Square Brewery Petersfield - 11th Dec 2010
15/12/10 13:42
What a great place the Square Brewery is. A lovely bunch of bar staff and a nice audience. We met some lads just back from Afghanistan and a few girls who got up and danced. Thanks to all of you. As usual the beer was on top form. We look forward to playing there again soon. Hello to Chrissie from IBM and her mates.
RMA 10th December 2010
15/12/10 13:36
The kick off of our mini tour and now something of a tradition now. Another packed house, another great night, another late one ! Thanks to everyone who came along to support the band (especially Baz, Bex, and the London crew, Dave & Ange, Tracey, Ian & Mel, Sir Les, Vettie, Jo Ransom, Dr T, and all of the others too numerous to mention). We appreciate each and every one of you. Also a special thanks to Kev the landlord for all of his help and support over the years. Same time next year - where we will do it all over again.
RMA - 4th June 2010
06/06/10 14:33
"And the beat goes on"
The band were all set up and ready to go by 8:30pm (even the Gearmiester had turned up - at 8:29pm). However, there was one notable exception - Georgie the drummer ! Rob was first to sound the alarm bells by asking Jono and Rooster "does he actually know about this gig ?". There was some quick reviews of the e-mail traffic and it was generally agreed that he did. Jono elected to check and got through to a surprised sounding George who was at a music festival in Emsworth. Calmly, the band then went into panic mode: could George get here ?, what was plan B ?, could Rooster get hold of Bern ?, was there a drum kit in the back room of the pub ?, could Kev play the drums ?, could anyone play them (after all how hard can it be ?). Several frantic calls later George was on his way and the wait was on. Everytime the pub door opened there was an expectant hush that fell over the pub. Eventually the shout went up that he had arrived. In record time the drum kit was assembled with the whole band (well almost all of them) helping to get things moving. At 10:00pm we were ready to go. Rooster, Rob, Jono, Gran, and Georgie were like coiled springs.............. but there was one notable exception - the singer ! He had still not changed into his 'stage' suit. The band reflected upon life and headed for the bar and waited for our leader to wriggle into his 'mod suit'.Several of our regular fans began to arrive and were disappointed to hear that they had missed "probably the finest first set we had ever played". Some actually believed this. The (now) extended single set went off pretty well and we introduced "Twisting the night away" by Sam Cooke (see previous blog for details). Gran still had not rehearsed the song and thus elected to dance with his daughter instead of play on a tune that he didn't know. It's a mystery to all why he chose this particular song for such special treatment as it had never bothered him in the past. Sam was shot in a hotel room in mysterious circumstances (probably by the band waiting for him to get changed).
Predictably, the evening descended into another band party which included tequila, southern comfort, loads of beers, mad dancing (led by the Fabulous Blanche) and a 03:00am finish. It's only rock and roll...... but I like it !
Square Brewery Petersfield - 8th May 2010
09/05/10 14:11
There was some nail biting before this gig as it looked in the balance due to the possibility of Jono & Gran not getting back in time from the USA due to the volcanic ash cloud. However, all was well as the boys got back - thereby avoiding the undignified spectacle of the superb White Knuckle Blues Band (WKBB) trying to fend off the Gearmeister inviting himself up to sing with them. This is known as "doing a Gran" (who shamelessly invited himself to the last WKBB gig at the RMA and proceeded to blow pentatonic solos all over their carefully honed set). One seasoned blues veteran was so overcome by this that he burst into tears and had to be gently led away. It is understood that he later recovered after regular doses of Skip James & Mississippi John Hurt songs (see A. Broad for more details).
Special thanks go to Brigitte (who is becoming a regular fan), Susie & Sooz, Fran & Vic, and the Square Brewery locals for all making the effort to attend and making it another great night. Keen eared regulars will have also noted that the band added another great soul groove to their set - the Ray Charles classic 'I Don't Need No Doctor'. The sad part is that the band used this as their sound check and played it better the first time than they did in the set (ah well - such are the properties of wonderful hand-pumped foaming English bitter).
During the interval Bernie, Rob, and the Germeister decided that they would add the Sam Cooke classic "Twistin' The Night Away" to the set. Two minutes later the key and song structure was settled upon. This only left the horn parts to be worked out. Bernie (the drummer mind you!) kindly sang them to the brass section to help with their homework which sort of reminded me of that famous old chestnut......... "How do you know when a band is just about to split up ??? Answer: when the drummer says "Hey guys - let's do one of my songs ?"
It won't happen to the SJD's - this band will drink and drink (surely 'Run & Run' ? Editor)
Love to Georgie. We are all thinking about you, hoping that you are on the mend, and looking forward to playing with you again soon.
Special thanks go to Brigitte (who is becoming a regular fan), Susie & Sooz, Fran & Vic, and the Square Brewery locals for all making the effort to attend and making it another great night. Keen eared regulars will have also noted that the band added another great soul groove to their set - the Ray Charles classic 'I Don't Need No Doctor'. The sad part is that the band used this as their sound check and played it better the first time than they did in the set (ah well - such are the properties of wonderful hand-pumped foaming English bitter).
During the interval Bernie, Rob, and the Germeister decided that they would add the Sam Cooke classic "Twistin' The Night Away" to the set. Two minutes later the key and song structure was settled upon. This only left the horn parts to be worked out. Bernie (the drummer mind you!) kindly sang them to the brass section to help with their homework which sort of reminded me of that famous old chestnut......... "How do you know when a band is just about to split up ??? Answer: when the drummer says "Hey guys - let's do one of my songs ?"
It won't happen to the SJD's - this band will drink and drink (surely 'Run & Run' ? Editor)
Love to Georgie. We are all thinking about you, hoping that you are on the mend, and looking forward to playing with you again soon.
RMA - 26th Feb 2010
28/02/10 13:10
This has to be the biggest audience that we have had at the RMA (Kev - you need a bigger pub). It was also nice to see that people were prepared to get up and dance from the very first song. Although we intended to play three new songs we only actually managed to play two: 'Heatwave" and "All Right Now". The latter was not even on the setlist and we had not rehearsed this song (ever) as a band. Rooster hit the opening chords, Rob and Bernie waded in and the crowd started singing it - so who were we to argue ?. The usual post gig party ensued and generally wound up at around 3 am (again). Thanks to everyone that turned up (especially Michael Frith, Sandy, and their friend whose name escapes me at the moment). Check Michaels' fabulous watercolour paintings out here www.michaelfrith.com Here is a self portrait of him
asdfasdf