17/08/07 - 20/08/07

Over the Irish Sea and a date in Bangor with the Commitments in Castle Park. That afternoon we also appeared on our old friend, Geroge Jones', show on U Radio.

Next day we drove to Derry for the grand opening of Harry's in Bridgend but not before a spot on BBC Foyle.


Then we hotfooted it down to Bangor for our mate Steve's birthday party where we were joined by some Irish celebrities including the guy who was on Big Brother.



Next we winged it down to Dublin for a huge "Say No To Drugs" event in Grafton Street before a return appearance at the Cafe En Seine.



Then the ferry home...

13/08/07 - 15/08/07

Back in the van and up to Edinburgh for three days of madness with the Jiving Lindy Hoppers, Craig McMurdo and Lenny Love. We even got a great review in the Glasgow Herald.


Jojo and Isla (AKA the Bee's Knees) were there too performing at Lost Vagueness and joined us in the street at our "Say No To Drugs, Say Yes To Life" event.

12/08/07

An early morning flight from Haugesund to Stansted and then a drive straight across country to Wales. Our first appearance at the Brecon Jazz Festival was a blast. We shared the stage with old mates such as Mike Sanchez and the boys from Oceans Seven, Ben Waters with Chris Jagger and Ray Gelato was playing down the road. It was a jive fans dream!

07/07/08 - 11/08/07

One of our favourite festivals of the year had come round again. This time we took things a step further and went for an extra day. The initial gig was opening for the legendary rock band TOTO. Check out us with the guys.

It was great to see all the lindy hoppers down from Bergen and Stavanger and good to catch up with old friends such as Harry Conolly, George Hassan and Gay Macintyre, the Fallen Heroes and we also got to see who we have officially titled "The Worlds' Greatest Jazz Band" (TM), the Jazzin' Babies. If you want to see, hear and feel exciting, hot, traditional jazz that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, check these guys out. They are from Oslo though but do travel occasionally.






We also did local TV, radio and a few outdoor shows too, they make us earn our fish soup at the jam session every night!

04/08/08

Another day another country! We flew to Germany today to the Jazzival in Gladbeck. Not having done this festival before we were not sure what to expect but the sight of 2000 jazz fans cheering you is very welcoming. Acker Bilk and Rod Mason were also on the bill.













The Floogees (Holland's greatest Lindy Hop troupe!) drove all the way from Amsterdam and dazzled the crowd!

30/07/07

An early start after a late night and a drive to the centre of London for Joanne Goode's breakfast show. Also on air was George Webley who provided this action shot.

29/07/07

Our first ever line dance gig at the "South Will Rise Again" Festival in Bournemouth and it was great. Apart from the several songs they already knew that had dances choreographed to them, we had a helping hand from Alan and Fiona Hayward who listed out the dances for everyone.

22/07/07

Thought we could take it easy after yesterday's madness? Think again!

The last set of the year at the War and Peace show and the Victory Marquee was jam packed!

We then hot footed it off to Blenheim Palace (birthplace of Winston Churchill) and played after the spectacular air show for the Fly to the Past airshow. Our good friend John Miller had been entertaining the crowds in the afternoon between displays too.


Check out the pics, on stage, with the dancers from the Oxford Swing Dance Society and Helen and her brand new Harry Potter book which she bought and read ont he first day of release during the airshow!

21/07/07

Now I'll start off by saying that today's logistics are impossible... But that doesn't mean it can't be done!

We started off the day with the usual lunchtime set at the War and Peace show, threw the gear int he van and headed to Victoria Park in Hackney for the Lovebox Festival where we played om the "Insect Circus Stage". We played and had just enough rain to make Singin' in the Rain look good.

We then jumped onto the golf buggy to take us across back to the car park, jumped into the van and bolted up to Royston, Herts for the Jazz in the Stables concert for a 7:30pm start.

Phew!

20/07/07

Today we spent the entire day at the War and Peace show. We started of the lunchtime set as usual and then played to a sell-out crowd for the evening dance. Thanks to Terry Elliott for not only playing a great set of tunes but he also organizes all the entertainment for the war and Peace Show every year!

19/07/07

Another lunchtime set at the War and Peace show and then off to Reading for another year at the Reading Real Ale and Jazz Festival. Last Year we broke the Thursday attendance record and this year was no different and we topped it yet again! Thanks to Richard Leach's seven Stars of Jazz for a great set of New Orleans and Swing tunes.

Hope to See you all next year!

18/07/07

Today is the first day of the War and Peace show at the Hop Farm in Paddock, Kent.

We had a great crowd in for the afternoon set including the ever smiling Belgian!

See you all and more tomorrow at the same time!

