29/04/07

It's back to the Jive Aces home county of glorious Essex! We played at the Bewick Suite at the Swan Hotel and it was packed. We even had a couple of Essex guests, Laura Blake singing and Henry Herbert on piano. They have just started a band together called Laura B and the Moonlighters. Check out thier Myspace page at www.myapce.com/laurabandthemoonlighters or thier soon to be up website at www.laurabandthemoonlighters.co.uk
We also have a couple of vids of the evening on our Youtube page at www.youtube.com/jiveaces

28/04/07

A return the the very plush Pigalle Club in Picadilly, London tonight and it was jammed. We had a visit from lindyhop champs Ryan and Jenny Francois (who you may have seen teaching the Big Apple recently on the Paul O'Grady show) whoc we coaxed into space defying display on the dancefloor!

21/04/07

What a mad day! First we get up at the crack of dawn and head to our very sunny capitol to perform at the Saint Georges Day Festival in Covent Garden. It was great and thousands of people turned out. We also had the fabulous Jiving Lindy Hoppers perform with us (www.jivinglindyhoppers.com). Also, Alan Hayward came down with a team of linedancers to film a performance of the "Jive Aces" line dance. Check it out on our dedicated linedance page at www.jiveaces.com/linedance.

Check out the slideshow.

Then we quite literally threw the instruments in the van and bolted up to Rochdale Town Hall for the Bully's Big Beat Ball. What a fantastic building the town hall was. Big Boy Bloater opened the show for us with Ian Hartley spinning the wax. Well done to Terry and his gang for a great night!

And a big thank you to everyone who helped us with the mad logistics to make both performances possible.

20/4/07

After a very sunny "Say No To Drugs" event in Stevenage, Mark Feld invited us back to his Rockin' pad for some pasta where we reminisced while perusing his vinyl collection (including Red Hot and blue's album with John playing a guest solo on a few tracks - very rare!). Check out his bass collection.

What we at first thought was a first time appearance at the Town Hall in High Wycombe turned out on closer inspection to be, in fact, the second. Several years ago the band played at a town festival which was drenched in rain and so said performance was moved indoors to this very venue where we ended playing with NYJO.

Tonights gig went very well with dancers and non from all over. Thanks to Simon Selmon Selmon for providing the interim swinging tunes. If you are in London check out hisclubs (most notably the 100 Club, Oxford Street) at www.swingdanceuk.com

19/4/07

It's certainly been a while since the blog was updated but we have now upgraded our internet on the road capabiolities and have resolved to keep it up to date much more often as it's a far more popular feature of our site than we realized!

An appearance at Joseph and Trishas in Welwyn went down great (I still didn't get my tap lesson Trish! Next time!! - Alex)

See you guys soon and good luck with GNSH. Check out www.jiveswing.com.

06/02/07

Yet more tracks going down on the ol' tape reel and we also had our friend Carlos over to lay down some congas and marimba ("as marimba rhythm starts to play..."). Check out the pics.

05/02/07

Another amazing day in LA! Before resuming on our work of utter genius we squeezed in a gig at the legendary Derby in Los Feliz, Hollywood. Toni Prima introduced the band and it was great to see so many of our friends of old and new.

Then it was straight back to the studio for a hard nights recording. Rusty Frank and Drew Harrison joined us for a little sketch we let them loose with as an intro to one of the songs. It was so funny that we have to release the out-takes somewhere!

04/02/07

Today has been a busy day in the studio. We are laying down all the parts and the album is sounding amazing so far.

We also also had Ian and Sheilagh Hartley just in from Manchester who put some dance noises down on Ken's "Aces Shuffle". we had to clear the studio floor to make space.



Then none other than Toni Elizabeth Prima, daughter of legends Louis Prima and Keeley Smith, popped in for a quick cuppa tea and we managed to convince her to lay down some great backing vocals on, most appropriately, "Buona Sera"! She has a great voice just like her mom and I'm sure there's more to come!

30/1/07

Today we flew to Los Angeles to complete work on our new album at the Mad Hatter Studios with Grammy Award Winning producer Emanuele Ruffinengo. On the same plane was none other than actor Jack Davenport and I was soooo tempted to say "but you have heard of me" (any pirates of the Caribbean fans will know who it is!).

We arrived and went almost straight to the studio to go through the songs, go over the arrangements and see who we were going to invite to participate as guests on the new album.

29/1/07

Ah, Monday and we are driving back down from Manchester after our wee Northern tour. A great weekend with sell out and very fun gigs. Friday was the Rolls-Royce club in Derby which is a very nice place and holds around 400 people. Nigel Fat Pants was there and a Falconer who was very interesting and told us all about his job - taking people hunting with Falcons, Hawks and Golden Eagles.

Saturday was the famous Lin-D- Hop's own place in Quorn Village Hall, near Leicester - again a sell out with waiting list (and apologies to those who couldn't get in). It was a wild and woolly night and a great atmosphere and much tea and coffee in the kitchen, cheers Lin!

Finishing the weekend was the Royal British Legion club in Poynton, near Manchester. A packed and fun night with GI Jive, Ian Hartley spinning the discs and Steve Garner cracking the jokes as MC. The audience was both dancers and spectators so we had to play a mix of material to make both happy as did Mr Hartley.

Of course Ian and Sheilagh came for the whole weekend gracing all with their lindy prowess and joy and the tour wasn't officially finished until we left their retro-residence after a hearty breakfast, a few tunes on the juke box, some tap dance video clips and a barrel of Mrs Hartley's coffee. The "home for happy hepcats" - never has so much been eaten by so few for so little! Cheers! Tally Ho! TTFN!

And so back dan saaff to make ready for our flight to LA on Tuesday..."California Here I Come!" (And yes the Hartley's are flying out to se us there too!).

