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

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!!

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!

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!!

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!

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

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!!

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!