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!

WELSH WALES AWAITS!

It's been a hectic few weeks, hence the silence on here - but the band has been back on the road, and is going abroad this weekend, so probably time to update you all!

Following the Millstone debacle, we retired to lick our collective wounds, and were back in action last week - twice in fact! Thursday evening saw us take on the challenge of the A6 and head for the Masonic Guildhall in Stockport where the Johnnie Johnson Housing Association were celebrating thier 40th birthday! Now, the older readers amongst you will remember Johnnie Johnson when he had a bandwagon and was "Breaking down the Walls of Heartache" - spookily that was in 1969, so he obviously absconded with the takings from his chart success, and started building up the walls of houses! What do you mean, it wasn't the same man - not the man who recorded the classic "Blame it On The Pony Express"? I don't believe it!!

Anyway, Johnnie's people had been hard at it celebrating all day but, even so, some of them managed to strut their stuff on the dance floor, and by the time we finished at 11:30, I think we were all ready for a bit of kip! Good result for us, because we normally practice on a Thursday night (yes, that's right, we DO practice!) and we rarely finish before 12:30am - so a relatively early night!

Saturday night saw us back at our old stomping ground - The Old Ship Inn on Beech Lane in Macc! It was actually our first gig there this year, which is astounding but, once we had got over the shock of there only being one fire roaring in the grate (instead of the usual 2!), we soon settled into the old routine. There are some standing jokes about our gigs at the Ship like "Will we be paid?" "There's free beer for the band, but only while you are playing!" and others - oh, how we laugh! Having said that it's always a great night, and Saturday was no exception. As ever, the crowd swelled as the evening went on; Matt had brought a huge entourage with him - celebrating Sarah's birthday and, although none of them looked over 30, we were so pleased that they stayed the whole night, and didn't seem to grimace or put their fingers in their ears once! We gave a debut to the Kasabian favourite "Fire" and it went down really well (only 1 line forgotten!), so that will stay in the set. At Andy's insistence, we also did "Teenagers" by My Chemical Romance! Those of you who are familiar with this song, will know it is not one that you would immediately associate with D&C but, who knows, we might do it again - the line "All teenagers scare the living s**t out of me" resonates with some of us older folks, that's for sure!

An added bonus was that Matt from Canalside Community Radio in Bollington was at the gig and was (I quote) "blown away" by our set! He has asked us to go in and do an acoustic set for them one Wednesday evening and, although an "acoustic" set will be a challenge for us (probably means smaller amps!) we'll keep you posted - probably have to hang Hugh's drums from the ceiling! Who knows - Bollington community radio today, Radio 4 tomorrow?!

This weekend sees us leaving the country; well, I guess it's not exactly abroad - Wales actually! We are heading for the baronial splendour of Ruthin Castle in Denbighshire (see the photo at the top of this post) to play at the wedding of Terry and Lenny (or Andy, depending on how well you know him!). The band will be arriving from various locations, so the first challenge is to get everybody in the right place at the right time - and, with our track record, that is a REAL challenge! Anyway, we'll see how it goes, and report back here - assuming we survive!

Next gig is 14 November - back the Nag's Head! We'll probably pop round the corner and say hello to the landlord of the Millstone, while we're there!

THE MILLSTONE - WHERE DO WE START??

I guess the answer to the question above is - nowhere! We turned up quite prepared to play, but ran into a little bit of landlord trouble! Now, having consulted libel lawyers, I have to be very careful what I write here, so let me try and summarise the situation by asking you all a series of multiple choice questions - which, when you have answered them, might help you to understand the frustration we felt last night!

Question 1: If you were to contact a band and agree a date for said band to play (presumably having written it in your diary with a contact name and number) would you:
a) expect the band to turn up on the agreed date and play a gig
b) expect the band to be really unsure whether the gig was going to go ahead, and continually contact you to check that the agreed date was still valid
c) assume that the band were not going to appear

Question 2: If you wanted posters or flyers advertising the band would you:
a) contact the band and ask them to send you some
b) assume the band are psychic, realise that you don't publicise the entertainment you are providing, and send you publicity material to save you looking completely inept
c) rely on the spooky vibes that pervade Macclesfield to draw everyone to your pub when the mighty D&C are due to play

Question 3: If you "lost" the contact number for the band (i.e. the one you used to get in touch with them in the first place) would you:
a) Google "Dazed and Confused" to see if there was a website through which you could contact the band.
b) Go next door to the Nag's Head (where the band have played twice) to get a contact number.
c) Sit on your arse until the band turns up and then say "we didn't think you were coming"

Question 4: If the band turned up anyway (even though you assumed they weren't coming, although you had booked them in and they hadn't said they weren't) and said they were prepared to play, would you:
a) say "No, there is no point, because there will be nobody in" (!)
b) take a punt and say "OK, but if nobody comes in, you won't get paid"
c) say "What's the point, nobody likes you anyway!"

You might have gathered by now that last night's gig didn't happen - the answers to the above questions used by mein host at the Millstone were:

Question 1: c (surely when you book somebody you assume they will turn up?)
Question 2: b - "why would we ask for publicity material, bands just send it to us?" - excuse me, the Nag's Head (next door!) publicise all their bands on a board outside and ask for posters - how amateurish!
Question 3: c (even more bizarre as they contacted us in the first place - presumably they got our number from somewhere then?)
Question 4: a - I'm speechless - especially as we had people coming from all over to see us! In fact Kip at The Baths Hotel told me today that he was extremely grateful to us for not playing as he had a pub full of people who went there when they found out we were not on at the The Millstone!