17/07/07

This is the start of a long week!

Today we made a presentation of the work we do on the "Say No To Drugs, Say Yes To Life" campaign at Saint Hill which was attended by Mayors, deputy Mayors, town councilors, town centre managers, drug workers and other dignitaries.

It started off with us playing a few numbers to set the tone (as it is "Say Yes To Life" as well as the "No To Drugs" bit!)

We also had a presentation form the campaign coordinator from the Church of Scientology who sponsor and organize the campaign, a demonstration of the Narconon drug education lecture form Noel Nile and a couple of graduates speaking from the Narconon drug rehabilitation program in Hastings who are now 100% drug free.

8/07/07

If you are feeling worn out reading the last lot of Blogs then wait for this...

Got up early after the Americana, drove all the way to Erith in Kent for a "bright" and early performance for the Tour De France starting around 11:00am.

Chucked the stuff in the van and headed over to Tenterden for another Tour De France festival in the park with loads of other acts and bands. Well done to the Homewood 9th years who had worked out some great jive routines for our set!

Chucked the stuff in the van again and headed to Hayes near Bromley for a gig at the Warren with none other than our good mate John Miller and his orchestra. It was great to catch up with John and if you missed the show we'll be playing twice more i nthe near future with him, at the Fly To The Past event at Blenheim Palace and also at the Glenn Miller Festival at Twinwood near Bedford. All details on the gig guide at www.jiveaces.com/gig_guide.

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.

4/06/07

It's the fourth of July and an English band is playing for the Americans in Florida. The other band same stage is made up of French, English and Australian musicians too. Well we thought we would leave the rain behind for a few days and bask in the sun in Clearwater but no, it actually bucketed down and again stopped just in time for the gig. We had a great show in the sweltering heat and ended off the night with a jam session on "All Right, OK, You Win" with the Freewinds band, Gayle Moran Corea and Elena Roggero.

2/06/07

Got up horribly early and flew to Florida. Standing in the queue at Gatwick we looked across to see some familiar faces holding musical instruments. It turned out to be Bill Haley's' Original Comets who were flying home from their performance at the Wildest Cats in Town weekender. Check out the picture of us and Joey D'Ambrosia, Marshall Lyttle and Dick Richards.

We arrived at Tampa airport 5:00pm local time. Arrived at 6:00pm at concert. On stage by 6:25pm!

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!

28/06/07

A Say no To Drugs event today in Croydon and the Sun was shining. Who else should we bump into than British Rock 'n' Roll legend Wee Willy Harris doing his shopping. Being a true showman he got up and jammed a few R'n'R standards including a rousing version of Bill Haley's' Rip it Up.

18/06/07

Back after a Blog break,now you cancatch up with the latest again... and there is lots of it too!

Our regular London haunt and the longest running swing dance club in London, the 100 Club was jumping tonight. We also had a surprise visit from actress Rosamund Pike and her friends who came down after their performance in "Gaslight" down the road.

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!

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...

4/12/06

Tonight deserves mention, back at the 100 Club with Simon Selmon and as well as a good gig there was the Stomping King and Queen competition. Our very own Ken was one of the judges representing the UK and old friend Peter Flahiff was there for the US. It was a very good night and a stomping good time!

2/12/06

Ah, what a great party, the Swing Dance Company sure knows how to throw 'em - semi pun intended. It was a sell out with a waiting list as long as your arm. We played a couple of sets to some great dancers and there was caberet including Ryan and Jenny Francois and Gary and Sara Boon, plus an unmentionable surprise cabaret from the Swing Dance Company's own teachers - those who were there know what I mean...

1/12/06

Tonight we were the Landmarc in Bournemouth for the first time. It is a converted church which is very nicely set out as a supper club, posh night club restauranty place.

Ok, ok... so we have been too busy to keep the blog properly up dated, a back log blog! The excuse is that we have been so unbelievably busy we haven't had time to get it all down in writing to you lovely people, sorry. When I was a kid I used to write a diary - it didn't have much in it except "went to school...", then when I started to do loads of interesting things I was too busy to sit down and write in the diary - I'd like to use this as a precedent and put it forward as our defence in this case. Anyway, apologies to the lovely fans and friends who may feel left out by not being mentioned and where there are huge gaps in the blog the gigs and adventures will have to be left to the imagination and creative exageration they really deserve...

17/11/06

BBC Children in Need at Duxford - we played, you danced, much money was raised and we were on BBC TV three times! Cheers to all who came and contributed!