25/1/07

Tonight we played a special guest appearance at "52nd Street Jump" s new venue to help give it a kick start and help get swing really going in South London. Caron and Steve have a very nice venue there and a lot of new faces there for the lesson and some old friends just to dance the night away. Nice one!

19/1/07

Yay! Our return to Essex (or the London Borough of Havering - we don't know if we are Londoners or Essex Boys anymore) to the Queens Theatre Hornchurch, near Romford. Our first time here and it was totally sold out with extra chairs put in for some guest! The Mayor of Havering came along and invited loads of local mayors and councillors. Lots of old friends also came to see us back in our old manor. We took a photo of the audience from on stage so you can see it on the home page.

6/1/07

In the afternoon we played in Churchill Square in Brighton for the "Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Life" campaign. Despite rain and wind and a wet stage it was a great afternoon with Brighton Jive dancing and helping to attract a crowd - even holding an umbrella over me as I sang - thanks guys! By coincidence Ceroc Brighton were set up nearby too and even Mike and Linda Ellard were there so it was dancers galore and really "Singing in the Rain" - great fun! It was covered by local press and video'd to go on Youtube as well.

In the evening we played at the Pigalle club in Piccadilly, London. It is a lovely supper club and tonight was the best night so far. It was packed with dancers and diners and a great atmosphere. By the end of our third set the whole place was wild! Both Bryony and Jo Wilkins were there and got up for a song. Friends from London to Brighton joined us and Jo Jo spun some great swing disks between our shows. Can't wait until the next one (which is Friday 23rd and Sat 24th MArch in case you were wondering!)

30/12/07

Tonight we were at the Winding Wheel in Chesterfield and it was Sold out! Apologies to those who couldn't get in. There were a lot of friends there and DJ Moggie was on top form!

25/12/06

Yes, the jivin' fools are working on Christmas Day! BBC Radio London invited us to play live for breakfast and who are we to say no, eh? And so it was that the very morning that the "hardest working man in showbizness" departed this earth, the "hardest working band" - playing day and night for all December - hit the road at 6.00am and drove through no traffic whatsoever into the centre of London and to the BBC London building where we did a live set in the studio from 8.30am. Being Christmas morning the atmosphere was great, the mince pies flowed and we even got responses for a competition proving that other people were also up and awake at that time! Merry Christmas!!!
(Please note it will be quiet the next couple of days, we'll be having a well earned rest, eating and merrymaking!)

22/12/06

December is flashing by at such a rate that a few (few?) gigs have missed a mention but tonight was worthy if only for meeting so many dancers from the ceroc forum and having a dance with some of them - I'm afraid "Cruella" got trod on a few times though - the dance floor was a bit full but a good time was had by all and we kept to an appreciated slower dance tempo with some of our new numbers and obligitory xmas songs.

16/12/06

Tonight was our "Wintertime Swing" at St Hill. This is where we do our now famous "Summertime Swing" but obviously its in the winter and inside the hall rather than on the manor terrace due to being freezing cold. Although we tried to limit the attendance as it was inside the hall was packed as were the two dance floors provided, hot chocolate and mince pies were consumed and before and after our show Terry Elliot spun the disks (mainly small silver ones).
There was a lovely atmosphere due to the Christmas spirit and many old friends and familiar faces but also some newies experiencing the hospitality of the St Hill grounds for the first time. Cheers!

9/12/06

Oh what a night! Ladies night for the SODS; Society of Distinguished Songwriters, at the Langham Hotel in London. We did this last year and were booked again by second year running king of the sods Tony Hatch.
This is a great gig and one of the few private functions we do - but its so fun!
It is obviously a society for song writers and many of them are well known by name but all of them have a legacy of very famous songs; Delilah, She, Downtown, most of the Bond themes etc etc. I won't go into details because it is a private gig but they all do a cabaret spot from Bruce Welch of Shadows fame ("Bachelor Boy") to Tony Hatch himself. I will mention that Mr Hatch, who wrote the huge hit "Downtown", got Petula Clark up to sing her hit with him. It was a beautiful moment that can only really be appreciated if you are there but public started congregating outside the door, drawn by the 74 year young singer who still has the same voice and it seemed quite magical when they heard that voice, recognized it and realized it was live.
The highlight for Vince, the professor, was when Rolf Harris jumped up after our performance to jam a little boogie with us on the piano (see photo in gallery). He is still a wild man and very nice too, as were they all.

9/12/06

At lunchtime today we played in Croydon in the centre with our stage neatly set up in front of the christmas tree. A few dancers came down and attracted a large crowd - special thanks to John Vassallo, the man in the hat, and Jean Claude ze famous french danseurr.
Now we are on the way to London where we are playing tonight for the SODS - society of distinguished songwriters.

The "mobile office" is a-buzz and wildly promoting our new/old christmas single "White Hot Christmas" which is being released as a download on monday (11th Dec) moving us firmly into the 21st century.
You may remember that we released it in 2003 as a single CD and unbeknownst to us it was almost in the charts, this time it is only on download for 79p (cheaper than anything in the "99p Shop"!).
You can also watch our extremely high budget "music video" - see our home page for details. Its a great song and has called the best christmas song for years (at least since Bing's "White Christmas"). When originally released it was local BBC's record of the week and is soon to join the ranks of those classic christmas songs, like Slade's etc, that are played every year ad infinitum. Its a rock and rollin, swingin' jive xmas hit!!!! (Modest it ain't, but I like it...).

7/12/06

Tonight we were back in the Pigalle, the very nice posh supper club owned by Vince Power. Tonight it was a "Kitch Lounge Riot" night packed full of diners and Christmas-celebraters. Its always a nice gig and everyone was soon up and dancing and the food is luvly by the way...