THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT - NOT!!

The days, not to mention the weeks, are scurrying past so quickly that the Big Ho Ho Ho will be on us before we know (11 more sleeps, as I type!) but, before that, 2 things are due to happen on Friday 21 December:

1. According to our good friends, the extinct Mayans from South America, the world is going to end!! This is because a 5,125-year cycle known as the Long Count in the Mayan calendar supposedly comes to a close (which, of course, we all remember from 'O' Level History!), resulting in mass destruction of, well the whole world, basically! Not surprisingly, this has sparked consternation in some quarters! According to the New York Times:

• Inmates in a women’s prison in Russia, near the Chinese border, are said to have experienced a “collective mass psychosis” so intense that their wardens summoned a priest to calm them. “Once, when the prisoners were standing in formation, one of them imagined that the earth yawned, and they were all stricken by fear and ran in all directions,” said the priest! 
• In a factory town east of Moscow, panicked citizens stripped shelves of matches, kerosene, sugar and candles
• More common are reports about panicky buying. In Ulan-Ude, the capital of the Buryatiya region, citizens have reportedly been hoarding food and candles to survive a period without light, following instructions from a Tibetan monk called "The Oracle of Shambhala" (made up name, if I ever heard one)!

This is obviously a disturbing state of affairs because...

2. Dazed and Confused are due to play their last gig of the year at The Windmill in Whiteley Green!!

Now, I've done my research, and the actual time of Armageddon is due to be 11:11am UTC (Universal Time Co-ordinates); for those who don't know, UTC is the same as GMT so, by my reckoning, we're going to have to take a rain check on the gig, if this is for real, because it's more than likely that the pub won't be there, at 9:00pm when we're due to kick off (come to think of it, neither will we!)!.

So, what to do? Well, I think we should travel optimistically and trust that the Mayans were slightly adrift in their calculations; therefore, I can assure you that the gig is still ON, and we would encourage everyone to book their places early cos this is always a very popular gig AND as it is the last working day before Christmas for many, it is a brilliant excuse to "let your hair down" (as we hippies used to say!) and bring in the Festive Season in style! Of course, if we get any updates on the end of the world, we will post them here, so be sure to come back often y'all!

A footnote to all this Mayan nonsense - I'm putting off buying any presents until the 22nd - just in case!

Finally, a word of apology for those intending to travel into Bollington for the scheduled gig tomorrow night (Saturday 15th) at The Poachers. Unfortunately, Rob & Helen have cancelled the gig (we think due to space constraints), so we won't be appearing. We're really sorry if you were planning to be there, and a specially big "Soz" to Stella & Andy who were planning to trek across from Doncaster - we'll see you on Sunday anyway! x

CHRISTMAS IS COMING - AGAIN??

 

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm finding it very difficult to believe that in 2 weeks, we will be in the last month of 2012, and preparations for the "festive" season will be in full spate (if they're not already)! Obviously, all my Christmas shopping is complete, and everything is ready for the big day (oh yeah!), so attention can be focused well and truly on other things - like 4 gigs between now and the end of the year!

We kick off this pre-Yule splurge next Friday, when we welcome back the "SAD Dads" to the Brewery! The masquerade that normally occurs at these events, is that a group of 50 or so gentlemen (and some ladies) of a certain age gather together, ostensibly to educate themselve in the finer points of Storm Brewing Ale. In reality, it is an excuse for them to have a good time, and let what's left of their hair down! When we first encountered this group (who are all actually attached to the Parents' Association of a local school!), they happened to be on a tour on our practice night, and we just carried on as if they weren't there! They enjoyed it so much that, on the their next visit, they specifically asked for us to play, taxis were cancelled at the end of the night, and we finished the evening about 12:45! This time, they have even changed the evening to Friday, so nobody has to get up in the morning - so God knows what will happen!

