Hi Everyone

I know I’ve only just done a blog but we had such a great time at The Plough Inn (nr Sway) on Saturday night I just had to tell you all about it! We arrived, and of course, being bank holiday weekend, it was busy and Nigel, the landlord, was running a real ale , local beers and cider promotion. So you can get the idea of the potential of the evening …We thought there’d be no hope for Claire our whistle player – she was on the White Stallion! Anyway, we checked with Nigel about what time he wanted us to stop playing and his reply was ‘ Well, if you can keep them drinking and dancing, I’ll stay open til midnight. Otherwise I’ll stop when they stop’! Well, always ready to rise to the challenge, we had midnight firmly in our sights! What a party we had. We started off the first set very stripped down and mellow with Follow Me Down and then Beyond Repair easing our way up to Red Waters and then starting to crank up. By the time we got to The Whole of the Moon and Kiss Me the place was hopping. Steve was gathering sponsorship for his hike for Naomi House Children’s Hospice and was sponsored a fiver to play his banjo ( as Alan said we’re usually played a fiver for Steve not to play his banjo!!) so we started the second set with This Time and it was all jigging and partying from there on in. Out came all the
percussion instruments ..again .Managed to retrieve my eggs at the end of the evening but the purple star tambourine which Penny had found for me just couldn’t cope with the assault. Its jangly bits fell off! We easily saw midnight and sent everyone home on the lullaby of Spellbound.. And we sold a CD! Hoorah! Catch you at the next one!

Don't forget: The new album Ghosts of Wasted Chances is available from 6th June on www.blahdvd.com; and www.play.online.com; and from Essential Music, East Row in Southampton; and HARRODS Kensington London!

Cheers!
Charlie

Gigs, Ghosts and Goings-on!

Well, what a lot we have to tell you since writing the last blog! Firstly, let me tell you about the gigs because we've been having a cracking time. Most importantly let me fill you in about our Tsunami gig on 6th May. We had a brilliant night. As you know, we were raising money partly for a fishing boat and nets for a village in East Sri Lanka and partly for the New Forest Appeal for the children who lost their parents in the Tsunami. Both really important causes and ones everyone felt strongly about. I have to say, we were really bowled over by the level of support we received. Hoburne Park donating the venue; PP Printing donating the printing; everyone who donated to the raffle - we had some superb prizes: lunch or dinner at Soho; Thomas Tripp; and Splinters; a family meal at Bailey Bridge; Quadbiking and Archery; play vouchers for Serendipity Sams; beauty vouchers for Lemontree; Southhair; and Oasis; soft toys from G &Ts; DVDs from Disney; and some fabulous signed albums from Mike Scott and The Waterboys There was something for evryone. On the night, the atmosphere was like one big party! Loads of people turned up - we reckon we had about 150 adults and 50 children there.Boscombe Community Fair came along and did arts and crafts and face painting with the younger children; Full Circle turned up and put on a full lighting show which changed the whole thing from feeling like an ordinary gig to a full-blown show - we even had a bit of atmospheric dry ice! Excellent stuff! Chris Tempest and the Pete Christie with his bass player, Pete Wallbridge, did two great sets; Fiona Heyes, the Purple Poet, read a moving poem she'd written about the Tsunami; and then we came on and played an hour and a half of foot-tapping numbers culminating in Pete Christie and Chris Tempest joining us on stage for Another Shot of You; This Time; and Trouble and Strife! Huge fun all round. And we raised well over £900.00 so we were all well-pleased! We must say a special thank you to our local media - the New Milton Advertiser and Times; The Daily Echo (both Bournemouth and Southampton); Saints Radio and 2CR for giving us terrific coverage. Thanks guys!

Since then , of course, we've played at The Manor Arms on 14th May - what a great night that was! Two birthdays in the pub so, of course, we just had to celebrate and I just happened to have some spare percussion instruments with me so you can imagine the rest for yourselves! By the way, anyone seen my purple shaky eggs ...?? We finally stopped playing at gone 11.30pm ..great fun! A really special part of that evening was seeing Steve and Janice Dennett walking through the door. Steve used to play with State of Undress several years ago in a previous incarnation. He and Janice now live in Switzerland - which is why he doesn't play with us anymore. We hadn't seen them for about 5 years. They look fantastically well and Steve plays in a duo over there , often having to carry his gear by cable car. Now that is seriously rock n roll!

We also played at The Green Room, Boscombe on 19th May. Terrific venue, great acoustics and sound. Now the thing is we had a very small, select audience. But hey, small can be perfect and boy did that room rock!

We must put in a special word too for Bohemian Voices Night Club in West Hampstead, London run by Steve Soden. It's only a small club but very receptive and welcoming. Alan and I went up there for our second visit the night before our Tsunami gig. Chris Tempest came along with us too and was also invited to do a set. Well, I have to say, Chris did a stonking few numbers and went down a storm. We went down pretty well too! We thought, between us, we'd done Dorset proud! We're really pleased to be joining Steve's band The Purple Buddhas for a gig on 15th June on the back of a barge in Battersea! Should be a fun night. Here are the details:
State of Undress supporting The Purple Buddhas and Road:

The Battersea Barge
Nine Elms Lane, London SW8 5EP
Weds. 15th June at 8.15pm
Entry £5.00
www.batterseabarge.com


Now, our REALLY BIG NEWS is that our second album Ghosts of Wasted Chances is out and available now! We've had a really great response to it from local media: Nick Churchill in The Daily Echo described it as ' warm, sensual and involving..' and Paul Ridge of Essential Music in Southampton reviewing it for AND magazine said 'This is real music, made by real people ... the album flows really well with the perfect balance between uptempo and more downbeat songs ..' Can't be bad eh? It's fifteen original tracks featuring all seven of us and with the most amazing artwork by Al Stewart. As you know, we are currently doing a complete overhaul of our website. You will shortly be able to order the album from there but if you want to get your hands on it beforehand, you can buy it from www.playonline.com; www.blahdvd.com; Essential Music in Southampton and Bournemouth; Wrights Music Shop in New Milton;and, from 6th June, Harrods, Kensington, London! Yes, I did say Harrods. HARRODS ... only the most famous store in the world and they are stocking our album. How cool is that? Or, of course, you could just come to one of our gigs and buy it there! We have some terrific gigs coming up .. we'd love to see you at one of them. Keep checking the gigs page on our website for regular updates.

Happy days!
Charlie xx