The Great Escape, who made their BF debut, and did a fantastic job of warming the crowd up; it's not easy doing the early shift but Jon, Martin and the lads had the Big Tent really jumping by the end of their set. We took the stage at 10:00pm, and kicked off with an "unknown" number ("Revo") by a Canadian band called Walk Off The Earth, who a few of us saw play at The Ritz in Manchester last year. It was a bit of a gamble, but it seemed to work well, especially as it sped straight into "Rock and Roll" which is our token nod in the direction of Led Zeppelin (as many people think we're a Zep tribute band, because of our name!) - featuring Machine Gun Thompson on drums!

 

A mix of new stuff and the old favourites occupied the next hour and a half and, by the time we wrapped up with cheesy old "Delilah" (ah yes, I remember her!) at 11:45pm we were well and truly buzzing! Judging by the amount of singing and dancing that went on, the 1500 or so people in the crowd seemed to enjoy it, and we even managed to keep the barriers in place (much to the pleasure of the security guys!).

 

 

 

A couple of quotes summed up the night:

1. "It was just like being famous!" Andy Smith, Rock God
2. "I heard "Fire" rolling across the fields so, fortunately, I didn't miss all of your set!" Pete Munro, who had acting commitments at MADS, so couldn't make the event

So that's it for another year! :-(( Fortunately, Papparazzi Pete captured a couple of videos - he said they were a bit "dark and distant" (which sounds like a great name for our next band!), but you can still enjoy Matt's piece de resistance "Chasing Cars" and the rockabilly version of U2s "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" in the video stream above (Nos 15 & 16) or by clicking on the links. Plenty of audience participation in both of these! BIG BIG thanks to everyone who came along - it was a fantastic night, and we hope you enjoyed it as much as us!!

Next scheduled gig is on Friday 28 June, back at The Windmill in Whiteley Green, although we could be treading the boards in Congleton before that depending on negotiations that are currently underway! We'll keep you posted!

WELL - YOU WERE WARNED!!

Only 48 hours or so to go before the flaps open on the Big Tent for this year's Beer Festival and, unless you have your tickets in your hot sweaty hand (or have them waiting at Reception for you hip young things that bought them online!) you're going to have to get a wiggle on, and hire Sherlock Holmes to help you track some down! All this is because online sales for Friday night closed LAST WEEKEND, and we are led to believe that there are very few around in the pubs that were holding stocks (see poster on the left for a list of these)! Aside from the 200+ beers and other associated beverages that are available, the reason for this is obviously the attraction of D&C making their 7th appearance to bounce the marquee off its moorings, and we REALLY can't wait! Just one more little practice to be had tomorrow (obviously we want to keep our powder dry for the big day), and then it will be time to do the business!

The Great Escape will be on stage around 8:15, so be sure to give them a shout; we will close the evening from 10:00-ish until just before midnight. Not to give too many secrets away, we will have several "new" tunes in the set, and will be starting with a song that, I guarantee, very few people will have heard before but we think it's a brilliant way to kick off and, don't worry, there will be plenty more that you HAVE heard of before! As ever, we will be looking for plenty of audience participation, and the closer you can get to the stage, the better - I'm sure there will be barriers to stop things getting too rowdy, but talk nicely to Dutch and his mates on security, and I'm sure they'll treat you right!

So it just remains for us to get a couple of early nights (oh yeah!), and we'll see you on Friday!!

THE COUNTDOWN IS ON!

Been a bit quiet on here again recently, so thought I would put fingers to keys to bring you up to date with what's been happening and, perhaps more importantly, what is coming up!

Most holidays are done and dusted - except, of course, for Dave who is currently cruising the Caribbean and not due back for another couple of weeks! Hugh, Chrissie and Paul have all managed to get a bit of sun on their backs over the last few weeks but, of course, the good old British spring has managed to erase most of those memories! There's a few more in the pipeline in the near future, but plenty more fish to fry before then!

 

Gig update - since the last musings on here, we've played 4 gigs - all different in their own way, but all great fun!