The following Friday (30th), we're off to Bollington for the first leg of a pre-Christmas mini tour of Happy Valley! We're starting at the top of the hill, and heading into the Cock and Pheasant where, no doubt, Charles and Ann will lay on their usual warm welcome - and, hopefully, move the big round table off the "dance floor"! It's the first time in a while, that we've played for the "public", so we're all really looking forward to it - and there are a couple more new songs to go in (if we can polish them at rehearsal next week!).

The rest of our mini-tour of Bolly and its environs takes us to The Poacher's Arms in the heart of the town on Saturday 15 December, and then we're back at The Windmill for a big Christmas party on Friday 21 December - as that's the last working day before the Big Ho Ho Ho, for lots of people, it promises to be a mad (and long!) night - so book it in your diaries now, as space will probably be at a premium!

If you check out the Gig Guide on the right, you'll see that we've already got quite few gigs booked in for 2013 - and even one for October 2014! I can see the life support system will have to move up the Christmas present list, if we're to make all them!

Finally - the ticker is just shy of 9000 visitors to this online gem - long may it continue, and hope to see lots of you in person, over the next few weeks!

 

NO WE'RE NOT DEAD YET!!

First up, a thousand apologies for leaving this literary masterpiece alone for the thick end of two and a half months! It's not been down to anything sinister - just a combination of holidays, lack of time (yes, really!) and general indolence!  Of course, what it means is that there is quite a bit to relate - only problem is knowing where to start and wondering if the old grey matter is working sufficiently well to enable me to recall even half of it!

So - where did we leave off? Ah yes, it was early July, with a post entitled "It might as well rain until September!" - and, guess what?? Here I sit on 21 September (the Autumnal Equinox, I believe), and it's STILL pi**ing down! Now I know there have been a few days when the sun has poked its shiny little face out from behind the clouds (and some of us/you have, no doubt, seen a bit more on hols), but they have been precious few and far between - roll on Summer, I say (I believe it's scheduled for 23 & 24 November this year)!!

Anyway, notwithstanding that, a number of us have managed to squeeze in some R&R over the last couple of months (some of us more than others!), so we're back refreshed, and raring to plough a musical furrow through the months up until Christmas and beyond (more of that later)!

Since we last wrote, we've even done a couple of gigs; Dave Hasler's birthday party, back in July, was a monster of an event! For those who don't know Dave, he and his wife Jill, are stalwarts of the local CAMRA branch, so when you put that together with a party in a brewery, a guest list that comprises most of the CAMRA membership of Macclesfield (as well as Matt Rose from the mighty VirginMarys, sporting his D&C T-shirt!), and includes music played loud and long into the night, you can imagine the carnage that ensued! In fact, to see Dave still standing at the end of the evening/beginning of the morning was one of the most remarkable sights of this, or any other, year!



We returned to The Old Ship on Beech Lane, at the beginning of September and, despite the fact that the gig clashed with the Loominus festival of live music in Macclesfield (which, due to an oversight, they neglected to invite us to!), which had several of the pubs in Macc showcasing 3 or 4 bands each, we were delighted to see the venue almost as full as usual - I'm sure the fact that I posted OUR gig on the Loominus Facebook page had something to do with it!. It was also as hot as usual because, even though neither of the famous fires were lit (must be a first!), the normal furnace-like environment prevailed! No matter, a brilliant night was had, as ever, and we gave a first airing to "Gold on the Ceiling", which is an excellent (if little known) song by The Black Keys, and which is rapidly accelerating up our list of favourite songs! As a side note to this, it actually took a bit of time for me to find the song on YouTube, because Andy had told me it was called "Ghost on the Floor" - well, I suppose it was close (no, it wasn't really!)!

In anticipation of our future gigs, we also had a "board meeting", in the summer, to stir fry some ideas in the strategy wok with regard to new songs! We actually came up with a list of 19 tunes that we want to work on - inevitably some will die a death (for some it will be a long and lingering one, no doubt!) but we hope to be drip feeding some of them in over the next few weeks - starting tomorrow night!