So -we had a quiet night! We did attempt to find another gig - The Ship were reluctant to evict the band that were booked at short notice (poor form, I thought!) and we decided that hawking ourselves around other venues, like cheap whores, at 7:30pm on a Saturday night would not do our street cred any good at all, so we went home! I can only apologise to everyone who was coming to see us - Dominic and Keda came all the way from Chester (and Surrey actually!) to see us, and went away disappointed! Matt said he had 20 or 30 people coming, and I know that even people who yearned to be there, but couldn't, were ticked off that we didn't play! One thing that is sure is that the Dazed & Confused Massive (check out Facebook!) will be giving The Millstone a wide berth in future!

Onwards and upwards! Next official gig is on 15 October, but we will try and slip something in earlier - in fact, we're doing one of those "secret" gigs this Thursday - can't publicise it because the venue would be overcrowded!

In the interest of trying to remain positive in the face of adversity, the only other things I will say in this posting are:

1. The rest of the weekend was surprisingly good (nice weather and everything)!
2. City were robbed! Just explain to me how a team can score a goal after 95 minutes and 27 seconds when there is only 4 minutes added time????

CARRIED AWAY BY PORTERS!!

The summer certainly dragged - must have been those long hot evenings, you remember them! Anyway, that's all behind us now, and the first gig of the Autumn term took place last Saturday in Porter's Ale House (aka The Prince of Wales) on Roe Street in Macclesfield. This fine hostelry was taken over recently by Michelle (aka Sue!) and John, and our appearance was their first foray into real live music - a tactic that could be interpreted as a master stroke or gross folly, depending on which way you look at it!

We haven't played for nearly 8 weeks, as anyone listening to our practice on Thursday night would have easily guessed, so we were a little concerned about how things would go! It put me a bit in mind of the Morecambe & Wise sketch with Andre Previn - we knew we could play all the notes, but not necessarily in the right order! Add to that the fact that Paul & Chrissie have trouble remembering the lyrics to some of the songs at the best of times, and things could really have gone mammus verticus if we hadn't been careful!

There were only 5 of us on Saturday as, guess what - yep, Dave was on holiday! He was floating around in a becalmed sort of way, in the Irish Sea when we took the stage, and it was probably just as well because if he had been there, one of us would have had to sit on Hugh's knee (not a pleasant thought for either party!) or suspend themself from the ceiling - space was at a premium!

Notwithstanding all these potential banana skins, and buoyed by Manchester City's great win against Arsenal, we went for it with our usual vim and vigour (what a quaint little phrase that is!). The pub was packed, and amongst the familiar faces, there were Terry & Lenny whose wedding we are playing in October (think they wanted to make sure we were still alive!), and we were also being checked out by another gentleman who has booked us for a 40th birthday party also in October - although this particular party is for an organisation, not a person (which is a first for us!)! Added to this were Stella and Andy, who must now hold the record for D&C followers as they came all the way from Doncaster just to see us - we really appreciate it, especially as Andy helped to pack up the gear on Sunday morning!!

The gig seemed to go well - everyone was up and bopping, and Michelle has even asked us to come back and play on the Saturday before Christmas, which should be a riot (not literally, of course)!

Now we've got the taste for it, we're going to go out again next Saturday - to The Millstone at Water's Green! This will be another first for us and, assuming that Dave has managed to catch a bit of wind (never usually a problem for him!) and Chrissie has not drunk herself to oblivion in Puerto Banus (keep her in check, Pete!) we should have a full complement - so get yourselves down there for another night of fun and frivolity - as ever we'd be delighted to see you!

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!

Dear reader - so sorry for the delay in placing this report - access to computers has been at a premium over the last couple of weeks - in fact I've missed a number of things - except the rain, of course!!
The gig at the Nag's was another great night - as usual there was a late start,which enabled the band to get fed and watered beforehand, and the crowd to gather. Andy did the set list again and, for some reason left out heavy rock numbers like Moondance and Ticket to Ride - can't think why! We did toy with the idea of including our Michael Jackson tribute (Beat It) for the first time but, as Paul and Chrissie had both failed to master the lyrics by the night, discretion got the better of valour and we went with Hey Joe instead (not a lot of difference!).
By the time we went on for the second set at 11:15 the place was jumping again, and by the time we came off at 12:45, the crowd were almost as sweaty as us (although it had thinned out a bit, probably as people caught their boats home!). By the time we had wrapped up, it was about 1:40 and the rainy walk up Buxton Road, although not very rock and roll, was actually quite pleasant!
So, we are on our summer break at the moment, and we kick off again in September with a possible private gig at the Windmill on the 5th and then a debut appearance on Saturday 12 September at Porters (The Prince of Wales) on Roe Street in Macclesfield. In fact, I think it's probably the first time any band has played there, so we're hoping for a bumper crowd to celebrate this.
We'll be looking to put several more gigs in for the Autumn and Winter, so keep checking the gig list on the right hand side of this page and, of course, we will be using the medium of Facebook to advertise our whereabouts as well - so if you are a Facebookie keep your eyes skinned!