Summer Jamboree, Senigalia, Italy

We just got back from our first ever appearance at the nine day long Summer Jamboree in Senigalia. Wow, what a festival, set in the beautiful town of Senigalia in the shadow of an immaculate Roman castle, great weather and thousands of people from all over Europe and further, it was quite an experience (albeit a short one!).

There were even a few familiar faces in the crowd, Natasha (of Paul and Natasha fame), Nick and Gina (boyo!), Marcus (of Marcus and Barby fame) amongst others. We also bumped into Andy Widder and apart form ourselves, the UK was represented by both Claire Austin (Voodoo Doll) and Terry Elliott who were both DJing at the festival.

Big thanks to Angelo for having us. Check out some of the photos below.

Sound Check

Relaxing on the beach after the gig!

A lot to catch up on!

Oh mon deux! We haven't updated the blog for ages! What's happened? Loads of great stuff, so much we didn't have time. Well that's our excuse anyway and we're sticking to it...

Where have we been? Gosh, don't know where to start.

We were just in the US again. Washington DC and then LA. So I'll start there...

DC was great as usual. The burgeoning swing scene is kept rolling mainly by Tom and Debra and their team; gottaswing.com.
We played at the beautiful Spanish Ballroom in Glen Echo park in Maryland - one of the biggest original art deco ballrooms. Then we were at the Carlisle club, a new venture for gottaswing. Its a very nice supper club where you can dine and dance and even dress up for the occasion and it was sold out with standing room only.

Then we hit LA. The night we flew in we didn't have a gig so we took advantage of this rather unique opportunity and actually went to another gig to watch someone else perform for a change. We headed on down to Safari Sam's on Sunset Boulevard for a three band Western Swing extravaganza. Marty Smith and his Moonyhams, the Lucky Stars (featuring our mate Jeremy Wakefield - genius of the steel guitar - who is on our new album "Recipe for Rhythm") and the Hot Club of Cow Town. I have wanted to see them since we got their album a few years back. The Lucky Stars are great - one of the most original sounding bands I have heard and nearly all their own material too. Hot Club are just high energy (which of course we like) virtuoso hillbilly, western swing meets Django Reinheart and Stephen Grappelli. A fantastic and unique blend.

For our first actual gig in California this time we played at a new venue for us in Thousand Oaks. There were some great dancers, many from Moorpark College, and when we hit 'em with Sing, Sing, Sing they hit the floor for a great jam up. Then we played at Rusty's in Playa Del Ray by the beach and had the obligatory Fat Burger - which by the way is in our contract. Fat Burger are the best burgers, they're cooked to order and fresh and have the best music on their juke box! They have also been "converting vegetarians since 1952", apparently. Then it was back to Pasadena for the PBDA (Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association) which was extremely well attended with the parking lot (that's the car park for us British chaps) taking the excess as people alternated dancing and getting some air and refreshment.

Our favourite thing about the trip is that Toni Elizabeth Prima (who is also on the new album), brought her mum, the legendary Keely Smith, to see us - twice! And Keely is so nice. We got on really well and she came to visit us and hang out at the studio while we were recording. For those who don't know, Keely Smith and Louis Prima you had better check out youtube...and remember King Louis in the Jungle Book.

Keely is still singing and sounds great. She was in LA performing on the Grammy Awards. It was the 50th anniversary of the Grammies and she and Louis won one of the first Grammies in '58 for "That Old Black Magic" so she was on the show singing the winning song with Kid Rock and presenting one of the awards.

While in Hollywood we were in the Mad Hatter studio again recording three new songs for the next album. I know the latest one hasn't been released yet but one has to think into the future you know. (By the way "Recipe for Rhythm" is done and will be out soon - its amazing how long it takes to get an album into the market after you've finished it...exasperating eh?)

Anyway the album we have started working is gonna be fun. Its a little different and inspired by 1930s and '40s pulp fiction. You know, like the sort of style that inspired films like Indiana Jones and the Mummy - good action and adventure; loads of sci fi, pirates and cowboys etc...

Yes, there is a pirate song and our first "country" song, "Branded Outlaw". If anyone out there has any ideas of good old adventure fiction stories please let us know - or old pulp styled films or series etc. Also let us know if you like re-enacting (dressing up) as pirates, cowboys, WWII pilots etc for when we do a music video.