• First up was The Old Millstone in Macclesfield; we'd not played there for a while, and it has changed hands recently. Sean has got a good music scene going there now, and it was great to play to a full house - "The most we've had in for one band!" to quote mein host! I'm sure we'll be back there soon!
• The following weekend, we took the tour bus (i.e. the dirty white brewery van), and several cars down to the wilds of Hertfordshire to play at our old friend Tim's 40th birthday party! Tim kindly put the band (and partners) up in a local hotel, and took over his local pub completely for the event, so it was always going to be a good weekend! Picture the scene; 150 people, running buffet and a free bar for the whole evening.........it didn't get too messy, but we all had a fantastic time! Quote of the night was from Tim himself "For my 40th birthday, all I ever wanted was this band in this pub!" Some may say he's easily pleased (or in need of psychiatric care!), but we took it as a compliment, and it was great to see he was standing and reasonably coherent when we went to say goodbye early the next morning.
• The next leg of our national tour took us to Wilmslow! Vicky and Adrian's wedding went off really well, and we wanted to kidnap Steve, the resident DJ at Stanneylands, because he gave us such a great build up and introduction, it felt like we were going on stage at Glastonbury! The only downside of the evening was that the event was in the upstairs suite so lugging all the gear up at the start of the evening and (even worse) down at the end of the evening was a pain - little did we know that this was to become a trend!
 
• And so to last Saturday! We've been putting together our set for the Macc Beer Festival (more of that later), and thought it would be good to "road test" some of it in public beforehand! Dom and John from the newest music venue in Macclesfield - Cabin 5150 were good enough to offer their premises for this, so we duly pencilled in last Saturday for the gig. The Cabin has rapidly developed a reputation for putting on high quality performances from talented performers with their own material, so we weren't too sure how a dreary old covers band would go down; well - we had nothing to worry about!! Once we'd lugged all the gear up yet another 2 sets of stairs (what's wrong with the ground floor?!), and endured a somewhat protracted set up and sound check, we kicked off at 9:30 in front of a full house, who became progressively more animated as the evening went on! Great venue, great crowd and the new songs went down well - all in all, a fantastic night, and many thanks to Dom et al for having us;  I think we proved how good music should be played, and we hope to be back soon!!

Next stop is the Beer Festival - Friday 10 May is the date for your diary (if you don't already have it in). The Great Escape will be kicking things off around 8:15, and we'll be on stage from 10:00 to take things through to a mighty crescendo just before midnight! Further information and tickets can be obtained from the Beer Festival website - all we would say is get them soon, because Friday night tickets sell out notoriously quickly! If you don't want to buy tickets online, there is also a list on the website (and on the poster on the left!) of local hostelries selling tickets.

 



TEN THOUSAND AND COUNTING!!

Well, what do you know? I check the "Hit" counter, and it's gone over 10,000!! Big thanks to everyone who (for whatever reason!) keeps coming  back to read whatever drivel is put on here - hopefully, some of it makes you smile and, even if it doesn't, perhaps it evokes a bit of sympathy for us lot, and at least lets you know where we are playing! If this is the first time you've been here - hopefully, you'll be back!

So, what's happened in the last month? Well, we played a brilliant wedding gig at the Mere Golf & Country Club a couple of weeks ago and, although it was every bit as posh as expected, Rachel & Rob's crowd were amazing and, for the first time in a very long time, there were more people dancing than sitting down - believe me, for a wedding, that is really saying something!! We let the bride and groom have a say in choosing the set list - so maybe that's the secret!

We've also been having a play with some new songs, so that we can hit Macclesfield Beer Festival with a relatively new set in May! For those, who've not clocked it in the Gig List on the right hand side of the blog, we've been invited back to play again - and it will be our SEVENTH appearance!!! We decided to give it a miss last year, because we thought that, after 6 consecutive years, we would be a bit stale (and the crowd would be fed up!). As it happened, we all felt it was probably the worst decision we'd ever made, and we spent most of the night we were there moping about! Amazingly, we also kept getting asked whether we were playing, and even got people saying "Well, if you're not playing, we're not going!!" Now, I know we're good , but giving up a night of ale and music? I don't think so! The format this year, is slightly different, in that the organisers are having a different line up of bands on the Friday & Saturday nights. We are headlining on FRIDAY 10 MAY (supported, I believe, by local band The Great Escape). On the Saturday night, our good friends The Injectors, are making their first appearance supporting Monkey Harris (who are still new boys, cos this is only their 4th time!). So, if you want a good night, book your tickets early for Friday (they always sell out quickly!).