On which note, let me bring you up to date with future plans;  the gig list on the right hand side, should now be pretty much accurate (there have been some comings and goings of late), although there are a couple of "tbcs", which I don't envisage changing. As ever, there are a mix of private and public gigs, but if you fancy popping along to Bollington or Whiteley Green before Christmas, we would be as delighted as ever to see you!



Tomorrow evening sees us trekking out to the edge of Delamere Forest for the Annual Beer Festival, which is being held at Kingsley Cricket Club. I believe this is the second year for this event, and we don't really know what to expect - so what we are going to do is put our Macc Beer Fest "hats" on and just go for it! Pretty sure it will work, so if you fancy a balmy Autumn evening's entertainment, why not join us?!



So that pretty much brings us up to date - I will try not to leave it too long until the next time but, as Northern Spain beckons at the end of the month............

IT MIGHT AS WELL RAIN UNTIL SEPTEMBER!

As I sit here typing this, the rain is hurtling down, and they are promising a month's worth in one day - welcome to Summer! but are we downhearted? No we are not! Reason being that, after 2 great gigs last weekend, we are doing the same again this weekend - only this time it's private functions, rather than public ones (sorry about that!). This evening sees us returning to Sandhole Farm to pay at Daniel and Holly's wedding (we really hope the rain stops for them); we've not been there for nearly 3 years, but it's a great venue, and we just hope that the sound detection system is not so sensitive that it cuts out every few seconds, otherwise it's going to be a very fragmented performance!

Tomorrow night has us playing a private party in Macclesfield, which promises to be not only good fun, but also a very late night - as I'm off to the Lake District on Sunday (which, let's face it, could be anywhere in the country at the moment!), this is a bit of a worry!

Last weekend's frivolities saw us at The Windmill on Friday night - a really cracking gig, even if there were not quite as many punters as normal - look out for photos on the Facebook wall, once Paparazzi Pete gets them sorted. Saturday was Midnight Walk night, and our hour of "warm up" seemed to go down extremely well - over 600 people champing at the bit to get out onto the streets of Macclesfield, and the rain held off! A fantastic night all round and northwards of £60,000 raised for the Hospice!

Photos of the night Macclesfield turned yellow, and D&C through a fish-eye lens!!

Next gigs after that to be sorted - maybe we will be able to insert a pub date in the next few weeks - we'll keep you posted! Meanwhile this blog is only 13 hits away from 8000 - incredible! We've added visitors from the Isle of Man and China to the list but, as yet, no enquiries to play in either place!

A WINDMILL AND A WALK - ALL IN ONE WEEKEND!

Well holidays are over for the time being - except for Dave(!), so it's back on the road after a few weeks off - with a vengeance!! The next 2 weekends see us gigging on Fridays and Saturdays and, even though some of us will probably be close to expring by the end of it, we're SO looking forward to it! Who would have thought you could get withdrawal symptoms from playing music?!

Tonight (Friday 29th) has us back at The Windmill in Whiteley Green near Adlington; now, this always threatens to be a very sedate affair, because folk are having a very civilised meal in the dining room, and they view our appearance while they are eating with a mixture of astonishment and mild amusement! However, after a short while, and not least because there are normally some D&C diehards among them, feet start tapping and before too long, the mood overtakes them, and riotous behaviour rapidly ensues - let's just hope tonight is not the exception! If you've never been before, why not start the weekend in style - good food, good beer and EXCELLENT music! So good, that we even get celebrated astrophysicists/astronomers throwing some shapes (see below) - we'll withold his name to protect his reputation!

Assuming we survive tonight's festivities, tomorrow night (Saturday 30th) we will be the "warm up" act for the massive Midnight Walk in aid of the East Cheshire Hospice! We did this last year, and it was great fun, even if it was difficult to persuade some people to strut their stuff just before they embarked on a 10km walk in the middle of the night! This is a fantastic cause, as I'm sure many of our readers know - the Hospice needs more than £6000 a day just to keep going, and less than a quarter of this comes from Government funding, so the rest has to be raised through fundraising, donations etc., and the Midnight Walk is the biggest event of the year. If you are one of the 600+ folks that have registered for the walk, come and give us a shout, and don't be afraid to stretch those muscles - you know it's good for you! We'll be on stage around 10:30pm, and will be attempting to whip folks into a frenzy in time for big start at midnight!

