Love Music Hate Cancer

In the past we've supported an ace Staffordshire based band called Some Day, who were meant to play this gig but sadly, like so many bands, split up before the event. We were pleased to be asked to play in their place, it's always fun to play in a new area to us and a new venue (Burntwood, Near Cannock Chase), you never know what to expect!
Thanks to all the organiser's, especially Leanne Hulley who was also the Photographer on the night. Most importantly, lots of dosh was raised :)

You can see more of Leanne's photos from the night and all the cool bands that played here.

Thanks to Leanne Hulley Photography

Christmas Down Time.

For an independent musician with a Christmas gig out of the way, band mates on Holiday and a break from non-musical activities too, the Post Christmas/New Year break offers perhaps the only real lull from activities, it's probably not a good time to speak to venues about gigs for instance. This means it's a chance to catch up on some admin. I spent a few hours on Boxing Day doing this, for example;

Sometimes songwriting is mostly admin.

Christmas at The OBJ

Well, some people think Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Gremlins, however ours struck Em's Keyboard or more specifically her little magic midi sound box thing that sits atop her equipment and give her keys a sound. After some fiddling about with it she then switched to the accordion. Now Emma normally plays 'Just Like Nero', 'Galleries' and the Dolly Parton cover 'Jolene' on this instrument but she did magnificently busking  through the whole of the second set. 

The lovely people from The Situation were our hosts and the near Legendary venue (with stron Jazz associations), The Old Brown Jug. We were booked to do two sets with our old friend Tim Lee, as the filling in the musical sandwich. Tim as I've said many times before is a real talent and played a batch of new songs as well as greatest hits, you can here some of his new ones HERE.

The Poster - Simon was billed as "the most laid-back bassist in the history of rock and roll"!

Emma was on the accordion for the whole 2nd set.

Grumpy elf adjusts his stomp boxes before the gig.

Boxjam V

And so we returned to the scene of the band's very first gig (at the first BJ 4 years ago), and what will probably be my last festival-type gig of the year, Boxjam. All for charity of course, suburb acts including for the first time, the wonderful poet Paul Howard Ellson. We managed to stick around and between us (the whole band) caught Human Condition and Interception, both sounding as superb if not even better than ever, We Are Nomad and Then Alien. All fantastic by all accounts.

Hats off (Fez's off?) to Simon & Tina of Simon J. Newbury Photography fame for doing all the sterling work that must mean many sleepless nights before an event of this size. Another great success and most impotantly, lots of dosh raised for Oxfam and Chrisite's.


Thanks to Liz Wells for the video of a more mellow segment of our set :)

Alternatively, here's a video shot by The Late Selector team, thanks chaps;

Live Radio Session. Chat on The Cat!

No rest from one of those full day-job type of days, 15 mins with a coffee at home before setting off again. It all seemed like a huge chore but in the end our lovely hosts at The Cat Radio gave us a lovely time.

Here's at least some of what happened, cover versions have had to be removed in respect of copyright restrictions.



Corrections & Clarifications;

Band names; As well as "See Daylight" which nearly became our band name, Simon came up with the potential band name "Beachcombing" (as well as "The Four Cups") this, along with "The Dandylions" were rejected on the grounds that there are so many bands with these names. Emma came up with "The Ferns" which didn't get past the as it were, committee. "Road Kill Cafe" was another one which didn't make it for various reasons.