There's No Business like Snow Business

 Our last gig of the year was an unexpectedly sonwy affair. Although snow was forecast the Cheshire Plain rarely gets even a smattering. A few brave souls managed to turn up for the first part of the gig and then quite a crowd later on who I think entertained us as much as the other way around with their dancing and very exuberant sing-alongs.

Not a bad way to end our '23 shows. 

Photo by Jonathan White

Covid Strikes - but the show goes on.

The Blue Yellows live at The King’s Lock, Middlewich. 09/11/21

It was always inevitable - on arriving at the venue, with a stage set up at the end of a large marquee and Dave having set up his largest set-up to date (including his very loud Gretsch kit and double-cajon “cocktail” acoustic kit) across the back of the stage, only to find the sound engineer (and one with particularly ‘good ears’ and extensive, quality equipment) had just returned a positive Covid test, so he was, at short notice, unavailable along with much of his equipment.

With best wishes being sent in his direction, luckily Middlewich isn’t far from Sandbach where our keys/accordion/backing vocalist Emma lives so we were able to get a workable PA set up with a combination of our equipment and that at the venue and Tim, who opened for us allowed me to go through his amp (rather than through a cab simulator, then direct into the PA which was the plan), this freed up an extra channel on our mixing desk for Dave to run an acoustic mic through and all was well.

Many thanks to those that turned out for us and it was good to see some great friends again. Thanks also to Tim Lee for his wonderful songs and joining us on percussion and backing vocals during “No Tobacco” after joining him during his set for a duet version of “I’m Just Gonna be me”.

Band photos by Tim Lee. 

The Brilliant Tim Lee opened for us.

Brunswick Capers.

Last night I played a fun gig with Rickety Wireless without our usual drummer Dan but instead, my BYs compadre Dave Coomer heroically depping at fairly short notice after one brief run-through.

A fun, Halloween-themed gig at The Brunswick, Crewe.

My lovely new PRS!

Stadium Arcadium.

Thanks to Jen Ogle for this pic.

5th October, 2018

A lovely night was had by all at a special night The Blue Yellows were asked to play in honour of our lovely mate and birthday boy Mike, of We Are Nomad, who also played their beautiful sounds before it was our go.

We were very under rehearsed and hadn't gigged since August, adding to the pre-stage nerves, in addition bassist Simon had the lurgy, and drummer Dave was missing some equipment and Em had back ache (especially not good when lugging very heavy PA equipment around is part of the job).

In spite of all this, and in my case after a little skip around in the rain to ease the nerves, I think it's fair to say we played with some gusto, and folk seemed to enjoy it.

Most of all, it was a night shared with plenty of lovely friends, plus.. two

 gigs in a row now, further bookings have come out of it.

These lovelies: L-R Drummer Dave, Bassist Simon, Keyboardist/Accordionist/Backing vocalist Em.

Didn't forget to clip my nails after last week.

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Last night was lovely #funtimes performing not only our 1st stadium gig 😉 but for a special night honouring @mike.aitchison.3 of #WeAreNomad who also played their beautiful sounds. Fankuu to @jaqi_k (I think) for pic 1. #giglife #musicians #guitarist #keyboards #bass #drums #band #rock #folkrock #livemusic #newmusic #crewealex #CarlsbergLounge #concert #livegigs #liveband #music

A post shared by Jonathan Tarplee (@jonniegitahhr) on Oct 6, 2018 at 3:54am PDT

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Sound check now with the #BlueYellows, playing with our lovely mates #WeAreNomad and birthday boy @mike.aitchison.3 ! First #stadiumgig! 😉 #Gigs #CreweAlex #CarlsbergSwete #livemusic #newmusic #guitarist #songs #concert #rock #indie #bands #bandsofinstagram #music #tunes #liveband #livebands #musicians #soundengineering #PA #giggin #soundengineer #sound #livesound

A post shared by Jonathan Tarplee (@jonniegitahhr) on Oct 5, 2018 at 10:53am PDT

Backstage...

From a gig last Saturday night.

Pedal-board - still in it's open case, in the messy "ready" state!

If we're confronted with a situation where we have a very short turn-around time between bands, I often have my pedal-board "ready-to-go" by having everything plugged in so I just have to place it on stage and plug one lead into my amp and the other into by guitar. It does look very messy like this though until it's on stage. This was the case last Saturday where we were headlining but had no-sound-check so just had to be as ready as we could be in the circumstances and hope for the best!