Next weekend, we are playing at a wedding on Friday and a Private Party on Saturday, so I guess we'll need to be on our best behaviour - fat chance of that!

SHE'S ELIZABETH THE SECOND AND SHE'S HAVING A JUBILEE - JUBILEEEE, JUBILEEE!!!

It's been pretty quiet on the D&C front for a couple of weeks - ever since Injector Pete's party, in fact! One reason may be that we're still all recovering, but more likelyh is that holidays, Jubilees and other such stuff has just got in the way!

Pete's party was brilliant - a positive festival of good music and bad dress! The theme was "Leather & Lace" and, while some of us went for the subdued "I'll just wear a leather tie" approach, others (notably the Birthday Boy!) went for the whole Village People, lock up your daughters (or more likely, your sons!) approach - see photographic evidence below!








Anyway, back to the music - Pete wanted all his musical influences to be there, so the fantastic Kontaani Djembe Drum Band kicked off proceedings - I'd forgotten how many of them there were, and they don't half make a loud (and good) noise! There then followed one of then high spots of the evening - the "SooperGroop" featuring most of D&C supplemented by musicians fromn Pete's other bands - Bobby Rocket and Dr Mick from the Injectors and Tim from Voodoo Juice. We'd "practised" a number of tunes a couple fo times, and these were unleashed on the ususpecting punters - in no particular order "Running Down a Dream",- "Rock the Casbah", "Never Lookin' Back", "Teenage Kicks" and a suprisingly tight version of "Moves Like Jagger". All seemed to be well received, and I think it will be a race between D&C and the Injectors to see who can put what in their sets permanently! Pete did  a few numbers with the Injectors, and then we applied the coup de grace to the evening's proceedings. A great night was had by all - and there were a few sore heads the following morning!

So, as 2 of our number are off on hols for a couple of weeks, the quiet period continues - however, we are back in harness at the end of June with a double header weekend! Friday 29 June takes us back the The Windmill in Whiteley Green for our 6 monthly dose of aiding the digestion of those that have eaten, and we hope to see our favourite astrophysicist throwing some shapes, as he always seems to do there (more of that in a future blog!). Saturday 30 June will see us at Macclesfield Leisure Centre warming up the participants in the East Cheshire Hospice Midnight Walk, as we did last year. This is a great event for a very worthwhile cause (who could resist a 10km walk round the streets of Macclesfield in the middle of the night?!) so, if you haven't already registered why not do it now - via the ECH webite (just click on the Fundraising tab when you get there, and you'll see the Midnight Walk link)?

Until then - enjoy yourselves, and don't have too many nightmares about Cheryl Cole's performance at the Jubilee bash!!

HOT, HOT, HOT - TO THE POWER OF 2!

What a weekend! For the first time in a long while, we did a "double header" to round off the Grand Pub Spring Tour; Friday night saw our debut at The Wharf while, on Saturday, we returned to The Old Ship Inn. We were hoping for a warm welcome at both venues - and we certainly got that!

The Wharf was taken over by Chris about a year ago, and it has taken us this long to get on stage there because Chris is a little nervous about the noise levels and the neighbours - so we provided a high level of reassurance for him, without having a high level of confidence that we would be able to match that reassurance! The first set started early (8:30), so that we could be done by 11:00 - this obviously fooled some people (despite our pre-publicity), because Pete Banks (Papparazzi Pete, to our regular readers!) arrived at 9:00pm and was bemused to find we were in the middle of "Paint It Black" - our fifth song! We did play a somewhat "mellow" first set, much to the consternation of Andy & Chrissie, who were complaining that they couldn't hear anything; so, we decided to surreptitiously "tweak" the volume for the second set and hope that Chris either a) didn't notice or b) didn't say anything! As it happened, the second set exploded! The pub was full, everyone was up and bouncing around, we finished spot on 11:00pm and nobody complained about the noise - all in all, a brilliant night!!

