Talking It Up!

Whoa! What a weekend! We had a FANTASTIC time at Talking Heads on Saturday. What a great venue!(www.thetalkingheads.co.uk) We had a really warm welcome from Simon, the manager, and Shaggy, the sound engineer. We arrived bright and early at 6.30pm for our sound check – Shaggy really gave us loads of time to get the best possible sound. Now that we’re a six-piece and with Steve, Claire and Penny playing several different instruments and with 4 vocal mics to set up, sound checking is no longer a quick affair! The fabulous singer/songwriter Pete Christie (www.petechristie.co.uk) arrived shortly after and being the consummate professional that he is was all done and dusted in about 15 minutes and sounded great! Pete started playing about 9.45pm and did a brilliant set to a really appreciative audience. He has some incredible songs. Do listen out for Making Waves and Standing in the Wings. You can catch him and fellow singer/songwriter Chris Tempest (www.christempest.co.uk) at The Cellar Bar, Boscombe this coming Friday 14th January. We went on stage at about 10.45pm (almost past our bed time ) and did two sets of one hour+ and were still on stage at gone 1.30am. Well, you know what we’re like – once we’re up there, you can’t get rid of us! I have to confess to a few nerves in the first half – anyone spot the shaking microphone?? – but we were getting such a warm response from the audience that we soon settled down and just enjoyed it. We performed our brand new song Kiss Me (like you need my mouth to breathe) and that went down really well. By the start of the second half, loads of people were up and dancing – anything went from a bit of a smooch to Morris Dancing to rock ‘n’ roll jive- we didn’t mind what gyrations they were doing, so long as they were doing it to our music! By the time, we were joined on stage by great friends and musicians Bernard Potter on 12 string guitar and Diane Potter on backing vocals and tambourine for Another Shot of You, This Time and Trouble and Strife the place was rocking! Trish sold some CDS for us – tucking them into her stocking tops and getting people to pull them out with their teeth turned out to be a very effective sales ploy! We fell through the door at 3.30am – my mum had waited up to see how we’d got on and then drove home – there’s devotion for you and she’d tidied the kitchen too! Claire, John Cruise, Chris Tempest, Alan and I did the mellow post-gig analysis over pepperoni pizza , coffee and beer and finally hit the pillows at about 4.30am. Did anyone notice Sunday? Anyway, thanks Simon for inviting us; thanks Shaggy for a great sound; and thanks everyone else for making it such a memorable evening! Simon has even said he’d like us back – so watch this space for future Talking Heads gigs. In the meantime, our next gig is at The Plough Inn, Tiptoe, Nr Lymington on Saturday 22nd January and Shenanigans, Portman Hotel, Boscombe on Sunday 23rd; and of course, we’re back at the fabulous Borderline in London on Wednesday 26th January - see below for reduced entry flyer. (The gig scheduled for The Manor Arms, Burton on 15th January has been cancelled. We’re next at The Manor on 25th Feb) Hope to see you there!

Charlie