Before all that happens, we have a busy couple of weeks; this Saturday (23rd) we return to The Old Millstone at Waters Green in Macc. The pub has recently changed hands, but the new landlord is working really hard to promote local music, and we've heard some excellent reports of how things are going so, if you fancy stretching your legs, lungs and vocal chords, toddle on down to The Milly - a splendid time is guaranteed for all!

The following weekend, we're off to Hertfordshire to play at a 40th Birthday party for our old friend Tim. We did his wife's (Fizz) party a year or so ago, and had great time playing in their living room! Whether we caused too much noise/damage, or whether there are more people expected, I'm not sure but, this time, Tim has decided against using his own premises and has booked out the whole of the local pub for his "do", so it sounds like there will be plenty of fun and games again!

After that, a couple of us are off to get some sun on our backs, and then it will be Spring again - about time too, I hear you say - snow is OK for a while, but it's time for some warmth now!

Back soon - keep that counter ticking over in the meantime!!

SNOW? MUST BE TIME FOR THE FIRST POST OF THE YEAR!

  

I've got this feeling of deja vu; it can only be 3 years ago, that I posted this photo, because we'd had a bit of snow and the whole country had ground to a halt (check it out - 5 Jan 2010!), and what happens this week - we have a bit of snow, and the whole country seems to have ground to a halt!! Now, come on Britain, these "once in every 50 years" events seem to be happening a little more frequently, so man up, put your snowshoes on and enjoy it! As I'm typing this, it's snowing again - and it's not even supposed to be; never mind, it'll be raining after the weekend, so we can all slip and break something, and then complain about flooding again!

Now, where was I? Oh yes, can I be the last to wish you a Happy New Year? Sorry it's taken me so long to get round to it, but you know how it is, people to see, places to go etc., etc, and at least my good wishes have not got lost in the pile of others that you will have had over the last few weeks! Hopefully, everyone has recovered from festivities, families, New Year resolutions and the rest, and you are now well into taming 2013. The band has had one practice since Christmas, and I have to say it was extremely enjoyable; it's always good to get back together after a break and, along with brushing some rust off a few songs, we did some reminiscing about mishaps, cock-ups and all round amusing incidents that have happened "on tour"! These ranged from playing to an audience of about 4 people (not the same 4 people for the whole set, I might add!) at The Spinners in Bollington, tent sharing for Matt & Frank in Bristol (I think, coincidentally, that was Frank's last gig!), and dropping Matt in it by getting him to play the bass intro to "Don't Believe A Word" as the first number at his first gig - he'd never heard the tune before, and ended up playing it at about three times the correct speed, as he'd only "practised" it twice!

Speaking of Matt, we are having to take a couple of weeks off, because he is starring in an "Am Dram" production at the Green Room in Wilmslow and, for some reason, feels he has to rehearse beforehand! The part Matt is playing is likely to be a bit of stretch for him - it's Jesus! We've managed to secure some photos, and below you will see "before and after" make-up shots - I'm sure you'll agree, they've done a great job!



Matt - before make-up



                  

                      Matt - after make-up

 



So, we'll be back in harness at the beginning of February - first gig is a wedding at Mere Country Club (very posh!), and we're at the Millstone on 23 February. I'm not going to rake over very old coals, but D&C scholars amongst you will remember that our last scheduled gig there did not end very well - in fact it never happened - check out blog post for September 2009 for all the gory details! I'm sure it will go swimmingly this time - especially if it keeps raining.
Our agents are also in negotiation for further gigs in the next few weeks, with The Wharf and No.4 Park Green being the hot tips amongst showbiz gossip - we'll keep you posted!