One thing that is worthy of mention is the great job that Chris has done in having the pub double up as a sauna - the temperature by the end must have been around 40 deg C (and that was without any obvious signs of additional heating)! There are a a set of mirrors on the wall behind where the band plays, and these were all running with rivers of condensation, coats that were hanging up were wetter than if they'd been left outside, and Paul's shirt was the focus of many hurtful and unnecessary comments about its resemblance to a used bath-towel!! However, all the heat and sweatiness actually added to the night, and it felt like a good old Chicago "speakeasy" by the time we were done! Hopefully, we'll be back soon.

Following this warm experience, we approached Saturday evening with some trepidation! The Ship is known for its hospitality, and part of this reputation is based on the 2 welcoming coal fires that blaze in hearths at opposite ends of the bar - whatever the time of year, time of day, or temperature outside! Having been broiled within an inch of our lives the previous night, we weren't sure we could survive the dehydrating effects of 3+ hours in that sort of environment! Sure enough, we pitched up at 8:00pm, to set up, to find that The Ship's version of the twisted Firestarter had indeed been in action! We worked up a fair sweat just assembling the gear and when 9:00pm came around, and the pub had filled up a bit, it was blindingly obvious that some serious fluid replacement therapy would be in order - in the spirit of water conservation (even though it was pi**ing down outside) we decided that pints of Storm Brewing's finest ales would be the best means of achieving this!

We put a few different numbers in the set from Friday night, and they seemed to do the job - there was an additional, unplanned, variation to the set when we had to embark on a Shadows version of "My Generation", as Paul forgot the words! Now, this song only has about 20 words in total (one of which is "Ba" as Matt so helpfully pointed out!), so it really does take some doing to forget about 18 of them - especially when we've only performed it about 200 times! Anyway, nobody died, and I'd like to think the audience appreciate these occasional divergences!

A big thanks to everyone who turned up for the gigs, and a SPECIAL mention to those who came to BOTH gigs! We do appreciate it immensely, and it is quite humbling to see people turn out time and time again - we love what we do, and we hope we give you just a little bit of enjoyment - after all, if you can't have fun, what's the point?!

So, our Spring Tour is complete - next gig is a Private Party for Injector Pete's 50th (oops, said I wouldn't mention that!) and, before that, we shall be enjoying the delights of the Macclesfield Beer Festival - hope to see some of you there!

FRIDAY THE 13th - PART ONE and WHAT, NO BEER FESTIVAL?!

Easter came and went pretty damn quickly - as did the Summer and Winter (if that's what that very hot week, followed by the very cold and snowy week were!). However, the calendar suggests that we are still in April, which means that we are VERY busy!

The 2nd Leg of our Spring Pub Tour hits Porter's on Roe Street in Macclesfield this Friday the 13th!! A quick perusal of my encyclopaedia of gig dates reveals that the last time we played there was March 2011, so we are long overdue to give Michelle & John's patrons another dose! As ever, we'll be kicking off around 9pm, so don't worry about anything bad happening (as if anything could!) - just get there, and start your weekend with a bang! Possibly 3 new numbers in the set as well!

Next Thursday sees us playing at a wedding in Prestbury (yes Thursday!), and then we're back on the Pub Tour the following weekend - consecutive nights at The Wharf on Brook Street on Friday 27th followed by our return to The Old Ship Inn on Beech Lane the following evening. We'll be kicking off a little earlier at The Wharf (so the neighbours can get their beauty sleep!), so be there around 8:30, but Saturday night at the Ship will probabgly see the normal mayhem through to the early hours!

