Midlands Music Magic and Mayhem !

So we had bid a fond farewell to our lovely Samantha Jane at the end of July.She is moving on to pastures new. We were so lucky to have her with us for the past four and a half years and shall miss her. But now it's the beginning of August and we have just done our first three gigs with our new fiddler, Jerry Bird. Now, he may not be as pretty as Sam but he does play some very fine fiddle! It was definitely straight in at the deep end. We had three gigs in the Midlands starting off with a four hour journey because it's holiday time and it was a Friday and we left at half past three! We won't dwell on our first gig - a big town centre pub, with no decent beer and a crowd of youngsters out on the pull! We played well and it gave us chance to see which bits of the set needed tweaking but, admittedly, not the most auspicious start. The second night we were at the fabulous Katie Fitzgeralds in Stourbridge. When we were there last autumn we played in the bar upstairs. And had a great night. This time, we played in their Cellar Bar downstairs with a proper stage, lighting and PA and we had an even better night! Liz, Malcolm's wife and our Web Master, was on hand to take loads of photos and just generally help out. She was brilliant! There was definitely something in the air - the guys were just electrifying with their music making and we fairly took the roof off the place! The atmosphere was terrific and the audience were just so responsive. We returned to the 'Best Hotel in the Midlands' (my aunt and uncle's home) where they'd been waiting up for us ( How old are we???) and we ate bread and cheese and gammon ham and drank copious amounts of wine til 4 in the morning - it had just been too good an evening to go to bed any sooner! Amazingly, Malcolm, the hero, was the first one up the next morning and cooked mega-breakfast for us all to fortify us for the afternoon ahead. We were off to one of our favourite gigs, The Fox and Hounds in Wroughton. The weather was glorious so we were able to play in their lovely garden. Our lovely friends Tony and Angela had come all the way from Cadnam to see us and to welcome Jerry. As always, the audience there was fabulous. A few of them (fellas mostly!) were very disappointed that Sam was no longer with us, but Jerry soon won them over with his playing - well, most of them: One went home with a broken heart! We had a lovely crowd at the front who joined in with great gusto. One of their party, an amazing lady whose son was just about to return to Afghanistan on his 7th tour of duty, asked us to dedicate a song to all the boys and girls out there. We did better than that. We passed the hat round and donated money from album sales and raised £132.30 for Help for Heroes! What a brilliant, generous audience. It took us ages to pack up. Well, there were just so many people to chat to, and hug and kiss - networking I call it. Poncing about and skiving off is what the rest of the band call it! Anyway, all in all, a very good weekend!
Happy summer wishes to one and all.

Charlie xx
State of Undress
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