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 Alsager Music Festival - Sunday at The Lodge

*Free Entry 

*Outdoors with cover

Vote Music

13/12/2019 The Blue Yellows at Tom’s Tap and Brew.

It was with exceptionally heavy hearts that we gathered in the lovely environs of Tom’s Tap and Brew following the devastating win for the right wing Conservatives; a win for bigotry, for lack of empathy for those in most need and for monetising everything that moves including basic public services, and cutting those that don’t make a direct profit, no matter how important.

Yes, it looks like the nasty party are bedded in for years to come.

It was heartening to know that Jacqui and Sean who run the place feel the same way.

It was a nice crowd, noisy  but appreciative, the gang played really well, we drank some of the most gorgeous beers imaginable and met up with some great friends.

Thank you all,
spirits - lifted (for now).
J X

Alsager Music Festival 2018

The really rather wonderful Alsager Music Festival once again in high summer and another gig in this extraordinary heatwave of Summer 2018.
It was great fun doing it last year with the full band, always more fun with your 'gang' of course, but this time, although solo for much of the set, I enlisted the help of some very talented youngsters on guitar and backing vocals for 'No Tobacco', a couple of very talented students of mine, namely the Bugg brothers, Owain and Dylan Bugg.
They have so much raw talent and charisma... Watch out world!

Many thanks to the multi-talented music-man Marc Gallagher for doing such professional and efficient work on the live sound (and photos, including the ones of me here and the close-up of my acoustic which I can't seem to caption right now, do check out what Marc's up to though, via his social media pages, especially his own gigs).
Special thanks to, to the old friends and new, who turned up to my set.

Big crowds in the sun.

The crowd  in between sets at The Sunken Garden Stage.

Many thanks to Marc Gallagher for this photo.

Soul and his good friend Joe came along 😀

The Bugg Brothers stole the show.
L - Owain, R - Dylan

F-A-B ... 'Thunderbirds are GO!'

"FAB Fest" is an obvious reference to the heritage of this great event (as the Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival) as well as being a decisive break from it, such that it will never please everyone, as change never does.

In some ways, the kind of weirdness factor of all the different types of bizarre and wonderful morris dancers around this town at festival time, along with many dyed-in-the-wool folkies who would appear en masse from all over the country, with feathers in hats and other quirks that set them out as 'trad-folkies' is to be missed, although there were still a few to be seen, just not in the great numbers that there used to be when this was more of an out and out folk festival with just a few other types of acts that were perhaps more on the contemporary side of things.

On the other hand, a huge fan of folk music who used to run a record shop in Chester used to say to me "What is 'folk music' anyway?.. It's music for folks, it encompasses all kinds of music".

Nevertheless, plenty of the same vibrancy and excitement in the crowds remain as does plenty of quality music from all kinds of acts, from folk to rock and even pure pop, such that this is one of the key music festivals of the whole region, ranked in the Top 10 of the smaller festivals by The Guardian a few years ago.

This year's event was headlined by Peter Hook and The Light, and our fringe event by the enthusiastic hardworking and talented (not to mention award-winning) bunch that are Middlewich Music. Our set went a bit off piste in places a few times in the first half, we are still pretty under-rehearsed for lots of new songs and sounds we are putting in the set at the moment, though things improved through the set and by the second half we seem to have found our form (which is definitely the right way round to do things if you're going to have a couple of dodgy moments!), but our finding ourselves back in the flow again was not least in thanks to an enthusiastic crowd, good friends and new ones who turned up and gave us a good time.
Thank you all! XX

Set list FabFest 18

Venue Poster

Our Poster

Pic by Adam Roberts

This was during a #Rehearsal break with #TheBlueYellows for tomorrow's @fabfestival. We're on at @narrowboatinn #Middlewich at 4pm! Be there! #BeFab #FABFest @middlewichmusic #Newmusic #livemusic #bandsofinstagram #band #altrock #folkrock #folkrockmusic #musicians #rehearsals #festival #Festivals #musicfestival #northwest #Cheshire #socheshire

A post shared by Jonathan Tarplee (@jonniegitahhr) on Jun 16, 2018 at 1:46pm PDT

Doggie Day Afternoon!

All sorts of fun going on, with pooches as the main stars of course.
Photo by Tim Lee.

I was delighted to be guest of the lovely people at Redshift Radio to play at definitely cutest gig I've done so far, at the annual Doggie Day Out! 

I failed to win in any of the categories, not even best behaved boy, scruffiest animal (I was robbed) or best biscuit catcher, but had a good time nonetheless.

Other music on hand came from the super-songwriting talent of Tim Lee, and the gorgeous voice of Lucy Ollier, do make sure you check their music out wherever you can.

Thanks to Paul, Liz and most of all Redshift-Pooch Jasper plus it was great to get some audience reaction from one of the cutest dogs there, Wilson (Tim's owner).

Thanks to @RedShiftRadioUK for inviting me to play at their 'Doggy Day Out' event. I had a really fun day! pic.twitter.com/OmDWSV785d

— Tim Lee - Songwriter (@timleesongs) May 22, 2016

Enjoyed @RedShiftRadioUK's #DoggieDayOut Top music @timleesongs & @OllierrrLucyyy & cute pooches everywhere! More at https://t.co/fNGJMR6Prl

— Jonathan Tarplee (@JonnieGitAhhr) May 22, 2016

Lostock Fest.

July 26th 2014.

Although I'm not a fan of the oppressive heat Britian is currently "enjoying", I somehow think a good sweaty workout of a gig is appropriate for live music!

This was the inaugural Lostock Festival near Northwich.
It was a largely heavy-rock oriented event interspersed with acoustic acts over two stages, quite a handy way to avoid the dead-time during band changeovers.

I saw this lovely old cinema/bingo hall in the town.
I'd love it if some of these places became quality music venues, I'd love to play!

A stage-side shot of one of the bands.

Coming Soon to venues in the Shire of Chesh...

The Road to Orchard

We have done some great gigs lately including festivals in Crewe and the inimitable Middlewich Boat and Folk Festival. Maybe I'll catch up on posting some photos at some point (you can always check the oft'-updated band facebook page). Producer Dan sent us the awesome1st mixes for the EP on the summer solstice which seems very appropriate, more news on that, plus a chance to listen and download... very soon :) xxx

The road to Orchard Studios

Launch show party