9/10/06

A late breakfast (we persuaded the girls at the Liffy Valley hotel to make a special late musician breakfast) then the ferry and driving home, through wales and down. So a short tour of Ireland but we have driven over 1460 miles since leaving home! Next time we'll make a longer tour and stick more gigs/towns in between.

8/10/06

Today we drove like madmen from Kinsale down to Dublin where we played at the ARC Cafe. This is another of Declan's many establishments and amoung the revellers were friends from the music biz and Brenda with some of the local swing dancers. Our last gig on this short but long (in miles) Irish tour and it was another wild one and the swingers found some space to dance and became quite an attraction. Sax player Dereck O'Conner was there with most of his family and very friendly they were too - nice to meet you all!

7/10/06

The next leg of our triangular tour of Ireland was an eight hour drive from Derry down to Kinsale, near Cork. A very nice drive though, small roads and through the beautiful green countryside - I guess the Romans never got this far so there are few big long straight roads.

We arrived in Kinsale about 8.00pm for the Gourmet festival to find people had been walking around the town eating and drinking since about 11.00 this morning so we hoped they'd all still be going at 11.30pm when our first set was to commence. Of course always up for the craic they were dancing till late and the show went great after an intro from Billy Crosbie who organized the whole thing (after a jam with Vince, the professor, on the piano in the bar - Billy plays piano too as well as being the king of Kinsale).

6/10/06

The first gig on our 3 day extenisve tour of Ireland is a return to Derry where we play every May for the jazz festival. This is our first return in between festivals and the show was sold out the day the tickets went on sale, a good sign. The gigs in Derry are always great and this was no exception with many of our freinds showing up - Derry is still one of the friendliest we have ever been! And speaking of friends, good mate and local sax hero Gay McIntire popped in and stole part of the show getting up and playing on "All of Me" and "Summertime" and returning for a jam on the second encore. We know some people couldn't get in to see us as it was a full house so next time we'll have to play two nights. See you all at the jazz festival!

1/10/06

Today is the Riverfront Jazz Festival in Greenwich and we played on a boat sailing down the Thames. George and the Roaring Forties band members were again amoung our auspicious guests. The Essex girls were there and loud as usual (plus a girl who is "definitely" from Kent and "definitely" not from essex at all). Loads of people were packed onto the boat and away we went. Unfortunately I saw a couple who ran onto the dock waving tickets and the boat crew couldn't turn around and go and get them - if you are reading this send us an e mail and we'll get you into another gig to make up for the awful loss and emotional distress.

The gig went well with everyone who couldn't jive already getting a quick lesson from Ceroc Greenwich Dan.

On the way home we popped to Black Heath Village where festival organizer Dave Silk was gigging with female vocalist Emma (who strangely enough was also from Essex!) and John, Pete and Vince got up for an immortal and legendary jam session.

30/9/06

Brighton Jive tonight and its the R and B Revue with ourselves playing and Oo Bop Sh'Bam opening the night. We had the great Laura Blake sing a wee set with us including "Mama, He Treats Your Daughter Mean". A very nice night put on by Colin and Janeka, very professionally organized (and, most importantly, loads of tea, coffee and biscuits in the dressing rooms). The Teenybopper also gave a great performance to kick the night off.

Earlier in the day we met Stinky from the Cockney Rejects in Hastings, they're still touring and he just wrote a book, for those of you who remember the early days of punk. We wre doing an anti drug event there and he is anti drug himself - I guess many mucisians see the sad endings of friends and realize the harm drugs do.

23/9/06

We flew to Cork in Ireland for a one night only gig at a new posh venue called Soho. They fed us extremely well with beautiful steaks etc (the way to a musician's heart is usually through the stomache - take note event organizers and bookers - you feel good afterwards and you are sort of obliged to give a good performance in exchange for scrumptious grub!!).

Anyway, as we always try to give great performance this had to be special. And it was, although not exactly by plan. The stage in Soho is about 15 feet in the air so for the 600 or so punters stuffed just into the downstairs area it looks like the band are on a TV screen and for the band it is a bit far away to communicate with the audience. So I jumped down onto the bar to sing "Oh Marie" to an Irish gal, as usual, and just stayed on the bar. Got JOhn and Al (sax and bone) to jump up on the bar too and we did the whole two hours show bar-walking the length of the club with barmaids serving drinks between our legs. Luckily the Irish being always up for some fun, the gig ended up wild and woolly and very memorable.

The Roaring Forties chaps were there for the craic and of course this has all been added to anuls of history by noted writer "Pure Cork Boy" and "Donal" on thier blogs and Flikr sites - the former who like most historians of note, wasn't actually there.

