ALL DONE AND DUSTED!!

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!

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!!

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!