Apart from that, not much to report - Dave's been on holiday, but don't suppose we can class that as news, and we're all getting ready for the Beer Festival in May - about which a little explanation is needed! We're starting to lose count of the number of questions we've had along the lines of "Are you playing the Beer Fest this year? You're not - why not??". I've even had people say "Well if you're not playing, we're not going!" So let me clarify things a bit; as many of you will know, we have been privileged to play the best gig in town for the last 6 years - from the dark days of 2006, when we supported the Glass Onion Band from Ireland,( and Frank had to go to the loo about a minute before we were due to start!), through sharing the bill with the Screaming Beavers in 2008 and 2009 (and remembering to wear dark glasses to protect our eyes from their flashy suits!) to playing with Monkey Harris in 2009/10. When we were asked about playing this year (yes, we were asked!) we felt that 6 years was a good run (nobody else has ever done more than 3 in a row), and we wanted to enjoy the event for itself, and give someone else a chance! Believe me, there are moments when we regret that decision - probably every time we mention it to each other actually, and a return next year has already been mooted so, who knows - but all that is a long way away!

So this year, we will be on the floor of the house (probably literally!), along with the rest of the punters, and would urge as many of you as possible to get along and "drink for charity" cos it's all in a good cause! Monkey Harris are on again, along with our stablemates from the Storm Brewing Company, The Chinese Marbles - so get down and give them a cheer - not too loud, mind, we're very sensitive!

THERE'S NO GOOSE LIKE THE SNOW GOOSE!

Good God - I'm getting rather bad at this - just noticed it's nearly 7 weeks since ANY postings on here - apologies and time to put it right!

Gig news - since the last epistle, we've played 2 gigs, added a ruck of others, and scrubbed at least one, so it's not been exactly quiet! Gigs played have been:

• a welcome return to The Jolly Sailor, after a gap of a couple of years. Great to play at Glyn's gaff, and the small, but perfectly formed audience seemed to enjoy it - including a contingent of GooseFest organisers, who made the trip over from Goostrey to see if Steve's view that we are good enough to play at their festival in October was correct, or whether his judgement had been clouded by his imbibing activities at the party in Congleton in December! Happily, they were impressed enough to ask us to do it - just need to find the right date now!
• last Thursday saw our debut at The Snow Goose, which is rapidly becoming THE place to be seen in Macclesfield! Stuart & Nelly like their bands to start early, so we went on at 7:30, with an audience of about 2 - both of whom manfully supported us for the first few songs! After a while, more folk arrived (no doubt confused, because our posters said we weren't staring till 9 - due to a communication breakdown!), and, once the rest of the cavalry had arrived, the place was really rocking! Eventually, our "early doors" gig finished around 10:45, despite repeated cries of "More!", so maybe next time we'll go for the late start, and see what happens?! Stuart and Nelly both enjoyed it, and we have photos to prove it -

The gig list on the right is fairly up to date, and you will see that there are 3 more pubs for us to visit on our Spring Tour:

• Friday 13 April at Porter's on Roe Street - a welcome return (and a popular one if the reaction of Michelle, the landlady, is anything to go by!)
• Friday 27 April at The Wharf on Brook Street - another first for us, and we're delighted to be playing for Chris at his re-furbished and re-energised hostelry!
• Saturday 28 April, at The Old Ship on Beech Lane; as ever, this will be like coming home, and replaces the wedding gig that we had pencilled in for that date, but which has mysteriously been cancelled!

We hope to see loads of you at one, some or all of these, and we will be spending some time over the next 3 weeks, or so, polishing up some new numbers - so watch out!

Various other party gigs have appeared, but we will try to make sure these don't get in the way of public ones - wouldn't like people to be starved of good music, would we?! It really looks like Spring has sprung, the sap is rising, so what better time to get out of an evening and fill your ears with good sounds?

Finally, just noticed that the "ticker" for this piece of literary magic has gone over 6900 visits, so look out Mr 7000 - we're on our way! Will be interesting to see which country the 7000th person comes from, as we're still getting viewed in all parts of the world - whether that's by accident or design, is anybody's guess!

And, finally, finally: Quote of the day (this one from Stebbo): "Never argue with a fool - he will drag you down to his level, and then beat you with experience"

WE ARE SAILING - OR SLEDGING, MORE LIKE!

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??

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!

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!!