25/08/06

A rare Friday night when we didn't have an official gig so we heard it was Joseph's (of Joseph and Trisha) birthday so we called up Trisha and organized a surprize performance for him. Before he arrived we set up the gear and serenaded him as he walked in the door with a rousing chorus of "Happy Birthday". Later on we had to give him the obligatory birthday dance and did a nice long version of the St. Louis Blues so all the ladies got a chance to dance with him. Happy Birthday Joseph and congrats on being 21 again!

21/08/06

Second day in a row in the nations capital, this time at our most regular jaunt, the 100 Club. Glad to see so many peple turn up despite the heat! Guests included Laura Blake from Essex (who will be appearing with us at the upcoming Rhythm 'n' Blues Revue in Worthing) and Mark Feld from the Brick Lane Boogie Boys who jumped up for a number on bass. Joining us on stage for a spot of dancing was Warren and Maxine from the Jiving Lindy Hoppers too! We'll be back at the 100 Club on October 23rd and you never know who will show up for a guest spot!

20/08/06

It was our first appearance at the Capital Age Festival. Joining us were our good friends the Jiving Lindy Hoppers. The crowd gathered next to the Thames (for any americans reading this it's pronounced "Tems", don't ask why, it just is ok!). There were a ton of dancers too which was great. Hope to see you all at the 100 Club tomorrow!

After the afternoon show we jumped in the van and headed off to Romford for Lucky and Goo's wedding party. Goo has been a good friend of the band for many years and we've also known Lucky for several years (he a fantastic chef by the way so if you ever get a chance to try his schnitzel...) since we first played the the Hepcat Club in Augsburg, germany. He used to run the club with Hans and was one of Germany's only venues dedicated to good rockin' and swingin' music. A big congrats from all the Jive Aces to you both! We turned up and everything was in full swing already with Terry Elliott DJing and all food but the chocolate fountain reduced to crumbs.

Since we had a van full of instruments, we piled them in to the marquee in the garden and did a little set for the guests which seemed to include as much essex humour as it did music!

18/08/06

This morning we took part on the last Radio Big L roadshow of the year, this time in Caister at the Haven Holiday Camp. The weather even behaved itself. In a strange twist of fate, one of the paramedics with the roadshow was none other than Rock 'n' Roll DJ Galaxy Bob. We even dedicated "White Cliffs of Dover" to him live on air as it's his favourite track of ours.

We then pegged it over to Milton Keynes where we made a return appeance at the Talk of the Town Live. This is a beautiful supper club with some great live entertainment and the food is really good too. It's a fairly new place but it's really beginning to make a name for itself as a venue so if you are anywhere near the area then check it out. We are back there in November.

17/08/06

No gig today, just an appearance on BBC Three Counties to plug tomorrow's gig in Milton Keynes. Luckily we only had to drive 10 minutes down the road to BBC Radio Kent as they are all linked up. We had a great chat with DJ Luke Ashmead who does the early afternoon weekday shows so if any of you are in the area then write in and request our songs at luke.ashmead@bbc.co.uk.

15/08/06

Today we took part in the Radio Big L roadshow in Clacton. Big L is a new station currently available on Sky 0190 and on the internet at www.bigl.co.uk. In a couple of weeks time they go live on AM on 1395. Today was josted by legendary radio DJ and Top of the Pops presenter Mike Reed ("fabulous, pop pickers!"). Other guests included the Drifters and Jimmy Cricket ("there's more, there's more").

Some of you may have read about Smiley Miley getting choked by a snake in the national newspaper. This was a complete set up by Mike Reead and Smiley and they couldn't even get the snake to stay round his neck, it kept falling off. ?but as usual, the media give their spin on it. Makes you wonder how true more important issues you read in the paper are...

12/08/06

Well Ok I lied, it wasn't four performances today... It was five!

First we started out with the New Orleans Parade where all the musicians in the festival take part. Imagine 150 horn players streched in a line down the road all trying to play "Bourbon Street Parade" together!

Next it was an afternoon set at the harbour stage along the river front. The weather was great too.

After that we had our main dance concert in the Maratim Hall. All the swing dancers came from Bergen and Stavanger and further. The dance floor was nice and full too, even with non-dancers. What do you call non-dancers who dance, anyway?

After that we headed off to see the Jazzin' Babies, Norways hottest and youngest New Orleans style jazz band. They invited us to sit in with them for a jam session so we did.

After that it was off to the Hovloriet (I think that's how you spell it anyway, it's the old fish market) for the official jam session and our last bowl of fish soup.

Phew, that's it for another year. It's half past three in the morning as I'm Blogging this to you readers and we leave for the airport in 3 hours for home.

