Hi everyone! Just had to tell you what a superb weekend we had. On Friday night we gigged at a fabulous little pub in the heart of the New Forest. We played at The Cuckoo in Hamptworth where Tim the landlord was holding a three-day beer and music festival. We had the best time! It was lovely to see some familiar faces in the audience - Tony, Angela and Thena who saw us at The Beggars Fair and of course the Roadnight Rentacrowd who were out on one of their last evenings before flying back to New Zealand. In addition to them, there were lots of people there sitting on bales of hay just ready and waiting to party. And didn't we party! We have to put a word in for the group of 10 or so lads who danced and sang with us all evening, wore my feather boa, clubbed in to buy a CD to share, demanded 'This Time' as an encore and left the premises singing the chorus at the top of their voices. Brilliant! The beer - from HopBack Brewery - was delicious; as was the barbecue that kept going all evening; the audience was just great; there were a mass of kids and young people who kept going til the very end; we played from 8.45 til 11.45pm with only the tiniest break; the atmosphere was just great; and we'd love to do it all again!! Tim - if you're reading this, we've put the date in our diary for next year already!
Then on Sunday, Chris Tempest (himself an excellent singer'songwriter) invited us to do a 30 minute duo guest spot on the acoustic stage at the Boscombe Community Fair. Again, another really lovely festival - well attended, great music, friendly crowd, loads of stalls and activities..Anyway, we took the opportunity of trying out some of our new songs. We started off with a couple of favourites - Marilyn and Morning Glory and then moved on to the new ones - Mudeford Mood, Invisible; and Jump to it! We were bowled over by the response to them - especially the dramatic, over-the-top- rock opera of a song Judgement Day. Can't wait to get them into the full band set. Chris did a great job as stage manager and have to put a word in for the band who followed us Hoffman - they were excellent.
We have a couple of weeks break now as Steve, who plays mandolin, banjo, guitar, sings and writes (how clever is that?) is on holiday. Our next gig is The Cavern in Liverpool on 29th September. We're really looking forward to that. Scroll down the blogs for a reduced entry flyer. If you can't get to The Cavern, check out our gigs page on the website www.stateofundress.com for more dates and venues.
Hope to see you at one of them!
Charlie x