Festive Greetings Everyone!

Well, I said I'd try to do another blog before Christmas - so here I am! Four days to go and we're doing quite well. The tinsel has stayed up - well almost.; the Christmas tree isn't completely bald yet; my sister George and I survived a whole day shopping in Bournemouth; the dogs have nicked the chocolate out of the kids' advent calendars; and George and I hit the wine on the girls night out and invited everyone to join us for Christmas dinner! Large turkey on order! So it's Christmas as usual! On the musical side, we're feeling very pleased with the way the year is ending. We've been booked to do a half-hour gig at The Cavern in Liverpool in May; we discovered quite by chance (surfing the net actually) that our song Aint Nothin' was being played on a small country programme called The Country Connections (goes out on a Thursday afternoon in the Yorkshire area); and, we're hoping against hope, that we have found the perfect fiddle player! I won't say more than that at this point but if she likes us and our music as much as we like her, we should be a six-piece again very soon!
We have some cracking gigs coming up in January and February - keep checking the website for details but the year is not ended yet. Do join us at The Manor Arms, Burton nr Christchurch this Friday 23rd December and at The Salisbury Arms, Purewell, Christchurch on 30th December.
They should both be fun festive nights!

I'd just like to say a big thanks from all the band to everyone who has supported us this year: the venues who've booked us; the people who've come to see us; the media who've given us publicity and just all those who have said 'We like your music!'. (Thanks to Carri and Cait for the beautiful card!)

Thank You and Merry Christmas to You All!

Charlie and The Band

Festive greetings everyone! Decided as we've just had the first weekend in December that Christmas must be open. The tree's up; our hall, decorated by the kids, is in a trend setting style of Santa's-grotto-meets-Turkish-brothel; and we're starting to rehearse the old Christmas favourites ready for our gig on the 23rd December. Look, it might not be very rock'n' roll creddy, but you have to do a bit of Slade and John Lennon - wouldn't be right not to!
Anyway, getting ahead of myself because I must tell you about our most recent gigs. Firstly, last Thursday, we went up to the great little music club Bohemian Voices run by Steve Soden of The Purple Buddhas (see our links page). We took Pete Christie and Chris Tempest with us so there was a strong Dorset presence. The lovely Fiona Heyes,well-known local poet, came along too for the ride. Bohemian Voices is a really terrific club; it's intimate, friendly, responsive to original music and creativity of any sort. The club usually has a blend of poetry, stand-up, and music - and last week even a ventriloquist. And on top of all that, the bar stays open til 2.00am. The perfect venue! Well, I have to say we all did Dorset proud! Chris opened the evening with a great set of his distinctive ballads - he does write some cracking songs - and a bit further into the evening Pete Christie performed. We expected him to blow the place apart - he has to be one of the best guitarists to be found anywhere - and he did. For more information about Chris and Pete, go to our links page and check out their sites.And, if I say so myself, we didn't do a bad little set either. In fact, we did the live debut of one of our brand new songs Mudeford Mood which went down really well. Here's a little pic (taken by Fiona) of Alan and me in action!

I have to put a word in for a fab performance poet Dennis, Just Dennis. Quite remarkable. We rounded off the evening with a doner kebab apiece with extra chilli sauce eaten in the car in Chiswick. What you call a great gig! If you're interested in performing at Bohemian Voices or simply coming along to catch some really different talent, contact Steve Soden on 0208 7813 2526.

Then on Saturday we were at The Central in Parkstone again. We do like this venue. We had a really fun evening - it was great to see some familiar people in the audience: as well as the rowd-a-crowd from Walkford it was lovely to see Jenny, Mark and Malcolm too. Malcolm plays bass in local band Lost at Sea - they're at The Green Room, Portman Hotel in Boscombe on the 22nd December - do get along to see them. We're going. Anyway, we did something a bit different at this gig. Instead of having a break in the middle, we did a little acoustic set first of all just Alan, Steve and me playing Follow Me Down; then we did our new song Mudeford Mood with Steve on harmonica; and then Keith and Dave came back and joined us for Take Me to the Leader; then it was straight back in with the really rocking, uptempo 'Pretend' another new one with some great guitar work from Steve and Alan and some dodgy but demented harmonica from me. And do you know what? That format really worked. So I reckon we'll do that again. We're back at The Central on Saturday 4th March. Put it in your diary now!

I'm aiming to do a blog before Christmas proper, but just in case the mulled wine and the Baileys do their worst, Happy Christmas to you all!

Charlie

PS Don't forget we're starting the new year with a support session at The Borderline on 9th January. Scroll down for the reduced entry flyer.