11/08/06

This afternoon we started out with an interview with one of the UK's busiest traditional jazz band leaders, Phil Mason. He's been playing his trumpet for many years now and runs his own jazz festival on the Isle of Bute every year. We asked him about his inspiration, influences and life on the road. The interview will be published as part of a series for Just Jazz magazine and other interviews we have conducted recently include jazz legends, Chris Barber, Acker Bilk and Kenny Ball.

Our last night at the Byscenen was suitably full. over 600 people crammed into the venue with an even bigger group of dancers there tonight. Then, you've guessed it, we were off to the jam session for another bowl of fish soup. Well, got to get some sleep now because tomorrow we have four (that's right, count 'em, 1, 2, 3, 4). I'll tell you all about them tomorrow!

10/08/06

Ooh, for all you Blog readers, I've just figured out how to add photos to the Blog so there'll be some accompanying the entries. Keep your peepers peeled!

10/08/06

Second day in Haugesund and after last night's late finish, we get to sleep in.... NOT. It's up bright and early for a live radio in a cafe on the riverfront. We played 4 songs and Richard from the Nairobi Trio (who, incidentally, afre not from Nairobi and are actually a quartet) joined us on his fiddle. Check out thier site at http://www.zulu.co.nz.

After that it was a spot of lunch in the Egon accompanied by George, lead singer from the Roaring Forties and his fiance, Orla. Great swing band based in Cork, check out thier site at
http://www.roaringforties.co.uk

Another great night at Byscene and even more packed than last!

Then it was back to the jam session for another bowl of fish soup. Bed at 4am...

09/08/06

Just finished the first day at Sildajazz in Haugesund, Norway. The flight over was packed with musicians with everybody from Harry Conolly's Jazz Friends, Johnny Boston, The Brasshoppers, T. J. Johnson's band and many others.

We played at our regular spot over here, the Byscenen and had a really good crowd. They kept telling us that everybody had been waiting for "the yellow men" to come back to Haugesund.

After the show it was off to the fish market for our bowl of fish soup and a set from Norway's youngest (and one of the best that we've heard) dixieland bands. the Jazzin' Babies.

28/07/06

This afternoon we did a "Say No To Drugs" event in Bexley Heath town centre. This was no ordinary event (not that the others are ordinary when we play) as we had about 30 dancers form Ceroc Kent come down. They all grabbed people out of the crowd to join in and Virginia even gave a lesson to innocent bystanders. Thanks guys!

Tonight we returned to the Harlow Playhouse for our second performance there. This time we had a sell out crowd and it was really good fun. DJ Paul Rose even became impromptu MC and brought us back on for our fourth encore!

24/07/06

It's Monday and the week hasn't finished yet! This afternoon we opened the Volunteer Minster tent in Harlow market. The Volunteer Minister program was started by the Church of Scientology in order to train people to help in any situation from friends and family to major international disaster relief. You can find out more at www.volunteermisters.org.

23/07/06

Fifth and final day at War and Peace. Thanks to Terry Elliott for the organization. We'll se you all...and your tanks, bullets, shells, mortars, rocket launchers, uniforms, jeeps etc next year!

22/07/06

Fourth Day at the War and Peace show and the marquee was jammed today. This show has more military vehicles than some counties armies! John Miller even turned up to say hello. John, who is the nephew of Big band legend Glenn Miller, leads his own band and was playing at the show tonight.

As if the past few days weren't enough, we drove to Cambridge for an appearance at Wimpole Hall for their annual "Jazz in the Stables" concert. A sell out crowd et again and it even stopped raining 2 minutes before the doors opened to the public (it being a stables it was kind of indoors but with no roof sort of thing).

We also found out that Russell from the Jiving Lindy Hoppers broke the world record. In fact, break is an understatement, he smashed it by doing 33 flips in a minute, nearly doubling the previous record! Well done mate! Check out www.jivinglindyhoppers.com. for more info.

21/07/06

After a late night back from Reading we arrived back at the Hop Farm for our third day of War and Peace. Another hot performance and then we thought we had a few hours to relax as we didn't have far to get to the next gig. In fact, we had no distance to cover at all as the next gig was in the same place for the evening dance at the War and Peace show. Only thing is, the BBC called us yesterday and asked us to come and do a promo TV spot to promote the Big Dance event in Trafalgar Square tomorrow. Being good sports and all round good eggs we did a bit of what felt like the logistical equivalent of the game "Twister" we managed to pull it off and get back to Paddock Wood in time for the next show and this is how it played out:

We finished the lunchtime show at the War and Peace show, threw all the instruments and PA equipment in the car. We then drove at great (yet obeying the limits) speed to Tonbridge station, parked up and threw all the instruments onto the train. We then got off at Charing Cross and chucked the stuff in a taxi with a couple of people. The rest of us darted onto the tube and met the taxi goers at Marylebone High Street at the BBC London building. We dragged the gear up to the fifth floor and onto the roof. The Jiving Lindy Hoppers turned up and we ran through what we were doing on the show. We played while the dancers danced and Russel from the Jiving Lindy Hoppers was interviewed about the event and even taught the presenter a couple of steps. He also talked about the world record he was going to attempt to break tomorrow at the event which is the most number of flips done in a minute. The previous record was 17 and Russell is going for 24. All in all we appeared in three segments on the BBC London news. as soon as the cameras stopped rolling we threw the stuff back in the taxi, jumped back on the tube and got back to Charing Cross. We then high tailed it down to Tonbridge and pegged it back to the Hop Farm just in time to throw the suits back on and jump on stage for the show. PHEW!!

20/07/06

Second afternoon at the War and Peace show (actually it's more of a war show with a bit of peace (namely, us!). Not quite as hot but stilla shirt drenchder. Thanks to Darren and Claire from First mOve Dance for lending us their fans which we out to good use on the stage.

After a superfast instrument pack down we burned rubber all the way to Reading for the Real Ale And Jazz Festival. Supporting us were the Swing Fever. The festival even had record attndance for a Thursday night!

19/07/06

Our first day (of many) at this years' War and Peace show in Paddock Wood, Kent. The Hop Farm where it is held is only 25 minutes drive from where we live and yet last year was the first time we played the event but after the past two years success, I'm sure we'll be a regular fixture. Today, incidentally, was the hottest day on record in the country and we felt it. I mean we really felt it. We were not only baking in the marquee for the lunchtime concert but we also had a full set of stage lights on!

16/07/06

This evening we played at the Rhythms of the World festival in Hitchin. "Mick The Burger Man" (TM) is to thank for our performance here as he out us in touch with the organizers after seeing us play in the Harlow market so many times and drinking his tea. He's been providing sausages and burgers at the festival for several years now. Anyway, 2500 people were on hand to have a jolly good time.

15/07/06

Oundle is a quaint little town that hosts what is mainly a classical festival but tonight was the yearly fireworks celebration. The fabulous Jiving Lindy Hoppers Joined us for this show and together we put on quite a show for the 4000 strong crowd before the firworks wchich were in themselves quite spectacular.

14/07/06

Tonight we weren't quite sure what to expect as it was our first time playing for a Ballroom Dance crowd. I'm glad to say that it was really friendly. The night was hosted by Strictly Come Dancing judge and former ballroom dance champ, Len Goodman. It was a capacity crowd at Pontins Pakefield and they've already asked us back.

09/07/06

Second night at the Henley festival, this time opening for rock legends, Status Quo. It was rather amusing watching 4000 people jumping up and down to "Rocking All Over The World" in black tie. We even had a chat to Rick Parfitt Jr (son of Quo guitarist Rick Parfitt in case you couldn't work it out from the name) who makes regular appearances at the Kitsch Lounge Riot at the Cafe de Paris in London.

08/07/06

Today we returned to the Henley Festival after a two year break. This has to be the poshest festival in the country replete with art galleries, performance artists, open air bars and  restaurants and everyone dressed to the nines in tuxes and evening dresses. We played the late shift in the "Dome Marquee" which was a marquee shaped like a dome... Appropriately named then! It was packed full and the security guards were getting worried about all the people they had to not let in.

12/06/06

Well here we are again in the studio in LA, just a little jet lagged and finishing off our next album. Its going very well. And guess what? Today is the actual (finally) factual proper release of our hit single to be "Singing in the Rain"!! And we are in studio so its all up you guys now... thanks for your help and support! We did do 12 BBC Radio appearances just last week playing and promoting the single plus we played in 11 cities in just 7 days  (some lunchtime gigs etc) so I hope everybody knows about it. If not, then tell them please!

10/06/06

Back in LA. Wow, talk about whirlwind tour, we've been constantly on the move for a few weeks now! Hence the large gaps in the entries to this blog - a lot happened but it will have to be left to the imagination! We got through baggage and customs at LAX airport by about 4.30pm and arrived in Pasadena at around 5.30. Had a quick "In and Out Burger" (which, contrary to the belief of many Americans is NOT as good as Fatburger by a long shot!) and a Starbucks and on stage for the first of three sets at the Pasadena Ballroom Dance Association where Tammy and Erin Stevens have been holding their swing events for years. The place was packed with nearly 500 dancers, record attendance for them, including the famous Frankie Manning who is still going strong at 92 years of age! He danced with 90 girls at his 90th birthday dance and says he'll dance with 100 girls when he makes 100 years old! That proves it, swing dancing keeps you young. It was good to be back and a lot of good friends came out to see us - a wonderful night.