It was another great trip to the States and good to see all our friends - we'll miss you, and the weather, until we se you again in May. Till we meet for another great American milk shake, Cheers!

Oh and Hayley says "hello" (explanation; as I am sitting in Costa Coffee {which to any Americans is like Starbucks but with coffee} in Stevenage after a Say No to Drugs gig, Hayley, young and talented singer, double bassist and dancer, has been reading my ramblings and added to it, as you can see here - copy and paste it because one day she will probably be very well known and you can have one of her first pieces of writing..).

10/12/07

OK this has got to be one of the coolest things ever to happen! Today we got to meet one of our all-time heroes, the legend that is Keely Smith.
Toni Elizabeth, daughter of Keely and Louis Prima has become a good friend of the Jive Aces over the past few years and is even featured as a guest on our new album. She has been attempting to bring Mum along to a show for ages and today she came. Keely loved the show and even told us it was the best show she had seen since Louis! You can't get a better compliment, I mean we are talking about someone who is not only a great artist herself but has seen and worked with EVERYBODY including duets with Frank.

7/07/07

Up to Notts to the Americana festival. We played in between Johnny and the Jailbirds and the Hamsters on the Rock 'n' Roll stage then went over to the Country stage to watch the Swing Commanders and their new lineup including the Laverne (hope that's spelled correctly!) Sisters. Really nice sound, especially when they get the three fiddles going at once. Good luck guys and see ya'll soon.

6/07/07

Touched down at Gatwick at 9:30am, went to bed for a couple of hours and then straight out the door down to Hastings for the Hotshots dance (bit of a battle it was... Get it?!). Thanks to Mike and the crew, had a great time.

1/07/06

Summertime Swing. By all accounts the most successful year so far. With over 850 people attending and a slew of special guests it was a day to remember.

As it was raining all morning we had the great hall set up in case but true to style, 15 minutes before the doors were scheduled to officially open, the clouds broke and the sun shone gloriously for the rest of the day with not a singly drop of rain!

Thanks to all our guests including the Jivettes, Wee Willy Harris, Toni Elizabeth Prima and Mr. Acker Bilk. Thanks also to our wonderful DJ and MC Terry Elliott and the dancers the Jiving Lindy Hoppers and the London Swing Cats who supplied some great dance cabarets spots and a surprise jam up together on Flying Home.

For those of you who stayed till the very end you will have seen the quite spectacular fireworks display supplied by Frontier Fireworks. Thanks also to all the Saint Hill Manor staff who helped us organize and host the event.















A special and big thanks to Buster, Martin, Grant, Slick Nick, Gillian and Mike and Nick for helping to sell tickets for us.

Looks like we raised a couple of grand for charity, full details and a slide show will be on the website soon.

30/06/07

A whole day of setting up for Summertime Swing before dashing off to London.

Before arriving at the Pigalle Club once again for a second night of suave and sophistication we popped into the Barbican where our friend and modern jazz legend Chick Corea was performing. Unfortunately we didn't have time to stay for the gig but we did manage to get a quick snap in and wish him good luck. Chick is a featured guest on our new album on two songs including a haunting version of Summertime.

29/06/07

A phone call from our mate Russell from the Jiving Lindy Hoppers and we had an extra gig to fit in to our mad schedule today. After a quick "Say No To Drugs" in Watford (with Bob and his great T-shirt!) we headed on over to the Royal Festival Hall where they have restarted their "Commuter Jazz" series. Great to see so many dancers turn out at short notice and they have a much better dance floor in the foyer (they call it "The Ballroom") and they are interested in doing it more regularly too.

A night at the beautiful Pigalle Club in Picadilly where the food is great and the decor is straight out of a 1940's detective movie. If you haven't been down here you should check it out... Especially when we are playing!

03/05/07 - 07/05/07

03/05/07
Ah...the first day in the City of Derry, Northern Ireland, for our fifth year at the Derry City Jazz and Big Band Festival. This is a great festival - the people are so friendly and the gigs are wild - seven gigs in four days!
Our input must be affecting the choice in bands as this year there were many jive and R 'n' R bands; King Pleasure, the Extraordinaires and Greggi G and the Roaring 40's to name but four...

