CURRY, BEER AND A BAND - BLISS!!

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!!!

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?

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!

MORE VIDEOS!!

I don't know, just like London buses - you don't get a single video on this blog for 3 years, then 6 come along at once!

2 more vids added to the link above - big thanks to Kevin Tudor at Brandywine Music in Kent, who was up visiting friends and happened to stumble across a night of great live music at The White Lion in Disley. The occasion was ostensibly to celebrate Ray and Sheena's birthdays, but turned into just a good old knees up! Ray was wearing a t-shirt with one of the funniest (and bad taste!) slogans on the front - I have a photo, but daren't put it on here for fear of offending readers of a more delicate disposition! You'll see from the vids that one member was strapped up like The Mummy, and is likely to be for some time - the show must go on, but that's ridiculous!

Chilling after the first half - I thought Andy was calling his agent, but it was his wife!

Next gig is back at The Old Ship Inn in Macclesfield for a post-bonfire night thrash on Saturday 6 November; last time we were there was February, so it will be good to be back "home" again. It's a fair bet that Lucy & Tony will be doing their own impression of Mr & Mrs Guy Fawkes by lighting every fire in the pub, but don't let that deter you from coming down - it's bound to be a good night, as ever!

Not writing much this time, because typing with one finger takes forever - and I've got to go and watch City thrash Arsenal anyway!

VIDEOS - COURTESY OF SILKPETE!!

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!!

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!!

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!!