08/06/06

We drove down from Leeds and played on the BFBS (British Forces Broadcasting Service) Radio then headed to London to the Cafe De Paris. An interesting array of guests and performers this night - from the frequent Rick Parfit Jnr to the sax player from Spandau Ballet and Shelley from Bucks Fizz. A mate of old (yet still looking young) Ryan Francois and Jenny came down to see us, haven't seen him for years. We have passed each other in the US especially when he was there doing the Broadway musical "Swing" and "Dancing with the Stars", the US version of "Strictly Come Dancing".

07/06/06

After a lunchtime interview at BBC Leicester with Martin Ballard and an afternoon interview at BBC Leeds where we also bumped into up and coming Universal Jazz/swing singer and jolly nice fellow, Peter Grant, we returned to the lovely Bibis in Leeds. It is a beautiful art deco bar, Italian restaurant and live music venue and it was sold out and packed full. A wild night which ended up with a group photo with all the Italians singing "O Sole Mio". Great food and capuccino!

25/05/06 - 28/05/06

We drove to Holland for the Breda Jazz festival, 4 days of wild gigs on 18 stages in the streets of Breda with loads of cheerfully loud Dutch people and a few English chaps who came over see us - some from Kent and some of the Mid Sussex Hockey team from just around the corner. We played 12 sets in the time we were there and the girl who was "Marie" (who got serenaded with "Oh Marie" - as most of you should know a poor innocent shy girl is usually picked on for the song during the show, if you don't know that you need to come to more of our gigs)...anyway, this girl was a good sport and came back everyday to be Marie and brought friends and family with her, including, I believe, her grandmother who jumped from her wheelchair to dance. Danke vell Marie, Anuk.

22/05/06

We were invited back to Budapest at short notice and appeared on two national TV shows. Pretty good for a days promotion! Airports are the new taxi ranks... or something.

15/05/06

A good and packed night at the 100 Club in Oxford street and the BBC brought the contestants from Strictly Dance Fever down to dance ot us. We all had a lot of fun and I got to dance with one of them and they filmed most of the night.

06/05/06

Wow! A swing gig in Budapest, Hungary! We played for the Oktagon Tanc Centrum to over 250 great swing and boogie dancers. It was a great night, very friendly and the dancing was so good. It felt like we were in the US in DC - when we played Sing, Sing, Sing they had a jam up showing off the best dancers. Local rock and roll vocal hero, Cactus, joined us to sing Jump, Jive and Wail. Looking forward to our return.

27/4/06 to 30/4/06

We were in Derry, Northern Ireland for the fourth consecutive year at the City of Derry Jazz and Big Band festival organised by the City Council. Itís a great festival and has a real community spirit and everyone is really friendly.

The Mayor of Derry presented us with the City of Derry Jazz Festival International Music Award (the same award given to Van Morrison last year). It was presented to us by the Mayor in the honourable company of jazz greats Kenny Ball and Acker Bilk and local hero Gay McIntyre.

We played 6 shows in 4 days all over the city and every show was sold out. All the posters, programmes and brochures of the festival had a large silhouette of yours truly playing the trumpet as the main image of the festival.

So, a happy and busy time ñ for example just on the Thursday we played live and were interviewed on BBC Foyle in the morning and I was interviewed again for the lunchtime news on the same channel. Then we went to the river to have photos taken for the news papers and filmed by the local BBC TV which aired at lunchtime and then again in the evening. We then drove to Belfast where we played live and were interviewed on the George Jones show on BBC Ulster.

Then we returned to Derry where we had to attend the opening celebration at the Guildhall.

The gigs started with the opening night double bill at DaVinciís Hotel with famous British jazz greats Kenny Ball and Acker Bilk.

On Friday night the band was at Rafters, just on the edge of the city, which was absolutely jammed with people.

On Saturday afternoon the band was at the Strand Bar and being an afternoon many people used this as an opportunity to bring their kids along to see the Jive Aces show which was really fun for us too.

The Saturday evening at Gweedore had queues going down the street for the whole evening and to say it was jammed would be an understatement!

Sunday afternoon the band went a couple of miles down the road and over the border to Harryís Restaurant for a benefit concert for the Red Cross.

Opening the show for us was local singer/songwriter Claire Sproule, who has just released an album on Parlophone and is becoming a big name on the Irish music scene, with 2 recent singles in the Irish airplay top 20. Claire also joined us in our set with an impromptu performance of "Ainít Misbehaving".