We awoke and went almost straight to BBC Radio Foyle to play live on Mark Patterson's radio show - you can see this on line on the BBC site at www.bbc.co.uk
Then the opening festival gig at DaVinci's. The Extraodinaires started off the evening getting the crowd warmed up then we hit the stage with all the pent up energy of an unleashed pit bull - it has been a whole year since we played for this great crowd. Everyone here is always up for the craic and ready to dance.

Ian and Sheilagh Hartley, better known as GI Jive, are here as part of the show to dance with us and they cut a rug to our Big John's sax feature "Flying Home" and really get the crowd jumping.

04/05/07
It's Friday and our first gig of the day is at the Foyleside shopping centre. Hundreds of shoppers join the regular jazz fans to watch and dance and the kids are very cute.

The evening takes us to Rafters restaurant where this year we play upstairs due to the large amount of people unable to get in last year and more space to dance.

05/05/07
Before our first gig today we went to the City of Derry museum which has been renovated since we were last here. Its very nice and learnt a lot about the history of the fine city - definitely worth a trip if you're in town.
Then a cappucino at Louis cafe where local hero Gay McIntyre is playing and a chat with singer Zoe Gilby, who has beautiful true Irish red hair... but comes from Newcastle.

Then to the Strand bar where we always play the Saturday afternoon and many families come along with the kids who dance and jump about at the front. This is a quite restrictive stage with a bar in front of us so we spend a lot of time singing and playing on the bar top and running about in the audience. We were followed by the Mind Benders (thanks for the loan of the P.A. guys!).

In the evening its a night at the famous Gweedore which once again was ram packed to the beams with locals and a long queue outside - next year we'll have top play upstairs in the bigger room. It was wild as usual and a great audience who insisted we ended up dueling horns on the bar, and who are we to let them down?

We were in the local Derry newspapers today too, lots of photos of the yellow suits and even a great review of our Life is a Game album.

06/05/07
After another very late night we jumped (dragged ourselves) out of bed to head for Harry's on the road to Donegal where always play a fundraiser gig for the Red Cross. One of the best bits is that on arrival they feed us with a wonderful meal with desserts that make you want to do the show sitting in rocking chairs after a few helpings. Of course we don't sit for long and the meal is soon converted to ergs of energy on the stage after local rising star Claire Sproule finished her set. She also got up and jammed with us singing "Ain't Misbehaving" during the afternoon. It ended with an auction which Alex and I helped with. When we ran out of items to sell I proposed an auction of Alex juggling bread rolls while a member of the audience sang "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" and restaurant manager Donall joined in juggling - it sold well.

We popped to the City Hotel to see George of the Roaring Forties band who had just driven in from Cork. We had a chat and then back to sound check.

As is traditional we ended off the night at the grand finale at DaVinci's. The place was packed and sold out weeks before. Our old mates from Brum, King Pleasure and the Biscuit Boys, started off the night and then we came on to give our all in the last gig of the festival. I had the lights turned up so as to see the Derry people's smiling faces as the night became full out party time in what I hope is true the tradition of the showbands of old Ireland - "send 'em home sweating". By the time MC Mark Patterson from BBC Foyle called for an encore the place was heaving. We called KP and the Boys back on stage for a full out jam session on a stonking R & B "Allright, OK, You Win"! It being after 12.00am and my birthday being the 7th Mark announced it and the Hartleys and Lin-D-Hop (of Maggies Blue Suede news fame) gave me my present - genuine Irish shamrock boxer shorts!

07/05/07
Sad to leave but an event awaits in Dublin. We drove through the beautiful countryside to Dublin to do an outside gig in Grafton Street, one of the busiest streets in the isles, for the "Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Life" campaign. A good place to spend my birthday (21st of course!) and a lovely place to play. The Dublin Swing Dance Society came and danced the afternoon away and a huge crowd gathered. At the end, tired but very happy we went to Eddie Rockets American burger bar before heading to the ferry. We also bumped into Joanne who's fiance, Mark, had driven her all the way from Belfast to Dublin just to have an Oreo Cookie Milkshake in Eddie Rockets for her birthday so Ian had to get a picture with her just for sharing the same birthday!