Sunday night was the festival finale at DaVinciís, and the host was BBC Radio Foyle DJ Mark Patterson.

Thanks to everyone we met, played for and a big well done to the very hard working organisers!

13/4/06

Driving up North again on the way to Nantwich. Meanwhile lots of work in the van, we are releasing the "Singin' in the Rain" single and it should be available on the HMV website by now so you chaps can pre-order it. Amazing, this is a song that we love but nearly didn't get recorded and now seems to be a favourite everywhere we play and even where we don't. If we don't play it at a gig people shout for it and apparently in Munich it's a dance hit. G.I. Jive, DJ Ian Hartley told us that at one gig he had practically packed his gear away at the end of the night when someone asked him to play Singing in the Rain. He said he wouldn't if it was any other song but as this was his favourite too he set his equipment back up and played the last song for the dancing. We'll being seeing Ian again tonight - more later...   

8/4/06

Today we were at the Skegness R n R weekend (Skeggy) and were welcomed by a friendly crowd of R n R fans and families and a very nice atmosphere. The evening started with the Sky Rockers, then the famous Jets and we finished off the night and the jiving carried on. There was a jive/rock and roll competition and so we got our soundman/road manager, Brice, and our sales girl, "Fifi" (Myriam) to enter and they won first prize! Well done! Jive Aces style jive... maybe we should start a franchise.

7/4/06

Tonight we performed for the Conservative Party Spring forum in Manchester at the very nice Midlands Hotel. We played at the party after dinner and the attendees were up and dancing pretty soon it was no longer a "conservative party" (see what I did there?! - Ian).

2/4/06

Just back from the US and straight into action. We played a lunchtime "Say No To Drugs" event in Southampton where the weather was nice and there was a good crowd, then onto Hayling Island for the "Boogaloo" jive weekend. Seems like it was a great weekend overall and by the time we played for the finale. After a good set from Wes Weston, everyone was jumping! We got a great reception from a warm crowd then got a chance to dance. Being jet lagged we stayed up dancing until nearly everyone had gone to bed, (except Lin-d-hop, Ian and Sheilagh and of course Rob, Julie and their Essex mates!). Then up early for a nice English breakfast. All the food was good, a nice weekend and Monica's a great hostess! Oh, and Mel and Alison had great T-Shirts on! 

1/4/06

"Flying Home" from the US. A very long journey made bearable by Virgin Atlantic's good service and all the 53 films available on the in-flight entertainment. Happy though, with some good gig memories and some fun and creative recording in the can.

22/3/06

Back by popular demand to the West Coast Queen of tap and swing, Rusty's Rhythm Club in Playa Del Rey (on the coast not far from LA airport and those beach huts look just like the ones out of Baywatch!). As usual a great night and, but this time we were the targets of Rusty and Maxwell DeMille's sense of humour. The Jive Aces are known for our love of Fat Burger, the tastiest, biggest, freshest cooked burgers in town - they have been "Converting vegetarians since '52" as their slogan says.

In fact we have it in our contract with Rusty that we get a Fat Burger when we play there.  
This is a thing of much amusement to the natives of LA who seem to have a thing for In and Out Burger and no more than this very evening when, half way through our set, a bunch of girls jumped on the stage and proceeded to blindfold the band. Then Maxwell took the mike and announced a test, a burger test. The girls went round the band with three different burgers, one of which was a Fat Burger and we had to guess which on was the Fat. The result: 5 out of 6 Jive Aces could tell the difference. Goodbye In and Out, hello Fat! (Although I did have trouble with one that had onions on as I don't eat onions - Ian). 

21/3/06

Tonight we played once more at the famous Derby on Loz Feliz in LA. This was one of, and is the last remaining, famous Hollywood Brown Derbys originally owned by Cecil. B. DeMille. Unfortunately someone has bought the land and they want to knock the Derby down and build some big ugly shopping centre or something on the site. 
Thanks to Rebecca and loads of swing fans and Derby regulars' support it has been voted to be a historical landmark and thus seems to be saved for the moment, although it has to go to a higher council still.

Tonight's show was in celebration of this win for the save the Derby project and was very well attended at short notice, lots of dancing and a quick briefing about the history of the Derby from Rebecca Goodman who is at the front line fighting for this landmark's fate. This is where Royal Crown Revue played regularly and influenced many a swing band and dancer, where Big Bad Voodoo Daddy were filmed with Vince Vaughn in the hit independent flick "Swingers" and many celebrities hang out (we have met Brian Setzer, Bob Hope, Whoopi Goldberg, Morrisey and Robert Plant and Jimmy Page there to name-drop a few). Check out www.savethederby.com for more info.